The airborne mass of radioactive material moving and spreading with the wind after a release. People near it receive external dose from the cloud itself (cloudshine), from material deposited on the ground (groundshine) and internal dose by inhalation. Emergency planners track the plume's direction by sector and its arrival time, and field monitoring teams try to find its edges and centreline.
Wind's out of the southwest at 8 miles an hour, plume should reach sector N by 1430.
Also heard as
- radioactive plume
- radioactive cloud
Related terms
Source term
The amount, type, timing and chemical form of radioactive material released, or assumed released, in an accident.
EPZ
Emergency planning zone: the area around a nuclear plant where protective actions are pre-planned.
Sheltering
A protective action in which people stay indoors with doors and windows shut to reduce dose from a passing plume.
KI
Potassium iodide: stable iodine tablets taken to block the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine.