European decision support modelling of long-term external doses received in inhabited areas contaminated by a nuclear power plant accident – 1: Initial relative dose rate contributions from different contaminated outdoor surfaces.

Dose prediction tools making use of existing knowledge on the environmental behaviour of radiocontaminants are essential for justification and optimisation of recovery countermeasure strategies for contaminated inhabited areas. In this context, one necessary requirement is to estimate the relative initial contaminant distribution on different types of surfaces in the environment and the resultant initial dose rates to humans staying in the environment. This paper reports on the latest parametric refinements in this context for use in the ERMIN inhabited area dose model, which is an integral part of the European emergency management decision support systems ARGOS and RODOS. • Deposition relations on urban surfaces of a wide range of contaminants are estimated. • Deposition parameters are given for different types of weather conditions (wet/dry). • The deposition data contains uncertainty estimates for use in decision making. • Dose rate conversion factors used in European decision support were recalculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]