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Airborne Particulate Radioactivity Monitoring
Continuous particulate air monitors (CPAMs) have been used for years in nuclear facilities to assess airborne particulate radioactivity (APR). In more recent times they may also be used to monitor people in their homes for the presence of manmade radioactivity. These monitors can be used to trigger alarms, indicating to personnel that they should evacuate an area. This article will focus on CPAM use in nuclear power plants, as opposed to other nuclear fuel-cycle facilities, or laboratories, or public-safety applications. In nuclear power plants, CPAMs are used for measuring releases of APR from the facility, monitoring levels of APR for protection of plant personnel, monitoring the air in the reactor containment structure to detect leakage from the reactor systems, and to control ventilation fans, when the APR level has exceeded a defined threshold in the ventilation system. Introduction CPAMs use a pump to draw air through a filter medium to collect airborne particulate matte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Particulate Air Monitor
A particulate matter sampler is an instrument for measuring the properties (such as mass concentration or chemical composition) of particulates in the ambient air. Types Two different types of particulate matter samplers exist that measure particulate mass concentration: manual samplers and automated samplers. Manual Manual samplers draw a known volume of air through a filter. The filter is weighed on an analytical balance before and after sampling, and the difference in weight divided by the volume of air pulled through the filter gives the mass concentration of the particulate. Automated Automated samplers do the weighing in the field. There are two types of automated samplers in common usage: samplers that use a beta gauge for mass measurement and samplers that use a tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) for mass measurement. Beta gauge Beta gauge particulate samplers have an appearance that is similar to a reel to reel tape recorder. Air is pulled through a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beta Particle
A beta particle, also called beta ray or beta radiation (symbol β), is a high-energy, high-speed electron or positron emitted by the radioactive decay of an atomic nucleus, known as beta decay. There are two forms of beta decay, β− decay and β+ decay, which produce electrons and positrons, respectively. Beta particles with an energy of 0.5 MeV have a range of about one metre in the air; the distance is dependent on the particle's energy and the air's density and composition. Beta particles are a type of ionizing radiation, and for radiation protection purposes, they are regarded as being more ionising than gamma rays, but less ionising than alpha particles. The higher the ionising effect, the greater the damage to living tissue, but also the lower the penetrating power of the radiation through matter. Beta decay modes β− decay (electron emission) An unstable atomic nucleus with an excess of neutrons may undergo β− decay, where a neutron is converted into a proto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonelementary Integral
In mathematics, a nonelementary antiderivative of a given elementary function is an antiderivative (or indefinite integral) that is, itself, not an elementary function.Weisstein, Eric W. "Elementary Function." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ElementaryFunction.html From MathWorld Accessed 24 Apr 2017. A theorem by Liouville in 1835 provided the first proof that nonelementary antiderivatives exist. This theorem also provides a basis for the Risch algorithm for determining (with difficulty) which elementary functions have elementary antiderivatives. Examples Examples of functions with nonelementary antiderivatives include: *\sqrt (elliptic integral) *\frac (logarithmic integral) *e^ (error function, Gaussian integral) *\sin(x^2) and \cos(x^2) (Fresnel integral) *\frac = \operatorname(x) (sine integral, Dirichlet integral) *\frac (exponential integral) *e^ \,(in terms of the exponential integral) *\ln(\ln x) \,(in terms of the logarithmic i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordinary Differential Equation
In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable (mathematics), variable. As with any other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) Function (mathematics), function(s) and involves the derivatives of those functions. The term "ordinary" is used in contrast with partial differential equation, ''partial'' differential equations (PDEs) which may be with respect to one independent variable, and, less commonly, in contrast with stochastic differential equations, ''stochastic'' differential equations (SDEs) where the progression is random. Differential equations A linear differential equation is a differential equation that is defined by a linear polynomial in the unknown function and its derivatives, that is an equation of the form :a_0(x)y +a_1(x)y' + a_2(x)y'' +\cdots +a_n(x)y^+b(x)=0, where a_0(x),\ldots,a_n(x) and b(x) are arbitrary differentiable functions that do not need to be linea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Activated Carbon
Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, is a form of carbon commonly used to filter contaminants from water and air, among many other uses. It is processed (activated) to have small, low-volume pores that greatly increase the surface area available for ''adsorption '' or chemical reactions. (Adsorption, not to be confused with Absorption (chemistry), absorption, is a process where atoms or molecules adhere to a surface). The pores can be thought of as a microscopic "sponge" structure. Activation is analogous to making popcorn from dried corn kernels: popcorn is light, fluffy, and its kernels have a high surface-area-to-volume ratio. ''Activated'' is sometimes replaced by ''active''. Because it is so porous on a microscopic scale, one gram of activated carbon has a surface area of over , as determined by gas absorption and its porosity can run 10ML/day in terms of treated water per gram. Researchers at Cornell University synthesized an ultrahigh surface area activated ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iodine-131
Iodine-131 (131I, I-131) is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with nuclear energy, medical diagnostic and treatment procedures, and natural gas production. It also plays a major role as a radioactive isotope present in nuclear fission products, and was a significant contributor to the health hazards from open-air atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, and from the Chernobyl disaster, as well as being a large fraction of the contamination hazard in the first weeks in the Fukushima nuclear crisis. This is because 131I is a major fission product of uranium and plutonium, comprising nearly 3% of the total products of fission (by weight). See fission product yield for a comparison with other radioactive fission products. 131I is also a major fission product of uranium-233, produced from thorium. Due to its mode of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semiconductor Detector
In ionizing radiation detection physics, a semiconductor detector is a device that uses a semiconductor (usually silicon or germanium) to measure the effect of incident charged particles or photons. Semiconductor detectors find broad application for radiation protection, gamma spectroscopy, gamma and x-ray spectroscopy, X-ray spectrometry, and as particle detectors. Detection mechanism In semiconductor detectors, ionizing radiation is measured by the number of charge carriers set free in the detector material which is arranged between two electrodes, by the radiation. Ionizing radiation produces free electrons and electron holes. The number of electron-hole pairs is proportional to the energy of the radiation to the semiconductor. As a result, a number of electrons are transferred from the valence band to the conduction band, and an equal number of holes are created in the valence band. Under the influence of an electric field, electrons and holes travel to the electrodes, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Particle
Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay but may also be produced in different ways. Alpha particles are named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet, α. The symbol for the alpha particle is α or α2+. Because they are identical to helium nuclei, they are also sometimes written as He2+ or 2+ indicating a helium ion with a +2 charge (missing its two electrons). Once the ion gains electrons from its environment, the alpha particle becomes a normal (electrically neutral) helium atom . Alpha particles have a net spin of zero. When produced in standard alpha radioactive decay, alpha particles generally have a kinetic energy of about 5 MeV and a velocity in the vicinity of 4% of the speed of light. They are a highly ionizing form of particle radiation, with low penetration depth (stopped b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Reprocessing
Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical separation of fission products and actinides from spent nuclear fuel. Originally, reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing nuclear weapons. With commercialization of nuclear power, the reprocessed plutonium was recycled back into MOX nuclear fuel for thermal reactors. The reprocessed uranium, also known as the spent fuel material, can in principle also be re-used as fuel, but that is only economical when uranium supply is low and prices are high. Nuclear reprocessing may extend beyond fuel and include the reprocessing of other nuclear reactor material, such as Zircaloy cladding. The high radioactivity of spent nuclear material means that reprocessing must be highly controlled and carefully executed in advanced facilities by specialized personnel. Numerous processes exist, with the chemical based PUREX process dominating. Alternatives include heating to drive off volatile elements, burning via oxidation, and fluoride vola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
