RESUMEN
The time necessary to safely cultivate agricultural areas after they have been contaminated by radioactivity (e.g. after the Chernobyl accident) is not determined by the physical half-life of the radioactive isotopes in question but by their (usually much shorter) ecological half-life (Brisbin et al., 2002). This half-life not only depends on the type of soil but also on whether the soil was fertilized or not. Therefore it is not possible to determine an ecological half-life that is universally valid. However, the value for undisturbed, unfertilized soil should provide a general indication for the duration of ecological half-life. In a silt soil in Vienna, Austria, the ecological half-life of (137)Cs was determined to be 0.8 years, which is much shorter than the physical half-life of 30 years.
Asunto(s)
Radioisótopos de Cesio/farmacocinética , Contaminantes Radiactivos del Suelo/farmacocinética , SemividaRESUMEN
The HYDAD-D landmine detector (Brooks and Drosg, 2005) has been modified and field-tested for 17 months in a variety of soil conditions. Test objects containing about the same mass of hydrogen (20g) as small explosive remnants of war, such as antipersonnel landmines, were detected with efficiency 100% when buried at cover depths up to 10cm. The false alarm rate under the same conditions was 9%. Plots of detection efficiency versus false alarm rate are presented.
Asunto(s)
Sustancias Explosivas/análisis , Análisis de Activación de Neutrones/instrumentación , Neutrones , Suelo/análisis , Transductores , Guerra , Armas , Análisis de Activación de Neutrones/métodosRESUMEN
HYDAD (HYdrogen Density Anomaly Detection) systems have been developed to detect small (>200 g) antipersonnel landmines (APM) of plastic construction. The HYDAD-D detector is based on the earlier HYDAD designs HYDAD-H and HYDAD-VM. It consists of a neutron source and two identical slow neutron detectors. The difference between the responses of the two detectors is monitored as a function of position in the minefield and APM detection is based on an analysis of this difference. Laboratory tests and Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that HYDAD-D is capable of detecting the IAEA standard dummy landmine DLM2 at burial depths up to 23 cm in dry sand and at burial depths up to 7 cm in damp sand containing 12% (by mass) water.
Asunto(s)
Explosiones/prevención & control , Neutrones , Diseño de Equipo , Fantasmas de Imagen , Dispersión de RadiaciónRESUMEN
Monte Carlo simulations were used to show that even very small explosives (<100g) can be detected by monoenergetic neutron backscattering with resonance penetration (MNBRP) at a depth well beyond 30 cm when time slicing is used for background suppression. At the present state of technology no other nuclear method appears to have a comparable sensitivity or penetration capability. This method has been successfully tested experimentally at a depth of 16.5 cm. A substantial simplification of the detection procedure could be achieved either by taking advantage of the time shadow rather than the geometric shadow or by applying neutron threshold detectors. Using a threshold detector could simplify the application, too.
Asunto(s)
Explosiones/prevención & control , Neutrones , Método de Montecarlo , Dispersión de RadiaciónRESUMEN
Four methods for employing neutrons to detect abandoned small anti-personnel landmines are presented and discussed. The techniques used are based on measurements of effects due to the scattering of neutrons on the hydrogen content of the landmine.