This study investigates spent fuel cask handling experience at existing nuclear facilities to determine appropriate cask decontamination and maintenance operations at the potential YuccaMountain repository. These operations are categorized as either routine or nonroutine. Routine cask decontamination and maintenance tasks are performed in the cask preparation area at the repository. Casks are taken offline to a separate cask maintenance area for major nonroutine tasks. The study develops conceptual designs of the cask preparation area and cask maintenance area. The functions, layouts, and major features of these areas are also described.
The site characterization of YuccaMountain, NV as a potential high level nuclear waste repository includes study of the surficial deposits as a record of the paleoenvironmental history of the YuccaMountain region. An important aspect of this history is an understanding of the evolution of paleogeography leading to establishment of the present drainage pattern. Establishment of drainage basin evolution is needed before geomorphic response to paleoclimate and tectonics can be assessed, because a major change in drainage basin geometry can predominantly affect the sedimentary record. Because alluvial aquifers are significant to regional hydrology, a major change in surface drainage resulting in buried alluvium could have hydrogeologic significance. In this paper, we report on geologic evidence for a major modification in surface drainage pattern in the Yucca ...
The objective of this study was to determine if any fluids or materials used in the Exploratory Shaft Facility (ESF) of YuccaMountain will make the mountain unsuitable for future construction of a nuclear waste repository. YuccaMountain, an area on and adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in southern Nevada, USA, is a candidate site for permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste from commercial nuclear power and defense nuclear activities. To properly characterize YuccaMountain, it will be necessary to construct an underground test facility, in which in situ site characterization tests can be conducted. The candidate repository horizon at YuccaMountain, however, could potentially be compromised by fluids and materials used in the ...
In accordance with the requirements of Section 113 (b) (3) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), the US Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared this report on the progress of site characterization activities at YuccaMountain, Nevada, for the period October 1, 1990, through March 31, 1991. This report is the fourth in a series of reports that are issued at intervals of approximately six months during site characterization. The report covers a number of initiatives to improve the effectiveness of the site characterization program, and covers continued efforts related to preparatory activities, Study Plans, and performance assessment.
In accordance with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation regarding groundwater travel times at geologic repositories, various models of unsaturated flow in fractured tuff have been developed and implemented to assess groundwater travel times at the potential repository at YuccaMountain, Nevada. Kaplan used one-dimensional models to describe the uncertainty and sensitivity of travel times to various processes at YuccaMountain. Robey and Arnold et al. used a two-dimensional equivalent continuum model (ECM) with inter- and intra-unit heterogeneity in an attempt to assess fast-flow paths through the unsaturated, fractured tuff at YuccaMountain (GWTT-94). However, significant flow through the fractures in previous models was not simulated due to the characteristics of the ECM, which requires the matrix to be nearly saturated before flow ...
Corrosion is a primary determinant of waste package performance at the proposed YuccaMountain Repository and will control the delay time for radionuclide transport from the waste package. Corrosion is the most probable and most likely degradation process that will determine when packages will be penetrated and the shape, size, and distribution of those penetrations. The general issues in corrosion science, materials science and electrochemistry are well defined, and the knowledge base is substantial for understanding corrosion processes. In this paper, the YuccaMountain Repository is viewed from a corrosion perspective. A major component of the long-term strategy for safe disposal of nuclear waste at the YuccaMountain Repository is first to completely isolate the radionuclides in the waste packages for long times and to greatly retard the ...
The Department of Energy is investigating YuccaMountain, Nevada as a potential site for commercial radioactive waste disposal in a mined geologic repository. One critical aspect of site suitability is the tectonic stability of the repository site. The levels of risk from both actual fault displacements in the repository block and ground shaking from nearby earthquakes are being examined. In particular, it is necessary to determine the expected level of ground shaking at the repository depth for large seismic sources such as nearby large earthquakes or underground nuclear explosions (UNEs). Earthquakes are expected to cause the largest ground motions at the site, however, only underground nuclear explosion data have been obtained at the repository depth level (about 350m below the ground level) to date. In this study we investigate ground motion from Nevada Test Site underground ...
Four major projects at UNRSL have been supported by NWPO-Neotectonics YuccaMountain Task 4 funds during the last year: (1) Operation and analysis of data from the UNRSL microearthquake network at YuccaMountain. (2) Continued operation, maintenance, and calibration of three broadband stations. Limited data analysis was also initiated. (3) Continued review by Dr. Brune of documents and literature related to seismic hazard and tectonics of the YuccaMountain region. (4) Testing of noise levels in boreholes.
This report provides a summary of progress for the project {open_quotes}Evaluation of the Geologic Relations and Seismotectonic Stability of the YuccaMountain Area, Nevada Nuclear Waste Site Investigation (NNWSI).{close_quotes} A similar report was previously provided for the period of 1 October 1991 to 30 September 1992. The report initially covers the activities of the General Task and is followed by sections that describe the progress of the other ongoing tasks.
YuccaMountain in Nevada represents the proposed solution to what has been a lengthy national effort to dispose of high-level radioactive waste, waste which must be isolated from the biosphere for tens of thousands of years. This chapter reviews the background of that national effort and includes some discussion of international work in order to provide a more complete framework for the problem of waste disposal. Other chapters provide the regional geologic setting, the geology of the YuccaMountain site, the tectonics, and climate (past, present, and future). These last two chapters are integral to prediction of long-term waste isolation.
YuccaMountain, Nevada is a potential site for a high-level radioactive-waste repository. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses were performed to estimate critical factors in the performance of the site with respect to a criterion in terms of pre-waste-emplacement ground-water travel time. The degree of failure in the analytical model to meet the criterion is sensitive to the estimate of fracture porosity in the upper welded unit of the problem domain. Fracture porosity is derived from a number of more fundamental measurements including fracture frequency, fracture orientation, and the moisture-retention characteristic inferred for the fracture domain.
Projected scenarios for the proposed YuccaMountain repository include significant periods of time when high relative humidity atmospheres will be present, thus the reaction processes of interest will include those known to occur under these conditions. The ideal natural analog for the proposed YuccaMountain repository would consist of natural borosilicate glasses exposed to expected repository conditions for thousands of years; however, the prospects for identifying such an analog are remote, but an important caveat for using natural analog studies is to relate the reaction processes in the analog to those in the system of interest, rather than a strict comparison of the glass compositions. In lieu of this, identifying natural glasses that have reacted via reaction processes expected in the repository is the most attractive option. The goal of this study is to quantify molecular water diffusion in the ...
This report summarizes evaluations by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of Department of Energy (DOE) activities on waste packages designed for containment of radioactive high-level nuclear waste (HLW) for the six month period February 1988 through July 1988. Activities for the DOE Materials Characterization Center are reviewed for the period January 1988 through June 1988. A summary is given of the YuccaMountain, Nevada disposal site activities. Short discussions relating to the reviewed publications are given and complete reviews and evaluations are included. 20 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.
Nine-component vertical seismic profiling has been conducted at the UE-25 UZ No. 16 borehole at YuccaMountain, Nevada, in support of investigation of the hydrologic significance of fault and fracture systems. A large data set from multi-component sources and receivers allows state-of-the-art advances in processing using polarization filtering and reverse time migration, for enhanced interpretation of geologic features.
Nine-component vertical seismic profiling has been conducted at the UE-25 UZ No. 16 borehole at YuccaMountain, Nevada, in support of investigation of the hydrologic significance of fault and fracture systems. A large data set from multi-component sources and receivers allows state-of-the-art advances in processing using polarization filtering and reverse time migration, for enhanced interpretation of geologic features.
The authors provide the intact criticality information that supports the disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) in the potential Monitored Geologic Repository at YuccaMountain. FFTF is one of more than 250 forms of DOE-owned SNF. Because of the variety of the DOE SNF, the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program has designated nine representative fuel groups for disposal criticality analyses based on fuel matrix, primary fissile isotope, and enrichment. The FFTF fuel is representative of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) group.
This report summarizes the results of Task 3 work that was initially discussed in our monthly reports for the period October 1, 1992 through September 30, 1993, and contained in our various papers and abstracts, both published and currently in press or in review. Our work during this period was involved (a) the continuation of studies begun prior to October, 1992, focussed mainly on aspects of the caldera geology, volcanic stratigraphy, magmatic activity, hydrothermal mineralization and extensional tectonics of the western and northwestern parts of the southwestern and Nevada volcanic field (SWNVF), studies of the subsurface rocks of YuccaMountain utilizing drill hole samples obtained in 1991 and 1992, and (b) new studies of veins and siliceous rocks cropping out in northwestern YuccaMountain that provide evidence for previously unrecognized hydrothermal activity during the Crater Flat Tuff period of ...
One of the technical options being considered for long term disposition of weapons grade plutonium is geologic storage at YuccaMountain. Multikilogram quantities of plutonium are to be vitrified, placed within a heavy steel container, and buried in the material know as Nevada tuff. It has been postulated that after ten thousand years, geologic and chemical processes would have disintegrated the steel container and created the possibility for plutonium to form mixtures with Nevada tuff and water that could lead to a nuclear explosion in the range of kilotons. A survey and description of critical homogeneous mixtures of plutonium, silicon dioxide, Nevada tuff, and water which also identified the mixture regimes where autocatalytic dynamic behavior is possible was completed. This study is a follow up of this survey and the major objective is to examine the dynamic behavior of the worst case critical and supercritical ...
This report describes a quality assurance program plan for the YuccaMountain Project. Aspects of the plan include: document control, equipment maintenance and calibration, process control, audits, computer software, and inspections. (CBS)
Consideration of the technical feasibility of YuccaMountain in Nevada as the site for a high-level nuclear waste repository has led to an intense debate regarding the economic, social, and political impacts of the repository. Impediments to the siting process mean that the nuclear waste problem is being resolved by adhering to the status quo, in which nuclear waste is stored at scattered sites near major population centers. To assess the merits of alternative siting strategies--including both the permanent repository and the status quo- we consider the variables that would be included in a model designed to select (1) the optimal number of disposal facilities, (2) the types of facilities (e.g., permanent repository or monitored retrievable facility), and (3) the geographic location of storage sites. The objective function in the model is an all-inclusive measure of social cost. The ...
Lateral and vertical variabilities in the bulk and mechanical properties of silicic volcanic tuff at the potential nuclear waste repository site in YuccaMountain, NV have been evaluated. Laboratory measurements have been performed on tuff specimens recovered from boreholes located to support the design of the Exploratory Studies Facility/North Ramp. The data include dry and saturated bulk densities, average grain density, porosity, compressional and shear wave velocities, elastic moduli, and compressional and tensional fracture strengths. Data from eight boreholes aligned in a northwest-southeast direction have been collected under the required quality assurance program. Three boreholes have penetrated the potential repository horizon. The information collected provides for an accurate appraisal of the variability of rock properties in the vicinity of the boreholes. As expected, there is substantial variability in the bulk ...
The purpose of this Analysis and Model Report (AMR) supporting the Site Recommendation/License Application (SR/LA) for the YuccaMountain Project is the development of elementary analyses of the interactions of a hypothetical dike with a repository drift (i.e., tunnel) and with the drift contents at the potential YuccaMountain repository. This effort is intended to support the analysis of disruptive events for Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA). This AMR supports the Process Model Report (PMR) on disruptive events (CRWMS M&O 2000a). This purpose is documented in the development plan (DP) ''Coordinate Modeling of Dike Propagation Near Drifts Consequences for TSPA-SR/LA'' (CRWMS M&O 2000b). Evaluation of that Development Plan and the work to be conducted to prepare Interim Change Notice (ICN) 1 of this report, which now includes the design ...
The Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses organized and hosted a workshop on ``Rock Mechanics Issues in Repository Design and Performance Assessment`` on behalf its sponsor the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This workshop was held on September 19- 20, 1994 at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Rockville, Maryland. The objectives of the workshop were to stimulate exchange of technical information among parties actively investigating rock mechanics issues relevant to the proposed high-level waste repository at YuccaMountain and identify/confirm rock mechanics issues important to repository design and performance assessment The workshop contained three technical sessions and two panel discussions. The participants included technical and research staffs representing the NRC and the Department of Energy and their contractors, as well as researchers from the academic, commercial, and ...
Petrographic research for the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations focused on xenolithic variability in the Topopah Spring Member and on variations of clinoptilolite composition at YuccaMountain. Zeolite and smectite occurrences were considered in terms of their relation to a disturbed zone beneath the potential repository, and mineral stability experiments have produced a new clinoptilolite structure as a result of prolonged heating at low temperature. Limitations were defined on the abundance of erionite and of sulfur. X-ray diffraction studies lead to improved analytical methods. Progress was made in the comparative study of mineralogy in sand ramps and in faults. Geological modeling considered the differences of the diffusion of nonsorbing tracers in vertically and in horizontally fractured rock. Modeling also treated the diffusion of a nonsorbing tracer in devitrified and in zeolitized rock. The results of ...
Presently, industrial maturity can be claimed for two fuel cycle strategies, viz. the 'Once Through Fuel Cycle' (OTC), and the 'Reprocessing Fuel Cycle' (RFC) in which plutonium and very limited uranium quantities are being recycled. It is helpful to recall some key data that set the stage for any discussion of fuel cycle options: 1. Worldwide, the annual spent fuel discharge is in the range of 10500-11000 t heavy-metal (HM), while the industrial reprocessing capacity amounts to #approx# 5000 t HM (OECD NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY, Accelerator-driven Systems (ADS) and Fast Reactors (FR) in Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles: a Comparative Study, Paris, 2002). Hence, less than 1/2 of the discharged spent fuel can be processed. 2. Worldwide, the cumulative inventory of stored spent fuel is estimated to be #approx# 190000 t HM, and the amount of reprocessed spent fuel is estimated to be #approx# 70000 t HM. The latter inventory has been transformed into ...
A central issue to be addressed within the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) is the role which fractures will play as the variably saturated, fractured rock mass surrounding the waste package responds to heating, cooling, and episodic infiltration events. Understanding the role of fractures during such events will, in part, depend on our ability to make geophysical measurements of perturbations in the moisture distribution in the vicinity of fractures. In this study we first examine the details of the perturbation in the moisture distribution in and around a fracture subjected to an episodic infiltration event, and then integrate that behavior over the scale at which moisture measurements are likely to be made during the Engineered Barrier Design Test of the NNWSI project. To model this system we use the TOUGH hydrothermal code and fracture and matrix properties considered relevant to the welded ash flow tuff found in the Topopah Spring member at ...
Studies continued on organic tracers for use as hydrologic tracers as part of the YuccaMountain Site Characterization project. This subject report for the quarter 01/01/93 through 03/31/93 discusses the following issues: project organization and responsibilities; quality assurance program; design control; procurement document control; instructions, procedures, and drawings; document control; control of purchased items and services; identification and control of items; control of processes; inspection; test control; control of measuring and test equipment; handling, storage, and shipping; inspection, test, and operating status; control of nonconforming items and conditions; corrective action; quality assurance records; audits; software quality assurance; and scientific investigation.
Geologic studies in connection with Project Discus Thrower have furnished detailed stratigraphic and structural information about northwestern Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site. The Paleozoic rocks consist of a lower carbonate sequence, argillite of the Eleana Formation, and an upper carbonate sequence. The distribution of these rocks suggests that both top and bottom of the Eleana are structural contacts, probably thrusts or reverse faults. The overlying tuff includes several units recognized in the subsurface, such as the Fraction Tuff and tuff of Redrock Valley. Other units recognized include bedded tuff associated with the Grouse Canyon Member of Belted Range Tuff, and the Rainier Mesa and Ammonia Tanks Members of the Timber Mountain Tuff. The Timber Mountain and Grouse Canyon are extensively altered to montmorillonite (a swelling clay), possibly as a result of ponding of alkaline water. The overlying alluvium locally ...
We have conducted an investigation to determine the occurrence and distribution of erionite, a potential carcinogen, at YuccaMountain, Nevada. Using x-ray powder diffraction techniques yielding detection limits to below 0.05 wt %, we positively identified erionite in only 3 out of 76 bulk and 12 fracture samples investigated. The three erionite-bearing samples (J12-620/630, UE-25aNo.1-1296.2, and USW G4-1314) all occur above the static water level in clay/zeolite-rich horizons near the top of vitrophyres. Erionite occurs as trace amounts of less than 1 wt % in the whole rock, although it may occur locally in significant amounts as fracture fillings (e.g., UE-25aNo.1-1296.2 where it comprises approximately 45 wt % of the fracture filling material). All three occurrences appear to be extremely isolated cases since erionite was not detected in neighboring samples. Erionite at YuccaMountain apparently ...
We apply our work on fracture- and matrix-dominated flow to develop a conceptual model of hydrological flow processes in the unsaturated zone at YuccaMountain. The possibility of fracture-dominated flow is discussed, and various deductions are made on its impact on natural and total system performance, site characterization activities, and site suitability determination.
The impact of the rewetting process on the performance of waste containers at the YuccaMountain repository is analyzed. This paper explores the impact of the temperature-humidity relationships on pitting corrosion failure of stainless steel containers for different areal power densities (APDs)in the repository. It compares the likely performance of containers in a repository with a low APD, 55 Kw/acre, and a high APD, 110 kW/acre.
We simulate mountain-scale coupled heat transfer and gas flow at YuccaMountain. A coupled rock-gas flow and heat transfer model, TGIF2, is used to simulate mountain-scale two-dimensional transient heat transfer and gas flow. The model is first verified against an analytical solution for the problem of an infinite horizontal layer of fluid heated from below. Our numerical results match very well with the analytical solution. Then, we obtain transient temperature and gas flow distributions inside the mountain. These distributions are used by a transient semianalytical particle tracker to obtain carbon-14 travel times for particles starting at different locations within the repository. Assuming that the repository is filled with 30-year-old waste at an initial areal power density of 57 kw/acre, we find that repository temperatures remain above 60 degrees C for more than 10,000 years. ...
This procedure describes the formulation and make-up of Simulated Dilute Water (SOW), a low-ionic-content water to be used for Activity E-20-50, Long-Term Corrosion Studies. This water has an ionic content which is nominally a factor of ten higher than that of representative waters at or near YuccaMountain. Representative waters were chosen as J-13 well water [Harrar, 1990] and perched water at YuccaMountain [Glassley, 1996]. J-13 well water is obtained from ground water that is in contact with the Topopah Spring tuff, which is the repository horizon rock. The perched water is located in the Topopah Spring tuff, but below the repository horizon and above the water table. A nominal times ten higher ionic content was chosen to simulate the effect of ionic concentrating due to elevated temperature water flowing through fractures where salts and minerals have been deposited due to evaporation and boiling.
This paper is a quarterly report describing the use of a new soil gas collection device which allows the collection of soil gas in the field for later analysis in the laboratory. It describes the installation of this sampling device and the procedure for setting the probe, extraction of soil gas beneath the surface, and sealing of the soil gas for transport. The sites used for initial testing was the top of YuccaMountain and Crystal Spring in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The results from this initial test showed no volatile matter present in the soil at these locations.
During 1994 and the early part of 1995, the US Department of Energy's YuccaMountain Site Characterization Office (YMSCO) and its parent organization, the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) underwent a significant restructuring. Senior Department officials provided the leadership to reorient the management, technical, programmatic, and public interaction approach to the US High Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Program. The restructuring involved reorganizing the federal staff, conducting meaningful strategic planning, improving the management system, rationalizing contractor responsibilities, focusing upon major products, and increasing stakeholder involvement. The restructured program has prioritized technical and scientific activities toward meeting major regulatory milestones in a timely and cost-effective manner. This approach has raised concern among elements of technical, scientific, and oversight bodies that ...
The `Procurement Quality Function` is an element of the Body of Knowledge of Quality Engineering, as defined by the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC). This paper describes the Procurement Quality function which has been installed as an integral part of the Quality Engineering group of the Technical and Management Support Services (T&MSS) contractor to the United States Department of Energy (DOE) YuccaMountain Site Characterization Project. Each of the elements of the T&MSS Procurement Quality Engineering (PQE) system is discussed along with the measurements obtained. With the installation and development of the PQE system we have attained more meaningful evaluation of supplier capability, reduction of procurement document review reject ratios from 31% to less than 2% per quarter, more effective measurement and control of supplier performance, and the ability to enter into a meaningful teaming effort with T&MSS suppliers.
In attempting to detect and map out underground facilities, whether they be large-scale hardened deeply-buried targets (HDBT's) or small-scale tunnels for clandestine border or perimeter crossing, seismic imaging using reflections from the tunnel interface has been seen as one of the better ways to both detect and delineate tunnels from the surface. The large seismic impedance contrast at the tunnel/rock boundary should provide a strong, distinguishable seismic response, but in practice, such strong indicators are often lacking. One explanation for the lack of a good seismic reflection at such a strong contrast boundary is that the damage caused by the tunneling itself creates a zone of altered seismic properties that significantly changes the nature of this boundary. This report examines existing geomechanical data that define the extent of an excavation damage zone around underground tunnels, and the potential impact on rock properties such as P-wave and S-wave velocities. ...
The 1990s promise to be a decade of change. In business, the focus will be on restructuring for purposes of improved productivity and efficiency. The Department of Energy (DOE) has recognized that change is on the horizon. The YuccaMountain Project, carried out under the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) within the DOE is under new leadership. This new leadership is restructuring its operations to provide better focus, greater efficiency, meaningful products demonstrating progress and a more open operational environment. Criticisms of past operations have been reviewed and evaluated such that the new management organization derives benefit from the past. In recognition that management concerns may be manifested in other areas, YuccaMountain Project management believes that reorganization is necessary to maximize efficiency. In designing the new organization, a high priority has ...
This analysis is one of 10 reports that support the Environmental Radiation Model for YuccaMountain, Nevada (ERMYN) biosphere model. The ''Biosphere Model Report'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 169460]) describes in detail the conceptual model as well as the mathematical model and its input parameters. This report documents development of input parameters for the biosphere model that are related to atmospheric mass loading and supports the use of the model to develop biosphere dose conversion factors (BDCFs). The biosphere model is one of a series of process models supporting the total system performance assessment (TSPA) for a YuccaMountain repository. Inhalation Exposure Input Parameters for the Biosphere Model is one of five reports that develop input parameters for the biosphere model. A graphical representation of the documentation hierarchy for the ERMYN is presented in ...
This analysis report is one of a series of technical reports that document the Environmental Radiation Model for YuccaMountain, Nevada (ERMYN), a biosphere model supporting the total system performance assessment (TSPA) for the geologic repository at YuccaMountain. This report is one of the five biosphere reports that develop input parameter values for the biosphere model. The ''Biosphere Model Report'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 169460]) describes the conceptual model, as well as the mathematical model and its input parameters. Figure 1-1 is a graphical representation of the documentation hierarchy for the ERMYN. This figure shows relationships among the products (i.e., scientific analyses and model reports) developed for biosphere modeling and biosphere abstraction products for TSPA, as identified in the ''Technical Work Plan: for Biosphere Modeling and ...
... Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich called for such stress tests on Sunday (13 March) to make sure that nuclear power stations were quake-proof following Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami. Austria, a mountainous country rich in geothermal energy, has no NPPs and no plans to develop ...
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed comparatively detailed quality assurance requirements for the high-level radioactive waste disposal systems. Quality assurance is recognized as a key issue for confidence building and smooth implementation of the HLW program in Japan, and Japan is at an initial phase of repository development. Then the quality assurance requirements at site research and site selection, site characterization, and site suitability analysis used in the YuccaMountain project were examined in detail and comprehensive descriptions were developed using flow charts. Additionally, the applicability to the Japan high-level radioactive waste disposal project was studied. The examination and study were performed for the following QA requirements: The requirements that have the relative importance at site research and site selection, site characterization, and site suitability analysis (such as planning and performing ...
Most waste management activities are decided upon and carried out in a public or semi-public arena, typically involving the waste management organization, one or more regulators, and often other stakeholders and members of the public. In these environments, simulation modeling can be a powerful tool in reaching a consensus on the best path forward, but only if the models that are developed are understood and accepted by all of the parties involved. These requirements for understanding and acceptance of the models constrain the appropriate software and model development procedures that are employed. This paper discusses requirements for both simulation software and for the models that are developed using the software. Requirements for the software include transparency, accessibility, flexibility, extensibility, quality assurance, ability to do discrete and/or continuous simulation, and efficiency. Requirements for the models that are developed include traceability, transparency, ...
This analysis report is one of a series of technical reports that document the Environmental Radiation Model for YuccaMountain, Nevada (ERMYN), a biosphere model supporting the total system performance assessment (TSPA) for the geologic repository at YuccaMountain. This report is one of the five biosphere reports that develop input parameter values for the biosphere model. The ''Biosphere Model Report'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 169460]) describes the conceptual model, as well as the mathematical model and its input parameters. Figure 1-1 is a graphical representation of the documentation hierarchy for the ERMYN. This figure shows relationships among the products (i.e., scientific analyses and model reports) developed for biosphere modeling and biosphere abstraction products for TSPA, as identified in the ''Technical Work Plan for Biosphere Modeling and ...
Three copper-based alloys, CDA 102 (oxygen-free, high-purity copper), CDA 613 (aluminum bronze), and CDA 715 (Cu-30Ni), are candidates for the fabrication of high-level radioactive-waste disposal containers. Waste will include spent fuel assemblies from reactors as well as borosilicate glass, and will be sent to the prospective repository site at YuccaMountain in Nye County, Nevada. The decay of radionuclides will result in the generation of substantial heat and in fluxes of gamma radiation outside the containers. In this environment, container materials might degrade by atmospheric oxidation, general aqueous phase corrosion, localized corrosion (LC), and stress corrosion cracking (SCC). This volume is a critical survey of available data on pitting and crevice corrosion of the copper-based candidates. Pitting and crevice corrosion are two of the most common forms of LC of these materials. Data on the SCC of these alloys is surveyed in Volume ...
One of the limiting contributors to the heat load constraint for the YuccaMountain repository is the decay of Americium 241. A possible option to reduce the heat load produced by Am-241 is to eliminate or transmute it in a light water reactor thermal neutron environment, particularly, by taking advantage of the thermal fission cross section of Am-242 and Am-242m. In this study we employ lattice loading optimization techniques to define the americium/uranium blending and pin arrangements via an adaptation of the code FORMOSA-L to include the incineration of preloaded americium as an objective function. The optimization routines were designed to maximize americium transmutation, while maintaining power peaking below a predefined constraint. The viability of these lattice designs has been analyzed by creating bundles with these Am-spiked lattices and by loading these bundles into realistic 3D BWR core-wide simulation models over multiple reload ...
... the area covered by the point-count grid, stopping approximately every 100 m, stepping away from the vehicle, and scanning with binoculars for mountain plovers. Once ... ...
In the latter half of 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published a Proposed Rule (40 CFR Part 197) for establishing a dose rate standard for limiting radionuclide releases from the proposed YuccaMountain high-level radioactive waste repository during the time period from 10{sup 4} to 10{sup 6} years after closure. The proposed standard was based on the difference in the estimated total dose rate from natural background in the Amargosa Valley and the ''average annual background radiation'' for the State of Colorado. As defined by the USEPA, ''natural background radiation consists of external exposures from cosmic and terrestrial sources, and internal exposures from indoor exposures to naturally-occurring radon''. On the basis of its assessments, the USEPA estimated that the difference in the dose rate in the two identified areas was 3.5 mSv y{sup -1}. ...
This Closure Report (CR) documents closure activities for Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 543, Liquid Disposal Units, according to the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO, 1996) and the Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for CAU 543 (U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office [NNSA/NSO], 2007). CAU 543 is located at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nevada (Figure 1), and consists of the following seven Corrective Action Sites (CASs): CAS 06-07-01, Decon Pad; CAS 15-01-03, Aboveground Storage Tank; CAS 15-04-01, Septic Tank; CAS 15-05-01, Leachfield; CAS 15-08-01, Liquid Manure Tank; CAS 15-23-01, Underground Radioactive Material Area; CAS 15-23-03, Contaminated Sump, Piping; and CAS 06-07-01 is located at the Decontamination Facility in Area 6, adjacent to Yucca Lake. The remaining CASs are located at the former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Farm in Area 15. The purpose of this CR is to ...
The ice cover in high mountain lakes breaks up and disappears in about an hour, in part because it has been divided into fragile vertical spindles, which are individual crystals. Contributing to this...Full Text Available
One membrane oxygen enricher (Oxygen Enrichment Company OE-4E) and four molecular sieve (MS) concentrators (Mountain Medical Econo2, De Vilbiss MINI DeVO2, Cryogenic Roomate III, and Mountain Medical...Full Text Available
BackgroundGlomerulonephritis in dogs has been associated with B. burgdorferi infections. In Bernese Mountain Dogs with glomerulonephritis antibodies against B....Full Text Available
The glacial deposits of the West Tensleep Basin in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming are mapped and a relative chromology established. The deposits are correlated with the regional model as defined in the Wind River Mountains. A statistical analysis is performed on the density and weathering characteristics of the surficial boulders to determine their validity as indicators of relative age. (ACR)
? Introduction Old-growth forests on Changbai Mountain are economically and ecologically important but have been fragmented outside Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve. The trend of forest landscape degradation on Changbai Mountain threatens forest sustainability and biodiversity conservation in the region. Previous studies have focused mainly on the structure and function of protected forests but have ignored managed forests outside the reserve border. ? Objectives In this paper, deforestation processes are studied for two forestry enterprises, namely Baihe and Lushuihe Forestry Bureaus, with different socioeconomic structure due to their differences in proximity to Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Baihe?s income comes from b...
Full text: There are following general tendencies linking to SNF and radioactive waste management (RWM) in the Russian nuclear industry now. The intention to use the closed nuclear fuel cycle based on power water reactors and fast reactor. The intensification of measures aimed at the solution of 'nuclear legacy' from defenses programs of USSR. The intention to improve the existing national RW management infrastructure in the near years by means of the creation of a centralized national system (including managing corporation responsible for operation of long-storage and disposal facilities of conditioned RW). The main aims radioactive waste management (RWM) in nuclear power plants (NPP) for the next 10-15 years are to equip all NPPs with the necessary set of facilities for conditioning of the stored and currently generated RW with packaging the end-product into containers, to build regional NPPs RW ...
A northeast-southwest structural transect has been constructed across the Rocky Mountain foreland in Wyoming, a distance of about 400 mi. The line of transect begins in the northern Black Hills and traverses the northern Powder River basin, the Bighorn Mountains from Buffalo to Bonanza, the Big Horn basin from Worland to Hamilton dome, the Owl Creek Mountains, the northern Wind River basin at Maverick Springs, the Wind River Mountains to Pinedale in the Green River basin, the Moxa Arch at Big Piney and Riley Ridge, and into the thrust belt, ending at the Idaho border. In terms of a vertical and horizontal scale of 1 in. = 2000 ft, the section is about 90 ft long (i.e., the section is approximately 409 mi long). The data base for the transect includes published geologic maps, commercial photogeologic mapping, well data, and modern seismic data through critical parts of the basin areas. The data base ...
Deer Elk Bighorn Sheep American Pronghorn Moose Deer Mouse Carnivores Bobcat American Badger River Otter Red Fox Long-Tailed Weasel Coyote Grizzly Bear Mountain Lion Amphibians...
... after Roscoe Robinson relinquished command of the 82nd Airborne Division in 1978, it would be 25 ... taking command of the 10th Mountain Division. ...
The Sheep Mountain area, in the southwest Wind River Basin, is the up plunge closure of the Derby Dome-Winkleman Dome producing trend of an echelon folds which comprise the first line of folding down the northeast flank of the Wind River Mountains. The structural style exposed in the Palozoic reservoir rocks of Sheep Mountain may serve as a model for the other structural features in the Wind River Basin. As in the case of the Derby Dome and Winkleman Dome, Sheep Mountain is typically asymmetric to the southwest. Local east-directed thrusts exposed in the core of the anticline place Pennsylvania over Permian age rocks. A major change in the trend of the anticlinal crest within Sheep Mountain, suggests development of separate left-stepping en echelon closures at depth. The northwest end of Sheep Mountain also forms a left-stepping en echelon pattern with Derby ...
Jan 26, 2005 ... Heavy snow settled over Iran on January 23, 2005, closing roads and ... Located along the southern front of the Alborz mountains, Iran's ...
Site studies for CANDU type NPP began in a careful manner since 1982 as a first part of the Nuclear Power Plant Romanian Program adopted by political and governmental authorities at the time. A team was charged to develop all packages of the necessary main studies. The first Romanian NPP CANDU 6 type reactor gone to erection on Cernavoda site, planned to have 5 units and, like Wolsong NPP, applied the same design for the nuclear island. For the BOP parts the ANSALDO-GE project was applied with a thorough concern about requirements raised by connection to NSP. The first mission of design and research multi-branch team was to adapt the NPP Cernavoda project having an open water cooling circuit 'once-through' to the new parameters of a close recirculation water cooling circuit. Also, the structural design was re-evaluated for the case of soft foundation strata instead of hard rock ones. The close recirculation water cooling circuit system was ...
The coal bed methane (CBM) potential of five coal zones (the Kootenay, Gething, Gates, Brazeau, and Coalspur) in the Alberta foothills and mountains is re-evaluated. For evaluation, the coal zones are divided into shallow (200 to 2500 m depth) and deep (over 2500 m depth). The total gas content is estimated. Recommendations on how to obtain more reliable resource data and about producibility are included. 41 refs., 12 figs., 3 tabs., 2 apps.
Nitrogen-fixing microbial populations in a Douglas fir forest on the western slope of the Oregon Cascade Mountain Range were analyzed. The complexity of the nifH gene pool (nifH...Full Text Available
Soon there will be only 14 states in two compacts that are able to dispose of Low Level Waste (LLW): the Northwest and Rocky Mountain compact with disposal options in Richland, Washington, and the Atlantic compact with disposal options in Barnwell, South Carolina. How do states not in one of the two compacts dispose of their LLW? The Off-Site Source Recovery Project can take possession and dispose of some of the unwanted transuranic sources at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). However, there will be no path forward for states outside of the two compacts for disposal of their non-transuranic LLW. A solution that has been much discussed, debated and researched, but has not been put into wide scale practice, is the borehole disposal concept. It is the author's position that companies that drill and explore for oil have been disposing of sources in borehole-like structures for years. It should be noted that these companies are not purposely disposing of ...
A study of mine-waste contamination effects on Methow River habitat on the eastern slopes of the north Cascade Mountains in Washington state, U.S.A., revealed impacts at ecosystem, community, population, individual, tissue, and cellular levels. Ore deposits in the area were mined for gold, silver, copper and zinc until the early 1950's, but the mines are now inactive. An above-and-below-mine approach was used to compare potentially impacted to control sites. The concentrations of eleven trace elements (i.e., Al, As, B, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb, Se, and Zn) in Methow River sediments downstream from the abandoned mine sites were higher than background levels. Exposed trout and caddisfly larvae in the Methow River showed reduced growth compared to controls. Samples of liver from juvenile trout and small intestine from exposed caddisfly larvae were examined for evidence of metal accumulation, cytopathological change, and chemical toxicity. Morphological changes ...
Provenance and paleocurrent data from synorogenic fluvial sandstones can be used to constrain theories about the timing and structural style of Laramide foreland uplifts and associated basins. The Green River basin of southwestern Wyoming is a large ellipsoidal basin bounded by uplifts with diverse orientations and basement rock compositions. Sandstone from the main body of the Eocene Wasatch Formation in the Green River basin was sampled along the south and west flanks of the Rock Springs uplift. Petrographic examination and paleocurrent measurements reveal two main facies. The first facies is rich in feldspar and metamorphic rock fragments derived from the Wind River Mountains to the north. The second facies is dominated by quartz and sedimentary rock fragments, reflecting a source in the Uinta Mountains to the south. Distribution of these facies indicates that a sediment lobe extends 15 km into the basin from the Uinta ...
This paper presents the development and evaluation of field- controllable, semi-active magneto-rheological fluid (MRF) shock absorbers for a mountain bicycle. Recent trends in the bicycle industry show a movement towards semi-active suspension systems. Two new MRF dampers are designed and tested with the intent of being used on the front and rear suspension of a modern mountain bicycle. The MRF shock absorbers are designed to emulate the performance of the original equipment manufacturer shock absorbers in passive mode. Application of an input electric current to the MRF shock absorber causes a dramatic increase in the damping capacity. Procedures and results are presented for the design and experimental characterization of these MRF dampers.
Forest restoration efforts should aim at creating landscapes with a balanced array of forest stands at varying successional stages, thus providing habitat for a wealth of species and multiple ecosystem services. In most high-mountain ecosystems of South America, long-term livestock rearing activities that include fires, browsing, and trampling have delayed or stopped forest succession resulting in simplified landscapes. To determine appropriate restoration goals for Polylepis australis mountain forests of Central Argentina, we established 146 plots of 900 m2 plots throughout five river basins with different historic livestock stocking rates. In each plot, we measured tree heights, canopy cover, estimated age of oldest tree, volume of standing and fallen dead wood, fern cover, and abundance...
Caribou were extirpated from the Kenai Peninsula by 1912 and reintroduced via transplants from the Nelchina Herd in the mid 1960's and again in the mid 1980's. The reintroductions resulted in the establishment of five herds: the Kenai Mountains Herd, Kena...
On the west flank of the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming, are several large lakes occupying glacially scoured depressions dammed by terminal moraines. Fremont, Willow, and New Fork Lakes, having maximal...Full Text Available
Cuttings were taken from the upper part of the crowns of spruce trees 60-70 yr old in stands at 3 different altitudes in the Rila Mountains and 4 in the Vitosha Mountains in Bulgaria. The cuttings, of 1-yr, 2-yr and 3-yr shoots, were rooted in sand, perlite and peat. Rooting % generally decreased with increasing altitude of provenance, but cuttings from the very highest altitudes showed increased rooting %. In general, 1-yr cuttings gave the best rooting %, but in some provenances the 2-yr cuttings were best. Sand was clearly the best rooting substrate. (Refs. 11).
The report is the second of three describing the geology of coal quality variations in the foothills and mountains region of Alberta. The Lower Cretaceous Luscar Group, Lower Paleocene Coalspur Formation, and the Upper Paleocene Paskapoo Formation (Obed-Marsh coal zone, which is classified as a foothills deposit) are evaluated. Data on proximate and ultimate analysis variables, calorific analysis, vitrinite reflectance, maceral analyses, and coal quality relationships are presented. The coals range from low volatile bituminous to subbituminous A. Regional and local in seam coal quality variations are examined. 49 refs., 39 figs., 6 tabs.
Supracrustal rocks, although volumetrically minor, are found throughout the Archean basement of the central and northern Wind River Mountains. Detailed mapping in the Medina Mountain area suggests that at least two discrete sedimentation events are preserved. The older sequence occurs as melanosomes in a multiple deformed migmatitic gneiss. Rock types include mafic rocks (metavolcanics.), calc-silicates, iron formation and rare pelites. Although retrogression is widespread, small patches with granulite mineralogies are found preserved. The younger supracrustal sequence consists of banded amphibolites, calc-silicates, semipelitic and pelitic gneiss. These rocks form synformal structures that are up to 4 km in length. The coherent nature of these rocks and the lack of the aforementioned porphyritic dikes strongly suggests that this sequence, the Medina Mountain. Supracrustals (MMS) is considerably younger than the ...
The Green River Basin is a northwest-southeast elongate structural feature located in southwestern Wyoming. Bounded by three basement uplifts, this complex mountain front basin possesses tremendous gas reserves. Production has been limited to a few structures, such as the Pinedale Anticline, because of the great depth of the basin. The Pinedale Anticline is an elongate structure that parallels the front of the Wind River Thrust. Earlier research has suggested that the anticline is not related to basement, but rather is associated with a foreland detachment structure. A new, high-resolution aeromagnetic survey has been modelled in detail and the results indicate that the Pinedale Anticline may actually be a basement related structure. Profile modelling normal to the anticline from the LaBarge Platform to the Wind River Mountains suggests that not only is Pinedale Field situated on a possible basement structure, but also that additional, ...
"7Be produced by the interaction of cosmic rays with oxygen and nitrogen, predominantly in the stratosphere, has been used to identify and measure stratospheric ozone at the ground level. Simultaneous measurements at Whiteface Mountain, New York, in July 1975 show that the maximum "7Be concentrations are accompanied by increased ozone concentrations. Peaks in "7Be concentrations occurred on July 5-6, 11-12, 16-17, 23, and 27. Ozone peaks were observed on July 7-9, 11, 18, 24, and 27. Isentropic trajectory calculations also showed that the trajectories reaching Whiteface Mountain on July 11-12, 15-16, 23, and 27 had stratospheric origin. One-day delay in ozone peaks on July 7-9, 18, and 24 is attributed to increased tropospheric ozone production. The observed relationship between "7Be and ozone is used to deduce an upper limit of 37 ppb stratospheric ozone at Whiteface Mountain during July 1975. Thus, even during midsummer ...
Over the past 25 years there have been a large number of long runout flowslides from Rocky Mountain coal mine waste dumps. The waste dumps are constructed as end-dumped fills with an angle of repose of 38{degrees}. Dump heights range between 100 and 400 m. The dumps are normally founded on mountain slopes that are covered with a thin veneer of granular colluvial and dense stony fill materials. Conventional stability analyses carried out for these dumps using friction angles equal to the angle of repose for the waste rock and typical values ranging from 30 to 32{degree} for the foundation materials indicate that many should be stable. The flowslides occur rapidly and display surprisingly long runouts of up to 2 km in some cases. Detailed studies of three of these events indicate that static collapse of saturated or nearly saturated sandy gravel layers within the dumps may be responsible for the initial failure and the generation of high pore ...
The Idaho Falls quadrangle in southeastern Idaho lies at the juncture of the Snake River Plain, the Northern Rocky Mountains, and the Basin-Range Province. Quaternary basalts of the Snake River Plain occupy 70% of the quadrangle. The rest of the area is covered by uplifted Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic rocks of the Pre-Late Cenozoic Orogenic Complex. Magnetic data apparently show contributions from both shallow and deep sources. The apparent expression of intrusive and extrusive rocks of late Mesozoic and Cenozoic age tends to mask the underlying structural downtrap thought to exist under the Snake River Plain. The Idaho Falls quadrangle has been unproductive in terms of uranium mining. A single claim exists in the Sawtooth Mountains, but no information was found concerning its present status at the time of this study. A total of 169 anomalies are valid according to the criteria set forth in Volume I of this report. These anomalies are ...
Water is the most important limiting factor in the development of arid environments; therefore, optimization of water use is a necessity in desert reclamation projects. Evapotranspiration of a 6-year-old river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh.) plantation, located in a sedimentation basin of an artificial recharge of the Gareh Bygone Plain groundwater system in Iran?s southern Zagros Mountains, was studied during a 7-month period. A neutron moisture probe was used to monitor soil water changes in the root zone. Soil water depletion following rapid drainage for blocks receiving relatively high, medium and low volumes of floodwater were 809.6, 312.4, and 203.1 mm, respectively, for a 150-day period. Soil water potential during most of the study period was below ?1.5 MPa. This study pr...
A stratigraphic and geochemical study of alpine soils, which formed in later Pleistocene (late glacial) and Neoglacial deposits in the Wind River Mountains of western Wyoming, indicates that these soils are affected by air-fall in flux of inorganic pollutants. Arsenic, bromine and antimony appear to have been deposited in surface soils by incorporation of aeolian materials which were presumably transported by winds from industrial sources, including coal-burning operations. As vanadium was not found in surface soils at concentrations above site-specific background levels, oil-fired energy generating stations were not found to be significant sources of surface soil pollution in the region. Acid-rain effects were not observed in the soils. (author) 32 refs.; 2 figs.; 3 tabs.
Antibodies to Rickettsia rickettsii were detected by indirect immunofluorescence in sera from 149 of 467 dogs (32%) examined from 4 military installations located in Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The prevalence at individual installations ranged from 4.3% at Fort Knox, Ky, to 63.4% at Fort Bragg, NC. Most of the seropositive dogs were in the working and sporting groups of dogs. The difference in antibody prevalence between sexes was not significant. Serologic responses were related to R rickettsii infection, although antibodies to R montana also were detected in a few of the sera. Comparison of serodiagnostic methods indicated that the indirect fluorescent antibody test was more sensitive than was the indirect hemagglutination test for obtaining survey data on the prevalence of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the area. PMID:6808878
New isotopic age determinations carried out with the rubidium-strontium method on granodioritic basement rocks from the Mecsek Mountains in Southeastern Transdanubia give further support to assumptions on a polyphase development of the Mecsek crystalline. As shown by initial Sr isotopic ratios, the protolith of the granodioritic assemblage of polymetamorphic-anatectic origin must have been strongly basic in its composition. The scatter of individual model ages obtained on total rock samples reflects the polymetamorphic-polytectonized character of the basement, and suggests that following a primary granitization process secondary events might have led to the total or partial recrystallization of the rocks in question. The tectonic development of the basement crystalline as reflected in the isotopic age data closed at about 270+-20 million years ago, with processes causing retrograde changes in the crystalline as a whole but leading to the development of dyke rocks ...
Eshkaft-e Gavi is a cave located in the southern Zagros Mountains of Iran and is one of the few archaeological sites in the region to preserve both Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic occupations. Excavation of the site in the 1970s yielded an assemblage of lithic and faunal remains, including ten hominin specimens: a mandibular molar, four cranial fragments, a clavicular diaphysis, the proximal half of a metacarpal, a fragment of os coxa, the proximal diaphysis of a juvenile femur, and a patella. The bones derive from a minimum of four individuals, including two juveniles. Although many of these remains could be Epi-Paleolithic in age, one of the juvenile specimens-the mandibular molar-occurs at the base of the caves Upper Paleolithic sequence. The remains are very fragmentary, but t...
Plant secondary chemistry is determined by both genetic and environmental factors, and while large intraspecific variation in secondary chemistry has been reported frequently, the levels of genetic variation of many secondary metabolites in forest trees in the context of potential resistance against pests have been rarely investigated. We examined the effect of tree genotype and environment/site on the variation in defensive secondary chemistry of lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta var. latifolia, against the fungus, Grosmannia clavigera (formerly known as Ophiostoma clavigerum), associated with the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae. Terpenoids were analyzed in phloem samples from 887, 20-yr-old trees originating from 45 half-sibling families planted at two sites. Samples were coll...
In this paper, the spatial-temporal dynamics of soil moisture content was investigated in an evergreen broad-leaved forest and a tea tree plantation in Ailao Mountains, which was dominated by Fagaceae (Castanopsis wattii and Lithocarpus xylocarpus). Soil moisture content was studied between January 2005 and December 2006 at different depths (from 0-150 cm) with a neutron probe. The results showed that mean soil moisture content in the evergreen broad-leaved forest was usually higher than in the tea tree plantation in the dry season, whereas it was lower than the tea tree plantation in the rainy season. In addition, mean soil moisture content was depth dependent, and in the 10-50 cm layer the spatial variability was due to the active root zone within this depth area in two types of land use...
We tested two approaches to forecast species distributions while balancing the impact of climate change against the inertia promoted by other influential factors that have been forecast as not changing. Given that mountain species are presumed to be more at risk due to climate warming, we selected an amphibian, a reptile, a bird, and a mammal species present in the Spanish mountains, to model their distributional response to climate change during this century. The climatic forecasts were made according to the general circulation models CGCM2 and ECHAM4 and to the A2 and B2 emission scenarios. We modelled the response of the species to spatial, topographic, human, and climatic variables separately. In our first approach, we compared each of these single-factor models using the Akaike Inform...
Mentougou District acts as a crucial component in the ecological buffer in western Beijing mountainous areas, Beijing, China. Using two Landsat MSS/TM images acquired on July 14, 1979 and July 23, 2005, the vegetation coverage of Mentougou District was calculated based on normalized difference vegetation index and spectral mixture analysis (NDVI-SMA) model. Its temporal and spatial changes were analyzed according to digital elevation model (DEM) image, social and economic data. The results showed that the vegetation coverage decreased from 76.4% in 1979 to 72.7% in 2005. Vegetation degradation was probably the result of human disturbance, such as outspreading of resident areas, and coal and stone mining activities, while vegetation restoration might be contributed by the combined effects o...
The report shows that in Europe mountain regions, coastal zones, wetlands and the Mediterranean region are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Although there could be some positive effects, many impacts are likely to be adverse. Existing adaptive measures are concentrated in flood defence, so there is considerable scope for adaptation planning and implementation in other areas, such as public health, water resources and management of ecosystems. (au)
Pumped storage plants (PSP) supply up to several GW of power and several ten GWh of capacity. Short start-up times and low start-up costs predestine PSP for the control energy market. Grid charges for PSP endanger the further integration of renewable energy and lead to higher electricity supply costs. Therefore, an amendment of legislation is urgently required. Requirements for building large PSP are met at numerous sites in the low mountain ranges of Germany. (orig.)
In clause it is shown a method optimization of brake of forces in view of a bias road it is established, that in mountain conditions of loss of coupling weight of automobiles than 2-3 times concerning flat conditions therma are more. The degree of use of coupling weight in result use of a regulator of brake forces very much increases also efficiency of brake systems such a kind of automobiles is provided with definition of optimum factor of coupling at which value of loss of coupling weight is provided minimal
This study provides information on energy resource development and the efforts of State and local communities in the Rocky Mountain, Appalachian, and coastal regions to deal with the related social and economic impacts. It also provides information on the range of options and resources generally available to States and local communities from local, State, industry, and Federal sources to plan for and mitigate the adverse effects of energy development. Onsite visits and interviews with State, local, and Federal officials and private industry involved in mitigating socioeconomic impacts were made.
Real-time horizon sensing on continuous mining machines is becoming an industry tool. Installation and testing of production-grade Horizon Sensor (HS) systems continued this quarter at Monterey Coal Company (ExxonMobil), Mountain Coal Company West Elk Mine (Arch), and Ohio Valley Coal Company (OVC). Monitoring of system function, user experience, and mining benefits is ongoing. All horizon sensor components have finished MSHA (U.S.) and IEC (International) certification.
The Archean core of the Laramide Wind River uplift records evidence of at least three major granitoid-forming episodes. The oldest, the Dry Creek gneiss (DCG), was emplaced by 2.8 Ga and occupies the northeastern part of the range. Mafic, pelitic and ultramafic inclusions occur in the DCG. Elsewhere in the Wind River Mountains there is evidence for crustal components as old as 3.8 Ga. The Bridger batholith (BB), intruded at 2.67 Ga, is found in the west-central Wind River Mountains. The Wind River batholith (WRB) refers to the youngest Late Archean granodiorites and granites which are found throughout the range and includes granitoids previously name the Louis Lake, Bears Ears, Popo Agie, and Middle Mountain intrusions. Although granitoids of the Wind River batholith have been dated at 2.63 and 2.55 Ga, they are considered together here because there is a complete gradation in rock type and because definite intrusive ...
This report attempts to bring together available information on the coal deposits of Antarctica and discuss factors that would be involved if these deposits were to be explored and mined. Most of the reported principal coal deposits in Antarctica lie generally within the Transantarctic Mountains: the majority are of Permian age and are present in the Victoria Group of the Beacon Supergroup. Several other deposits have been recorded in East Antarctica and in the Antarctic Peninsula, including minor occurrences of Mesozoic and Tertiary coal and carbonaceous shale.
Over one-third of Canada's coal resources occurs in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, with major deposits in the Front Ranges, Inner Foothills and Outer Foothills. In the Front Ranges, deposits of metallurgical and thermal, high-volatile bituminous to semi-anthracite coal occur in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Mist Mountain Formation. In the Inner Foothills of northeastern British Columbia and west-central Alberta, resources of metallurgical and thermal medium- and low-volatile bituminous coal occur in Early Cretaceous strata of the Gething and Gates Formations. In the Outer Foothills resources of thermal, high-volatile bituminous coal occur in Late Cretaceous and Paleocene strata of the Belly River Coalspur and Paskapoo Formations. The major deposits of the Front Ranges and Inner Foothills accumulated within the coastal plains of the Fernie and Moosebar-Clearwater seas. Shorelines prograded to the north and northeast into a ...
Buried soils occur on kettle floors of four Pinedale moraine catenas of the western Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. Radiocarbon ages from bulk samples of Ab horizons indicate the soils were buried during the mid-Holocene. Soils on kettle floors have silty A and Bw horizons that overlie buried A and B horizons that also formed in silt-rich sediments. Crests and backslope soils also have A and Bw horizons of sandy loam formed over 2BCb and 2Cb horizons of stony coarse loamy sand. Recent data show the silty textures of the A and B horizons are due to eolian silt and clay from the Green River Basin just west of the mountains. The buried soils appear to represent alternate periods of erosion and deposition on the moraines during the Holocene. The original soils developed on higher slopes of the moraines were eroded during the mid-Holocene and the 2BC and 2C horizons exposed at the surface. Eroded soil sediments were transported downslope onto the ...
This study aims to evaluate the economic and environmental viability of the exploitation of methane gas (CH4) - biogas - concentrated at the bottom of the mountains of waste from landfill Chapeco for power generation. The landfill receives approximately of 80 tons / day, the vast majority of domestic origin.
...ER14AU08.000 (6) Unit 2: North Baldwin Meadow, San Bernardino County, California...and ARUR 12. Gold Mountain and North Baldwin Lake, San Bernardino County, California...ER26DE07.007(13) Unit ARUR 15. South Baldwin Ridge/Erwin Lake, San Bernardino...
The National Nuclear Data Center provides information on nuclear reactions, nuclear structure, and decay data, and is a part of the Nuclear Data Center Network, established to coordinate the compilation and dissemination of nuclear data on an international scale.
Data on French nuclear electricity generation sites, nuclear power plant operations personnel, operation simulators, nuclear training centers and training statistics are presented.
In the Western Canada Basin, Triassic sedimentary rocks were deposited as a northeasterly-tapering wedge of sediment on the Triassic cratonic Interior Platform and adjacent miogeoclinal areas and occurring within the present day Interior Plains and Rocky Mountain Foothills and Front Ranges of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Continued drilling activity and recent significant discoveries such as the Spirit River, Brassey, Ring-Pedigree ('Border'), Sukunka, Bullmoose West fields, and new unnamed fields in the Brazion-Monkman area, confirm the petroleum potential of Triassic rocks in this basin. A bibliography of 382 publications and a short test that summarizes the regional setting, stratigraphy and petroleum geology of these Triassic rocks, are provided. This paper is designed to help explorationists or geological researchers become more familiar with Western Canada Basin Triassic rocks and relevant literature. The ...
The Crown of the Continent is one of the premiere ecosystems in North America containing Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the Bob Marshall-Great Bear-Scapegoat Wilderness Complex in Montana, various Provincial Parks in British Columbia and Alberta, several national and state forest lands in the USA, and Crown Lands in Canada. The region is also the headwater source for three of the continent's great rivers: Columbia, Missouri and Saskatchewan that flow to the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, respectively. While the region has many remarkably pristine headwater streams and receiving rivers, there are many pending threats to water quality and quantity. One of the most urgent threats comes from the coal and gas fields in the northern part of the Crown of the Continent, where coal deposits are proposed for mountain-top removal and open-pit mining operations. This will have significant effects on the waters of the region, its native plants and ...
A continuous, subsurface Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary section, including the boundary clay within an 87 cm thick lignite, has been recovered from a core hole near Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, Canada. The lignite-encompassed clay layer with geochemical anomaly indicates that peat deposition was continuous across the boundary. Core data indicate that, locally, a pre-boundary, conifer-dominated swamp was abruptly replaced by an angiosperm-dominated, herbaceous wetland. Sudden extermination of the dominant forest elements indicates mass kill at the level of the boundary and supports the theory of extraterrestrial impact accompanied by catastrophic destruction. Devastation of the standing vegetation may have been caused by one or more of the killing agents predicted to have accompanied impact, including freezing temperatures caused by atmospheric dust, acid rain, thermal pulse, and shock waves. There is no evidence supporting wildfires as a killing agent. Vegetational ...
Preliminary field investigations suggest three detachments in the Sadlerochit and Shublik Mountains: (1) the Kingak Shale, (2) along the pre-Mississippian unconformity, and (3) within the pre-Mississippian basement. Thrust faults that cut the overlying Mississippian and younger section have horizontal displacements of 5-8 km and emplace pre-Mississippian rocks on Cretaceous strata. A large number of smaller thrust faults, responsible for deformation of the pre-Mississippian surface contribute to shortening. Structures involving the pre-Mississippian section trend east-west whereas earlier formed structures related to the Kingak Shale decollement trend east-northeast-to west-southwest. Possible exploration leads beneath the coastal plain include: (1) large, broad, basement involved structural culminations that may have subtle seismic expressions and (2) pre-Mississippian potential reservoirs thrust over Cretaceous source beds. Possible applications for regional ...
Onshore and marine seismic-reflection data obtained near the Trans-Alaskan Crustal Transect (TACT), in the region of the eastern Aleutian trench and lower Cook Inlet, reveal highly reflective midcrustal layering that begins at a depth of 10-15 km within the upper plate of the Aleutian subduction zone. Beneath the continental shelf, midcrustal reflections were recorded over broad areas and occur in subhorizontal bands that are 1 to 3 s thick. The reflections extend beneath complexly deformed late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic accreted rocks that are exposed at the surface. Preliminary interpretation of seismic refraction data indicates that under the shelf the top of the reflections corresponds in depth with a sharp increase in rock velocity, from 5.9 km/s to 6.6 km/s. North and northwest of the shelf, beneath the Chugach and Kenai mountains, midcrustal features dip 20{degree}-30{degree} north or northwest, and below the Chugach Mountains, the top ...
South of Byrd Glacier, central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, Lower Cambrian Shackleton Limestone (Byrd Group) is divided into four informal members. The transition from Shackleton carbonates to clastics of Starshot Formation is conformable, with alternating units of limestone and argillite, and a thick succession of pillow basalt. Douglas Conglomerate is interbedded with and overlies Starshot Formation, and overlies folded Shackleton Limestone unconformably. Lower amphibolite-grade Selborne Group is composed of Madison Marble and Contortion Schist. The contact between the two formations is interbedded marble and schist, and includes metabasalt. We correlate Byrd Group with Selborne Group, Shackleton Limestone with Madison Marble, and Starshot Formation and Douglas Conglomerate with Contortion Schist. These correlations and the lack of equivalent lithologies to the north of Byrd Glacier imply that Byrd Glacier is the northern boundary of the Byrd ...
The northeastern part of the Great Divide basin is a separate, unique, and until recently, little-explored subbasin sometimes called the Bison basin. It is bounded by the Wind River Mountains, Sweetwater-Granite Mountain foreland uplift, Lost Soldier-Wertz structure, and a little-studied very positive east-west structural arch approximately coincident with the Sweetwater-Fremont county line. A comprehensive seismic, Landsat, and subsurface geologic examination or, better, dissection of the Bison basin was initiated in 1978. Numerous oil and gas prospects were delineated by this study. Since this small, 12 by 40 mi (19 by 64 km) basin is bordered by known reserves of 260 million bbl of oil and 90 million bcf of gas, these prospects proved to be a popular target of the drill bit. At least one of these prospects appears to be productive; others are currently being drilled. The presence of major east-west wrench faults, a well-documented foreland ...
This report is the conclusion of a three-part series that describes and attempts to explain regional coal quality variations within the foothills/mountains region of Alberta. Proximate and ultimate analysis variables, plus some vitrinite reflectance and maceral analyses, are examined for the Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Kootenay Group, Lower Cretaceous Luscar Group, the Lower Paleocene Coalspur Formation, and the Upper Paleocene Obed-Marsh coal-bearing units. The study has two major components: a statistical analysis and mapping of coal quality data provided by the Energy Resources Conservation Board; and a 'geologic models' section, in which regional and local in-seam coal quality variations are examined from a geological perspective. The first component is designed to describe, characterize, and set limits for the coal quality variables, while the second component should provide from a geological perspective, insight as to why and how these quality ...
With the exception of Sand Springs in Williamstown, Massachusetts, there are no identifiable hydrothermal geothermal resources in the New England region. The radioactive plutons of the White Mountains of New Hampshire do not, apparently, contain sufficient stored heat to make them a feasible target for an induced hydrothermal system such as exists at Fenton Hill near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The only potential source of low grade heat is the large volume of ground water contained within the unconsolidated sediments related to the Pleistocene glaciation of the region. During the course of the survey an unusual and unexplained thermal anomaly was discovered in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, which is described.
The Siberian Altai covers about 70% of the area of all south Siberian glaciers, which provide fresh water to the upper tributaries of the Ob and Yenisey rivers. The observed air temperature has increased by 1.2 deg. C over northern Eurasia during the last 120 years, affecting the degradation of the Siberian Altai glaciers. In this study, we estimated glacier area changes in the Aktru River basin (44.8 km{sup 2}), located in the central Altai mountains. We used the 1952, 1966, 1975 and 2006 remote sensed images with 0.6-3.0 m spatial resolution (aerial photographs, Corona and PRISM satellite images) and differential GPS (DGPS) data. From 1952 to 2006, the total glacier area in the Aktru basin shrank by 7.2% (1.2 km{sup 2}). During the last three decades, the rate of glacier area loss increased by a factor of 1.8, thus resembling trends in other mountain systems of Eurasia (Alps, Tien Shan). The glacier area changes were caused mainly by increase ...
The Siberian Altai covers about 70% of the area of all south Siberian glaciers, which provide fresh water to the upper tributaries of the Ob and Yenisey rivers. The observed air temperature has increased by 1.2 deg. C over northern Eurasia during the last 120 years, affecting the degradation of the Siberian Altai glaciers. In this study, we estimated glacier area changes in the Aktru River basin (44.8 km"2), located in the central Altai mountains. We used the 1952, 1966, 1975 and 2006 remote sensed images with 0.6-3.0 m spatial resolution (aerial photographs, Corona and PRISM satellite images) and differential GPS (DGPS) data. From 1952 to 2006, the total glacier area in the Aktru basin shrank by 7.2% (1.2 km"2). During the last three decades, the rate of glacier area loss increased by a factor of 1.8, thus resembling trends in other mountain systems of Eurasia (Alps, Tien Shan). The glacier area changes were caused mainly by increase of summer ...
The presence of the nitrogen-fixing shrub, Alnus incana ssp. rugosa, influences the concentration of inorganic nitrogen in surface waters in the Adirondack Mountain region of northern New York. - The purpose of this research was to determine the abundance of the nitrogen-fixing shrub, Alnus incana ssp. rugosa (speckled alder), in shrub wetlands of the Adirondack Mountain region of New York State and to determine whether its abundance affects the concentration or accumulation of inorganic nitrogen in wetland substrates. Alder/willow wetlands are the second most common wetland type in the Adirondack region. The Adirondack Park Agency's digital GIS database of wetland types was used to determine the areal extent of alder/willow wetlands in the Adirondacks. Randomly selected wetlands were sampled to determine the size and abundance of alder. Alder densities averaged {approx}7000 stems ha{sup -1} and alder was present in 75% of the ...
Nuclear forensics is the analysis of nuclear materials recovered from either the capture of unused materials, or from the radioactive debris following a nuclear explosion and can contribute significantly to the identification of the sources of the materials and the industrial processes used to obtain them. In the case of an explosion, nuclear forensics can also reconstruct key features of the nuclear device. Nuclear forensic analysis works best in conjunction with other law enforcement, radiological protection dosimetry, traditional forensics, and intelligence work to provide the basis for attributing the materials and/or nuclear device to its originators. Nuclear forensics is a piece of the overall attribution process, not a stand-alone activity
Nuclear forensics can provide information about the history, intended use and potentially the origin of nuclear or radioactive material. For these reasons, it is an important tool for improving nuclear security and combating illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials. The IAEA is currently working on enhancing knowledge, techniques, procedures and cooperation in the field of nuclear forensics. Some of the work currently being undertaken by the IAEA includes the development of a five day training workshop on basic methods for radiological crime scene activities, to ensure adequate control of evidence, including for nuclear forensics purposes, a coordinated research project on the application of nuclear forensics in illicit trafficking, and a proposal for international cooperation with nuclear forensics ...
Nuclear cloning is still a developing technique used to create genetically identical animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer into unfertilized eggs. Despite an intensive effort in a number...Full Text Available
Announced as the first of a series of annual reports on the spread of nuclear weapons, this endeavor of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace may stimulate increased public awareness of this critical topic. A good part of the book contains the historical setting of the nuclear issue in the eight most likely proliferators.
Nuclear approaches for compositional characterization has bright application prospect in forensic perspective towards assessment of nature and origin of seized material. The macro and micro physical properties of nuclear materials can be specifically associated with a process or type of nuclear activity. Under the jurisdiction of nuclear analytical chemistry as well as nuclear forensics, thrust areas of scientific endeavor like determination of radioisotopes, isotopic and mass ratios, analysis for impurity contents, arriving at chemical forms/species and physical parameters play supporting evidence in forensic investigations. The analytical methods developed for this purposes can be used in international safeguards as well for nuclear forensics. Nuclear material seized in nuclear trafficking can be identified and a ...
National Nuclear Safety Department is authorized by Infra (Iranian Nuclear Regulatory Authority) for issuing rules and regulation and conducting the licensing and supervisory process for nuclear facilities. The main responsibilities of the NNSD are conducted via five main division are, nuclear codes and standards, Nuclear Safety assessment, Authorization, Inspection and Enforcement and Technical Support. In this paper, the functions and responsibilities of TSD in enhancing nuclear safety are described. Examples of main tasks to support the Nuclear Safety assessment division regarding to technical calculations and research of safety issues in licensing documents are provided. (author)
Techniques for studying nuclear structure are reviewed. Examples are given of charge density determinations by electron and proton inelastic scattering. (AIP)
Four topics in nuclear astrophysics, namely; pulsars, star evolution, nucleosynthesis and solar neutrinos are reviewed through the discussion of the observational data.
The measurements of the nuclear decay of actinide isotopes and the evaluation of the radioactive properties of nuclide with the mass 242 is discussed in this paper.
Since nuclear terrorism has been identified as a real threat, the Korean government has earnestly developed elementary technologies and sub-systems for establishing an integrated defensive system against nuclear terrorism, which is based on the concept of defense-in-depth. This paper introduces the gist and implications of the studies that have been conducted in building the national nuclear material tracking system for preventing and intercepting the illicit trafficking and transporting of nuclear material in Korea. (orig.)
A preliminary design for a nuclear engine is presented. The engine is based on the nuclear heating of a gas composed of H{sub 2} and {sup 242m}Am as a nuclear fuel. This engine has an initial volume of 0.135 m{sup 3} and at 64 MPa the critical mass is 0.228 kg. The simplicity {sup 242m}Am of the engine design might compensate for the use of rare nuclear fuel, such as {sup 242m}Am.
The paper is devoted to analysis of Russian nuclear education system: its current status, specific features, difficulties and prospects. Russian higher education system in nuclear engineering has been created simultaneously with the development of nuclear industry, and the system completely satisfied all industrial demands for the specialists of different qualification levels. For the past several decades, nuclear education has lost its attractiveness to young people. The paper discusses the actions to be undertaken for reversing the situation. The paper underlines particularly the special role of international collaboration and all-European integration of nuclear educational programmes for further development of nuclear education all over the world. (author)
Nuclear forensics aims at identifying origin and intended use of nuclear material using information inherent to the nuclear material.The information gathered in nuclear forensics include isotopic composition, elemental composition, impurities and age of the material, macroscopic appearance and microstructure. The information so collected helps to solve criminal cases and put the individuals involved in nuclear trafficking in jails. The information also helps to improve safeguards and physical protection measures at place of theft or diversion to prevent future thefts or diversions.
This talk reviews the history of the Canadian nuclear-electric program highlighting Canada's first nuclear power station, the Nuclear Power Demonstration or NPD. NPD was commissioned and delivered electricity to Canadian consumers for the first time on june 4, 1962. The Canadian nuclear-electric program is based on the CANDU-PHW (Canadian Deuterium Uranium - Pressurized Heavy Water) concept which was conceived between 1955 and 1958 at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory (CRNL) of AECL, located a few miles from Deep River. This talk covers the history of the Canadian nuclear-electric activities dating back to 1939.
The scope of this RA is limited to the evaluation of potential human health risks associated with a failure event of a tank containing Basin F liquid. Section 1.0 contains an introduction to the health risk assessment. Section 2.0 describes the site history, location, and land use. Section 3.0 provides a brief description of exposure pathways and potention receptors. Section 4.0 describes the sources of data used and identifies chemicals of concern. Section 5.0 discusses the toxicity of concern. Section 6.0 explains the methods used for calculation of carcinogenic risks and the noncarcinogenic hazard indexes. Section 7.0 describes uncertainties inherent in the current methodology used to determine potential human health risks. Section 8.0 presents a summary of results and conclusions. Section 9.0 includes the references cited.
We quantified the impacts of hot summer air temperatures on tourism in the Swiss Alps by analysing the relationship between temperature and overnight stays in 40 Alpine resorts. Several temperature thresholds were tested to detect the relationship between them and summer tourism. Our results reveal significant correlations between the number of nights spent in mountain resorts and hot temperatures at lower elevations. The relationship between hot temperatures and overnight stays is more important in June and to a lesser extent in August than in July. This is probably because holidays and the peak of domestic tourist demand in summer usually take place between the beginning of July and mid-August so that long-term planned stays dominate more during these months compared to June. The alpine ...
This study serves to investigate the uptake of POPs in the different trophic levels (scrapers, collectors, predators, shredders) of macroinvertebrate communities sampled from a glacial and a non-glacial stream in the Italian Alps. The presented results show that the contaminant concentrations in glacial communities are generally higher compared to those from non-glacial catchments, highlighting the importance of glaciers as temporary sinks of atmospherically transported pollutants. Moreover, the data also suggests that in mountain systems snow plays an important role in influencing macroinvertebrate contamination. The main chemical uptake process to the macroinvertebrates is considered to be bioconcentration from water, as similar contaminant profiles were observed between the different trophic levels. The role of biomagnification/bioaccumulation is thought to be absent or negligible. The enrichment of chemicals observed in the predators is likely to be related to ...
To evaluate soil erodibility under different land uses and to study the applicability of nomograph for estimation of soil erodibility a field experiment was conducted under both natural and simulated rainfall conditions under four land uses viz. barren, cultivated, grassland, and forest in the sub-mountainous tract of Punjab (India). Measured soil erodibility (K) values varied from 033 to 067 under natural rainfall conditions and from 023 to 040 under simulated rainfall conditions. Among different land uses, measured K was in the order of barren > cultivated > grassland > forest soils. The values of the K estimated by nomograph were very low as compared to the observed values. The trends were also in contrast to these observed values of K under simulated and natural rainfall conditions. To...
Abstract Four stratigraphic sections in the southern part of the Columbia Basin preserve a sequence of aeolian and non-aeolian sediments ranging in age from 943 to >470 14C ka based on accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating of fossil molluscs, geochemistry of Cascade Mountain-sourced tephra and association with formally recognized pedostratigraphic units (the Washtucna and Old Maid Coulee soils). Study sections are interpreted as representing concurrent deposition of loess and distal Missoula Flood rhythmites in valleys tributary to main drainages backflooded during the Missoula Floods, and formation of carbonate and iron-rich soils. Sediments belong to the formally recognized L-1 and L-2 loess units established for the Palouse loess, which were deposited in the Columbia Basin su...
Microreserves may be useful in protecting native arthropod diversity in urbanized landscapes. However, species that do not disperse through the urban matrix may eventually be lost from these fragments. Population extinctions may be precipitated by an increase in genetic differentiation among fragments and loss of genetic diversity within fragments, and these effects should become stronger with time. We analyzed population genetic structure in the dispersal limited Jerusalem cricket Stenopelmatus n. sp. ?santa monica?? in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills north of Los Angeles, California (CA), to determine the impacts of fragmentation over the past 70 years. MtDNA divergence was greater among urban fragments than within contiguous habitat and was positively correlated with fragment ...
In mobile animals, movement behavior can maximize fitness by optimizing access to critical resources and minimizing risk of predation. We sought to evaluate several hypotheses regarding the effects of landscape structure on American marten foraging path selection in a landscape experiencing forest perforation by patchcut logging. We hypothesized that in the uncut pre-treatment landscape marten would choose foraging paths to maximize access to cover types that support the highest density of prey. In contrast, in the post-treatment landscapes we hypothesized marten would choose paths primarily to avoid crossing openings, and that this would limit their ability to optimally select paths to maximize foraging success. Our limiting factor analysis shows that different resistant models may be sup...
This study concerns the Souss upstream basin. The objective is to investigate the characteristics of surface water and groundwater, to assess the impact of artificial recharge as reinforcement of the natural replenishment and assess the renewal of groundwater under semi-arid area. Two major water types are observed: (i) surface waters and upstream springs (least mineralized) and (ii) all groundwater samples (prevailing calcium and magnesium bicarbonate water type). Water isotopes show a low evaporation of precipitations during infiltration. Impoverishment in heavy isotopes is the characteristic of mountain rainfalls, or of a climate colder and wetter than present. Carbon-14 activities (34-94 pmc) indicate a long residence time. The artificial recharge is low compared to the reservoir volume, due to which the renewal rate is also low.
This paper summarizes the IHY and BSS activities in West Asia and their importance in many Arab countries, such as Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc. BSS future plans for some of these countries are as follows: It is proposed by the astronomers from the Arabian Gulf Region to build the Gulf Observatory on top of Jabal Shams (2980 msl) which will have a 2-3 m optical telescope. Libya signed a contract with a French company for building an observatory which will have a 2-m optical robotic telescope. It is also proposed to rebuild the Iraqi National Astronomical Observatory (INAO) which was destroyed during the two wars. It is planned to build a 5-6 m optical telescope and a small solar telescope on the top of Korek mountain, which has excellent observing conditions.
The launch of the first spaceborne hyperspectral instrument, Hyperion, in 2000 has provoked further research into its capabilities with regard to mineral exploration. Our study in the remote, mountainous region of Pulang, China employed a two-step progressive approach, first to locate target areas characterized by hydrothermal mineral alteration, using the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), and secondly, to attempt detailed mineral mapping using Hyperion. The preliminary target detection involved principal components and broad-band spectral analysis and led to the detection of two target areas characterized by argillic alteration, iron-oxide- and sulphate-bearing minerals. A focused hyperspectral study followed using Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) and Mixt...
The population of the hyporheic interstice and moss cushions by meso- and macroinvertebrates as found at the three measuring points along the Alte Riefensbeek and the Grosse Soese, respectively, in the period from March 1987 to May 1988 is studied and evaluated together with chemical measurements performed between 1987 and 1990. The six measuring points are positioned along an acidification gradient ranging from non-acid to severely acidified. Chemical and biological paramerters are studied with regard to their suitability as indicators of acidification. A model is presented which decribes the influence of abiotic anthropogenic and natural factors on invertebrate species diversity and populations and which can serve as a basis for the calculation of critical deposition burdens. (orig.).
Located in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains approximately 30 miles west of Denver, in the community of Idaho Springs, are a series of thermal springs and wells. The temperature of these waters ranges from a low of 68/sup 0/F (20/sup 0/C) to a high of 127/sup 0/F (53/sup 0/C). To define the hydrothermal conditions of the Idaho Springs region in 1980, an investigation consisting of electrical geophysical surveys, soil mercury geochemical surveys, and reconnaissance geological and hydrogeological investigations was made. Due to topographic and cultural restrictions, the investigation was limited to the immediate area surrounding the thermal springs at the Indian Springs Resort. The bedrock of the region is faulted and fractured metamorphosed Precambrian gneisses and schists, locally intruded by Tertiary age plutons and dikes. The investigation showed that the thermal waters most likely are fault controlled and the thermal area does not have a large areal extent.
Graphical Abstract A Southward view of the Dead Sea western coast. The steep western escarpment of the Dead Sea basin, composed mainly of Upper Cretaceous limestone and dolomite, can be seen on the right. Beach terraces left by the shrinking lake run parallel to the shore. The larger part of the area between the present water line and the mountains was still under Dead Sea water just 50?60?years ago. The current fall of the lake?s stand is around 1?m?year?1. Three on-shore sinkholes can be seen in the front of the photo, as well as two submerged ones near its lower left corner. These were caused by dissolution of a Holocene salt layer located tens of meters below the surface, resulting in the collapse of the overlying sediments. The retreat of the Dead Sea in recent years was followed by e...
ABSTRACT. Flight-song displays usually include distinctive vocalizations and behaviors that are probably energetically expensive and also likely to attract the attention of aerial predators. We observed flight songs performed by Dusky Flycatchers (Empidonax oberholseri) in two breeding populations. During 15 yr at Tioga Pass, California, we observed the display twice and, during 9 yr at Steamboat Mountain, British Columbia, we observed 21 flight-song displays. These displays were generally observed later in the breeding season, suggesting that they were not used for courtship, mate attraction, or territory defense. However, for 83% of these displays, a raptor was observed to be present, usually either an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) or a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). We h...
Oils, tars, and degraded oils of varying degrees of biodegradation occur in the Permian Phosphoria Formation along the eastern flank of the Wind River mountains, Wyoming, US. Biodegradation has altered the isomer distributions of steranes, the hopanes, and the mono- and triaromatised steroids in these oils. The conventional maturity parameters based on these biomarkers are of limited use in estimating their maturity. On the other hand, even in severely biodegraded oils the vanadylporphyrin distributions are unaltered. Because of this, the Porphyrin Maturity Parameter (PMP) derived from the vanadylporphyrin distribution is an ideal parameter for estimating the maturity of these oils. This study also confirms the previous observation that T[sub s] and T[sub m] are unaffected by even severe biodegradation. 14 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.
Continuing high rates of acidic deposition in the eastern United States may lead to long-term effects on stream communities, because sensitive catchments are continuing to lose anions and cations. A two-year study of the effects of pH and associated water chemistry variables on detrital processing in three streams with different bedrock geology in the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia were investigated. Leaf pack processing rates and macroinvertebrate colonization and microbial biomass (ATP concentration) on the packs in the three stream were compared. It was found that macroinvertebrate and microbial communities differed both among streams that differed in their capacity to buffer the effects of acidic precipitation and among years in the same stream; these differences in biotic communities were not large enough to affect rates of leaf processing between the two years of the study, but they did significantly affect processing rates between acidic and circumneutral streams.
Summary Analyses of event runoff coefficients provide essential insight on catchment response, particularly if a range of catchments and a range of events are compared by a single indicator. In this study we examine the effect of climate, geology, land use, flood types and initial soil moisture conditions on the distribution functions of the event runoff coefficients for a set of 14 mountainous catchments located in the eastern Italian Alps, ranging in size from 7.3 to 608.4km2. Runoff coefficients were computed from hourly precipitation, runoff data and estimates of snowmelt. A total of 535 events were analysed over the period 1989-2004. We classified each basin using a "permeability index" which was inferred from a geologic map and ranged from "low" to "high permeability". A continuous s...
The Eddy covariance technique allows to measure different components of turbulent air fluxes, including the flow of water vapour. Sap flux measurements determine directly the water flow in tree stems. We compared the water flux just above the crowns of trees in a forest by the technique of Eddy covariance and the water flux by the xylem sap flux method. These two completely different approaches showed a good qualitative correspondence. The correlation coefficient is 0.8. With an estimation of the crown diameter of the measured tree we also find a very good quantitative agreement. (author) 3 figs., 5 refs.
Abstract Question: How do the diversity, size structure, and spatial pattern of woody species in a temperate (Mediterranean climate) forest compare to temperate and tropical forests? Location: Mixed evergreen coastal forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA. Methods: We mapped, tagged, identified, and measured all woody stems (?1 cm diameter) in a 6-ha forest plot, following Center for Tropical Forest Science protocols. We compared patterns to those found in 14 tropical and 12 temperate forest plots. Results: The forest is dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and three species of Fagaceae (Quercus agrifolia, Q. parvula var. shrevei, and Lithocarpus densiflorus), and includes 31 woody species and 8180 individuals. Much of the diversity was in small-diameter shrubs,...
Summary Exposures to natural and simulated altitudes are combined with a reduction of the available oxygen (hypoxia) and may provoke health problems or even emergencies. Although millions of people are living at high altitudes, are regularly or occasionally performing mountain sport activities, are transported by airplanes, and are increasingly frequently exposed to hypoxia at their workplace, e.g. with fire control systems, there is no consensus about the level of hypoxia which is well tolerated by most of human beings. Thus, the present mini review tries to define such a level. This review indicates that although humans show adaptive responses even to altitudes below 2000 m or corresponding normobaric hypoxia (FiO2: >16%) most of these subjects without severe pre-existing diseases well t...
Seven villages in southeastern Kenya surround Mt. Kasigau and depend on the mountain's cloud forest for their water supply. Five of these villages have regularly experienced water shortages, and all village water supplies were contaminated with Escherichia coli bacteria. There is a need to economically find new sources of fresh ground water. Remote sensing offers a relatively quick and cost-effective way of identifying areas with high potential for ground water development. This study used spectral properties of features on Landsat remote sensing imagery to map linear features, soil types, surface moisture, and vegetation. Linear features represented geologic or geomorphologic features indicating either shallow ground water or areas of increased subsurface hydraulic conductivity. Regarding...
The United States Government (USG) first developed nuclear forensics-related capabilities to analyze radiological and nuclear materials, including underground nuclear test debris and interdicted materials. Nuclear forensics is not a new mission for Department of Defense (DoD). The department's existing nuclear forensics capability is the result of programs that span six (6) decades and includes activities to assess foreign nuclear weapons testing activities, monitor and verify nuclear arms control treaties, and to support intelligence and law enforcement activities. Today, nuclear forensics must support not only weapons programs and nuclear smuggling incidents, but also the scientific analysis and subsequent attribution of terrorists' use of radiological or nuclear ...
The utilization of electrically heated rods for the simulation of nuclear fuel rods represents an universally adopted method by the nuclear industry to study thermalhydraulic problems. The present work represents the development of a method to obtain the time variation of the electric linear power necessary to simulate a given nuclear power transient in order to yield the same temperature and heat flux conditions in the surface of the electrical heater that would be obtained by the nuclear fuel rod. (Author).
The report is an overview on the production of the nuclear energy all over the world. The amount of production at present and in future, availability of the nuclear fuel, development of nuclear technology, environmental and safety issues, radioactive waste management and commissioning of the plants and also the competitivity of nuclear energy compared with other energy forms are considered. (91 refs.).
The results of the six meetings in the years 1976 through 1981 of the Panel on Reference Nuclear Data is reviewed, as well as the results of other studies and workshops. A brief review of how current programs are meeting the expressed nuclear data needs of professional groups is also presented. The types of data included in the review are reaction cross sections, isotopic abundances, atomic masses, nuclear structure, radioactive decay, and fission.
The general requirements applicable to the quality assurance of the Finnish nuclear power plants are presented in the Council of State Decision (395/91) and in the guide YVL 1.4. This guide specifies the quality assurance requirements to be applied during the operation of the nuclear power plants as well as of the other nuclear facilities. Quality assurance applies to all the activities and organizations with a bearing on the safe operation of the nuclear power plants. (5 refs.).
The use of nuclear reactors to provide electrical energy has shown considerable growth since the first nuclear plant started commercial operation in the mid 1950s. Although the main purpose of this paper is to review the fuel cycle capabilities in the United States, the introduction is a brief review of the types of nuclear reactors in use and the world-wide nuclear capacity.
The uncertainties of growth in Croatian future energy, particularly electricity demand, together with growing environmental considerations and protection constraints, are such that Croatia needs to have flexibility to respond by having the option of expanding the nuclear sector. The paper deals with nuclear energy as an option for croatian sustainable economic development. The conclusion is that there is a necessity for extended use of nuclear energy in Croatia because most certainly nuclear energy can provide energy necessary to sustain progress. (author).
The storage and chemical properties of the forest litter in dark coniferous forest of Sejila Mountain were studied. The results showed that the existing storage was 5.863 t.hm-2 and the annual litter fall was 0.3205 t.hm-2. It implied that the forest litter decomposed slowly and accumulated quickly, and the turnover of nutrient circles was slow. The contents of N, Ca, Na, and Mn nutrient elements in litter layer were in the order of un-decomposed layer (U layer) > semi-decomposed layer (S layer) > decomposed layer (D layer), those of K, Fe, and Mg were in the order of D layer > S layer > U layer, and P element content was in the order of U layer > D layer > S layer. The pool of elements was 78.483 kg.hm-2 N, 3.843 kg.hm-2 P, 48.205 kg.hm-2 K, 23.115 kg.hm-2 Ca, 13.157 kg.hm-2 Na, 30.554 kg.hm-2 Fe, 2.113 kg.hm-2 Mn and 27.513 kg.hm-2 Mg. The turnover of forest litter was the total of nutrient release accumulation. K, Fe, and Mg were enriched, and ...
This presentation described the geology of the Kootenay, Gething, Gates, Brazeau and Coalspur Formations in the potential gas-bearing coal zones of the Alberta Foothills/Mountains. The future potential of this region for coalbed methane (CBM) exploitation was discussed, based on available data from drilling activity and the results of a recent coal desorption and adsorption study in the Val d'Or seam of the Coalspur formation. The gas content of the 5 coal zones was evaluated and compared with previous CBM exploration in the area. For evaluation purposes, the coal zones were divided into shallow and deep coal zones. The potential gas content of the shallow coal zones is approximately 31 Tcf of CBM. This is considered an inferred, initial, in-place, CBM resource estimate based on limited data. The gas content of deep zones is approximately 99 Tcf of in-place CBM gas. As such, the total ultimate CBM resource is estimated at 130 Tcf. Although these coal zones ...
The Pequop Mountains (PM), Wood Hills (WH) and East Humboldt Range (EHR), NE Nevada, provide evidence that the hinterland of the Sevier thrust belt experienced large-magnitude Mesozoic shortening ([>=]55 km) and crustal thickening ([>=] 30 km). These ranges expose a structurally continuous crustal cross section of unmetamorphosed to high pressure upper amphibolite facies Triassic to Precambrian miogeoclinal strata. This sequence lies structurally beneath unmetamorphosed extensional klippen that omit metamorphic grade and crustal section, but also repeat stratigraphic units. Because they repeat stratigraphic units, the underlying miogeoclinal section, or footwall, must have once lain beneath a thrust fault (herein named the Windermere thrust). The footwall of the Windermere thrust was exhumed by two generations of top-to-the-W-NW low-angle normal faults that are distinguished by whether they are depositionally overlapped by Eocene volcanic rocks or if they cut ...
Temperature data to depths of a few hundred meters were obtained from 29 wells in northeastern Arizona; 12 in the region surrounding the San Francisco Volcanic Field, 8 in the Black Mesa area, and 9 in the south-central Colorado Plateau which includes the White Mountains. Although there was evidence for local hydrologic disturbances in many temperature profiles, most wells provided an estimate of the conductive thermal gradient at the site. A few thermal conductivities were measured and were combined with published regional averages for the north-central part of the Colorado Plateau to produce crude estimates of regional heat flux. None of the wells was accessible below the regional aquifers. To these depths, heat flow in the area of the San Francisco Volcanic Field appears to be controlled primarily by regional lateral water movement having a significant downward vertical component of velocity. The mean heat flow of 27 +- 5 mWm/sup -2/ is only a third to a quarter ...
Coal is present in the Alberta Foothills/Mountains in five zones: the Kootenay, Gething, Gates, Brazeau and Coalspur coal zones. For coalbed-methane (CBM) evaluation purposes, they can be divided into shallow (less than 1000 m depth) and deep (greater than 1000 m depth) coal zones. The potential gas content of all shallow coal zones totals about 878x10{sup 9} m{sup 3} (31 Tcf) of CBM, which is considered an inferred, initial, in-place, coalbed-methane resource estimate based on limited data. The limited amount of data on formation testing and measured gas content indicate that the inferred resource is bordering on the speculative category. The gas content of all deep coal zones (deeper than 1000 m) totals 2.8x10{sup 12} m{sup 3} (about 99 Tcf) of in-place coalbed-methane gas. Consequently, the total ultimate coalbed-methane resource could be 3.7x10{sup 12} m{sup 3} (130 Tcf). However, coalbed-methane recovery from deep coals is generally not attempted because of ...
This report describes the geology of the following 5 Alberta Foothills/Mountains coal zones: the Kootenay, Gething, Gates, Brazeau and Coalspur coal zones. The coal areas were assessed for gas content and compared with previous coalbed methane (CBM) exploration in the area. The coal zones can be divided into shallow (less than 1000 m depth) and deep (greater than 1000 m depth) coal zones for evaluation purposes. The potential gas content of the shallow coal zones is approximately 31 Tcf of CBM. This is considered an inferred, initial, in-place, CBM resource estimate based on limited data. The gas content of deep zones is approximately 99 Tcf of in-place CBM gas. Therefore, the total ultimate CBM resource is estimated at 130 Tcf. CBM recovery is not usually attempted due to high drilling costs and low permeability. The only CBM production from the Foothills has been from the southern Alberta Kootenay coal zone, and this was limited. The shallow Gates coal zone is ...
The authors describe parts of three third-order depositional sequences and their associated system tracts within seismic-scale outcrops of the Lower-Middle Guadalupian Northwestern shelf-to-Delaware basin transition. These sequences are well exposed along a 20-km dip-oriented transect in the western Guadalupe Mountains, Texas and New Mexico. Systems tracts are defined on the basis of lithofacies distribution, stratal geometry, and bounding (stratal termination) surfaces. These Lower-Middle Guadalupian sequences record (1) carbonate platform retrogradation, basin margin erosion, and sediment starvation followed by platform aggradation and progradation (lower San Andres Formation-Cutoff Formation; transgressive and highstand systems tracts), (2) major basin infill by terrigenous clastics bypassed over the underlying lower San Andres highstand carbonate bank and development of a shelf-margin-restricted carbonate bank and coeval base-of-slope apron (Brushy Canyon ...
Precambrian gneisses in the San Bernardino Mountains were first identified and described in the vicinity of Baldwin Lake by Guillou (1953). Five lithologic units mappable at 1:24,000 scale are recognized: biotite [+-] muscovite quartzofeldspathic gneiss, amphibolite, pyroxene metagabbro, augen gneiss, and biotite [+-] muscovite granitic gneiss. Baldwin gneiss with this L Baldwin Lake, the gneissic fabric is rotated toward the northwest, subparallel to the Doble fault. Along this fault, Baldwin gneiss is structurally underlain by overturned Paleozoic quartzite and marble (Zabriskie Quartzite and Carrara Formation). Regional relations suggest that the Doble fault is a northeast-directed basement thrust fault of pre-Late Cretaceous age, and may be contemporaneous with late Paleozoic deformation and metamorphism of Paleozoic rocks further west in the range. Field relations suggest that Baldwin gneiss in its type area largely retains Proterozoic fabrics and mineral ...
Rock fracture characterization documents a total of 1496 fractures in unit 2 of the Tshirege Member of the Bandelier Tuff along 6013 feet of Los Alamos Canyon`s north wall adjacent to Operational Unit 1098. Geologically termed joints, these fractures likely owe their primary origin to brittle failure during the cooling contraction of the tuff after its emplacement nearly 1 million years ago. Subsequent tectonic movement along the Pajarito Fault system has modified fracture strikes, dips, apertures, and linear density. From a background linear density of approximately 20 fractures per 100-foot interval along the canyon wall, fracture density increases to values in excess of 50 fractures per 100-foot interval in a zone at and immediately east of the Omega West reactor building TA-2-1. This increase in fracture density is coincident with the mapped trace of the Guaje Mountain Fault (GMFZ) that apparently bifurcates with a branch running through the canyon at Building ...
Canadian oilfields are a prime breeding ground for talent, technology and industrial management. This paper described how Canadian talent was recognized in 2001 for three major projects which included a cold-ocean production platform in the Sea of Okhotsk in Siberia, a mountain pipeline project in South America, and an in-situ underground extraction technology in the oilsands of Alberta. The cold-ocean production platform project was recruited by Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., an international consortium originally led by Marathon Oil Co which is now led by Royal Dutch Shell. The oil production platform is stationed 16 kilometres offshore of Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. Sakhalin Energy bought and converted the Molikpaq, an innovative platform made in the 1980s for the Beaufort Sea by Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. The second project included Calgary's Hydroconsult EN3 Services Ltd. which was responsible for the construction of the 940-km GasAtacama ...
The coal rank, coal distribution, and coalbed methane of four major coal zones in the Hinton and Grande Cache areas of Alberta were investigated. Coal rank in the study area ranges from subbituminous and high volatile C bituminous at surface for the Upper Cretaceous/Tertiary coal measures and semianthracite for the Lower Cretaceous Luscar Group in the Alberta Syncline. In the Rocky Mountain Foothills, maximum cumulative coal thicknesses occur in the Smoky River, Cadomin-Luscar, and Coal Valley coalfields. Cumulative coal thicknesses generally decrease east of the deformed belt; however, coal isopach maps indicate local cumulative coal thicknesses in excess of 25 m. A regional coalbed methane assessment for strata east of the deformed belt shows favorable coalbed methane adsorption capacities in Luscar Group coals. These coals occur, however, at depth levels [gt]2500 m. In contrast, Brazeau and Coalspur Formation coals occur at favorable depth levels ([lt] 1100 m) ...
A large portion of terrestrial carbon (C) resides in soil organic carbon (SOC). The dynamics of this large reservoir depend on many factors, including climate. Measurements of {sup 13}C:{sup 12}C ratios, C concentrations, and C:N ratios at six forest sites in the Southern Appalachian Mountains (USA) were used to explore several hypotheses concerning the relative importance of factors that control soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and SOC turnover. Mean {delta}{sup 13}C values increased with soil depth and decreasing C concentrations along a continuum from fresh litter inputs to more decomposed soil constituents. Data from the six forest sites, in combination with data from a literature review, indicate that the extent of change in {delta}{sup 13}C values from forest litter inputs to mineral soil (20 cm deep) is significantly associated with mean annual temperature. The findings support a conceptual model of vertical changes in forest soil {delta}{sup 13}C ...
Timing and geometry of Maastrichtian third-order sequences and systems tracts of south-central Wyoming were mostly controlled by rapid basin subsidence resulting from thrust loading of foreland basin crust. The basement of the Red Desert/Washakie basin was affected by thrusting in the Sevier belt to the west and by thrusting along the edge of the Wind River Mountains and Granite Mountains. A transgressive systems tract consists of the youngest Ericson Formation above a regional unconformity, backstepping Almond Formation nearshore and nonmarine facies, and shelfal mudstones of the lower Lewis Shale. Regionally, the onset of transgression is younger from east to west, beginning at 71.5 Ma in eastern Wyoming and at 70.5-71 Ma in south-central Wyoming. The transgression culminated in a condensed shale section evident on gamma-ray logs that occurs throughout the basin. Above the gamma-ray zone, the highstand systems tract of the middle and upper ...
A review of recent work in nuclear physics is presented. The paper gives a broad discussion of research goals in nuclear structure, quark-gluon degrees of freedom, quark-gluon plasma, symmetries, and rare decays. (DWL)
Second Regional Meeting for Nuclear Energy in Central Europe is an annual meeting of the Nuclear Society of Slovenia. The proceedings contains 75 articles from Slovenia, surrounding countries and countries of the Central and Eastern European Region
The article gives a brief description of the state of the nuclear power engineering in Ukraine and in the world as of today. There are basic organizational and practical actions on scientific and technical maintenance of the Ukraine nuclear power complex presented in the article.
This chapter provides an overview of the problem of response to a nuclear weapon accident, the fundamentals of response to an accident, and a summary of the NARP Manual. The manual provides a summary of procedural guidance, technical information, and DoD responsibilities, to assist DoD forces in preparing a response to a nuclear weapon accident.
The scope of our problems with nuclear waste management is outlined. Present and future inventories of nuclear wastes are assessed for risk. A discussion of what is presently being done to solve waste management problems and what might be done in the future are presented. (DC)
The number of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) in individual nuclei of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was determined by computer-aided reconstruction of entire nuclei from electron...Full Text Available
Evaluated nuclear structure and decay data for all nuclei within the A = 203 mass chain are presented. This work supersedes the earlier evaluation by S. Rab (1993Ra11), published in Nuclear Data Sheets 70, 173 (1993).
Discusses the resolution of the 2. Congress of the Polish Nuclear Society on the energy situation in Poland and recommendations for energy policy. Recommendations for use of nuclear power plants in Poland are made considering environmental pollution from coal combustion (air pollution by sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide as well as water pollution by salt from mine water discharged to rivers), development of the Polish economy, forecast increase in energy consumption and the role of nuclear energy in other European countries. Research on nuclear power plants, safety and environmental aspects as well as comparative efficiency of coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants is evaluated.
The author discusses in detail the following topics: Compensation for domestic nuclear damage and for transfrontier nuclear damage - rule of formal equality of parties which belongs to the basic rule of civil law considering the position of domestic and foreign victims of a grave accident-juridical consequences of the preponderant role played by the state in the promotion, development and supervision of the nuclear industry-rationale for applying the concept of global limitation of liability in the law on nuclear liability and compensation - financial consequences of uncompensated nuclear damage, borne by the victims directly affected or spread over the whole community of the affected state? (HP)
According to China's 'Medium- and Long-term Nuclear Power Development Program (2005-2020)', nuclear energy development in China will take the technical line of closed nuclear fuel cycle. This paper discusses the significance of closed nuclear fuel cycle, and briefly introduces development trends in the world. This article also discusses the opportunity to construct spent fuel reprocessing plant; equilibrium of plutonium production and consumption; adaptability and economics to use MOX fuel in the thermal neutron reactor. Some suggestions are put forward to the overall development of nuclear energy in China. (authors)
The German National Group of the International Nuclear Law Association, AIDN/INLA, held its 10{sup th} regional conference in Celle on September 2 and 3, 2004. The event was attended by approx. 120 participants from twenty countries discussing 'the Internationalization of Nuclear Law'. Four sessions were devoted to in-depth studies of these topics: - Legal problems associated with the management of radioactive waste. - Regional nuclear safety vs. global nuclear safety. Do the Europeans need a supplementary EU regime of nuclear safety? - Liability and insurance in cases of nuclear damage. - Topical issues of German nuclear law. (orig.)
Effective integration of nonproliferation management into the design process is key to the broad deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems, and is an explicit goal of the Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The nuclear explosives utility of a nuclear material to a state (proliferator) or sub-state (terrorist) is a critical factor to be assessed and is one aspect of material attractiveness. In this work, we approached nuclear explosives utility through the calculation of a ''figure of merit'' (FOM) that has recently been developed to capture the relative viability and difficulty of constructing nuclear explosives starting from various nuclear material forms and compositions. We discuss the integration of the figure of merit into an asse...
This issue is the collection of the papers on progress of researches by common utilization of JAERI nuclear facilities. The 43 of the papers are indexed individually. (J.P.N.)
Nuclear power has been considered for space applications since the 1960s. Between 1955 and 1972 the US built and tested over twenty nuclear reactors/ rocket-engines in the Rover/NERVA programs. However, changes in environmental laws may make the redevelopment of the nuclear rocket more difficult. Recent advances in fuel fabrication and testing options indicate that a nuclear rocket with a fuel form significantly different from NERVA may be needed to ensure public support. The Center for Space Nuclear Research (CSNR) is pursuing development of tungsten based fuels for use in a NTR, for a surface power reactor, and to encapsulate radioisotope power sources. The CSNR Summer Fellows program has investigated the feasibility of several missions enabled by the NTR. The potential mission benefits of a nuclear rocket, historical achievements of the previous programs, and ...
This paper reviews the historical aspects of nuclear physics. The scientific aspects of the early transuranium elements are discussed and arms control measures are reviewed. 11 refs., 14 figs. (LSP)
Development of Scientific Foundations of the Technology of the Metal Matrix Packing of Leaky Unreprocessible Spent Nuclear Fuel of Different Purpose Reactors for a Long-term Environmentally Safe Storage.
This report discusses: shape coexistence in {sup 184}Pt; nuclear structure of {sup 187}Ir; g-factors of excited states; OLNO-2; and refrigerator development.
This report discusses: shape coexistence in "1"8"4Pt; nuclear structure of "1"8"7Ir; g-factors of excited states; OLNO-2; and refrigerator development.
The A-dependence of the nuclear structure functions is described rather well within the framework of the quark-parton-flucton model of nucleus. 16 refs. (author).
The available nuclear structure information for all nuclei with mass number A=242 is presented. Various decay and reaction data are evaluated. Adopted data, levels, spin and parity assignments are given.
U.S. nuclear policy has become the target of increasing criticism during the past decade. Critics often argue that the use of nuclear weapons would be irrational, would destroy humankind, and thus could not serve any rational policy goal. Other critics point to the immortality of the use of nuclear weapons. Both groups condemn U.S. military policy. In Nuclear War, James Child considers and rejects both these lines of criticism. He argues that a policy of deterrence can be both rational and moral; that U.S. nuclear policy is, on balance, based on rational and moral foundations. Child examines near-term consequences of a nuclear war and finds them ghastly but not unthinkable or incomparable to the havoc produced by previous wars. He also analyzes long-term consequences, such as those proposed by the ''nuclear ...
Interactions (FCCI) University of Wisconsin, Madison Thermal Properties of LiCl-KCl Molten Salt for Nuclear Waste Separation University of Wisconsin, Madison Next Generation...
This book discusses the procedures applied for the clinical nuclear medicine laboratory. The procedures are presented as proven guidelines. The chapters are included on quality assurance, radionuclide handling, and radiation safety.
The interpretation of data from the nuclear forensic analysis of illicit nuclear material of unknown origin requires comparative data from samples of known origin. One way to provide such comparative data is to create a system of national nuclear forensics libraries, in which each participating country stores information about nuclear or other radioactive material that either resides in or was manufactured by that country. Such national libraries could provide an authoritative record of the material located in or produced by a particular country, and thus forms an essential prerequisite for a government to investigate illicit uses of nuclear or other radioactive material within its borders. We describe the concept of the national nuclear forensic library, recommendations for content and structure, and suggested querying methods for utilizing the information for ...
The International Symposium on Nuclear Security took place within a context of international acknowledgement that the threat of nuclear terrorism required dedicated action by the international community, States, industry and others. The Symposium dealt with those issues involved in protecting nuclear and other radioactive material from criminals. It also took place against a backdrop of renewed interest in nuclear technology: increased use of nuclear power, and increased use of radioactive isotopes in medicine and in industry. These are welcome developments, since nuclear energy and technology can indeed contribute to the technological and economic welfare of many countries, without compromising public health or the environment. In this context, security measures should not impede State programmes for peaceful use of nuclear technology. The ...
Nuclear knowledge is the basis for almost all nuclear activities, and education and training are the most fundamental means to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next. Understanding means and trends in knowledge transfer through education and training thus deserves a closer examination. In the past years, a number of trends and questions in nuclear knowledge, education and training have emerged. With declining student enrolment numbers and a general stagnation of the use of nuclear power in some of the IAEA's Member States, the issue of a slow erosion of the knowledge base and the possibility of loosing knowledge has become increasingly important, in particular if seen against the background of a possible renaissance of nuclear power in the future. In other Member States, an expansion of nuclear power is expected, with a corresponding need for human ...
In Daya Bay and Ling'ao Nuclear Power Station, the Microgovernor has the control functions such as synchronization, block loading etc. The control principle of the Microgovernor is right described by sequence diagram for the first time. That the fault occurred in the synchronization process of Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station unit 1 is also analyzed and illustrated. (author)
Stretch-Out and Extended Low Power Operation is two particular operating modes applied for nuclear electricity generation. The relevant safety analysis and the impacts on plant operation are well illustrated, as well as some operation experiences earned in Daya Bay nuclear power station. The safety analysis and plant practice show that Stretch-Out operation and Extended Low Power Operation are operable in Daya Bay nuclear power station
In Hungary, legislation for nuclear power plants was developed at the end of the 1970s, among which is the quality assurance code for nuclear power plants. Hungarian practice is presented, including discussion of the requirements for quality assurance, qualification of the suppliers and inspection practices. The general requirements of quality assurance in the course of construction of a nuclear power plant are presented: quality assurance of technological equipment, fuel, electrical equipment, automatic instrumentations, building structures and technology.
This conference brought together those persons in the nuclear industry who have a vital interest in the training and licensing of nuclear reactor and nuclear fuel processing plant operators, senior operators, and support personnel for the purpose of an exchange of ideas and information related to the various aspects of training, retraining, examination, and licensing. The document contains 64 papers; each paper was abstracted for the data.
Peak at 60 deg in angular proton distribution in inelastic pion-carbon interactions is interpreted as generation of Cherenkov gluon radiation in flucton, passing into the shock wave with successive nucleus decay. Investigation of hadron-nuclear interactions with anomalous peak in angular proton distribution can be used as additional means for study both of flucton and mechanism of hadron-nuclear interactions. 5 refs.
Metastable nuclear isomers are central to the study of nuclear structure and their energy storage capability has suggested a variety of applications. The feasibility of applications depends sensitively on the efficiency of any process that can deplete an isomer upon demand. This work surveys how State-of-the-art in nuclear level and transition data impacts the search for induced energy release from isomers using recent advances in experimental techniques.
As part of a handbook on the efficient use of energy a chapter is included which is intended to give an appreciation of the principles and problems involved in the generation of nuclear power. The subject is discussed under the following headings: introductory nuclear physics; basic reactor physics; thermal reactors; fast reactors; fuel reserves and utilization; environmental considerations; nuclear fusion. (U.K.).
Over the past several years, the Livermore Forensic Science Center has conducted analyses of nuclear-related samples in conjunction with domestic and international criminal investigations. Law enforcement officials have sought conventional and nuclear-forensic analyses of questioned specimens that have typically consisted of miscellaneous metal species or actinide salts. The investigated activities have included nuclear smuggling and the proliferation of alleged fissionable materials, nonradioactive hoaxes such as 'Red Mercury', and the interdiction of illegal laboratories engaged in methamphetamine synthesis. (author)
Evaluated spectroscopic data for all nuclei with mass number A = 216 are presented together with the relevant level schemes from radioactive decay and nuclear reaction studies. The experimental data are evaluated, inconsistencies and discrepancies are noted, and adopted values for level and #gamma#-ray energies, #gamma# intensities, as well as for other nuclear properties are given. The present evaluation supersedes the earlier one on A = 216 by A. Artna-Cohen (1997Ar04), published in Nuclear Data Sheets 80, 157 (1997).
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT), which was opened for signature in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions in all environments. Republic of Korea has been working to monitor compliance with CTBT by deterring and detecting any nuclear explosions conducted anywhere on Earth. For the verification of CTBT, several techniques are implemented. Radionuclide monitoring is of particular importance since it is the only method which can provide absolute assurance that a nuclear detonation has occurred
Features of deep inelastic nuclear reactions proceeding on dense fluctuations of nuclear matter (fluctons) are briefly considered. Fluctons, which can be many-quark bags or drops of quark-gluon plasma, are studied. Their properties are discussed, viz., characteristic parameters of nuclear matter inside a flucton - temperature and density close to the critical values for a phase transition. These values can be reached or exceeded if the flucton-flucton collision events are separated. The separation method is discussed
The possibility of having properly designed multinational fuel cycle agreements which would contribute to public acceptance of nuclear energy are explored. The advantages of existing international cooperation in the field of uranium enrichment and nuclear waste disposal and reprocessing are discussed. The possible forms of multinational co-operation under an international organisation, committed the non-proliferation and operating under international law and covering storage facilities, security of raw materials and the nuclear fuel cycle are summarised in model form. (U.K.).
The in-core reload design procedure, computer codes, design contents and comparison between expected design values and measured values for Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station are presented. The in-core reload design for Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station performed by Nuclear Power Institute of China satisfies the requirements of safety and economy. The expected design values are fit well with measured values
Separate entries were made in the data base for 17 of the 19 papers included. Two papers were previously included in the data base. Workshop reports are included on (1) nuclear level density theories and nuclear model reaction cross-section calculations and (2) extraction of nuclear level density information from experimental data.
Separate entries were made in the data base for 17 of the 19 papers included. Two papers were previously included in the data base. Workshop reports are included on (1) nuclear level density theories and nuclear model reaction cross-section calculations and (2) extraction of nuclear level density information from experimental data. (WHK)
IAEA Plans of activities include, General Conference in September 2001 which reviewed activities relevant to preventing nuclear terrorism and proposed master plan. The Board of Governors approved new Nuclear Security Plan for the next four years. Three activity areas are; - needs assessment, analysis and coordination, prevention and detection and response.
Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station is the largest joint-venture project which is also the largest commercial nuclear power plant currently under construction in China mainland. Organized and executed strictly in accordance with international standards, the Daya Bay project is seen as the first step taken by China in the development programme of large-capacity commercial nuclear power units.
The 1993-1995 period represents a time of significant transition for workers engages in nuclear-related activities. Total nuclear-related employment fell markedly from about 300,000 workers in 1993 to 265, 000 in 1995, a 12% decline. This is the lowest level since the 1970s. In 1995, a third of all nuclear-related employment was in the reactor operation and maintenance segment. 6 figs, 1 table.
Nuclear forensics is a relatively new scientific branch whose aim it is to read out material inherent information from nuclear material. On the basis of material taken in safe-keeping in Germany, the procedure is illustrated and the limits and possibilities of nuclear forensics are shown, in particular the statements that can be made concerning the material, and the relation of the material with respect to a certain location of origin or manufacturing process. (orig.)
This report describes the results made in fulfillment of contract DE-FG26-02NT15451, ''Multicomponent Seismic Analysis and Calibration to Improve Recovery from Algal Mounds: Application to the Roadrunner/Towaoc Area of the Paradox Basin, Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, Colorado''. Optimizing development of highly heterogeneous reservoirs where porosity and permeability vary in unpredictable ways due to facies variations can be challenging. An important example of this is in the algal mounds of the Lower and Upper Ismay reservoirs of the Paradox Basin in Utah and Colorado. It is nearly impossible to develop a forward predictive model to delineate regions of better reservoir development, and so enhanced recovery processes must be selected and designed based upon data that can quantitatively or qualitatively distinguish regions of good or bad reservoir permeability and porosity between existing well control. Recent advances in seismic ...
The major contents in this study are as follows : - long-term forecast to the year of 2040 is provided for nuclear electricity generating capacity by means of logistic curve fitting method. - the role of nuclear power in a national economy is analyzed in terms of environmental regulation. To do so, energy-economy linked model is developed. By using this model, the benefits from the introduction of nuclear power in Korea are estimated. Study on inter-industry economic activity for nuclear industry is carried out by means of an input-output analysis. Nuclear industry is examined in terms of inducement effect of production, of value-added, and of import. - economic analysis of nuclear power generation is performed especially taking into consideration wide variations of foreign currency exchange rate. The result is expressed in levelized generating costs. (author). ...
The Decree specifies basic quality assurance requirements applicable to machines, their parts and materials, civil engineering structures, means for automated control of technological processes including hardware and software, and electricity supply systems related to nuclear safety of nuclear facilities, and stipulates binding procedures for the implementation of technical and organizational provisions associated with the quality of selected equipment to ensure nuclear safety of nuclear facilities. Safety classes are defined for selected equipment. Requirements laid on safety assurance documentation are specified, and requirements placed on safety assurance programmes, their preparation, finalization and approval are defined. Quality assurance requirements are also specified with respect to the designing, manufacture, construction, operation, repair, modification and decommissioning of ...
The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Nuclear Submarine Decommissioning and Related Problems was held in Moscow June 19--22, 1995. It was preceded by a visit to the Zvezdotchka Shipyard at Severodvinsk, a repair and maintenance yard for Russian nuclear submarines, for a subgroup of the workshop attendees. Most of the material in this paper is drawn directly form the workshop proceedings. Slightly less than 500 nuclear ships and submarines (the vast majority are submarines) have been constructed by the countries with nuclear navies. This includes approximately 250 by Russia, 195 by the United States, 23 by the United Kingdom, 11 by France and 6 by China. By the year 2000 it is expected that approximately one-half of these nuclear vessels will be removed from service and in various states of decommissioning. A newspaper account in June 1997 indicated that 156 Russian ...
The Nuclear Smuggling International Technical Working Group (ITWG) is an international group of nuclear forensic experts that cooperate to deter the illicit trafficking of nuclear materials. The objective of the ITWG is to provide a common approach and effective technical solutions to governments who request assistance in nuclear forensics. The ITWG was chartered in 1996 and since that time more than 28 nations and organizations have participated in 9 international meetings and 2 analytical round-robin trials. Soon after its founding the ITWG adopted a general framework to guide nuclear forensics investigations that includes recommendations for nuclear crime scene security and analysis, the best application of radioanalytical methods, the conduct of traditional forensic analysis of contaminated materials, and effective data analysis to interpret the history of ...
Fusion energy has been studied in many countries such as U.S., France, Japan, Korea etc. Because it would provide much more energy for a given weight of fuel than any technology currently in use, and the fuel itself (primarily deuterium) exists abundantly in the Earth's ocean. Nuclear fusion reactor uses tritium and deuterium as fuel while nuclear fission reactor uses uranium and plutonium as fuel. Besides, inherent design characteristics and driving condition of nuclear fusion reactor is different from those of nuclear fission reactor. Therefore, we cannot apply the regulation rules of nuclear fission reactor to nuclear fusion reactor without change and thus it is needed to development of the safety regulation concept which reflects the characteristics of nuclear fusion reactor. Safety regulation of nuclear fusion ...
Project management mode plays a key role in project construction, especially in nuclear power field. From the aspects of right, responsibility and benefit, this paper discussed the differences among the common used project management modes. Also the main kinds of the construction management modes used in China's nuclear power plants were summarized. At last, considering the experience of Ningde nuclear power plant, this paper put forward several perspectives about the selection of project management mode in nuclear power plant construction. (authors)
This paper describes the phenomenology of nuclear explosions and technologies for their detection as relevant to On-Site Inspection (OSI) for a comprehensive test-ban (CTB). Our experience with the US nuclear test program which has been primarily carried out at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and in the Pacific Ocean. The goals of OSI are to resolve ambiguous events, reduce uncertainty, deter attempts at evasion, and provide responsive and technically competent means of confirming the occurrence of a nuclear explosion should deterrence fail. These goals would include finding evidence of an evasive nuclear explosion or evidence that the event was non-nuclear, such as an earthquake or large chemical explosion.
The report presents a summary of the work of the Department of Nuclear Safety Research and Nuclear Facilities in 1995. The department`s research and development activities are organized in three research programmes: Radiation Protection, Reactor Safety, and Radioanalytical Chemistry. The nuclear facilities operated by the department include the Research Reactor DR3, the Isotope Laboratory, the Waste Treatment Plant, and the Educational Reactor DR1. Lists of staff and publications are included together with a summary of the staff`s participation in national and international committees. (au) 5 tabs., 21 ills.
Early in the Cold War, the United States adopted a policy of ''extended nuclear deterrence'' to protect its allies by threatening a nuclear strike against any state that attacks these allies. This threat can (in principle) be used to try to deter an enemy attack using conventional weapons or one using nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The credibility of a nuclear threat has long been subject to debate and is dependent on many complex geopolitical factors, not the least of which is the military capabilities of the opposing sides. The ending of the Cold War has led to a significant decrease in the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by the United States and Russia. START II, which was recently ratified by the Russian Duma, will (if implemented) reduce the number deployed strategic nuclear weapons on each side to ...
There is a renewed interest in straight wing vertical axis wind turbines (SW-VAWT) which are usually installed on the roofs of high buildings in cities, urban areas and high mountain areas for independent electric power supply. SW-VAWTs have the advantages of simple design and low cost, as well as wind direction independence compared to the horizontal system. However, when SW-VAWTs are installed in cold regions, ice, snow and other attachments can affect its performance. In this study, clay was attached to the leading edge of the blade surface to determine how the performance of SW-VAWTs are affected by the mechanism of icing. Wind tunnel tests were used to study the rotational performance and power performance of the turbine blades. Icing prevention was also investigated. The attachment of clay on the leading edge of blade surface made the rotational performance of the SW-VAWT worse. The attachment of clay on the leading edge of blade surface also made the output ...
Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake with a focus in the Akashi straits has given huge earthquake damages in and around Awaji Island and Kobe City in 1995. It is clear that the basement structure, which is steeply deepened at Kobe City from Rokko Mountains towards the coast, and the focus under this related closely to the local generation of strong ground motion. Generation process of the strong ground motion was discussed using 2D and 3D numerical simulation methods. The 3D pseudospectral method was used for the calculation. Space of 51.2km{times}25.6km{times}25.6km was selected for the calculation. This space was discretized with the lattice interval of 200m. Consequently, it was found that the basement structure with a steeply deepened basement, soft and weak geological structure thickly deposited on the basement, and earthquake faults running under the boundary of base rock and sediments related greatly to the generation of strong ground motion. Numerical simulation can ...
The general responses proposed to reduce CO{sub 2} emissions to the atmosphere are conservation, improved efficiency and fuel substitution. These are valid options but other alternatives such as CO{sub 2} capture and disposal may be more attractive for specific areas. There are good reasons why the capture and disposal option fits the situation in Western Canada. The first and obvious reason is the importance of hydrocarbon energy to the regional economy. Here the economy is based on the production, utilization and sale of hydrocarbons such as coal, oil and natural gas and we intend to stay in business. Besides meeting the Canadian demand, natural gas from Alberta is used in the US as far away as Boston and Los Angeles. Canadian heavy crude oil serves much of the American Midwest and coal from the Canadian Rocky Mountains is exported to Japan. Although many may consider these hydrocarbon reserves and fossil fuel production as part of the greenhouse gas problem, ...
The trace element selenium (Se) is required in the production of enzymes that protect mammalian cells from oxidative damage due to the byproducts of aerobic respiration. Its deficiency in livestock results in the nutritional muscular dystrophy called white muscle disease. This especially affects juveniles in the preweaning period. Symptoms have also been reported in wild herbivores on low-Se forage, and their appearance may be episodic, suggesting temporal variations in Se uptake by plants. Here, we report variations in selenium concentrations in Carex spp. sedges used as forage by bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) on summer range in the Wyoming, Wind River Mountains, and correlate those variations with soil conditions that affect the bioavailability of selenium. Variations in available Se are explained based upon the known oxidation/reduction chemistry of the element. It is concluded that water-saturated, alpine soils provide conditions suitable for the reduction of ...
A seismic line was acquired by ARCO Exploration Company in 1977 in southern Freemont County and extends northeast from the deepest part of the Green River basin across the Wind River thrust onto crystalline basement rocks of the Wind River Mountains. A COCORP line across the area has been discussed previously, but the ARCO line shows more detailed information beneath the thrust. The seismic line is significant because it shows a strong reflection at the base of the Precambrian granite, which overlies a sedimentary rocks of the northern Green River basin. It also illustrates an apparent anticline beneath the thrust fault which is the result of lateral velocity variation caused by a shallow wedge of low-velocity Miocene sediments superimposed on a velocity pull-up related to the high-velocity Precambrian granite. The effects of the velocity variations can be analyzed by ray tracing and by studying the near offset and far offset stacks of the seismic data. A ...
At the 1996 Conference in North Carolina, The Green Institute began to share its story. Their presentation this year will cover where they are in the design process and their plans for using solar and wind technologies in the development of an Eco-Industrial Park and Business Incubator. Located in a Federal Enterprise Community in Minneapolis, this project borrows sustainable and green building principles using the Rocky Mountain Institute and Solar Living Center as models. Using a change in the paradigm regarding how industry does business, The Green Institute is joining with developments across the country that are putting together Eco-Industrial Parks which use closed loop production systems to reduce waste and emissions generated from manufacturing processes. Using renewable energy, both solar and wind, presents challenges both in the integration of systems on this small site and the educational opportunities with a large potential audience outside the ...
The Underground Hydroelectric Pumped Storage (UHPS) Program Plan describes in detail the planned activities and expected accomplishments in the conduct of UHPS technology development and validation envisioned in the 1976 to 1990 time frame. This document describes the program objectives, implementation strategy, and management methodology. The concept of underground hydroelectric pumped storage is fully directed to application in the electric utility industry. This technology involves using electrical energy generated by base-load plants during off-peak load periods to drive a high-head pump/turbine which pumps water from a lower reservoir to a substantially elevated (upper) reservoir corresponding to a head of 1000 m or so. The upper reservoir is at ground level and the lower reservoir is below ground. Then, during peak-load periods, water in the upper reservoir is allowed to flow to the lower reservoir which, in turn, drives a hydraulic turbine for power generation. Intermediate ...
The Lander Quadrangle, Wyoming, was evaluated to a depth of 1500 m to identify environments and delineate areas that exhibit characteristics favorable for the the occurrence of uranium deposits. The evaluation used criteria established for the National Uranium Resources Evaluation program. The methods of surface investigations included evaluation of aerial radiometric and hydrogeochemical stream-sediment reconnaissance data, verification of some reported uranium occurrences, and general field geology with rock, water, and sediment sampling. The subsurface evaluation was accomplished through the use of 230 various oil-well logs. The results of this investigation identified three environments favorable for sandstone uranium deposits in Eocene fluvial sediments. These environments are within the Battle Spring and upper Fort Union Formations of the northern Great Divide Basin and within the Wind River and the Wagon Bed Formations of the southwest Wind River Basin. Eight other formations ...
The Lander Quadrangle, Wyoming, was evaluated to a depth of 1500 m to identify environments and delineate areas that exhibit characteristics favorable for the the occurrence of uranium deposits. The evaluation used criteria established for the National Uranium Resources Evaluation program. The methods of surface investigations included evaluation of aerial radiometric and hydrogeochemical stream-sediment reconnaissance data, verification of some reported uranium occurrences, and general field geology with rock, water, and sediment sampling. The subsurface evaluation was accomplished through the use of 230 various oil-well logs. The results of this investigation identified three environments favorable for sandstone uranium deposits in Eocene fluvial sediments. These environments are within the Battle Spring and upper Fort Union Formations of the northern Great Divide Basin and within the Wind River and the Wagon Bed Formations of the southwest Wind River Basin. Eight other formations ...
The EUROTRAC sub-project ''Tropospheric Ozone Research'' (TOR) follows a dual strategy: - Observation of the chemical processes contributing to the oxygen balance directly in the atmosphere; - Establishment of a validated data base for model calculations. Both tasks require simultaneous measurements of a wide range of chemical and meteorological components. In the case of the investigation of the chemical processes, it is also desirable to measure the free radicals directly involved in ozone production. In the project described, a measuring station was set up. For a period of two years and a half, continuous measurements were made of ozone and its chemical precursors (NO, NO_2, NO_y, VOC, CO), as well as other photooxidants (H_2O_2 and organic hydroperoxides, organic nitrates), the photolysis frequency of NO_2, and meteorological parameters (wind, temperature, moisture, aerosols). The station was located on the Schauinsland mountain in the southern Black Forest, at ...
A methodology for assessing the lightning performance of Hellenic high voltage transmission lines has been developed. Its main advantage is that the analysed transmission line is divided into regions and the analysis is conducted separately for each one region, taking into account the individual characteristics, which exist in each one of them. The developed approach intends to offer more accuracy in the assessment of lightning performance of Hellenic high voltage transmission lines and of similar lines, where they run at the same time through a plain region, a coastline and/or a mountainous region. The aims of the paper are to describe in detail the proposed methodology and to present results obtained by its application on operating Hellenic transmission lines of 150 and 400 kV. The computed results are compared with the results produced by another software tool published in the technical literature and with the real records of outage rate showing a good ...
Green Lake Landslide is an ancient giant rock slide in gneiss and granodiorite located in the deeply glaciated Fiordland region of New Zealand. The landslide covers an area of 45km2 and has a volume of about 27km3. It is believed to be New Zealands largest landslide, and possibly the largest landslide of its type on Earth. It is one of 39 known very large (106-107 m3) and giant (?108m3) postglacial landslides in Fiordland discussed in the paper. Green Lake Landslide resulted in the collapse of a 9km segment of the southern Hunter Mountains. Slide debris moved up to 2.5km laterally and 700m vertically, and formed a landslide dam about 800m high, impounding a lake about 11km long that was eventually infilled with sediments. Geomorphic evidence supported by radiocarbon dating indicates tha...
A triangle zone, which commonly occurs along the external margin of a foreland thrust and fold belt with a buried thrust front, is underlain by a subhorizontal, blind, foreland-verging thrust that ends against a foreland-dipping, hinterland-verging thrust. These contemporaneous thrusts, active towards the end of orogenesis, enclose an intercutaneous wedge that moved towards the foreland. During orogenesis, a triangle zone evolves through periodic replacement of faults bounding the active wedge. Replacements occur in cycles during each of which a lower fault tends to be replaced by one in a lower stratigraphic horizon, an upper fault by one farther away from the foreland. Each cycle ends with the lower fault moving to a younger horizon where it joins a new, more external upper fault. Near Coalspur, the triangle zone exposes the remnants of several wedges involving Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene molasse. Most of these wedges developed during the last cycle but one and have a combined ...
Results related to the experimental measurement campaign to characterize atmospheric aerosol carried out near Avigliana (Turin) from 18 to 22 October 1994 are presented in this paper. In the frame of the project aimed at evaluating the impact of the mountain motor way A-32 Rivoli-Bardonecchia-Frejus on the Susa Valley environment and on man the present measurement campaign is the second, and last, one envisaged in the project. The sampling place is in the initial part of the Susa Valley while previous measurements were carried out in the high part of it. Mass mean concentrations result greater in the low than in the high part of the valley approximately by a factor of 3. It is not possible to prove a difference between the 3 sampling positions transversely placed from 20 to 80 m. in comparison with the motor way axis. Whereas mass mean concentrations dropped substantially due to atmospheric precipitations during the last two measurement day. Aerosol granulometry in ...
Architecture of hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoirs of the Paleocene Fort Union Formation in the Wind River basin, Wyoming, was studied using lithofacies, grain size, bounding surfaces, sedimentary structures, internal organization, and geometry. Two principal groups of reservoirs, both erosionally based and fining upward, consist of either conglomeratic sandstone or sandstone lithofacies. Two types of architecture were recognized in conglomeratic sandstone reservoirs: (1) heterogeneous, multistacked, lenticular and (2) homogeneous, multiscoured, wedge-sheet bodies. Three types of architecture were recognized in sandstone reservoirs: (3) heterogeneous, multistacked, elongate; (4) homogeneous, multilateral, lenticular; and (5) homogeneous, ribbon-lensoid bodies. Conglomeratic sandstone reservoirs in the southern and southwestern parts of the basin suggest deposition in gravel-bedload fluvial systems influenced by provenance uplift of the Granite and southern Wind River ...
In this paper we present a novel approach to personal photo album management allowing the end user to efficiently access the collection without any need for tedious manual annotation or indexing of the photos. The proposed work exploits methods and technology from the field of computer vision and pattern recognition for face detection, face representation and image annotation to automatically create description of images useful for content-based searching and retrieval. In fact, even if most of the used techniques are not reliable enough to address the general problem of content-based image retrieval, we show that, in a limited domain such as the one of personal photo album, it is possible to obtain results that improve the browsing capabilities of current photo album management systems. In particular, starting from the observation that most personal photos depict a usually small number of people in a relatively small number of different context (indoor, outdoor, beach, ...
Full text: In Hungary, the main goal is that the Hungarian regulations should meet with the EU Directive No. 96/29. For this aim, a surveying project has been launched in order to collect all relevant information about the Hungarian TENORM situation. This surveying programme covers a lot of data collection (work activities, disposal places, residue quantities) and radiological measurements on the TENORM site. The Hungarian situation of TENORM definitely differs from other countries in the aspect of occurrence forms of natural sources (or in the imported raw materials), in the quantities of exploitation, in the level of the radioactivity and in the applied technological processes. Firstly, those work activities have been choosen where the huge amount of residues have been produced. The other criteria is that the activity concentration in a great portion of the given residues is much higher than the average activity concentration of the typical Hungarian soil. After filtering and ...
Radioactive waste is generally classified on the basis of how much radiation and the type of radiation it emits as well as the length of time over which it will continue to emit radiation. Many activities dealing with radioactive materials produce nuclear wastes, including civilian nuclear power programs (nuclear Power plant operations and nuclear fuel-cycle activities), defense nuclear programs (nuclear weapons production, naval nuclear reactor programs, and related R and D), and industrial and institutional activities (scientific research, medical operations, and other industrial uses of Radioisotopic sources or Radio chemicals). To minimize the potential adverse health and environment impacts to people and other systems including of animals, plant and etc, during the entire lifetime of the radionuclides involved, ...
For satisfaction of international growing demand for electrical energy it is impossible to ignore contribution of nuclear power. With an expected lifespan for nuclear plants estimated to 50-60 years of operation (years for decommissioning added), there is a need for a steady multi-generational stream of competent staff to ensure safe operations of nuclear plants. It is incumbent to governments to invest in education, research, and training for the three to five generations of people who will construct, operate and eventually decommission nuclear plants over the duration of their life cycle. To develop sustained nuclear programs it is necessary to carry out a lot of major problems, but three of them look like as most important: 1. Training a qualified and competent personal to ensure all nuclear activities; 2. Multilateral approach for ...
In Romania, the nuclear power is an element of sustainable development, being competitive, efficient and viable in the market economy. Fuel supply is ensured as nuclear fuel is manufactured in the country out of local uranium resources available in Romania. As for the environmental protection, it is known that, unlike the thermal power plants, the nuclear power plants do not release sulfur and nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and do not generate slag and ashes. The operation of nuclear power units does not release pollutants and, accordingly, these stations can contribute to the limitation and the abatement of environmental pollution. After seven years of Cernavoda NPP Unit 1 operation, a facility for storing low and medium level nuclear fuel wastes was built at the plant site as well as an intermediate dry storage for spent nuclear fuel whose first modules were ...
The purpose of this research is to clarify how psychological factor's impact on public acceptance of nuclear energy varies with people's degree of knowledge. For this purpose, we carried out questionnaire survey about nuclear energy at Suginami ward, Tokyo. After collecting data, we applied factor analysis to the data, and found 4 factors: Trust in the Authorities, Superiority of Nuclear Power Generation, Benefit for Nuclear Power Plants' Siting Areas, and Risk Perception about Nuclear Technology. In addition, using multiple regression analysis, we evaluated the impact of the 4 factors on 2 issues: the decision for or against nuclear policy and the reaction to nuclear power plant siting. Consequently, we found the change of impact of all 4 factors on the 2 issues. Especially, the impact of the 4 factors to the ...
The purpose of this research is to clarify how psychological factor's impact on public acceptance of nuclear energy varies with people's degree of knowledge. For this purpose, we carried out questionnaire survey about nuclear energy at Suginami ward, Tokyo. After collecting data, we applied factor analysis to the data, and found 4 factors: Trust in the Authorities, Superiority of Nuclear Power Generation, Benefit for Nuclear Power Plants' Siting Areas, and Risk Perception about Nuclear Technology. In addition, using multiple regression analysis, we evaluated the impact of the 4 factors on 2 issues: the decision for or against nuclear policy and the reaction to nuclear power plant siting. Consequently, we found the change of impact of all 4 factors on the 2 issues. Especially, the impact of the 4 factors to the reaction to ...
Standardization enhances: international cooperation; development of new nuclear techniques and technologies; characterization and checking procedures of equipment; sharing a common terminology. A historical sketch is given focussing: inception of standardization in electro-techniques at international scale; organization of the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC; - current aspects of nuclear equipment standardization; activity of seven working groups devoted to nuclear reactor equipment; activity of seven groups working on radioprotection equipment; activity of four groups working on nuclear equipment. ISO organization and present issues concerning the nuclear technology development in Romania. It is presented the activity in the frame of CENELEC, CLC/TC45, for endorsing the IEC/TC45B standards. In 2007 a CENELEC/ BTT 127-1 working commission was formed to enhance ...
On 24th of July 2007 Westinghouse Electric Co. signed landmark contracts with China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC), to provide four AP1000 nuclear power plants in China. The AP1000 is a two-loop 1117 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). It is based on proven technology, but with an emphasis on safety features that rely on natural driving forces, such as pressurized gas, gravity flow, natural circulation flow and convection. Ansaldo Nucleare has provided a significant support to the passive plant technology development and, starting from 2000, is cooperating with Westinghouse to development of the AP1000 Plant. In the frame of the AP1000 Chinese agreement, Ansaldo Nucleare, in Joint Venture with Mangiarotti Nuclear, has signed a contract with Westinghouse for the design and the supply of innovative components to be installed in the first AP1000 unit to be ...
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), recently announced by DOE Secretary Bodman, poses significant new challenges with regard to securing, safeguarding, monitoring and tracking nuclear materials. In order to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation, new technologies must be developed to reduce the risk that nuclear material can be diverted from its intended use. Regardless of the specific nature of the fuel cycle, nuclear forensics and attribution will play key roles to ensure the effectiveness of nonproliferation controls and to deter the likelihood of illicit activities. As the leader of the DHS nuclear and radiological pre-detonation attribution program, LLNL is uniquely positioned to play a national leadership role in this effort. Ensuring that individuals or organizations engaged in illicit trafficking are rapidly identified and apprehended ...
The author considers the possibility that Japanese nuclear armament might be a realistic political option. Firstly introducing various issues on Japanese nuclear armament existing since long time ago, he classifies them according to the view point from internal and international problems. Internally, the armament is not possible at present on the ground of the nation's non-nuclear policy but it might be conditionally a choice in such case as the reliability of US nuclear deterrence declines or possibility of nuclear attack to Japan actually may be predicted. The armament may be possible technically and legally based on the consensus of the people. Various concerns by neighboring countries are discussed. Finally, the author stresses the importance of continuing to consolidate bilateral relationship with US, to deploy missile defensive system and to make every effort in the diplomatic ...
Safety related equipment installed in Korean Nuclear Power Plants are required to perform a safety function during and after a seismic event. To accomplish this safety function, they must be seismically qualified in accordance with the intent and requirements of the USNRC Reg. Guide 1.100 Rev. 02 and IEEE Std. 344-1987. This paper defines and summarizes acceptable criteria and procedures, based on the Korean experience, for seismic qualification of purchased equipment to be installed in a nuclear power plant. As such the paper is intended to be a concise reference by equipment designers, architectural engineering company and plant owners in uniform implementation of commitments to nuclear regulatory agencies such as the USNRC or Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) relating to adequacy of seismic Category 1 equipment. Thus, the paper provides the methodologies which can be used for qualifying ...
Increasing threat by terrorists for a possible nuclear attack is particularly alarming in recent years. The likelihood of such an event is highly uncertain but cannot be ruled out. The consequence of such an event would be highly disastrous and the implications could be far-reaching both socially and politically. It is feared that significant amount of nuclear weapons materials may be kept under poor security. Therefore, there is a greater demand with utmost priority to curb nuclear terrorism by adapting proper security measures. One of the most important measures is to stop illicit trafficking of nuclear materials which are the source of building nuclear explosive devices. According to the IAEA illicit trafficking database (ITDB) report, a total number of 252 incidents were reported in 2006, of which 150 occurred in 2006 and the remaining 102 had taken place prior to that year, ...
Since the beginning of the 1990s when the first seizures of nuclear material were reported, the IAEA has recorded over 200 cases of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials. Despite the decreasing frequency of nuclear material seizures, particularly the ones involving weapons-grade material, the issue continues to attract public attention and is a reason for concern due to the hazard associated with such materials. Once illicitly trafficked nuclear material has been intercepted, the questions of its intended use and origin are to be addressed. Especially the origin is of prime importance in order to close the gaps and improve the physical protection at the sites where the theft or diversion occurred. To answer these questions, a dedicated nuclear forensics methodology has been developed. In this paper an overview is given on the methodologies used, on the past and on-going ...
The US Plowshare program, designed to develop peaceful uses of nuclear explosives, was vigorous between 1957-73 and was of concern during US and USSR nuclear treaty negotiations within that period. In order to accommodate possible future applications, the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty was signed in 1976. The US program explored the phenomenology of nuclear explosions and tested their use in industrial applications. Due to waning industrial interest and public concern over environmental issues, the US program was terminated in 1977. The Soviet counterpart to the Plowshare program, which has involved more than 100 experiments throughout the USSR, continued until the self-imposed moratorium in 1985. As any peaceful use of nuclear explosives has the potential of furthering weapons research, the US takes the position that all such experiments would have to be banned in a ...
The US Plowshare programme, designed to develop peaceful uses of nuclear explosives, was vigorous between 1957 to 1973 and was of concern during US and USSR nuclear treaty negotiations within that period. In order to accommodate possible future applications, the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (PNE) Treaty was signed in 1976. The US programme explored the phenomenology of nuclear explosions and tested their use in industrial applications. Due to waning industrial interest and public concern over environmental issues, the US program was terminated in 1977. The Soviet counterpart to the Plowshare programme, which has involved roughly 100 experiments throughout the USSR, continued until the self-imposed moratorium in 1985. As any peaceful use of nuclear explosives has the potential of furthering weapons research, the US takes the position that all such experiments would have to be banned ...
The discovery of atomic nucleus by E. Rutherford, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was the Nuclear Physics original landmark. From then, a series of experiments in which beams of particles composed of neutrons, protons and others, brought to collide with a nucleus in order to unravel its structure or produce artificial elements through nuclear transmutation, were triggered. With the development of experimental equipment, a number of other nuclear phenomena have been observed, such as beta decay, nuclear fission and fusion, M\\"oesbauer effect, etc. In view of the global political and economic landscape and the contemporary educational trends, this work suggest alternative topics in nuclear physics that can be discussed at the conceptual level in high school teaching, where the main focus lies in the historical and technological importance of such phenomena in society.
The demand of nuclear energy is sharply increasing to solve the energy and environment problems all over the world. The interest and support on the field of nuclear energy in Korea are enlarging as the acceptance of ordering nuclear power plant of UAE. The attention of safeguards is needed to maintain peaceful use of nuclear material and the nuclear nonproliferation as the increasing demand of nuclear energy. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) invests more in research and development to achieve the effective and efficient implementation of safeguards. Research and development (R and D) in safeguards approaches, procedures and techniques is essential to meeting the safeguards challenges of the future. The IAEA has conducted the R and D program through member state support program (MSSP) since 1977. The objective of this paper is to introduce the MSSP ...
Nuclear energy generates 30% of the electricity in the EU. Still, different countries of EU27 have very different attitudes towards the future use of nuclear energy for electricity generation or other uses. However, independently of the political decision of continuation or phase out of the nuclear energy, all countries using nuclear energy to generate electricity are facing the question of the final management of its spent nuclear fuel and other high level radioactive wastes. Partition and Transmutation are emerging technologies that when integrated in advanced fuel cycles can strongly influence on the final wastes from the nuclear industry and its management. A review of the progress on the understanding of their real potentialities and main conclusions from a large number of internation...
Internationally, on-line maintenance (OLM) of nuclear power plants under the operation is prevailed to enhance nuclear safety and economics. In recent years, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. Ltd. (KHNP) is eager to apply OLM. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) has established the related technology development program as an item of 'Overall Planning on Nuclear Safety(2010-2014)' through acceptance to the request of KHNP in 2009. OLM is defined as maintenance that is performed with the main generator connected to the grid. In other words, it means a preventive maintenance to be implemented during the allowable outage time (AOT) with ignoring inoperability of safety-related equipment listed in the technical specifications. The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) is developing the assessment technology of safety concerns for OLM under the auspices of MEST. Draft ...
The paper describes novel analytical methods developed for the detection of previous neutron irradiation and reprocessing of illicit nuclear materials, which is an important characteristic of nuclear materials of unknown origin in nuclear forensics. Alpha spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma sector-field mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS) using solution nebulization and direct, quasi-non-destructive laser ablation as sample introduction were applied for the measurement of trace-level "2"3"2U, "2"3"6U and plutonium isotopes deriving from previous neutron irradiation of uranium-containing nuclear materials. The measured radionuclides and isotope ratios give important information on the raw material used for fuel production and enable confirm the supposed provenance of illicit nuclear material.
Nuclear and other radioactive materials may get smuggled into the country aimed at malicious acts. Radioactive material detected accidentally or during inspection at the entry points/national borders may indicate illicit trafficking for the purpose of nuclear/radiological terrorism. As country requires prevention and preparedness for response to these malicious acts, nuclear forensic techniques are to be developed incorporating radiological safety aspects. Nuclear forensics helps in determining the origin, intended use, legal owner and the smuggled route etc. by using fingerprinting as well as comparison with reference data. The suggested sequence of methods for analysis of radioactive material/samples will be radiological assessment, physical characterization, traditional forensic analysis, isotope analysis along with elemental/chemical analysis
Nuclear forensic science has become increasingly important for global nuclear security. However, many current laboratory analysis techniques are based on methods developed without the imperative for timely analysis that underlies the post-detonation forensics mission requirements. Current analysis of actinides, fission products, and fuel-specific materials requires time-consuming chemical separation coupled with nuclear counting or mass spectrometry. High-temperature gas-phase separations have been used in the past for the rapid separation of newly created elements/isotopes and as a basis for chemical classification of that element. We are assessing the utility of this method for rapid separation in the gas-phase to accelerate the separations of radioisotopes germane to post-detonation nuclear forensic investigations. The existing state of the art for thermo chromatographic separations, and its ...
The 5-th International conference 'Nuclear and Radiation Physics' was held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) 26-29 September 2005. Besides basic problems of nuclear and solid state physics the conference paid considerable attention to applied topics important for industry and science in Kazakhstan; they include fuel and construction materials for nuclear power production, new technologies and materials for their production, materials for hydrogen power production, handling and utilization of radioactive waste, analytical methods for combating with illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials, technologies for reduction and assessment of environmental risk from radiation-hazardous materials and sites, production and application of isotopes, application of nuclear technologies in medicine and industry. On the conference more than 300 papers were presented by participants from 20 ...
The SIEN 2009 symposium organized by Romanian Nuclear Energy Association, AREN, in co-operation with Romanian Atomic Forum, ROMATOM, was primarily targeting the expert community involved in developing new nuclear power projects and implementing the National Nuclear Program. The symposium was also open as a discussion and information forum for scientists, engineers, technicians and students interested in scientific and technologic topics of Nuclear Power. It was structured in the following 6 sections: - Nuclear new builds and developments; - Operation, inspection and maintenance; - Increasing nuclear safety features; - Fuel cycle and decommissioning; - Public perception and confidence strengthening; - Environmental management. The symposium began with three plenary lectures dealing with: - Sustainable Nuclear Energy European Technology ...
The DOE-Utility Nuclear Power Engineering Education Matching Grant Program has been established to support the education of students in Nuclear Engineering Programs to maintain a knowledgeable workforce in the United States in order to keep nuclear power as a viable component in a mix of energy sources for the country. The involvement of the utility industry ensures that this grant program satisfies the needs and requirements of local nuclear energy producers and at the same time establishes a strong linkage between education and day-to-day nuclear power generation. As of 1997, seventeen pairs of university-utility partners existed. UMCP was never a member of that group of universities, but applied for the first time with a proposal to Baltimore Gas and Electric Company in January 1999 [1]. This proposal was generously granted by BG&E [2,3] in the form of a gift in the ...
Intended to be used in conjunction with ANSI N45.2 and addresses the quality assurance requirements related to subsurface investigations performed prior to the construction of safety related structures of nuclear power plants.
Requirements for the installation, inspection, and testing that assure the quality of important components of a nuclear power plant during construction are presented.
It is shown that the available data on x, Q"2, and A dependence of nuclear structure functions and for their ratios (EMS effect) can be described in terms of the flucton model with rescaling of parton distributions in nuclei. The x, Q"2 and A dependence of nuclear structure functions in the cumulative range (x >1) is predicted.
The International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) was launched in the year 2000, based on a resolution by the IAEA General Conference (GC(44)/RES/21). INPRO intends to help to ensure that nuclear energy is available in the 21st century in a sustainable manner, and seeks to bring together all interested Member States, both technology holders and technology users, to consider, jointly, actions to achieve desired innovations. INPRO is taking care of the specific needs of developing countries. This IAEA publication is part of Phase 1 of INPRO. It intends to provide an overview on history, present situation and future perspectives of nuclear fuel cycle technologies. While this overview focuses on technical issues, nevertheless, the aspects of economics, environment, and safety and proliferation resistance are important background issues for this study. After a brief description about the INPRO ...
For the interests of national security, many scientists who work in the field of nuclear forensic analysis have carried out extensive work in the past on the detection of radioactive material and attributions study, developed a series of scientific and technical means to trace and detect illicit circulation of nuclear materials used to weapons and other radioactive materials which impair public security. All these questions relate to physical, chemical, biological attribution of materials. The nuclear forensic analysis has already become a special, up-to-date sphere of learning. The goal of the study of nuclear forensics is to prevent terrorists from acquiring not only nuclear weapons but also mate- rials that can be used to make such weapons, including radioactive materials for nuclear power plants, and medical radioisotope to and provide us as many clues of ...
This report discusses the following topics: Fusion-fission in light nuclear systems; High-resolution Q-value measurement for the {sup 24}Mg+{sup 24}Mg reaction; Heavy-ion reactions and limits to fusion; and Hybrid MWPC-Bragg curve detector development.
This guide describes an acceptable method of complying with the Commission's regulations with regard to the quality assurance requirements for the packaging, shipping, receiving, storage, and handling of items for water-cooled nuclear power plants.
The installation procedure, the fabrication, fitting up, positioning, adjustment and welding of piping, examinations, hydrostatics testing and insulation of piping for reactor primary circuit piping of Daya Bay Nuclear power Plant are briefly described.
This report discusses: shape coexistence in {sup 184}Pt; nuclear structure of {sup 187}Ir; g-factors of excited states; OLNO-2; and refrigerator development.
Menin, which is encoded by the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) gene, is a tumor suppressor and transcriptional regulator. Menin controls proliferation and apoptosis of cells, especially pancreatic...Full Text Available
We summarize some initial results in our investigation of the nuclear physics issues of gamma-ray lasers. We describe what is known thus far from existing experimental data and illustrate how theoretical models may be employed for systematic searches of candidate nuclei.
We summarize some initial results in our investigation of the nuclear physics issues of gamma-ray lasers. We describe what is known thus far from existing experimental data and illustrate how theoretical models may be employed for systematic searches of candidate nuclei.
This article presents an overview of the IAEA's technical co-operation activities in the field of nuclear raw materials, particularly looking at recent developments and trends influencing future directions
Experimental results of nuclear reaction and radiative decay for A = 203 nuclides are evaluated. Adopted properties for all the nine isobars, Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi, Po, At, Rn, Fr of mass 203 are presented. Nothing is yet known for [sup 203]Os. 96 refs.
Experimental results of nuclear reaction and radiative decay for A = 203 nuclides are evaluated. Adopted properties for all the nine isobars, Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi, Po, At, Rn, Fr of mass 203 are presented. Nothing is yet known for "2"0"3Os. 96 refs.
Nuclear structure information available to May 1979 has been reviewed. The level properties obtained from decay and reaction experiments are shown in the drawings. Experimental methods, references, and comments are given in the text.
Detailed level and decay schemes and the experimental reaction and decay data on which they are based are presented for nuclei with mass number A = 242; the experimental data are evaluated. Adopted values for level and ..gamma..-ray energies, ..gamma..-intensities, as well as other nuclear properties are given.
Detailed level and decay schemes and the experimental reaction and decay data on which they are based are presented for nuclei with mass number A = 242; the experimental data are evaluated. Adopted values for level and #gamma#-ray energies, #gamma#-intensities, as well as other nuclear properties are given.
We have constructed models for the vertical structure of disks around a black hole of 10/sup 6/ M/sub sun/ at distances from it smaller than the tidal breakup radius. These disks are massive enough that nuclear burning occurs in their central layers.
Noncoding RNAs play important roles in various aspects of gene regulation. We have identified 7SK RNA to be enriched in nuclear speckles or interchromatin granule clusters (IGCs), a subnuclear domain...Full Text Available
The 1976 version of Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 99 (76Bu07) has been revised. Detailed level and decay schemes, arguments for J..pi.. assignments, and experimental data are presented. copyright 1988 Academic Press, Inc.
The 1976 version of Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 99 (76Bu07) has been revised. Detailed level and decay schemes, arguments for J#pi# assignments, and experimental data are presented. copyright 1988 Academic Press, Inc.
The evaluators present in this publication spectroscopic data and level schemes from radioactive decay and nuclear reactions studies for all isobars with mass number A = 66. The first level- scheme of "6"6As, from (HI,xn#gamma#), has been included in this evaluation.
Aims: To study the expression of nuclear β catenin in patients with colorectal cancer, colorectal adenoma, and colorectal polyps to elucidate its role in carcinogenesis, and its...Full Text Available
The measured result of charged multiplicity in cosmic-ray proton induced nuclear reaction from Chinese satellite emulsion is reported. The correlation of shower and heavy particles is discussed and compared with p-emulsion interactions.
Progress is reported in fabrication and coating activities being conducted for the weapons program, nuclear test program, nuclear design program, magnetic fusion program, and miscellaneous applications. (DLC)
Throughout most of the 1980s, both private organizations and government agencies were concerned about the availability of an adequate supply of qualified nuclear engineers. This concern was primarily the result of a number of nuclear engineering academic programs being eliminated coupled with a continuous decline in graduate and undergraduate enrollments and degrees. By the early 1990s, the number of degrees and available supply had declined to new lows, but cutbacks in funding for the nuclear weapons program and nuclear energy R&D, and in hiring by the electric utility industry, offset in large measure the declining supply. Recently, concerns about environment and waste management and about nuclear safety have again generated questions about the adequacy of supply of qualified personnel for nuclear energy activities. This report briefly examines the ...
KOREA-JAPAN NUCLEAR WEAPON FREE ZONE (KJNWFZ) CONCEPT PAPER ...A Korea-Japan2 Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (hereafter KJNWFZ) is a new concept.Once realized, ...Finally, we outline the key elements of the Korea-Japan NWFZ proposed in this paper, noting
A detailed molecular characterization of nuclear mRNA export will require an in vitro system, allowing a biochemical reconstitution of transport. To this end, an mRNA export assay has...Full Text Available
Reporting of the first nuclear trafficking incidents began in the early 1990's. The incidents were handled on a national level, using the resources and expertise available in the respective states. However, it soon became evident that fighting this illicit movement of nuclear material across borders would require international cooperation and a systematic and methodological approach. To this end, the G-8 states encouraged the creation of a dedicated group of experts. The Nuclear Smuggling International Technical Working Group (ITWG) was created in the mid 1990's under the auspices of the G-8, following the 1995 Ottawa summit and the 1996 nuclear security summit held in Moscow. The group reports regularly to the Nuclear Safety and Security Group (NSSG) of the G-8. The ITWG has been working towards a sustainable mechanism to help resolve the international problem surrounding combating ...
This standard provides the general requirements used in the design, construction, testing, and commissioning of concrete containment structures for CANDU nuclear power plants designated as class containment and is directed to the owners, designers, manufacturers, fabricators, and constructors of the concrete components and parts.
Antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) are found in a variety of collagen vascular diseases. Determining the individual specificities of these antibodies is extremely useful in establishing...Full Text Available
This report contains the study on the dynamic characteristics of Wolsung fuel rod and on the dynamic balancing of rotating machinery to evaluate the performance of nuclear reactor components. The study on the dynamic characteristics of Wolsung fuel rod wa...
Nuclear Fuel Plant (FCN) is a facility that produces fuel bundles of CANDU-6 type for the CANDU nuclear power plant. Only natural and depleted uranium in bulk and itemized form are present as nuclear materials in this facility. Uranium and wastes from the plant are handled, processed, treated and stored throughout the entire facility. The nuclear materials with natural and depleted uranium are entirely under nuclear safeguards. The amount of uranium present in the plant in different forms and activities together with zircaloy, beryllium and other hazardous substances, wastes, explosive materials at high temperatures, etc. lead to special measures undertaken by Nuclear Safety Department (DNS) to ensure nuclear safety. Different aspects of safety are continuously monitored in the plant: operational safety, industrial safety, radiological ...
The development of structural barriers for nuclear waste packages involves selection of candidate materials, their screening by mechanical and corrosion testing, rigorous accelerated testing, and evaluation and comparison with other package elements. This document presents results from work conducted on titanium and ferrous alloys.
The applicability of two nuclear analytical methods: radionuclide X-ray fluorescence analysis and radiometric titrations based on precipitate formations was studied in order to determine the heptacaine hydrochloride in solutions. The applied methods were evaluated based on the obtained sensitivity values.
The applicability of two nuclear analytical methods: radionuclide X-ray fluorescence analysis and radiometric titrations based on precipitate formations was studied in order to determine the heptacaine hydrochloride in solutions. The applied methods were evaluated based on the obtained sensitivity values. (author).
ObjectiveThe present study was undertaken to analyze the impact of epigenetic alterations with a main focus on nuclear area, aneuploidy, hyperploidy, and proliferation...Full Text Available
Nuclear transfer (NT) is a procedure by which genetically identical individuals can be created. The technology of pig somatic NT, including in vitro maturation of oocytes, isolation and treatment of...Full Text Available
Several investigations suggested abnormalities in circadian rhythms are related to the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, including drug addiction. Recently, orphan nuclear receptor rev-erb alpha...Full Text Available
A technique of low-field pulsed proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin relaxation is described for assessment of age-related structural changes (dentin and pulp) of human teeth in...Full Text Available
In nuclear fuel with a burn-up of 33 kg/t U and 52 kg/t U 15 transuranium nuclides /sup 237/Np to /sup 246/Cm have been determined by alpha and gamma spectroscopy after radiochemical separation.
After that power fluctuations had occurred at Borssele nuclear power station it was decided to install a power system stabilizer. This stabilizer shall reduce the unwanted power fluctuations. The preliminary research and the results of measurements carried out during commissioning are described. (J.C.R.)
The Wolsung-type nuclear fuel localization project carried out since 1981 finally reached to a full-fledged phase in 1987. We successfully produced and timely delivered a yearly demand of nuclear fuel for Wolsung unit 1. In this report we studied and summ...
The chapter presents the nuclear energy development in 20th century and the most important radiation accidents happened from the point of view of technological risk and high impact consequences: Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.
A nuclear battery based on the direct energy conversion of the fission products is presented. Such energy conversion is possible by using a nuclear reactor with ultra-thin fuel elements of 0.2 {mu}m of {sup 242m}Am. The amount of nuclear fuel is 376 g and the dimensions of the battery are 2.4x2.4x2.4 m{sup 3} (including the vacuum spacing), with a BeO moderator and Be electrodes. The total power of the reactor is 10.6 MW and the electrical power is 0.652 MW.
A development history and current status evaluation are presented for nuclear-thermal rocket propulsion systems applicable to interplanetary flight. While the most advanced current chemical rocket engines, such as the SSMEs of the Space Shuttle, produce specific impulses of the order of 450 secs, a nuclear-thermal rocket engine tested at Los Alamos in 1969 generated 845 secs; such specific impulse improvements could represent weeks or months of interplanetary travel time. Attention is given to the achievements of the historical Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, Helios, and Orion design programs, as well as to the current Vehicle for Interplanetary Space Transportation Applications, which is fusion-based.
Muonic-atom energy levels and wave functions are calculated. The results are corrected for nearly all important static effects, including finite nuclear size as produced by a user-specified nuclear charge distribution. Fourth-order Runge-Kutta integration of the radial Dirac equations, with the secant method determining the eigenvalues. Corrections are either included as potentials in the Dirac equations or computed as first-order perturbations. The code assumes spherical symmetry, so that effects of nuclear deformation may be treated only as static first-order perturbations. Dynamic muon-electron and muon-nuclear effects are neglected (the latter are calculated by RURP). (Auth.).
This manual is a collection of various notes, memoranda and instructions on procedures for the evaluation of data in the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF). They were distributed at different times over the past few years to the evaluators of nuclear structure data and some of them were not readily avaialble. Hence, they have been collected in this manual for ease of reference by the evaluators of the international Nuclear Structure and Decay Data (NSDD) network contribute mass-chains to the ENSDF. Some new articles were written specifically for this manual and others are reivsions of earlier versions.
Significant changes in Energy Generation industry and as a consequence in Nuclear Energy put new challenges and extend the tasks that need to be resolved by Technical Support Organisations. Political and economical changes in Bulgaria put also significant influence on Nuclear sector. During the last decade the main challenges for Bulgarian TSO's and for Risk Engineering Ltd in particular came from renovation of nuclear legislative framework, wide modernization programs of Kozloduy NPP Units and decision of Bulgarian Government for construction of Belene NPP. (author)
The validation of the forecast model for early emergency response to nuclear accidents is evaluated by trace tests in atmosphere in Daya Bay nuclear power site. The simulation experiment of the Daya Bay nuclear power site shows that the particle spreading image and the time-integrated concentration distribution given by plume concentration prediction model can perform the variation of pathway of the pollutant transport, as well as the effects of topography on transport and diffusion of pollutants. The simulation of five trace tests in field shows that 59.1% of ratios between predicted results and observed results are within the range of 10, and 41% of ratios are within the range of 5 approximately. (authors)
Saskatchewan boasts the greatest concentration of high-grade uranium of any place in the world. Properly managed, its current reserves of 238U can easily fuel the entire province for some 10,000 years (in comparison, the world's oil supplies may be gone in 100). It is likely that Saskatchewan, with all that uranium, can build an industry and renew Canada's nuclear dream. The authors believe in the value of nuclear energy, in general, and the value of uranium mining in Saskatchewan and other parts of the world, in particular. We also believe in the value of research, development, innovation and training in the nuclear industry and the uranium industry
A combination of computer codes such as LATREP, HWRAXAV and CITATION is utilized in an attempt to analyze the nuclear design characteristics of the CAXDU-PHWR of the Wolsung Unit 1. The major nuclear properties to be computed are the lattice properties of CANDU fuel channel and the core channel power distribution. The computed results are compared with the preliminary safety reports documentation for the Wolsung reactor. The observed discrepancies between our computations and the preliminary safety reports values are discussed in terms of incomplete information on the description of the core configuration in the preliminary safety reports and the different calculation methods. (author).
Five fires that occurred in the air and gas treatment systems of U.S. commercial nuclear power plants are reviewed. The causes of the fires, the method of extinguishing them and possible fire prevention methods are correlated with the properties of the adsorbents. The similarities and differences of adsorbent (carbon) fires of solvent recovery systems and the nuclear air-cleaning units are discussed in relation to fire development, consequences of the fire, and fire extinguishing methods. The latest methodology of fire prevention, as proposed for a New Hampshire nuclear power plant is described.
Almost every electric utility company involved in nuclear plant construction has experienced difficulty as a result of the deteriorating condition of the nuclear industry as a whole. The thrust of a growing number of lawsuits brought against electric companies for alleged violations of federal securities laws is that the companies failed to reveal cost overruns, delays, and the risk of cancellation and write-off of nuclear plants in their annual reports and registration statements. A review of several suits and the disclosure requirements of securities statutes concludes that, although investors have known about utility problems, they have just become aware this year that the entire financial viability of the electric companies is threatened.
The author describes feasibility study on the scheme of disposing spent guide tubes at Daya Bay nuclear power plant, including scheme selection, packing cask design, disposal operation and technological process, budget estimation and safety evaluation. The research results show that the new scheme is feasible on technology, and reasonable on budget. If the scheme is adopted to dispose the spent guide tubes at Daya Bay nuclear power station, it can not only save large funds, but also accumulate experience on disposing non-compressible low and intermediate level solid radioactive wastes produced at nuclear power station for the country
Since January, 1981, the project of development of nuclear fuel fabrication technology for Wolsung reactor (CANDU type) was undertaken by KAERI(Korea Advanced Energy Research Institute) and successfully fulfilled with loading 24 fuel bundles made by KAERI in Wolsung reactor in September, 1984. On the basis of this accumulated technology and experience, mass production plan to supply all the nuclear fuels for Wolsung reactor is under way. In this presentation, the Korean experience in the development of the nuclear fuel fabrication technology, safety and performance evaluation of KAERI fuel and the results of irradiation of KAERI fuels in Wolsung reactor will be described.
Since January, 1981, the project of development of nuclear fuel fabrication technology for Wolsung reactor (CANDU type) was undertaken by KAERI(Korea Advanced Energy Research Institute) and successfully fulfilled with loading 24 fuel bundles made by KAERI in Wolsung reactor in September, 1984. On the basis of this accumulated technology and experience, mass production plan to supply all the nuclear fuels for Wolsung reactor is under way. In this presentation, the Korean experience in the development of the nuclear fuel fabrication technology, safety and performance evaluation of KAERI fuel and the results of irradiation of KAERI fuels in Wolsung reactor will be described.
This report considers the effect of pipe-whip restraints and snubbers on the normal operation of piping systems in nuclear power plants. Also considered are the effect of these postulated event devices on reliability, economics, and the exposure of plant personnel to radiation. Field data were gathered from three nuclear power plants that had applied for Operating Licenses. Criteria, design philosophies, and data were obtained from the respective nuclear steam system suppliers, architects-engineers and utilities.
Theft, illegal possession, smuggling, or attempted unauthorized sale of nuclear and radiological materials remains a worldwide problem. The Nuclear Smuggling International Technical Working Group (ITWG) has adopted a model action plan to guide investigation of these cases through a systematic approach to nuclear forensics. The model action plan was recently documented and provides recommendations concerning incident response, collection of evidence in conformance with required legal standards, laboratory sampling and distribution of samples, radioactive materials analysis, including categorization and characterization of samples, forensics analysis of conventional evidence, and case development including interpretation of forensic signatures. (author)
The importance of radiation management for nuclear facilities including nuclear power plants has increased as the general public understanding has progressed, and necessary information for management must be processed exactly and quickly. In nuclear power plants, radiation management is performed by each individual operation, and collected information is managed by the system of each operation. The distributed-processing radiation management system has been developed aiming to use a general-purpose LAN and make quick and efficient use of information managed by individual operations. This paper describes the system configuration and functions. (author)
Direct nuclear reactions are commonly understood in terms of distorted wave (DW) formalisms. In the case of a single nucleon knockout or transfer reaction the DW analysis provides a reasonable understanding of the observed data. On the other hand the predictions based on different available information inputs have been verified with the observations consistently. In the case of direct reactions involving nuclear clusters however, the DW predictions have been found to disagree with the observations in most cases. The outcome of these and other improvements in the intermediate energy nuclear phenomena involving direct reactions are highlighted. (author). 13 refs., 18 figs.
Isotopic analyses of radioactive materials such as irradiated nuclear fuel are of major importance for the optimization of the nuclear fuel cycle and for safeguard aspects. Among the mass-spectrometric techniques available, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and thermal ionization mass spectrometry are the most frequently applied methods for nuclear applications. Because of the low detection limits, the ability to analyze the isotopic composition of the elements and the applicability of the techniques for measuring stable as well as radioactive nuclides with similar sensitivity, both mass-spectrometric techniques are an excellent amendment to classical radioactivity counting methods. The paper describes selected applications of multicollector ICP-MS in combination with c...
This handbook breaks down the complex field of nuclear reactor calculations into major steps. Each step presents a detailed analysis of the problems to be solved, the parameters involved, and the elaborate computer programs developed to perform the calculations. This book bridges the gap between nuclear reactor theory and the implementation of that theory, including the problems to be encountered and the level of confidence that should be given to the methods described. Volume III: Control Rods and Burnable Absorber Calculations. Perturbation Theory for Nuclear Reactor Analysis. Thermal Reactors Calculations. Fast Reactor Calculations. Seed-Blanket Reactors. Index.
This handbook breaks down the complex field of nuclear reactor calculations into major steps. Each step presents a detailed analysis of the problems to be solved, the parameters involved, and the elaborate computer programs developed to perform the calculations. This book bridges the gap between nuclear reactor theory and the implementation of that theory, including the problems to be encountered and the level of confidence that should be given to the methods described. Volume II: Monte Carlo Calculations for Nuclear Reactors. In-Core Management of Four Reactor Types. In-Core Management in CANDU-PHW Reactors. Reactor Dynamics. The Theory of Neutron Leakage in Reactor Lattices. Index.
As the new entrants in the global nuclear construction market are increasing and the establishment of an effective and sustainable regulatory infrastructure becomes more important, they have requested international assistance from the international nuclear communities with mature nuclear regulatory programmes. It needs to optimize the use of limited resources from regulatory organization providing support to regulatory infrastructure of new comers. This paper suggests the resource portfolio concept like a GE/Mckinsey Matrix used in business management and tries to apply it to the current needs considered in the regulatory support program in Korea as the case study
Nuclear options for electricity generations are assessed in this paper. Probabilistic (stochastic) method is used for economic comparison of nuclear power plants, wind plants and natural gas fired plants. Optimal nuclear power plant size is also discussed. IRIS is presented as a representative of small and medium reactors
MOX fuel has been one of the mature nuclear fuels which can be used in light water nuclear power plant now. The development status in this domain in foreign countries, the major influence of MOX fuel on reactor performance and the countermeasures are introduced in this paper. The application of MOX fuel in China's PWR is discussed in the end. (authors)
This paper presents the Asian landscape with its regional balances and imbalances and its changes after September 11 and subsequent events. The nuclear posture and the role of nuclear weapons inside the China-India-Pakistan triangle is analyzed with respect to the US non-proliferation policy and its expanding military presence over the Asian continent. (J.S.)
Design process of steam generator and condenser at Russian nuclear power plant type WWER-1000 is identified. The four chapter of the books are organized as nuclear power plant, types of steam generators specially horizontal steam generator, process of steam generator design and the description of condenser and its process design.
The rod drop time event of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant is caused by the malfunction of the guide tube developed by Framatome. Three temporary solutions were implemented successively and the long term solution was found in the process of searching for the root cause. The different solutions and the root cause are introduced. The safety analysis and license of the solutions are mainly discussed. Experiences and lessons are drawn by summarizing the important items related to nuclear safety.
Modern particle accelerators offer new opportunities to dramatically reshape the way we think about nuclear energy, and challenge some of the thorniest problems linked to its industrial use, e.g. nuclear waste. A powerful proton accelerator driving a sub-critical fission reactor could be used for producing energy more safely and burning up the extra spent fuel which so far has been stored in geological repositories.
This document presents the SSI preliminary views and position concerning the decommissioning of nuclear plants. To prevent the exposure of the decommissioning personnel and the general public to unacceptable levels of radiation and to protect the environment and future generations, it is SSI`s task to formulate and issue the necessary terms and regulations with which the reactor licensees must comply during the decommissioning work. The views and principles presented here are the basis of SSI`s continued work on guidelines and regulations for the decommissioning of nuclear plants.
Nuclear power in Romania was initiated on the basis of CANDU reactor type technology, an option found to fulfill the requirements for a sustainable economic development, to support the electric energy demand of the country and to ensure the population and environment protection. The construction of the Cernavoda NPP was heavily based on the Romanian industry participation and basic and applied nuclear research national resources. The experience acquired from Cernavoda NPP Unit 1 will be fructified in the construction of Units 2-5 to be built. The Romanian Ministry of Education and Research implemented a nuclear national program for research and development taking into account the European Union requirements and recommendations, the cooperation with the IAEA - Vienna and the Romanian government policy on short and medium terms in the nuclear field. The research-development program targeted: the reactor ...
Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station has made a series of tries and efforts on radiation source control and benefited from them since it was put into commercial operation. Some of them were introduced from experience feedbacks of foreign nuclear power industry and others came from our own good practices
The possibility of separation in plasma-mass-separator POMS-E-3 spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in 3 fractions: transuranic elements, and two groups of fission products. New scheme of compact energy-mass analyzer for monitoring the separation process spent nuclear fuel in the POMS-E- 3 offered.
The relations between nuclear energy availability and nuclear plant safety are analyzed in the particular cases of naval propulsion nuclear boilers (aircraft carriers, submarines): safety objectives, present and potential risk analysis, optimization of the availability-safety couple, at the design stage and during operation (procedural rules related to the boiler state, real time decisions). 6 fig., 1 tab.
Neutron activation of nitrogen and hydrogen in the body, the isotope dilution technique and the measurement of naturally radioactive potassium in the body are among the new nuclear methods, now under collaborative development by the Australian Nuclear Scientific and Technology Organization and medical specialists from several Sydney hospitals. These methods allow medical specialists to monitor the patient's response to various diets and dietary treatments in cases of cystic fibrosis, anorexia nervosa, long-term surgical trauma, renal diseases and AIDS. ills.
The effect of two-body nature of the nuclear shell model potential on the recent numerical calculations of the nuclear level density has been examined. For the two most widely used single particle energy level schemes based on harmonic oscillator and Woods-Saxon potential, this effect is shown to significantly modify the excitation energy dependence of the level densities. (author).
Nuclear fuel cycle information in some countries that develop, supply or use nuclear energy is presented. Data about Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Denmarmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Spain and India are included. The information is presented in a tree-like graphic way. (C.S.A.).
Report on status of program to raise awareness and heighten interest in nuclear engineering and nuclear science, particularly among 7th through 12th grade students and pre-college freshmen.
Evaluated nuclear structure and decay data for all nuclei within the A=177 mass chain are presented. Significant new information is included since the previous evaluation of this mass chain. The present work supersedes the earlier one by E. Browne (1993Br06), published in Nuclear Data Sheets 68, 747 (1993).
This review briefly describes current efforts to develop superradiant sources of coherent radiation for the sub-nanometer range of wavelenghs, using nuclear rather than the atomic or molecular transitions that are stimulated in existing lasers. First the radiative (including Raman) interactions of nuclei with those of atoms and molecules are compared; then the present status of research on the fundamental problems involved in stimulating nuclear gamma radiation is described. (author). 20 refs.; 2 figs.
Isospin-breaking effects in the baryonic sector are studied in the framework of a medium-modified Skyrme model. The neutron-proton mass difference in infinite, asymmetric nuclear matter is discussed. In order to describe the influence of the nuclear environment on the skyrmions, we include energy-dependent charged and neutral pion optical potentials in the s- and p-wave channels. The present approach predicts that the neutron-proton mass difference is mainly dictated by its strong part and that it strongly decreases in neutron matter. (orig.)
We have developed a set of modeled nuclear reaction cross sections for use in radiochemical diagnostics. Systematics for the input parameters required by the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model were developed and used to calculate neutron induced nuclear reaction cross sections for targets ranging from osmium (Z = 76) to gold (Z = 79). Of particular interest are the cross sections on Ir and Au including reactions on isomeric targets.
A semiautomatic system for measurements of nuclear tracks in nuclear emulsion is described. The microscopic image of a particle track is picked up by a video camera. The video picture is digitized in real time. The picture analysis is done via software. The microscope is equipped with a stepping motor driven stage which is also computer-controlled.
The nuclear interaction probability of light charged particles in BaF[sub 2] crystals has been studied as a function of the incident particle energy. Light charged particles were identified in charge and mass by measuring their magnetic rigidity and their time-of-flight. The percentage of particles undergoing nuclear interactions has been measured for particles of charge from Z=1 to Z=6 and the experimental data are compared with the results of a model calculation. (orig.)
This paper describes the learning effect and standardization effect in the nuclear power construction, analyses their influence degree on nuclear power economics. Furthermore, the paper provides the ideas on how to improve the economics of nuclear power through implementing the learning effect and standardization effect. The paper also concludes that the learning rate in China is better than the average value in the world by analysis actual example. (authors)
Both the accuracy and real-time are quite strictly required for the RCS thermal-hydraulic model of the simulation of nuclear power station. So, a large amount of reasonable simplifications should be carried on. The author introduces the RCS thermal-hydraulic model of the full scope simulator of Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, and emphasizes on the fundamental hypotheses and computation method of its kernel part--DEFI programme.
This document contains 59 extended synopses of the presentations delivered at the conference during oral and poster sessions. The four oral sessions were devoted to: The role of nuclear forensics in combating illicit trafficking and nuclear terrorism; Current capabilities and past experiences; Analytical techniques; and Challenges and alternative approaches. Each of the synopses was indexed separately
The evaluation of the hazard posed to the skin by very small radioactive sources (diameter < 1mm) has become popularly known as the 'hot particle' problem in European and American nuclear reactor facilities. In this study, research to detect hot particle was performed in Wolsung Nuclear power plant (NPP) in Korea.
The evaluation of the hazard posed to the skin by very small radioactive sources (diameter < 1mm) has become popularly known as the 'hot particle' problem in European and American nuclear reactor facilities. In this study, research to detect hot particle was performed in Wolsung Nuclear power plant (NPP) in Korea.
Selected neutron reaction nuclear data libraries and photon-atomic interaction cross section libraries for elements of interest to the IAEA's program on Fusion Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (FENDL) have been processed into MATXSR format using the NJOY system on the VAX4000 computer of the IAEA. This document lists the resulting multigroup data libraries. All the multigroup data generated are available cost-free upon request from the IAEA Nuclear Data Section. (author). 9 refs.
In the market economy, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station needs to out source or allow to suppliers among industries, while concentrating its core competitive capability, for safely and stable operation. By evaluating the features of contract management in Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, set up the organization and process of the supply management
The objective of this study was to identify and assess the present and future dimensions of environmental effects and impacts of various energy generation alternatives, and to place safety and environmental risks associated with the nuclear industry in Canada in perspective with the risks from other sources. It was found that nuclear power generation involves a comparable risk to that of conventional methods of thermoelectric power generation.
In connection with the Public Inquiry into the CEGB proposal to build a pressurised water reactor at Sizewell in Suffolk, the case for nuclear power is examined under the headings: the economics of nuclear power - how they would like them to be; systems analysis - net effective cost; CEGB prejudices the results (comparison with coal-fired plants; forecasting on various assumptions); discounting future costs; back-end costs soar (reprocessing); real reprocessing costs; AGR costs balloon.
For the first time in China, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station applied the advanced technology of worldwide commercial pressurized reactors to the in-core detectors, the leading excore six-chamber instrumentation for precise axial power distribution, and the related data processing. Described in this article are the neutron flux measurement in Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, and the detailed data processing.
The human causal factors for all human error licensing operational events on Daya Bay nuclear power station since 1993 to 2003 are categorized, the trend of these causal factors is analyzed. The emphasis is placed on analyzing the deficiencies on complying with and executing regulations and procedures. The results provide directional reference for nuclear power station to improve human performance. (author)
A brief review of apparatuses used at enterprises engaged in industrial processing of spent nuclear fuel for dissolving dioxide nuclear fuel from power reactors is provided. Advantages and drawbacks of facilities operating in periodic, semi-continuous and continuous modes are considered. It is pointed out that today there are two promising trends in developments in the field, i.e. rotor- and vibrational-type dissolving apparatuses operated continuously
British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is currently operating its third generation of nuclear plant for the management of irradiated nuclear fuel. Development for the fourth generation plant must meet requirements for processing higher burn-up fuel with lower unit costs, lower environmental impact, better process control, and more flexible control of actinides. .
Ways of improving the water chemistry used in the turbine generator stator?s cooling systems at Russian nuclear power plants are considered. Data obtained from operational chemical monitoring of indicators characterizing the quality of cooling water in the turbine generator stator cooling systems of operating power units at nuclear power plants are presented.
Illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive material has been an issue of concern since the first seizures in the early 1990s. By the end of 2004 Member States had confirmed 540 cases, while about another 500 remain unconfirmed. Most of the confirmed cases have a criminal dimension, even if they were not for known terrorist purposes. The attacks of September 2001 in the USA dramatically emphasized the requirement for the enhanced control and security of nuclear and other radioactive material. In response to a resolution by the IAEA General Conference in September 2002 the IAEA has adopted an integrated approach to protection against nuclear terrorism. This brings together IAEA activities concerned with the physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear installations, nuclear material accountancy, detection and response to illicit ...
Spent nuclear wastes are inevitable issues to use nuclear power as a sustainable energy. Therefore, every country has their fuel cycles which are best for their environmental and/or political circumstances for the use of nuclear energy. These days agreements are made that spent nuclear fuels should be recycled to minimize waste volume and its toxicity all around the world. Republic of Korea also has a plan to recycle the spent nuclear fuels by using Gen-IV concept burner reactors and pyro-process plants. Not many options of national nuclear strategies are exist because Korea has too many people for its limited land space. KAERI already has been proposing a national fuel cycle concept called 'KIEP-21' that encompasses all the requirements of the advanced nuclear fuel cycle such as reduction of volume, toxicity, HLW heat load and so on. ...
November was a quiet month in Washington. Although Congress has recessed until 1991, the Senate filled vacancies in party leadership positions created by November's elections. The House is expected to proceed with its changes in early December. The Nuclear Energy Forum was held in Washington, DC on November 11-14 to discuss the status of the nuclear industry in the USA. The Forum, held in conjunction with the American Nuclear Society's annual meeting, assembled a large number of CEO's from US, European, and Far Eastern utilities and vendors. The meeting concluded with an announcement by Philip Bayne, President of NYPA and chairman of the Nuclear Power Oversight Committee (NPOC), of the results of a year-long NPOC study entitled a open-quotes Strategic Plan for Building New Nuclear Power Plants.close quotes.
In 1977 and 1978, Sandia National Laboratories, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE), filmed a series of crash and fire tests performed on three casks designed to transport irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies. While the tests were performed to assess the applicability of scale and computer modeling techniques to actual accidents, films of them were quickly pressed into service by the DOE and nuclear utilities as ``proof`` to the public of the safety of the casks. In the public debate over the safety of irradiated nuclear fuel transportation, the films have served as the mainstay for the nuclear industry. Although the scripts of all the films were reviewed by USDOE officials before production, they contain numerous misleading concepts and images, and omit significant facts. The shorter versions eliminated qualifying statements contained in the longer ...
Significant new nuclear-specific software standards have recently been adopted under the sponsorship of the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The interest of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has also been expressed through their issuance of NUREG/CR-4640. These efforts all indicate a growing awareness of the need for thorough, referenceable expressions of the way to build in and evaluate quality in nuclear software. A broader professional perspective can be seen in the growing number of software engineering standards sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. This family of standards represents a systematic effort to capture professional consensus on quality practices throughout the software development life cycle. The only omission-the implementation phase-is treated by accepted American National Standards ...