Personal nuclear accident dosimetry at Sandia National Laboratories

DOE installations possessing sufficient quantities of fissile material to potentially constitute a critical mass, such that the excessive exposure of personnel to radiation from a nuclear accident is possible, are required to provide nuclear accident dosimetry services. This document describes the personal nuclear accident dosimeter (PNAD) used by SNL and prescribes methodologies to initially screen, and to process PNAD results. In addition, this report describes PNAD dosimetry results obtained during the Nuclear Accident Dosimeter Intercomparison Study (NAD23), held during 12-16 June 1995, at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Biases for reported neutron doses ranged from -6% to +36% with an average bias of +12%

Seroepidemiology of rubella, measles, HBV, HCV and B19 virus within women in child bearing ages (Saravan City of Sistan and Bloochastan Province)

Present survey basically focused on women between 15-45 years of age resident in a town of Sistan and Baluchistan province named as Saravan city located in border of Pakistan-Iran in order to find out the seropositivity against the viruses in child bearing ages in the above stated under study community. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried-out from 2001 up to 2002. Saravan town was divided into 4 geographical areas and each area was further sub-divided into 10 blocks and in each block 10 families were chosen randomly. In the next step by referring to each family from the chosen married women with specified age i.e., 15-45 years, 5 mL blood was collected. Serum was then separated and stored at -20°C before the assay. ELISA kit was employed to detect anti B19, anti rubella, anti measles, anti HBV and anti HCV antibody. Furthermore during samples collection a questionnaire filled for each woman under study. This study showed that 89.6% of women understudy were seropositive against measles, rubella (96.2%), B19 (59.2%), HCV (0.8%) and HBV (19.8%), respectively. According to the results of no serious problem with rubella in this area; But, about measles, the present immunity against measles in this area is insufficient. It seems that incidence of B19 infection in this region is same as other places in Iran. The rate of seropositivity against HBV and HCV indicated of these viruses circulating in the population in this area. © 2007 Academic Journals

Direct analysis of air filter samples for alpha emitting isotopes

The traditional method for determination of alpha emitting isotopes on air filters has been to process the samples by radiochemical methods. However, this method is too slow for cases of incidents involving radioactive materials where the determination of personnel received dose is urgent. A method is developed to directly analyze the air filters taken from personal and area air monitors. The site knowledge is used in combination with alpha spectral information to identify isotopes. A mathematical function is developed to estimate the activity for each isotope. The strengths and weaknesses of the method are discussed

Interaction of relativistic H sup minus ions with thin foils

The response of relativistic H{sup {minus}} ions to thin carbon foils was investigated for beam energies ranging from 226 MeV to 800 MeV. For the foil thicknesses we have studied, ranging from 15 to 300 {mu}g/cm{sup 2}, an appreciable fraction of the H{sup {minus}} beam survives intact, some H{sup {minus}} ions are stripped down to protons, and the remainder is distributed over the states of H{sup 0}. This experiment is different from the low energy studies in that the projectile velocity is comparable to the speed of light, leading to an interaction time of typically less than a femtosecond. The present results challenge the theoretical understanding of the interaction mechanisms. An electron spectrometer was used to selectively field-ionize the Rydberg states, 9 < n < 17, at beam energies of 581 MeV and 800 MeV. The yield of low-lying states were measured by Doppler tuning a Nd:YAG laser to excite transitions to a Rydberg state which was then field-ionized and detected. A simple model is developed to fit the yield of each state as a function of foil thickness. The simple model is successful in predicting the general features of the yield data. However, the data are suggestive of a more complex structure in the yield curves. The yield of a given state depends strongly on the foil thickness, demonstrating that the excited states are formed during the passage of the ions through a foil. The optimum thickness to produce a given state increases with the principal quantum number of the state suggesting an excitation process which is at least pratially stepwise. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation are compared with the experimental data to estimate the distribution of the excited states coming out of a foil. The distributions of the excited states and their dependence on foil thickness are discussed

Observation of excited H/sup 0/ atoms produced by relativistic H/sup /minus// ions in carbon and formvar foils

We have measured the relative yield of several low-lying excited states of neutral hydrogen atoms produced by the passage of 226-MeV and 581-MeV H/sup /minus// ions through thin carbon foils and a tilted formvar foil. The relative yields of H/sup /minus///sub /asterisk//(n = 2,3, 4) were measured for 17 different carbon foils ranging in thickness from 662 /angstrom/ to 5386 /angstrom/ at 581 MeV. The relative yield of H/sup 0//sup /asterisk//(n = 2) was also measured for these carbon foils at 226 MeV. These data exhibit a significant deviation from a simple yield curve indicating that a more complex mechanism than has previously been thought is responsible for producing the excited states. The relative yields of H/sup 0//sup /asterisk//(n = 2,3) were measured for a tilting formvar foil at 226 MeV; unexplained dips appear at incidence angles of /theta/ /approx/ 12/degree/ and /theta/ /approx/ 15/degree/ in the yield of n=2 and n=3 states, respectively. 19 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab