Operation SWAB: Monitoring of Ship, Van, and Laboratory 14C and 3H Contamination

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0624179HappellThis 5-year award to University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS) provides support for the SWAB program, which samples and analyzes research vessels, laboratory vans and laboratories for contamination due to spills of radioisotopes. It continues a 25-year program to monitor research vessels of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) and related institutional facilities for tritium and radiocarbon contamination, assuring researchers involved in studies of natural abundance of these isotopes that the sampling environment and equipment used on board the ships are free from anthropogenic contamination. Careful monitoring of the vessels and vans is essential to ensure that the shared use of the research vessels can continue, including both biochemical research involving isotopic tracers and environmental research requiring detection of isotopes at levels up to 100 billion times lower in concentration. The SWAB office provides personnel to sample for contamination, as well as instruction in both sampling and cleanup as needed. ***