Adaptation to mountain γ-background: bacteria speciation.

Purpose: To study the adaptation of bacteria to the natural γ-background of mountains and anthropogenic emissions from nuclear power plants; to establish the main factors of variability and speciation of bacteria.

Method: Analysis of materials on the radiation background and its impact on living organisms in the landscape of Armenia, calculation of the absorbed dose by microbes due to rock radiation.

Results: The review shows the death, reproduction, radioresistance and speciation of bacteria in changing conditions of low variable natural and anthropogenic γ-background.

Solid phase extraction of tritiated contaminants from tritium-containing waste oils.

A solid phase extraction method for removing polar tritiated contaminants from tritium-containing waste oils has been developed. The composition of the degradation products present in the waste oil was determined. The results indicated that upon exposure to tritium gas, fragment methyl ketones, carboxylic acids, and lactones were the main polar products of the mineral-based oil oxidation.

Production of (117m)Sn with high specific activity by cyclotron.

A method to produce (117m)Sn radionuclide using accelerator production route is described. A new method is proposed to separate the (117m)Sn. Specific activities and thick target yield for (116)Cd(α,3n)(117m)Sn reaction at E(α)=35MeV bombarding energy were determined.

Multivariate comparison of elemental concentrations in human teeth.

R-mode factor analysis was applied to characterize the chemical composition of human teeth investigated by particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques. The approach developed in this study enabled the separation between essential mineral teeth components and the pollutants deposited in teeth tissues during the human life. The three independent sources of metals incorporated in human teeth were found.

[Evaluation of the consequences of stress factors on plant seeds growing in a 30-km zone of Balakovo AES].

The effect of stress factors (small doses of radiation and maximum temperatures in the econiche of the tested plants (tmax)) as well as aging on pea seeds, both acting independently and in combination, is estimated. Here we evaluate the influence of oxidizing stress on pea seeds in the laboratory (gamma-irradiated with 7 cGy at 0.3-19.