Verification of RADTRAN

The RADTRAN computer code calculates risk estimates for radioactive materials transportation by highway, rail, air, and waterborne modes. RADTRAN was first developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in 1977 in conjunction with NUREG-0 1 70, \"Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes\" (NRC 1977; Taylor and Daniel 1982). Subsequent releases of RADTRAN to date are RADTRAN II (Taylor and Daniel 1982), RADTRAN III (Madsen et al. 1986), and RADTRAN 4 (Neuhauser and Kanipe 1992). RADTRAN 5 is currently in development. This paper discusses verification of the RADTRAN computer code. Verification is the process of determining that a code correctly performs the calculations embodied in it by the code developers; this is distinct from the separate process of validation in which the correctness of the algorithms and equations is determined. With all releases, the NUREG-0 170 data file is used for verification of the code output. The capabilities of RADTRAN have been enhanced over the years, and the NUREG-0 170 input format has been altered to accommodate these changes. In order to test other new capabilities, additional test files have been added to the verification regimen. The test files for RADTRAN 5 are not the same files as those used with RADTRAN 4; however, they were originally created from the latter and have evolved as RADTRAN 5 has evolved.