Status of Activities on Rehabilitation Of Radioactively Contaminated Facilities and the Site of Russian Research Center ''Kurchatov Institute''

This paper describes the program, the status, and the course of activities on rehabilitation of radioactively contaminated facilities and the territory of temporary radioactive waste (radwaste) disposal at the Russian Research Center ''Kurchatov Institute'' (RRC KI) in Moscow as performed in 2001-2002. The accumulation of significant amounts of radwaste at RRC KI territory is shown to be the inevitable result of Institute's activity performed in the days of former USSR nuclear weapons project and multiple initial nuclear power projects (performed from 1950's to early 1970's). A characterization of RRC KI temporary radwaste disposal site is given. Described is the system of radiation control and monitoring as implemented on this site. A potential hazard of adverse impacts on the environment and population of the nearby housing area is noted, which is due to possible spread of the radioactive plume by subsoil waters. A description of the concept and project of the RRC KI temporary radwaste disposal site is presented. Specific nature of the activities planned and performed stems from the nearness of housing area. This paper describes main stages of the planned activities for rehabilitation, their expected terms and sources of funding, as well as current status of the project advancement. Outlined are the problems faced in the performance and planning of works. The latter include: diagnostics of the concrete-grouted repositories, dust-suppression technologies, packaging of the fragmented ILW and HLW, soil clean-up, radioactive plume spread prevention, broad radiation monitoring of the work zone and environment in the performance of rehabilitation works. Noted is the intention of RRC KI to establish cooperation with foreign, first of all, the U.S. partners for the solution of problems mentioned above

Prognosis of radionuclid contamination spreading on the site of Temporary Waste Storage of RRC “Kurchatov Institute"

In a period between 1943 and 1974 radioactive wastes were temporary buried on a special site on the territory of RRC “Kurchatov Institute". The site monitoring held since the end of the 80s showed that contaminants are located not only on the surface and in the ground but they have also spread in groundwater. The paper presents preliminary results of the work on development of numerical models of radioactive contamination migration the waste disposal site. The objectives of the work were to evaluate the existing contamination plume, to determine mechanisms of contaminant migration on the site and to develop a numerical model of radioactive contamination transport that would allow correctly predicting further plume spreading for making necessary engineering decisions. Based on laboratory findings and radiation monitoring data obtained at the waste disposal site and its adjacent areas, there were determined the site hydrogeological structure and parameters, and a geoinformation database was developed. Three-dimensional numerical models of groundwater flow (using the MODFLOW code) and mass transport (using the MT3DMS code) were built and verified against field measurements. Using these models, preliminary predictions of radionuclide migration from the waste disposal site were made

Highly Conserved Elements and Chromosome Structure Evolution in Mitochondrial Genomes in Ciliates

Recent phylogenetic analyses are incorporating ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and highly conserved elements (HCEs). Models of evolution of the genome structure and HCEs initially faced considerable algorithmic challenges, which gave rise to (often unnatural) constraints on these models, even for conceptually simple tasks such as the calculation of distance between two structures or the identification of UCEs. In our recent works, these constraints have been addressed with fast and efficient solutions with no constraints on the underlying models. These approaches have led us to an unexpected result: for some organelles and taxa, the genome structure and HCE set, despite themselves containing relatively little information, still adequately resolve the evolution of species. We also used the HCE identification to search for promoters and regulatory elements that characterize the functional evolution of the genome

Anomalously wide continuous tuning range of the emission frequency of an injection laser with an external selective resonator

A study was made of an anomalously wide continuous tuning range of the emission frequency of an injection laser with an external resonator operating under conditions of self-stabilized single-frequency lasing. The self-stabilization was observed for a large number of lasers with different structures, both at room and liquid nitrogen temperatures. A study was made of the influence of the power, degree of coupling with the external part of the laser, resonator length, and pass band of a selective component on the continuous tuning range. In the self-stabilization regime this range was 10-30 times greater than the corresponding range for a laser operating under conventional conditions. A nontrivial feature of hopping between longitudinal laser modes at the limit of the tuning range was observed. This feature was explained on the basis of a theory proposed by Bogatov, Eliseev, Okhotnikov, Rakhval'skii, and Khairetdinov [Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 13 , 1221 (1983)]