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URGENT request for Mn-54 for seafloor sciesmic event study!



Hello all,

A sea-floor, volcanic, seismic event was recently detected in the Gorda Ridge area along the Pacific Northwest.  A pre-planned "Event and Rapid Response" effort is presently underway to study this sea-floor phenomenon.  As part of this response effort, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography research vessel, New Horizon, is transiting to the study site.  The vessel will be the science platform for an array of studies coordinated and carried out by University of Hawaii and NOAA scientists.

The Principal Investigator from the University of Hawaii, Dr. Jim Cowen, is in urgent need of Mn-54 for tracer studies at the event site.  Dr. Cowen had pre-arranged for the vendor to drop-ship his Mn-54 stock to the ship's loading location upon the occurrence of such a detectable seismic event.  However, now that an event has occurred, he finds that the vendor cannot obtain the Mn-54 in time to meet the immediate response need.   

Dr. Cowen URGENTLY needs the following:
Mn-54 as manganese chloride, 100-200 microCuries, high specific activity and high purity.
An aqueous solution is best.  The solution need not be sterile but should be clean.  Dry powder form may work as well.  Dr. Cowen will pay all shipping costs and will replace the Mn-54 stock.

The material must be in Eureka, CA  (Northern California) Tuesday morning by 1000, or so, for loading onto the vessel.  We could work the transport thru several means but a combination of commercial airline and courier appears the most promising, especially in light of the tight schedule deadline.  The material could be flown into San Francisco International Airport and picked up by a courier company for routing to the ship.  (I already have a courier company lined up that works 24 hours.)   I will coordinate transport logistics.

The material will be used under the University of California, San Diego licenses.  We are properly licensed for use of radioactive materials for this type of endeavor.  The "Event and Rapid Response" parameters were pre-arranged by agreement with the NRC, the University of Hawaii, and the University of California, San Diego.  For questions regarding licensing, please contact me at the numbers below.

If someone has Mn--54 that they can spare for the time being, please respond by email to
Dr. Cowen at jcowen@soest.hawaii.edu AND to me at sobrien@ucsd.edu, or telephone me at the numbers below.  Email will reach Dr. Cowen until  0800 Hawaii time.  After that time, I will relay the information to him. 

I know that this is short notice but we are giving it a try.  This is an unusual study opportunity and we'd like to maximize the research endeavor.  This is a good chance to be a hero and assist with this unusual science effort. 

Information on the Gorda Ridge seismic event can be viewed at 
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/seismicity/nepac/gordaridge01.html

(Sorry for the double posting for those on both RADSAFE and AMRSO lists.)

Thank you in advance,

Sandy O'Brien, HP
Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
University of California, San Diego-0210
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA  92093-0210
phone:  858-534-6103
fax:      858-534-5306
email:  sobrien@ucsd.edu