Relative risk assessment of cruise ships biosolids disposal alternatives

A relative risk assessment of biosolids disposal alternatives for cruise ships is presented in this paper. The area of study encompasses islands and marine waters of the Caribbean Sea. The objective was to evaluate relative human health and ecological risks of (a) dewatering/incineration, (b) landing the solids for disposal, considering that in some countries land-disposed solids might be discharged in the near-shore environment untreated, and (c) deep ocean disposal. Input to the Bayesian assessment consisted of professional judgment based on available literature and modeling information, data on constituent concentrations in cruise ship biosolids, and simulations of constituent concentrations in Caribbean waters assuming ocean disposal. Results indicate that human health and ecological risks associated with land disposal and shallow ocean disposal are higher than those of the deep ocean disposal and incineration. For incineration, predicted ecological impacts were lower relative to deep ocean disposal before considering potential impacts of carbon emissions.     

Ecological evaluation of an experimental beneficial use scheme for dredged sediment disposal in shallow tidal waters

An experiment was performed to test an alternative dredging strategy for the Westerschelde estuary. Clean sand dredged from the navigation channel was disposed seawards of an eroding intertidal flat in order to modify morphology and hydrodynamics, improving the multi-channel system with ecologically productive shallow water habitat. Five years of intensive monitoring revealed that part of the disposed sediment moved slowly towards the flat, increasing the very shallow subtidal and intertidal area, as planned. The sand in the impact zone became gradually finer after disposal, possibly due to reduced current velocities. Nevertheless, no changes in macrobenthic biomass, density, species richness and composition were detected in the subtidal zone, also demonstrating rapid macrobenthic recovery. In the intertidal zone, no ecological effects could be revealed superimposed on trends associated with long-term sediment fining. Thus, despite morphological success and absence of detected negative ecological impacts of the experiment, new beneficial habitat was not created.     

Resonant dynamics of Medium Earth Orbits: space debris issues

The Medium Earth Orbit region is the home of the navigation constellations. It is shown how the orbits of these constellations of satellites are strongly affected by the so-called inclination dependent luni-solar resonances. The analytical theory of these resonances is recalled and a large set of numerical integrations is used to investigate the stability of the orbits of the constellations over very long time spans. The stability issue is important in the definition of possible disposal strategies for the constellation spacecraft, after their end-of-life. Two possible disposal strategies are envisaged involving either stable or unstable orbits (from the eccentricity growth point of view). In particular it is shown how, to have disposal orbits with moderately short lifetime (of the orders of 40–50 years), a very large disposal maneuver would be required to rise the inital eccentricity to values above ~ 0.3.     

马陵山地震台地电场观测仪的安装

简要介绍ZD9A-Ⅱ地电场仪的仪器性能和技术要求,列举出仪器安装过程中和日常观测维护过程中必须具备的仪器设备。详细介绍了山东郯城马陵山地震台地电场观测仪安装过程中电极的布极方式,安装方法及检测方法,观测线路的架设及检测方法,地电场观测系统的安装调试程序,最后指出了地电场观测仪安装、调试过程中应该注意的有关事项。这为今后能够更加顺利、快捷完成地电场观测仪的安装任务,提供了重要的参考依据。     

地物杂波区内降雨回波信号损失问题初探

为解决地物杂波区内降雨回波精确定量化问题,本文利用蒙特卡洛理论,在9836C微型计算机上建立了在不同速度方差的地物杂波区内,对不同速度方差的降雨回波模拟信号经地物杂波抑制器处理后的回波功率损失计算软件系统,并提出实现杂波区内降雨回波精确定量化综合处理方案。     

Trace metal contamination of Beaufort's Dyke, North Channel, Irish Sea: a legacy of ordnance disposal

Beaufort’s Dyke is a disused ordnance disposal ground within the North Channel of the Irish Sea. Over 1 million tonnes of ordnance were disposed of in the dyke over a 40 year period representing a substantial volume of trace metal pollutants introduced to the seabed. Utilising particle transport modelling software we simulated the potential transport of metal particles from Beaufort’s Dyke over a 3 month period. This demonstrated that Beaufort’s Dyke has the potential to act as a source for trace metal contamination to areas beyond the submarine valley. Trace metal analysis of sediments from the Dyke and surrounding National Marine Monitoring Programme areas demonstrate that the Dyke is not the most contaminated site in the region. Particle transport modelling enables the transport pathways of trace metal contaminants to be predicted. Implementation of the technique in other munitions disposal grounds will provide valuable information for the selection of monitoring stations.     

Radioactive high level waste insight modelling for geological disposal facilities

Within this paper we present a simplified analytical model to provide insight into the key performance measures of a generic disposal system for high level waste within a geological disposal facility. The model assumes a low solubility waste matrix within a corrosion resistant disposal container surrounded by a low permeability buffer. Radionuclides migrate from the disposal area through a porous geosphere to the biosphere and give a radiological dose to a receptor. The system of equations describing the migration is transformed into Laplace space and an approximation used to determine peak values for the radionuclide mass transfer rate entering the biosphere. Results from the model are compared with those from more detailed numerical models for key radionuclides in the UK high level waste inventory. Such an insight model can provide a valuable second line of argument to assist in confirming the results of more detailed models and build confidence in the safety case for a geological disposal facility.     

Impact and recovery associated with the deposition of capital dredgings at UK disposal sites: Lessons for future licensing and monitoring

The majority of studies relating to impacts and recovery at dredgings disposal sites have concentrated on areas subject to regular and frequent disposals of maintenance dredgings over relatively long time periods. In comparison less is known regarding the significance of impacts and the recovery processes associated with the disposal of capital dredgings that commonly involves the infrequent deposition of heterogenous material over relatively restricted time periods. Impacts and recovery processes are likely to be different to those associated with the disposal of maintenance dredgings. For example, findings suggest that capital dredgings deposited at both the Roughs Tower and Barrow-in-Furness result in the occurrence of persistent changes to seafloor substrata within the license area and this subsequently effects the composition of associated faunal communities present. Moreover, whilst the two disposal sites are geographically distinct similar species are identified as being particularly sensitive to capital disposal activities in both areas.     

Design and performance of a compacted clay barrier through a landfill

This paper presents the construction and performance details of a compacted London Clay barrier that was designed to prevent any leachate or methane penetrating a stretch of the cut and cover box section tunnel of the London Heathrow Express Rail Link. The barrier was constructed with London Clay that was spoil from concurrent bored tunnelling operations on adjacent sites. Laboratory investigations carried out on the compacted London Clay are presented in the paper. These indicated that it was possible to design the clay surround to function as a barrier protecting the structure from the ingress of the leachate. Field monitoring using magnetic extensometer gauge measurements indicate that the consequent ground movements are lower than that predicted by the laboratory tests.     

A techno-economic model for optimum regeneration of surface mined land

The recent global scenario in the mineral sector may be characterized by rising competitiveness, increasing production costs and a slump in market price. This has pushed the mineral sector in general and that in the developing countries in particular to a situation where the industry has a limited capacity to sustain unproductive costs. This, more often than not, results in a situation where the industry fails to ensure environmental safeguards during and after mineral extraction. The situation is conspicuous in the Indian coal mining industry where more than 73% production comes from surface operations. India has an ambitious power augmentation projection for the coming 10 years. A phenomenal increase in coal production is proposed from the power grade coalfields in India. One of the most likely fall-outs of land degradation due to mining in these areas would be significant reduction of agricultural and other important land-uses. Currently, backfilling costs are perceived as prohibitive and abandonment of land is the easy way out. This study attempts to provide mine planners with a mathematical model that distributes generated overburden at defined disposal options while ensuring maximization of backfilled land area at minimum direct and economic costs. Optimization has been accomplished by linear programming (LP) for optimum distribution of each year’s generated overburden. Previous year’s disposal quantity outputs are processed as one set of the inputs to the LP model for generation of current year’s disposal output. From various geo-mining inputs, site constants of the LP constraints are calculated. Arrived value of economic vectors, which guide the programming statement, decides the optimal overburden distribution in defined options. The case example (with model test run) indicates that overburden distribution is significantly sensitive to coal seam gradient. The model has universal applicability to cyclic system (shovel–dumper combination) of opencast mining of stratified deposits.