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Removal of atomic waste from water supplies
June, I96O.I
CURRENT TOPICS
while use of existing range and commercial communication systems provides low cost operation. By reducing the data prior to transmitting over a commercial system, the volume of data may be limited to that required, while needless volume would be sent over great distances if the entire data collection were transmitted. In the recent Atlantic Missile Range demonstration, sinmlated ballistic missile tracking data were transmitted from Ascension Island, 5000 miles from Cape Canaveral, received by a C ODI T receiver at the Cape and automatically reduced by a high speed computer. Again untouched by human hands, the reduced data were fed directly from the computer into a commercial land line teletype system that immediately displayed the reduced data at the Air Force Air Research and Development Command's National Space Surveillance Control Center, Cambridge, Mass. The reduced data were read in Cambridge less than 30 seconds after the raw data were transmitted from Ascension Island. By utilizing commercial land line, cable and radio networks, data might be collected anywhere in the world, reduced automatically and received at any other point in the world in a matter of seconds. Removal of Atomic Waste from Water Supplies.--Municipal water
plants, though not designed for the purpose, can remove a substantial fraction of radioisotopes from water they process, studies at the Hanford atomic laboratories, Richland, Wash., indicate. Robert L. Junkins, a senior General Electric engineer at Hanford, reported to the Nuclear Congress on a ?'ear's sampling of the Pasco municipal water system filter plant 39
499
miles below Hanford nuclear reactors. He explained that General Electric, which operates Hanford for the Atomic Energy Commission, conducts this sampling as part of an extensive environmental monitoring program in Hanford's vicinity to provide guidance in the control of plant operation practices and to assure that the release of atomic wastes in the area is well within recognized limits. tlanford's reactors use some Columbia river water for cooling purposes. Effluent from the reactors when discharged into the river contains several radioisotopes generated during its quick pass through the reactors. Columbia river water at Pasco contains about 15 per cent of the maximum concentration of radioisotopes permitted by national radiation health authorities. After treatment in the Pasco filter plant, he said, the 15 per cent of the permissible concentration is reduced to about 5, even though this plant was nol designed and is not operated for this purpose. He said the plant's efficiency in removal of radioisotopes varies with the seasonal demand for water. It is least efficient during SUlmner mouths when the water plant is operating near capacity and there is less time for radioactive decay as the water passes through the treatment plant. However, this corresponds with the highest flow rate of the Columbia river when the effluent from the reactors is diluted most by increased water from the mountain snow melt. Some of the radioisotopes are removed by sedimentation and filtration. The solid wastes from these sources are periodically removed by flushing. Because of radioactive decay, there is little accumulation of radioisotopes
500
CURRENT TOPICS
in these solids or elsewhere in the plant. II. S. Television Weather Satellite. - - T h e United States' new TIROS satellite, carrying the nation's most advanced space-borne television "eye" to study the world's weather, is the information-gathering element ill a complex satellite-and-ground system developed for the U. S. Government by the Radio Corporation of America. The satellite comprises perhaps the most elaborate electronics package yet sent into orbit around the Earth, containing specially designed miniature television cameras, video tape recorders, transmitters, solar cell and rechargeable battery power supplies, and an array of control and communications equipment. Speeding along its course in space, the satellite is linked to an extensive ground network of tracking and receiving stations, data-processing systems, and programming and control centers. Together, the satellite and ground equipment form a unified system to gather and analyze worldwide data on cloud formation in the Earth's atmosphere. The TIROS system is an important new experimental tool for meteorologists. Its mission is the visual observation of cloud formations over large portions of the Earth to produce new information about such weather phenomena as hurricanes, typhoons, and the movement of weather fronts. Besides providing unprecedented and comprehensive visual coverage of global weather on a swift and continuous basis, the satellite will give meteorologists for the first time a means of checking the accuracy of present weather reporting from ground stations around the world. Thus it promises not only to lay the groundwork for new satellite weather
[J. F. I.
services in the future, but also to increase the effectiveness of present world-wide weather information gathering methods. The path of the satellite, circling the globe from west to east about every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 400 miles, will permit cloud observations throughout a belt extending from the latitude of Santa Cruz, Argentina, in the south, to the latitude of Montreal, Canada, in the north. During its planned operating lifetime of 90 days, the satellite is expected to complete about 1,300 orbits, covering every part of this belt many times. Operation of the system involves the following sequence of three principal functions carried out by an intricate combination of electronic subsystems in the satellite and on the ground : 1. Preparation of a program and transmission of commands to the satellite at the start of each orbit, including instructions for picturetaking in specific areas of interest to the meteorologists. 2. Operation of the television and other equipment in the satellite during its passage, in response to the control commands received from the ground. 3. Read-out of the pictures and other information from the satellite on command from the ground at the completion of each orbit. The principal ground stations are situated at Kaena Point, Hawaii, and Fort Monmouth, N. J. During all but three or four orbits each day, the satellite passes within range of one of tile stations, perlnitting readout of information and programming of the satellite electronic apparatus for the next passage. In addition, two "backup" stations are situated at the Space Center of RCA's Astro-Elec-
CURRENT TOPICS
while use of existing range and commercial communication systems provides low cost operation. By reducing the data prior to transmitting over a commercial system, the volume of data may be limited to that required, while needless volume would be sent over great distances if the entire data collection were transmitted. In the recent Atlantic Missile Range demonstration, sinmlated ballistic missile tracking data were transmitted from Ascension Island, 5000 miles from Cape Canaveral, received by a C ODI T receiver at the Cape and automatically reduced by a high speed computer. Again untouched by human hands, the reduced data were fed directly from the computer into a commercial land line teletype system that immediately displayed the reduced data at the Air Force Air Research and Development Command's National Space Surveillance Control Center, Cambridge, Mass. The reduced data were read in Cambridge less than 30 seconds after the raw data were transmitted from Ascension Island. By utilizing commercial land line, cable and radio networks, data might be collected anywhere in the world, reduced automatically and received at any other point in the world in a matter of seconds. Removal of Atomic Waste from Water Supplies.--Municipal water
plants, though not designed for the purpose, can remove a substantial fraction of radioisotopes from water they process, studies at the Hanford atomic laboratories, Richland, Wash., indicate. Robert L. Junkins, a senior General Electric engineer at Hanford, reported to the Nuclear Congress on a ?'ear's sampling of the Pasco municipal water system filter plant 39
499
miles below Hanford nuclear reactors. He explained that General Electric, which operates Hanford for the Atomic Energy Commission, conducts this sampling as part of an extensive environmental monitoring program in Hanford's vicinity to provide guidance in the control of plant operation practices and to assure that the release of atomic wastes in the area is well within recognized limits. tlanford's reactors use some Columbia river water for cooling purposes. Effluent from the reactors when discharged into the river contains several radioisotopes generated during its quick pass through the reactors. Columbia river water at Pasco contains about 15 per cent of the maximum concentration of radioisotopes permitted by national radiation health authorities. After treatment in the Pasco filter plant, he said, the 15 per cent of the permissible concentration is reduced to about 5, even though this plant was nol designed and is not operated for this purpose. He said the plant's efficiency in removal of radioisotopes varies with the seasonal demand for water. It is least efficient during SUlmner mouths when the water plant is operating near capacity and there is less time for radioactive decay as the water passes through the treatment plant. However, this corresponds with the highest flow rate of the Columbia river when the effluent from the reactors is diluted most by increased water from the mountain snow melt. Some of the radioisotopes are removed by sedimentation and filtration. The solid wastes from these sources are periodically removed by flushing. Because of radioactive decay, there is little accumulation of radioisotopes
500
CURRENT TOPICS
in these solids or elsewhere in the plant. II. S. Television Weather Satellite. - - T h e United States' new TIROS satellite, carrying the nation's most advanced space-borne television "eye" to study the world's weather, is the information-gathering element ill a complex satellite-and-ground system developed for the U. S. Government by the Radio Corporation of America. The satellite comprises perhaps the most elaborate electronics package yet sent into orbit around the Earth, containing specially designed miniature television cameras, video tape recorders, transmitters, solar cell and rechargeable battery power supplies, and an array of control and communications equipment. Speeding along its course in space, the satellite is linked to an extensive ground network of tracking and receiving stations, data-processing systems, and programming and control centers. Together, the satellite and ground equipment form a unified system to gather and analyze worldwide data on cloud formation in the Earth's atmosphere. The TIROS system is an important new experimental tool for meteorologists. Its mission is the visual observation of cloud formations over large portions of the Earth to produce new information about such weather phenomena as hurricanes, typhoons, and the movement of weather fronts. Besides providing unprecedented and comprehensive visual coverage of global weather on a swift and continuous basis, the satellite will give meteorologists for the first time a means of checking the accuracy of present weather reporting from ground stations around the world. Thus it promises not only to lay the groundwork for new satellite weather
[J. F. I.
services in the future, but also to increase the effectiveness of present world-wide weather information gathering methods. The path of the satellite, circling the globe from west to east about every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 400 miles, will permit cloud observations throughout a belt extending from the latitude of Santa Cruz, Argentina, in the south, to the latitude of Montreal, Canada, in the north. During its planned operating lifetime of 90 days, the satellite is expected to complete about 1,300 orbits, covering every part of this belt many times. Operation of the system involves the following sequence of three principal functions carried out by an intricate combination of electronic subsystems in the satellite and on the ground : 1. Preparation of a program and transmission of commands to the satellite at the start of each orbit, including instructions for picturetaking in specific areas of interest to the meteorologists. 2. Operation of the television and other equipment in the satellite during its passage, in response to the control commands received from the ground. 3. Read-out of the pictures and other information from the satellite on command from the ground at the completion of each orbit. The principal ground stations are situated at Kaena Point, Hawaii, and Fort Monmouth, N. J. During all but three or four orbits each day, the satellite passes within range of one of tile stations, perlnitting readout of information and programming of the satellite electronic apparatus for the next passage. In addition, two "backup" stations are situated at the Space Center of RCA's Astro-Elec-