RADCOM: Radiation dose computation model- a software for radiological impact assessment

Radiological impact assessment codes are used for environmental transport and radiological impact of radionuclides releases to the environment. The RADCOM computer code performs the environmental transport of radionuclides and calculations of radiation dose to members of public due to routine releases of radionuclides from Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) via atmospheric and aquatic routes. The code is written on Visual Basic platform and follows IAEA, Safety Reports Series No. 19 (SRS 19) and TECDOC 1616 methodologies for dose evaluation. The code comprises a large data base consisting of 114 radionuclides and respective radiological, non-radiological data and environmental parameters associated to environmental transport of radionuclides. It is designed to automate the computation of radionuclide concentrations in different environmental compartment and their impact in the food chain, as well as the estimation of effective dose to humans. The validation of software was carried out by several QC exercises following alpha and beta testing. The code was used for calculation of hypothetical scenarios given in the Annex IV of IAEA, SRS 19. Statistical significance test such as χ2 test was performed and it was found that, there is no significant difference between code output results excels generated results and reported results.