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[en] Saskatchewan is Canada's second largest producer of crude oil and the third largest producer of natural gas with nearly 400 oil and gas companies operating in the province. The oil ranges from heavy sour to light sweet crude oil. Nearly half of the production is heavy oil, 30 per cent is medium oil and 20 per cent is light oil. In 2002, the Province announced changes to the oil and gas Royalty and Tax Regime in an effort to encourage new oil and gas exploration and development activities in Saskatchewan and to help the industry compete with other jurisdictions around the world. This paper examined the pre-October 2002 Saskatchewan Crown Royalty and freehold production tax structure and compared them to the new structure. The paper also briefly outlined the corporation capital tax, resource surcharge, and flow-through share tax credit initiatives announced in 2001 and 2002. With reductions in the Crown Royalty, freehold production tax and corporation capital taxes, the Province expects that more than 9000 oil and gas wells will be drilled in the next decade, representing new investment of about $4.3 billion and 40,000 new jobs. The flow-through share credit may not attract significant investment because it only benefits those who pay taxes in Saskatchewan. 40 refs

[en] This paper examined some of the tax issues associated with the production of bitumen or synthetic crude oil from oil sands. The oil sands deposits in Alberta are gaining more attention as the supplies of conventional oil in Canada decline. The oil sands reserves located in the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River areas contain about 2.5 trillion barrels of highly viscous hydrocarbons called bitumen, of which nearly 315 billion barrels are recoverable with current technology. The extraction method varies for each geographic area, and even within zones and reservoirs. The two most common extraction methods are surface mining and in-situ extraction such as cyclic steam stimulation (CSS); low pressure steam flood; pressure cycle steam drive; steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD); hot water flooding; and, fire flood. This paper also discussed the following general tax issues: bituminous sands definition; bituminous sands leases and Canadian development expense versus Canadian oil and gas property expense (COGPE); Canadian exploration expense (CEE) for surface mining versus in-situ methods; additional capital cost allowance; and, scientific research and experimental development (SR and ED). 15 refs

[en] Elemental mercury, contaminated with radionuclides, is a problem throughout the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. This report describes the development and testing of a process to immobilize elemental mercury, contaminated with radionuclides, in a form that is non-dispersible, will meet EPA leaching criteria, and has low mercury vapor pressure. In this stabilization and solidification process (patent pending) elemental mercury is mixed with an excess of powdered sulfur polymer cement (SPC) and additives in a vessel and heated to ∼35 C, for several hours, until all of the mercury is converted into mercuric sulfide (HgS). Additional SPC is then added and the mixture raised to 135 C, resulting in a homogeneous molten liquid which is poured into a suitable mold where is cools and solidifies. The final stabilized and solidified waste forms were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, as well as tested for leaching behavior and mercury vapor pressure. During this study the authors have processed the entire inventory of mixed mercury waste stored at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)

[en] JET has completed its first stage of active operations, processing more than 100 g of tritium during the deuterium-tritium experiment (DTE1), the neutral beam intervention and remote tile exchange shutdown. The radiological safety of tritium handling operations has been of particular interest. A wide range of tritium operations has been carried out in the period 1995-98. This paper describes some of the radiological protection measures for work with tritium, and discusses Health Physics operational experience of handling tritium in this period. Descriptions are given of active operations in the gas handling plant; in the torus hall during DTE1; in related interventions, and of the remote exchange of in-vessel divertor modules. Workplace contamination levels over 100DAC (HTO) have been encountered, tritiated water with activity of 2TBq/litre and tritiated carbon with activities of ∼4TBq/g has been handled. Control measures involving the use of purge and extract ventilation, and of personal protection using air-fed pressurised suits are described. The project imposes tight limits on radiation exposures. Tritium doses to staff in this period have been very low (individual doses <170μSv/year, collective doses ≤2.1mSv/year). Aerial discharges have been <3% of annual authorised limits, and average environmental (HTO) levels have been a few Bq/m³. Lessons have been learnt concerning exposure control, large-scale permeation effects, and the appearance of residual tritium on exposed surfaces. Tritium operations at JET have been conducted without incident and with very low personnel exposures. The methodology of using containment and ventilation systems and tight radiological control has been successful in limiting doses. JET experience shows that large-scale tritium handling and exposure control can be achieved within stringent dose limits. (author)

[en] Beryllium is favoured for plasma facing components in fusion reactors such as International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). As a toxic material the safety aspects of beryllium handling need careful consideration. Beryllium has been used on a large scale since 1988 in Joint European Torus (JET), as tiles and evaporators, with >3000 kg in the torus at one time. Tile degradation and the evaporated deposit produce dust particles that can mobilise to create potentially harmful exposures. Eighteen separate manual vessel interventions have been conducted since beryllium was introduced. Although few solid tiles are used for current first wall configurations, considerable operational experience has been gained over the last 14 years working in beryllium contaminated atmospheres, and handling contaminated materials. A stringent regime for worker protection was developed for JET operations, and has maintained extremely low exposures. In the period 1988-2001, >81,000 personal exposure assessments were carried out. Allowing for the respiratory protection worn, 99.98% of exposures are below the regulatory exposure limit of 2 μg/m³. To date no identifiable beryllium health effect has emerged in any of the 1200 beryllium workers that have been engaged on JET in this period. The exposure limit is likely to be reduced from 2 to 0.2 μg/m³ in coming years. Future fusion devices will encounter even more challenging conditions involving the control of beryllium

[en] The objective of the work discussed in this report is to determine if soil washing is a feasible method to remediate contaminated soils from the Hazardous Waste Management Facility (HWMF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The contaminants are predominantly Cs-137 and Sr-90. The authors have assumed that the target activity for Cs-137 is 50 pCi/g and that remediation is required for soils having greater activities. Cs-137 is the limiting contaminant because it is present in much greater quantities than Sr-90. This work was done in three parts, in which they: estimated the volume of contaminated soil as a function of Cs-137 content, determined if simple removal of the fine grained fraction of the soil (the material that is less than 0.063 mm) would effectively reduce the activity of the remaining soil to levels below the 50 pCi/g target, assessed the effectiveness of chemical and mechanical (as well as combinations of the two) methods of soil decontamination. From this analysis the authors were then able to develop a cost estimate for soil washing and for a baseline against which soil washing was compared

[en] Interactions of various radionuclides with coastal ecosystems around Bombay coastal waters are monitored over last three decades and data on distribution pattern of some radionuclides in coastal water, salt pans, sediments, fish and clams are presented. (M.G.B.). 5 tabs

[en] Flux rates and concentration factors of various radionuclides in marine organisms observed under laboratory conditions and under environmental conditions are discussed. In addition, available information on the flux rates of radionuclides measured in simultaneous laboratory and field experiments in reviewed. (author)

[en] In the period of 1971-1975 several samples of marine sediment and organisms were collected from the Bombay Harbour Bay as well as from the vicinity of the Tarapur nuclear power station in order to supply the materials for preparing intercalibration samples for radionuclides measurements. All samples collected were freeze-dried and homogenized prior to the dispatch to the Monaco Laboratory, where final homogenization and the homogeneity tests were carried out. Altogether 2 marine organisms and 3 marine sediments were supplied during this period. The materials supplied were proved to be useful to prepare intercalibration samples for radionuclide measurements in the levels for monitoring operations. Based on these materials several intercalibration exercises were successfully conducted. This work thus formed a basis for bringing the better comparability of radionuclide measurements in marine environmental samples in an international scale