71 research outputs found

    Hanford Waste Physical and Rheological Properties: Data and Gaps

    Get PDF
    The Hanford Site in Washington State manages 177 underground storage tanks containing approximately 250,000 m3 of waste generated during past defense reprocessing and waste management operations. These tanks contain a mixture of sludge, saltcake and supernatant liquids. The insoluble sludge fraction of the waste consists of metal oxides and hydroxides and contains the bulk of many radionuclides such as the transuranic components and 90Sr. The saltcake, generated by extensive evaporation of aqueous solutions, consists primarily of dried sodium salts. The supernates consist of concentrated (5-15 M) aqueous solutions of sodium and potassium salts. The 177 storage tanks include 149 single-shell tanks (SSTs) and 28 double -hell tanks (DSTs). Ultimately the wastes need to be retrieved from the tanks for treatment and disposal. The SSTs contain minimal amounts of liquid wastes, and the Tank Operations Contractor is continuing a program of moving solid wastes from SSTs to interim storage in the DSTs. The Hanford DST system provides the staging location for waste feed delivery to the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s (ORP) Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP is being designed and constructed to pretreat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks

    Leaf trichomes and foliar chemistry mediate defence against glasshouse thrips; Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Bouché) in Rhododendron simsii

    Get PDF
    Herbivore defence mechanisms are a costly diversion of resources away from growth and reproduction. Thus time-limited and tissue specific expression in critical plant parts is more efficient as defined by optimal defence theory. Surprisingly little is known about Rhododendron herbivore defence but it may be mediated by combined chemical and physical mechanisms. Rhododendron simsii Planch. survives cyclic infestations of a leaf-feeding thrips, Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis, which severely damage mature leaves but avoid terminal young leaves suggesting specific, localised defence expression. We examined correlations between the distribution of thrips and feeding damage with density of trichomes and the concentration of the diterpenoid, grayanotoxin I, a compound implicated in but not previously reported to meditate invertebrate defence in Rhododendron. Our data show that as leaves matured the number of thrips and area of feeding damage increased as trichome density and grayanotoxin I concentration decreased, this inverse correlation 10 suggesting trichomes and grayanotoxin I mediate defence in younger leaf tissue. Grayanotoxin I was tested against H. haemorrhoidalis and was toxic to immature life stages and repellent to the adult thrips, reducing numbers of first instars emerging on leaves when applied at ecologically relevant concentrations. This work demonstrates that the pattern of defensive traits in foliage of a species of Rhododendron is key to its ability to tolerate cyclic infestations of a generalist herbivore, effectively conserving vital tissues required for growth and reproduction

    Purely ornamental? Public perceptions of distributed energy storage in the United Kingdom

    Get PDF
    Distributed energy storage technologies (DES) are expected to help in decarbonising the power sector, decentralising power sources and meeting the mismatch between the produced and consumed energy. However, the likelihood of the use and acceptance of these technologies will partly hinge on public perceptions. Here, we present results of three focus groups and dialogue from the city of Leeds (UK) held with members the lay public with and without personal experience of technology (photovoltaic panels) about public perceptions of distributed energy storage technologies at household and community scale. We apply and adapt the Energy Cultures framework, which was initially developed for understanding energy behaviours as mediated by individual psychological factors, by practice-based, energy-related culture and infrastructural elements. Accordingly, we connect what people think, do and have in energy contexts, to better understand perceptions of DES technologies as part of a broader renewable energy landscape (culture) that is both materially and socially constructed. We show how a variety of elements such as forms of energy consumption; costs; expectations of family members; previous experiences; perceptions of government and the municipal authority; and expectations about the technologies, are likely to shape acceptance and adoption of battery storage at the household and community level

    Glutamine Synthetase of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia

    No full text
    • …
    corecore