LECTURE NOTES ON THE MAJOR SOILS OF THE WORLD. Set #4 Mineral Soils conditioned by Topography Major landforms in alluvial lowlandsFluvisolsGleysolsMajor landforms in mountains and formerly glaciated regionsLeptosolsRegosols Major landforms in alluvial lowlands In the present context, the term `lowlands' refers to flat and level wetlands, commonly situated at or near sea level and consisting of mainly Holocene sediments that are too young to be strongly weathered. Such lowlands are prominent in landscapes with a fluvial, lacustrine, marine or glacial signature. Tectonic processes during the past 105-106 years had a decisive influence on the formation of lowlands, in particular in subsidence areas such as sedimentary basins and `grabens' where rivers lose much of their transport capacity as the river gradient decreases.
Loss of gradient forces many rivers to deposit their bed load and suspension load in their lower reaches. Prominent sea-level changes and climate fluctuations occurred during the past 103-105 years. Braided rivers Deltas. From dusk till dawn. Buying a Geiger Counter 101. Testing food with a Geiger counter overview. Homemade Geiger Counter. How to make a Geiger Counter. Radioecology. Radioecology is a branch of ecology, which studies how radioactive substances interact with nature; how different mechanisms affect the substances’ migration and uptake in food chain and ecosystems. Investigations in radioecology might include aspects of field sampling, designed field and laboratory experiments and the development of predictive simulation models. This science combines techniques from some of the more basic, traditional fields, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and ecology, with applied concepts in radiation protection.
Radioecological studies form the basis for estimating doses and assessing the consequences of radioactive pollution for human health and the environment. "[1] See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ IFE - Radioecology Further reading[edit] Eric Hall (2006), Radiobiology for the Radiobiologist, Lippincott.Whicker and Schultz (1982), Radioecology. External links[edit] STAR: Strategy for Allied Radioecology. Introduction to Radioecology | Environmental Radiation Protection Curriculum. Instructor: Gary Mills Course Description: This course will be an introduction to the fates and effects of radionuclides (radioactive isotopes) and their environmental impacts.
The topics will include: natural and anthropogenic sources of radionuclides, the modes of their dispersal, accumulation, and sequestration in the environment, the physical and biological factors influencing their uptake, accumulation, and elimination by biota, and the effects of environmental radioactivity on populations, communities and ecosystems. Class Schedule and Grading: This three-week class will consist of five two-hour classes per week with lectures on Mondays and Tuesdays, Case Studies on Wednesdays, a field trip or lab demonstration on Thursdays, and discussions/exams on Fridays.
Prerequisites: Chem I and II, Calculus I and II, General Ecology, or approval from instructor Course Innovation: The course will also include a field trip to Pond B of the Savannah River Site. Preliminary Course Schedule: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Category:Nuclear accidents and incidents. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (福島第一原子力発電所事故, Fukushima Daiichi ( pronunciation) genshiryoku hatsudensho jiko?) Was a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that began on 11 March 2011 and resulted in a nuclear meltdown of three of the plant's six nuclear reactors.[6] The failure occurred when the plant was hit by a tsunami that had been triggered by the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake.[7] The following day, 12 March, substantial amounts of radioactive material began to be released,[8] creating the largest nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 and the only (after Chernobyl) to measure Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale[9] (initially releasing an estimated 10–30% of the earlier incident's radioactivity).[10] In August 2013, it was stated[by whom?]
That the significant amount of radioactive water was among the most pressing problems affecting the cleanup process, which is expected to take decades. Overview of the incident[edit] Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant begins fuel rod removal. 18 November 2013Last updated at 03:12 ET Tepco has been preparing for months to remove fuel rods at Fukushima Workers at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have begun removing fuel rods from a storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor building. The delicate operation is seen as a necessary step in stabilising the site. It will take about two days to remove the first 22 fuel rod assemblies, plant operator Tepco says. Overall, more than 1,500 assemblies must be removed in what correspondents describe as a risky and dangerous operation set to take a year. Experts say hydrogen explosions after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 have made the current storage facility vulnerable to further tremors. The fuel rod assemblies are four-metre long tubes containing pellets of uranium fuel, and the fear is that some may have been damaged during the disaster.
Continue reading the main story Removing fuel rods Unit 4 was undergoing maintenance, so all of its fuel rods were being stored. 'Important process' Rt. A Viable Plan for Emergency Containment at Fukushima: Support this Campaign. This is How we Fix Fukushima - by otb - Newsvine. Calling all newsviners, who can improve my plan to develop some semblance of control and ultimately, remediation, of Fukushima?? They should also be speciating exactly the types of radionuclides in these waters.
A respectable lab should be able to tell us exactly what’s in this water in a matter of days. It’s time to stop the denials, accept the problem for the colossal one that it is, and begin a comprehensive understanding that may lead to comprehensive solutions. The first thing that needs to happen is a shielding of the reactors. I propose a zeolite and borax sand matrix packed into he reactor buildings. Once the venting, cooling, and radiation sorption barrier is in place, we cap the site over with the surrounding landscape.
For the groundwater itself, this ice wall is a ridiculously complicated idea that has very little upside versus more conventional, non-powered, and less experimental methods. Radioactive water “gushing” out of holes in Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 1 containment vessel. NHK: Holes near bottom of containment vessel identified for first time at Fukushima plant — “Gushing out” of Reactor No. 1 — Similar damage suspected at Units 2 and 3 (VIDEO) NHK WORLD, , Nov. 13, 2013: A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor [...] the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. [...] A camera on the robot captured images of water leaking from 2 holes in the containment vessel [...]
TEPCO engineers [...] say one of the leaks looks as if tap water is gushing out. Radiation levels in the area were extremely high at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour. Engineers suspect that damage to containment vessels at the No. 2 and 3 reactors is also causing similar leaks [...] Watch NHK’s broadcast here. Photo confirms water leaks from Fukushima reactor containment vessel. A camera installed on a remote-controlled device captured the first direct evidence that water is leaking from a containment vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said Nov. 13 that the water was leaking from an unidentified source, possibly a broken part in the suppression chamber or elsewhere in the containment vessel that houses one of the three reactors that went into meltdowns as a result of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
TEPCO used the compact floating device earlier in the day to survey conditions near the No. 1 reactor's suppression chamber that lies beneath the containment vessel. The suppression chamber, connected via vent pipes to the containment vessel, is designed to regulate pressure in the reactor in the event of an accident. Radiation levels in the area measured between 0.9 and 1.8 sieverts per hour. TEPCO said it would continue the investigations on Nov. 14 with the remote-control device. Cristina Sarich ~ Miso Soup Found To Protect Against Radiation Exposure. NaturalSociety September 11 2013 Researcher Hiromitsu Watanabe of Hiroshima University has published a startling study in the Journal of Toxicologic Pathology about a simple soup – miso – and how it can protect you from radiation exposure.
This savory dish often enjoyed at sushi restaurants, while consumed by Asian cultures for centuries, might just be the answer to recent radiation exposure at Fukushima. The site of a recent nuclear reactor mishap is still leaking tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. People in its wake, from Japan to Hawaii, and all the way to California, are still concerned about the true levels of radiation being reported, suspecting that they often underestimated – which they are. In the meantime, this horrid disaster can be mitigated, at least to some degree, by a simple soup made of a delicious, fermented broth called dashi. Miso was also studied after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, by a physician named Tatuichiro Akizuki. Miso soup recipe.
Eat miso soup before exposure to radiation. Beneficial Biological Effects of Miso with Reference to Radiation Injury, Cancer and Hypertension. Info : Miso : Miso Medicine. It is not any one particular component of miso that makes it such an effective healing foods, but rather a complex combination of ingredients and a unique double fermentation process that transforms soybeans and grains into a potent medicine. And although miso can now be found in most natural food stores and is an important ingredient in natural food cookbooks, it is still greatly underrated as a medicinal food.It may have been our fear of fallout from the impending nuclear holocaust or from nuclear power plant meltdowns that first attracted Westerners to miso.Dr.
Shinichiro Akizuki’s TheoryDuring the 60’s, students of macrobiotics and Zen began hearing about Dr. Shinichiro Akizuki, director of Saint Francis Hospital in Nagasaki during the second World War. Although Akizuki spent years treating atomic bomb victims just a few miles from ground zero, neither he nor his staff suffered from the usual effects of radiation. Chernobyl disaster. Location of Chernobyl nuclear power plant The Chernobyl disaster (Ukrainian: Чорнобильська катастрофа, Chornobylska Katastrofa – Chornobyl Catastrophe; also referred to as Chernobyl or the Chornobyl accident) was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then officially the Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe.
Overview The disaster began during a systems test on Saturday, 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the city of Pripyat and in proximity to the administrative border with Belarus and the Dnieper River. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Accident Timeline. How Plants Survived Chernobyl. You might expect the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster to be a barren wasteland. But trees, bushes, and vines overtake abandoned streets surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power facility in the Ukraine. Now, researchers say they've discovered changes in the proteins of soybeans grown near Chernobyl that could explain how plants survive despite chronic radiation exposure.
The findings could one day help researchers engineer radiation-resistant crops. In April 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded, sending clouds of radioactive material across the countryside. Hajduch and colleagues wanted to find out how these postnuclear plants survive. The radiation zone beans looked odd even before the protein analysis. So what do the researchers make of this molecular milieu?
Three Mile Island accident. The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown which occurred in one of the two Three Mile Island nuclear reactors in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States, on March 28, 1979. It was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.[1] The incident was rated a five on the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident With Wider Consequences.[2][3] The accident began with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape.
The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident due to inadequate training and human factors, such as human-computer interaction design oversights relating to ambiguous control room indicators in the power plant's user interface. Accident[edit] Stuck valve[edit] Consequences of stuck valve[edit] Environmental Genomics Reveals a Single-Species Ecosystem Deep Within Earth. Chivianetal08-D-Audaxviator. X-treme Microbes - Radiation Eaters- How to Eat Radiation. X-treme Microbes — Text-only | Flash Special Report Radiation Eaters How to Eat Radiation The newly discovered microbes were found nearly two miles deep in ancient water seeping through a fracture in a 2.7 million-year-old rock formation. The rock contains radioactive uranium, thorium and potassium, as well as an iron-sulfur compound called pyrite, or fool’s gold, among other constituents.
A cascade of reactions supplies the microbes with their remarkable if meager diet. First, radioactivity cracks water molecules (H2O) into their components: hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O). The detached oxygen atoms combine with adjacent water molecules to make hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Legend (for animated Illustration) Radioactivity Water Molecules Hydrogen gas Hydrogen Peroxide Sulfate Pyrite Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation. Using Waste To Recover Waste Uranium. Using bacteria and inositol phosphate, a chemical analogue of a cheap waste material from plants, researchers at Birmingham University have recovered uranium from the polluted waters from uranium mines.
The same technology can also be used to clean up nuclear waste. Professor Lynne Macaskie, this week (7-10 September), presented the group's work to the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Bacteria, in this case, E. coli, break down a source of inositol phosphate (also called phytic acid), a phosphate storage material in seeds, to free the phosphate molecules. The phosphate then binds to the uranium forming a uranium phosphate precipitate on the bacterial cells that can be harvested to recover the uranium. This process was first described in 1995, but then a more expensive additive was used and that, combined with the then low price of uranium, made the process uneconomic.
Enzymically mediated bioprecipitation of uranium by a Citrobacter sp.: a concerted role for exocellular lipopolysaccharide and associated phosphatase in biomineral formation. X-treme Microbes - Radiation Eaters- Overview. Isolation and characterization of a Geobacillus thermoleovorans strain from an ultra-deep South African gold mine. 'Radiation-eating' Fungi Finding Could Trigger Recalculation Of Earth's Energy Balance And Help Feed Astronauts. Petroleum-Degrading Enzymes: Bioremediation and New Prospects. Public Lab: a DIY environmental science community.