TUE-D - Special Session: Military Health Physics Section Tuesday 09/22/20 2:00 PM - 4:45 PM
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| Chair(s): Tony Williams
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TUE-D.1
2:00 PM Modeling Human Eye Effects in Nuclear Detonation Environments TM Pinon, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
; A Parks, Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), Raleigh, NC; J Pair, Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), Raleigh, NC; T Dant*, Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), Arlington, VA
Abstract: Personnel effects due to nuclear detonations (NUDETs) have primarily focused on deleterious impacts from thermal, blast, and radiation. Historically, visual effects due to NUDETs have been understudied, as they generally are considered temporary in nature. However, both permanent retinal burns and temporary flash blindness can negatively affect military operational functions on the ground and in aircrafts. During periods of flash blindness, personnel may experience loss of function or performance during the time frame of the visual impairment.
This project describes a method for characterizing the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) legacy MOving Receiver Environments (MORE) version 4.0 software, which was originally developed by Kaman Sciences Corporation. The MORE code was primarily developed to provide nuclear weapons environments and resultant effects on aircraft in flight, to include eye response and cockpit environments. The MORE software may be applied to stationary and moving receivers (e.g., aircraft). The proposed presentation will detail the software testing approach using Java and Sikuli, an open source graphical user interface (GUI) based tool, for automated testing of the MORE software. The subsequent generation of lookup tables (LUTs) from multiple sets of input and output data will be discussed, with an emphasis on the eye response data. Additional discussion will include methods for verification of the interpolation algorithm that is applied to the LUTs. The creation of LUTs and associated interpolation algorithms provides the basis for implementing modernized codes to model the detrimental effects of flash blindness in NUDET environments. Future plans for integration of the modernized eye effects code into DTRA’s Health Effects from Nuclear and Radiological Environments (HENRE) code will be discussed. Implementation of these models will allow military planners to better understand the scope of detrimental health effects in NUDET scenarios.
DISTRIBUTION A. Approved for public release: distribution unlimited.
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TUE-D.2
2:20 PM Utilizing DTRA’s Health Effects from Nuclear and Radiological Environments (HENRE) tool to predict injury severity and mission impacts JT Dant*, Applied Research Associates
; TM Piñon, DTRA
Abstract: In an urban area, a nuclear detonation (NUDET) will result in a significant number of casualties; injuries could be survivable with optimal utilization of surviving personnel and materiel. With successful health service support planning, a significant level of combat effectiveness can be retained, reducing the risk of military disintegration in the face of catastrophic losses associated with a NUDET. However, the absence of field experience and the complexity of the NUDET scenarios has made the development of efficacious plans very difficult. By directly linking DTRA’s Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) and NucFast codes to incorporate nuclear phenomenological environments, the Health Effects from Nuclear and Radiological Environments (HENRE) software can produce estimates of combined injuries related to radiation, blast, and thermal insults. HENRE can be used to predict injury severity as a function of the nuclear environments, and accounts for different protective postures of exposed individuals (i.e. In-the-Open versus In-Buildings). The HENRE outputs are geospatially explicit and can be aggregated and displayed graphically. This allows military planners to better understand the types and severities of injuries, including their time dependence, within each response zones, and estimate the resources required to treat the injured personnel. With access to a visual analysis of injury in time and space provided by HENRE, military planners can increase the probability of survival of exposed personnel, and ensure that combat effectiveness is maintained to the greatest extent possible.
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TUE-D.3
2:40 PM Potential Techniques for Operational Detection and Characterization of High Power Microwave Directed Energy Exposure JF Frey*, Air Force Institute of Technology
Abstract: This presentation will discuss potentially useful detection and measurement mechanisms that might be employed to provide operational awareness of high power microwave (HPM) directed energy weapon (DEW) exposure. The HPM electromagnetic frequency (EMF) regime is of particular interest in the DEW developmental design space, as it provides a reasonable balance of beam propagation and power density thresholds that make achieving effects on certain categories of electronic systems more likely. Even when employed for counter-materiel effects, incidental but still potentially harmful personnel exposure is possible, making real-time notice of ongoing DE exposure a critical first step in preventing overexposure. Commercial EMF field meters or personal monitors could be used to provide such notice but may not be available in the appropriate frequency or power response ranges, and at least currently, are not widely available across the spectrum of U.S. military operational units. For hazard warning applications, select thermal interaction techniques such as microwave absorption thermography and thermoacoustic imaging, both currently in use in the research and development community, may be suitably simplified to provide notice of EMF exposure at operationally relevant frequencies and incident power densities.
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TUE-D.
3:00 PM BREAK
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TUE-D.4
3:10 PM Development of a Real-time In-Core Neutron Monitoring System for Neutron Flux Variations during Neutron Activation Analysis MB Stokley*, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Defense Nuclear Weapons School, U.S. Army
; SR Biegalski, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin and Nuclear & Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics Programs, Georgia Institute of Technology; EJ Artnak, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin; DA Haas, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin; G Kline, Nuclear & Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics Programs, Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract: The pneumatic Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) experimental facility within the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory (NETL) at The University of Texas at Austin is widely used for the measurement of trace elemental concentrations. For extremely short duration NAA irradiations, sample activation measurements can vary by up to 12% from normalized values. The neutron monitoring instruments of the TRIGA Mark II nuclear research reactor were unable to detect small-localized variations in neutron population likely resulting in the observed error. The primary traditional method to reduce this uncertainty is to irradiate a traceable flux monitor sample in addition to the unknown. This method doubles the required sample prep, measurement, and analysis effort to the unknown samples alone. An in-core neutron monitoring system was designed and installed adjacent to the pneumatic NAA sample system terminus to track these localized fluctuations. This design consists of a 4.7 x 83 mm fission chamber fitted through an access hole within the upper grid plate of the reactor core and controlled by a National Instruments LabVIEW data logging program. A custom outer jacket was designed to ensure the sensitive region of the detector is laterally positioned within 1 inch of the NAA sample terminus and at the same vertical location. This system provides the capability of monitoring sample irradiance in real-time. In preliminary testing, the system was able to track short irradiation NAA sample variance to within 3% of normalized values. Thus, a significant reduction in the uncertainty of NAA measurements for trace elemental concentrations is achievable.
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TUE-D.5
3:30 PM Analyzing Extent of Water Quality Impact from Radium Released from Fly-ash Spill into Chickahominy River DB Weyant*, Old Dominion University
; M Titcomb, Old Dominion University
Abstract: Fly-ash is a toxic byproduct of coal burning that contains numerous metals that can contaminate both ground and surface water. Notably, fly-ash has a high concentration of Radium-226 at 5 pCi/g. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Maximum Contaminant Level for Radium-226 and Radium-228 combined is 5 pCi/L. As the Chickahominy River is a vital drinking water source for Newport News Waterworks and a potential source for James City Service Authority, a model was developed to determine the effect and consequences of a fly-ash spill into the Chickahominy.
Two Water Quality Models were developed, an “Impulse” Spill and Estuary Finite Difference Model. The “Impulse” model was found to better represent the transport of Radium within the Chickahominy River. Due to the stable water quality of the Chickahominy River, the Radium dissolved in the water would maintain a stable form and is assumed to combine with particulate matter. Advective and dispersive forces were found to influence the transport of Radium, but the most significant impact on reduction of Radium concentration was the settling of Radium in the fly-ash particulate matter. The average net velocity of the river is 0.5 km/day; and, the river intakes are tens of kilometers away, so it was found that the settling effects had reduced the concentration to near background levels prior to any potential intakes.
The impact of dissolved or re-suspended Radium (leaching from sediment) was found to be insignificant on overall concentration. In response to a real-world fly-ash spill scenario, there would be adequate time to shut down intake pumps on the Chickahominy and the Radium would persist mostly in the sediment relatively close to the spill point. The larger fraction of Radium continuously settles and the re-suspended (dissolved partition) has the possibility to raise the background concentration of Radium to 0.5 pCi/L above background.
KEYWORDS: Fly-ash; Radium; Radionuclides Rule; Dispersion Coefficient (E); Chickahominy River
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TUE-D.
3:50 PM BREAK
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TUE-D.
4:00 PM Military Health Physics Section Business Meeting
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