Nuclear Technologies in Air Pollution Management

Nuclear Technologies in Air Pollution  Management

Activities

The nuclear organisations represented by the fifteen or so Member States within the current Asian RCA air pollution program carry out a set of activities which provide them with a core set of nuclear competencies and skills.  These generally include skills associated with a broad range of analytical methods applied across a range of scientific disciplines, including,

-         Material Science including nanotechnology

-         Radio pharmacy, isotope production

-         Environmental Science (Water, Air, Soil)

-         Biological Sciences

-         Agriculture / food

-         Safeguards / Security both nuclear and public

-         Waste management

-         Geology, minerals exploration

Air pollutions studies may not be a focus for an organisation within a member state but nuclear methods applied to air pollution issues could be as most member states in the RCA region have varying degrees of air pollution problems.  The social impact of these types of environmental studies can be effectively used to offset often negative perceptions of nuclear functions within these organisations.  Furthermore they have high ‘social good’ impacts and are generally readily understood by a large majority of the public.

The seven talks presented in section 4 above identified at least five key areas related to air pollution studies to which nuclear techniques can add significant value.  These are schematically shown in Fig . 1 below.  In this document we will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of NTA and identify niche areas in which we can excel. These niche areas will lead to activities and outputs which will be picked up by end users producing outcomes.  These success or otherwise of these outputs and outcomes can be judged against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which we will discuss.  Finally we will make some recommendations which we hope the IAEA will take up.

NTA Strengths

Following the format discussed above we believe that RCA Member States (MS) either individually or collectively have full access to a range of highly important nuclear techniques for AQM, including accelerator based ion beam analysis (IBA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). These have the following strengths;

• Multielemental analysis capability: all elements from hydrogen to uranium
• Small sample capability (µg)
• Measurements are absolute and made at receptor site
• NTA capabilities exist in Asia where emission inventories are almost not existing
• Comparable data sets at variable locations (countries) in Asia
• Sampling of both, coarse (PM10-2.5) and fine (PM2.5) particulate matter
• High sensitivities / low MDL’s, µg/g capabilities
• Established RCA programme since 1997 using NTA– long time/data records
• Common protocols are used in the RCA MS for sampling, data gathering and analysis
• Expertise has been build up from sampling through to source apportionment and back trajectory calculations
• Strong linkages / networks exist across Asia in nuclear aspects
• Establishment of RRUs
• Good ‘mass closure’ when NTA applied
• Source identification and apportionment capabilities
• Cost competitive (essentially just a few $s per element)
• Can be regarded as non-destructive analyses techniques

Weaknesses

As with all methods of analysis there will also be some weaknesses.  For NTA methods these include;

• Some NTA are poor for some key elements (e.g. NAA for Si, S, Pb) that are necessary for air pollution studies
• NTA techniques provide limited chemical information
• Limited information on organic carbon, which appears to be a key parameter in air pollution studies
• Only particulates are measured, no gases, met data not always available at the site
• Range of capabilities across Member States (need of RRUs to supplement gaps, training etc..).  NTA methods are not present in all Member States.
• Limited or not consistent ‘end-user’ involvement/ uptake to date. Insufficient exchange of data between member states and external stake holders
• Some knowledge gap at local EPA managers regarding usefulness of NTA for AQM
• Expensive non-portable facilities required
• Insufficient reporting of success stories to date (also in open literature).  To date, limited marketing has occurred. Nuclear appears to be not sexy
• Insufficiently linked to other regional air quality programmes

Particularly, the later bullet points can be easily addressed by a slightly differently structured RCA regional program, which has been proposed for 2007/08.  Also, a CRP regional programme might help to address some of the more technical limitations.

Niche Areas

As nuclear methods can not be all things to all people we need to focus on niche areas where these capabilities and facilities can make a real quantifiable difference.  These niche areas where NTA methods excel include;

• Multi-elemental (self calibrating) methods. X-ray methods (not γ-rays)
• Long term measurements of fine and coarse particulate matter
• Non-destructive fast analyses short turnaround times
• (μg/g) analysis on 100 μg samples with little or no sample preparation
• Receptor source apportionment based on large data sets
• Competitively priced for multi-elemental analyses / cost competitive
• At leading edge of air quality data requirements

Interest/ Applications

Eight key areas associated with air pollution characterisation and management have been identified where NTA methods could be successfully applied.  These are listed below together with their sub-areas of possible impact.

• Health / welfare
• Impact to health models include
• Cardio vascular
• Mortality / morbidity
• Lung function
• Respiratory disease, asthma
• Establishing correlations of symptoms with air particulate matter (APM)
• Identifying key air quality parameters, size factors, source types

• Climate change input
• Validate climate model predictions for aerosol components
• Quantify key positive and negative climate forcing components
• Provide data on a global scale
• Provide temporal and spatial data sets

• Visibility
• Provide particulate data in key size range impacting on visibility
• Source identification, apportionment and location
• Helps with better understanding of chemistry, hygroscopicity
• Can identify source location affecting visibility

• Agriculture (key ozone not measured by NTA)
• Capability to measure heavy element uptake by plants
• Bio/soil samples ideal for NTA
• Deposition uptake prediction – modelling estimates
• Food preservation / irradiation

• Long range transport/ transboundary
• Looking at key size distributions
• Compositional components/sources
• Can differentiate anthropogenic and natural contributions
• Back trajectories to follow sources
• Long time series data
• Spatial information (large areas)
• Relate satellite data to ground based data – to date only ground based datasets have been produced under the RCA program.

• Air Quality Management (AQM)
• Urban
• Provide unique particulate source/apportionment data
• Evaluation of policy decisions (removal of Pb in petrol etc)
• Identify local and transported air pollution contributions
• Provide data against PM goals

• Regional
• Identify regional pollutant sources and transport pathways
• Baseline data for regional agreements
• Verification tools for regional agreements and regional models

• IAEA/ RCA & Member State (MS) Priorities / Interests for the Asian region
• Define Region: IAEA/RCA region covers Pakistan to Japan, Mongolia to Australia/New Zealand
• Priorities of national coordinators but must be linked to national priorities
• To introduce use/ application of sustainable NTA methods related to air quality management into MS and their corresponding end users
• Providing temporal/spatial baseline data for AQM
• Contributing to comprehensive benchmarking studies in AQM
• Providing quality assured data related to AQM
• Providing source apportionment/emissions data for management strategies
• Contribute to capacity building for AQ studies
• Understanding aerosol related processes that take local into regional and global issues
• Integrate local air quality management with climate change parameters (e.g. black carbon (BC) reduction)
• Important to quantify air pollution impacts on health/trace back to specific species and sources
• Increase number of cities involved across region/need low cost expansion roll out monitoring
• Need to address mobile stationary and area source contributions
• Improve QA of air pollution data
• Assist in the setting of realistic AQ goals and standards
• Each country needs a national programme in AQM for sustainability.

• RCA project unfulfilled needs for a successful air particulate program:
• Addressing issue of missing some elements with some NTA (e.g. S, Si, Pb…)
• Not all countries have access to all NTA methods
• To date, organic carbon poorly investigated if at all. Important for Pb in petrol, which has now been removed by many MS. EC/OC machines cost US$50,000 each
• Sampling/sites currently restricted to a few. Countries need networks/collaborators
• RRUs to be better funded – RRUs are as very efficient method of providing high quality data.
• Market NTA methods more effectively across region / national. NTA are perfectly tailor-made for many AQM investigations
• Stronger linkages with national/regional clean air initiatives
• Formal communication structure, build collaborative partnerships / networks
• Improve performance at data interpretation modelling and for transboundary / climate/ visibility input (in context of atmospheric science)
• Increase sampling capacity – continuous data/monitoring drum sampling
• Publish best work in journals

Programme outputs and outcomes

It is important at the outset to be able to identify possible outputs and subsequent outcomes from possible IAEA programs using NTA methods in air pollution studies. Below are identified possible outputs from AQM and then given adequate end user participation possible outcomes flowing from these typical outputs.

Air Quality Management Project Outputs (directly produced)

• PM datasets generated suitable for climate change, local, regional and global studies
• Source profiles (time series, spatial)
• Source contributions ( time series, spatial)
• Back trajectory for plots and sources to extend to regional and global scale
• Building capacity in NTA in Member States
• Number of fellows trained
• Number of expert missions
• Better understanding of PM
• Nuclear technique analysis system established in MS
• Outreach component
• Produce publications in journals
• Website information within IAEA and external to IAEA
• Number of national meetings / conferences / training workshops conducted
• Communicate project finding to decision makers

Air Quality Management Project Outcomes

Effective AQM will contribute to better air quality which is the ultimate goal of all air quality managers in Asian/ World.  Hence relevant Project outcomes include;

o       Effective AQM systems within Member States

• End-user uptake of datasets
• Management strategies change/use knowledge gained
• PM goals/standards established in Member States
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of the AQ system
• Improved governmental frameworks to PM pollution

• Better air quality within Member States
• Improved PM levels
• Better visibility
• Better health outcomes
• Economic benefits
• Public perception of air quality improved (see further)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

In order to appropriately assess the success of any project outputs and outcomes we need to have some quantifiable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the project.  These might include;

For the Outputs

o       At least 70 % of MS have collected PM samples spanning at least 2 years of at least weekly sampling

o       90 % of samples collected produce QA multielemental data set spanning at least 2 years for fingerprinting and source apportionment.

o       70 % of the countries have fingerprinting and source apportionment results.

o       Identification of local to global sources using back trajectory techniques (more than 5 countries as appropriate)

o       Number of fellowships/ workshops completed and training completed delivered

o       Number of publications in citable journals

o       25 % of MS have published a journal paper

o       Number of presentations at national meetings.

o       Number of key end-users that use the data.

o       Number of national and international presentations outside non IAEA/RCA meetings/conferences

o       Number of key new website locations

o       Number of RCA entries in RCA website

o       Number of national/ international MOU/ collaborations/ formal linkages/ networks generated

For the Outcomes

• Number of external references to project results planning, management done in MS
• Project has identified at least one significant transboundary issue (regional/global) related to the MS
• Datasets taken up by national MS PM programme for management/goals/standard/policy evaluations in at least one MS
• MS have taken AQ management actions and programme data used to evaluate these actions (demonstrate effectiveness).

Summary

In summary we have discussed the key issues related to fine particulate matter studies, these relate to health, climate change, visibility, transboundary and long range pollution transport and agriculture.  We have shown that there are significant key niches areas where NTA methods have a unique contribution to make and have highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of these methods as applied to air pollution management and data systems.

In particular it should be noted that;

• NTA methods are important methods for understanding may key aspects APM. NTA methods have significant contributions to make
• NTA provide multi-elemental data on small samples
• Multi-elemental datasets are essential for source fingerprinting and identification
• NTA methods have an ability to run (analyse) many samples quickly providing sufficient statistics for meaningful source apportionment
• Combination of NAT methods generally provides good elemental coverage across the periodic table and provides good mass closure essential for source apportionment
• Source apportionment can provide direct input for strategic development and indirect input to improve emissions inventories.
• NAT not currently fully utilised and taken up by end-users. NTA have potential to expand in both developed and developing countries
• In many MS local EPAs need support provided by this type of IAEA/ RCA project. It provides a catalyst for better understanding of PM issues and characterisation. It has even provided the first such data for fine and coarse particulate matter in some countries.
• For many MS NTA methods are parts of their core business. These methods have already shown to have impacts and outcomes in areas related to health, climate change, visibility and agriculture and well as long range transport, e.g. ACE Asia programme.
• Increased fossil fuel burning in India will have a great impact in the RCA region due to India’s ‘down-wind’ situation across the Bay of Bengal.
• PM studies are not short time. In order to achieve meaningful results, most sampling regimes alone run for at least 2-3. There are typically five different phases that form a successful PM study. They have been identified to: sampling/data analysis/ fingerprinting/ back trajectory calculations and progression through these phases.