Underground Laboratories

In professional laboratories fume hoods are big metal boxes resting on counter tops and are connected by ducts to blower motors on the roof of the facility. The blower motor is constantly sucking the air from the hoods to the outside so that chemists will not be exposed to the vapors of chemicals they are working with inside the hood. The same precautions are taken by non-dead underground chemists. 

Tuff, a compressed volcanic material, is the primary constituent of Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas, Nevada, the site selected by Congress in 1987 for assessment for spent fuel disposal. An underground laboratory, to consist of many kilometers of tunnels and test rooms, is to be cut into the mountain with special boring equipment to determine if the site is suitable for a repository. 

This copolymer has proved particularly suitable for wire and cable insulation, with many grades being rated at 155°C for 20 000 h continuous exposure. It is extensively used in electrical systems for aircraft, underground railways, computers, telecommunications installations and heating circuits. Because of its toughness combined with its heat and chemical resistance it also finds use for lining pumps and valves and other equipment for the chemical industry and for laboratory ware. 

Pesticides contaminate not only surface water, but also ground water and aquifers. By 1990 in the USSR, 15% of all pesticides used were detected in underground water [29]. Pesticides were detected in 86% of samples of underground water in Ukraine in 1986-87 (including DDT and its metabolites, HCH, dimethoate, phosalone, methyl parathion, malathion, trichlorfon, simazin, atrazine, and prometrin). In actual fact, the number of pesticides was apparently larger, but the laboratory was able to determine the content of only 30 of the 200 pesticides used at that time in Ukraine [29]. In the 1960s, in the Tashkent and Andizhan oblasts of Uzbekistan, the methylmercaptophos content in the water of studied well shafts was, by clearly underestimated data, 0.03 mg/l (MPC was 0.01 mg/l), of DDT was 0.6 mg/l (MPC was 0.1 mg/ I), and of HCH was 0.41 mg/l (MPC was 0.02 mg/l) [A49]. 

Cooper, J.A., P.0. Jackson, J.C. Langford, M.R. Peterson and B.O. Stuart, Characteristics of Attached Rn-222 Daughters under both Laboratory and Field Conditions with Particular Emphasis upon Underground Uranium Mine Environments, Batelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, 1973. 

Bigu, J., Radon Daughter and Thoron Daughter Deposition Velocity and Unattached Fraction Under Laboratory-Controlled Conditions and in Underground Uranium Mines, Aerosol Sci., 16 157-165 (1985). 

CUORE will be located in an underground hall of Gran Sasso National Laboratory (L Aquila - Italy) at a depth of 3400 mwe, where the muon flux is only 3 x 10-8 p,/cm2/s and neutron flux 10-6 x/cm2/s. 

Once closed inside its copper frame, the array was mounted and thermally connected to the mixing chamber of the Oxford DR installed in Hall A of the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory. The tower was mechanically decoupled from the cryostat in order to avoid vibrations induced by pumps on the detectors and preamplifiers [98],... 

The U.S. Bureau of Mines-Spokane Research Center is conducting research on the environmental impacts of placing mine wastes underground as backfill. This work includes a review of residual cyanide in placed landfill, water quality monitorings at two mines and laboratory tests of cyanide fate in underground environments and permeability/leachate effects through cemented tailings. 

Laboratories, like any other investment, require a certain amount of capital to start and operate. Spend the necessary cash to buy the proper equipment to do the procedures required. Faulty equipment (not to mention insufficient knowledge) can cause fires, explosions, asphyxiation, and many other hazards. You can have one hell of a nice laboratory for the price of a funeral these days. Also hospitals are in excess of 150 a day if you are not in intensive care or requiring special services. 150 a day can operate even the most elaborate of laboratories. Therefore, if you have to beg, borrow, or steal to obtain a functional laboratory, then do so. Is three to five thousand dollars too much to spend on a lab that can easily produce a quarter of a million dollars worth of THC every week It takes money to make money, but very few, if any, investments can pay off as well as an underground laboratory run by competent chemists. 

Bigu J. 1985. Radon daughter and thoron daughter deposition velocity and unattached fraction under laboratory-controlled conditions and in underground uranium mines. J Aerosol Sci 16 157-165. 

Calcium chloride is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of sodium carbonate (soda ash) by ammonia-soda (Solvay) process. The process involves the reaction of sodium chloride with calcium carbonate and ammonia. Calcium chloride is currently produced in bulk amounts by evaporation of natural underground brines. In the laboratory, calcium chloride can be prepared by treating bmestone with hydrochloric acid followed by evaporation of solution to obtain crystals. The crystals are dehydrated to obtain anhydrous salt. Calcium oxide or hydroxide may be used instead of carbonate. 

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