Rain scavenging of tritiated water vapour: a numerical Eulerian stationary model

The tradition in tritium washout modeling is to unite the washout model with a Gaussian plume model describing dispersion of tritium vapour in the atmosphere. In the present study, an alternative approach is proposed. A numerical Eulerian model that describes washout independently of dispersion is developed. The sensitivity analysis to model parameters has shown that the washout process is influenced most significantly by rainfall parameters and air temperature: different raindrop size distributions cause differences of up to about 70% in the washout outputs; a change of 15°C in the air temperature causes an effect of about 50%. Results are presented showing calculated values of washout outputs (tritium concentration in rain, tritium downward flux, washout coefficient) for different tritium vapour profiles, rainfall rates and air temperatures. The general conclusion is that the washout process is too complex to be described comprehensively by the simple washout coefficient concept. We suggest the approach proposed here for directly calculating the tritium downward flux and concentration in the rainwater is preferable.