The Effect of Anthropogenic CO2 and 14C Sources on the Distribution of 14C in the Atmosphere

14C measurements on continuous weekly samples of atmospheric CO2 and hydrocarbons, collected in a rather densely populated area are presented. The deviation of the measured 14C data from the clean air level is primarily due to CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels. This is confirmed by fossil fuel admixture estimates individually calculated with an atmospheric dispersion model. Up to 10 percent admixture is predicted by this model and observed from the 14C shift for weekly averages, particularly during the winter season. Natural CO2 admixture due to soil respiration, however, even in winter, is of the same order of magnitude, but much larger in the warm season: the considerable variations in CO2 concentration in summer are almost exclusively controlled by natural sources. Using tree leaf samples, we have been able to identify boiling water reactors (BWR) as weak sources of 14CO2. Atmospheric samples taken in the environment of the pressurized water reactors (PWR) Biblis show that the 14C release of these reactors is primarily in the form of hydrocarbon 14C. The source strength of the various power plants, calculated on the basis of our observations in their environment, ranges from 0.5 to 7Ci per year.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

Measurement of Small Volume Oceanic 14C Samples by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

A technique for 14C measurement of small volume (0.5L) oceanic water samples by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is described. Samples were taken from a CTD/rosette system used for standard hydrographic work. After CO2 extraction and target preparation, the samples were measured at the Zürich tandem accelerator facility. On the basis of 14C data from samples collected on a station in the northern Weddell Sea, the precision of the measurements is estimated to ca ±8‰. The error in the present AMS results is dominated by the statistical error in 14C detection. From results of duplicate targets, it is concluded that a precision of ±5° can be reached. The 14C data are discussed in relation to the Weddell Sea hydrography

Emissions from mechanically-biologically treated waste landfills at field scale

Modern waste management tends towards greater sustainability in landfilling, with the implementation of strategies such as the pretreatment of solid waste. This work assesses the behaviour of rejects from a refining stage of mechanically-biologically treated municipal solid waste at the landfill. The main results of 18 months' monitoring of an experimental pilot cell with waste from a full-scale plant are presented. This first stages are expected to be the most problematic period for this type of waste. The evolution of the temperature and the composition of leachate and gas at various points within the cell are included. During the first weeks, pollutant concentrations in the leachate exceeded the reference ranges in the literature, coinciding with a rapid onset of methanogenic conditions. However, there was a quick wash, reducing concentrations to below one third of the initial values before the first year. pH values influenced concentrations of some pollutants such as copper. These results indicate that, right from the beginning of disposal, such facilities should be prepared to treat a high pollution load in the leachate and install the gas emissions control elements due to the rapid onset of methanogenesis.This work is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through the CTM2012-35055 project. The project is financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund, FEDER (operational period 2007-2013). The authors wish to thank the Government of Cantabria, through the public company MARE, and TirCantabria, the landfill operator company, for their collaboration

Shower development of particles with momenta from 15 GeV to 150 GeV in the CALICE scintillator-tungsten hadronic calorimeter

We present a study of showers initiated by electrons, pions, kaons, and protons with momenta from 15 GeV to 150 GeV in the highly granular CALICE scintillator-tungsten analogue hadronic calorimeter. The data were recorded at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron in 2011. The analysis includes measurements of the calorimeter response to each particle type as well as measurements of the energy resolution and studies of the longitudinal and radial shower development for selected particles. The results are compared to Geant4 simulations (version 9.6.p02). In the study of the energy resolution we include previously published data with beam momenta from 1 GeV to 10 GeV recorded at the CERN Proton Synchrotron in 2010.Comment: 35 pages, 21 figures, 8 table

The Time Structure of Hadronic Showers in highly granular Calorimeters with Tungsten and Steel Absorbers

The intrinsic time structure of hadronic showers influences the timing capability and the required integration time of hadronic calorimeters in particle physics experiments, and depends on the active medium and on the absorber of the calorimeter. With the CALICE T3B experiment, a setup of 15 small plastic scintillator tiles read out with Silicon Photomultipliers, the time structure of showers is measured on a statistical basis with high spatial and temporal resolution in sampling calorimeters with tungsten and steel absorbers. The results are compared to GEANT4 (version 9.4 patch 03) simulations with different hadronic physics models. These comparisons demonstrate the importance of using high precision treatment of low-energy neutrons for tungsten absorbers, while an overall good agreement between data and simulations for all considered models is observed for steel.Comment: 24 pages including author list, 9 figures, published in JINS

Megahertz pulse trains enable multi-hit serial femtosecond crystallography experiments at X-ray free electron lasers

The European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) and Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) II are extremely intense sources of X-rays capable of generating Serial Femtosecond Crystallography (SFX) data at megahertz (MHz) repetition rates. Previous work has shown that it is possible to use consecutive X-ray pulses to collect diffraction patterns from individual crystals. Here, we exploit the MHz pulse structure of the European XFEL to obtain two complete datasets from the same lysozyme crystal, first hit and the second hit, before it exits the beam. The two datasets, separated by <1 µs, yield up to 2.1 Å resolution structures. Comparisons between the two structures reveal no indications of radiation damage or significant changes within the active site, consistent with the calculated dose estimates. This demonstrates MHz SFX can be used as a tool for tracking sub-microsecond structural changes in individual single crystals, a technique we refer to as multi-hit SFX