Public and occupational risks of the Nevada (USA) Test Site

The Nevada Test Site (NTS), north of Las Vegas, was the scene of hundreds of nuclear weapons tests over four decades, both above- and belowground. There is considerable interest, both in neighboring communities and elsewhere, in the risks it poses. Overall, the greatest risks are nonradioactive in origin, with occupational risks to employees and accident risks in transporting low-level nuclear wastes to the NTS from other Department of Energy (DOE) sites ranking highest. For radiation risks, that to workers handling radioactive materials is much higher than that to the surrounding population, either present or future. Overall, annual risks are small, with all fatalities approximately 0.008% of total Nevada deaths. At the NTS, the government spends about 5000 times more on radiation as opposed to nonradiation deaths. This suggests that at least some resources may be misallocated towards cleanup of public risks and that the occupational risk of cleanup may be much higher than the public risk. Thus risk may be multiplied by well-meaning programs.     

Information Management System for Site Remediation Efforts

/ Environmental regulatory agencies are responsible for protecting human health and the environment in their constituencies. Their responsibilities include the identification, evaluation, and cleanup of contaminated sites. Leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) constitute a major source of subsurface and groundwater contamination. A significant portion of a regulatory body's efforts may be directed toward the management of UST-contaminated sites. In order to manage remedial sites effectively, vast quantities of information must be maintained, including analytical dataon chemical contaminants, remedial design features, and performance details. Currently, most regulatory agencies maintain such information manually. This makes it difficult to manage the data effectively. Some agencies have introduced automated record-keeping systems. However, the ad hoc approach in these endeavors makes it difficult to efficiently analyze, disseminate, and utilize the data. This paper identifies the information requirements for UST-contaminated site management at the Waste Cleanup Section of the Department of Environmental Resources Management in Dade County, Florida. It presents a viable design for an information management system to meet these requirements. The proposed solution is based on a back-end relational database management system with relevant tools for sophisticated data analysis and data mining. The database is designed with all tables in the third normal form to ensure data integrity, flexible access, and efficient query processing. In addition to all standard reports required by the agency, the system provides answers to ad hoc queries that are typically difficult to answer under the existing system. The database also serves as a repository of information for a decision support system to aid engineering design and risk analysis. The system may be integrated with a geographic information system for effective presentation and dissemination of spatial data.     

我国民航灾害应急联动机制优化研究

针对我国现行的民航灾害应急联动救援体系所存在着多头指挥、组织形式不明确、责任关系不协调、信息沟通不顺畅、资源调度不合理等问题,运用文献检索、理论分析与实地调研相结合的方法,笔者提出优化思路:民航灾害应急联动机制应以各级民航管理当局的飞行事故应急指挥部为主要指挥决策者,采用虚拟的网络式组织形式,理顺联动单位的责任与关系,将应急联动的信息网络与各地突发公共危机事件的信息平台接轨,成立全国统一的、具有双重功能的民航灾害应急资源调度中心。其中,对民航灾害应急联动虚拟网络组织形式的设计,较好地改进了现行组织的效率,体现了快速反应和协调行动的要求。     

矿井通风网络解算可视化软件研究

采用面向对象编程语言Visual Basic6.0为开发工具,以Access为后台数据库,开发了具有风机优选功能的矿井通风网络解算软件。该软件承袭了Windows系统应用程序界面直观、交互性好的特点,集矿井通风网络解算、自然风压计算、风机自动选型以及经济断面优化等功能于一体,并辅以强大的数据管理系统,为矿山通风设计和管理工作提供了便利工具。     

人员位置固定的公共场所分区疏散研究

通过将分区疏散转化为分配问题(Allocation Problem),并采用启发式的A*优化算法,对人员位置固定的公共场所分区疏散进行研究。进一步利用基于元胞自动机模型的大型公共场所人员疏散行为模拟仿真系统,在充分考虑公共场所中每个人员的状态、人员之间以及人员与周围环境的相互作用的前提下,对疏散分区的效果进行模拟;通过与未分区的模拟结果相比较,可以认为,分区疏散有助于人员快速疏散,大大缩短整体避难时间,而且基于移动路径搜索的分区更加切合实际。     

Water Network Synthesis Using Mutation-Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization

Different techniques for the synthesis of industrial water reuse/recycle networks have been developed in recent process integration research. These tools range from graphical pinch analysis approaches to mathematical programming models. The latter have the advantage of being flexible enough to incorporate various water network constraints, but in many cases these are often non-linear, thus making the identification of global optima difficult. Recent work has demonstrated the effectiveness of metaheuristic algorithms such as particle swarm optimization (PSO), for finding good solutions these problems. This work describes the use of a modified PSO for solving mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) models for water network synthesis. By incorporating a mutation operator for the binary variables in the model, the algorithm is able to escape sub-optimal network topologies and proceed towards better solutions than can be found with ordinary PSO. Two case studies involving water recycle/reuse are used to demonstrate the new design methodology.     

OPTIMAL WATER USE AND SALINITY CONTROL FOR ENERGY - UPPER COLORADO RIVER BASIN1

ABSTRACT: The Upper Colorado River Basin contains appreciable amounts of undeveloped fuel resources. Large quantities of oil shale, coal, and uranium have attracted recent economic and commercial interests. Development of these resources and subsequent conversion to alternative energy forms require an adequate supply of water. Water use for large scale energy development will place increasing demands on an already overstressed allocation of Colorado River water. Present water quality is at a concentration where increased salinity will result in economic detriments to holders of downstream water rights. The salt and water exchange in mining, processing, and spent fuel disposal processes has been incorporated as part of a two-level minimum cost linear programming algorithm. Mathematical simulation results provide an optimal use of Upper Colorado River water for levels of energy output such that salinity concentrations are maintained below predetermined levels.     

CAPITAL COST OF RURAL WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT: The cost of water service to rural residents is very high compared to urban areas. This is true even after subsidization by Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) loans and grants. Capital cost data on 44 projects financed by the Ohio office of the FmHA during the period August 1968 to January 1977 are used to derive cost equations for 26 components of rural water distribution systems. These components represent 92 percent of the capital cost of the pipeline distribution systems studied. The data can be used to economically design rural water supply systems from a capital cost viewpoint. More data are needed on operation and maintenance costs as well as central and cluster well costs before totally economic system designs can be undertaken.     

ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF LAND USE ON SEWER SERVICE AREA PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The density and distribution of land uses has important consequences for the planning of sewerage systems and for the costs of these systems. This paper examines these consequences using a simplified service area model. The model determines the area to be served by a central waste treatment plant, where alternative on-lot disposal systems are also available. The model is applied to various urban area configurations, which are summarized by their total populations and by their population density distributions. Both minimum regional cost and minimum local cost service area configurations are determined. In addition, the sensitivity of the model to the parameters of the cost and population density functions is assessed. It is found that the model is most sensitive to the parameters of the collection cost function.     

A NONLINEAR MULTILEVEL MODEL FOR REGIONAL WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: A nonlinear multilevel transportation model is developed to study large-scale allocations in a water resources system. The model uses a modified transportation matrix formulated with nonlinear cost functions as the basic subregional model and the goal coordination method for multilevel decomposition and optimization of the overall regional system. The model is applied to projected water requirements for Salt Lake County in 1985. Sources of water supply - surface water, ground water, import water, and reuse of reclaimed wastewater on a restricted basis - are available to satisfy water requirements for municipal, industrial, and agricultural sectors in four subregions. The conjugate gradient projection method is used to optimize the first level subregional models having cost functions of the form of C = aX^b, and the second level problem is solved using the conjugate gradient method.