About
21
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56
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Marco Kaltofen is a Massachusetts licensed civil engineer and he is the principal at Boston Chemical Data Corp. Dr. Kaltofen's research area is the study of nuclear forensics. He has a PhD in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and a Masters in Environmental Engineering. Dr. Kaltofen is President of the Boston Chemical Data Corp. and along with Dan Borelli (Harvard U.) curator of the Unfriending the atom project. MIT Media Lab video at: http://goo.gl/Isyzwq.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
May 2015 - January 2016
September 2007 - May 2015
Publications
Publications (21)
In November 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned north of Los Angeles, CA, USA, potentially remobilizing radioactive contaminants at the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a shuttered nuclear research facility contaminated by chemical and radiochemical releases. Wildfire in radiologically contaminated zones is a global concern; contaminated areas aroun...
Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDS), a technique not routinely used to detect radiation, was used to identify radioactive particulate matter in house and environmental dust. The study focused on elements that are necessarily radioactive, including thorium, plutonium, americium, and uranium. Seventy-nine dust...
Radioactive particulate matter (RPM) in St Louis, MO, area surface soils, house dusts and sediments was examined by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Analyses found RPM containing238U and decay products (up to 46 wt%), and a distinct second form of RPM containing230Th and decay products (up to 15.6 wt%). The SEM-ED...
After the March 11, 2011, nuclear reactor meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi, 180 samples of Japanese particulate matter (dusts and surface soils) and 235 similar U.S. and Canadian samples were collected and analyzed sequentially by gamma spectrometry, autoradiography, and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Samples wer...
Analysis of 287 soil, sediment and house dust samples collected in a 200 km(2)-zone in northern St. Louis County, Missouri, establish that offsite migration of radiological contaminants from Manhattan Project-era uranium processing wastes has occurred in this populated area. Specifically, 48% of samples (111 of a subset of 229 soils and sediments t...
Radiation
levels
are
measured
with
a
large
variety
of
units,
including,
(as abbreviated),
Bq,
Sv,
uSv,
Gy,
pCi/g,
rads,
rem,
J/kg,
and
others.
These
units
are confusing
to
the
general
public.
Instead
of
trying
to
use
the
standard units,
general
publications often
use
one
of
three possible
physica...
Airborne dusts can transport radioactive materials in the form of isolated individual radioactively-hot particles containing high concentrations of radioisotopes. These airborne particles may be inhaled or ingested, becoming a source of internal radiation exposure. After the March 11, 2011, nuclear reactor accidents at Fukushima Daiichi, in norther...
The 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Northeastern Japan led to damages to four of the six nuclear power units at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Station. Radiological materials escaped from the reactor units at the power plant site via air-borne plumes of contaminated gases, aerosols and particles. Airborne dusts transport radioactive materials as i...
A sample of street dust was received from a location about 10 km from the Fukushima-Daiichi accident site. The street is in Namie-machi, Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture. This is in the restricted zone, close to, but is just outside of the exclusion zone. The dust sample was analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray anal...
The Fukushima nuclear accident dispersed airborne dusts that are contaminated with radioactive particles. When inhaled or ingested, these particles can have negative effects on human health that are different from those caused by exposure to external or uniform radiation fields. A field sampling effort was undertaken to characterize the form and co...
Hypothesis: The mix of dispersants and crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico stabilized petrogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, (PAHs), in the water column, making these PAHs more available for uptake by marine organisms. Abstract: The Deepwater Horizon rig was destroyed on April 20, 2010, Methane gas escaping from the well rose to the surface, and...
In this study, radioactive particles, also known as "hot particles," were isolated from occupational dust samples collected at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation tank farm site in Hanford, WA. The present study provides previously unreported data on the size and form of workplace dust particles, which were primarily composed of toxic or radioactive el...
Radionuclides in particulate matter associated with outdoor and indoor dusts were analyzed to determine the form and concentration of radioactive isotopes present. These radioactive isotopes, such as Strontium 90, Cesium 137, and Uranium 235, consist of, or are sorbed onto fine particulate matter, (PM). The airborne dispersion of this fine particul...
