Surface Environmental Surveillance Procedures Manual

Environmental surveillance data are used in assessing the impact of current and past site operations on human health and the environment, demonstrating compliance with applicable local, state, and federal environmental regulations, and verifying the adequacy of containment and effluent controls. SESP sampling schedules are reviewed, revised, and published each calendar year in the Hanford Site Environmental Surveillance Master Sampling Schedule. Environmental samples are collected by SESP staff in accordance with the approved sample collection procedures documented in this manual

Demographic characteristics of Australian humpback dolphins reveal important habitat toward the southwestern limit of their range

Open Access under Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are un-restricted. Authors and original publication must be credited.ABSTRACT: The paucity of information on the recently described Australian humpback dolphin Sousa sahulensis has hindered assessment of its conservation status. Here, we applied capture-recapture models to photo-identification data collected during boat-based surveys between 2013 and 2015 to estimate the abundance, site fidelity and residence patterns of Australian humpback dolphins around the North West Cape (NWC), Western Australia. Using Pollock’s closed robust design, abundance estimates varied from 65 to 102 individuals, and POPAN open modelling yielded a super-population size of 129 individuals in the 130 km2 study area. At approximately 1 humpback dolphin per km2, this density is the highest recorded for this species. Temporary emigration was Markovian, suggesting seasonal movement in and out of the study area. Hierarchical clustering showed that 63% of individuals identified exhibited high levels of site fidelity. Analysis of lagged identification rates indicated dolphins use the study area regularly, following a movement model characterised by emigration and re-immigration. These density, site fidelity and residence patterns indicate that the NWC is an important habitat toward the southwestern limit of this species’ range. Much of the NWC study area lies within a Marine Protected Area, offering a regulatory framework on which to base the management of human activities with the potential to impact this threatened species. Our methods provide a methodological framework to be used in future environmental impact assessments, and our findings represent a baseline from which to develop long-term studies to gain a more complete understanding of Australian humpback dolphin population dynamics

In Situ Characterisation of Permanent Magnetic Quadrupoles for focussing proton beams

High intensity laser driven proton beams are at present receiving much attention. The reasons for this are many but high on the list is the potential to produce compact accelerators. However two of the limitations of this technology is that unlike conventional nuclear RF accelerators lasers produce diverging beams with an exponential energy distribution. A number of different approaches have been attempted to monochromise these beams but it has become obvious that magnetic spectrometer technology developed over many years by nuclear physicists to transport and focus proton beams could play an important role for this purpose. This paper deals with the design and characterisation of a magnetic quadrupole system which will attempt to focus and transport laser-accelerated proton beams.Comment: 20 pages, 42 figure

Hanford Site environmental report for calendar year 1995

The Hanford Site Environmental Report is prepared annually to summarize environmental data and information, describe environmental management performance, and demonstrate the status of compliance with environmental regulations. It also highlights environmental programs and efforts. It is written to meet reporting requirements and guidelines of DOE and to meet the needs of the public. Individual sections are designed to describe the Hanford Site and its mission, summarize the status in 1995 of compliance, describe the environmental programs, discuss estimated radionuclide exposure to the public from 1995 Hanford activities, present information on effluent monitoring and environmental surveillance (including ground- water protection and monitoring), and discuss activities to ensure quality

Quasiperiodicity and non-computability in tilings

We study tilings of the plane that combine strong properties of different nature: combinatorial and algorithmic. We prove existence of a tile set that accepts only quasiperiodic and non-recursive tilings. Our construction is based on the fixed point construction; we improve this general technique and make it enforce the property of local regularity of tilings needed for quasiperiodicity. We prove also a stronger result: any effectively closed set can be recursively transformed into a tile set so that the Turing degrees of the resulted tilings consists exactly of the upper cone based on the Turing degrees of the later.Comment: v3: the version accepted to MFCS 201

Benefits of a marketing cooperative in transition agriculture: Mórakert purchasing and service co-operative

The paper analyses the potential benefits of marketing cooperatives in Hungary, employing a transaction cost economics framework. We found that the purchased quantity, the existence of contracts, flexibility and trust are the most important factors farmers consider when selling their products via a cooperative. The most striking result is that diversification has positive influences on the share of cooperatives in farmers’ sale. Furthermore, farmers with larger bargaining power have less willingness to sell their product to the cooperative. Surprisingly, asset specificity has rather negative effects on the share of cooperatives in members’ sales

A guide to environmental monitoring data, 1945--1972: Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project

This report is a guide to the work accomplished by the Environmental Monitoring Data Task, which is one of the tasks in the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) Project. The objective of the Environmental Monitoring Data Task was to recover, evaluate, process, and/or reconstruct the environmental monitoring data for the period 1945--1972. The period of time for which environmental monitoring data were sought was determined by the start-up and shut-down dates of the Hanford facilities that emitted the majority of radionuclides to the two major pathways: air and the Columbia River. Radionuclide emissions to the air were mainly the result of the operation of the chemical separations plants from 1944--1972 (Heeb 1994). Radionuclide emissions to the Columbia River were mainly the result of the operation of the single-pass production reactors from 1944--1971 (Heeb and Bates 1994). Therefore, the historical environmental monitoring data sought were for the period 1945--1972. Within the period of 1945--1972, specific periods of interest to the HEDR Project vary depending on the pathway. For example, 1945--1951 was the peak period for radionuclide emissions to the air and hence vegetation uptake of radionuclides, while 1956--1965 was the peak period for radionuclide emissions to the Columbia River and hence fish uptake of radionuclides. However, adequate historical data were not always available for the periods of interest. In the case of vegetation measurements, conversion and correction factors had to be developed to convert the historical measurements to modern standard measurements. Table S.1 lists the reports that explain these conversion and correction factors. In the case of Columbia River fish and waterfowl, bioconcentration factors were developed for use in any year where the river pathway data are insufficient

Growth of palladium nanoparticles on nanostructured highly ordered pyrolytic graphite

We report on the growth of palladium nanoparticles on the basal plane of as-cleaved highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples, and on CO2 ion sputtered nanostructured HOPG surfaces. The morphology of Pd nanostructures grown at room temperature is investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The STM observations indicate that the morphology of the Pd films is strongly dependent on the HOPG surface. Stabilized Pd particles only form on the sputtered surface, while ramified Pd particles decorate the clean HOPG terraces. The prestructuring of HOPG surface leads to a selective location of particles at the rim of the nanopits generated by the CO2 ion sputtering and annealing of the surface. The correlation between size, form, density, spatial distribution of the Pd nanoparticles and the quantity of metal added on surface is discussed. We also describe trench channeling of graphite or graphene basal planes by means of Pd nanoparticles in an ambient environment. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Palladium nano-clusters grown on prestructured HOPG substrates

The growth of Palladium nano-clusters prepared by atomic beam deposition on prestructured highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces has been investigated by means of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). Preformed nanosized pits created on the HOPG surfaces are used as localized pinning sites for Pd cluster nucleation and growth at room temperature. We succeeded in obtaining Pd clusters of nanometric size and with rather sharp size distributions. A systematic morphological study conducted by STM reveals a linear dependence between the height and the diameter of the Pd nanostructures. Finally, Pd nano-clusters stabilized on prestructured HOPG surfaces were found to be active catalysts in the Heck cross-coupling reaction