An overview of geostatistics for radiological characterization

This one-day seminar presents the added value of geostatistics for radiological characterization of nuclear facilities under decommissioning and contaminated sites, taking into account site history, sampling optimization, in-situ radiation mapping, and contaminated volume classification.

Methodological exposition illustrated in the field of site clean-up/dismantling on numerous cases of application. Added-value of the geostatistical methodology as well as its limits of use. Feedback and discussions.

This course is aimed at project managers and decision-makers involved in decommissioning and dismantling projects who want a practical, synthetic, and pragmatic introduction to geostatistical methods for radiological characterization.

Understanding and estimating the spatial heterogeneity of contamination

• Pros/Cons and underlying assumptions of the usual approaches for radiological characterization
• A practical introduction to the concepts of heterogeneity and spatial variability of pollutants (variogram)
• Operational consequences on the feasibility of given remediation techniques.

Predicting and mapping radiological contamination

• Introduction to kriging and its advantages taking into account spatial variability, best estimation, quantification of associated uncertainty
• Consideration of ancillary information: site history, qualitative observations, and on-site measurements.

Quantify and locate contaminated volumes

• A practical introduction to stochastic simulations
• Presentation of results: global estimation of contaminated volumes and attached uncertainty, local risk of exceeding cleanup levels.

Recommendations for the optimization of site investigation plans

• Implementation of the triptych: Evaluation objective – Sampling strategy – Data processing
• Feedback on the spatial structures of radiological contamination
• Impact on uncertainties with the degradation of sampling or multivariate treatment

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