A Review and Comparison of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities

In 2002, the Department of Energy (DOE) released the draft Hanford Solid Waste Environmental Impact Statement (DOE 2002). That draft called for the disposal of over 12 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) at Hanford in unlined near-surface disposal trenches. The draft EIS was withdrawn by USDOE following public comment, as urged by numerous official agency, advisory board and public commentators. In April, 2003, USDOE issued the Revised Draft Hanford Solid Waste EIS, which forecast that USDOE would dispose of up to 12.3 million cubic feet of LLRW in near-surface burial trenches.1 Sixty three percent (63%) of this LLRW would be imported to Hanford for burial. At an undefined future date, the Revised Draft EIS proposed that LLRW would be buried together in new trenches with up to 5 million cubic feet of Mixed Low-Level Waste, which is Low-Level Radioactive Waste mixed with hazardous chemical wastes.2 To develop a technical position on the proposal for use of Hanford newr- surface burial for Low-Level Wastes, Heart of America NW wanted to know if the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Burial Grounds meet the basic engineering requirements for such facilities and how they compare with other similar facilities and alternative potential disposal sites available to USDOE for these wastes. As such, this report represents the first independent, publicly available Cross-Site Comparison of USDOE Low-Level Radioactive Waste Burial Ground Alternatives. Performing a complete engineering review of multiple facilities was clearly beyond the potential budget capacity so a proposal was proffered to limit the investigation to the geotechnical aspects of representative LLRW disposal facilities. This type of focused review was accomplished by visiting the sites and reviewing documentation on the sites. Performance standards and review criteria were identified and the disposal facilities were evaluated to determine how well they meet the performance standards. This is the basis for a comparison of the facilities. This report presents the results of this study. This research was completed money allocated during Round 3 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/heartofam/1000/thumbnail.jp

Groundwater Contamination Issues at Hanford and the Resulting Legal Issues and Health Risks

Pollet will discuss Hanford, which is the most contaminated area in the Western Hemisphere. He will present an overview of groundwater risk and legal issues. He will also identify potential research, clean-up, and grassroots efforts.Heart of America Northwest

Stiffness gradients in vascular bundles of the palm Washingtonia robusta

Palms can grow at sites exposed to high winds experiencing large dynamic wind and gust loads. Their stems represent a system of stiff fibrous elements embedded in the soft parenchymatous tissue. The proper design of the interface of the stiffening elements and the parenchyma is crucial for the functioning of the stem. The strategy of the palm to compromise between stiff fibre caps and the soft parenchymatous tissue may serve as a model system for avoiding stress discontinuities in inhomogeneous and anisotropic fibre-reinforced composite materials. We investigated the mechanical, structural and biochemical properties of the fibre caps of the palm Washingtonia robusta at different levels of hierarchy with high spatial resolution. A gradual decrease in stiffness across the fibre cap towards the surrounding parenchymatous tissue was observed. Structural adaptations at the tissue level were found in terms of changes in cell cross sections and cell wall thickness. At the cell wall level, gradients across the fibre cap were found in the degree of orientation of the microfibrils and in the lignin level and composition. The impact of these structural variations in the local material stiffness distribution is discussed

On the superficiality of Welsh agreement

A notable feature of Welsh is a number of agreement phenomena, all of which only occur with pronouns. Finite verbs agree with a following pronominal subject, prepositions agree with a following pronominal complement, and a particle which introduces non-finite clauses agrees with a following pronominal subject. Similarly, nouns have a preceding clitic agreeing with a following pronominal possessor, non-finite verbs have a preceding clitic agreeing with a following pronominal object, and what looks like the non-finite form of bod "be", which introduces certain subordinate clauses, has a preceding clitic agreeing with a following pronominal subject. There seems to be a single phenomenon here. Approaches that involve an abstract level face problems and there is no evidence that the phenomenon involves an abstract level. It seems quite plausible to suggest that superficial linear order is crucial, and this idea can be implemented in a straightforward way within linearization-based Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The properties of agreement also entail that unexpressed noun phrases of various kinds must be represented in the superficial constituent structure and not just at some abstract level, contrary to the view of some frameworks. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

International trends in clinical characteristics and oral anticoagulation treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation: Results from the GARFIELD-AF, ORBIT-AF I, and ORBIT-AF II registries

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in the world. We aimed to provide comprehensive data on international patterns of AF stroke prevention treatment

International trends in clinical characteristics and oral anticoagulation treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation: Results from the GARFIELD-AF, ORBIT-AF I, and ORBIT-AF II registries

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in the world. We aimed to provide comprehensive data on international patterns of AF stroke prevention treatment