Design of a 3D-printed liquid lithium divertor target plate and its interaction with high-density plasma

A liquid Li divertor is a promising alternative for future fusion devices.In this work a new divertor model is proposed,which is processed by 3D-printing technology to accurately control the size of the internal capillary structure.At a steady-state heat load of 10 MW m^(-2),the thermal stress of the tungsten target is within the bearing range of tungsten by finite-element simulation.In order to evaluate the wicking ability of the capillary structure,the wicking process at 600℃ was simulated by FLUENT.The result was identical to that of the corresponding experiments.Within 1 s,liquid lithium was wicked to the target surface by the capillary structure of the target and quickly spread on the target surface.During the wicking process,the average wicking mass rate of lithium should reach 0.062 g s^(-1),which could even supplement the evaporation requirement of liquid lithium under an environment>950℃.Irradiation experiments under different plasma discharge currents were carried out in a linear plasma device(SCU-PSI),and the evolution of the vapor cloud during plasma irradiation was analyzed.It was found that the target temperature tends to plateau despite the gradually increased input current,indicating that the vapor shielding effect is gradually enhanced.The irradiation experiment also confirmed that the 3D-printed tungsten structure has better heat consumption performance than a tungsten mesh structure or multichannel structure.These results reveal the application potential and feasibility of a 3D-printed porous capillary structure in plasma-facing components and provide a reference for further liquid-solid combined target designs.

Opportunities for production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126 at HIAF

The study of nuclide production and its properties in the N=126 neutron-rich region is prevalent in nuclear physics and astrophysics research.The upcoming High-energy FRagment Separator(HFRS)at the High-Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility(HIAF),an in-flight separator at relativistic energies,is characterized by high beam intensity,large ion-optical acceptance,high magnetic rigidity,and high momentum resolution power.This provides an opportunity to study the production and properties of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126.In this paper,an experimental scheme is proposed to produce neutron-rich nuclei around N=126 and simultaneously measure their mass and lifetime based on the HFRS separator;the feasibility of this scheme is evaluated through simulations.The results show that under the high-resolution optical mode,many new neutron-rich nuclei approaching the r-process abundance peak around A=195 can be produced for the first time,and many nuclei with unknown masses and lifetimes can be produced with high statistics.Using the time-of-flight corrected by the measured dispersive position and energy loss information,the cocktails produced from 208 Pb fragmentation can be unambiguously identified.Moreover,the masses of some neutron-rich nuclei near N=126 can be measured with high precision using the time-of-flight magnetic rigidity technique.This indicates that the HIAF-HFRS facility has the potential for the production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126,which is of great significance for expanding the chart of nuclides,developing nuclear theories,and understanding the origin of heavy elements in the universe.

The research progress of an E//B neutral particle analyzer

An E//B neutral particle analyzer(NPA)has been designed and is under development at Sichuan University and Southwestern Institute of Physics.The main purpose of the E//B NPA is to measure the distribution function of fast ions in the HL-2A/3 tokamak.The E//B NPA contains three main units,i.e.the stripping unit,the analyzing unit and the detection unit.A gas stripping chamber was adopted as the stripping unit.The results of the simulations and beam tests for the stripping chamber are presented.Parallel electric and magnetic fields provided by a NdFeB permanent magnet and two parallel electric plates were designed and constructed for the analyzing unit.The calibration of the magnetic and electric fields was performed using a 50 kV electron cyclotron resonance ion source(ECRIS)platform.The detection unit consists of 32lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate(LYSO)detector modules arranged in two rows.The response functions ofα,hydrogen ions(H^(+),H_(2)^(+)and H_(3)^(+))andγfor a detector module were measured with^(241)Am,^(137)Cs and^(152)Eu sources together with the 50 kV ECRIS platform.The overall results indicate that the designed E//B NPA device is capable of measuring the intensity of neutral hydrogen and deuteron atoms with energy higher than 20 keV.

Gas-and plasma-driven hydrogen permeation behavior of stagnant eutectic-solid GaInSn/Fe double-layer structure

Gas-driven permeation(GDP)and plasma-driven permeation(PDP)of hydrogen gas through Ga In Sn/Fe are systematically investigated in this work.The permeation parameters of hydrogen through Ga In Sn/Fe,including diffusivity,Sieverts'constant,permeability,and surface recombination coefficient are obtained.The permeation flux of hydrogen through Ga In Sn/Fe shows great dependence on external conditions such as temperature,hydrogen pressure,and thickness of liquid Ga In Sn.Furthermore,the hydrogen permeation behavior through Ga In Sn/Fe is well consistent with the multilayer permeation theory.In PDP and GDP experiments,hydrogen through Ga In Sn/Fe satisfies the diffusion-limited regime.In addition,the permeation flux of PDP is greater than that of GDP.The increase of hydrogen plasma density hardly causes the hydrogen PDP flux to change within the test scope of this work,which is due to the dissolution saturation.These findings provide guidance for a comprehensive and systematic understanding of hydrogen isotope recycling,permeation,and retention in plasma-facing components under actual conditions.

Research and applications of nuclear tracks: Developments in Pakistan and global comparison

The present paper describes the development and applications of nuclear track detection technique in Pakistan. Pakistan entered in the field of nuclear tracks in early 1970s when it was still quite new. Highlights of successes of different Pakistani laboratories, working on nuclear tracks, achieved on their own or in collaboration with similar centers in the world are described briefly. The robust features of this investigation are the comprehensive investigation of the addressed research, analysis and review of results, and discussions with the perspectives of applications and new research directions. Further analysis of the published results by the present author and some new results are also presented. This paper portrays a comprehensive picture of the nuclear track detection research and technology in Pakistan and can be useful for a similar development in any country around the globe.

Particle-in-cell simulations of EUV-induced hydrogen plasma in the vicinity of a reflective mirror

Particle-In-Cell(PIC)simulations were performed in this work to study the dynamics of the EUVinduced hydrogen plasma.The Monte-Carlo Collision(MCC)model was employed to deal with the collisions between charged particles and background gas molecules.The dynamic evolution of the plasma sheath,as well as the flux and energy distribution of ions impacting on the mirror surface,was discussed.It was found that the emission of secondary electrons under the EUV irradiation on the ruthenium mirror coating creates a positively charged wall and then prevents the ions from impacting on the mirror and therefore changes the flux and energy distribution of ions reaching the mirror.Furthermore,gas pressure has a notable effect on the plasma sheath and the characteristics of the ions impinging on the mirrors.With greater gas pressure,the sheath potential decreases more rapidly.The flux of ions received by the mirror grows approximately linearly and at the same time the energy corresponding to the peak flux decreases slightly.However,the EUV source intensity barely changes the sheath potential,and its influence on the ion impact is mainly limited to the approximate linear increase in ion flux.

Experimental study on the gas-stripping chamber of an E//B neutral particle analyzer

Stripping units take a key role in the neutral particle analyzer(NPA).A renovated gas-stripping unit was constructed for the newly designed E//B NPA.Using H_(2)as the working gas,we measured the gas inlet pressure(P_(0))and vacuum chamber pressure(P_(3)).The pressure distribution inside the gas-stripping room was calculated with Ansys Fluent,using the measured P_(0)and P_(3)as boundary conditions.The stripping efficiency of the stripping unit was then simulated utilizing the Geant4 Monte Carlo code for the H and D particles.The pressure P_(0)=40 Pa,which is one-sixth of what found in the previous design and corresponds to a thickness of 1.27×10^(17)atoms∕cm^(2),was obtained as the optimum working pressure for the upgraded stripping unit.An 50 kV electron cyclotron resonance(ECR)ion source platform was designed and constructed for E//B NPA calibration,and its performance has been measured.Using the ECR ion source platform,we measured the efficiency of the stripping unit through an inverse experiment with proton beams.We compared the current ratios of measurements with and without H_(2)gas to Geant4 simulation results.We found adequate agreement between the overall trends of the experiment and the simulation.The significant deviation for incident energies below 20 keV may result from the scattering effects of low-energy protons,leading to reduced accuracy in single-scattering physics in Geant4 simulations.Applying the scattering corrections observed in the reverse experiments obtains more accurate stripping efficiencies for H and D atoms in the energy range of 20–200 keV and the global efficiency with the maximum values of 95.0%for H atoms and 78.9%for D atoms at 200 keV.

Multi-layer phenomena in petawatt laser-driven acceleration of heavy ions

Laser-accelerated high-flux-intensity heavy-ion beams are important for new types of accelerators.A particle-in-cell program(Smilei) is employed to simulate the entire process of Station of Extreme Light(SEL) 100 PW laser-accelerated heavy particles using different nanoscale short targets with a thickness of 100 nm Cr, Fe, Ag, Ta, Au, Pb, Th and U, as well as 200 nm thick Al and Ca. An obvious stratification is observed in the simulation. The layering phenomenon is a hybrid acceleration mechanism reflecting target normal sheath acceleration and radiation pressure acceleration, and this phenomenon is understood from the simulated energy spectrum,ionization and spatial electric field distribution. According to the stratification, it is suggested that high-quality heavy-ion beams could be expected for fusion reactions to synthesize superheavy nuclei. Two plasma clusters in the stratification are observed simultaneously, which suggest new techniques for plasma experiments as well as thinner metal targets in the precision machining process.

Investigation of an electrode-driven hydrogen plasma method for in situ cleaning of tin-based contamination

To prolong the service life of optics,the feasibility of in situ cleaning of the multilayer mirror(MLM)of tin and its oxidized contamination was investigated using hydrogen plasma at different power levels.Granular tin-based contamination consisting of micro-and macroparticles was deposited on silicon via physical vapor deposition(PVD).The electrodedriven hydrogen plasma at different power levels was systematically diagnosed using a Langmuir probe and a retarding field ion energy analyzer(RFEA).Moreover,the magnitude of the self-biasing voltage was measured at different power levels,and the peak ion energy was corrected for the difference between the RFEA measurements and the self-biasing voltage(E_(RFEA)-eV_(self)).XPS analysis of O 1s and Sn 3d peaks demonstrated the chemical reduction process after 1 W cleaning.Analysis of surface and cross-section morphology revealed that holes emerged on the upper part of the macroparticles while its bottom remained smooth.Hills and folds appeared on the upper part of the microparticles,confirming the top-down cleaning mode with hydrogen plasma.This study provides an in situ electrode-driven hydrogen plasma etching process for tin-based contamination and will provide meaningful guidance for understanding the chemical mechanism of reduction and etching.

Disposal of high level nuclear wastes:Thermodynamic equilibrium and environment ethics

Contamination of soil, water or air, due to a failure of containment or disposal of high level nuclear wastes, can potentially cause serious hazards to the environment or human health. Essential elements of the environment and radioactivity dangers to it are illustrated. Issues of high level nuclear waste disposal are discussed with a focus on thermodynamic equilibrium and environment ethics. Major aspects of the issues are analyzed and described briefly to build a perception of risks involved and ethical implications. Nuclear waste containment repository should be as close as possible to thermodynamic equilibrium. A clear demonstration about safety aspects of nuclear waste management is required in gaining public and political confidence in any possible scheme of permanent disposal. Disposal of high level nuclear waste offers a spectrum of environment connected challenges and a long term future of nuclear power depends on the environment friendly solution of the problem of nuclear wastes.

Effects of nano TiN addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of TiC based steel bonded carbides

TiC based steel bonded carbides with the addition of nano TiN were prepared by vacuum sintering techniques.The microstructure was investigated using scanning electron microscopy（SEM） and transmission electron microscopy（TEM）,and the mechanical properties,such as bending strength,impact toughness,hardness,and density,were measured.The results indicate that the grain size becomes small and there is uniformity in the steel bonded carbide with nano addition;several smaller carbide particles are also found to be inlaid in the rim of the larger carbide grains and prevent the coalescence of TiC grains.The smaller and larger carbide grains joint firmly,and then the reduction of the average size of the grains leads to the increase in the mechanical properties of the steel bonded carbides with nano addition.But the mechanical properties do not increase monotonously with an increase in nano addition.When the nano TiN addition accounts for 6-8 wt.% of the amount of steel bonded carbides,the mechanical properties reach the maximum values and then decrease with further increase in nano TiN addition.

SWELLING BEHAVIOR OF ACRYLAMIDE HYDROGEL IN DIFFERENT SOLVENTS AND pHs

Swelling property of acrylamide hydrogels,prepared from aqueous solutions of acrylamide monomer havingconcentrations in the range of 10-60 wt% by ray irradiation method using a Co-60 gamma radiation source at dosesranging 1-30.0 kGy,has been investigated under various swelling media.These swelling media were basically solvents(solutions),produced by dissolving methanol,ethanol,glucose,sucrose,sodium chloride and sodium persulfate individuallywith distilled water,and solutions prepared with pHs=3,7 and 10.The investigation was performed in order to observe theeffect of these solvents and pHs as well as the influence of monomer concentrations,radiation doses and times on swellingbehavior of hydrogels.Swelling values were found higher for hydrogels prepared with lower monomer concentrations(ca.20 wt%)and radiation doses(ca.5 kGy)and showed a leveling off tendency within 24 h.The glucose solvent and the buffersolution of pH=10 revealed significant increase of swelling of hydrogels as compared to other solutions.Results areexplained based on crosslinking density in hydrogel,polymer-solvent/polymer-polymer interactions in solutions,permeability of molecules in solutions and ionization capacity of hydrogel in pH.

Band Engineering and Morphology Control of Oxygen‑Incorporated Graphitic Carbon Nitride Porous Nanosheets for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Graphitic carbon nitride(g-C3N4)-based photocatalysts have shown great potential in the splitting of water.However,the intrinsic drawbacks of g-C3N4,such as low surface area,poor diffusion,and charge separation efficiency,remain as the bottleneck to achieve highly efficient hydrogen evolution.Here,a hollow oxygen-incorporated g-C3N4 nanosheet(OCN)with an improved surface area of 148.5 m2 g^−1 is fabricated by the multiple thermal treatments under the N2/O2 atmosphere,wherein the C–O bonds are formed through two ways of physical adsorption and doping.The physical characterization and theoretical calculation indicate that the O-adsorption can promote the generation of defects,leading to the formation of hollow morphology,while the O-doping results in reduced band gap of g-C3N4.The optimized OCN shows an excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of 3519.6μmol g^−1 h^−1 for~20 h,which is over four times higher than that of g-C3N4(850.1μmol g^−1 h^−1)and outperforms most of the reported g-C3N4 catalysts.

Crystallization Behaviour and Mechanical Properties of Zr_(65)Cu_(18)Ni_9Al_8 Bulk Metallic Glass

Designing and synthesis of cost effective bulk metallic glasses （BMGs） has been of considerable interest during the last decade so that they can be made commercially viable. Among these, Zr-based BMGs have been reported extensively due to their attractive properties, An alloy having composition Zr65Cu18Ni9A18 was designed and synthesized using 2-3 N pure materials by Cu mould casting. The alloy was characterized by X- ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy （EDS） and high temperature differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）. Thermal parameters like supercooled liquid region △Tx, reduced glass transition temperature Trg, γ and δ parameters were evaluated. Mechanical properties like microhardness, nanohardness, elastic modulus and fracture strength were measured. The alloy showed wide supercooled liquid region of 129＋1 K with improved thermal stability. The alloy has considerable fracture strength along with fair amount of ductility.

An acquisition system of digital nuclear signal processing for the algorithm development

A principle and method of constructing the digital acquisition system is presented in this work,which is convenient for the study on the theories and algorithms of digital nuclear signal processing.The hardware system of the digital acquisition system consists of front-end controller,waveform digitizer and PC workstation,on which the software system has been developed based on Visual C++under Windows environment.The alterable-frequency sampling(AFS)algorithm and the alterable-frequency trapezoidal filter(AFTF)algorithm have also been studied in the real-time environment,along with a digital nuclear spectrum acquisition system being set up based on the new algorithms and theγ-ray spectra of 241Am being shown.A useful experimental platform could be provided by this work for the successive work such as the development of global digitized nuclear measurement system and the study of digital nuclear signal processing.

Interaction between uranium and humic acid (Ⅱ): complexation, precipitation and migration behavior of U(Ⅵ) in the presence of humic substances

The complexation, precipitation, and migration behavior of uranium in the presence of humic acid (HA) or fulvic acid (FA) were investigated by cation exchange, ultrafiltration and dynamic experiment, respectively. The results showed that (i) complex equilibrium between the uranium and humic substances was achieved at approximately 72 h, (ii) the coordination number varied from 1:1 to 1:2 ( U(Ⅵ) : humic acid) as pH increased from 3 to 6; and (iii) , while the complex stability constant decreased when temperature increased, but increased with pH value. We found that the precipitation of uranyl could only be observed in presence of HA, and the precipitation was influenced by conditions, such as pH, uranium concentration, temperature, and the HA concentration. The maximum precipitation proportion up to 60% could be achieved in the condition of 40 mg/L HA solution at pH 6. We further observed that the migration behavior of uranium in soil in the presence of humic acid (HA) or fulvic acid (FA) was different from that in the presence of inorganic colloid, and the effect of humic substances (HS) was limited.

Geochemical characteristics of Holocene sediments from Chuadanga district, Bangladesh: Implications for weathering, climate, redox conditions, provenance and tectonic setting

The present research deals with the geochemical characteristics of the Holocene sediments from Alamdanga area, Chuadanga district, Bangladesh. Main goals of the study are to delineate source rock characteristics, degree of chemical weathering and sorting processes and behavior of redox conditions during deposition of the sediments. Geochemical characteristics of the sediments show comparatively a wide variation in accordance with stratigraphy in their major element contents(e.g. Si O2 69.46–82.13, Al2O3 2.28–8.88 in wt%), reflecting the distinctive provenance and in part an unstable period in terms of tectonic activity. Geochemical classification of the sediments shows mostly sub-arkose with few sub-litharenites. Some major and trace elements display comprehensible correlation with Al2O3 confirming their possible hydraulic fractionation. The chemical index of alteration(CIA*), W* index, index of compositional variability(ICV), plagioclase index of alteration(PIA*) values and the ratio of Si O2/Al2O3, suggest low degrees of chemical weathering in the source areas as well as immature to moderately mature the sediments. The sediments suggest semi-arid climatic trends within oxic deltaic depositional conditions during the Holocene, at 3–12 ka. Whole rock geochemistry and discrimination diagrams demonstrate the continental signature derivatives, which might have been derived from the felsic to intermediate igneous rocks(granitic plutonic rocks) as well as from quartzose sedimentary/metamorphic provenance. These typical sources are present in a vast region of the Himalayan belt and catchment areas of Ganges. The tectonic setting of the sediments demarcates typically passive margin with slightly continental arc system.

Biosorption behavior and mechanism of thorium on Bacillus sp. dwc-2 isolated from soil

To develop a microbe-based bioremediation strategy for cleaning up thorium-contaminated sites, we have investigated the biosorption behavior and mechanism of thorium on Bacillus sp. dwc-2, one of the dominant species of bacterial groups isolated from soils in Southwest China. Thorium biosorption depended on the p H of environment, and its rapid biosorption reached a maximum of up to 10.75 mg Th per gram of the bacteria(wet wt.) at pH 3.0. The biosorption agreed bettter with Langmuir isotherm model than Freundlich model, indicating that thorium biosorption was a monolayer adsorption. The thermodynamic parameters, negative change in Gibbs free energy and positive value in enthalpy and entropy, suggested that the biosorption was spontaneous,more favorable at higher temperature and endothermic process with an increase of entropy. Scanning electron microscopy(SEM) indicated that thorium initially binded with the cell surface, while transmission electron microscopy(TEM) revealed that Th deposited in the cytoplasm and served as cores for growth of element precipitation(e.g., phosphate minerals) or by self-precipitation of hydroxides, which is probably controlled by ion-exchange, as evidenced by particle induced X-ray emission(PIXE) and enhanced proton backscattering spectrometry(EPBS). Fourier Transform Infrared(FTIR) further indicated that thorium biosorption involved carboxyl and phosphate groups and protein in complexation or electrostatic interaction. Overall results indicated that a combined electrostatic interaction-complexation-ion exchange mechanism could be involved in thorium biosorption by Bacillus sp. dwc-2.

Interaction between uranium and humic acid(Ⅰ):Adsorption behaviors of U(Ⅵ) in soil humic acids

The adsorption behaviors of uranium on three soil humic acids (HAs), which were extracted from soils of different depths at the same site, were investigated under various experimental conditions. The adsorption results showed that U(Ⅵ) in solutions can be adsorbed by the three soil HAs, with the order of FHA (HA from 5 m depth of soil) >SHA (HA from the surface) >THA (HA from 10 m depth of soil) for adsorption efficiency in each desirable condition, and the adsorption reached equilibrium in about 240 min. Although the maximum adsorption efficiency was achieved at a suitable uranium concentration (10 mg·L-1 U(Ⅵ) for SHA and THA, 20 mg·L-1 U(Ⅵ) for FHA), the adsorption could be described with Langmiur isotherm or Freundlich isotherm equation. The L/S (liquid/solid, mL/g) ratio and pH were important factors influencing the adsorption in our adsorption system besides uranium concentration. The adsorption efficiency decreased with the increase of the L/S ratio and pH at the pH range of 2.0-3.0 for SHA and THA or 2.5-6.0 for FHA. However, no significant difference in adsorption of U(Ⅵ) was observed at the experimental temperature. All the results implied that humic substances have different characteristics in samples even collected at the same site.

Optimization of the S-band side-coupled cavities for proton acceleration

The proton beam with energy around 100 MeV has seen wide applications in modern scientific research and in various fields.However,proton sources in China fall short for meeting experimental needs owing to the vast size and expensive traditional proton accelerators.The Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology of Sichuan University proposed to build a 3 GHz side-coupled cavity linac(SCL)for re-accelerating a 26 MeV proton beam extracted from a CS-30 cyclotron to 120 MeV.We carried out investigations into several vital factors of S-band SCL for proton acceleration,such as optimization of SCL cavity geometry,end cell tuning,and bridge coupler design.Results demonstrated that the effective shunt impedance per unit length ranged from 22.5 to 59.8 MX/m throughout the acceleration process,and the acceleration gradient changed from 11.5 to 15.7 MV/m when the maximum surface electric field was equivalent to Kilpatrick electric field.We obtained equivalent circuit parameters of the biperiodic structures and applied them to the end cell tuning;results of the theoretical analysis agreed well with the 3D simulation.We designed and optimized a bridge coupler based on the previously obtained biperiodic structure parameters,and the field distribution un-uniformness was\1.5%for a two-tank module.The radio frequency power distribution system of the linac was obtained based on the preliminary beam dynamics design.