US Defense Department estimates indicate that as many as 11 million acres of government land in the U. S. may contain unexploded ordnance (UXO), with the cost of identifying and disposing of this material estimated at nearly $500 billion. The size and character of the ordnance, types of interference, vegetation, geology, and topography vary from site to site. Because of size or composition, some ordnance is difficult to detect with any geophysical method, even under favorable soil and cultural interference conditions. For some sites, airborne methods may provide the most time and cost effective means for detection of UXO. Airborne methods offer lower risk to field crews from proximity to unstable ordnance, and less disturbance of sites that maybe environmentally sensitive. Data were acquired over a test site at Edwards AFB, CA using airborne magnetic, electromagnetic, multispectral and thermal sensors. Survey areas included sites where trenches might occur, and a test site in which we placed deactivated ordnance, ranging in size from small ''bomblets'' to large bombs. Magnetic data were then acquired with the Aerodat HM-3 system, which consists of three cesium magnetometers within booms extending to the front and sides of the helicopter, and mounted such that the helicopter …

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has expressed a need for an on-line, real-time instrument for assaying alpha-emitting radionuclides (uranium and the transuranics) in effluent waters leaving DOE sites to ensure compliance with regulatory limits. Due to the short range of alpha particles in water ({approximately}40 Im), it is necessary now to intermittently collect samples of water and send them to a central laboratory for analysis. A lengthy and costly procedure is used to separate and measure the radionuclides from each sample. Large variations in radionuclide concentrations in the water may go undetected due to the sporadic sampling. Even when detected, the reading may not be representative of the actual stream concentration. To address these issues, the Advanced Technologies Group of Thermo Power Corporation (a Thermo Electron company) is developing a real-time, field-deployable alpha monitor based on a solid-state silicon wafer semiconductor (US Patent 5,652,013 and pending, assigned to the US Department of Energy). The Thermo Water Alpha Monitor will serve to monitor effluent water streams (Subsurface Contaminants Focus Area) and will be suitable for process control of remediation as well as decontamination and decommissioning (D and D) operations, such as monitoring scrubber or rinse water radioactivity levels (Mixed Waste, …