Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) counts individual rare, usually radio-, isotopes such as radiocarbon at high efficiency and specificity in milligram-sized samples. AMS traces very low chemical doses ({micro}g) and radiative doses (100 Bq) of isotope labeled compounds in animal models and directly in humans for pharmaceutical, nutritional, or toxicological research. Absorption, metabolism, distribution, binding, and elimination are all quantifiable with high precision after appropriate sample definition.

A general quantum-mechanical method for computing kinetic isotope effects is presented. The method is based on the quantum instanton approximation for the rate constant and on the path integral Metropolis Monte-Carlo evaluation of the Boltzmann operator matrix elements. It computes the kinetic isotope effect directly, using a thermodynamic integration with respect to the mass of the isotope, thus avoiding the more computationally expensive process of computing the individual rate constants. The method is more accurate than variational transition-state theories or the semiclassical instanton method since it does not assume a single reaction path and does not use a semiclassical approximation of the Boltzmann operator. While the general Monte-Carlo implementation makes the method accessible to systems with a large number of atoms, we present numerical results for the Eckart barrier and for the collinear and full three-dimensional isotope variants of the hydrogen exchange reaction H+H{sub 2} {yields} H{sub 2}+H. In all seven test cases, for temperatures between 250 K and 600 K, the error of the quantum instanton approximation for the kinetic isotope effects is less than {approx}10%.

The objective of this program is to develop new processes for the disposal of surplus energetic materials. Disposal through open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) is considered less attractive today due to environmental, cost and safety concerns. The use of energetic materials as chemical feedstocks for higher value products can provide environmentally sound and cost-effective alternatives to OB/OD. Our recent studies on the conversion of surplus energetic materials (Explosive D, TNT) to higher value products will be described.

The generation of cells in the human body has been difficult to study and our understanding of cell turnover is limited. Extensive testing of nuclear weapons resulted in a dramatic global increase in the levels of the isotope {sup 14}C in the atmosphere, followed by an exponential decrease after the test ban treaty in 1963. We show that the level of {sup 14}C in genomic DNA closely parallels atmospheric levels, and can be used to establish the time point when the DNA was synthesized and cells were born. We use this strategy to determine the age of cells in the cortex of the adult human brain, and show that whereas non-neuronal cells are exchanged, occipital neurons are as old as the individual, supporting the view that postnatal neurogenesis does not take place in this region. Retrospective birth dating is a generally applicable strategy that can be used to measure cell turnover in man under physiological and pathological conditions.

We present arguments demonstrating that the Miller, Schwartz, and Tromp (MST) correlation function is the only computationally reasonable choice with regard to minimizing the extent of recrossing flux. However, using accurate numerical results, we point out that the MST flux-flux correlation function almost always exhibits non-vanishing negative parts, even for the simplest physical systems. We argue that, in order to best handle the residual recrossing flux, one must not rely on the ''no recrossing'' assumption in the development of quantum transition state theories. To provide accurate numerical examples, we derive the analytical expressions for the flux-flux correlation and spectral functions for the symmetric Eckart and rectangular potential barriers.

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The primary mission of the Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) is to extract tritium from tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) that have been irradiated in a commercial light water reactor and to deliver tritium-containing gas to the Savannah River Site Facility 233-H. The tritium extraction segment provides the capability to deliver three (3) kilograms per year to the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The TEF includes processes, equipment and facilities capable of production-scale extraction of tritium while minimizing personnel radiation exposure, environmental releases, and waste generation.