Sentences with phrase «of radioactive»

The first system — radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs — taps heat released from the natural decay of a radioactive element, such as plutonium.

In the past, the decay of radioactive elements and the leftover heat from Titan's formation might have melted nearly all the body's ice — so the ocean might have extended all the way down to the rocky core.

To illustrate this effect, Schrödinger imagined putting a cat in a box along with a device that would release poison to kill it, depending on the random decay of a radioactive atom.

Bowyer adds that the tiny concentrations of radioactive iodine, cesium, tellurium, xenon and lanthanum that have reached the United States are far below normal background levels and not a health risk.

Fossil fuels lack a type of radioactive carbon, an isotope called carbon - 14, which decays over time.

By measuring the decay of a radioactive metal locked into the shells and rocks, Osborne's team showed that the buried snails must have incorporated water that flowed from the volcanoes.

Experts who reviewed the concentrations of radioactive metals found in New York's wastewater said the leftover sludge is likely to exceed the legal limits for hazardous waste and would need to be shipped to Idaho or Washington State, to some of the only landfills in the country permitted to accept it.

The evidence of its existence would be revealed by measuring how the axis of nuclei of the radioactive elements radon and radium line up with the spin.

But the buildup of heat from the decay of radioactive elements in the interior then remelted parts of the mantle, which began to erupt onto the surface some 500 million years after the Moon's formation, pooling in impact craters and basins to form the maria, most of which are on the side of the Moon facing the Earth.

The method, which has taken Spalding more than a decade to develop, hinges on a massive pulse of radioactive carbon - 14 isotopes released by nuclear explosions in the 1950s and»60s, which doubled the amount of carbon - 14 in the atmosphere.

Geologists say radioactivity levels can vary across the Marcellus, but the tests taken so far suggest the amount of radioactive material measured in New York is far higher than in many other places.

Fly Ash Bricks In the process of generating electricity, U.S. coal plants spew more than 70 million tons a year of a radioactive waste called fly ash.

Further complicating this option, there was an accidental release of radioactive material from WIPP in February.

Antineutrinos are a by - product of the fission in a nuclear reactor, in which an atomic nucleus of a radioactive element such as plutonium splits into lighter elements.

In the well - known thought experiment, the decay of a radioactive atom determines a cat's fate.

For example, an electron neutrino — more precisely, an electron antineutrino — emerges when an atomic nucleus such as tritium undergoes a type of radioactive decay called «β decay» and turns into a slightly less massive helium - 3 nucleus while spitting out an electron and an antineutrino.

(It combines PET images taken by monitoring the metabolism of radioactive glucose with CT images, which are essentially a series of X-rays from different angles.)

A number of radiotherapies that marry a small but potent amount of radioactive material and a targeted molecular compound have been gaining traction as progressive treatments for malignant NETs, which can develop wherever nerve cells and hormone - producing endocrine cells are present (e.g., gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, lungs, thyroid).

Yttrium is twice as abundant as lead; all of the rare - earth metals (with the exception of radioactive promethium) are more common than silver.

Swiss and German researchers have analysed Burgundy truffles collected in central Europe and found they contain only negligible amounts of radioactive caesium, being safe for consumption.

When a neutrino smashed into an atom of chlorine, the atom was transformed into one of radioactive argon.

«The risk of reactors cracking open in a crash could be reduced by jettisoning them before impact and bringing them down with parachutes,» he told the Times of London, adding that, in the worst - case scenario, if the armor plating around the reactor was pierced «there would be a risk of radioactive contamination over a few square miles.»

The sludge, which engulfed hundreds of acres, damaged lakeside homes and polluted drinking water in Tennessee contained high levels of arsenic and elevated levels of radioactive radium, reported Duke University scientists.

However, they add, testing has affected both the limestone and the underlying volcanic rock in a way which is likely to increase «the longer - term potential for leakage of radioactive material».

Hundreds of nuclear bomb detonations in the atmosphere prior to a 1963 test ban treaty doubled the amount of radioactive carbon found in the ocean.

Visible amid the detritus of bomb blasts are simple examples of plutonium's power — telltale shards of the radioactive green glass that is created at ground zero during a nuclear explosion.

This involved measuring the ratio of radioactive carbon (14C) to normal carbon (12C) in the nacre.

That's why we can tell the age of rocks, fossils and prehistoric artefacts by the activity of radioactive atoms within them, and why nuclear waste becomes less toxic over time.

Three months after the tsunami - stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant began leaking unprecedented amounts of radioactive isotopes, an interdisciplinary group of scientists will begin measuring the radioactivity in the ocean east of Japan on 4 June.

But others say that the current system, or lack thereof, leaves Americans at great risk of radioactive exposure.

Over the following decades other treaties expanded the regulations, culminating in a 1993 amendment to the London Dumping Convention that halted the ocean disposal of all radioactive waste and in a 1995 amendment to the Basel Convention that banned the deposition of the industrial world's lethal excreta in developing countries.

From samples of seawater, Jota Kanda of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology estimated last year that about 0.3 terabecquerels (TBq) of radioactive material are leaking into the sea each month.

So far, China has not adopted any specific technology for disposing of radioactive waste.

Reports of thefts of radioactive materials are becoming increasingly frequent in what used to be the Soviet Union and its East European neighbours.

These measurements may also shed light on the proportion of radioactive elements like uranium and thorium inside the Moon, since their decay produces heat and should increase the amount of heat radiated by the Moon, says Paul Spudis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, US, who is developing radar instruments to fly on LRO and Chandrayaan - 1.

Dafydd Rhys Jones of IGER says that 80 per cent of the radioactive contamination is still in the soil.

Some supernovae have a reserve tank of radioactive fuel that cuts in and powers their explosions for three times longer than astronomers had previously thought.

JAPAN»S beleaguered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility made headlines again last week, when it was reported that some 305 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank.

Based on dating of radioactive elements measured by scientists at the Swiss research center ETH Zurich, the ice at the base of the core may be at least 600,000 years old.

The crisis reopened questions about how to deal with the flood of radioactive water accumulating at Fukushima.

Robots cleaned up what humans could not because of radioactive contamination after the worst nuclear accident in the nation's history 30 years ago

To meet the ’10 000 year criterion», set by the DOE, the repository must not release «significant» amounts of its radioactive content into the environment during that period, no matter what changes occur in the local climate, geology or water table.

By comparison, the natural weathering of rocks results in about 10 Bq of radioactive potassium - 40 making it into each litre of seawater.

But making an atom with 114 protons and 184 neutrons would require an intense beam of radioactive atoms, something that can't be produced with existing technology, says Michael Thoennessen of Michigan State University in East Lansing, who catalogues new isotopes.

The tablets swamp the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine, preventing uptake of the radioactive form.

In the wake of radioactive releases from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, critics are saying a California nuclear plant's susceptibility to earthquakes and tsunamis could affect its chances of renewing its operating license.

When the core ignites, carbon and oxygen fuse to form lots of radioactive cobalt - 56, whose radioactive decay into iron - 56 with a half - life of 77 days powers the peak brightness of a supernova.

Hence the distribution of iodine pills to local residents in Japan in order to block any uptake of radioactive iodine.

Ten state senators wrote to the Energy Department last year about the Shoreline Fault, which they said could also intersect with the existing Hosgri Fault, exacerbating the risk of radioactive leaks.

The researchers measured the energy of the γ rays emitted from excited states of the radioactive nuclei using an array of 186 detectors surrounding the reaction target.