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Atomic Energy Agency (atomic + energy_agency)
Kinds of Atomic Energy Agency Selected AbstractsIsotope Methods for Management of Shared Aquifers in Northern AfricaGROUND WATER, Issue 5 2005Bill Wallin Access to fresh water is one of the major issues of northern and sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the fresh water used for drinking and irrigation is obtained from large ground water basins where there is minor contemporary recharge and the aquifers cross national borders. These aquifers include the Nubian Aquifer System shared by Chad, Egypt, Libya, and Sudan; the Iullemeden Aquifer System, extending over Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, and Algeria; and the Northwest Sahara Aquifer System shared by Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. These resources are subject to increased exploitation and may be severely stressed if not managed properly as witnessed already by declining water levels. In order to make appropriate decisions for the sustainable management of these shared water resources, planners and managers in different countries need an improved knowledge base of hydrological information. Three technical cooperation projects related to aquifer systems will be implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and United Nations Development Programme/Global Environmental Facility. These projects focus on isotope hydrology studies to better quantify ground water recharge and dynamics. The multiple isotope approach combining commonly used isotopes 18O and 2H together with more recently developed techniques (chlorofluorocarbons, 36Cl, noble gases) will be applied to improve the conceptual model to study stratification and ground water flows. Moreover, the isotopes will be an important indicator of changes in the aquifer due to water abstraction, and therefore they will assist in the effort to establish a sustainable ground water management. [source] Isotope hydrology at the International Atomic Energy AgencyHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 11 2002Pradeep K. Aggarwal No abstract is available for this article. [source] ,Distribution of oxygen-18 and deuterium in river waters across the United StatesHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 7 2001Carol Kendall Abstract Reconstruction of continental palaeoclimate and palaeohydrology is currently hampered by limited information about isotopic patterns in the modern hydrologic cycle. To remedy this situation and to provide baseline data for other isotope hydrology studies, more than 4800, depth- and width-integrated, stream samples from 391 selected sites within the USGS National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) and Hydrologic Benchmark Network (HBN) were analysed for ,18O and ,2H (http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/ofr/ofr00-160/pdf/ofr00-160.pdf). Each site was sampled bimonthly or quarterly for 2·5 to 3 years between 1984 and 1987. The ability of this dataset to serve as a proxy for the isotopic composition of modern precipitation in the USA is supported by the excellent agreement between the river dataset and the isotopic compositions of adjacent precipitation monitoring sites, the strong spatial coherence of the distributions of ,18O and ,2H, the good correlations of the isotopic compositions with climatic parameters, and the good agreement between the ,national' meteoric water line (MWL) generated from unweighted analyses of samples from the 48 contiguous states of ,2H=8·11,18O+8·99 (r2=0·98) and the unweighted global MWL of sites from the Global Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) of ,2H=8·17,18O+10·35. The national MWL is composed of water samples that arise in diverse local conditions where the local meteoric water lines (LMWLs) usually have much lower slopes. Adjacent sites often have similar LMWLs, allowing the datasets to be combined into regional MWLs. The slopes of regional MWLs probably reflect the humidity of the local air mass, which imparts a distinctive evaporative isotopic signature to rainfall and hence to stream samples. Deuterium excess values range from 6 to 15, in the eastern half of the USA, along the northwest coast and on the Colorado Plateau. In the rest of the USA, these values range from ,2 to 6,, with strong spatial correlations with regional aridity. The river samples have successfully integrated the spatial variability in the meteorological cycle and provide the best available dataset on the spatial distributions of ,18O and ,2H values of meteoric waters in the USA. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Stable water isotope simulation in different reservoirs of Manaus, Brazil, by Community Land Model incorporating stable isotopic effectINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Xin-Ping Zhang Abstract The daily and monthly variations of stable water isotopes in different reservoirs at Manaus, Brazil, are simulated and inter-compared in an equilibrium year, using the Community Land Model (CLM) involving the stable isotopic effects as a diagnostic tool for an in-depth understanding of the hydrometeorological processes. On the daily scale, the ,18O in precipitation, vapour and surface runoff have clear seasonality, with marked negative correlations with the corresponding water amount. However, the ,18O in surface dew displays marked positive correlation with dew amount. On the diurnal time scale, the ,18O in precipitation displays an unclear diurnal variation and an unmarked correlation with the precipitation amount. However, the ,18O in vapour keeps consistency with specific humidity. On the monthly time scale, the ,18O in precipitation and surface runoff displays distinct bimodal seasonality, with two maxima in January and in July, and two minima in April and in October; Vapor displays a similar bimodal pattern, two maxima appear in January and August, and two minima in April and November. The amount effect simulated on the monthly time scale has consistency with the actual survey result at the Manaus station, from 1965 to 1990, set up by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)/World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In addition, the slope (7.49) and the intercept (6.25) of the simulated meteoric water line (MWL) are all smaller than those of the actual mean MWL. However, compared with the annual MWL, the simulated MWL lies within the variation range of actual MWLs. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Enabling technologies to improve area-wide integrated pest management programmes for the control of screwwormsMEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 2009A. S. ROBINSON Abstract The economic devastation caused in the past by the New World screwworm fly Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) to the livestock industry in the U.S.A., Mexico and the rest of Central America was staggering. The eradication of this major livestock pest from North and Central America using the sterile insect technique (SIT) as part of an area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programme was a phenomenal technical and managerial accomplishment with enormous economic implications. The area is maintained screwworm-free by the weekly release of 40 million sterile flies in the Darien Gap in Panama, which prevents migration from screwworm-infested areas in Columbia. However, the species is still a major pest in many areas of the Caribbean and South America and there is considerable interest in extending the eradication programme to these countries. Understanding New World screwworm fly populations in the Caribbean and South America, which represent a continuous threat to the screwworm-free areas of Central America and the U.S.A., is a prerequisite to any future eradication campaigns. The Old World screwworm fly Chrysomya bezziana Villeneuve (Diptera: Calliphoridae) has a very wide distribution ranging from Southern Africa to Papua New Guinea and, although its economic importance is assumed to be less than that of its New World counterpart, it is a serious pest in extensive livestock production and a constant threat to pest-free areas such as Australia. In the 1980s repeated introductions and an expansion of Old World screwworm populations were reported in the Middle East; in the 1990s it invaded Iraq and since late 2007 it has been reported in Yemen, where a severe outbreak of myiasis occurred in 2008. Small-scale field trials have shown the potential of integrating the SIT in the control of this pest and various international organizations are considering using the release of sterile insects as part of an AW-IPM approach on a much wider scale. Wohlfahrtia magnifica (Schiner) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) is a screwworm of temperate regions, which, although of limited agricultural importance, has invaded several new locations in the past few years. This special issue reports on the results of a 6-year project funded by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/International Atomic Energy Agency (FAO/IAEA) Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture entitled ,Enabling Technologies for the Expansion of the SIT for Old and New World Screwworm'. A major goal of the project was to better understand population genetic variation in screwworms as an aid to the identification of isolated populations. The project also addressed issues related to genetic sexing, cuticular hydrocarbons, population dynamics, genetic transformation and chromosome analysis. [source] A Season for DisarmamentNEW PERSPECTIVES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2010HANS BLIX Is President Barack Obama's proposal for zero nuclear weapons realistic? Will it make the world more secure, or more prone to wars since they are no longer unthinkable? To evaluate this bold strategic initiative, we have invited comments from two former US secretaries of state, a former director of the CIA and the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who led the hunt for Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the Iraq war. [source] Obama, Reagan and Zero NukesNEW PERSPECTIVES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2010GEORGE SHULTZ Is President Barack Obama's proposal for zero nuclear weapons realistic? Will it make the world more secure, or more prone to wars since they are no longer unthinkable? To evaluate this bold strategic initiative, we have invited comments from two former US secretaries of state, a former director of the CIA and the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who led the hunt for Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the Iraq war. [source] Self-assessment for improving safety performance in the nuclear industryQUALITY ASSURANCE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2003I.A. Beckmerhagen Abstract Due to the possibility of catastrophic accidents when operating a nuclear plant, ensuring the highest level of safety and continuously improving safety-related performance are imperative in the nuclear industry. One of the prerequisites for such assurance and improvement is a structured program for the assessment of safety performance, consisting of both internal and external evaluation of existing systems and achieved results. This paper discusses a comprehensive program for the self-assessment of safety performance enablers and safety performance outcomes. The main self-assessment concepts are presented, including the framework, objectives, and scope of a self-assessment, a set of main principles and prerequisites for conducting it, and the resulting benefits. An illustration of a self-assessment program currently under development in the International Atomic Energy Agency is also provided. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A neutron crystallographic analysis of phosphate-free ribonuclease A at 1.7,Å resolutionACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 9 2009Daichi Yagi A neutron crystallographic analysis of phosphate-free bovine pancreatic RNase A has been carried out at 1.7,Å resolution using the BIX-4 single-crystal diffractometer at the JRR-3 reactor of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The high-resolution structural model allowed us to determine that His12 acts mainly as a general base in the catalytic process of RNase A. Numerous other distinctive structural features such as the hydrogen positions of methyl groups, hydroxyl groups, prolines, asparagines and glutamines were also determined at 1.7,Å resolution. The protonation and deprotonation states of all of the charged amino-acid residues allowed us to provide a definitive description of the hydrogen-bonding network around the active site and the H atoms of the key His48 residue. Differences in hydrogen-bond strengths for the ,-helices and ,-sheets were inferred from determination of the hydrogen-bond lengths and the H/D-exchange ratios of the backbone amide H atoms. The correlation between the B factors and hydrogen-bond lengths of the hydration water molecules was also determined. [source] | ||||||||||