Issues in establishing an aerosol radiological baseline for the waste isolation pilot plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

The Department of Energy has constructed a deep geologic repository for defense transuranic waste disposal. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, located in Southeastern New Mexico, is slated to receive transuranic waste by truck delivery beginning in 1998. The Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) provides an independent evaluation of the impact on the health and environment in New Mexico of the WIPP project. Since 1985, the EEG has operated a network of air monitoring sites around WIPP and in nearby communities. The radionuclide concentration data from these air samples have been assembled into a useful baseline data base after resolution of a number of methodological and quality assurance issues. Investigation thresholds for the principal radionuclides have been calculated from combined data collected from several sites. These action levels will provide a critical quantitative basis for decisions of whether future airborne radionuclide measurements are attributable to accidental releases.

A constant flow filter air sampler for workplace environments.

A filter air sampler has been developed for sampling radionuclide aerosol particles from the workplace environment. It provides easy filter changing, constant flow sampling, and a visual display to indicate proper operation. An experimental study was conducted to characterize the collection efficiency of the sampler as affected by variations in room air velocity, particle size, sampling flow rate, inlet geometry, and inlet orientation to the free stream. Tests were carried out in a wind tunnel at velocities between 0.3 m s(-1) and 2.0 m s(-1), which is a range that covers anticipated velocities in the typical highly ventilated workplace environment of a nuclear facility. Nearly monodisperse aerosols with sizes between 5 and 20 microm aerodynamic diameter were sampled at flow rates between 28.3 and 84.9 L min(-1). Inlet orientations of 0 degrees, 90 degrees, and 180 degrees from the horizontal were selected for evaluation. When the sampler was oriented at 0 degrees over various ranges of free stream velocities, sampling flow rates and particle sizes, the transmission efficiency of aerosol was typically greater than 95%. The transmission efficiencies varied from 80% to 106% for 10-microm aerodynamic diameter particles over the previously noted range of free stream velocities and inlet orientations. Uniformity of deposits of 10 microm aerodynamic diameter particles on collection filters was examined for a sampling rate of 57 L min(-1), a sampler orientation of 90 degrees into the wind and wind speeds of 0.3-2 m s(-1). The coefficients of variation for the areal density of the deposits ranged from 6.1% to 37.2%. A miniature critical flow venturi with a constant sampling flow rate of 57 L min(-1) was developed for application to the new filter air sampler. It was demonstrated that the performance of the new filter air sampler is quite acceptable over a wide range of conditions. Overall the new filter air sampler design has been shown to provide enhanced performance with regard to sample handling, constant calibrated volumetric sample flow rate, and relatively unbiased sample aspiration performance compared with a traditional filter air sampler design.

Performance evaluation of continuous air monitor (CAM) sampling heads.

Continuous air monitor (CAM) samplers are used to detect radioactive aerosol particles in nuclear facilities and to provide alarm signals should the concentrations exceed a multiple of the derived air concentration (DAC) of the radionuclide of concern in a set amount of time. Aerosol particles are drawn into a CAM sampler where collection is to take place upon a filter. Radioactivity of the particles is determined with a detector that is placed in close proximity to the filter face. An important determinant of CAM performance is the ability of the inlet and body of the CAM to transport particulate matter in the inhalable-size range (less than or equal to 10 microns aerodynamic diameter) to the filter without substantial loss or bias with respect to particulate size. Three types of CAM samplers were tested in a low-velocity aerosol wind tunnel to determine the degree to which particles penetrate through the flow systems to the collection filter under conditions typical of normal room air exchange rates. Two air velocities were used: 0.3 and 1.0 m s-1. The CAM samplers were primarily operated at a flow rate of 56.6 L min-1, although some tests were conducted at a flow rate of 28.3 L min-1. The CAM units were prototypes manufactured by Kurz Instruments, Eberline Instrument Corporation, and Victoreen Inc. These three units represent three different approaches to CAM head design. At an air speed of 1 m s-1, aerosol penetration to the filters of the Kurz unit was essentially 100% for particle sizes of 3 and 7-microns aerodynamic diameter and was 86% for a size of 15 microns. For the Eberline sampler, the penetration was over 80% for 3-microns particles but was reduced to less than 2% for 7-microns particles. The victoreen sampler showed penetration values of 98% for 3-microns aerodynamic diameter particles, 88% for 7-microns particles and 4% for a size of 15 microns. Air speed had little effect on the penetration results for the two speeds which were tested. Tests were conducted to determine the uniformity of deposits on the filters of the CAM samplers. For a particle size of 10 microns, the deposits were nonuniform for all three of the instruments.

Assessment of need for transport tubes when continuously monitoring for radioactive aerosols.

Aerosol transport tubes are often used to draw aerosol from desirable sampling locations to nearby air sampling equipment that cannot be placed at that location. In many plutonium laboratories at Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerosol transport tubes are used to transport aerosol from the front of room ventilation exhaust registers to continuous air monitors (CAMs) that are mounted on nearby walls. Transport tubes are used because past guidance suggests that extraction of aerosol samples from exhaust locations provides the most sensitive and reliable detection under conditions where the rooms have unpredictable release locations and significant spatial variability in aerosol concentrations after releases, and where CAMs cannot be located in front of exhaust registers without blocking worker walkways. Despite designs to minimize particle loss in tubes, aerosol transport model predictions suggest losses occur lowering the sensitivity of CAMs to accidentally released plutonium aerosol. The goal of this study was to test the hypotheses that the reliability, speed, and sensitivity of aerosol detection would be equal whether the sample was extracted from the front of the exhaust register or from the wall location of CAMs. Polydisperse oil aerosols were released from multiple locations in two plutonium laboratories to simulate plutonium aerosol releases. Networked laser particle counters (LPCs) were positioned to simultaneously measure time-resolved aerosol concentrations at each exhaust register (representative of sampling with transport tubes) and at each wall-mounted CAM location (representative of sampling without transport tubes). Results showed no significant differences in detection reliability, speed, or sensitivity for LPCs positioned at exhaust locations when compared to LPCs positioned at the CAM wall location. Therefore, elimination of transport tubes would likely improve CAM performance.

Factors that affect alpha particle detection in continuous air monitor applications.

An experimental study was conducted to characterize the full-width half-maximum values, peak shapes, and peak shifts of the energy spectra from alpha emitters in the forms of particulate matter on sampling filters and electro-deposited plated sources. Monodisperse 1.0-microns anhydrous uranium acetate aerosol particles were collected on seven types of sampling filters. Full-width half-maximum values at atmospheric pressure varied from 373 keV for a 3-microns pore size Fluoropore filter to 584 keV for a glass fiber filter. Monodisperse uranium acetate aerosols from 1.2-8.1 microns were collected on Millipore 1.2-microns pore size membrane filters to examine the self-absorption effect. Under vacuum, the corresponding full-width half-maximum values ranged from 241-1,011 keV. Successively heavier mass loadings of monodisperse 1.8-microns uranium acetate particles from 13.7-127 micrograms cm-2 caused the values to increase from 420 to 580 keV. With an electroplated 23.9-mm-diameter 239Pu source and a 25.4-mm detector, the distance between source and detector was incrementally increased from 3.2 to 6.4 mm--a range of distances that is typical of those found in alpha continuous air monitors. At atmospheric pressure, the values increased from 280 to 330 keV and the detector efficiency decreased from 30.5% to 20.9%. Tests with various sizes of sources and detectors suggest that a continuous air monitor should be designed so that the two are of approximately equal size.

Evaluation of continuous air monitor placement in a plutonium facility.

Department of Energy appraisers found continuous air monitors at Department of Energy plutonium facilities alarmed less than 30% of the time when integrated room plutonium air concentrations exceeded 500 DAC-hours. Without other interventions, this alarm percentage suggests the possibility that workers could be exposed to high airborne concentrations without continuous air monitor alarms. Past research has shown that placement of continuous air monitors is a critical component in rapid and reliable detection of airborne releases. At Los Alamos National Laboratory and many other Department of Energy plutonium facilities, continuous air monitors have been primarily placed at ventilation exhaust points. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of exhaust register placement of workplace continuous air monitors with other sampling locations. Polydisperse oil aerosols were released from multiple locations in two plutonium laboratories at Los Alamos National Laboratory. An array of laser particle counters positioned in the rooms measured time-resolved aerosol dispersion. Results showed alternative placement of air samplers generally resulted in aerosol detection that was faster, often more sensitive, and equally reliable compared with samplers at exhaust registers.

A continuous sampler with background suppression for monitoring alpha-emitting aerosol particles.

A continuous air monitor has been developed that includes provisions for improving the detection of alpha-emitting aerosol particles in the presence of radon/thoron progeny that are unattached to ambient aerosol particles. Wind tunnel tests show that 80% of 10-microns aerodynamic equivalent diameter particles penetrate the flow system from the ambient air to the collection filter when the flow rate is 57 L min-1 (2 cfm) and the wind speed is 1 m s-1. Uniformity of aerosol collection on the filter, as characterized by the coefficient of variation of the areal density deposits, is less than 15% for 10-microns aerodynamic-equivalent-diameter aerosol particles. Tests with unattached radon daughters in a flow-through chamber showed that approximately 99% of the 218Po was removed by an inlet screen that is designed to collect radon daughters that are in the size range of molecular clusters. The inlet screen offers the opportunity to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of energy spectra in the regions of interest (subranges of the energy spectrum) of transuranic elements and thereby enhance the performance of background compensation algorithms.

Micrometer-sized short-lived radioactive aerosol particles for convenient use in laboratory measurements.

For calibration and testing of radioactive aerosol measuring equipment such as continuous air monitors and cascade impactors, and other research applications, it is helpful to have a convenient and relatively safe means of producing radioactive aerosol particles of controlled size and activity. We describe a technique for producing such particles in the micrometer-diameter size range using electrostatic deposition of radon decay products onto otherwise nonradioactive powders of different sizes. An electric field focuses radon decay products (primarily 218Po) onto the surface of a powdered substrate that is then suspended by a technique such as pneumatic dry dispersion. Only a modest-activity commercial 222Rn source (e.g., containing as little as 10(5) Bq of 226Ra) is required, and issues of radioactive cleanup and contamination are minimized due to the short half-lives (26.8 min or less) of the decay products. We report representative results using powders of glass beads, iron oxide, and iron and gold metals in the size range of 0.3 to 30 microm. Yields for the deposited radioactivity per unit concentration of 222Rn gas were of the order of 5 x 10(-7) Bq (214Bi) per milligram substrate per Bq m(-3) of 222Rn for an electrostatic collection time of 30 min.

Single point aerosol sampling: evaluation of mixing and probe performance in a nuclear stack.

Alternative reference methodologies have been developed for sampling of radionuclides from stacks and ducts, which differ from the methods previously required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. These alternative reference methodologies have recently been approved by the U.S. EPA for use in lieu of the current standard techniques. The standard EPA methods are prescriptive in selection of sampling locations and in design of sampling probes whereas the alternative reference methodologies are performance driven. Tests were conducted in a stack at Los Alamos National Laboratory to demonstrate the efficacy of some aspects of the alternative reference methodologies. Coefficients of variation of velocity, tracer gas, and aerosol particle profiles were determined at three sampling locations. Results showed that numerical criteria placed upon the coefficients of variation by the alternative reference methodologies were met at sampling stations located 9 and 14 stack diameters from the flow entrance, but not at a location that was 1.5 diameters downstream from the inlet. Experiments were conducted to characterize the transmission of 10 microns aerodynamic diameter liquid aerosol particles through three types of sampling probes. The transmission ratio (ratio of aerosol concentration at the probe exit plane to the concentration in the free stream) was 107% for a 113 L min-1 (4-cfm) anisokinetic shrouded probe, but only 20% for an isokinetic probe that follows the existing EPA standard requirements. A specially designed isokinetic probe showed a transmission ratio of 63%. The shrouded probe performance would conform to the alternative reference methodologies criteria; however, the isokinetic probes would not.

Chemical incident planning: a review of the literature.

Chemical incidents cause problems for Accident and Emergency (A & E) departments which are different from those recognized in other major accidents. As well as possible trauma there is the added problem of contamination. A & E departments must be prepared for chemical disasters with a chemical incident plan, decontamination facilities and protective clothing for all staff involved. The plan should include how to protect the hospital from contamination and how to prevent its personnel from becoming secondary casualties. The results of a survey into the preparedness of inner London A & E departments were published in issue 6.2 of this journal, April 1998. On 20 March, 1995 a religious cult released a nerve gas (sarin) into the Tokyo subway system. More than 5500 people needed hospital treatment and 11 people died (Reuter News Service, 22 March, 1995). The hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties. Once chemical exposure of victims was suspected, clothing was removed and patients were showered. Stretcher patients were decontaminated by means of bed bathing and a change of bedclothes (Okumura et al 1996). Hospital contamination was a problem during this incident due to the delay in recognising chemical exposure. This resulted in staff contamination. Many lessons were learned from this disaster, including the need to be prepared for all eventualities. If a similar incident occurred in the London Underground system, it would be catastrophic. Underground staff, police, fire fighters, ambulance staff and the general public could all be contaminated before the chemical was identified. There could be mass casualties, including personnel in the emergency services. How would London A & E departments cope, faced with a chemical disaster such as this?

An economic evaluation of estrous synchronization and timed artificial insemination in suckled beef cows.

Partial budget analysis was used to determine the economic outcome of estrus synchronization (ES) and timed artificial insemination (TAI) in commercial cow-calf production. Suckled beef cows (n = 1,197) from 8 locations were assigned randomly within each location to 1 of 2 treatment groups: 1) cows were inseminated artificially after synchronization of ovulation using the CO-Synch + CIDR protocol, which includes a 100-µg injection of GnRH (OvaCyst; TevaAnimal Health, St. Joseph, MO) when a controlled internal drug-releasing device (CIDR; Pfizer Animal Health, New York, NY) containing 1.38 g of progesterone was inserted. The CIDR was removed 7 d later, and cows received a 25-mg injection of PGF(2α) (PGF; Lutalyse; Pfizer Animal Health), followed in 66 h with TAI and a second 100-µg injection of GnRH (TAI; n = 582), and 2) cows were exposed to natural service (NS) without estrous synchronization (Control; n = 615). Within each herd, cows from both treatments were maintained together in similar pastures and were exposed to bulls 12 h after the last cow in the TAI treatment was inseminated. Overall, the percentage of cows exposed to treatments that subsequently weaned a calf was greater (P < 0.05) for TAI (84%) than Control (78%) cows. In addition, survival analysis demonstrated that cumulative calving distribution differed (P < 0.05) between the TAI and Control treatments. Weaning weights per cow exposed to treatments were greater (P < 0.01) for cows in the TAI treatment (193.4 ± 4.3 kg) than those cows in the Control treatment (175.9 ± 4.3 kg). Overall, increased returns plus decreased costs ($82.32) minus decreased returns plus increased costs ($33.18) resulted in a $49.14 advantage per exposed cow in the TAI treatment compared with the Control treatment. Location greatly influenced weaned calf weights, which may have been a result of differing management, nutrition, genetic selection, production goals, and environments. We concluded that ES and TAI had a positive economic impact on subsequent weaning weights of exposed cows.

Embryo production in superovulated Angus cows inseminated four times with sexed-sorted or conventional, frozen-thawed semen.

This study tested the hypothesis that four inseminations of commercially frozen sexed semen (>or=2.1x10(6) sperm per 0.25-mL straw) in superstimulated embryo donors would yield a percentage and quantity of transferable embryos similar to that achieved with conventional frozen semen. Bos taurus, angus cows (n=32), stratified by age and body condition, were randomly allocated to receive four inseminations of frozen-thawed semen, either conventional semen (>or=15x10(6) sperm/straw; Conventional) or sexed semen (>or=2.1x10(6) sperm/straw; Sexed) from one of two AI sires. From 10 to 13 d after estrus, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) was given twice-daily, with prostaglandin F(2alpha) given twice on the last day. Cows were inseminated once (1x) at first detected estrus and twice (2x) and once (1x) at 12 and 24h later, respectively, with nonsurgical embryo recovery 7 d after first detected estrus. The study was repeated 30 d later (switch-back experimental design). The total number of ova per flush was similar between Conventional and Sexed treatments (10.9+/-1.8 vs. 10.5+/-1.6), but the number of Grade 1 embryos was greater (P<0.01) for Conventional (4.3+/-0.8 vs. 2.3+/-0.7). Conversely, the mean number of unfertilized ova was greater (P<0.05) for Sexed (5.6+/-1.0 vs. 3.0+/-1.2). There was no significant difference between treatments for numbers of degenerate, Grades 2 or 3, and transferable embryos and no significant differences between bulls in percentage of transferable embryos (44.4% and 46.7%). However, fertilization rates and percentage of transferable embryos were affected (P<0.05) by period and donor. In conclusion, superstimulated donor cows inseminated four times had fewer Grade 1 embryos and more unfertilized ova with sexed versus conventional semen.

Molecular modeling of the conformational and sodium ion binding properties of the oligosaccharide component of ganglioside GM1.

The receptor-like recognition behavior of the GM1 ganglioside has been examined theoretically in terms of conformational and binding properties. Modeling was conducted at two limiting conditions of dielectric constant in order to determine sensitivity to scaling of coulombic interactions. A systematic conformational search of the GM1 oligosaccharide in the absence of explicit solvent molecules indicates that there are many inherently low energy conformational states. Up to 39 conformers were found with energies within 5 kcal/mole of the observed lowest energy conformer. Using a dielectric constant of 80, a systematic search of sodium binding sites on GM1 identified 37 sites where a positively charged group might bind, while at least 12 sites were identified using a dielectric constant of 1. Notably important binding sites include pockets formed by the proximity of glycosidic (O1), sugar ring (O5), and exocyclic methylene hydroxyl (OH6) oxygens on the sugars. The oxygens of acetyl groups attached to sugars also contribute to the binding. Direct coordination with the carboxylate of sialic acid is not a prerequisite for cationic binding. The large number of conformational states and binding sites for the GM1 oligosaccharide are paradoxical to the specific recognition behavior of the molecule. This paradox can be explained in terms of bridging ligands, which are found from molecular dynamics to be capable of stabilizing molecular conformation.

Room airflow studies using sonic anemometry.

To ensure prompt response by real-time air monitors to an accidental release of toxic aerosols in a workplace, safety professionals should understand airflow patterns. This understanding can be achieved with validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer simulations, or with experimental techniques, such as measurements with smoke, neutrally buoyant markers, trace gases, or trace aerosol particles. As a supplementary technique to quantify airflows, the use of a state-of-the art, three-dimensional sonic anemometer was explored. This instrument allows for the precise measurements of the air-velocity vector components in the range of a few centimeters per second, which is common in many indoor work environments. Measurements of air velocities and directions at selected locations were made for the purpose of providing data for characterizing fundamental aspects of indoor air movement in two ventilated rooms and for comparison to CFD model predictions. One room was a mockup of a plutonium workroom, and the other was an actual functioning plutonium workroom. In the mockup room, air-velocity vector components were measured at 19 locations at three heights (60, 120 and 180 cm) with average velocities varying from 1.4 cm s-1 to 9.7 cm s-1. There were complex flow patterns observed with turbulence intensities from 39% up to 108%. In the plutonium workroom, measurements were made at the breathing-zone height, recording average velocities ranging from 9.9 cm s-1 to 35.5 cm s-1 with turbulence intensities from 33% to 108%.