GLOSSARY
A-FRAME: A-shaped boom on the stern of a ship, from which the largest or heaviest instrumentation and sampling equipment is deployed using a winch.
ALARA: As low as reasonably achievable, in nuclear containment parlance.
ALGAE: Primitive marine and freshwater plants gaining nutrition through photosynthesis. Lacking a true root system or leaves, purists hesitate to call them “plants” at all. The singular form is alga.
ALPHA RADIATION: Relatively high-mass particles consisting of two protons and two neutrons emitted by heavier radioactive isotopes such as uranium.
ARCTIC DISTILLATION: A process by which pollutants put into the atmosphere at temperate or tropical latitudes condense upon contact with colder air and concentrate in the ice, snow, and water of the polar regions.
ASDS: Advanced SEAL Delivery System. General designation for the next-generation U.S. Navy submersibles designed to transport Naval Special Warfare personnel. Unlike previous “wet” SDVS (SEAL Delivery Vehicles), the ASDS keeps its occupants dry in a pressurized capsule.
BALAENOPTERA: Taxonomic genus of Odontoceti or baleen whales. Balaenoptera musculus is the species commonly known as the blue whale.
BASALT: Principal, relatively dense rock of the ocean basins.
BETA RADIATION: Low-mass (compared to alpha radiation) electrons or positrons emitted from isotopes that have too many neutrons or protons, respectively.
BIO ACCUMULATION: The increased concentration of a trace metal, pollutant, or toxin in higher organisms as a result of feeding on lower organisms tainted with the same agent. Via bio accumulation harmless or sublethal doses in lower organisms can collectively become damaging or fatal to consumers higher in the food chain.
CNIDARIAN (COELENTERATE): An organism of the invertebrate phylum Cnidaria, a group of about nine thousand species including jellyfish, corals, and anemones.
DES GROSEILLIERS: Icebreaker operated by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, known especially for its participation in the $18 million SHEBA (Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean) study, a modern oceanographic and meteorological analysis of the Arctic. Much like the From, the Des Groseilliers was frozen into the ice to monitor circulation in the Arctic Ocean.
DIAND; Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, an agency of the government of Canada.
DOM: Dissolved organic matter. Carbon-based material existing in the environment in solution, below the organism, tissue, or cellular level.
FAST ICE: Ice attached (held fast) to the shore.
FLOE: A formation of floating or drifting ice, usually flatter than an iceberg.
FRAM: Norwegian research vessel of the late nineteenth century renowned for its exploration of both the Arctic and the Antarctic.
GAMMA RADIATION: High-energy electromagnetic radiation similar to X rays released by nearly all radionuclides. Gamma rays have no mass and no charge.
GBS: Gravity base structure, the lower, mainly submerged foundation of an oil rig.
GRAY: Unit of measurement quantifying absorbed dose or absolute radiation levels. The gray — equal to about 100 rad — has replaced the rad in general usage.
HALF-LIFE: The time it takes for half the number of atoms in a radionuclide sample to disintegrate. Containment requirements are estimated at five half-lives, until the radiation level drops to 5 percent or less of the original activity. Some examples:
Uranium 235 — 704,000,000 years
Iodine 129 — 17,000,000 years
Cesium 135 — 3,000,000 years
Plutonium 239 — 24,100 years
Cesium 137 — 30.17 years
Strontium 90 — 28.8 years
Iodine 131 — 8.05 days
HAWKBILL: U.S. Navy Sturgeonclass nuclear attack submarine, hull number 666. In recent years, the Hawkbill has been used part-time for civilian research in the Arctic, notably the SCICEX research sponsored by the National Science Foundation in conjunction with several research institutions.
JIM: Bulbous, pressurized, carbon-fiber suit that allows diving to depths of up to eighteen hundred feet or sixty atmospheres of pressure, far beyond the range of ordinary scuba. Named for its originator, Englishman Jim Jarrett.
MEDUSA: Semifictitious sampling device invented and developed by Brock Garner. Towed behind a ship, the spherical device simultaneously records data on water properties, pollutants, and organic content, including plankton abundance and species composition.
NERT: Nuclear emergency response team.
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOL: Naval Ordnance Laboratory.
NORAD: North American Aerospace Defense Command.
NRC: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an agent of the United States government.
NRO: National Reconnaissance Office. NSA: National Security Agency.
NSF: National Science Foundation.
PATRIC: Semifictitious computer-based modeling software for hind casting detected sources of environmental radiation and predicting their distribution.
PCB: Polychlorinated biphenyls, a group of organic compounds notorious for their deposition and accumulation in polar environments, as by arctic distillation.
PHYCOLOGY: The study of seaweeds and other aquatic plants.
PLANKTON: Generic term for microscopic plants and tiny animals floating or weakly swimming in the water column. Due to their small size, plankton are transported involuntarily by wind and current action.
PLASROC: Semifictitious polymer resin effective at bonding water soluble toxic waste.
POLYMER: A chemical compound composed of a repeated number of heavy, complex molecules (e.g.” proteins, cellulose, plastics).
PRIMACORD: Pliable, plastic-sheathed cord used to prime or initiate explosives during detonation. Depending on depth (pressure), force may be translated through the cord at up to five miles per second.
QABLUNAQ: Inuit word literally meaning “hairy eyebrows,” used to refer to white men. (The q is pronounced as a k.)
RADIOMETER: Device for measuring radiation emissions (atomic disintegrations per unit time) in the environment, typically in Roentgensper-hour (R/hr). Specialized kinds of radiometer include the dosimeter, gamma spectrometer, and Geiger counter.
RADIONUCLIDE (RADIOACTIVE NUCLIDE): Radioactive products of nuclear fission.
SAR: Search and rescue.
SEAL: Sea, Air, and Land. Acronym for the elite Special Warfare teams of the United States Navy.
SEA SPRITE: Semifictitious model of pressurized, single-passenger submersible used for undersea structural maintenance and inspection.
SIEVERT: A unit of radiation dose as absorbed by biological tissue (equivalent biological dose). The Sievert differs from the gray by including the damage imposed by alpha particles as well as gamma radiation. The Sievert — equal to about 100 rem — has replaced the rem in general usage.