Teaching an old bug new tricks.
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Biodegradation, Environmental↗
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Results for “RADIOACTIVE WASTE”
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Oxidation of plutonium dioxide.
The physics and chemistry of the actinide elements form the scientific basis for rational handling of nuclear materials. In recent experiments, most unexpectedly, plutonium dioxide has been found to react with water to form higher oxides up to PuO(2.27), whereas PuO(2) had always been thought to be the highest stable oxide of plutonium. We perform a theoretical analysis of this complicated situation on the basis of total energies calculated within density functional theory combined with well-established thermodynamic data. The reactions of PuO(2) with either O(2) or H(2)O to form PuO(2+delta) are calculated to be endothermic: that is, in order to occur they require a supply of energy. However, our calculations show that PuO(2+delta) can be formed, as an intermediate product, by reactions with the products of radiolysis of water, such as H(2)O(2).
Models, Chemical↗
Radiation safety: what can happen in an accident.
Radiation hazards in dental practice have long been recognized, and the dangers from ionising radiation during dental radiography are discussed elsewhere. Continuing legislation will undoubtedly help reduce the risk of over-exposure and accidents. Nevertheless, it is of some concern that radiation safety is still ignored by some: for example, one recent survey in the UK showed that not all radiography sets conformed to modern safety standards. However, the profession also has reason to be concerned about more public radiation hazards that may affect them, and their families and others, and may, without denying the importance of dental radiation protection, have far greater effects on health. Well-known examples of domestic radon exposure occurred in the UK, particularly in the Lake District and the South West, and the nuclear reactor accidents--notably at Chernobyl in 1986.
Accidents↗
Unique crown thioether complexes of f elements: the crystal structure of U(III) and La(III) complexes of 1,4,7-trithiacyclononane.
The crystal structures of the first U(III) complex of a crown thioether and of its La(III) analog have been determined; a stronger M-S interaction is observed for U(III) with respect to La(III) and Ce(III) in solution and in the solid state.
Alkanes↗
[Constancy of the risk of cancer in man (author's transl)].
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Adolescent↗
[The medical uses of radio-active substance in North Rhine-Westphalia during the last ten years (author's transl)].
On 1st April 1977, legislation for protection from ionising radiation has replaced the law of 24th June 1960. This appears to be an appropriate occasion to consider the medical use of radioactive substances in North Rhine-Westphalia in the last ten years. The supervisory function of the competent authority has been statistically investigated. The extent to which the most commonly used controlled radioactive substances are employed in medical practice has been studied. The controls used and the radiation dose received by personnel are summarised.
Body Burden↗
Perceptions of on-site hunters: environmental concerns, future land use, and cleanup options at the Savannah river site.
The Department of Energy owns land in 34 states, and most of these lands have been off limits to the public for over 50 years. Although some parts of each site are contaminated, most of many sites are not. With the ending of the Cold War, the department is considering alternative land uses. In this article, the perceptions of hunters and fishermen allowed on site for a limited time were examined, about environmental concerns, future land use, and cleanup options. Although loss of jobs was the foremost concern, preserving parts of the site had more support as a future land use than continuing the nuclear mission, and nearly three-quarters of the sample supported cleanup, regardless of cost. On-site employment was a significant indicator of lower concern about safety and environmental issues, less support for designating the site for research, and more concern for maintaining jobs.
Adolescent↗
An investigation of the availability of 137Cs and 239 + 240Pu for gut absorption in winkles following cooking and in vitro simulated gastro-intestinal digestion.
The consumption of plutonium, americium and radiocaesium in locally collected shellfish is an important contributor to the radiation dose received by seafood consumers living in West Cumbria. Only a small fraction of the actinide activity is assumed to be absorbed via the gut whilst it is assumed that all the radiocaesium is. Solubilization studies reported here using an in vitro digestion method support the former assumption but not the latter, suggesting that the proportion of the 137Cs available for absorption could be significantly smaller than unity where a large percentage of the ingested Cs is adsorbed onto inorganic sedimentary material. Such a situation arises near the Sellafield nuclear-reprocessing plant where a high proportion of the radiocaesium (and plutonium) in the winkles collected locally and subsequently cooked is associated with inorganic particulate matter.
Biological Availability↗
Nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations: what is the connection?
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Accidents↗
Carbonation of cementitious wasteforms under supercritical and high pressure subcritical conditions.
A comparison of cement wasteform carbonation under subcritical and supercritical CO2 conditions has been conducted, as well as leach tests on the carbonated products. Cement samples were prepared with water containing As, Cs, Sr, Ni and Cl, and dried under vacuum prior to exposure to CO2 gas at sub and supercritical conditions. Carbonation under supercritical conditions (50 degrees C, 1200 psi) showed similar CO2 mass uptake as subcritical carbonation (25 degrees C, 800 psi). The apparent depth of carbonation from microscopic examination, however, appeared greater with the supercritical treatment. Microscopic examination also revealed a dark intermediate zone, likely a chemical transition area, between the uncarbonated and carbonated material. Results from experiments where the initial water to cement ratio (w/c) and curing time were varied indicate that high w/c ratios and short curing times promote greater carbonation. In addition, the pore network in specimens with low w/c ratios (0.45) completely filled with water during carbonation. This caused pore water containing soluble contaminants to exude from the specimens. This does not occur at a w/c of 0.60 because the larger pore network after the drying step easily accommodates all the water produced during the reaction. No measurable arsenic or nickel were released in leach tests conducted on both carbonated and uncarbonated specimens. Calcium, cesium and strontium leachability were reduced by carbonation while the leachability of chloride and nitrate were increased with carbonation. Samples carbonated under supercritical pressure conditions showed similar leaching characteristics as samples carbonated under subcritical conditions.
Carbon↗
Cleanup worker exposures to hazardous chemicals at a former nuclear weapons plant: piloting of an exposure surveillance system.
Cleanup of former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons production facilities involves potential exposures to various hazardous chemicals. We have collaboratively developed and piloted an exposure database and surveillance system for cleanup worker hazardous chemical exposure data with a cleanup contractor at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). A unique system feature is the incorporation of a 34-category work task-coding scheme. This report presents an overview of the data captured by this system during development and piloting from March 1995 through August 1998. All air samples collected were entered into the system. Of the 859 breathing zone samples collected, 103 unique employees and 39 unique compounds were represented. Breathing zone exposure levels were usually low (86% of breathing zone samples were below analytical limits of detection). The use of respirators and other exposure controls was high (87 and 88%, respectively). Occasional high-level excursions did occur. Detailed quantitative summaries are provided for the six most monitored compounds: asbestos, beryllium, carbon tetrachloride, chromium, lead, and methylene chloride. Task and job title data were successfully collected for most samples, and showed specific cleanup activities by pipe fitters to be the most commonly represented in the database. Importantly, these results demonstrate the feasibility of the implementation of integrated exposure database and surveillance systems by practicing industrial hygienists employed in industry as well as the preventive potential and research uses of such systems. This exposure database and surveillance system--the central features of which are applicable in any industrial work setting--has enabled one of the first systematic quantitative characterizations of DOE cleanup worker exposures to hazardous chemicals.
Colorado↗
Development of an exposure database and surveillance system for use by practicing OSH professionals.
This report summarizes the development of an occupational exposure database and surveillance system for use by health and safety professionals at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS), a former nuclear weapons production facility. The site itself is currently in the cleanup stage with work expected to continue into 2006. The system was developed with the intent of helping health and safety personnel not only to manage and analyze exposure monitoring data, but also to identify exposure determinants during the highly variable cleanup work. Utilizing a series of focused meetings with health and safety personnel from two of the major contractors at RFETS, core data elements were established. These data elements were selected based on their utility for analysis and identification of exposure determinants. A task-based coding scheme was employed to better define the highly variable work. The coding scheme consisted of a two-tiered hierarchical list with a total of 34 possible combinations of work type and task. The data elements were incorporated into a Microsoft Access database with built-in data entry features to both promote consistency and limit entry choices to enable stratified analyses. In designing the system, emphasis was placed on the ability of end users to perform complex analyses and multiparameter queries to identify trends in their exposure data. A very flexible and user-friendly report generator was built into the system. This report generator allowed users to perform multiparameter queries using an intuitive system with very little training. In addition, a number of automated graphical analyses were built into the system, including exposure levels by any combination of building, date, employee, job classification, type of contaminant, work type or task, exposure levels over time, exposure levels relative to the permissible exposure limit (PELS), and distributions of exposure levels. Both of these interfaces, allow the user to "drill down" or gradually narrow query criteria to identify specific exposure determinants. A number of other industrial hygiene processes were automated by the use of this database. Exposure calculations were coded into the system to allow automatic calculation of time-weighted averages and sample volumes. In addition, a table containing all the PELs and other relevant occupational exposure limits was built into the system to allow automatic comparisons with the current standards. Finally, the process of generating reports for employee notification was automated. The implementation of this system demonstrates that an integrated database system can save time for a practicing hygienist as well as provide useful and more importantly, timely information to guide primary prevention efforts.
Colorado↗
Integrating workplace exposure databases for occupational medicine services and epidemiologic studies at a former nuclear weapons facility.
We outline methods for integrating epidemiologic and industrial hygiene data systems for the purpose of exposure estimation, exposure surveillance, worker notification, and occupational medicine practice. We present examples of these methods from our work at the Rocky Flats Plant--a former nuclear weapons facility that fabricated plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons and is now being decontaminated and decommissioned. The weapons production processes exposed workers to plutonium, gamma photons, neutrons, beryllium, asbestos, and several hazardous chemical agents, including chlorinated hydrocarbons and heavy metals. We developed a job exposure matrix (JEM) for estimating exposures to 10 chemical agents in 20 buildings for 120 different job categories over a production history spanning 34 years. With the JEM, we estimated lifetime chemical exposures for about 12,000 of the 16,000 former production workers. We show how the JEM database is used to estimate cumulative exposures over different time periods for epidemiological studies and to provide notification and determine eligibility for a medical screening program developed for former workers. We designed an industrial hygiene data system for maintaining exposure data for current cleanup workers. We describe how this system can be used for exposure surveillance and linked with the JEM and databases on radiation doses to develop lifetime exposure histories and to determine appropriate medical monitoring tests for current cleanup workers. We also present time-line-based graphical methods for reviewing and correcting exposure estimates and reporting them to individual workers.
Colorado↗
Evaluation of the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for detection of trace element in liquid.
The analytical figure of merit of the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been evaluated for detection of trace element in liquid. LIBS data of Mg, Cr, Mn, and Re were studied. Various optical geometries, which produce the laser spark in and at the liquid sample, were tested. The calibration curves for Mg, Cr, Mn, and Re were obtained at the optimized experimental conditions with bulk liquid and in liquid jet. It was found that measurements using a liquid jet provide better detection limits than bulk liquid measurements. The limits of detection (LOD) of Mg, Cr, Mn, and Re in the present liquid jet measurement are found to be 0.1, 0.4, 0.7, and 8 ppm, respectively. The LOD of Mg using Mg 279.55 nm was compared with the values found in other liquid work.
Calibration↗
Comparison of the amount of nuclides released from the spent fuel in contact with and without a compacted bentonite block.
A spent LWR fuel specimen between Ca-bentonite blocks was leached in a simulated bentonite-saturated granitic water (SBGW) for 165 days and its results were compared with those of a specimen leached without a bentonite block. The amounts of Cs, Sb, Sr, Eu, Am, U and Pu released from a 4.3 mm thickness of a fuel pellet with a 50,400 MWD/MTU burn-up in the SBGW without a bentonite block were 2.2, 0.25, 0.15, 0.02, 0.01, 0.01 and approximately 5 x 10(-4)% of their inventories, respectively. However, the amounts of nuclides released from the specimen between the 1.4 Mg/m(3) bentonite blocks were decreased by three times at least. Moreover, the concentrations of the nuclides in the leachate were very low because most of them were retained in the bentonite blocks.
Bentonite↗
Man-caused uranium contamination of biosphere objects in the territory of Kyrgyzstan.
The paper presents data on uranium content in water, soils and plants in the territories of the largest uranium geochemical provinces of Kyrgyzstan where uranium mining and production complexes functioned and operated until the 1960s. The migration of uranium and its contamination of the biosphere are discussed. The paper provides recommendations on using natural phytomeliorants that would discriminate uranium, fix the ground, reduce the risk of mudflows formation and the degree of uranium contamination of the territory, and also facilitate the recovery of the disturbed natural mountainous ecosystems.
Chemical Industry↗
The effects of container materials and buffer additives on decreasing the iodide concentration in a disposal vault for spent nuclear fuel.
To retard the migration of iodine released from a spent fuel after the break of a container, the reducing effects on the concentration of the iodide by container corrosion products and some buffer additives were examined in a solution with bentonite. Iron and copper, and their corrosion products scarcely reduced the iodide concentration. And kaolinite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, copper ore and galena, known as having a sorption property for iodine, did not noticeably sorb the iodide. However, palm active carbon, silver metal and Ag2O lowered the iodide concentration. Especially, Ag2O put into a disposal container would effectively hinder the migration of iodine to the outside of a disposal vault without a great loss if the pore size of the compacted buffer layer is maintained below 1 mu m.
Buffers↗