This system measures tritium on-line and collects tritium from a flowing inert gas stream. It separates the tritium from other non-hydrogen isotope contaminating gases, whether radioactive or not. The collecting portion of the system is constructed of various zirconium alloys called getters. These alloys adsorb tritium in any of its forms at one temperature and at a higher temperature release it as a gas. The system consists of four on-line getters and heaters, two ion chamber detectors, two collection getters, and two guard getters. When the incoming gas stream is valved through the on-line getters, 99.9% of it is adsorbed and the remainder continues to the guard getter where traces of tritium not collected earlier are adsorbed. The inert gas stream then exits the system to the decay chamber. Once the on-line getter has collected tritium for a predetermined time, it is valved off and the next online getter is valved on. Simultaneously, the first getter is heated and a pure helium purge is employed to carry the tritium from the getter. The tritium loaded gas stream is then routed through an ion chamber which measures the tritium activity. The ion chamber effluent passes through a collection getter that readsorbs …

A water and UV light degradable copolymer of monomers of lactic acid and a modifying monomer selected from the class consisting of ethylene and polyethylane glycols (PVB 6/22/90), propylene and and polypropylene (PVB 6/22/90) glycols, P-dioxanone, 1, 5 dioxepan-2-one, 1,4 -oxathialan-2-one, 1,4-dioxide and mixtures thereof. These copolymers are useful for waste disposal and agricultural purposes. Also disclosed is a water degradable blend of polylactic acid or modified polylactic acid and high molecular weight polyethylene oxide wherein the high molecular weight polyethylene oxide is present in the range of from about 2% by weight to about 50% by weight, suitable for films. A method of applying an active material selected from the class of seeds, seedlings, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and mixtures thereof to an agricultural site is also disclosed.

A plurality of nail current collector members are useful in the gas flow passages of an electrochemical device to optimize the active surfaces of the device and to provide structural support. In addition, the thicknesses of cathode and anode layers within the electrochemical device are varied according to current flow through the device to reduce resistance and increase operating efficiency.

An improved nuclear diagnostic method identifies a contained target material by measuring on-axis, mono-energetic uncollided particle radiation transmitted through a target material for two penetrating radiation beam energies, and applying specially developed algorithms to estimate a ratio of macroscopic neutron cross-sections for the uncollided particle radiation at the two energies, where the penetrating radiation is a neutron beam, or a ratio of linear attenuation coefficients for the uncollided particle radiation at the two energies, where the penetrating radiation is a gamma-ray beam. Alternatively, the measurements are used to derive a minimization formula based on the macroscopic neutron cross-sections for the uncollided particle radiation at the two neutron beam energies, or the linear attenuation coefficients for the uncollided particle radiation at the two gamma-ray beam energies. A candidate target material database, including known macroscopic neutron cross-sections or linear attenuation coefficients for target materials at the selected neutron or gamma-ray beam energies, is used to approximate the estimated ratio or to solve the minimization formula, such that the identity of the contained target material is discovered.

A method for preparing olefins and halogenated olefins is provided comprising contacting halogenated compounds with diamonds for a sufficient time and at a sufficient temperature to convert the halogenated compounds to olefins and halogenated olefins via elimination reactions.