Dose modelling for 'dirty bomb' scenarios - an ARGOS DSS feature under development

The world of today is not only facing the risk of accidents (e.g., in nuclear facilities, as considered in the EURANOS project). Also other types of emergencies, notably involving radiological terrorism, pose a threat. Acts of terror would be most likely to take place in a city, where the greatest number of people could become directly affected. Current versions of European decision support systems are inapplicable in this context, as they do not take into account the specific characteristics of ’dirty bomb’ scenarios, with respect to radionuclides (dose conversion factors), initial physicochemical forms, blast contaminant transformations, plume height and propagation, deposition velocities, post-deposition migration and clearance, as well as countermeasure effectiveness. This problem is being addressed for a new version of the ARGOS decision support system.