An impact assessment for the French nuclear weapon test sites in French Polynesia

Abstract

A numerical dispersion model was used to elaborate an impact assessment for the French nuclear weapon testing site in French Polynesia. The three dimensional equation of advection/diffusion was solved with the mean of the Monte Carlo Technique. The mean transport field, isotropic horizontal and vertical turbulent exchange and radioactive decay were taken into consideration, but no biochemical processes were included. Over a period of ten years the dispersion of the as conservative assumed radionuclide cesium 137 was monitored considering two different scenarios of its introduction into the marine environment. The results of both scenarios are quite different in the farfield. However, in both cases the local environment of French Polynesia is the most effected.