Characterisation of aerosols from simulated radiological dispersion events

The research described in this thesis aims at improving the evaluation of the radioactive aerosol release from different Radiological Dispersion Events (RDE‘s), such as accidents and sabotage involving radioactive and nuclear materials. These studies help in a better assessment of the source term as input for the atmospheric dispersion predictions, or eventually to improve merit of such calculations. To study and analyse the aerosol release from these events a new experimental set-up was developed (RADES). This has been used to produce aerosols from experiments that simulate RDE‘s in controlled laboratories conditions and collect them for post-analyses. By coupling these results with the study of the gaseous aerosols precursors and of their interactions, this research provides a basic understanding of the aerosol formation processes for such events.