Rehabilitation of the radioactively contaminated objects and territory of the Russian Science Center Kurchatov Institute

This article is devoted to work done in 2002–2006 as part of the unified project Reabilitatsiya to rehabilitate radiation hazardous objects and sections of the radioactively contaminated territory of the Russian Science Center Kurchatov Institute. The main objects of the rehabilitation work were old storage sites built for radioactive wastes on the territory of the Institute when military and civilian nuclear technologies were under development. The structural features of the storage sites, including the volumes and characteristics of the wastes stored, are presented. The salient aspects of the disposal sites, taken into account during the rehabilitation work, are discussed. The organization of the rehabilitation operations and the sequence in which they are performed, the special features of the technical design solutions used, the technological methods, and ways for conducting the work are described. __________ Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 102, No. 5, pp. 300–306, May, 2007.     

Amtshaftung bei Bauführung im Hochwassergebiet; fehlerhafter Flächenwidmungsplan; Nachforschungspflichten der Gemeinde

Bestehen ausreichende Anhaltspunkte für die Hochwassergef?hrdung, ist die Gemeinde verpflichtet, sich durch Nachforschungen Gewissheit über das Vorliegen oder Nichtvorliegen eines Hochwasserabflussgebietes gem § 38 Abs 3 WRG zu verschaffen. Liegt ein solches vor, hat sie gem § 12 Abs 1 Z 2 krnt GplG dieses im Fl?chenwidmungsplan ersichtlich zu machen. Erteilt die Gemeinde eine Baubewilligung ohne diese von der Erteilung einer wasserrechtlichen Bewilligung abh?ngig zu machen, haftet sie für die Kosten der Bauführung, die bei gesetzes-konformer Vorgangsweise unterlassen worden w?re.     

Electric discharge treatment of zeolites for purifying the waste water of polymer-manufacturing plants

We present the results of electric discharge treatment of zeolites for purifying the waste water from the manufacture of polymers. By application of the thermostimulated relaxation method, it has been revealed that in the zeolites, superficial and volumetric charges accumulate. It is shown that the electric discharge effects considerably enhance the efficiency of the adsorptive purification of waste water.     

Optical properties of doped bismuth telluride crystals in the region of plasma effects

The optical properties of bismuth telluride crystals doped with donor-and acceptor-type impurities are studied. The fact that energy corresponding to the resonance frequency of plasma oscillations of free charge carriers (plasmons) approaches the band-gap energy is detected in the infrared spectral region, where the main elementary excitations in the electronic system of these materials are observed. The mentioned approach of energies varies the intensity of electron-plasmon interaction, which affects the recombination processes in the materials widely used for the fabrication of thermoelectric energy converters.     

A new adaptation of mapping method to study mixing of multiphase flows in mixers with complex geometries

The main objective of the present work is to modify the traditional mapping method for the simulation of distributive mixing of multiphase flows in geometries involving moving parts such as, internal mixers or twin-screw extruders without a limitation on their geometrical periodicity. The periodicity condition, limits the results of traditional mapping method to tracking mapping mesh between specific discrete time intervals or distances for that geometry is repeated, hence, result is only for fixed orientation of rotors. Imaginary domain method is introduced to track mapping mesh from one state to the next free of geometrical periodicity limitations. In this work the method is introduced and its applicability and accuracy is discussed in details. A two-dimensional (2D) simulation of mixing of two Newtonian fluids with different viscosities in an intermeshing internal mixer is used as a test case study. In this example the key issues of ability to predict mixing state in details for all orientations of rotors is presented. To reduce diffusion errors of mapping method in the boundaries of the rotors, mapping mesh refinement technique that relies upon one single reference mesh is also presented.     

Pheromone Disruption of Argentine Ant Trail Integrity

Disruption of Argentine ant trail following and reduced ability to forage (measured by bait location success) was achieved after presentation of an oversupply of trail pheromone, (Z)-9-hexadecenal. Experiments tested single pheromone point sources and dispersion of a formulation in small field plots. Ant walking behavior was recorded and digitized by using video tracking, before and after presentation of trail pheromone. Ants showed changes in three parameters within seconds of treatment: (1) Ants on trails normally showed a unimodal frequency distribution of walking track angles, but this pattern disappeared after presentation of the trail pheromone; (2) ants showed initial high trail integrity on a range of untreated substrates from painted walls to wooden or concrete floors, but this was significantly reduced following presentation of a point source of pheromone; (3) the number of ants in the pheromone-treated area increased over time, as recruitment apparently exceeded departures. To test trail disruption in small outdoor plots, the trail pheromone was formulated with carnuba wax-coated quartz laboratory sand (1 g quartz sand/0.2 g wax/1 mg pheromone). The pheromone formulation, with a half-life of 30 h, was applied by rotary spreader at four rates (0, 2.5, 7.5, and 25 mg pheromone/m²) to 1- and 4-m² plots in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Ant counts at bait cards in treated plots were significantly reduced compared to controls on the day of treatment, and there was a significant reduction in ant foraging for 2 days. These results show that trail pheromone disruption of Argentine ants is possible, but a much more durable formulation is needed before nest-level impacts can be expected. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A Digital Scintillation Detector for the MEDIANA Medical Diagnostic Station

A digital position-sensitive X-ray imaging scintillation detector has been designed for the MEDIANA medical diagnostic station of the Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Center (the Kurchatov Institute). A single-crystal CsI(Tl) scintillator 8 mm thick is used as a screen with approximately 100% detection efficiency for X rays with energies as high as 100 keV. A CCD matrix of dimensions 1024 × 1024 pixels is the photodetector. The spatial resolution is five line pairs per mm in a field of vision of 35 × 35 mm for 100-keV X rays.     

Stability of hydrogenated nanodiamonds under extreme ultraviolet irradiation

It is generally accepted that diamond is resistant to a wide spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from the ultraviolet through to the soft X-ray range, which makes it very attractive for the fabrication of diamond-based photodetectors. However the effect of photon radiation on the diamond structure has not yet been examined. In the work presented here, photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to study the graphitization of nanodiamond crystallites exposed to extreme ultraviolet radiation. Under such irradiation, the surface hydrogen groups and graphite species are found to prevent graphitization. The mechanism of radiation-induced nanodiamond graphitization is discussed.     

X-ray topography studies of dislocations in single crystal CVD diamond

X-ray topography has been used to study single crystal diamond samples homoepitaxially grown by microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) on high pressure high temperature (HPHT) and CVD synthetic diamond substrates. Clusters of dislocations in the CVD diamond layers emanated from points at or near the interface with the substrate. The Burgers vectors of observed dislocations have been determined from sets of {111} projection topographs. Dislocations have line directions close to the [001] growth direction and are either edge or 45° mixed dislocations. Where groups of dislocations originated at isolated points they tended to be of the edge variety. Where the substrate surface was deliberately damaged before growth, two sets of dislocations were observed to have propagated from each line of damage and there was a tendency for dislocations to be of the 45° mixed variety with a component of their Burgers vector parallel to the polishing direction. It is demonstrated that X-ray topography can be used to deduce the growth history of CVD synthetic diamond samples produced in multiple growth stages.