Method for rapid tritiated water extraction from environmental samples

We have developed a thermal vacuum desorption process to rapidly extract water from environmental samples for tritium analysis. Thermal vacuum desorption allows for extraction of the moisture from the sample within a few hours in a form and quantity suitable for liquid scintillation counting and allows detection of tritium at the levels of <2 Bq/l of milk, <0.5 Bq/g of vegetation, and <0.5 Bq/g of soil. We developed a prototype unit that can process batches of twenty or more samples within 24 hours. Early data shows that a high percentage of water is extracted reproducibly without enrichment or depletion of the tritium content. The quench coefficient of the extracted water is low allowing for accurate, direct liquid scintillation counting. In most samples, good comparison has been observed with results using freeze-dry lyophilization as the water extraction method     

Radioactive fallout from the chernobyl nuclear reactor accident

Following the accident at the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, in the Soviet Union on April 26, 1986, we performed a variety of measurements to determine the level of the radioactive fallout on the western United States. We used gamma-spectroscopy to analyze air filters from the areas around Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California, and Barrow and Fairbanks, Alaska. Milk from California and imported vegetables were also analyzed. The levels of the various fission products detected were far below the maximum permissable concentration levels.Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract number W-7405-ENG-48.     

Heliuim-3 mass spectrometry for low-level tritium analysis of environmental samples

Helium-3 (³He) mass spectrometry for the analysis of low-level tritium (³H) concentrations (0.5 to 5 Bq·l^–1) in environmental sample matrices was compared with conventional low-level -decay counting methods. The mass-spectrometry method compared favorably, equalling or surpassing conventional decay-counting methods with respect to most criteria. Additional research and method refinements may make³He mass spectrometry the method of choice for routine, low-level to very-low-level (L<0.5 Bq·l^–1)³H measurements in a wide variety of environmental samples in the future.     

Efficient radiation production in long implosions of structured gas-puff Z pinch loads from large initial radius

We have proposed and demonstrated successfully a new approach for generating high-yield K-shell radiation with large-diameter gas-puff Z pinches. The novel load design consists of an outer region plasma that carries the current and couples energy from the driver, an inner region plasma that stabilizes the implosion, and a high-density center jet plasma that radiates. It increased the Ar K-shell yield at 3.46 MA in 200 ns implosions from 12 cm initial diameter by a factor of 2, to 21 kJ, matching the yields obtained earlier on the same accelerator with 100 ns implosions. A new "pusher-stabilizer-radiator" physical model is advanced to explain this result.     

Anomalous scaling in epitaxial growth on vicinal surfaces: meandering and mounding instabilities in a linear growth equation with spatiotemporally correlated noise

We have undertaken an extensive analytical and kinetic Monte Carlo study of the (2+1) dimensional discrete growth model on a vicinal surface. A non-local, phenomenological continuum equation describing surface growth in unstable systems with anomalous scaling is presented. The roughness produced by unstable growth is first studied considering various effects in surface diffusion processes (corresponding to temperature, flux, diffusion anisotropy). We found that the thermally activated roughness is well-described by a generalized Lai–Das Sarma–Villain model with non linear growth continuum equation and uncorrelated noise. The corresponding critical exponents are computed analytically for the first time and show a continuous variation in agreement with simulation results of a solid-on-solid model. However, the roughness related to the meandering instability is found, unexpectedly, to be well described by a linear continuum equation with spatiotemporally correlated noise.     

Spectroscopic diagnosis of the temperature profile of an Al:MgZ-pinch

We consider the question of how the temperature profile of a Z-pinch plasma can be determined and/or constrained by the requirement that its observed K-shell spectrum be replicated. As a case study we employ spatially integrated, time-resolved K-shell data obtained from the implosion of 30-wire Al:Mg alloy arrays on the Saturn driver at Sandia National Laboratories. Given the measured pinch size, its K-shell power and line intensities are compared with the predictions of a collisional-radiative-equilibrium plasma model whose temperature profile is varied in seeking agreement with the data. The Al data rules out a large range of possible temperature profiles, but two quite different temperature distributions can both match the measurements. These are: a uniform temperature, or, one with a sharply dropping temperature near the pinch outer edge. However, the measured ratio of the Mg α resonance lines to those of Al, even though time-integrated, excludes the possibility of a uniform temperature distribution     

高效液相色谱法测定水体中的氯虫酰胺残留量

采用Kromasil C18不锈钢柱(250mm×4.6mm i.d..5μm),以甲醇-水混合溶剂(65:35,V/V)为流动相,流速1.0mL/min,光电二极管阵列检测器,检测波长236nm和柱温35C,建立了不同水体中氯虫酰胺残留的高效液相色谱分析方法.氯虫酰胺水样直接用二氯甲烷进行液-液分配萃取.在0.10-10mg/L的浓度范围内,氯虫酰胺峰面积(y)与质量浓度(x)呈现良好的相关性,其线性回归方程为y=2170.4x 2641.7,r2=0.9991.井水和池塘水中添加质量浓度为0.01-1.00mg/L时,其平均回收率分别为94.70%-100.37%和89.14%-100.22%,变异系数分别为0.81%-5.11%和1.81%-5.30%,水样中的氯虫酰胺最低检测质量浓度(LOQ)为7.5×10-3mg/L,方法快速、灵敏度高、重现性好,具有较好的准确度和精密度,可用于环境中水样和土壤样中氯虫酰胺的残留检测分析.