Deep Well Injection of Liquid Radioactive Waste at Krasnoyarsk-26

Early methods of radioactive waste (RW) management in the former Soviet Union (FSU) were plagued with serious problems, which eventually prompted investigations into RW disposal methods that could provide a more reliable isolation of wastes from humans and the accessible environment. Deep well injection was chosen as a potential method of RW disposal, and, after extensive testing of the concept and numerous calculations of the likely consequences, discharges into deep geological formations at Krasnoyarsk-26 began between 1967 and 1969. This study was initiated because there were no published, independent assessments of the deep well injection systems at Krasnoyarsk-26 that used site-specific geology and data. The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), in cooperation with Russian experts, undertook independent analyses of waste migration at the site, using data gathered by official Russian organizations over a 40-year period of exploration and exploitation of the repositories. The results of the modeling efforts carried out by IIASA and the Russian organizations -- VNIPIPT and IGEM -- indicate that the existing system of deep well injection at Krasnoyarsk is functioning as designed. Under the current best understanding of site conditions, there is very little likelihood that the injected wastes would reach the earth's surface prior to the time that the radioactive materials had been absorbed, decayed, or dispersed to concentrations far below standards set for drinking water

Deep Well Injection of Liquid Radioactive Waste at Krasnoyarsk-26: Analysis of Hypothetical Scenarios. Volume II

The Mining and Chemical Combine (MCC), located approximately 60 km north of the city of Krasnoyarsk,is one of two major sites in the Russian Federation where liquid radioactive wastes (LRW) are disposed of by deep well injection. Disposal of LRW at the MCC through the use of deep well injectio started in 1967. The Severny ("Northern") site, approximately 15 km north of the MCC, was launched after the completion of special geological surveys and explorations performed by istitutions of the Ministry of Geology and Russian Academy of Sciences. The site was designed by Mintom institutions. As of 1995, 5 million cubic meters (m3) of LRW had been injected into two deep aquifers at the site. The waste includes both radioactive fission products and nonradioactive chemicas used in reprocessing of spent fuel. The total activity, decay corrected to 1995, is approximately 250 million Curies (Ci). Detailed information about radioactive waste disposal at the Severny site is presented in Volume I of this report (Compton et al., 2000), which includes an evaluation of the safety of the site under normal post-operational conditions. For further information on the background data contained in Chapter 2 of that report, see Appendix I. The subject of the current report is the likelihood and consequence of hypothetical accidents and extreme natural events after site decommissioning, including a brief overview of the factors involved in the development of decommissioning plans at the site

Zero mode effect in the 1−+1^{-+} four quark states

We calculate the masses of the $1^{-+}$ four quark states which decay dominantly into $\rho\pi$ and $\eta\pi$ respectively by QCD sum rules approach. We include the zero mode contribution and find it plays an important role in the sum rules. We predict that the masses of the states $\eta\pi$ and $\rho\pi$ both are 1.4-1.5 GeV. This is close to the experimental candidates $\pi_1(1370)$ and $\pi_1(1440)$.Comment: 5 pages, 4 Postscript figure

Constraints on Mass Spectrum of Fourth Generation Fermions and Higgs Bosons

We reanalyze constraints on the mass spectrum of the chiral fourth generation fermions and the Higgs bosons for the standard model (SM4) and the two Higgs doublet model (THDM). We find that the Higgs mass in the SM4 should be larger than roughly the fourth generation up-type quark mass, while the light CP even Higgs mass in the THDM can be smaller. Various mass spectra of the fourth generation fermions and the Higgs bosons are allowed. The phenomenology of the fourth generation models is still rich.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures; some points clarified, references added, to appear in Phys.Rev.

Quantum geometrodynamics for black holes and wormholes

The geometrodynamics of the spherical gravity with a selfgravitating thin dust shell as a source is constructed. The shell Hamiltonian constraint is derived and the corresponding Schroedinger equation is obtained. This equation appeared to be a finite differences equation. Its solutions are required to be analytic functions on the relevant Riemannian surface. The method of finding discrete spectra is suggested based on the analytic properties of the solutions. The large black hole approximation is considered and the discrete spectra for bound states of quantum black holes and wormholes are found. They depend on two quantum numbers and are, in fact, quasicontinuous.Comment: Latex, 32 pages, 5 fig

Brane-worlds and theta-vacua

Reductions from odd to even dimensionalities ($5\to 4$ or $3\to 2$), for which the effective low-energy theory contains chiral fermions, present us with a mismatch between ultraviolet and infrared anomalies. This applies to both local (gauge) and global currents; here we consider the latter case. We show that the mismatch can be explained by taking into account a change in the spectral asymmetry of the massive modes--an odd-dimensional analog of the phenomenon described by the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer theorem in even dimensionalities. The result has phenomenological implications: we present a scenario in which a QCD-like $\theta$-angle relaxes to zero on a certain (possibly, cosmological) timescale, despite the absence of any light axion-like particle.Comment: 44 pages, 4 figure