Effect of sulfate erosion on strength and leaching characteristic of stabilized heavy metal contaminated red clay

Solidification/stabilization(S/S)technology has been widely used for remediation of the heavy metal contaminated soils.The heavy metal ions will be leached from the stabilized contaminated soil under sulfate erosion conditions,which gives rise tosecondary contamination to the areas around the mine sites.The commonly used Portland cement,fly ash and quicklime were takenas binder raw materials with various mix proportions.And then,the sulphuric acid and nitric acid method was used to investigate theleaching characteristic of stabilized heavy metal contaminated soils.The effects of binder types and binder contents,sulfateconcentrations(1.5,3.0and6.0g/L)and erosion time(0,7,14and28d)on leached concentrations of heavy metal ions fromcontaminated soils were studied.Moreover,a parameter named immobilization percentage(IP)was introduced to evaluate theinfluence of erosion time and sulfate concentration on immobilization effectiveness for heavy metal ions.The results showed that,theleached heavy metal concentrations increased with sulfate concentration and erosion time.Comparatively speaking,the compositebinders that had calcium oxide in it exhibited the worst solidification effectiveness and the lowest immobilization percentage,withthe largest leached heavy metal concentration.

Radionuclides in primary coolant of a fluoride salt-cooled hightemperature reactor during normal operation

The release of fission products from coated particle fuel to primary coolant, as well as the activation of coolant and impurities, were analysed for a fluoride saltcooled high-temperature reactor(FHR) system, and the activity of radionuclides accumulated in the coolant during normal operation was calculated. The release rate(release fraction per unit time) of fission products was calculated with STACY code, which is modelled mainly based on the Fick's law, while the activation of coolant and impurities was calculated with SCALE code. The accumulation of radionuclides in the coolant has been calculated with a simplified model, which is generally a time integration considering the generation and decay of radionuclides. The results show that activation products are the dominant gamma source in the primary coolant system during normal operation of the FHR while fission products become the dominant source after shutdown. In operation condition,health-impacts related nuclides such as ~3H, and ^(14)C originate from the activation of lithium and coolant impurities including carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. According to the calculated effective cross sections of neutron activation,~6Li and ^(14)N are the dominant ~3H production source and ^(14)C production source, respectively. Considering the high production rate,~3H and ^(14)C should be treated before being released to the environment.

In-core fuel management strategy for the basket-fuel-assembly molten salt reactor

Molten salt reactor, with good economics and inherent reliability, is one of the six types of Generation IV candidate reactors. The Basket-Fuel-Assembly Molten Salt Reactor(BFAMSR) is a new concept design based on fuel assemblies composed of fuel pebbles made of TRISOcoated particles. Four refueling patterns, similar to the fuel management strategy for water reactors, are designed and analyzed for BFAMSR in terms of economy and security.The MCNPX is employed to calculate the parameters, such as the total duration time, cycle length, discharge burnup,total discharge quantity of ^(235)U, total discharge quantity of ^(239)Pu, neutron flux distribution and power distribution. The in–out loading pattern has the highest burnup and duration time, the worst neutron flux and power distribution and the lowest neutron leakage. The out–in pattern possesses the most uniform neutron flux distribution, the lowest burnup and total duration time, and the highest neutron leakage.The out–in partition alternate pattern has slightly higher burnup, longer total duration time and smaller neutron leakage than that of the out–in loading pattern at the cost of sacrificing some neutron flux distribution and power distribution. However, its alternative distribution of fuelelements cut down the refueling time. The low-leakage pattern is the second highest in burnup, and total duration time, and its neutron flux and power distributions are the second most uniform.

Learning topological defects formation with neural networks in a quantum phase transition

Neural networks possess formidable representational power,rendering them invaluable in solving complex quantum many-body systems.While they excel at analyzing static solutions,nonequilibrium processes,including critical dynamics during a quantum phase transition,pose a greater challenge for neural networks.To address this,we utilize neural networks and machine learning algorithms to investigate time evolutions,universal statistics,and correlations of topological defects in a one-dimensional transverse-field quantum Ising model.Specifically,our analysis involves computing the energy of the system during a quantum phase transition following a linear quench of the transverse magnetic field strength.The excitation energies satisfy a power-law relation to the quench rate,indicating a proportional relationship between the excitation energy and the kink numbers.Moreover,we establish a universal power-law relationship between the first three cumulants of the kink numbers and the quench rate,indicating a binomial distribution of the kinks.Finally,the normalized kink-kink correlations are also investigated and it is found that the numerical values are consistent with the analytic formula.

Thermodynamics and weak cosmic censorship conjecture in Born-Infeld-anti-de Sitter black holes

In this study,we examine the laws of thermodynamics and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in the normal and extended phase spaces of Born-Infeld-anti-de Sitter black holes by considering a charged particle absorption.In the normal phase space,the first and second laws of thermodynamics as well as the weak cosmic censorship are still valid.However,in the extended phase space,the second law of thermodynamics is violated for double-horizon black holes and part of single-horizon black holes.The first law of thermodynamics and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture are still valid for all types of black holes.In addition,we found that the shift of the metric function,which determines the locations of the horizons,takes the same form at the minimum point in both the normal and extended phase spaces,indicating that the weak cosmic censorship conjecture is independent of the thermodynamic phase space.