Transfers to watercourses
Radionuclides Transfers in Air, Soils and Watercourses

Radionuclides can enter watercourses:

• through a discharge outlet, as is the case for French nuclear sites located along rivers; the input can then be characterized by the discharge flow rate q_r (in Bq.s^–1) during discharge operations, which are almost always carried out through a device that facilitates the dispersion and homogenization of concentrations near the end of the discharge outlet. The most common device is called a "clarinet": a pipe pierced with several holes, laid across the watercourse, which spreads the discharge over a length of several metres to several dozen metres;

• by deposits on the water surface (Bq.m^–2) resulting either from chronic releases linked...