Near-field krypton-85 measurements in stable meteorological conditions around the AREVA NC La Hague reprocessing plant: estimation of atmospheric transfer coefficients.

The aim of this work was to study the near-field dispersion of (85)Kr around the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague (AREVA NC La Hague - France) under stable meteorological conditions. Twenty-two (85)Kr night-time experimental campaigns were carried out at distances of up to 4 km from the release source. Although the operational Gaussian models predict for these meteorological conditions a distance to plume touchdown of several kilometers, we almost systematically observed a marked ground signal at distances of 0.5-4 km. The calculated atmospheric transfer coefficients (ATC) show values (1) higher than those observed under neutral conditions, (2) much higher than those proposed by the operational models, and (3) higher than those used in the impact assessments.

Micropollutants in urban stormwater: occurrence, concentrations, and atmospheric contributions for a wide range of contaminants in three French catchments.

This study aimed at: (a) providing information on the occurrence and concentration ranges in urban stormwater for a wide array of pollutants (n = 77); (b) assessing whether despite the differences between various catchments (land use, climatic conditions, etc.), the trends in terms of contamination level are similar; and (c) analyzing the contribution of total atmospheric fallout (TAF) with respect to sources endogenous to this contamination. The studied contaminants include conventional stormwater contaminants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Zn, Cu, Pb, etc.), in addition to poorly or undocumented pollutants such as nonylphenol and octylphenol ethoxylates (NPnEO and OPnEO), bisphenol A (BPA), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a wide variety of pesticides, and various metals of relevance (As, Ti, Sr, V). Sampling and analysis were performed using homogeneous methods on three urban catchments with different land use patterns located in three distinct French towns. For many of these pollutants, the results do not allow highlighting a significant difference in stormwater quality at the scale of the three urban catchments considered. Significant differences were, however, observed for several metals (As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Sr and Zn), PAHs, and PBDEs, though this assessment would need to be confirmed by further experiments. The pollutant distributions between dissolved and particulate phases were found to be similar across the three experimental sites, thus suggesting no site dependence. Lastly, the contributions of TAF to stormwater contamination for micropollutants were quite low. This finding held true not only for PAHs, as previously demonstrated in the literature, but also for a broader range of molecules such as BPA, NPnEO, OPnEO, and PBDEs, whose high local production is correlated with the leaching of urban surfaces, buildings, and vehicles.