January 2012
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THE JOURNAL OF THE COMMITTEE ON MONETARY AND ECONOMIC REFORM $3.95 Vol. 24, No. 1 • JANUARY 2012 CONTENTS 3 Occupy Moves Us into a New Era Rare Isotope Tracks an Ancient 4 As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks Water Source 6 A State Weighs Restitution for People It Sterilized By Felicity Barringer, The New York Times, tope hydrology section of the International 7 Reader Mail November 21, 2011 Atomic Energy Agency’s water resources 8 Hope for Post-traumatic The Nubian Aquifer, the font of fa- program, said that success in tracking older Stress Sufferers bled oases in Egypt and Libya, stretches bodies of water had long been elusive. Car- 9 Past Haunts Tally of Japan’s languidly across 770,000 square miles of bon 14 dating, so useful in archaeology, Nuke Crisis northern Africa, a pointillist collection of reaches back just 50,000 years or so. 11 Uganda Losing Grip on AIDS Crisis underground pools of water migrating, ever It is now clear that the Nubian Aquifer 13 COMER’s Court Case Proceeds so slowly, through rock and sand toward the has been a million years in the making. 20 A Banker Speaks, With Regret Mediterranean Sea. “For decades we have been looking at The aquifer is one of the world’s oldest. different means of fingerprinting water,” Publications Mail Agreement No. 41796016 But its workings – how it flows and how Dr. Aggarwal said. “We used a bunch of quickly surface water replenishes it – have different isotopes – stable isotopes – to trace been hard to understand, in part because the where the rain comes from. We also used the tools available to study it have provided, at radioisotopes to figure how quickly ground- best, a blurry image. water moves.” Now, to solve some of the puzzles, physi- For years, scientists had relied on carbon cists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne 14 dating indicating the aquifer was just National Laboratory in Illinois have turned 40,000 years old. They knew that krypton to one of the rarest particles on earth: an 81, an isotope present in the open air but elusive radioactive isotope usually ricochet- not underground, would be a better marker ing around in the atmosphere at hundreds for the forensic work of tracking under- of miles an hour. ground water’s movement. When water Their first success was in distilling these loses contact with air, the radioactive clock elusive isotopes, krypton 81, from the water starts; the isotope decays by a factor of two in the huge Nubian Aquifer, part of which every 230,000 years, and the decay is mea- lies two miles below the oases of western surable as far back as two million years. Egypt where temples honor Alexander the But the krypton 81 isotopes were devil- Great. Their second was in holding these ishly difficult to isolate and even more dif- isotopes still and measuring how much they ficult to catch. had decayed since they last saw sunlight. Zheng-Tian Lu, a physicist at the Ar- Knowing how long water has been un- gonne laboratory, and his colleagues have derground helps researchers understand spent 14 years mastering and extending how fast aquifers are recharged by surface techniques to slow down atoms, the same water and how fast they move, leading to laser-based techniques that were pioneered more accurate geological models. Ground- by the current energy secretary, Steven Chu, water is becoming an increasingly crucial in the 1980s, and for which he won a Nobel component of the world’s available fresh prize. water, and the findings could significantly When Dr. Lu realized the potential ben- increase understanding of how it behaves. efit of isolating krypton 81 isotopes, “I got Pradeep Aggarwal, who runs the iso- Continued on page 2 Isotope from page 1 national Atomic Energy Agency pointed hooked on the problem,” he said. “I tried to out: “As a result of the drawdown we have use the trapping method I’d already learned dried up the oases in a couple of places. In to try and solve the radio-krypton dating Libya they have dried up Kufra Lake.” In problem. 1920, he said, National Geographic pub- FOUNDING EDITOR “We are combining the ability to control lished a picture of the lake at high water. John Hotson 1930–1996 and manipulate atoms to select krypton 81 “Right now it is a dry bed, because they are PUBLISHER–EDITOR out of a million kinds of krypton isotopes,” pumping so heavily,” he said. William Krehm he added. There is one krypton atom in And even though the aquifer is huge, its ([email protected]) every million molecules of water; one in a recharge rate, at best, “is measured in mil- INFORMATION SECRETARY trillion of these krypton atoms is the kryp- limeters per year,” Dr. Aggarwal said – tiny Herb Wiseman ([email protected]) ton 81 isotope. compared with what is being pumped out. The key, he said, is using lasers to pin- In addition, Dr. Sturchio said, there WEBMASTER point the frequency at which atoms oscillate remains the question of how best to extract Tony Koch – a loose equivalent of trying to determine water: “where you put wells, how deep, how Economic Reform (ER) the exact pitch of a musical note. Detect- close to each other.” (ISSN 1187–080X) is published monthly ing the infinitesimal differences in isotopes’ “If you design it the right way, you can by COMER Publications resonance is hard, but when done, lasers can get a lot more water without problems,” he 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 be tuned to pick up each isotope’s frequency. went on. “But if you put all the wells in one Toronto, Ontario M4W 2T3 Canada When krypton 81 atoms go through a laser spot, you could be causing yourself a lot of Tel: 416‑924-3964, Fax: 416-466-5827 attuned to them, they glow brightly and trouble.” Email: [email protected] slow down, giving scientists an easier target Water managers around the world will Website: www.comer.org to isolate. find the team’s information useful, he pre- COMER Membership: Annual dues The process begins when water is ex- dicts. (includes ER on request plus 1 book or tracted from the aquifer without any con- In addition to being applied to other video of your choice): CDN$50 tact with air. Krypton is bled from the water aquifers in places like the Philippines and into a vacuum system. Once identified and Australia, the krypton 81 techniques are Economic Reform Subscription only: slowed, the krypton 81 isotopes are trapped being explored as a way of tracking under- One year, 12 monthly issues, in Canada by six laser beams focusing on them from ground brine in places like southeastern CDN$30, Foreign CDN$40 the four cardinal points of the compass and New Mexico, where radioactive waste from Send request and payment to: from above and below. Then their decay can ships, submarines and aircraft carriers is COMER Publications be measured. stored underground. 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 “From this aging information, you are In the end, management of nuclear waste, Toronto, ON M4W 2T3 looking at how the water flowed in the long like management of water, is a political mat- ER Back Issues: CDN/US$4, includes past,” Dr. Lu said. “But it does have impli- ter. “There are a lot of different calculations postage; additional copies same cations about how to manage waters today.” that go into exploiting a resource,” Dr. issue, $2; additional issue same order, He added, “To manage a water resource you Aggarwal said. “In most cases, decisions of $3. Send requests for back issues to need to build a realistic hydrology model.” whether to use or not to use, or how much Herb Wiseman, 69 Village Crescent, That is where Neil C. Sturchio, a geolo- to use, are social, political and economic Peterborough ON K9J 0A9. gist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, decisions.” comes in. He works with the most accepted Still, he said, “the more reliable info we Copyright © 2012 model of how water flows through the can provide for making those decisions, the COMER Publications Nubian Aquifer. “The reason this model better off we are – what we want to do is get All rights reserved was done,” he said, “is that there is an in- the most accurate information possible.” Permission to reproduce is granted ternational agreement among the countries ❧ ❧ ❧ if accompanied by: that share this water” – Egypt, Libya, Chad “Copyright © 2012 COMER Publications. and Sudan. Editor: Wasting human capital, while Reproduced by permission of “The issue is if Libya is starting to pump disastrously running out of water. Have you COMER Publications” on their water seriously and Egypt is doing noticed how snowless the skies have been Postmaster, please send address the same thing in their oasis areas,” what to the pointed that poor Santa Claus has corrections to: happens to the rest of the aquifer? If heavy to pull his sled on broken wheels may be, COMER Publications pumping comes too close to a coastline, under what threatens to be clear dry skies? 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 saltwater may be drawn into the hydrologic That will not only require the rewriting of Toronto, Ontario M4W 2T3 depression created by the pumping. our Xmas carols, but interfere with how we The Nubian Aquifer is not exactly run- do our “washing up.” PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION ning dry; it is filled with the equivalent of That again it is only another instance on Watt Solutions Inc., London more than 500 years of Nile River flow; the how society has given the back of its hand Printed in Canada on recycled paper.