WorldWideScience

Sample records for enrichment face facility

  1. Final Technical Report: Science and technology reviews of FACE[Free Air Carbon Enrichment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Strain, Boyd R.

    1998-03-23

    The purpose of this grant was to bring together the principals of all known facilities that had been developed, principals who had submitted proposals to develop FACE facilities, and principals who want to develop proposals for facilities. In addition, critical program personnel from potential funding agencies and a few high level science administrators were invited to observe the proceedings and to visit a working FACE facility. The objectives of this study are to conduct a three-day international meeting on scientific aspects of research with the new and developing free air carbon enrichment (FACE) technology. Immediately following the science meeting, conduct a two-day international meeting on experimental protocols to be applied in FACE research. To conduct a four day international meeting on the assessment of the responses of forest ecosystems to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. The three meetings supported by this grant were all highly successful meetings and resulted in the formation of an organized and identified working group with the acronym InterFACE (International Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment) working group.

  2. Considerations on safeguards approach for small centrifuge enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vicens, Hugo E.; Marzo, Marco A.; Nunes, Vitorio E.

    2004-01-01

    The safeguards' objectives for enrichment facilities encompass the detection of the diversion of declared nuclear material and of facility misuse. The safeguard's approach presently applied for commercial centrifuge enrichment facilities is based on the Hexa partite Project and seems not to be directly applicable to cases of small plants. Since ABACC started its operation one of the main problems faced was the application of safeguards to small centrifuge enrichment plants for testing centrifuges in cascade mode or for small LEU production. These plants consist of a few fully independent cascades, does not operate in a routine basis and panels prevent visual access to the centrifuges and their surroundings for preserving sensitive information. For such plants misuse scenarios seems to dominate, particularly those associated with feeding the plant with undeclared LEU. This paper presents a concise analysis of misuse strategies in small centrifuge facility and alternative safeguard's approach, describing the main control elements to be applied. The particularities arising from the existence of panels or boxes covering the centrifuges are specifically addressed. Two alternatives approaches based on the application of a transitory perimeter control to increase the effectiveness of unannounced inspection and on the application of permanent perimeter control are presented. (author)

  3. 76 FR 34103 - In the Matter of Areva Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility); Notice of...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-10

    .... 10-899-02-ML-BD01] In the Matter of Areva Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility...'' portion of this proceeding regarding the December 2008 application by AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (AES... gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility--denoted as the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility (EREF)--in...

  4. 76 FR 11523 - Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-02

    ... and Licensing Board; AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility); Notice of... Governmental Entities Regarding Environmental Portion of Enrichment Facility Licensing Proceeding February 24.... White. In this 10 CFR part 70 proceeding regarding the request of applicant AREVA Enrichment Services...

  5. Data analysis for neutron monitoring in an enrichment facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Markin, J.T.; Stewart, J.E.; Goldman, A.S.

    1982-01-01

    Area monitoring of neutron radiation to detect high-enriched uranium production is a potential strategy for inspector verification of operations in the cascade area of a centrifuge enrichment facility. This paper discusses the application of statistical filtering and hypothesis testing procedures to experimental data taken in an enrichment facility. The results demonstrate that these data analysis methods can enhance detection of facility misoperation by neutron monitoring

  6. Managing public acceptance for a new enrichment facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boyd, M.

    1992-01-01

    The Claiborne Enrichment Center has many first associated with it, and a solid nuclear-based community relations experience has been combined with fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants techniques to successfully introduce a first-of-a-kind facility not only to Louisiana, but also to the US. The project is being developed by Louisiana Energy Services (LES), a limited partnership consisting of Urenco, the European enrichment consortium that operates centrifuge enrichment facilities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany; Fluor Daniel, an internationally known engineering and construction firm; and three utilities - Duke Power, Northern States Power, and Louisiana Power and Light (LP and L). Louisiana Energy will build the nation's first privately owned uranium enrichment facility. It will be the first commercial use of centrifuge technology for enrichment in the US. Some of the community relations challenges the project has had and their solutions are described

  7. 76 FR 387 - Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-04

    ... and Licensing Board; AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility) December 17, 2010... construction and operation of a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility--denoted as the Eagle Rock... site at http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/arevanc.html . These and other documents relating...

  8. 75 FR 10525 - In the Matter of: AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility) and All Other...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-08

    ...: AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility) and All Other Persons Who Seek or Obtain... for the Implementation of a Safeguards Information Program (Effective Immediately) I AREVA Enrichment... it to construct and operate a uranium enrichment facility in Bonneville County, Idaho. AES submitted...

  9. 10 CFR 70.23a - Hearing required for uranium enrichment facility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Hearing required for uranium enrichment facility. 70.23a... MATERIAL License Applications § 70.23a Hearing required for uranium enrichment facility. The Commission... license for construction and operation of a uranium enrichment facility. The Commission will publish...

  10. Safeguarding uranium enrichment facilities. Review and analysis of the status of safeguards technology for uranium enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1977-09-01

    The objective of this paper is to examine critically the diversion potential at uranium enrichment facilities and to outline a basic safeguards strategy which counters all identified hazards as completely as possible yet with a minimum of non-essential redundancy. Where existing technology does not appear to be adequate for effective safeguards, the limitations are examined, and suggestions for further R and D effort are made. Parts of this report are generally applicable to all currently known enrichment processes, while other parts are specifically directed toward facilities based on the gas centrifuge process. It is hoped that additional sections discussing a safeguards strategy for gas diffusion facilities can be added later. It should be emphasized that this is a technical report, and does not reflect any legal positions. The safeguards strategy and subsequent inspection procedures are intended as guidelines, not as negotiating positions

  11. Capability of the electromagnetic isotope-enrichment facility at ORNL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Newman, E.

    1982-01-01

    The isotope separation program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) prepares and distributes electromagnetically enriched stable isotopes to the worldwide scientific community. Among the topics discussed in the present paper are the methods of enriching isotopes, the limitations that apply to the quantity and final assay of the separation products, and a generalized production flowsheet indicating the capability of the facility. A brief description of each of the production steps, from the selection and preparation of initial feedstock to the recovery and distribution of the isotopically enriched material, is presented. The future of the facility, the continued supply of enriched isotopes, and the response of the program to new and changing requirements are emphasized

  12. 10 CFR 40.33 - Issuance of a license for a uranium enrichment facility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Issuance of a license for a uranium enrichment facility... License Applications § 40.33 Issuance of a license for a uranium enrichment facility. (a) The Commission... the licensing of the construction and operation of a uranium enrichment facility. The Commission will...

  13. Proposal for Monitoring Within the Centrifuge Cascades of Uranium Enrichment Facilities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Farrar, David R.

    2017-04-01

    Safeguards are technical measures implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to independently verify that nuclear material is not diverted from peaceful purposes to weapons (IAEA, 2017a). Safeguards implemented at uranium enrichment facilities (facilities hereafter) include enrichment monitors (IAEA, 2011). Figure 1 shows a diagram of how a facility could be monitored. The use of a system for monitoring within centrifuge cascades is proposed.

  14. 10 CFR 140.13b - Amount of liability insurance required for uranium enrichment facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... enrichment facilities. 140.13b Section 140.13b Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION (CONTINUED) FINANCIAL... required for uranium enrichment facilities. Each holder of a license issued under Parts 40 or 70 of this chapter for a uranium enrichment facility that involves the use of source material or special nuclear...

  15. 77 FR 18272 - Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Facility Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services LLC...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-27

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 70-3103; NRC-2010-0264] Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Facility Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services LLC, National Enrichment Facility, Eunice... Louisiana Energy Services (LES), LLC, National enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, and has verified...

  16. 77 FR 65729 - Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Facility Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services LLC...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-30

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 70-3103; NRC-2010-0264] Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Facility Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services LLC, National Enrichment Facility, Eunice... Services (LES), LLC, National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, and has verified that cascades...

  17. 77 FR 60482 - Regulatory Guide 5.67, Material Control and Accounting for Uranium Enrichment Facilities...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-03

    ... Accounting for Uranium Enrichment Facilities Authorized To Produce Special Nuclear Material of Low Strategic... Accounting for Uranium Enrichment Facilities Authorized to Produce Special Nuclear Material of Low Strategic... and is applicable to the Paducah GDP and other uranium enrichment facilities that have been licensed...

  18. New Prototype Safeguards Technology Offers Improved Confidence and Automation for Uranium Enrichment Facilities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brim, Cornelia P.

    2013-04-01

    An important requirement for the international safeguards community is the ability to determine the enrichment level of uranium in gas centrifuge enrichment plants and nuclear fuel fabrication facilities. This is essential to ensure that countries with nuclear nonproliferation commitments, such as States Party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, are adhering to their obligations. However, current technologies to verify the uranium enrichment level in gas centrifuge enrichment plants or nuclear fuel fabrication facilities are technically challenging and resource-intensive. NNSA’s Office of Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) supports the development, testing, and evaluation of future systems that will strengthen and sustain U.S. safeguards and security capabilities—in this case, by automating the monitoring of uranium enrichment in the entire inventory of a fuel fabrication facility. One such system is HEVA—hybrid enrichment verification array. This prototype was developed to provide an automated, nondestructive assay verification technology for uranium hexafluoride (UF6) cylinders at enrichment plants.

  19. Development of ISA procedure for uranium fuel fabrication and enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamate, Kazuki; Arakawa, Tomoyuki; Yamashita, Masahiro; Sasaki, Noriaki; Hirano, Mitsumasa

    2011-01-01

    The integrated safety analysis (ISA) procedure has been developed to apply risk-informed regulation to uranium fuel fabrication and enrichment facilities. The major development efforts are as follows: (a) preparing the risk level matrix as an index for items-relied-on-for-safety (IROFS) identification, (b) defining requirements of IROFS, and (c) determining methods of IROFS importance based on the results of risk- and scenario-based analyses. For the risk level matrix, the consequence and likelihood categories have been defined by taking into account the Japanese regulatory laws, rules, and safety standards. The trial analyses using the developed procedure have been performed for several representative processes of the reference uranium fuel fabrication and enrichment facilities. This paper presents the results of the ISA for the sintering process of the reference fabrication facility. The results of the trial analyses have demonstrated the applicability of the procedure to the risk-informed regulation of these facilities. (author)

  20. A study of the material accountancy procedure at the uranium enrichment facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shirahashi, J.; Akiba, M.; Omae, M.

    1984-01-01

    This paper describes an evaluation of material accountancy based on total uranium (U element MUF) to detect diversions of significant quantity in the uranium enrichment facility operating at a stated maximum enrichment level of 5%. Verification that material production is within the declared enrichment can be achieved by the inspection activities associated with limited - frequency unannounced access (LFUA) to cascade areas as treated extensively in HSP. According to the experience of the material accountancy at our facility, the reduction of the material accountancy capability by changing from U-235 isotope MUF to U element MUF is only about half. However, still the U element MUF approach can meet the current IAEA detection goals for the up to about 1000 tswu/a plant

  1. An assessment of the effectiveness of personal visual observation for a uranium enrichment facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohno, Fubito; Okamoto, Tsuyoshi; Yokochi, Akira; Nidaira, Kazuo

    2002-01-01

    In a centrifuge uranium enrichment facility, a cascade producing low enriched uranium is composed of a large number of UF 6 gas centrifuges interconnected with pipes. If new advanced centrifuges are developed and they are installed in the facility, the number of centrifuges in the unit cascade will decrease. This means that the number of pipes connecting centrifuges will decrease also. In addition, if integrated type centrifuges containing a few tens of centrifuges are adopted for economical reasons, the number of pipes will further decrease. The smaller the number of pipes, the less the labor required to reconstruct the cascade by changing the piping arrangement so that it can produce highly enriched uranium. Because personal visual observation by inspectors is considered as one of safeguards measures against changing the piping arrangement, its effectiveness is assessed in this study. An inspection in a cascade area is modeled as a two-person non-cooperative game between an inspector and a facility operator. As a result, it is suggested that personal visual observation of the piping arrangement is worth carrying out in an advanced centrifuge uranium enrichment facility. (author)

  2. Plasma Facing Components Generic Facilities Review Panel (PFC-GFRP): Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McGrath, R.; Allen, S.; Hill, D.; Brooks, J.; Mattas, R.; Davis, J.; Lipschultz, B.; Ulrickson, M.

    1993-10-01

    The Plasma Facing Components (PFC) Facilities Review Panel was chartered by the US Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and Technology Division, to outline the program plan and identify the supporting test facilities that lead to reliable, long-lived plasma facing components for ITER. This report summarizes the panel's findings and identifies the necessary and sufficient set of test facilities required for ITER PFC development

  3. Material control and accounting requirements for uranium enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ting, P.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has defined material control and accounting (MC and A) requirement for low-enriched uranium enrichment plants licensed under 10 CFR parts 40 and 70. Following detailed assessment of potential safeguards issues relevant to these facilities, a new MC and A rule was developed. The primary safeguards considerations are detection of the loss of special nuclear material, detection of clandestine production of special nuclear material of low strategic significance for unauthorized use or distribution, and detection of unauthorized production of uranium enriched to ≥10 wt % U-235. The primary safeguards concerns identified were the large absolute limit of error associated with the material balance closing, the inability to shutdown some uranium enrichment technologies to perform a cleanout inventory of the process system, and the flexibility of some of these technologies to produce higher enrichments. Unauthorized production scenarios were identified for some technologies that could circumvent the detection of the production and removal of 5 kilograms of U-235 as high-enriched uranium through conventional material control and accounting programs. Safeguards techniques, including the use of production and process control information, measurements, and technical surveillance, were identified to compensate for these concerns

  4. Use of Savannah River Site facilities for blend down of highly enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bickford, W.E.; McKibben, J.M.

    1994-02-01

    Westinghouse Savannah River Company was asked to assess the use of existing Savannah River Site (SRS) facilities for the conversion of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU). The purpose was to eliminate the weapons potential for such material. Blending HEU with existing supplies of depleted uranium (DU) would produce material with less than 5% U-235 content for use in commercial nuclear reactors. The request indicated that as much as 500 to 1,000 MT of HEU would be available for conversion over a 20-year period. Existing facilities at the SRS are capable of producing LEU in the form of uranium trioxide (UO 3 ) powder, uranyl nitrate [UO 2 (NO 3 ) 2 ] solution, or metal. Additional processing, and additional facilities, would be required to convert the LEU to uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) or uranium hexafluoride (UF 3 ), the normal inputs for commercial fuel fabrication. This study's scope does not include the cost for new conversion facilities. However, the low estimated cost per kilogram of blending HEU to LEU in SRS facilities indicates that even with fees for any additional conversion to UO 2 or UF 6 , blend-down would still provide a product significantly below the spot market price for LEU from traditional enrichment services. The body of the report develops a number of possible facility/process combinations for SRS. The primary conclusion of this study is that SRS has facilities available that are capable of satisfying the goals of a national program to blend HEU to below 5% U-235. This preliminary assessment concludes that several facility/process options appear cost-effective. Finally, SRS is a secure DOE site with all requisite security and safeguard programs, personnel skills, nuclear criticality safety controls, accountability programs, and supporting infrastructure to handle large quantities of special nuclear materials (SNM)

  5. Assessment of the effectiveness of personal visual observation as a safeguards measure in a uranium enrichment facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohno, Fubito; Okamoto, Tsuyoshi; Yokochi, Akira; Nidaira, Kazuo

    2003-01-01

    In a centrifuge enrichment facility, a cascade that produces low enriched uranium is composed of a large number of UF 6 gas centrifuges interconnected with pipes. It is possible to divert the cascade to the illegal production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) by changing the piping arrangement within the cascade. If integrated type centrifuges that contain a few tens of advanced centrifuges are introduced into the facility, the number of pipes will greatly decrease. The smaller the number of pipes, the less the labor required to change the piping arrangement. Because personal visual observation by an inspector is considered as one of measures against changing the piping arrangement, its effectiveness is assessed in this study. First, a model centrifuge enrichment facility that has a capacity of 2,400 ton-SWU/y is designed. In this model facility, integrated type centrifuges that contain advanced centrifuges are installed. Second, the diversion path analysis is carried out for the model facility under the assumption that a facility operator's goal is to produce 75 kg of HEU with 20% enrichment in a month. The analysis shows that, in our assumed diversion path, changes of the piping arrangement can be certainly detected by personal visual observation of a part of pipes connected with integrated type centrifuges that compose the cascade diverted to the HEU production. Finally, inspections in a cascade area are modeled as two-person noncooperative games between the inspector and the facility operator. As a result, it is found that all the cascades in the model facility will be investigated if the inspector can devote the inspection effort of 0.83 man-day per month to personal visual observation in the cascade area. Therefore, it is suggested that personal visual observation of the piping arrangement is worth carrying out in a uranium enrichment facility where integrated type centrifuges that contain advanced centrifuges are installed. (author)

  6. Atomics International fuel fabrication facility and low enrichment program [contributed by T.A. Moss, AI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moss, T.A.

    1993-01-01

    The AI facility is approximately 30,000 square feet in area and consists of four general areas. One area is devoted to the production of UAl x powder. It consists of a series of arc melting furnaces, crushing lines, glove boxes, and compacting presses. The second area is used for the rolling of fuel plates. The third area is used for the machining of the plates to final size and also the machining of the fuel elements. In the fourth area the fuel plates are swaged into assemblies, and all welding and inspection operations are performed. As part of the lower enrichment program we are scheduled to put a second UAl x powder line into operation and we have had to expand some of our storage area. Under the low enrichment program the AI fuel facility will be modified to accommodate a separate low enrichment Al x production line and compacting line. This facility modification should be done by the end of the fiscal year. We anticipate producing fuel with an enrichment slightly less than 20% We anticipate powder being available for plate production shortly after the facility is completed. Atomics International is scheduled to conduct plate LEU verification work using fully enriched material in the June-July time period, at which time we will investigate what level of uranium loadings we can go to using the current process. It is anticipated that 55 volume percent uranium compound in our fuel form can be achieved

  7. Future of uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosmer, C.

    1981-01-01

    The increasing amount of separative work being done in government facilities to produce low-enriched uranium fuel for nuclear utilities again raises the question: should this business-type, industrial function be burned over the private industry. The idea is being looked at by the Reagan administration, but faces problems of national security as well as from the unique nature of the business. This article suggests that a joint government-private venture combining enriching, reprocessing, and waste disposal could be the answer. Further, a separate entity using advanced laser technology to deplete existing uranium tails and lease them for fertile blankets in breeder reactors might earn substantial revenues to help reduce the national debt

  8. Refueling the RPI reactor facility with low-enrichment fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harris, D.R.; Rodriguez-Vera, F.; Wicks, F.E.

    1985-01-01

    The RPI Critical Facility has operated since 1963 with a core of thin, highly enriched fuel plates in twenty-five fuel assembly boxes. A program is underway to refuel the reactor with 4.81 w/o enriched SPERT (F-1) fuel rods. Use of these fuel rods will upgrade the capabilities of the reactor and will eliminate a security risk. Adequate quantities of SPERT (F-1) fuel rods are available, and their use will result in a great cost saving relative to manufacturing new low-enrichment fuel plates. The SPERT fuel rods are 19 inches longer than are the present fuel plates, so a modified core support structure is required. It is planned to support and position the SPERT fuel pins by upper and lower lattice plates, thus avoiding the considerable cost of new fuel assembly boxes. The lattice plates will be secured to the existing top and bottom plates. The design permits the fabrication and use of other lattice plates for critical experiment research programs in support of long-lived full development for power reactors. (author)

  9. The soil microbiome at the Gi-FACE experiment responds to a moisture gradient but not to CO2 enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Menezes, Alexandre B; Müller, Christoph; Clipson, Nicholas; Doyle, Evelyn

    2016-09-01

    The soil bacterial community at the Giessen free-air CO2 enrichment (Gi-FACE) experiment was analysed by tag sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. No substantial effects of CO2 levels on bacterial community composition were detected. However, the soil moisture gradient at Gi-FACE had a significant effect on bacterial community composition. Different groups within the Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia phyla were affected differently by soil moisture content. These results suggest that modest increases in atmospheric CO2 may cause only minor changes in soil bacterial community composition and indicate that the functional responses of the soil community to CO2 enrichment previously reported at Gi-FACE are due to factors other than changes in bacterial community composition. The effects of the moisture gradient revealed new information about the relationships between poorly known Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia and soil moisture content. This study contrasts with the relatively small number of other temperate grassland free-air CO2 enrichment microbiome studies in the use of moderate CO2 enrichment and the resulting minor changes in the soil microbiome. Thus, it will facilitate the development of further climate change mitigation studies. In addition, the moisture gradient found at Gi-FACE contributes new knowledge in soil microbial ecology, particularly regarding the abundance and moisture relationships of the soil Verrucomicrobia.

  10. Conversion and Blending Facility Highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium as uranium hexafluoride. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-01-01

    This report describes the Conversion and Blending Facility (CBF) which will have two missions: (1) convert surplus HEU materials to pure HEU UF 6 and a (2) blend the pure HEU UF 6 with diluent UF 6 to produce LWR grade LEU-UF 6 . The primary emphasis of this blending be to destroy the weapons capability of large, surplus stockpiles of HEU. The blended LEU product can only be made weapons capable again by the uranium enrichment process. The chemical and isotopic concentrations of the blended LEU product will be held within the specifications required for LWR fuel. The blended LEU product will be offered to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to be sold as feed material to the commercial nuclear industry

  11. Conversion and Blending Facility Highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium as uranium hexafluoride. Revision 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-07-05

    This report describes the Conversion and Blending Facility (CBF) which will have two missions: (1) convert surplus HEU materials to pure HEU UF{sub 6} and a (2) blend the pure HEU UF{sub 6} with diluent UF{sub 6} to produce LWR grade LEU-UF{sub 6}. The primary emphasis of this blending be to destroy the weapons capability of large, surplus stockpiles of HEU. The blended LEU product can only be made weapons capable again by the uranium enrichment process. The chemical and isotopic concentrations of the blended LEU product will be held within the specifications required for LWR fuel. The blended LEU product will be offered to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to be sold as feed material to the commercial nuclear industry.

  12. Conversion and Blending Facility highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium as oxide. Revision 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-07-05

    This Conversion and Blending Facility (CBF) will have two missions: (1) convert HEU materials into pure HEU oxide and (2) blend the pure HEU oxide with depleted and natural uranium oxide to produce an LWR grade LEU product. The primary emphasis of this blending operation will be to destroy the weapons capability of large, surplus stockpiles of HEU. The blended LEU product can only be made weapons capable again by the uranium enrichment process. To the extent practical, the chemical and isotopic concentrations of blended LEU product will be held within the specifications required for LWR fuel. Such blended LEU product will be offered to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to be sold as feed material to the commercial nuclear industry. Otherwise, blended LEU will be produced as a waste suitable for storage or disposal.

  13. Conversion and Blending Facility highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium as metal. Revision 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-07-05

    The mission of this Conversion and Blending Facility (CBF) will be to blend surplus HEU metal and alloy with depleted uranium metal to produce an LEU product. The primary emphasis of this blending operation will be to destroy the weapons capability of large, surplus stockpiles of HEU. The blended LEU product can only be made weapons capable again by the uranium enrichment process. The blended LEU will be produced as a waste suitable for storage or disposal.

  14. Conversion and Blending Facility highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium as metal. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-01-01

    The mission of this Conversion and Blending Facility (CBF) will be to blend surplus HEU metal and alloy with depleted uranium metal to produce an LEU product. The primary emphasis of this blending operation will be to destroy the weapons capability of large, surplus stockpiles of HEU. The blended LEU product can only be made weapons capable again by the uranium enrichment process. The blended LEU will be produced as a waste suitable for storage or disposal

  15. Conversion and Blending Facility highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium as uranyl nitrate hexahydrate. Revision 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-07-05

    This Conversion and Blending Facility (CBF) will have two missions: (1) convert HEU materials to pure HEU uranyl nitrate (UNH) and (2) blend pure HEU UNH with depleted and natural UNH to produce HEU UNH crystals. The primary emphasis of this blending operation will be to destroy the weapons capability of large, surplus stockpiles of HEU. The blended LEU product can only be made weapons capable again by the uranium enrichment process. To the extent practical, the chemical and isotopic concentrations of blended LEU product will be held within the specifications required for LWR fuel. Such blended LEU product will be offered to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to be sold as feed material to the commercial nuclear industry. Otherwise, blended LEU Will be produced as a waste suitable for storage or disposal.

  16. New electron beam facility for irradiated plasma facing materials testing in hot cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakamoto, N.; Kawamura, H.; Akiba, M.

    1995-01-01

    Since plasma facing components such as the first wall and the divertor for the next step fusion reactors are exposed to high heat loads and high energy neutron flux generated by the plasma, it is urgent to develop of plasma facing components which can resist these. Then, we have established electron beam heat facility (open-quotes OHBISclose quotes, Oarai Hot-cell electron Beam Irradiating System) at a hot cell in JMTR (Japan Materials Testing Reactor) hot laboratory in order to estimate thermal shock resistivity of plasma facing materials and heat removal capabilities of divertor elements under steady state heating. In this facility, irradiated plasma facing materials (beryllium, carbon based materials and so on) and divertor elements can be treated. This facility consists of an electron beam unit with the maximum beam power of 50kW and the vacuum vessel. The acceleration voltage and the maximum beam current are 30kV (constant) and 1.7A, respectively. The loading time of electron beam is more than 0.1ms. The shape of vacuum vessel is cylindrical, and the mainly dimensions are 500mm in inner diameter, 1000mm in height. The ultimate vacuum of this vessel is 1 x 10 -4 Pa. At present, the facility for thermal shock test has been established in a hot cell. And performance estimation on the electron beam is being conducted. Presently, the devices for heat loading tests under steady state will be added to this facility

  17. New electron beam facility for irradiated plasma facing materials testing in hot cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shimakawa, S.; Akiba, M.; Kawamura, H.

    1996-01-01

    Since plasma facing components such as the first wall and the divertor for the next step fusion reactors are exposed to high heat loads and high energy neutron flux generated by the plasma, it is urgent to develop plasma facing components which can resist these. We have established electron beam heat facility ('OHBIS', Oarai hot-cell electron beam irradiating system) at a hot cell in JMTR (Japan materials testing reactor) hot laboratory in order to estimate thermal shock resistivity of plasma facing materials and heat removal capabilities of divertor elements under steady state heating. In this facility, irradiated plasma facing materials (beryllium, carbon based materials and so on) and divertor elements can be treated. This facility consists of an electron beam unit with the maximum beam power of 50 kW and the vacuum vessel. The acceleration voltage and the maximum beam current are 30 kV (constant) and 1.7 A, respectively. The loading time of the electron beam is more than 0.1 ms. The shape of vacuum vessel is cylindrical, and the main dimensions are 500 mm in inside diameter, 1000 mm in height. The ultimate vacuum of this vessel is 1 x 10 -4 Pa. At present, the facility for the thermal shock test has been established in a hot cell. The performance of the electron beam is being evaluated at this time. In the future, the equipment for conducting static heat loadings will be incorporated into the facility. (orig.)

  18. Recommendations to the NRC on acceptable standard format and content for the Fundamental Nuclear Material Control (FNMC) Plan required for low-enriched uranium enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moran, B.W.; Belew, W.L.; Hammond, G.A.; Brenner, L.M.

    1991-11-01

    A new section, 10 CFR 74.33, has been added to the material control and accounting (MC ampersand A) requirements of 10 CFR Part 74. This new section pertains to US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-licensed uranium enrichment facilities that are authorized to produce and to possess more than one effective kilogram of special nuclear material (SNM) of low strategic significance. The new section is patterned after 10 CFR 74.31, which pertains to NRC licensees (other than production or utilization facilities licensed pursuant to 10 CFR Part 50 and 70 and waste disposal facilities) that are authorized to possess and use more than one effective kilogram of unencapsulated SNM of low strategic significance. Because enrichment facilities have the potential capability of producing SNM of moderate strategic significance and also strategic SNM, certain performance objectives and MC ampersand A system capabilities are required in 10 CFR 74.33 that are not contained in 10 CFR 74.31. This document recommends to the NRC information that the licensee or applicant should provide in the fundamental nuclear material control (FNMC) plan. This document also describes methods that should be acceptable for compliance with the general performance objectives. While this document is intended to cover various uranium enrichment technologies, the primary focus at this time is gas centrifuge and gaseous diffusion

  19. A multilateral enrichment facility in Iran as a solution to the nuclear crisis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forden, G.; Thomson, J.

    2006-01-01

    A little known report issued in early 2005 by a group of experts might contain the seeds for solving the current Iranian crisis. The group, convened by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), examined the technical aspects of a number of options for multinationalizing the nuclear fuel cycle as a way of assuring all countries in good standing with the Nonproliferation Treaty access to peaceful nuclear technology. One option examined in general by the IAEA experts group could be used to guarantee Iran's future nuclearfuel supply and prevent its abuse for military purposes. We examine this option in detail for the case of Iran. It could be used to solve the Iranian crisis by constructing an enrichment facility on Iranian soil jointly owned and operated by Iran and Western governments. As a condition for this plant being built, Iran would pledge--and undertake additional safeguard requirements to verify--that it is not engaging in enrichment activities anywhere else; a pledge other countries have made under similar circumstances when they joined URENCO, a European enrichment consortium. Furthermore, the very nature of the joint venture would guarantee that Iran could not covertly divert any of the LEU or the plant's enrichment capabilities for military purposes. Western technicians would be present at, and in fact jointly operate, the facility 24-hours per day, seven days per week; Western accountants would be monitoring all the business activities of the venture; and Western managers would be involved in all operating decisions. (authors)

  20. Structure, conduct, and sustainability of the international low-enriched fuel fabrication industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rothwell, Geoffrey

    2008-01-01

    This paper examines the cost structures of fabricating Low-Enriched Uranium fuel (LEU, enriched to 5% enrichment) light water reactor fuels. The LEU industry is decades old, and (except for high entry cost, i.e., the cost of designing and licensing a fuel fabrication facility and its fuel), labor and additional fabrication lines can be added by industry incumbents at Nth-of-a-Kind cost to the maximum capacity allowed by the license. On the other hand, new entrants face higher First-of-a-Kind costs and high new-facility licensing costs, increasing the scale required for entry thus discouraging small scale entry by countries with only a few nuclear power plants. Therefore, the industry appears to be competitive with sustainable investment in fuel-cycle states, and structural barriers-to-entry increase its proliferation resistance. (author)

  1. An assessment of the effectiveness of personal visual observation for a uranium enrichment facility (2)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bando, Masatsugu; Okamoto, Tsuyoshi

    2003-01-01

    In a centrifuge uranium enrichment facility, a large number of unit cascades are operated to produce low enriched uranium for nuclear power reactors. Some thousands of UF 6 gas centrifuges are installed in unit cascade. If a new type of advanced centrifuge is developed in the near future, the number of stages and UF 6 gas centrifuges in the unit cascade would decrease dramatically. Furthermore, an integrated type of centrifuge, which is composed of a few tens of centrifuges, is adopted from the point of economic view, the piping arrangement among UF 6 gas centrifuges can be more simplified. It can be said that the simpler the piping arrangement, the less the operation time we are required to make any diverted cascade with the help of re-arrangement of the unit cascade piping. When two type of centrifuge, conventional and advanced centrifuge are used in the uranium enrichment facility, we predicted an inspection effort of personal visual observation for inspector by Game Theory. In our mathematical model, an activity of inspection in a cascade area is simplified into two-person non-cooperative game between inspector and facility operator. As a result of our calculation, it became clear that total inspection effort is likely to increase unless the integrated type of centrifuge is installed. (author)

  2. 77 FR 14838 - General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC, Commercial Laser-Based Uranium Enrichment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-13

    ... Laser Enrichment LLC, Commercial Laser-Based Uranium Enrichment Facility, Wilmington, North Carolina... a license to General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE or the applicant) to authorize construction of a laser-based uranium enrichment facility and possession and use of byproduct...

  3. Third International Meeting on Next Generation Safeguards: Safeguards-by-Design at Enrichment Facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Long, Jon D.; McGinnis, Brent R.; Morgan, James B.; Whitaker, Michael; Lockwood, Dunbar; Shipwash, Jacqueline L.

    2011-01-01

    The Third International Meeting on Next Generation Safeguards (NGS3) was hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Office of Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) in Washington, D.C. on 14-15 December 2010; this meeting focused on the Safeguards-by-Design (SBD) concept. There were approximately 100 participants from 13 countries, comprised of safeguards policy and technical experts from government and industry. Representatives also were present from the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), the European Atomic Energy Agency (Euratom), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The primary objective of this meeting was to exchange views and provide recommendations on implementation of the SBD concept for four specific nuclear fuel cycle facility types: gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs), GEN III and GEN IV reactors, aqueous reprocessing plants, and mixed oxide fuel fabrication facilities. The general and facility-specific SBD documents generated from the four working groups, which were circulated for comment among working group participants, are intended to provide a substantive contribution to the IAEA's efforts to publish SBD guidance for these specific types of nuclear facilities in the near future. The IAEA has described the SBD concept as an approach in which 'international safeguards are fully integrated into the design process of a new nuclear facility from the initial planning through design, construction, operation, and decommissioning.' As part of the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI), the DOE is working to establish SBD as a global norm through DOE laboratory studies, international workshops, engagement with industry and the IAEA, and setting an example through its use in new nuclear facilities in the United States. This paper describes the discussion topics and final recommendations of the Enrichment Facilities Working

  4. Modular enrichment measurement system for in-situ enrichment assay

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stewart, J.P.

    1976-01-01

    A modular enrichment measurement system has been designed and is in operation within General Electric's Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Facility for the in-situ enrichment assay of uranium-bearing materials in process containers. This enrichment assay system, which is based on the ''enrichment meter'' concept, is an integral part of the site's enrichment control program and is used in the in-situ assay of the enrichment of uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) powder in process containers (five gallon pails). The assay system utilizes a commercially available modular counting system and a collimnator designed for compatability with process container transport lines and ease of operator access. The system has been upgraded to include a microprocessor-based controller to perform system operation functions and to provide data acquisition and processing functions. Standards have been fabricated and qualified for the enrichment assay of several types of uranium-bearing materials, including UO 2 powders. The assay system has performed in excess of 20,000 enrichment verification measurements annually and has significantly contributed to the facility's enrichment control program

  5. Japan-IAEA sefeguards demonstration programme in the gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akiba, Mitsunori; Iwamoto, Tomonori; Omae, Masayoshi

    1985-01-01

    The Hexa-partite Safequard Project was started for the purpose of examining the effective techniques of safeguards for gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facilities. By the proposal of respective participating countries, it was decided to carry out the verifying test of various safeguard techniques at the actual plants. Japan carried out the verifying test of safeguard techniques at the Ningyotoge uranium enrichment pilot plant in June, 1982, and from November, 1983, to August, 1984. The contents of this test is reported. In Japan, this verifying test was positioned as a part of JASPAS (Japanese project of supporting IAEA safeguards). The verifying test of realtime and in-operation inventories, the verifying test of IAEA load cell type weighing machines for UF 6 cylinders, the verifying test of the measurement of the degree of enrichment in UF 6 cylinders by nondestructive test, the verifying test of confinement/watch system, and the verifying test of IAEA gas phase uranium enrichment monitors were carried out. The results were presented as the data for examination in the HSP, and evaluated as useful, informative and well compiled. It is necessary to pursue more cost-effective approaches. (Kako, I.)

  6. The changing face of enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dunckel, E.

    1981-01-01

    The AIS techniques considered are atomic vapour laser isotope separation, molecular laser isotope separation and plasma separation. The future of the AIS technique and their advantages over the gas centrifuge method are discussed in terms of economics, power consideration, and possible enrichment contracts. (U.K.)

  7. Methods for nondestructive assay holdup measurements in shutdown uranium enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hagenauer, R.C.; Mayer, R.L. II.

    1991-09-01

    Measurement surveys of uranium holdup using nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques are being conducted for shutdown gaseous diffusion facilities at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site (formerly the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant). When in operation, these facilities processed UF 6 with enrichments ranging from 0.2 to 93 wt % 235 U. Following final shutdown of all process facilities, NDA surveys were initiated to provide process holdup data for the planning and implementation of decontamination and decommissioning activities. A three-step process is used to locate and quantify deposits: (1) high-resolution gamma-ray measurements are performed to generally define the relative abundances of radioisotopes present, (2) sizable deposits are identified using gamma-ray scanning methods, and (3) the deposits are quantified using neutron measurement methods. Following initial quantitative measurements, deposit sizes are calculated; high-resolution gamma-ray measurements are then performed on the items containing large deposits. The quantitative estimates for the large deposits are refined on the basis of these measurements. Facility management is using the results of the survey to support a variety of activities including isolation and removal of large deposits; performing health, safety, and environmental analyses; and improving facility nuclear material control and accountability records. 3 refs., 1 tab

  8. Free atmospheric CO2 enrichment (FACE) increased respiration and humification in the mineral soil of a poplar plantation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoosbeek, M.R.; Vos, J.M.; Meinders, M.B.J.; Velthorst, E.J.; Scarascia-Mugnozza, G.

    2007-01-01

    Free atmospheric CO2 enrichment (FACE) studies conducted at the whole-tree and ecosystem scale indicate that there is a marked increase in primary production, mainly allocated into below-ground biomass. The enhanced carbon transfer to the root system may result in enhanced rhizodeposition and

  9. Management challenges faced by managers of New Zealand long-term care facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madas, E; North, N

    2000-01-01

    This article reports on a postal survey of 78 long-term care managers in one region of New Zealand, of whom 45 (58%) responded. Most long-term care managers (73.2%) were middle-aged females holding nursing but not management qualifications. Most long-term care facilities (69%) tended to be stand-alone facilities providing a single type of care (rest home or continuing care hospital). The most prominent issues facing managers were considered to be inadequate funding to match the growing costs of providing long-term care and occupancy levels. Managers believed that political/regulatory, economic and social factors influenced these issues. Despite a turbulent health care environment and the challenges facing managers, long-term care managers reported they were coping well and valued networking.

  10. Turkey's regulatory plans for high enriched to low enriched conversion of TR-2 reactor core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guelol Oezdere, Oya

    2003-01-01

    Turkey is a developing country and has three nuclear facilities two of which are research reactors and one pilot fuel production plant. One of the two research reactors is TR-2 which is located in Cekmece site in Istanbul. TR-2 Reactor's core is composed of both high enriched and low enriched fuel and from high enriched to low enriched core conversion project will take place in year 2005. This paper presents the plans for drafting regulations on the safety analysis report updates for high enriched to low enriched core conversion of TR-2 reactor, the present regulatory structure of Turkey and licensing activities of nuclear facilities. (author)

  11. Job enrichment: creating meaningful career development opportunities for nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duffield, Christine; Baldwin, Richard; Roche, Michael; Wise, Sarah

    2014-09-01

    This paper presents an evaluation of a career development policy in South Australia which increased the number of senior staff nurse positions and provided senior registered nurses with time away from clinical duties to undertake agreed projects. We use Kanter's model of structural power and commitment theory to understand the dimensions of this policy. Development strategies for experienced staff who wish to remain at the bedside are needed, especially in smaller health services with limited opportunities for horizontal or vertical mobility. Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted with 54 senior staff nurses who participated in the career structure arrangements. The policy enhanced the structure of opportunity in three ways: by increasing the number of senior staff nurse positions, the ladder steps were improved; undertaking strategic projects developed new skills; and the job enrichment approach facilitated time out from the immediate pressures of ward work and challenged nurses in a different way. Through job enrichment, South Australia has found a novel way of providing meaningful career development opportunities for experienced nurses. Methods of job enrichment need to be considered as part of career development policy, especially where movement between clinical facilities is limited and staff wish to remain at the bedside. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. The photosynthetic acclimation response of Lolium perenne to four years growth in a free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment (FACE) facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Creasey, R. [Univ. of Essex (United Kingdom)

    1996-11-01

    In this study, the photosynthetic responses of field grown Lolium perenne to ambient (354 {mu}mol mol{sup -1}) and elevated (600 {mu}mol mol{sup -1}) C{sub a} were measured. The experiment utilized the FACE facility at Eschikon, Switzerland; here the L. Perenne swards had been grown at two nitrogen treatments, with six cuts per year, for 4 years. The study revealed a significant decrease in Rubisco activity (Vcmax) in the low nitrogen FACE plots; this is consistent with the theories of source-sink imbalance resulting in feedback inhibition and down-regulation. Such negative acclimation was not wholly supported by diurnal investigations which revealed an average stimulation of 53.38% and 52.78% in the low and high nitrogen, respectively. However, light response curves and AI investigations also suggested down-regulation, especially in the low nitrogen. SI is expected to decrease in response to elevated C{sub a}, if any change is seen. This was indeed observed in the high nitrogen plots but for the low nitrogen a significant increase was found. Conclusions drawn from this project center around the implications of negative acclimation to future crop productivity. For instance, inter-specific differences in response to elevated C{sub a} may result in ecosystem changes and new management techniques may be necessary. However, real predictions cannot be made from leaf level studies alone as these may not represent the overall changes at the whole plant level.

  13. Model-data synthesis for the next generation of forest free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norby, Richard J; De Kauwe, Martin G; Domingues, Tomas F; Duursma, Remko A; Ellsworth, David S; Goll, Daniel S; Lapola, David M; Luus, Kristina A; MacKenzie, A Rob; Medlyn, Belinda E; Pavlick, Ryan; Rammig, Anja; Smith, Benjamin; Thomas, Rick; Thonicke, Kirsten; Walker, Anthony P; Yang, Xiaojuan; Zaehle, Sönke

    2016-01-01

    The first generation of forest free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments has successfully provided deeper understanding about how forests respond to an increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Located in aggrading stands in the temperate zone, they have provided a strong foundation for testing critical assumptions in terrestrial biosphere models that are being used to project future interactions between forest productivity and the atmosphere, despite the limited inference space of these experiments with regards to the range of global ecosystems. Now, a new generation of FACE experiments in mature forests in different biomes and over a wide range of climate space and biodiversity will significantly expand the inference space. These new experiments are: EucFACE in a mature Eucalyptus stand on highly weathered soil in subtropical Australia; AmazonFACE in a highly diverse, primary rainforest in Brazil; BIFoR-FACE in a 150-yr-old deciduous woodland stand in central England; and SwedFACE proposed in a hemiboreal, Pinus sylvestris stand in Sweden. We now have a unique opportunity to initiate a model-data interaction as an integral part of experimental design and to address a set of cross-site science questions on topics including responses of mature forests; interactions with temperature, water stress, and phosphorus limitation; and the influence of biodiversity. © UT-Battelle, LLC New Phytologist © 2015 New Phytologist Trust.

  14. FEMO, A FLOW AND ENRICHMENT MONITOR FOR VERIFYING COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS REQUIREMENTS AT A GAS CENTRIFUGE ENRICHMENT FACILITY

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunning, John E.; Laughter, Mark D.; March-Leuba, Jose A.

    2008-01-01

    A number of countries have received construction licenses or are contemplating the construction of large-capacity gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs). The capability to independently verify nuclear material flows is a key component of international safeguards approaches, and the IAEA does not currently have an approved method to continuously monitor the mass flow of 235U in uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas streams. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is investigating the development of a flow and enrichment monitor, or FEMO, based on an existing blend-down monitoring system (BDMS). The BDMS was designed to continuously monitor both 235U mass flow and enrichment of UF6 streams at the low pressures similar to those which exists at GCEPs. BDMSs have been installed at three sites-the first unit has operated successfully in an unattended environment for approximately 10 years. To be acceptable to GCEP operators, it is essential that the instrument be installed and maintained without interrupting operations. A means to continuously verify flow as is proposed by FEMO will likely be needed to monitor safeguards at large-capacity plants. This will enable the safeguards effectiveness that currently exists at smaller plants to be maintained at the larger facilities and also has the potential to reduce labor costs associated with inspections at current and future plants. This paper describes the FEMO design requirements, operating capabilities, and development work required before field demonstration.

  15. Data gathering in support of phase O program for waste heat utilization from nuclear enrichment facilities, Ohio

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-01-01

    The gathering of demographic, community development, and economic data for the region impacted by the Pikeville (Ohio) Nuclear Enrichment Facility is described. These data are to be used for establishing possible community uses, e.g., space heating, domestic water heating, and industrial uses, of waste heat from the facility. It was concluded that although the economic feasibility of such waste heat utilization remains to be proven, the community would cooperate in a feasibility demonstration program

  16. Detailed description of an SSAC at the facility level for a low-enriched uranium conversion and fuel fabrication facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, R.J.

    1984-09-01

    Some States have expressed a need for more detailed guidance with regard to the technical elements in the design and operation of SSACs for both the national and the international objectives. To meet this need the present document has been prepared, describing the technical elements of an SSAC in considerable detail. The purpose of this document is therefore, to provide a detailed description of a system for the accounting for and control of nuclear material in a model low enriched uranium conversion and fuel fabrication facility which can be used by a facility operator to establish his own system in a way which will provide the necessary information for compliance with a national system for nuclear material accounting and control and for the IAEA to carry out its safeguards responsibilities

  17. Civilian inventories of plutonium and highly enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albright, D.

    1987-01-01

    In the future, commercial laser isotope enrichment technologies, currently under development, could make it easier for national to produce highly enriched uranium secretly. The head of a US firm that is developing a laser enrichment process predicts that in twenty years, major utilities and small countries will have relatively small, on-site, laser-based uranium enrichment facilities. Although these plants will be designed for the production of low enriched uranium, they could be modified to produce highly enriched uranium, an option that raises the possibility of countries producing highly enriched uranium in small, easily hidden facilities. Against this background, most of this report describes the current and future quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium in the world, their forms, the facilities in which they are produced, stored, and used, and the extent to which they are transported. 5 figures, 10 tables

  18. Using Online Video Lectures to Enrich Traditional Face-to-Face Courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makarem, Suzanne C.

    2015-01-01

    University educators need to meet changing needs of the digital generation by integrating technology through online content delivery. Despite the many advantages of online education, a large number of university professors are reluctant to make the transition from traditional-face-to-face lectures to online delivery, mainly due to the time, cost,…

  19. 77 FR 13367 - General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment, LLC, Proposed Laser-Based Uranium Enrichment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-06

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [NRC-2009-0157] General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment, LLC, Proposed Laser-Based Uranium Enrichment Facility, Wilmington, NC AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory... Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed General Electric- Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment, LLC (GLE...

  20. Uranium enrichment decontamination and decommissioning fund

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-01-01

    One of the most challenging issues facing the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management is the cleanup of the three gaseous diffusion plants. In October 1992, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and established the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund to accomplish this task. This mission is being undertaken in an environmentally and financially responsible way by: devising cost-effective technical solutions; producing realistic life-cycle cost estimates, based on practical assumptions and thorough analysis; generating coherent long-term plans which are based on risk assessments, land use, and input from stakeholders; and, showing near-term progress in the cleanup of the gaseous diffusion facilities at Oak Ridge

  1. Centrifuge enrichment program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Astley, E.R.

    1976-01-01

    Exxon Nuclear has been active in privately funded research and development of centrifuge enrichment technology since 1972. In October of 1975, Exxon Nuclear submitted a proposal to design, construct, and operate a 3000-MT SWU/yr centrifuge enrichment plant, under the provisions of the proposed Nuclear Fuel Assurance Act of 1975. The U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) accepted the proposal as a basis for negotiation. It was proposed to build a 1000-MT SWU/yr demonstration increment to be operational in 1982; and after successful operation for about one year, expand the facilities into a 3000-MT SWU/yr plant. As part of the overall centrifuge enrichment plant, a dedicated centrifuge manufacturing plant would be constructed; sized to support the full 3000-MT SWU/yr plant. The selection of the centrifuge process by Exxon Nuclear was based on an extremely thorough evaluation of current and projected enrichment technology; results show that the technology is mature and the process will be cost effective. The substantial savings in energy (about 93%) from utilization of the centrifuge option rather than gaseous diffusion is a compelling argument. As part of this program, Exxon Nuclear has a large hardware R and D program, plus a prototype centrifuge manufacturing capability in Malta, New York. To provide a full-scale machine and limited cascade test capability, Exxon Nuclear is constructing a $4,000,000 Centrifuge Test Facility in Richland, Washington. This facility was to initiate operations in the Fall of 1976. Exxon Nuclear is convinced that the centrifuge enrichment process is the rational selection for emergence of a commercial enrichment industry

  2. Low-resolution gamma-ray measurements of uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sprinkle, J.K. Jr.; Christiansen, A.; Cole, R.; Collins, M.L.

    1996-01-01

    Facilities that process special nuclear material perform periodic inventories. In bulk facilities that process low-enriched uranium, these inventories and their audits are based primarily on weight and enrichment measurements. Enrichment measurements determine the 211 U weight fraction of the uranium compound from the passive gamma-ray emissions of the sample. Both international inspectors and facility operators rely on the capability to make in-field gamma-ray measurements of uranium enrichment. These users require rapid, portable measurement capability. Some in-field measurements have been biased, forcing the inspectors to resort to high-resolution measurements or mass spectrometry to accomplish their goals

  3. Current status of a decommissioning project in the Enrichment Engineering Facility. Results in the second-half of the fiscal year of 2014

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsumoto, Takashi; Hayashibara, Kenichi; Ishimori, Yuu; Mita, Yutaka; Kakiya, Hideyoshi; Takahashi, Nobuo

    2016-11-01

    The Enrichment Engineering Facility of the Ningyo-toge Environmental Engineering Center was constructed in order to establish the technological basis of plant engineering for uranium enrichment in Japan. Uranium enrichment tests, using natural and reprocessed uranium, were carried out from 1979 to 1989 with two operation units in the facility. According to the decommissioning plan of the facility, UF 6 handling equipment and supplemental equipment in these plants are intended to be dismantled by 2019 in order to make vacant spaces for future projects use, for example, inventory investigation, precipitation treatment, etc. This report shows the current state of the decommissioning project in the second-half of the fiscal year of 2014, with indicating its schedule, procedure, situation, results, and so on. The dismantled materials generated amounted to 69 mesh containers and 191 drums, and the secondary waste generated amounted to 1,585.7 kg during the half year. In the fiscal year of 2014, the project was carried out according to the plan. The dismantled materials generated amounted to 153,938.1 kg as the whole of this period, and 36,343 kg from among them was treated as non-radioactive materials. (author)

  4. Stable isotope enrichment: Current and future potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tracy, J.G.; Aaron, W.S.

    1992-01-01

    Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) operates the Isotope Enrichment Facility for the purpose of providing enriched stable isotopes, selected radioactive isotopes (including the actinides), and isotope-related materials and services for use in various research applications. ORNL is responsible for isotope enrichment and the distribution of approximately 225 nongaseous stable isotopes from 50 multi-isotopic elements. Many enriched isotope products are of prime importance in the fabrication of nuclear targets and the subsequent production of special radionuclides. State-of-the-art techniques to achieve special isotopic, chemical, and physical requirements are performed at ORNL This report describes the status and capabilities of the Isotope Enrichment Facility and the Isotope Research Materials Laboratory as well as emphasizing potential advancements in enrichment capabilities

  5. Stable isotope enrichment - current and future potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tracy, J.G.; Aaron, W.S.

    1993-01-01

    Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) operates the Isotope Enrichment Facility for the purpose of providing enriched stable isotopes, selected radioactive isotopes (including the actinides), and isotope-related materials and services for use in various research applications. ORNL is responsible for isotope enrichment and the distribution of approximately 225 nongaseous stable isotopes from 50 multi-isotopic elements. Many enriched isotope products are of prime importance in the fabrication of nuclear targets and the subsequent production of special radionuclides. State-of-the-art techniques to achieve special isotopic, chemical, and physical requirements are performed at ORNL. This report describes the status and capabilities of the Isotope Enrichment Facility and the Isotope Research Materials Laboratory as well as emphasizing potential advancements in enrichment capabilities. (orig.)

  6. Gaseous diffusion -- the enrichment workhorse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shoemaker, J.E. Jr.

    1984-01-01

    Construction of the first large-scale gaseous diffusion facility was started as part of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1943. This facility, code named ''K-25,'' began operation in January 1945 and was fully on stream by September 1945. Four additional process buildings were later added in Oak Ridge as the demand for enriched uranium escalated. New gaseous diffusion plants were constructed at Paducah, Kentucky, and Portsmouth, Ohio, during this period. The three gaseous diffusion plants were the ''workhorses'' which provided the entire enriched uranium demand for the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. As the demand for enriched uranium for military purposes decreased during the early 1960s, power to the diffusion plants was curtailed to reduce production. During the 1960s, as plans for the nuclear power industry were formulated, the role of the diffusion plants gradually changed from providing highly-enriched uranium for the military to providing low-enriched uranium for power reactors

  7. Quality assurance in the enriched uranium operations NDA facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    May, P.K.; Ceo, R.N. [Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, TN (United States)

    1997-11-01

    The Nondestructive Analysis (NDA) Facility at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant has characterized process wastes for Enriched Uranium Operations since 1978. Since that time, over 50,000 items have been analyzed. Analysis results are used to determine whether or not recovery of uranium from process wastes is economically feasible. Our instrument complement includes one large segmented gamma scanner (SGS), two smaller SGS, two solution assay systems (SAS), and Active Well Coincidence Counter (AWCC). The large SGS is used for analyzing High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters ant 208-L drums filled with combustible contaminated waste. The smaller SGS are used to analyze 4-L containers of ash and leached residues. The SAS are used to analyze 125 ml bottles of aqueous or organic waste solutions that may contain uranium. The gamma-based NDA techniques are used to identify which process wastes can be discarded, and which must be recycled. The AWCC is used to analyze high-density materials which are not amenable to gamma-ray analysis. 1 ref., 4 figs.

  8. Uranium enrichment in the United States

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, J.H.; Parks, J.W.

    1975-01-01

    History, improvement programs, status of electrical power availability, demands for uranium enrichment, operating plan for the U. S. enriching facilities, working inventory of enriched uranium, possible factors affecting deviations in the operating plan, status of gaseous diffusion technology, status of U. S. gas centrifuge advances, transfer of enrichment technology, gaseous diffusion--gas centrifuge comparison, new enrichment capacity, U. S. separative work pricing, and investment in nuclear energy are discussed. (LK)

  9. Beta activity of enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nambiar, P.P.V.J.; Ramachandran, V.

    1975-01-01

    Use of enriched uranium as reactor fuel necessitates its handling in various forms. For purposes of planning and organising radiation protection measures in enriched uranium handling facilities, it is necessary to have a basic knowledge of the radiation status of enriched uranium systems. The theoretical variations in beta activity and energy with U 235 enrichment are presented. Depletion is considered separately. Beta activity build up is also studied for two specific enrichments, in respect of which experimental values for specific alpha activity are available. (author)

  10. Environmental monitoring program of the uranium enrichment facility Almirante Alvaro Alberto

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hiromoto, G.; Jacomino, V.M.F.; Venturini, L.; Moreira, S.R.D.; Gordon, A.M.P.L.; Duarte, C.L.; Pocequilo, B.R.S.; Mazzilli, B.P.

    1988-11-01

    In this report, the Environmental Monitoring Program of the Uranium Enrichment Facility Almirante Alvaro Alberto is outlined and the results obtained during the preoperational period are presented. Information concerning the population distribution, the use of water and land, the local agricultural production and the local meteorology are also available. In order to evaluate the levels of the background radiation, sample of water, air and biological and terrestrial indicators were analysed. Measurements were performed of natural gamma emitters concentrations levels and of uranium in air, surface water, precipitation, groundwater, river sediment, soil, grass, vegetation and various foodstuffs. For direct measurement of background radiation levels a solid state dosimeter network was used. Results are also presented for the analysis of non radioactive pollutants in the water samples and for the particles and gaseous fluorides concentration in the atmosphere. (author) [pt

  11. High enrichment to low enrichment core's conversion. Accidents analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abbate, P.; Rubio, R.; Doval, A.; Lovotti, O.

    1990-01-01

    This work analyzes the different accidents that may occur in the reactor's facility after the 20% high-enriched uranium core's conversion. The reactor (of 5 thermal Mw), built in the 50's and 60's, is of the 'swimming pool' type, with light water and fuel elements of the curve plates MTR type, enriched at 93.15 %. This analysis includes: a) accidents by reactivity insertion; b) accidents by coolant loss; c) analysis by flow loss and d) fission products release. (Author) [es

  12. Uranium enrichment: a vital new industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1975-10-01

    The energy problem facing the nation and the need for nuclear power are pointed out. Uranium enrichment and the demand for it are discussed. Reasons for, and obstacles to, private enrichment are outlined. The President's plan (including the Nuclear Fuel Assurance Act) is summarized

  13. Uranium enrichment by gas centrifuge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heriot, I.D.

    1988-01-01

    After recalling the physical principles and the techniques of centrifuge enrichment the report describes the centrifuge enrichment programmes of the various countries concerned and compares this technology with other enrichment technologies like gaseous diffusion, laser, aerodynamic devices and chemical processes. The centrifuge enrichment process is said to be able to replace with advantage the existing enrichment facilities in the short and medium term. Future prospects of the process are also described, like recycled uranium enrichment and economic improvements; research and development needs to achieve the economic prospects are also indicated. Finally the report takes note of the positive aspect of centrifuge enrichment as far as safeguards and nuclear safety are concerned. 27 figs, 113 refs

  14. Enrichment into the 21st century

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rutkowski, E.

    1995-01-01

    This article discusses the future of the enrichment services market into the next century. It is estimated that demand for enrichment services will reach 31 million SWU by the end of the century and remain constant for the following 10 years. The current world enrichment capacity is 44 million SWU, or some 50% ahead of the demand. This oversupply is projected to continue into the next century, but in spite of this, several suppliers are planning new enrichment facilities. HEU as a source of enriched uranium is examined. Overall, long-term prices for enrichment services are expected to decline in the coming decade

  15. Detection of uranium enrichment activities using environmental monitoring techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Belew, W.L.; Carter, J.A.; Smith, D.H.; Walker, R.L.

    1993-01-01

    Uranium enrichment processes have the capability of producing weapons-grade material in the form of highly enriched uranium. Thus, detection of undeclared uranium enrichment activities is an international safeguards concern. The uranium separation technologies currently in use employ UF 6 gas as a separation medium, and trace quantities of enriched uranium are inevitably released to the environment from these facilities. The isotopic content of uranium in the vegetation, soil, and water near the plant site will be altered by these releases and can provide a signature for detecting the presence of enriched uranium activities. This paper discusses environmental sampling and analytical procedures that have been used for the detection of uranium enrichment facilities and possible safeguards applications of these techniques

  16. Unattended safeguards instrumentation at centrifuge enrichment plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, L. Eric; Lebrun, Alain R.; Labella, Rocco

    2014-01-01

    As global uranium enrichment capacity under international safeguards expands, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is challenged to develop effective safeguards approaches at gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants, particularly high‑capacity plants, while working within budgetary constraints. New safeguards approaches should meet the high‑level verification objectives for such facilities (i.e., timely detection of: diversion of declared material, excess production beyond declared amounts, and production of enrichment levels higher than declared), but should also strive for efficiency advantages in implementation, for both the IAEA and operators. Under the Agency’s State- level approach to safeguards implementation, the Agency needs a flexible toolbox of technologies, allowing tailoring of safeguards measures for each individual enrichment facility. In this paper, the potential roles and development status for three different types of unattended measurement instrumentation are discussed. On‑Line Enrichment Monitors (OLEM) could provide continuous enrichment measurement for 100% of the declared gas flowing through unit header pipes. Unattended Cylinder Verification Stations (UCVS) could provide unattended verification of the declared uranium mass and enrichment of 100% of the cylinders moving through the plant, but also apply and verify an ‘NDA Fingerprint’ to preserve verification knowledge on the contents of each cylinder throughout its life in the facility. Sharing of the operator’s load cell signals from feed and withdrawal stations could count all cylinders introduced to the process and provide periodic monitoring of the uranium mass balance for in‑process material. The integration of load cell, OLEM and UCVS data streams offers the possibility for 100% verification of declared cylinder flow, and enables the periodic verification of the declared 235 U mass balance in the plant. These new capabilities would enhance the IAEA

  17. Availability of enriched isotopic material for accelerator targets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Newman, E.

    1982-01-01

    The electromagnetic isotope enrichment facility at ORNL provides a broad spectrum of highly enriched stable isotopes to the worldwide scientific community. The continued timely availability of these materials is of vital importance in many areas of basic research and, in particular, as source material for the fabrication of accelerator targets. A brief description of the facility and its capabilities and limitations is presented

  18. Performance Test of Korea Heat Load Test Facility (KoHLT-EB) for the Plasma Facing Components of Fusion Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Suk-Kwon; Jin, Hyung Gon; Lee, Eo Hwak; Yoon, Jae-Sung; Lee, Dong Won; Cho, Seungyon

    2014-01-01

    The main components of the plasma facing components (PFCs) in the tokamak are the blanket first wall and divertor, which include the armour materials, the heat sink with the cooling mechanism, and the diagnostics devices for the temperature measurement. The Korea Heat Load Test facility by using electron beam (KoHLT-EB) has been operating for the plasma facing components to develop fusion engineering. This electron beam facility was constructed using a 300 kW electron gun and a cylindrical vacuum chamber. Performance tests were carried out for the calorimetric calibrations with Cu dummy mockup and for the heat load test of large Cu module. For the simulation of the heat load test of each mockup, the preliminary thermal-hydraulic analyses with ANSYS-CFX were performed. For the development of the plasma facing components in the fusion reactors, test mockups were fabricated and tested in the high heat flux test facility. To perform a beam profile test, an assessment of the possibility of electron beam Gaussian power density profile and the results of the absorbed power for that profile before the test starts are needed. To assess the possibility of a Gaussian profile, for the qualification test of the Gaussian heat load profile, a calorimeter mockup and large Cu module were manufactured to simulate real heat. For this high-heat flux test, the Korean high-heat flux test facility using an electron beam system was constructed. In this facility, a cyclic heat flux test will be performed to measure the surface heat flux, surface temperature profile, and cooling capacity

  19. Performance Test of Korea Heat Load Test Facility (KoHLT-EB) for the Plasma Facing Components of Fusion Reactor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Suk-Kwon; Jin, Hyung Gon; Lee, Eo Hwak; Yoon, Jae-Sung; Lee, Dong Won [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Seungyon [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-10-15

    The main components of the plasma facing components (PFCs) in the tokamak are the blanket first wall and divertor, which include the armour materials, the heat sink with the cooling mechanism, and the diagnostics devices for the temperature measurement. The Korea Heat Load Test facility by using electron beam (KoHLT-EB) has been operating for the plasma facing components to develop fusion engineering. This electron beam facility was constructed using a 300 kW electron gun and a cylindrical vacuum chamber. Performance tests were carried out for the calorimetric calibrations with Cu dummy mockup and for the heat load test of large Cu module. For the simulation of the heat load test of each mockup, the preliminary thermal-hydraulic analyses with ANSYS-CFX were performed. For the development of the plasma facing components in the fusion reactors, test mockups were fabricated and tested in the high heat flux test facility. To perform a beam profile test, an assessment of the possibility of electron beam Gaussian power density profile and the results of the absorbed power for that profile before the test starts are needed. To assess the possibility of a Gaussian profile, for the qualification test of the Gaussian heat load profile, a calorimeter mockup and large Cu module were manufactured to simulate real heat. For this high-heat flux test, the Korean high-heat flux test facility using an electron beam system was constructed. In this facility, a cyclic heat flux test will be performed to measure the surface heat flux, surface temperature profile, and cooling capacity.

  20. New generation enrichment monitoring technology for gas centrifuge enrichment plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ianakiev, Kiril D.; Alexandrov, Boian S.; Boyer, Brian D.; Hill, Thomas R.; Macarthur, Duncan W.; Marks, Thomas; Moss, Calvin E.; Sheppard, Gregory A.; Swinhoe, Martyn T.

    2008-01-01

    The continuous enrichment monitor, developed and fielded in the 1990s by the International Atomic Energy Agency, provided a go-no-go capability to distinguish between UF 6 containing low enriched (approximately 4% 235 U) and highly enriched (above 20% 235 U) uranium. This instrument used the 22-keV line from a 109 Cd source as a transmission source to achieve a high sensitivity to the UF 6 gas absorption. The 1.27-yr half-life required that the source be periodically replaced and the instrument recalibrated. The instrument's functionality and accuracy were limited by the fact that measured gas density and gas pressure were treated as confidential facility information. The modern safeguarding of a gas centrifuge enrichment plant producing low-enriched UF 6 product aims toward a more quantitative flow and enrichment monitoring concept that sets new standards for accuracy stability, and confidence. An instrument must be accurate enough to detect the diversion of a significant quantity of material, have virtually zero false alarms, and protect the operator's proprietary process information. We discuss a new concept for advanced gas enrichment assay measurement technology. This design concept eliminates the need for the periodic replacement of a radioactive source as well as the need for maintenance by experts. Some initial experimental results will be presented.

  1. Using Online Video Lectures to Enrich Traditional Face-to-Face Courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suzanne C. Makarem

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available University educators need to meet changing needs of the digital generation by integrating technology through online content delivery. Despite the many advantages of online education, a large number of university professors are reluctant to make the transition from traditional-face-to-face lectures to online delivery, mainly due to the time, cost, and technical competence requirements to make this transition, in addition to the lack of beliefs in the legitimacy of online education. This article demonstrates the use of online video lectures to adapt traditional university courses to a blended format. The study is implemented for a School of Business Marketing course. We illustrate a cost-effective and timeefficient way for faculty members to record and share online video lectures with limited training and technical support. Using a student sample from two sections of the same marketing course, the study findings support the use of online video lectures as an effective way to free class time for learner-centred activities, without sacrificing student performance outcomes or course satisfaction.

  2. Optogenetic and pharmacological suppression of spatial clusters of face neurons reveal their causal role in face gender discrimination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afraz, Arash; Boyden, Edward S; DiCarlo, James J

    2015-05-26

    Neurons that respond more to images of faces over nonface objects were identified in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of primates three decades ago. Although it is hypothesized that perceptual discrimination between faces depends on the neural activity of IT subregions enriched with "face neurons," such a causal link has not been directly established. Here, using optogenetic and pharmacological methods, we reversibly suppressed the neural activity in small subregions of IT cortex of macaque monkeys performing a facial gender-discrimination task. Each type of intervention independently demonstrated that suppression of IT subregions enriched in face neurons induced a contralateral deficit in face gender-discrimination behavior. The same neural suppression of other IT subregions produced no detectable change in behavior. These results establish a causal link between the neural activity in IT face neuron subregions and face gender-discrimination behavior. Also, the demonstration that brief neural suppression of specific spatial subregions of IT induces behavioral effects opens the door for applying the technical advantages of optogenetics to a systematic attack on the causal relationship between IT cortex and high-level visual perception.

  3. Development of ISA procedure for uranium fuel fabrication and enrichment facilities: overview of ISA procedure and its application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamate, Kazuki; Yamada, Takashi; Takanashi, Mitsuhiro; Sasaki, Noriaki

    2013-01-01

    Integrated Safety Analysis (ISA) procedure for uranium fuel fabrication and enrichment facilities has been developed for aiming at applying risk-informed regulation to these uranium facilities. The development has carried out referring to the ISA (NUREG-1520) by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The paper presents purpose, principles and activities for the development of the ISA procedure, including Risk Level (RL) matrix and grading evaluation method of IROFS (Items Relied on for Safety), as well as general description and features of the procedure. Also described in the paper is current status in application of risk information from the ISA. Japanese four licensees of the uranium facilities have been conducting ISA for their representative processes using the developed procedure as their voluntary safety activities. They have been accumulating experiences and knowledge on the ISA procedure and risk information through the field activities. NISA (Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) and JNES (Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization) are studying how to use such risk information for the safety regulation of the uranium facilities, taking into account the licensees' experiences and knowledge. (authors)

  4. 78 FR 63518 - Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services, National...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-10-24

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 70-3103; NRC-2010-0264] Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services, National Enrichment Facility, Eunice, New Mexico... Louisiana Energy Services (LES), LLC, National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, and has authorized...

  5. 78 FR 23312 - Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services, National...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-18

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket No. 70-3103; NRC-2010-0264] Uranium Enrichment Fuel Cycle Inspection Reports Regarding Louisiana Energy Services, National Enrichment Facility, Eunice, New Mexico..., National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, and has authorized the introduction of uranium...

  6. Application of free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) technology to a forest canopy: A simulation study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lipfert, F.W.; Hendrey, G.R.; Lewin, K.L.; Alexander, Y.

    1992-03-01

    Forest ecosystems constitute an important part of the planet's land cover. Understanding their exchanges of carbon with the atmosphere is crucial in projecting future net atmospheric CO 2 increases. It is also important that experimental studies of these processes be performed under conditions which are as realistic as possible, particularly with respect to photosynthesis and evapotranspiration. New technology and experimental protocols now exist which can facilitate studying an undisturbed forest canopy under long-term enriched CO 2 conditions. The International Geosphere Biosphere Program of the International Council of Scientific Unions has established a subprogram on Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE). This program is driven by two major concerns: to be able to predict the effects of global change on the structure and function of ecosystems, and to predict how these changes will control both atmospheric CO 2 and climate, through various feedback pathways. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has developed a system for exposing field-grown plants to controlled elevated concentrations of atmospheric gases, without use of confining chambers that alter important atmospheric exchange processes. This system, called FACE for Free Air CO 2 Enrichment. This paper focuses on the fluid mechanics of free-air fumigation and uses a numerical simulation model based on superposed gaussian plumes to project how the present ground-based system could be used to fumigate an elevated forest canopy

  7. Test Operation of Oxygen-Enriched Incinerator for Wastes From Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, J.-G.; Yang, H.cC.; Park, G.-I.; Kim, I.-T.; Kim, J.-K.

    2002-01-01

    The oxygen-enriched combustion concept, which can minimize off-gas production, has been applied to the incineration of combustible uranium-containing wastes from a nuclear fuel fabrication facility. A simulation for oxygen combustion shows the off-gas production can be reduced by a factor of 6.7 theoretically, compared with conventional air combustion. The laboratory-scale oxygen enriched incineration (OEI) process with a thermal capacity of 350 MJ/h is composed of an oxygen feeding and control system, a combustion chamber, a quencher, a ceramic filter, an induced draft fan, a condenser, a stack, an off-gas recycle path, and a measurement and control system. Test burning with cleaning paper and office paper in this OEI process shows that the thermal capacity is about 320 MJ/h, 90 % of design value and the off-gas reduces by a factor of 3.5, compared with air combustion. The CO concentration for oxygen combustion is lower than that of air combustion, while the O2 concentration in off-gas is kept above 25 vol % for a simple incineration process without any grate. The NOx concentration in an off-gas stream does not reduce significantly due to air incoming by leakage, and the volume and weight reduction factors are not changed significantly, which suggests a need for an improvement in sealing

  8. Uranium Conversion & Enrichment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karpius, Peter Joseph [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2017-02-06

    The isotopes of uranium that are found in nature, and hence in ‘fresh’ Yellowcake’, are not in relative proportions that are suitable for power or weapons applications. The goal of conversion then is to transform the U3O8 yellowcake into UF6. Conversion and enrichment of uranium is usually required to obtain material with enough 235U to be usable as fuel in a reactor or weapon. The cost, size, and complexity of practical conversion and enrichment facilities aid in nonproliferation by design.

  9. Assuaging Nuclear Energy Risks: The Angarsk International Uranium Enrichment Center

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myers, Astasia

    2011-01-01

    The recent nuclear renaissance has motivated many countries, especially developing nations, to plan and build nuclear power reactors. However, domestic low enriched uranium demands may trigger nations to construct indigenous enrichment facilities, which could be redirected to fabricate high enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. The potential advantages of establishing multinational uranium enrichment sites are numerous including increased low enrichment uranium access with decreased nuclear proliferation risks. While multinational nuclear initiatives have been discussed, Russia is the first nation to actualize this concept with their Angarsk International Uranium Enrichment Center (IUEC). This paper provides an overview of the historical and modern context of the multinational nuclear fuel cycle as well as the evolution of Russia's IUEC, which exemplifies how international fuel cycle cooperation is an alternative to domestic facilities.

  10. Calculation of parameters for inspection planning and evaluation: low enriched uranium conversion and fuel fabrication facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reardon, P.T.; Mullen, M.F.; Harms, N.L.

    1981-02-01

    As part of Task C.35 (Calculation of Parameters for Inspection Planning and Evaluation) of the US Program of Technical Assistance to IAEA Safeguards, Pacific Northwest Laboratory has performed some quantitative analyses of IAEA inspection activities at low-enriched uranium (LEU) conversion and fuel fabrication facilities. This report presents the results and conclusions of those analyses. Implementation of IAEA safeguards at LEU conversion and fuel fabrication facilities must take into account a variety of practical problems and constraints. One of the key concerns is the problem of flow verification, especially product verification. The objective of this report is to help put the problem of flow verification in perspective by presenting the results of some specific calculations of inspection effort and probability of detection for various product measurement strategies. In order to provide quantitative information about the advantages and disadvantages of the various strategies, eight specific cases were examined

  11. The assisting system for uranium enrichment plant operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakazawa, Hiroaki; Yamamoto, Fumio

    1990-01-01

    We have been developing an operation assisting system, partially supported by AI system, for uranium enrichment plant. The AI system is a proto-type system aiming a final one which can be applied to any future large uranium enrichment plant and also not only to specific operational area but also to complex and multi-phenomenon operational area. An existing AI system, for example facility diagnostic system that utilizes the result of CCT analysis as knowledge base, has weakness in flexibility and potentiality. To build AI system, we have developed the most suitable knowledge representations using deep knowledge for each facility or operation of uranium enrichment plant. This paper describes our AI proto-type system adopting several knowledge representations that can represent an uranium enrichment plant's operation with deep knowledge. (author)

  12. U.S. forms uranium enrichment corporation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seltzer, R.

    1993-01-01

    After almost 40 years of operation, the federal government is withdrawing from the uranium enrichment business. On July 1, the Department of Energy turned over to a new government-owned entity--the US Enrichment Corp. (USEC)--both the DOE enrichment plants at Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio, and domestic and international marketing of enriched uranium from them. Pushed by the inability of DOE's enrichment operations to meet foreign competition, Congress established USEC under the National Energy Policy Act of 1992, envisioning the new corporation as the first step to full privatization. With gross revenues of $1.5 billion in fiscal 1992, USEC would rank 275th on the Fortune 500 list of top US companies. USEC will lease from DOE the Paducah and Portsmouth facilities, built in the early 1950s, which use the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. USEC's stock is held by the US Treasury, to which it will pay annual dividends. Martin Marietta Energy Systems, which has operated Paducah since 1984 and Portsmouth since 1986 for DOE, will continue to operate both plants for USEC. Closing one of the two facilities will be studied, especially in light of a 40% world surplus of capacity over demand. USEC also will consider other nuclear-fuel-related ventures. USEC will produce only low-enriched uranium, not weapons-grade material. Indeed, USEC will implement a contract now being completed under which the US will purchase weapons-grade uranium from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons and convert it into low-enriched uranium for power reactor fuel

  13. Stacking faults enriched silver nanowires: facile synthesis, catalysis and SERS investigations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Minmin; Yang, Fengzhu; Yuan, Yaxian; Guo, Qinghua; Ren, Bin; Yao, Jianlin; Gu, Renao

    2013-10-01

    A facile approach based on seed-mediated method for synthesis of stacking faults enriched Ag nanowires (SFEANWs) was successfully developed. SFEANWs were formed and attached onto the seed (α-Fe2O3/Au) surfaces through the reduction of AgNO3 by ascorbic acid (AA) in the presence of sodium polyacrylate (PAANa). Their length can be tuned with different concentrations of AgNO3 or PAANa. According to the effects of seeds and PAANa, the plausible growth mechanism of SFEANWs was discussed. The catalytic activity of SFEANWs comparing with fivefold twinned Ag nanowires (FFTANWs) was evaluated through reducing p-nitrophenol by NaBH4. The activation energy of the classical reaction catalyzed by SFEANWs was calculated through the Arrhenius equation. In addition, these SFEANWs exhibited excellent surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activities due to the hot spots located in the cross of the twist wires. The detection limit of by SERS for 1,4-benzenedithiol (1,4-BDT) was estimated about 10(-7) mol/L. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. 76 FR 9054 - Notice of Availability of Final Environmental Impact Statement for the AREVA Enrichment Services...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-16

    ... Statement for the AREVA Enrichment Services LLC Proposed Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility in Bonneville County... published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the AREVA Enrichment Services LLC (AES) Proposed Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility (EREF). On December 30, 2008, AES submitted a license application...

  15. 75 FR 21680 - GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC;

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-26

    ... Global Laser Enrichment LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by... over the following proceeding: GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE Commercial Facility) This... application of GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC for a license to possess and use source, byproduct, and...

  16. Nuclear fuel cycle head-end enriched uranium purification and conversion into metal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonini, A.; Cabrejas, J.; Lio, L. de; Dell'Occhio, L.; Devida, C.; Dupetit, G.; Falcon, M.; Gauna, A.; Gil, D.; Guzman, G.; Neuringer, P.; Pascale, A.; Stankevicius, A.

    1998-01-01

    The CNEA (Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica - Argentina) operated two facilities at the Ezeiza Atomic Center which supply purified enriched uranium employed in the production of nuclear fuels. At one of those facilities, the Triple Height Laboratory scraps from the production of MTR type fuel elements (mainly out of specification U 3 O 8 plates or powder) are purified to nuclear grade. The purification is accomplished by a solvent extraction process. The other facility, the Enriched Uranium Laboratory produces 90% enriched uranium metal to be used in Mo 99 production (originally the uranium was used for the manufacture of MTR fuel elements made of aluminium-uranium alloy). This laboratory also provided metallic uranium with a lower enrichment (20%) for a first uranium-silicon testing fuel element, and in the near future it is going to recommence 20% enriched uranium related activities in order to provide the metal for the silicon-based fuel elements production (according to the policy of enrichment reduction for MTR reactors). (author)

  17. Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) enhances biomass production in a short-rotation poplar plantation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calfapietra, C.; De Angelis, P.; Scarascia-Mungozza, G.; Gielen, B.; Ceulemans, R.; Galema, A. N. J.; Lukac, M.; Moscatelli, M. C.

    2003-01-01

    The possible contribution of short rotation cultures (SRC) to carbon sequestration in both current and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations was investigated using the free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) technique. Three poplar species were grown in an SRC plantation for three growing seasons. Above-ground and below-ground biomass increased by 15 to 27 per cent and by 22 to 38 per cent, respectively; light-efficiency also increased as a result. Depletion of inorganic nitrogen from the soil increased after three growing seasons at elevated carbon dioxide levels, but carbon dioxide showed no effect on stem wood density. Stem wood density also differed significantly from species to species. These results confirmed inter-specific differences in biomass production in poplar, and demonstrated that elevated carbon dioxide enhanced biomass productivity and light-use efficiency of a poplar short rotation cultivation ecosystem without changing biomass allocation. The reduction in soil nitrogen raises the possibility of reduced long-term biomass productivity. 60 refs., 4 tabs., 4 figs

  18. Environmental monitoring (operational period) of the uranium enrichment facility Almirante Alvaro Alberto. Quadrimonthly report of gamma spectroscopy measurements: march to june 1988

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Venturini, L.; Pecequilo, B.R.S.

    1990-02-01

    In this report we present the assessment of the environmental monitoring radiation levels during the operation period of the Uranium Enrichment Facility Almirante Alvaro Alberto from March to July 1988. The purpose was achieved by sampling and analyzing using gamma spectrometry, water and terrestrial and biological indicators. (author) [pt

  19. Oxygen enrichment incineration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jeong Guk; Yang, Hee Chul; Park, Geun Il; Kim, Joon Hyung

    2000-10-01

    Oxygen enriched combustion technology has recently been used in waste incineration. To apply the oxygen enrichment on alpha-bearing waste incineration, which is being developed, a state-of-an-art review has been performed. The use of oxygen or oxygen-enriched air instead of air in incineration would result in increase of combustion efficiency and capacity, and reduction of off-gas product. Especially, the off-gas could be reduced below a quarter, which might reduce off-gas treatment facilities, and also increase an efficiency of off-gas treatment. However, the use of oxygen might also lead to local overheating and high nitrogen oxides (NOx) formation. To overcome these problems, an application of low NOx oxy-fuel burner and recycling of a part of off-gas to combustion chamber have been suggested

  20. Oxygen enrichment incineration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jeong Guk; Yang, Hee Chul; Park, Geun Il; Kim, Joon Hyung

    2000-10-01

    Oxygen enriched combustion technology has recently been used in waste incineration. To apply the oxygen enrichment on alpha-bearing waste incineration, which is being developed, a state-of-an-art review has been performed. The use of oxygen or oxygen-enriched air instead of air in incineration would result in increase of combustion efficiency and capacity, and reduction of off-gas product. Especially, the off-gas could be reduced below a quarter, which might reduce off-gas treatment facilities, and also increase an efficiency of off-gas treatment. However, the use of oxygen might also lead to local overheating and high nitrogen oxides (NOx) formation. To overcome these problems, an application of low NOx oxy-fuel burner and recycling of a part of off-gas to combustion chamber have been suggested.

  1. FACE: Free-Air CO[sub 2] Enrichment for plant research in the field

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hendrey, G.R. (ed.)

    1992-08-01

    Research programs concerning the effects of Carbon Dioxide(CO)[sub 2] on cotton plants are described. Biological responses studied include foliage response to CO[sub 2] fluctuations; yield of cotton exposed to CO[sub 2] enrichment; responses of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance to elevated CO[sub 2] in field-grown cotton; cotton leaf and boll temperatures; root response to CO[sub 2] enrichment; and evaluations of cotton response to CO[sub 2] enrichment with canopy reflectance observations.

  2. FACE: Free-Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment for plant research in the field

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hendrey, G.R. [ed.

    1992-08-01

    Research programs concerning the effects of Carbon Dioxide(CO){sub 2} on cotton plants are described. Biological responses studied include foliage response to CO{sub 2} fluctuations; yield of cotton exposed to CO{sub 2} enrichment; responses of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance to elevated CO{sub 2} in field-grown cotton; cotton leaf and boll temperatures; root response to CO{sub 2} enrichment; and evaluations of cotton response to CO{sub 2} enrichment with canopy reflectance observations.

  3. Safety of uranium enrichment plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yonekawa, Shigeru; Morikami, Yoshio; Morita, Minoru; Takahashi, Tsukasa; Tokuyasu, Takashi.

    1991-01-01

    With respect to safety evaluation of the gas centrifuge enrichment facility, several characteristic problems are described as follows. Criticality safety in the cascade equipments can be obtained to maintain the enrichment of UF 6 below 5 %. External radiation dose equivalent rate of the 30B cylinder is low enough, the shield is not necessary. Penetration ratio of the two-stage HEPA filters for UF 6 aerosol is estimated at 10 -9 . From the experimental investigation, vacuum tightness is not damaged by destruction of gas centrifuge rotor. Carbon steel can be used for uranium enrichment equipments under the condition below 100degC. (author)

  4. Licensed fuel facility status report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-04-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related NRC investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  5. Licensed fuel facility status report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.; Brown, C.

    1993-04-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related NRC investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  6. Enrichment: Dealing with overcapacity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peterson, C.H.

    1989-01-01

    Today's surplus of enrichment capacity will continue until at least the end of this century. This will challenge the ingenuity of the separative work unit (SWU) suppliers as they attempt to keep market share and remain profitable in a very competitive marketplace. The utilities will be faced with attractive choices, but making the best choice will require careful analysis and increased attention to market factors. Current demand projections will probably prove too high to the extent that more reactors are canceled or delayed. The DOE has the vast majority of the unused capacity, so it will feel the most immediate impact of this large surplus in productive capacity. The DOE has responded to these market challenges by planning another reorganization of its enriching operations. Without a major agreement among the governments affected by the current surplus in enrichment capacity, the future will see lower prices, more competitive terms, and the gradual substitution of centrifuge or laser enrichment for the gaseous diffusion plants. The competition that is forcing the gaseous diffusion prices down to marginal cost will provide the long-term price basis for the enrichment industry

  7. Multithread Face Recognition in Cloud

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dakshina Ranjan Kisku

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Faces are highly challenging and dynamic objects that are employed as biometrics evidence in identity verification. Recently, biometrics systems have proven to be an essential security tools, in which bulk matching of enrolled people and watch lists is performed every day. To facilitate this process, organizations with large computing facilities need to maintain these facilities. To minimize the burden of maintaining these costly facilities for enrollment and recognition, multinational companies can transfer this responsibility to third-party vendors who can maintain cloud computing infrastructures for recognition. In this paper, we showcase cloud computing-enabled face recognition, which utilizes PCA-characterized face instances and reduces the number of invariant SIFT points that are extracted from each face. To achieve high interclass and low intraclass variances, a set of six PCA-characterized face instances is computed on columns of each face image by varying the number of principal components. Extracted SIFT keypoints are fused using sum and max fusion rules. A novel cohort selection technique is applied to increase the total performance. The proposed protomodel is tested on BioID and FEI face databases, and the efficacy of the system is proven based on the obtained results. We also compare the proposed method with other well-known methods.

  8. Safety review and stress test of the uranium enrichment facility Gronau; Compact. Sicherheitsueberpruefung und Stresstest der Urananreicherungsanlage Gronau

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kleiboemer, Burkhard [URENCO Deutschland GmbH, Gronau (Germany). Ueberwachung

    2013-07-01

    As a consequence of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011 and the subsequent catastrophic destruction of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima URENCO has agreed to perform the safety check of the uranium enrichment facility Gronau (UAG) two years earlier than planned. The review was started in May 2011. The contribution deals with the requirements for the safety analysis and the questionnaire for the stress test, the methodology for realization of the safety check and the results of the investigations performed by URENCO and experts of ESK.

  9. Atomics International fuel fabrication facility and low enrichment program. Part 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hassel, H.W.

    1993-01-01

    Most of you know our company from the last meeting in May in Vienna, so I won't steal your time with explaining and demonstrating the same techniques that we have heard this morning f rom the other speakers. I would just take some words to explain the order of business with highly enriched uranium. NUKEM handles around almost two tons of highly enriched uranium a year and it was necessary to satisfy all the new physical protection philosophies. That means that we have to install storage and safe fabrication sites for a lot of money, 2.5 meter thick concrete walls, and different alarm systems. So just to demonstrate how silly this business is, we have just overcome this for highly enriched uranium, and now we speak about low enriched uranium for which we don't need all of these investments to make this business safe. I would just like to concentrate my words on the status of fabrication and considerations in my company concerning the medium enriched uranium and low enriched uranium. In TABLE I are the different fuel types (see column 1) and then we have the fabrication in column 2; (The reason that I use the blackboard this morning is that I try to demonstrate all the techniques. However, all the speakers before me did this and in theory we are not so far away from each other.) the experience of my company in kg. In column 3 is the irradiation experience of these fuels types. Column 4 shows the studies and calculations made in our company for lower and medium enriched fuels. The preliminary fabrication tests and calculations are in column 5, and in column 6 we have the delivery time for a prototype core in months after UF 6 supply. Column 7 shows the time for the development of specifications including irradiation time in years for 6 and 7, and column 8 is the estimated cost of 6 and 7. There is just one fuel that is not in this summary and that is U-Zr

  10. Safeguards Guidance Document for Designers of Commercial Nuclear Facilities: International Nuclear Safeguards Requirements and Practices For Uranium Enrichment Plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Robert Bean; Casey Durst

    2009-10-01

    This report is the second in a series of guidelines on international safeguards requirements and practices, prepared expressly for the designers of nuclear facilities. The first document in this series is the description of generic international nuclear safeguards requirements pertaining to all types of facilities. These requirements should be understood and considered at the earliest stages of facility design as part of a new process called “Safeguards-by-Design.” This will help eliminate the costly retrofit of facilities that has occurred in the past to accommodate nuclear safeguards verification activities. The following summarizes the requirements for international nuclear safeguards implementation at enrichment plants, prepared under the Safeguards by Design project, and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of NA-243. The purpose of this is to provide designers of nuclear facilities around the world with a simplified set of design requirements and the most common practices for meeting them. The foundation for these requirements is the international safeguards agreement between the country and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), pursuant to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Relevant safeguards requirements are also cited from the Safeguards Criteria for inspecting enrichment plants, found in the IAEA Safeguards Manual, Part SMC-8. IAEA definitions and terms are based on the IAEA Safeguards Glossary, published in 2002. The most current specification for safeguards measurement accuracy is found in the IAEA document STR-327, “International Target Values 2000 for Measurement Uncertainties in Safeguarding Nuclear Materials,” published in 2001. For this guide to be easier for the designer to use, the requirements have been restated in plainer language per expert interpretation using the source documents noted. The safeguards agreement is fundamentally a

  11. Collaborative Random Faces-Guided Encoders for Pose-Invariant Face Representation Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shao, Ming; Zhang, Yizhe; Fu, Yun

    2018-04-01

    Learning discriminant face representation for pose-invariant face recognition has been identified as a critical issue in visual learning systems. The challenge lies in the drastic changes of facial appearances between the test face and the registered face. To that end, we propose a high-level feature learning framework called "collaborative random faces (RFs)-guided encoders" toward this problem. The contributions of this paper are three fold. First, we propose a novel supervised autoencoder that is able to capture the high-level identity feature despite of pose variations. Second, we enrich the identity features by replacing the target values of conventional autoencoders with random signals (RFs in this paper), which are unique for each subject under different poses. Third, we further improve the performance of the framework by incorporating deep convolutional neural network facial descriptors and linking discriminative identity features from different RFs for the augmented identity features. Finally, we conduct face identification experiments on Multi-PIE database, and face verification experiments on labeled faces in the wild and YouTube Face databases, where face recognition rate and verification accuracy with Receiver Operating Characteristic curves are rendered. In addition, discussions of model parameters and connections with the existing methods are provided. These experiments demonstrate that our learning system works fairly well on handling pose variations.

  12. 75 FR 16869 - Areva Enrichment Services, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-02

    ... Enrichment Services, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the... following proceeding: Areva Enrichment Services, LLC (Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility) This Board is being established pursuant to a Notice of Hearing and Commission Order regarding the application of Areva Enrichment...

  13. Yalina booster subcritical assembly performance with low enriched uranium fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talamo, Alberto; Gohar, Yousry

    2011-01-01

    The YALINA Booster facility is a subcritical assembly located in Minsk, Belarus. The facility has special features that result in fast and thermal neutron spectra in different zones. The fast zone of the assembly uses a lead matrix and uranium fuels with different enrichments: 90% and 36%, 36%, or 21%. The thermal zone of the assembly contains 10% enriched uranium fuel in a polyethylene matrix. This study discusses the performance of the three YALINA Booster configurations with the different fuel enrichments. In order to maintain the same subcriticality level in the three configurations, the number of fuel rods in the thermal zone is increased as the uranium fuel enrichment in the fast zone is decreased. The maximum number of fuel rods that can be loaded in the thermal zone is about 1185. Consequently, the neutron multiplication of the configuration with 21% enriched uranium fuel in the fast zone is enhanced by changing the position of the boron carbide and the natural uranium absorber rods, located between the fast and the thermal zones, to form an annular rather than a square arrangement. (author)

  14. Yalina booster subcritical assembly performance with low enriched uranium fuel

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Talamo, Alberto; Gohar, Yousry, E-mail: alby@anl.gov [Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL (United States)

    2011-07-01

    The YALINA Booster facility is a subcritical assembly located in Minsk, Belarus. The facility has special features that result in fast and thermal neutron spectra in different zones. The fast zone of the assembly uses a lead matrix and uranium fuels with different enrichments: 90% and 36%, 36%, or 21%. The thermal zone of the assembly contains 10% enriched uranium fuel in a polyethylene matrix. This study discusses the performance of the three YALINA Booster configurations with the different fuel enrichments. In order to maintain the same subcriticality level in the three configurations, the number of fuel rods in the thermal zone is increased as the uranium fuel enrichment in the fast zone is decreased. The maximum number of fuel rods that can be loaded in the thermal zone is about 1185. Consequently, the neutron multiplication of the configuration with 21% enriched uranium fuel in the fast zone is enhanced by changing the position of the boron carbide and the natural uranium absorber rods, located between the fast and the thermal zones, to form an annular rather than a square arrangement. (author)

  15. Uranium enrichment by centrifuge in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, T.; Murase, T.

    1977-01-01

    The demand for enriched uranium is on the increase with nuclear power capacity in which the LWR predominates and is estimated to exceed the supply from the present facilities in the world in less than ten years. Therefore, the basic strategy for enriched uranium is investigated on the following three-point long-range program in Japan: 1. To continue negotiations to extend the current allocation by the long-term contract; 2. To seek active participation in international enrichment projects; and 3. To make efforts to develop uranium enrichment technology and to construct inland facilities. On this basis, a vigorous development program of gas centrigue process for industrialization was launched out in 1972 as a national project. Ever since substantial progress in this field has been made and development works have been increased year after year. At present, a concrete plan of a pilot plant is taking shape. Up to now, several types of centrifuges were developed, of which some were completed as prototype models, and subjected to life tests and also to extensive earthquake-resistivity tests for the characteristics of Japanese geological condition. An enrichment plant is composed of so many centrifuges that the installation and piping system of centrifuges is an important factor which has an effect on plant economy and reliability. Two types of the experimental cascade were constructed in Japan. One has been in operation since 1973, and the other since 1975. Valuable empirical data have been accumulated on cascade characteristics, maintenance scheme and so on. It will be important for the coming plants to have a flexibility to escalation of labor and energy cost, or to variation of the separative work requirement and further. An economic prospect of centrifuge enrichment process is presented

  16. Material testing facilities and programs for plasma-facing component testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linsmeier, Ch.; Unterberg, B.; Coenen, J. W.; Doerner, R. P.; Greuner, H.; Kreter, A.; Linke, J.; Maier, H.

    2017-09-01

    Component development for operation in a large-scale fusion device requires thorough testing and qualification for the intended operational conditions. In particular environments are necessary which are comparable to the real operation conditions, allowing at the same time for in situ/in vacuo diagnostics and flexible operation, even beyond design limits during the testing. Various electron and neutral particle devices provide the capabilities for high heat load tests, suited for material samples and components from lab-scale dimensions up to full-size parts, containing toxic materials like beryllium, and being activated by neutron irradiation. To simulate the conditions specific to a fusion plasma both at the first wall and in the divertor of fusion devices, linear plasma devices allow for a test of erosion and hydrogen isotope recycling behavior under well-defined and controlled conditions. Finally, the complex conditions in a fusion device (including the effects caused by magnetic fields) are exploited for component and material tests by exposing test mock-ups or material samples to a fusion plasma by manipulator systems. They allow for easy exchange of test pieces in a tokamak or stellarator device, without opening the vessel. Such a chain of test devices and qualification procedures is required for the development of plasma-facing components which then can be successfully operated in future fusion power devices. The various available as well as newly planned devices and test stands, together with their specific capabilities, are presented in this manuscript. Results from experimental programs on test facilities illustrate their significance for the qualification of plasma-facing materials and components. An extended set of references provides access to the current status of material and component testing capabilities in the international fusion programs.

  17. Centrifuge enrichment plants. (Latest citations from the NTIS bibliographic database). Published Search

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-09-01

    The bibliography contains citations concerning the design, control, monitoring, and safety of centrifuge enrichment plants. Power supplies, enrichment plant safeguards, facility design, cascade heater test loops to monitor the enrichment process, inspection strategies, and the socioeconomic effects of centrifuge enrichment plants are examined. Radioactive waste disposal problems are considered. (Contains a minimum of 171 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.)

  18. Uranium enrichment. Technology, economics, capacity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Voigt, W.R. Jr.; Saire, D.E.; Gestson, D.K.; Peske, S.E.; Vanstrum, P.R.

    1983-01-01

    Large-scale enrichment of uranium has now been carried out for 40 years. While the gaseous diffusion process was the original choice of several countries and continues today to provide the major component of the world production of separative work, the last two decades have witnessed the development of a number of alternative processes for enrichment. These processes, which are being studied and deployed around the world, offer a wide range of technical and economic characteristics which will be useful in assuring adequate capacity to meet projected reactor fuel market needs through the rest of this century at competitive prices. With present uncertainties in future enriched uranium needs, it is apparent that flexibility in the deployment and operation of any enrichment process will be one of the prime considerations for the future. More economical production of separative work not only can have a beneficial impact on reactor fuel costs, but also tends to conserve natural uranium resources. This paper reviews the world scene in the enrichment component of the fuel cycle, including existing or planned commercial-scale facilities and announced R+D efforts on various processes. (author)

  19. Uranium enrichment: technology, economics, capacity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Voigt, Jr., W. R.; Vanstrum, P. R.; Saire, D. E.; Gestson, D. K.; Peske, S. E.

    1982-08-01

    Large-scale enrichment of uranium has now been carried out for 40 years. While the gaseous diffusion process was the original choice of several countries and continues today to provide the major component of the world production of separative work, the last two decades have witnessed the development of a number of alternative processes for enrichment. These processes, which are being studied and deployed around the world, offer a wide range of technical and economic characteristics which will be useful in assuring adequate capacity to meet projected reactor fuel market needs through the rest of this century at competitive prices. With present uncertainties in future enriched uranium needs, it is apparent that flexibility in the deployment and operation of any enrichment process will be one of the prime considerations for the future. More economical production of separative work not only can have a beneficial impact on reactor fuel costs, but also tends to conserve natural uranium resources. This paper reviews the world scene in the enrichment component of the fuel cycle, including existing or planned commercial-scale facilities and announced R and D efforts on various processes.

  20. Uranium enrichment: technology, economics, capacity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Voigt, W.R. Jr.; Vanstrum, P.R.; Saire, D.E.; Gestson, D.K.; Peske, S.E.

    1982-01-01

    Large-scale enrichment of uranium has now been carried out for 40 years. While the gaseous diffusion process was the original choice of several countries and continues today to provide the major component of the world production of separative work, the last two decades have witnessed the development of a number of alternative processes for enrichment. These processes, which are being studied and deployed around the world, offer a wide range of technical and economic characteristics which will be useful in assuring adequate capacity to meet projected reactor fuel market needs through the rest of this century at competitive prices. With present uncertainties in future enriched uranium needs, it is apparent that flexibility in the deployment and operation of any enrichment process will be one of the prime considerations for the future. More economical production of separative work not only can have a beneficial impact on reactor fuel costs, but also tends to conserve natural uranium resources. This paper reviews the world scene in the enrichment component of the fuel cycle, including existing or planned commercial-scale facilities and announced R and D efforts on various processes

  1. Airborne uranium, its concentration and toxicity in uranium enrichment facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thomas, J.; Mauro, J.; Ryniker, J.; Fellman, R.

    1979-02-01

    The release of uranium hexafluoride and its hydrolysis products into the work environment of a plant for enriching uranium by means of gas centrifuges is discussed. The maximum permissible mass and curie concentration of airborne uranium (U) is identified as a function of the enrichment level (i.e., U-235/total U), and chemical and physical form. A discussion of the chemical and radiological toxicity of uranium as a function of enrichment and chemical form is included. The toxicity of products of UF 6 hydrolysis in the atmosphere, namely, UO 2 F 2 and HF, the particle size of toxic particulate material produced from this hydrolysis, and the toxic effects of HF and other potential fluoride compounds are also discussed. Results of an investigation of known effects of humidity and temperature on particle size of UO 2 F 2 produced by the reaction of UF 6 with water vapor in the air are reported. The relationship of the solubility of uranium compounds to their toxic effects was studied. Identification and discussion of the standards potentially applicable to airborne uranium compounds in the working environment are presented. The effectiveness of High Efficiency Particulate (HEPA) filters subjected to the corrosive environment imposed by the presence of hydrogen fluoride is discussed

  2. A study on items necessary to develop the requirements for the management of serious accidents postulated in fuel fabrication, enrichment and reprocessing facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takanashi, Mitsuhiro; Yamate, Kazuki; Asada, Kazuo; Yamada, Takashi; Endo, Shigeki

    2013-05-01

    The purpose of this study is to supply the points to discuss on new rules of fuel fabrication, enrichment and reprocessing facilities (hereinafter referred to as 'fuel cycle facilities') conducted by Nuclear Regulation Authority. Requirements for management of serious accidents in the fuel cycle facilities were summarized in this study. Taking into account the lessons learned from the accident of TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Mar. 2011, Act for the Regulation of Nuclear Source Material, Nuclear Fuel Material and Reactors was amended in June 2012. The main items of the amendment were as follows: Preparation for the management of serious accidents, Introduction of evaluation system for safety improvement, Application of new standards to existing nuclear facilities (back-fitting). Japan Nuclear Energy Safety organization (JNES) conducted a fundamental study on serious accidents and their management in the fuel cycle facilities and made a report. In the report, the concept of Defense in Depth and the definition of serious accidents for the fuel cycle facilities were discussed. Those discussions were conducted by reference to new regulation rules (draft) for power reactors and from the view of features of the fuel cycle facilities. However, further detailed studies are necessary in order to clarify some issues in it. It was also reflected opinions from experts in JNES technical meetings on accident management of the fuel cycle facilities to brush up this report. (author)

  3. Safeguards Guidance for Designers of Commercial Nuclear Facilities – International Safeguards Requirements for Uranium Enrichment Plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Philip Casey Durst; Scott DeMuth; Brent McGinnis; Michael Whitaker; James Morgan

    2010-04-01

    For the past two years, the United States National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of International Regimes and Agreements (NA-243), has sponsored the Safeguards-by-Design Project, through which it is hoped new nuclear facilities will be designed and constructed worldwide more amenable to nuclear safeguards. In the course of this project it was recognized that commercial designer/builders of nuclear facilities are not always aware of, or understand, the relevant domestic and international safeguards requirements, especially the latter as implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). To help commercial designer/builders better understand these requirements, a report was prepared by the Safeguards-by-Design Project Team that articulated and interpreted the international nuclear safeguards requirements for the initial case of uranium enrichment plants. The following paper summarizes the subject report, the specific requirements, where they originate, and the implications for design and construction. It also briefly summarizes the established best design and operating practices that designer/builder/operators have implemented for currently meeting these requirements. In preparing the subject report, it is recognized that the best practices are continually evolving as the designer/builder/operators and IAEA consider even more effective and efficient means for meeting the safeguards requirements and objectives.

  4. The photosynthetic and stomatal response of Medicago sativa cv. saranac to free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment (F.A.C.E.) and nitrogen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bridson, N.P.

    1996-08-01

    Plots of Medicago sativa cv. saranac were grown in the field at ambient (355 {mu}mol CO{sub 2} mol{sup -1} air) or elevated (600{mu}mol CO{sub 2} mol{sup -1} air) CO{sub 2} concentrations. High (200kg yr{sup -1}) or low (20kg yr{sup -1}) nitrogen levels were applied to two isogeneic lines, one able and one unable to use nitrogen fixing bacteria. Plants were in the second year of field growth. Exposure to elevated CO{sub 2} was via a Free-Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment System (FACE). Elevated CO{sub 2} increased diurnal assimilation by between 12% and 92%. Analysis of A/C{sub i} responses showed that effective nitrogen fertilisation was more important to rubisCO and RuBP activity than elevated CO{sub 2}. No acclimation was consistently observed. Leaves lower down the canopy were found to have lower Vc{sub max} and J{sub max} values, though age may be the cause of the latter effect. FACE conditions have only a small effect on these responses. There was some evidence found for the down-regulation of photosynthesis in the late afternoon. The FACE conditions had no affect on stomatal density but did increase epidermal cell density.

  5. Recent developments in the United States uranium enrichment enterprise

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Longenecker, J.R.

    1987-01-01

    In the near term, DOE is reducing production costs at the gaseous diffusion plants (GDPs), and we've made significant progress already. GDP production costs are expected to decline even further in the near future. DOE is also negotiating new power contracts for the GDPs. The new power contracts, capital improvements, and the use of more unfirm power should reduce our GDP average cost of production to about $60/SWU in the 1990s. Significant technical progress on the Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS) advanced enrichment technology has been made recently. The highlight has been a series of half-scale integrated enrichment experiments using the Laser Demonstration Facility and the Mars separator. We are also ready to initiate testing in the full-scale Separator Demonstration Facility, including a 100 hour run that will vaporize over 5 tons of uranium. DOE is developing plans to restructure the enterprise into a more businesslike entity. The key objective in 1987 is to work with Congress to advance the restructuring of the U.S. uranium enrichment enterprise, to assure its long term competitiveness. We hope to establish in law the charter, objectives, and goals for the restructured enterprise. DOE expects that the world price for enrichment services will continue to decrease in the future. There should be sufficient excess enrichment capacity in the future to assure that competition will be keen. Such a healthy, competitive, world enrichment market will be beneficial to both suppliers and consumers of uranium enrichment services. (J.P.N.)

  6. Stable-isotope-enrichment program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Newman, E.

    1982-01-01

    This paper has attempted to present a brief description of the production steps, from the selection and preparation of the initial feedstock to the recovery and distribution of the isotopically enriched materials. The facility suffers from the disadvantage of coping with utility and support systems that are rapidly becoming obsolescent and that the current operational level is insufficient to maintain sales inventory equilibrium. The electromagnetic isotope enrichment facility does, however, have the operational equipment and capability to almost triple the current production. This increased production can be achieved as rapidly as an expanded operational crew can be trained

  7. Effects of long-term (10 years) exposure to elevated CO2 and O3 on trembling Aspen carbon and nitrogen metabolism at the aspen FACE (Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment) study site

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rakesh Minocha; Stephanie Long; Subhash Minocha; Paula Marquardt; Neil Nelson; Mark. Kubiske

    2010-01-01

    This study was conducted at the Aspen Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experimental site, Rhinelander, WI, (USA). Since 1998, 12 experimental rings planted in 1997 underwent four different treatments: control; elevated CO2 (560 ppm); elevated O3 (1.5X ambient) and elevated CO2 (560 ppm) + O...

  8. Engaging Primary Students in Working Mathematically within a Virtual Enrichment Programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frid, Sandra

    2002-01-01

    Investigates student learning in a mathematics enrichment program offered via the Internet. Describes a course aimed at fostering students' capabilities to work like a mathematician. Examines students' correspondence and work for evidence of how students were working mathematically. Explains how to design both face-to-face and on-line teaching to…

  9. Use of enriched uranium in Canada's power reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dormuth, K.W.; Jackson, D.P.

    2011-01-01

    Recent trends in Canadian nuclear power reactor design and proposed development of nuclear power in Canada have indicated the possibility that Canada will break with its tradition of natural uranium fuelled systems, designed for superior neutron economy and, hence, superior uranium utilization. For instance, the Darlington B new reactor project procurement process included three reactor designs, all employing enriched fuel, although a natural uranium reactor design was included at a late stage in the ensuing environmental assessment for the project as an alternative technology. An evaluation of the alternative designs should include an assessment of the environmental implications through the entire fuel cycle, which unfortunately is not required by the environmental assessment process. Examples of comparative environmental implications of the reactor designs throughout the fuel cycle indicate the importance of these considerations when making a design selection. As Canada does not have enrichment capability, a move toward the use of enriched fuel would mean that Canada would be exporting natural uranium and buying back enriched uranium with value added. From a waste management perspective, Canada would need to deal with mill, refinery, and conversion tailings, as well as with the used fuel from its own reactors, while the enrichment supplier would retain depleted uranium with some commercial value. On the basis of reasoned estimates based on publicly available information, it is expected that enrichment in Canada is likely to be more profitable than exporting natural uranium and buying back enriched uranium. Further, on the basis of environmental assessments for enrichment facilities in other countries, it is expected that an environmental assessment of a properly sited enrichment facility would result in approval. (author)

  10. Natural phenomena hazards evaluation of equipment and piping of Gaseous Diffusion Plant Uranium Enrichment Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singhal, M.K.; Kincaid, J.H.; Hammond, C.R.; Stockdale, B.I.; Walls, J.C.

    1995-01-01

    In support of the Gaseous Diffusion Plant Safety Analysis Report Upgrade program (GDP SARUP), a natural phenomena hazards evaluation was performed for the main process equipment and piping in the uranium enrichment buildings at Paducah and Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plants. In order to reduce the cost of rigorous analyses, the evaluation methodology utilized a graded approach based on an experience data base collected by SQUG/EPRI that contains information on the performance of industrial equipment and piping during past earthquakes. This method consisted of a screening walkthrough of the facility in combination with the use of engineering judgment and simple calculations. By using these screenings combined with evaluations that contain decreasing conservatism, reductions in the time and cost of the analyses were significant. A team of experienced seismic engineers who were trained in the use of the DOE SQUG/EPRI Walkdown Screening Material was essential to the success of this natural phenomena hazards evaluation

  11. Natural phenomena hazards evaluation of equipment and piping of Gaseous Diffusion Plant Uranium Enrichment Facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Singhal, M.K.; Kincaid, J.H.; Hammond, C.R.; Stockdale, B.I.; Walls, J.C. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Technical Programs and Services; Brock, W.R.; Denton, D.R. [Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    1995-12-31

    In support of the Gaseous Diffusion Plant Safety Analysis Report Upgrade program (GDP SARUP), a natural phenomena hazards evaluation was performed for the main process equipment and piping in the uranium enrichment buildings at Paducah and Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plants. In order to reduce the cost of rigorous analyses, the evaluation methodology utilized a graded approach based on an experience data base collected by SQUG/EPRI that contains information on the performance of industrial equipment and piping during past earthquakes. This method consisted of a screening walkthrough of the facility in combination with the use of engineering judgment and simple calculations. By using these screenings combined with evaluations that contain decreasing conservatism, reductions in the time and cost of the analyses were significant. A team of experienced seismic engineers who were trained in the use of the DOE SQUG/EPRI Walkdown Screening Material was essential to the success of this natural phenomena hazards evaluation.

  12. Uranium enrichment: heading for a cliff

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Norman, C.

    1987-01-01

    Thanks to drastic cost cutting in the past 2 years, US enrichment plants now have the lowest cost production in the world, but US prices are still higher than those of overseas competitors because the business is paying for past mistakes. The most serious difficulty is that the Department of Energy (DOE), which owns and operates the US enrichment enterprise, is paying more than $500 million a year to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for electricity it once thought it would need but no longer requires. Another is that billions of dollars were spent in the 1970s and early 1980s to build new capacity that is now not needed. As a result, the enrichment enterprise has accumulated a debt to the US Treasury that the General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates at $8.8 billion. This paper presents the background and current debate in Congress about the difficulties facing the enrichment industry. In the midst of this debate over the future of the enterprise, the development of the next generation of enrichment technology is being placed in jeopardy. Known as atomic vapor laser isotope separation, or AVLIS, the process was viewed as the key to the long-term competitiveness of US enrichment. As the federal deficit mounted, however, funding for the AVLIS program was cut back and the timetable was stretched out. The US enrichment program has reached the point at which Congress will be forced to make some politically difficult decisions

  13. Status of the isotope enrichment program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tracy, J. G.

    1991-05-01

    The objectives of the isotope enrichment program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are to prepare and distribute electromagnetically separated stable isotopes to the research, medical and industrial communities on a worldwide basis. Topics discussed in this presentation include (1) a review of facility modifications, (2) current facility capabilities, (3) enrichment processes, and (4) final product distribution. An update on alternative separations methods to augment the electromagnetic separations process is covered, as well as special services that are available for providing custom materials to meet special applications. Recent changes in U.S. Department of Energy policy that impact the nation's isotope and isotope-related programs are summarized, with special emphasis on the effects on isotope enrichment, radioisotope production, target fabrication, pricing, and marketing and distribution of stable isotopes.

  14. Safeguards considerations for uranium enrichment facilities, as applied to gas centrifuge and gaseous diffusion facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-03-01

    The goals and objectives of IAEA safeguards as they are understood by the authors based on published documents are reviewed. These goals are then used to derive safeguards concerns, diversion strategies, and potential safeguards measures for four base cases, the production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) at a diffusion plant, the diversion of low enriched uranium (LEU) at a diffusion plant, the diversion of HEU at a gas centrifuge plant, and the diversion of LEU at a gas centrifuge plant. Tables of estimated capabilities are given for each case, under the assumption that the inspector would have access: to the cascade perimeter at or after the start of operations, to the cascade perimeter throughout construction and operation, to the cascade perimeter during operation plus a one-time access to the cascade itself, to the cascade during construction but only its perimeter during operation, or to the cascade itself during construction and operation

  15. 75 FR 62895 - Notice of Availability of Safety Evaluation Report; AREVA Enrichment Services LLC, Eagle Rock...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-13

    ... Evaluation Report; AREVA Enrichment Services LLC, Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, Bonneville County, ID... report. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Breeda Reilly, Senior Project Manager, Advanced Fuel Cycle, Enrichment, and Uranium Conversion, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material...

  16. Airborne effluent control at fuel enrichment, conversion, and fabrication plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mitchell, M.E.

    1976-01-01

    Uranium conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication facilities generate gaseous wastes that must be treated prior to being discharged to the atmosphere. Since all three process and/or handle similar compounds, they also encounter similar gaseous waste disposal problems, the majority of which are treated in a similar manner. Ventilation exhausts from personnel areas and equipment off-gases that do not contain corrosive gases (such as HF) are usually passed through roughening and/or HEPA filters prior to release. Ventilation exhausts that contain larger quantities of particles, such as the conversion facilities' U 3 O 8 sampling operation, are passed through bag filters or cyclone separators, while process off-gases containing corrosive materials are normally treated by sintered metal filters or scrubbers. The effectiveness of particle removal varies from about 90 percent for a scrubber alone to more than 99.9 percent for HEPA filters or a combination of the various filters and scrubbers. The removal of nitrogen compounds (N 2 , HNO 3 , NO/sub x/, and NH 3 ) is accomplished by scrubbers in the enrichment and fuel fabrication facilities. The conversion facility utilizes a nitric acid recovery facility for both pollution control and economic recovery of raw materials. Hydrogen removal from gaseous waste streams is generally achieved with burners. Three different systems are currently utilized by the conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication plants to remove gaseous fluorides from airborne effluents. The HF-rich streams, such as those emanating from the hydrofluorination and fluorine production operations of the conversion plant, are passed through condensers to recover aqueous hydrofluoric acid

  17. Telemedicine Versus Face-to-Face Evaluations by Respiratory Therapists of Mechanically Ventilated Neonates and Children: A Pilot Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Rebecca C; Yager, Phoebe H; Clark, Maureen E; Roumiantsev, Serguei; Venancio, Heather L; Chipman, Daniel W; Kacmarek, Robert M; Noviski, Natan N

    2016-02-01

    Mechanical ventilation is one of the most important therapeutic interventions in neonatal and pediatric ICUs. Telemedicine has been shown to reliably extend pediatric intensivist expertise to facilities where expertise is limited. If reliable, telemedicine may extend the reach of pediatric respiratory therapists (RTs) to facilities where expertise does not exist or free up existing RT resources for important face-to-face activities in facilities where expertise is limited. The aim of this study was to determine how well respiratory assessments for ventilated neonates and children correlated when performed simultaneously by 2 RTs face-to-face and via telemedicine. We conducted a pilot study including 40 assessments by 16 RTs on 11 subjects (5 neonatal ICU; 6 pediatric ICU). Anonymously completed intake forms by 2 different RTs concurrently assessing 14 ventilator-derived and patient-based respiratory variables were used to determine correlations. Forty paired assessments were performed. Median telemedicine assessment time was 8 min. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine agreement between continuous data, and the Cohen kappa statistics were used for binary variables. Pressure control, PEEP, breathing frequency, and FIO2 perfectly correlated (r = 1, all P Telemedicine technology was acceptable to RTs. Telemedicine evaluations highly correlated with face-to-face for 10 of 14 aspects of standard bedside respiratory assessment. Poor correlation was noted for more complex, patient-generated parameters, highlighting the importance of further investigation incorporating a virtual stethoscope. Copyright © 2016 by Daedalus Enterprises.

  18. Functional connectivity decreases in autism in emotion, self, and face circuits identified by Knowledge-based Enrichment Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Wei; Rolls, Edmund T; Zhang, Jie; Sheng, Wenbo; Ma, Liang; Wan, Lin; Luo, Qiang; Feng, Jianfeng

    2017-03-01

    A powerful new method is described called Knowledge based functional connectivity Enrichment Analysis (KEA) for interpreting resting state functional connectivity, using circuits that are functionally identified using search terms with the Neurosynth database. The method derives its power by focusing on neural circuits, sets of brain regions that share a common biological function, instead of trying to interpret single functional connectivity links. This provides a novel way of investigating how task- or function-related networks have resting state functional connectivity differences in different psychiatric states, provides a new way to bridge the gap between task and resting-state functional networks, and potentially helps to identify brain networks that might be treated. The method was applied to interpreting functional connectivity differences in autism. Functional connectivity decreases at the network circuit level in 394 patients with autism compared with 473 controls were found in networks involving the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, middle temporal gyrus cortex, and the precuneus, in networks that are implicated in the sense of self, face processing, and theory of mind. The decreases were correlated with symptom severity. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  19. Enrichment Assay Methods Development for the Integrated Cylinder Verification System

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Smith, Leon E.; Misner, Alex C.; Hatchell, Brian K.; Curtis, Michael M.

    2009-10-22

    International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors currently perform periodic inspections at uranium enrichment plants to verify UF6 cylinder enrichment declarations. Measurements are typically performed with handheld high-resolution sensors on a sampling of cylinders taken to be representative of the facility's entire product-cylinder inventory. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a concept to automate the verification of enrichment plant cylinders to enable 100 percent product-cylinder verification and potentially, mass-balance calculations on the facility as a whole (by also measuring feed and tails cylinders). The Integrated Cylinder Verification System (ICVS) could be located at key measurement points to positively identify each cylinder, measure its mass and enrichment, store the collected data in a secure database, and maintain continuity of knowledge on measured cylinders until IAEA inspector arrival. The three main objectives of this FY09 project are summarized here and described in more detail in the report: (1) Develop a preliminary design for a prototype NDA system, (2) Refine PNNL's MCNP models of the NDA system, and (3) Procure and test key pulse-processing components. Progress against these tasks to date, and next steps, are discussed.

  20. Enrichment Assay Methods Development for the Integrated Cylinder Verification System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, Leon E.; Misner, Alex C.; Hatchell, Brian K.; Curtis, Michael M.

    2009-01-01

    International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors currently perform periodic inspections at uranium enrichment plants to verify UF6 cylinder enrichment declarations. Measurements are typically performed with handheld high-resolution sensors on a sampling of cylinders taken to be representative of the facility's entire product-cylinder inventory. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a concept to automate the verification of enrichment plant cylinders to enable 100 percent product-cylinder verification and potentially, mass-balance calculations on the facility as a whole (by also measuring feed and tails cylinders). The Integrated Cylinder Verification System (ICVS) could be located at key measurement points to positively identify each cylinder, measure its mass and enrichment, store the collected data in a secure database, and maintain continuity of knowledge on measured cylinders until IAEA inspector arrival. The three main objectives of this FY09 project are summarized here and described in more detail in the report: (1) Develop a preliminary design for a prototype NDA system, (2) Refine PNNL's MCNP models of the NDA system, and (3) Procure and test key pulse-processing components. Progress against these tasks to date, and next steps, are discussed.

  1. Meta-analytic review of the development of face discrimination in infancy: Face race, face gender, infant age, and methodology moderate face discrimination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugden, Nicole A; Marquis, Alexandra R

    2017-11-01

    Infants show facility for discriminating between individual faces within hours of birth. Over the first year of life, infants' face discrimination shows continued improvement with familiar face types, such as own-race faces, but not with unfamiliar face types, like other-race faces. The goal of this meta-analytic review is to provide an effect size for infants' face discrimination ability overall, with own-race faces, and with other-race faces within the first year of life, how this differs with age, and how it is influenced by task methodology. Inclusion criteria were (a) infant participants aged 0 to 12 months, (b) completing a human own- or other-race face discrimination task, (c) with discrimination being determined by infant looking. Our analysis included 30 works (165 samples, 1,926 participants participated in 2,623 tasks). The effect size for infants' face discrimination was small, 6.53% greater than chance (i.e., equal looking to the novel and familiar). There was a significant difference in discrimination by race, overall (own-race, 8.18%; other-race, 3.18%) and between ages (own-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 7.32%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 9.17%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 7.68%; other-race: 0- to 4.5-month-olds, 6.12%; 5- to 7.5-month-olds, 3.70%; and 8- to 12-month-olds, 2.79%). Multilevel linear (mixed-effects) models were used to predict face discrimination; infants' capacity to discriminate faces is sensitive to face characteristics including race, gender, and emotion as well as the methods used, including task timing, coding method, and visual angle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. Limitations to soybean photosynthesis at elevated carbon dioxide in free-air enrichment and open top chamber systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunce, James A

    2014-09-01

    It has been suggested that the stimulation of soybean photosynthesis by elevated CO2 was less in free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) systems than in open top chambers (OTC), which might explain smaller yield increases at elevated CO2 in FACE systems. However, this has not been tested using the same cultivars grown in the same location. I tested whether soybean photosynthesis at high light and elevated CO2 (ambient+180 μmol mol(-1)) was limited by electron transport (J) in FACE systems but by ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylation capacity (VCmax) in OTC. FACE systems with daytime and continuous CO2 enrichment were also compared. The results indicated that in both cultivars examined, midday photosynthesis at high light was always limited by VCmax, both in the FACE and in the OTC systems. Daytime only CO2 enrichment did not affect photosynthetic parameters or limitations, but did result in significantly smaller yields in both cultivars than continuous elevation. Photosynthesis measured at low photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) was not higher at elevated than at ambient CO2, because of an acclimation to elevated CO2 which was only evident at low measurement PPFDs. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  3. Institutional arrangements for uranium enrichment U.S. contribution to INFCE working group 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-12-01

    In acquiring enrichment services, by contract or by facility construction, assurance of long term fuel supply and minimizing proliferation risks are two important factors. Various alternative institutional arrangements, ranging from construction of a national facility, reliance on a single foreign supplier or on several foreign sources, to multinational enrichment centers are reviewed. It is argued that for most nations the two specified goals are likely to be met by contracting with one or more foreign suppliers. The possible creation of an international fuel bank is explored briefly

  4. Multinational uranium enrichment in the Middle East

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmad, Ali; Salahieh, Sidra; Snyder, Ryan

    2017-01-01

    The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed to by Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015 placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program while other Middle Eastern countries– Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates–are planning to build their own nuclear power plants to meet increasing electricity demands. Although the JCPOA restricts Iran's uranium enrichment program for 10–15 years, Iran's neighbors may choose to develop their own national enrichment programs giving them a potential nuclear weapons capability. This paper argues that converting Iran's national enrichment program to a more proliferation-resistant multinational arrangement could offer significant economic benefits–reduced capital and operational costs–due to economies of scale and the utilization of more efficient enrichment technologies. In addition, the paper examines policy aspects related to financing, governance, and how multinational enrichment could fit into the political and security context of the Middle East. A multinational enrichment facility managed by regional and international partners would provide more assurance that it remains peaceful and could help build confidence between Iran and its neighbors to cooperate in managing other regional security challenges. - Highlights: • Freezing Iran's nuclear program is an opportunity to launch joint initiatives in ME. • A joint uranium enrichment program in the Middle East offers economic benefits. • Other benefits include improved nuclear security and transparency in the region.

  5. Measurement of 235U Enrichment Using the Semi-Peak-Ratio Technique with CdZnTe Gamma-Ray Detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ha, J. H.; Ko, W. I.; Lee, S. Y.; Song, D. Y.; Kim, H. D.; Yang, M. S.

    2001-01-01

    In uranium enrichment plants and nuclear fuel fabrication facilities, exact measurement of fissile isotope enrichment of Uranium is required for material accounting in international safeguards inspection as well as process quality control. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple measurement system which can portably be used at nuclear fuel fabrication plants especially dealing with low enriched uranium. For this purpose, a small size CZT (CdZnTe) detector was used, and the detector performance in low uranium gamma/X-rays energy range was investigated by use of various enriched uranium oxide samples. New enrichment measurement technique and analysis method for low enriched uranium oxide, so-called, 'semi-peak ratio technique' was developed. The newly developed method was considered as an alternative technique for the low enrichment and would be useful to account nuclear material in safeguarding activity at nuclear fuel fabrication facility

  6. Soil and water warming accelerates phenology and down-regulation of leaf photosynthesis of rice plants grown under free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adachi, Minaco; Hasegawa, Toshihiro; Fukayama, Hiroshi; Tokida, Takeshi; Sakai, Hidemitsu; Matsunami, Toshinori; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Sameshima, Ryoji; Okada, Masumi

    2014-02-01

    To enable prediction of future rice production in a changing climate, we need to understand the interactive effects of temperature and elevated [CO2] (E[CO2]). We therefore examined if the effect of E[CO2] on the light-saturated leaf photosynthetic rate (Asat) was affected by soil and water temperature (NT, normal; ET, elevated) under open-field conditions at the rice free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) facility in Shizukuishi, Japan, in 2007 and 2008. Season-long E[CO2] (+200 µmol mol(-1)) increased Asat by 26%, when averaged over two years, temperature regimes and growth stages. The effect of ET (+2°C) on Asat was not significant at active tillering and heading, but became negative and significant at mid-grain filling; Asat in E[CO2]-ET was higher than in ambient [CO2] (A[CO2])-NT by only 4%. Photosynthetic down-regulation at E[CO2] also became apparent at mid-grain filling; Asat compared at the same [CO2] in the leaf cuvette was significantly lower in plants grown in E[CO2] than in those grown in A[CO2]. The additive effects of E[CO2] and ET decreased Asat by 23% compared with that of A[CO2]-NT plants. Although total crop nitrogen (N) uptake was increased by ET, N allocation to the leaves and to Rubisco was reduced under ET and E[CO2] at mid-grain filling, which resulted in a significant decrease (32%) in the maximum rate of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylation on a leaf area basis. Because the change in N allocation was associated with the accelerated phenology in E[CO2]-ET plants, we conclude that soil and water warming accelerates photosynthetic down-regulation at E[CO2].

  7. Licensed fuel facility status report. Inventory difference data, January-June 1982

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-02-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  8. Improvements on a simple muscle-based 3D face for realistic facial expressions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bui, T.D.; Heylen, Dirk K.J.; Nijholt, Antinus; Badler, N.; Thalmann, D.

    2003-01-01

    Facial expressions play an important role in face-to-face communication. With the development of personal computers capable of rendering high quality graphics, computer facial animation has produced more and more realistic facial expressions to enrich human-computer communication. In this paper, we

  9. Advances in FACE and manipulation techniques

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Beier, Claus; Larsen, Klaus S.; Mikkelsen, Teis Nørgaard

    Experimental techniques to expose plants and ecosystems to elevated CO2 have been around for decades, starting out with branch cuvettes, chambers and green houses and in the 90ies leading to the development of the FACE (Free Air Carbon Enrichment) technique, which has been and still is widely used....... The FACE technique is used under field conditions and has been developed over the years to be applied for many types of ecosystems from low stature shrub, grass and arable lands to high stature forest trees. These experiments have provided extensive knowledge and data on CO2 effects on individual plants...

  10. Criteria for the safe storage of enriched uranium at the Y-12 Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cox, S.O.

    1995-07-01

    Uranium storage practices at US Department of Energy (DOE) facilities have evolved over a period spanning five decades of programmatic work in support of the nuclear deterrent mission. During this period, the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee has served as the principal enriched uranium facility for fabrication, chemical processing, metallurgical processing and storage. Recent curtailment of new nuclear weapons production and stockpile reduction has created significant amounts of enriched uranium available as a strategic resource which must be properly and safely stored. This standard specifies criteria associated with the safe storage of enriched uranium at the Y-12 Plant. Because programmatic needs, compliance regulations and desirable materials of construction change with time, it is recommended that these standards be reviewed and amended periodically to ensure that they continue to serve their intended purpose

  11. Theory of surface enrichment in disordered monophasic binary alloys. Numerical computations for Ag-Au alloys

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Santen, van R.A.; Boersma, M.A.M.

    1974-01-01

    The regular solution model is used to compute the surface enrichment in the (111)- and (100)-faces of silver-gold alloys. Surface enrichment by silver is predicted to increase if the surface plane becomes less saturated and decreases if one raises the temperature. The possible implications of these

  12. Exposure implications for uranium aerosols formed at a new laser enrichment facility: application of the ICRP Respiratory Tract and Systemic Model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ansorbolo, E.; Hodgson, A.; Stradling, G.N.; Hodgson, S.; Metivier, H.; Henge-Napoli, M.H.; Jarvis, N.S.; Birchall, A

    1998-07-01

    A pilot enrichment facility developed in France employs laser technology. The development of this process has resulted in three different types of aerosols identified as variable mixtures of U{sub metal}+ UO{sub 2} and U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. A procedure is described for assessing intakes and doses after inhalation of these dusts using site and material specific data in conjunction with the most recent ICRP biokinetic models. It is concluded that exposure control could be based on either radiotoxicity or chemical toxicity and that chest monitoring and urine assay could be useful, provided that measurements are made soon after a known acute intake. (author)

  13. Chances and challenges of forest scale CO2 enrichment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Körner, Christian

    2016-04-01

    Rising CO2 is changing the biosphere's diet. As with any dietary change, both amount and quality of food matter. Atmospheric CO2 enrichment is clearly providing a rather one-sided, C-rich diet. Hence, the reaiistic experimental simulation of its effect on the single biggest C reservoir of the biosphere, that is forest, requires experimental conditions that resemble exactly that situation. In the past, trees where most commonly exposed to elevated CO2 while provided with ample other constituents of a plant's diet (soil nutrients), yielding exaggerated growth stimulation, unlikely to reflect real world responses. So, by either selecting fertile soils, disturbing the system by fire or planting activities, offering ample soil space to isolated individuals or even adding fertilizer, almost any CO2-response can be 'designed'. The 'art' of designing future Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiments will be to avoid exactly these pitfalls. Plants can incorporate additional C only to the extent the provision of chemical elements other than C will permit, given the stoichiometry of life. Site selection (soil fertility), degree of canopy closure, recent disturbance regime or successional stage will influence CO2 effects. It is the fundamental dilemma in CO2-enrichment research that simple, homogenous, artificial test systems offer statistical power, while systems that account for 'naturalness' and species diversity do not. Any new FACE program needs to handle that tradeoff between precision and relevance. In this presentation I will advocate a pragmatic approach that will inevitably have to lean on individual tree responses, across a wide as possible range of neighborhoods, age and growth conditions, with the statistical power depending in obtaining the best possible pre-treatment traits and responses. By illustrating the results of 15 years of FACE with 30-40 m tall forest trees, I will caution against over-optimistic ecosystem scale approaches with just ONE technology

  14. A data transmission system for the centrifuge enrichment plant safeguards project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hesse, E.W.

    1987-04-01

    A novel data transmission system was developed to enable the Australian Safeguards Office (ASO) in Sydney to monitor remotely the running of an experimental enrichment facility at the Lucas Heights Reserch Laboratories, using Telecom telephone lines. The system allowed ASO to monitor the enrichment, flows and activity in sensitive areas of the plant by means of a master computer at ASO and a slave computer at Lucas Heights. The slave computer sent requested data and scanned video pictures to determine intrusive changes to the plant. Detailed descriptions of the transmission system and method of operation are given, together with an outline of experience obtained during a three-month surveillance of the facility

  15. On Line Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) UF6 Tests for 1.5" Sch40 SS Pipe, Revision 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    March-Leuba, José A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Garner, Jim [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Younkin, Jim [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Simmons, Darrell W. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2016-01-01

    As global uranium enrichment capacity under international safeguards expands, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is challenged to develop effective safeguards approaches at gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants while working within budgetary constraints. The “Model Safeguards Approach for Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants” (GCEPs) developed by the IAEA Division of Concepts and Planning in June 2006, defines the three primary Safeguards objectives to be the timely detection of: 1) diversion of significant quantities of natural (NU), depleted (DU) or low-enriched uranium (LEU) from declared plant flow, 2) facility misuse to produce undeclared LEU product from undeclared feed, and 3) facility misuse to produce enrichments higher than the declared maximum, in particular, highly enriched uranium (HEU). The ability to continuously and independently (i.e. with a minimum of information from the facility operator) monitor not only the uranium mass balance but also the 235U mass balance in the facility could help support all three verification objectives described above. Two key capabilities required to achieve an independent and accurate material balance are 1) continuous, unattended monitoring of in-process UF6 and 2) monitoring of cylinders entering and leaving the facility. The continuous monitoring of in-process UF6 would rely on a combination of load-cell monitoring of the cylinders at the feed and withdrawal stations, online monitoring of gas enrichment, and a high-accuracy net weight measurement of the cylinder contents. The Online Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) is the instrument that would continuously measure the time-dependent relative uranium enrichment, E(t), in weight percent 235U, of the gas filling or being withdrawn from the cylinders. The OLEM design concept combines gamma-ray spectrometry using a collimated NaI(Tl) detector with gas pressure and temperature data to calculate the enrichment of the UF6

  16. CENTAR gas centrifuge enrichment project: economics and engineering considerations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fishman, A.M.

    1977-01-01

    Description of some economic and engineering considerations of the CENTAR Associates' 3000000 SWU/yr gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant project. The need for uranium enrichment facilities is discussed, and the advantages of using the centrifuge process rather than the presently used gaseous diffusion process are reviewed. A description of the CENTAR plant is given, highlighting the major features of the facility. Since the centiruges to be used in the plant account for approximately 50% of the capital cost of the project, the philosophy of their manufacture and procurement is discussed. Various design considerations which bear upon process economics are presented to give the reader an appreciation of the subtleties of the technology and the flexibility possible in plant design. Special attention is given to meeting the needs of the utility customer at the lowest possible cost

  17. How is uranium supply affecting enrichment?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steve Kidd

    2007-01-01

    As a result of the enlivened uranium market, momentum has in turn picked up in the enrichment sector. What are the consequences of higher uranium prices? There is, of course, a link between uranium and enrichment supply to the extent that they are at least partial substitutes. On the enrichment supply side, the most obvious feature is the gradual replacement of the old gas diffusion facilities of Usec in the USA and EURODIF in France with more modern and economical centrifuge plants. Assuming Usec can overcome the financing and technical issues surrounding its plans, the last gas diffusion capacity should disappear around 2015 and the entire enrichment market should then be using centrifuges. On the commercial side, the key anticipated developments are mostly in Russia. Although there should still continue to be substantial quantities of surplus Russian HEU available for down blending in the period beyond 2013, it is now reasonable to expect that it will be mostly consumed by internal needs, to fuel Russian-origin reactors both at home and in export markets such as China and India. Finally, as a key sensitive area for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the enrichment sector is likely to be a central point of the new international arrangements which must be developed to support a buoyant nuclear sector throughout this century.

  18. Construction of new critical experiment facilities in JAERI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takeshita, Isao; Itahashi, Takayuki; Ogawa, Kazuhiko; Tonoike, Kotaro; Matsumura, Tatsuro; Miyoshi, Yoshinori; Nakajima, Ken; Izawa, Naoki

    1995-01-01

    Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) has promoted the experiment research program on criticality safety since early in 1980s and two types of new critical facilities, Static Experiment Critical Facility (STACY) and Transient Experiment Critical Facility (TRACY) were completed on 1994 in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Safety Engineering Research Facility (NUCEF) of JAERI Tokai Research Establishment. STACY was designed so as to obtain critical mass data of low enriched uranium and plutonium solution which is extensively handled in LWR fuel reprocessing plant. TRACY is the critical facility where critical accident phenomenon is demonstrated with low enriched uranium nitrate solution. For criticality safety experiments with both facilities, the Fuel Treatment System is attached to them, where composition and concentration of uranium and plutonium nitrate solutions are widely varied so as to obtain experiments data covering fuel solution conditions in reprocessing plant. Design performances of both critical facilities were confirmed through mock-up tests of important components and cold function tests. Hot function test has started since January of 1995 and some of the results on STACY are to be reported. (author)

  19. Oak Ridge National Laboratory's isotope enrichment program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tracy, J.G.; Aaron, W.C.

    1997-01-01

    The Isotope Enrichment Program (IEP) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is responsible for the production and distribution of ∼225 enriched stable isotopes from 50 multi-isotopic elements. In addition, ORNL distributes enriched actinide isotopes and provides extensive physical- and chemical-form processing of enriched isotopes to meet customer requirements. For more than 50 yr, ORNL has been a major provider of enriched isotopes and isotope-related services to research, medical, and industrial institutions throughout the world. Consolidation of the Isotope Distribution Office (IDO), the Isotope Research Materials Laboratory (IRML), and the stable isotope inventories in the Isotope Enrichment Facility (IEF) have improved operational efficiencies and customer services. Recent changes in the IEP have included adopting policies for long-term contracts, which offer program stability and pricing advantages for the customer, and prorated service charges, which greatly improve pricing to the small research users. The former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Program has been converted to a lease program, which makes large-quantity or very expensive isotopes available for nondestructive research at a nominal cost. Current efforts are being pursued to improve and expand the isotope separation capabilities as well as the extensive chemical- and physical-form processing that now exists. The IEF's quality management system is ISO 9002 registered and accredited in the United States, Canada, and Europe

  20. Quinone-Enriched Gold Nanoparticles in Bioelectrochemistry and Charge Storage

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wagner, Michal; Qvortrup, Katrine; Tanner, David Ackland

    for merging gold nanoparticles with resultant anthraquinones include one-pot microwave assisted synthesis or after-mixing of separately prepared gold nanoparticles with selected compounds. The quinone-enriched gold nanoparticles can be transferred onto different electrode surfaces, thus enabling facile...

  1. Feasibility of nondestructive assay measurements in uranium enrichment plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Walton, R.B.

    1978-04-01

    Applications of nondestructive assay methods to measurement problems in uranium enrichment facilities are reviewed. The results of a number of test and evaluation projects that were performed over the last decade at ORGDP and Portsmouth are presented. Measurements of the residual holdup in the top enrichment portion of the shut-down K-25 cascade were made with portable neutron and gamma-ray detectors, and inventory estimates based on these data were in good agreement with ORGDP estimates. In the operating cascade, the tests showed that portable NaI detectors are effective for monitoring NaF and alumina media for gaseous effluent traps and that gas phase enrichments and inventories, as well as large deposits of uranium, can be detected with portable neutron and gamma-ray instrumentation. A wide variety of scrap and waste materials, including barrier and compressor blades, incinerator ash and trapping media, and miscellaneous waste, were measured using passive gamma-ray and neutron methods and 14-MeV neutron interrogation. Methods developed for rapid verification of UF/sub 6/ in shipping containers with portable neutron and gamma-ray instruments are now used routinely by safeguards inspectors. Passive assay methods can also be used to measure continuously the enrichments of /sup 235/U and /sup 234/U in the UF/sub 6/ product and tails withdrawals of a gaseous diffusion plant. A system that was developed and installed in the extended-range product withdrawal station of the Portsmouth facility measures enrichment with a relative accuracy of 0.5%. A stand-alone neutron detector has also been successfully evaluated for the measurement of the isotopic abundance of /sup 234/U in UF/sub 6/ in sample cylinders, an application of potential importance to Minor Isotope Safeguards Technology. Recommendations are made on the role of NDA measurements for enrichment plant safeguards, including additional tests and evaluations that may be needed, particularly for advanced uranium

  2. Two-faces stationary irradiation method and dosimetric considerations for radiation processing at the multipurpose gamma irradiation facility / IPEN-CNEN

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santos, Paulo S.; Vasquez, Pablo A.S.

    2015-01-01

    Over the last ten years, the Multipurpose Gamma Irradiation Facility of the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute - IPEN/CNEN located inside the Sao Paulo University campus has been providing services on radiation processing, especially for sterilization of health care and disposable medical products as well as support to research studies on modification of physical, chemical and biological properties of several materials. Placed at the same campus operates an extremely important radiopharmaceutical production facility when almost all disposable supplies used to produce medical products as the technetium-99m are continuously sterilized by gamma radiation. Many university biomedical research laboratories specially those working with equipment for cell cultures and vaccine production also make use of the gamma sterilization. Animal feed and shavings used by certified bioteries are routinely disinfected. Alternative underwater irradiation methods were developed to meet the demand of gemstone color enhancement. Human tissues including bone, skin, amniotic membranes, tendons, and cartilage belonging to National Banks are usually irradiated too. Different kind of polymers, hydrogels, foods as well native fruits, have been irradiated in this facility. Cultural heritage objects as books, paintings and furniture are disinfected routinely by gamma radiation. The success of the implementation of radiation processing in this facility is due to research and development of irradiation and dosimetry methods suitable for each condition. In this work are presented some considerations about the distribution dose and the two-faces stationary irradiation method developed and validated for this facility. (author)

  3. Two-faces stationary irradiation method and dosimetric considerations for radiation processing at the multipurpose gamma irradiation facility / IPEN-CNEN

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Santos, Paulo S.; Vasquez, Pablo A.S., E-mail: psantos@ipen.br, E-mail: pavsalva@ipen.br [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

    2015-07-01

    Over the last ten years, the Multipurpose Gamma Irradiation Facility of the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute - IPEN/CNEN located inside the Sao Paulo University campus has been providing services on radiation processing, especially for sterilization of health care and disposable medical products as well as support to research studies on modification of physical, chemical and biological properties of several materials. Placed at the same campus operates an extremely important radiopharmaceutical production facility when almost all disposable supplies used to produce medical products as the technetium-99m are continuously sterilized by gamma radiation. Many university biomedical research laboratories specially those working with equipment for cell cultures and vaccine production also make use of the gamma sterilization. Animal feed and shavings used by certified bioteries are routinely disinfected. Alternative underwater irradiation methods were developed to meet the demand of gemstone color enhancement. Human tissues including bone, skin, amniotic membranes, tendons, and cartilage belonging to National Banks are usually irradiated too. Different kind of polymers, hydrogels, foods as well native fruits, have been irradiated in this facility. Cultural heritage objects as books, paintings and furniture are disinfected routinely by gamma radiation. The success of the implementation of radiation processing in this facility is due to research and development of irradiation and dosimetry methods suitable for each condition. In this work are presented some considerations about the distribution dose and the two-faces stationary irradiation method developed and validated for this facility. (author)

  4. Safety Evaluation Report for the Claiborne Enrichment Center, Homer, Louisiana (Docket No. 70-3070)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1994-01-01

    This report documents the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff review and safety evaluation of the Louisiana Energy Services, L.P. (LES, the applicant) application for a license to possess and use byproduct, source, and special nuclear material and to enrich natural uranium to a maximum of 5 percent U-235 by the gas centrifuge process. The plant, to be known as the Claiborne Enrichment Center (CEC), would be constructed near the town of Homer in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. At full production in a given year, the plant will receive approximately 4,700 tonnes of feed UF{sub 6} and produce 870 tonnes of low-enriched UF{sub 6}, and 3,830 tonnes of depleted UF{sub 6} tails. Facility construction, operation, and decommissioning are expected to last 5, 30, and 7 years, respectively. The objective of the review is to evaluate the potential adverse impacts of operation of the facility on worker and public health and safety under both normal operating and accident conditions. The review also considers the management organization, administrative programs, and financial qualifications provided to assure safe design and operation of the facility. The NRC staff concludes that the applicant`s descriptions, specifications, and analyses provide an adequate basis for safety review of facility operations and that construction and operation of the facility does not pose an undue risk to public health and safety.

  5. Safety Evaluation Report for the Claiborne Enrichment Center, Homer, Louisiana (Docket No. 70-3070)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-01-01

    This report documents the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff review and safety evaluation of the Louisiana Energy Services, L.P. (LES, the applicant) application for a license to possess and use byproduct, source, and special nuclear material and to enrich natural uranium to a maximum of 5 percent U-235 by the gas centrifuge process. The plant, to be known as the Claiborne Enrichment Center (CEC), would be constructed near the town of Homer in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. At full production in a given year, the plant will receive approximately 4,700 tonnes of feed UF 6 and produce 870 tonnes of low-enriched UF 6 , and 3,830 tonnes of depleted UF 6 tails. Facility construction, operation, and decommissioning are expected to last 5, 30, and 7 years, respectively. The objective of the review is to evaluate the potential adverse impacts of operation of the facility on worker and public health and safety under both normal operating and accident conditions. The review also considers the management organization, administrative programs, and financial qualifications provided to assure safe design and operation of the facility. The NRC staff concludes that the applicant's descriptions, specifications, and analyses provide an adequate basis for safety review of facility operations and that construction and operation of the facility does not pose an undue risk to public health and safety

  6. Preamble to the questionnaire designed to obtain technical, economic and safeguard information of the different enrichment techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-04-01

    A summary of the present status regarding development and application of enrichment technologies, information related to specific enrichment facilities, economic and financial considerations, marketing considerations, safeguards and non-proliferation data are presented

  7. Licensed-fuel-facility status report: inventory difference data, July 1981-December 1981

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-10-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  8. Licensed fuel facility status report: Inventory difference data, January 1986-June 1986

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-02-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  9. Licensed fuel facility status report: Inventory difference data, January 1987-June 1987

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-03-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  10. Licensed fuel facility status report: Inventory difference data, July 1987-December 1987

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-09-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  11. Mixed enrichment core design for the NC State University PULSTAR Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mayo, C.W.; Verghese, K.; Huo, Y.G.

    1997-12-01

    The North Carolina State University PULSTAR Reactor license was renewed for an additional 20 years of operation on April 30, 1997. The relicensing period added additional years to the facility operating time through the end of the second license period, increasing the excess reactivity needs as projected in 1988. In 1995, the Nuclear Reactor Program developed a strategic plan that addressed the future maintenance, development, and utilization of the facility. Goals resulting from this plan included increased academic utilization of the facility in accordance with its role as a university research facility, and increased industrial service use in accordance with the mission of a land grant university. The strategic plan was accepted, and it is the intent of the College of Engineering to operate the PULSTAR Reactor as a going concern through at least the end of the current license period. In order to reach the next relicensing review without prejudice due to low excess reactivity, it is desired to maintain sufficient excess reactivity so that, if relicensed again, the facility could continue to operate without affecting users until new fuel assistance was provided. During the NC State University license renewal, the operation of the PULSTAR Reactor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) was terminated. At that time, the SUNY Buffalo facility had about 240 unused PULSTAR Reactor fuel pins with 6% enrichment. The objective of the work reported here was to develop a mixed enrichment core design for the NC State University PULSTAR reactor which would: (1) demonstrate that 6% enriched SUNY buffalo fuel could be used in the NC State University PULSTAR Reactor within the existing technical specification safety limits for core physics parameters; (2) show that use of this fuel could permit operating the NC State University PULSTAR Reactor to 2017 with increased utilization; and (3) assure that the decision whether or not to relicense the facility would

  12. Facile and easily popularized synthesis of L-cysteine-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles based on one-step functionalization for highly efficient enrichment of glycopeptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Xiaoyan; Deng, Chunhui; Gao, Mingxia; Zhang, Xiangmin

    2018-01-01

    Protein glycosylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications. Also, efficient enrichment and separation of glycopeptides from complex samples are crucial for the thorough analysis of glycosylation. Developing novel hydrophilic materials with facile and easily popularized synthesis is an urgent need in large-scale glycoproteomics research. Herein, for the first time, a one-step functionalization strategy based on metal-organic coordination was proposed and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles were directly functionalized with zwitterionic hydrophilic L-cysteine (L-Cys), greatly simplifying the synthetic procedure. The easily synthesized Fe 3 O 4 /L-Cys possessed excellent hydrophilicity and brief composition, contributing to affinity for glycopeptides and reduction in nonspecific interaction. Thus, Fe 3 O 4 /L-Cys nanoparticles showed outstanding sensitivity (25 amol/μL), high selectivity (mixture of bovine serum albumin and horseradish peroxidase tryptic digests at a mass ratio of 100:1), good reusability (five repeated times), and stability (room temperature storage of 1 month). Encouragingly, in the glycosylation analysis of human serum, a total of 376 glycopeptides with 393 N-glycosylation sites corresponding to 118 glycoproteins were identified after enrichment with Fe 3 O 4 /L-Cys, which was superior to ever reported L-Cys modified magnetic materials. Furthermore, applying the one-step functionalization strategy, cysteamine and glutathione respectively direct-functionalized Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and also achieved efficient glycopeptide enrichment in human serum. The results indicated that we have presented an efficient and easily popularized strategy in glycoproteomics as well as in the synthesis of novel materials. Graphical abstract Fe 3 O 4 /L-Cys nanoparticles based on one-step functionalization for highly efficient enrichment of glycopeptides.

  13. Linear accelerator fuel enricher regenerator (LAFER) and fission product transmutor (APEX)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steinberg, M.; Powell, J.R.; Takahashi, H.; Grand, P.; Kouts, H.J.C.

    1979-01-01

    In addition to safety, two other major problems face the nuclear industry today; first is the long-term supply of fissle material and second is the disposal of long-lived fission product waste. The higher energy proton linear accelerator can assist in the solution of each of these problems. High energy protons from the linear accelerator interact with a molten lead target to produce spallation and evaporation neutrons. The neutrons are absorbed in a surrounding blanket of light water power reactor (LWR) fuel elements to produce fissile Pu-239 or U-233 fuel from natural fertile U-238 or Th-232 contained in the elements. The fissile enriched fuel element is used in the LWR power reactor until its reactivity is reduced after which the element is regenerated in the linear accelerator target/blanket assembly and then the element is once again burned (fissioned) in the power LWR. In this manner the natural uranium fuel resource can supply an expanding nuclear power reactor economy without the need for fuel reprocessing, thus satisfying the US policy of non-proliferation. In addition, the quantity of spent fuel elements for long-term disposal is reduced in proportion to the number of fuel regeneration cycles through the accelerator. The limiting factor for in-situ regeneration is the burnup damage to the fuel cladding material. A 300 ma-1.5 GeV (450 MW) proton linear accelerator can produce approximately one ton of fissile (Pu-239) material annually which is enough to supply fuel to three 1000 MW(e) LWR power reactors. With two cycles of enriching and regenerating, the nuclear fuel natural resource can be stretched by a factor of 3.6 compared to present fuel cycle practice without the need for reprocessing. Furthermore, the need for isotopic enrichment facilities is drastically reduced

  14. Reduced enrichment for research and test reactors: Proceedings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1988-05-01

    The international effort to develop new research reactor fuel materials and designs based on the use of low-enriched uranium, instead of highly-enriched uranium, has made much progress during the eight years since its inception. To foster direct communication and exchange of ideas among the specialist in this area, the Reduced Enrichment Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) Program, at the Argonne National Laboratory, sponsored this meeting as the ninth of a series which began in 1978. All previous meetings of this series are listed on the facing page. The focus of this meeting was on the LEU fuel demonstration which was in progress at the Oak Ridge Research (ORR) reactor, not far from where the meeting was held. The visit to the ORR, where a silicide LEU fuel with 4.8 g A/cm/sup 3/ was by then in routine use, illustrated how far work has progressed.

  15. Reduced enrichment for research and test reactors: Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-05-01

    The international effort to develop new research reactor fuel materials and designs based on the use of low-enriched uranium, instead of highly-enriched uranium, has made much progress during the eight years since its inception. To foster direct communication and exchange of ideas among the specialist in this area, the Reduced Enrichment Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) Program, at the Argonne National Laboratory, sponsored this meeting as the ninth of a series which began in 1978. All previous meetings of this series are listed on the facing page. The focus of this meeting was on the LEU fuel demonstration which was in progress at the Oak Ridge Research (ORR) reactor, not far from where the meeting was held. The visit to the ORR, where a silicide LEU fuel with 4.8 g A/cm 3 was by then in routine use, illustrated how far work has progressed

  16. Office of Environmental Management Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund financial statements, September 30, 1995 and 1994

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1996-02-21

    The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Act) requires the Department of Energy to retain ownership and responsibility for the costs of environmental cleanup resulting from the Government`s operation of the three gaseous diffusion facilities located at the K-25 site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; and Portsmouth, Ohio. The Act transferred the uranium enrichment enterprise to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) as of July 1, 1993, and established the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund (D&D Fund) to: Pay for the costs of decontamination and decommissioning at the diffusion facilities; pay the annual costs for remedial action at the diffusion facilities to the extent that the amount in the Fund is sufficient; and reimburse uranium/thorium licensees for the costs of decontamination, decommissioning, reclamation, and other remedial actions which are incident to sales to the Government.

  17. Certification of U.S. instrumentation in Russian nuclear processing facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Powell, D.H.; Sumner, J.N.

    2000-01-01

    Agreements between the United States (U.S.) and the Russian Federation (R.F.) require the down-blending of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from dismantled Russian Federation nuclear weapons. The Blend Down Monitoring System (BDMS) was jointly developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to continuously monitor the enrichments and flow rates in the HEU blending operations at the R.F. facilities. A significant requirement of the implementation of the BDMS equipment in R.F. facilities concerned the certification of the BDMS equipment for use in a Russian nuclear facility. This paper discusses the certification of the BDMS for installation in R.F. facilities, and summarizes the lessons learned from the process that can be applied to the installation of other U.S. equipment in Russian nuclear facilities

  18. HRP facility for fabrication of ITER vertical target divertor full scale plasma facing units

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Visca, Eliseo; Roccella, S.; Candura, D.; Palermo, M.; Rossi, P.; Pizzuto, A.; Sanguinetti, G.P.; Mancini, A.; Verdini, L.; Cacciotti, E.; Cerri, V.; Mugnaini, G.; Reale, A.; Giacomi, G.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • R&D activities for the manufacturing of ITER divertor high heat flux plasma-facing components (HHFC). • ENEA and Ansaldo have jointly manufactured several actively cooled monoblock mock-ups and prototypical components. • ENEA and ANSALDO NUCLEARE jointly participate to the European program for the qualification of the manufacturing technology for the ITER divertor IVT. • Successful manufacturing by HRP (Hot Radial Pressing) of first full-scale full-W armored IVT qualification prototype. - Abstract: ENEA and Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A. (ANN) have being deeply involved in the European development activities for the manufacturing of the ITER Divertor Inner Vertical Target (IVT) plasma-facing components. During normal operation the heat flux deposited on the bottom segment of divertor is 5–10 MW/m 2 but the capability to remove up to 20 MW/m 2 during transient events of 10 s must also be demonstrated. In order to fulfill ITER requirements, ENEA has set up and widely tested a manufacturing process, named Hot Radial Pressing (HRP). The last challenge is now to fabricate full-scale prototypes of the IVT, aimed to be qualified for the next step, i.e. the series production. On the basis of the experience of manufacturing hundreds of small mock-ups, ENEA designed and installed a new suitable HRP facility. The objective of getting a final shaped plasma facing unit (PFU) that satisfies these requirements is an ambitious target because tolerances set by ITER/F4E are very tight. The setting-up of the equipment started with the fabrication of full scale and representative ‘dummies’ in which stainless steel instead of CFC or W was used for monoblocks. The results confirmed that dimensions were compliant with the required tolerances. The paper reports a brief description of the innovative HRP equipment and the dimensional check results after HRP of the first full-scale full-W PFU.

  19. HRP facility for fabrication of ITER vertical target divertor full scale plasma facing units

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Visca, Eliseo, E-mail: eliseo.visca@enea.it [Unità Tecnica Fusione, ENEA C. R. Frascati, via E. Fermi 45, IT-00044 Frascati (Roma) (Italy); Roccella, S. [Unità Tecnica Fusione, ENEA C. R. Frascati, via E. Fermi 45, IT-00044 Frascati (Roma) (Italy); Candura, D.; Palermo, M. [Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A., Corso Perrone 25, IT-16152 Genova (Italy); Rossi, P.; Pizzuto, A. [Unità Tecnica Fusione, ENEA C. R. Frascati, via E. Fermi 45, IT-00044 Frascati (Roma) (Italy); Sanguinetti, G.P. [Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A., Corso Perrone 25, IT-16152 Genova (Italy); Mancini, A.; Verdini, L.; Cacciotti, E.; Cerri, V.; Mugnaini, G.; Reale, A.; Giacomi, G. [Unità Tecnica Fusione, ENEA C. R. Frascati, via E. Fermi 45, IT-00044 Frascati (Roma) (Italy)

    2015-10-15

    Highlights: • R&D activities for the manufacturing of ITER divertor high heat flux plasma-facing components (HHFC). • ENEA and Ansaldo have jointly manufactured several actively cooled monoblock mock-ups and prototypical components. • ENEA and ANSALDO NUCLEARE jointly participate to the European program for the qualification of the manufacturing technology for the ITER divertor IVT. • Successful manufacturing by HRP (Hot Radial Pressing) of first full-scale full-W armored IVT qualification prototype. - Abstract: ENEA and Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A. (ANN) have being deeply involved in the European development activities for the manufacturing of the ITER Divertor Inner Vertical Target (IVT) plasma-facing components. During normal operation the heat flux deposited on the bottom segment of divertor is 5–10 MW/m{sup 2} but the capability to remove up to 20 MW/m{sup 2} during transient events of 10 s must also be demonstrated. In order to fulfill ITER requirements, ENEA has set up and widely tested a manufacturing process, named Hot Radial Pressing (HRP). The last challenge is now to fabricate full-scale prototypes of the IVT, aimed to be qualified for the next step, i.e. the series production. On the basis of the experience of manufacturing hundreds of small mock-ups, ENEA designed and installed a new suitable HRP facility. The objective of getting a final shaped plasma facing unit (PFU) that satisfies these requirements is an ambitious target because tolerances set by ITER/F4E are very tight. The setting-up of the equipment started with the fabrication of full scale and representative ‘dummies’ in which stainless steel instead of CFC or W was used for monoblocks. The results confirmed that dimensions were compliant with the required tolerances. The paper reports a brief description of the innovative HRP equipment and the dimensional check results after HRP of the first full-scale full-W PFU.

  20. International safeguards at the feed and withdrawal area of a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gordon, D.M.; Sanborn, J.B.

    1980-01-01

    This paper discusses the application of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards at a model gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant designed for the production of low-enriched uranium; particular emphasis is placed upon the verification by the IAEA of the facility material balance accounting. 13 refs

  1. Accident Analyses for Conversion of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) from Highly-Enriched to Low-Enriched Uranium

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stillman, J. A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Feldman, E. E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Jaluvka, D. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Wilson, E. H. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Foyto, L. P. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States); Kutikkad, K. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States); McKibben, J. C. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States); Peters, N. J. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)

    2017-02-01

    This report contains the results of reactor accident analyses for the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). The calculations were performed as part of the conversion from the use of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to the use of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The analyses were performed by staff members in the Research and Test Reactor Department at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the MURR Facility. MURR LEU conversion is part of an overall effort to develop and qualify high-density fuel within the U.S. High Performance Research Reactor Conversion (USHPRR) program conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Material Management and Minimization (M3).

  2. Comments by the delegation of Japan on the American paper entitled 'institutional arrangements for uranium enrichment'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-02-01

    It is argued that surplus global enrichment capacity through at least 1990, as suggested in CC/WG.2/11, may or may not exist, and to some extent may be necessary as an assurance of supply. CC/WG.2/11 also gives insufficient attention to the relation between national enrichment facilities and assurance of supply. The creation of multi-national enrichment enterprises may contribute to the spread of sensitive enrichment technology, a point which is explored more fully in CC/WG.2/9

  3. Facility for electrochemical dissolution of rejected fuel elements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deniskin, V.P.; Filatov, O.N.; Konovalov, E.A.; Kolesnikov, B.P.; Bukharin, A.D.

    2003-01-01

    A facility for electrochemical dissolution of rejected fuel elements with the stainless steel can and uranium of 90% enrichment is described. The start-adjustment works and trial-commercial tests of the facility are carried out. A s a result its technological parameters are determined [ru

  4. 77 FR 55800 - Foreign-Trade Zone 242-Boundary County, ID; Application for Subzone AREVA Enrichment Services...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-09-11

    ... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Foreign-Trade Zones Board [B-68-2012] Foreign-Trade Zone 242--Boundary County, ID; Application for Subzone AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC; Bonneville County, ID An application... FTZ 242, requesting special-purpose subzone status for the facility of AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC...

  5. Ti-doped isotropic graphite: A promising armour material for plasma-facing components

    Science.gov (United States)

    García-Rosales, C.; López-Galilea, I.; Ordás, N.; Adelhelm, C.; Balden, M.; Pintsuk, G.; Grattarola, M.; Gualco, C.

    2009-04-01

    Finely dispersed Ti-doped isotropic graphites with 4 at.% Ti have been manufactured using synthetic mesophase pitch 'AR' as raw material. These new materials show a thermal conductivity at room temperature of ˜200 W/mK and flexural strength close to 100 MPa. Measurement of the total erosion yield by deuterium bombardment at ion energies and sample temperatures for which pure carbon shows maximum values, resulted in a reduction of at least a factor of 4, mainly due to dopant enrichment at the surface caused by preferential erosion of carbon. In addition, ITER relevant thermal shock loads were applied with an energetic electron beam at the JUDITH facility. The results demonstrated a significantly improved performance of Ti-doped graphite compared to pure graphite. Finally, Ti-doped graphite was successfully brazed to a CuCrZr block using a Mo interlayer. These results let assume that Ti-doped graphite can be a promising armour material for divertor plasma-facing components.

  6. Ti-doped isotropic graphite: A promising armour material for plasma-facing components

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garcia-Rosales, C. [CEIT and Tecnun (University of Navarra), Paseo de Manuel Lardizabal, 15, E-20018 San Sebastian (Spain)], E-mail: cgrosales@ceit.es; Lopez-Galilea, I.; Ordas, N. [CEIT and Tecnun (University of Navarra), Paseo de Manuel Lardizabal, 15, E-20018 San Sebastian (Spain); Adelhelm, C.; Balden, M. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, D-85748 Garching (Germany); Pintsuk, G. [Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, EURATOM Association, D-52425 Juelich (Germany); Grattarola, M.; Gualco, C. [Ansaldo Ricerche S.p.A., I-16152 Genoa (Italy)

    2009-04-30

    Finely dispersed Ti-doped isotropic graphites with 4 at.% Ti have been manufactured using synthetic mesophase pitch 'AR' as raw material. These new materials show a thermal conductivity at room temperature of {approx}200 W/mK and flexural strength close to 100 MPa. Measurement of the total erosion yield by deuterium bombardment at ion energies and sample temperatures for which pure carbon shows maximum values, resulted in a reduction of at least a factor of 4, mainly due to dopant enrichment at the surface caused by preferential erosion of carbon. In addition, ITER relevant thermal shock loads were applied with an energetic electron beam at the JUDITH facility. The results demonstrated a significantly improved performance of Ti-doped graphite compared to pure graphite. Finally, Ti-doped graphite was successfully brazed to a CuCrZr block using a Mo interlayer. These results let assume that Ti-doped graphite can be a promising armour material for divertor plasma-facing components.

  7. Ti-doped isotropic graphite: A promising armour material for plasma-facing components

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia-Rosales, C.; Lopez-Galilea, I.; Ordas, N.; Adelhelm, C.; Balden, M.; Pintsuk, G.; Grattarola, M.; Gualco, C.

    2009-01-01

    Finely dispersed Ti-doped isotropic graphites with 4 at.% Ti have been manufactured using synthetic mesophase pitch 'AR' as raw material. These new materials show a thermal conductivity at room temperature of ∼200 W/mK and flexural strength close to 100 MPa. Measurement of the total erosion yield by deuterium bombardment at ion energies and sample temperatures for which pure carbon shows maximum values, resulted in a reduction of at least a factor of 4, mainly due to dopant enrichment at the surface caused by preferential erosion of carbon. In addition, ITER relevant thermal shock loads were applied with an energetic electron beam at the JUDITH facility. The results demonstrated a significantly improved performance of Ti-doped graphite compared to pure graphite. Finally, Ti-doped graphite was successfully brazed to a CuCrZr block using a Mo interlayer. These results let assume that Ti-doped graphite can be a promising armour material for divertor plasma-facing components.

  8. GrayQbTM Single-Faced Version 2 (SF2) Hanford Plutonium Reclamation Facility (PRF) deployment report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Plummer, J. R. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States); Immel, D. M. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States); Serrato, M. G. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States); Dalmaso, M. J. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States); Shull, D. J. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)

    2015-11-18

    The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in partnership with CH2M Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) deployed the GrayQbTM SF2 radiation imaging device at the Hanford Plutonium Reclamation Facility (PRF) to assist in the radiological characterization of the canyon. The deployment goal was to locate radiological contamination hot spots in the PRF canyon, where pencil tanks were removed and decontamination/debris removal operations are on-going, to support the CHPRC facility decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) effort. The PRF canyon D&D effort supports completion of the CHPRC Plutonium Finishing Plant Decommissioning Project. The GrayQbTM SF2 (Single Faced Version 2) is a non-destructive examination device developed by SRNL to generate radiation contour maps showing source locations and relative radiological levels present in the area under examination. The Hanford PRF GrayQbTM Deployment was sponsored by CH2M Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) through the DOE Richland Operations Office, Inter-Entity Work Order (IEWO), DOE-RL IEWO- M0SR900210.

  9. Technical basis in support of the conversion of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) core from highly-enriched to low-enriched uranium - core neutron physics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stillman, J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Feldman, E. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Columbia Research Reactor; Foyto, L [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Columbia Research Reactor; Kutikkad, K [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Columbia Research Reactor; McKibben, J C [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Columbia Research Reactor; Peters, N. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Columbia Research Reactor; Stevens, J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

    2012-09-01

    This report contains the results of reactor design and performance for conversion of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) from the use of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to the use of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The analyses were performed by staff members of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) Reactor Conversion Program at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the MURR Facility. The core conversion to LEU is being performed with financial support of the U. S. government.

  10. Characteristics of problem drinkers in e-therapy versus face-to-face treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Postel, Marloes G; de Haan, Hein A; Ter Huurne, Elke D; Becker, Eni S; de Jong, Cor A J

    2011-11-01

    The availability of online treatment programs offers the potential to reach more problem drinkers. This study compared the client populations of an e-therapy program (asynchronous client-therapist communication via the Internet) and a face-to-face treatment program. To determine whether e-therapy and face-to-face groups differed from each other and changed over time. We compared the baseline characteristics of four naturalistic groups (N = 4593): two e-therapy groups (2005-2006 and 2008-2009) and two consecutive series of ambulant face-to-face clients admitted for treatment as usual. The characteristics we were interested in were gender, age, education level, working situation, and earlier treatment for drinking problems. The results showed that the baseline characteristics of e-therapy and face-to-face clients differed by gender, education level, work situation, prior alcohol treatment, and age. We also found that both e-therapy groups differed over time by gender, work situation, and prior alcohol treatment. The e-therapy program successfully attracted clients who were different from those who were represented in regular face-to-face alcohol treatment services. This indicates that e-therapy decreases the barriers to treatment facilities and enhances the accessibility. However, the e-therapy population changed over time. Although the e-therapy program still reached an important new group of clients in 2008-2009, this group showed more overlap with the traditional face-to-face group of clients probably as a result of improved acceptance of e-therapy in the general population. Although e-therapy seems to be better accepted in the general population, anonymous treatment seems necessary to reach a broader range of problem drinkers.

  11. Some technical aspects of the nuclear material accounting and control at nuclear fuel cycle facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, O.A.; Babaev, N.S.; Gryazev, V.M.; Gadzhiev, G.I.; Gabeskiriya, V.Ya.

    1977-01-01

    The possibilities of nuclear material accounting and control are discussed at nuclear facilities of fuel cycle (WWER-type reactor, fuel fabrication plant, reprocessing plant and uranium enrichment facility) and zero energy fast reactor facility. It is shown that for nuclear material control the main method is the accounting with the application isotopic correlations at the reprocessing plant and enrichment facility. Possibilities and limitations of the application of destructive and non-destructive methods are discussed for nuclear material determinations at fuel facilities and their role in the accounting and safeguards systems as well as possibilities of the application of neutron method at a zero energy fast reactor facility [ru

  12. Licensed-fuel-facility status report, inventory difference data January 1981-June 1981

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-07-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic release of inventory difference data from the licensed fuel facilities after the agency has had an opportunity to review the data and has performed any related investigations associated with the data. Information included in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  13. Licensed fuel facility status report: Inventory difference data, July 1, 1990--June 30, 1991

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-03-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related NRC investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  14. Environmental assessment: Transfer of normal and low-enriched uranium billets to the United Kingdom, Hanford Site, Richland, Washington

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-11-01

    Under the auspices of an agreement between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has an opportunity to transfer approximately 710,000 kilograms (1,562,000 pounds) of unneeded normal and low-enriched uranium (LEU) to the United Kingdom; thus, reducing long-term surveillance and maintenance burdens at the Hanford Site. The material, in the form of billets, is controlled by DOE's Defense Programs, and is presently stored as surplus material in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site. The United Kingdom has expressed a need for the billets. The surplus uranium billets are currently stored in wooden shipping containers in secured facilities in the 300 Area at the Hanford Site (the 303-B and 303-G storage facilities). There are 482 billets at an enrichment level (based on uranium-235 content) of 0.71 weight-percent. This enrichment level is normal uranium; that is, uranium having 0.711 as the percentage by weight of uranium-235 as occurring in nature. There are 3,242 billets at an enrichment level of 0.95 weight-percent (i.e., low-enriched uranium). This inventory represents a total of approximately 532 curies. The facilities are routinely monitored. The dose rate on contact of a uranium billet is approximately 8 millirem per hour. The dose rate on contact of a wooden shipping container containing 4 billets is approximately 4 millirem per hour. The dose rate at the exterior of the storage facilities is indistinguishable from background levels

  15. A uranium enrichment facility safeguards technology based on the separation nozzle process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bahm, W.; Weppner, J.; Didier, H.J.

    1979-01-01

    Under the Trilateral Agreement between Brazil, the Federal Republic of Germany and the IAEA an enrichment plant operating on the basis of the separation nozzle process, will be safeguarded under INFCIRC/66/Rev.2. For nuclear materials balancing purposes the plant has been subdivided into 17 key measuring points to assess the nuclear material flow and the nuclear material inventory. Preliminary studies have indicated that the balancing accuracy required for safeguards purposes cannot be achieved by only using the foreseen in-plant measuring systems, since considerable quantities of enriched uranium cannot be covered in this way. This fraction will merely be estimated by the operator and thus cannot be verified by the inspection authorities. The plant components, whose inventories could not be verified in the first estimate of the balancing accuracy referred to above by means of the in-plant measuring systems, also include the low-temperature separators of the cascade shoulder and the product. Assessing and verifying the inventories of these key measuring points is particularly important because of the enrichment (some 3% 235 U for the product) and the relatively large inventory and, hence, the considerable contribution to the balancing inaccuracy. An estimate of the balancing inaccuracy on the basis of the measuring uncertainties to be expected in the light of the present status of technology indicated values between 0.2 and 0.3% relative to the feed flow with semi-annual inventory-taking. However, this is based on the condition that the experiments planned to determine the inventories of cryogenic separators confirm the measuring uncertainties underlying the calculation

  16. Atomics international fuel fabrication facility and low enrichment program [contributed by H.W. Hassel, NUKEM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hassel, H.W.

    1993-01-01

    NUKEM handles around almost two tons of highly enriched uranium a year and it was necessary to satisfy all the new physical protection philosophies. That means that we have to install storage and safe fabrication sites for a lot of money, 25 meter thick concrete walls, and different alarm systems. So just to demonstrate how silly this business is, we have just overcome this for highly enriched uranium, and now we speak about low enriched uranium for which we don't need all of these investments to make this business safe. I would-just like to concentrate my words on the status of fabrication and considerations in my company concerning the medium enriched uranium and low enriched uranium. In the table are the different fuel types (see column) and then we have the fabrication in column 2 the experience of my comp any in kg. In column 3 is the irradiation experience of these fuels types. Column 4 shows the studies and calculations made in our company for lower and medium enriched fuels. The preliminary fabrication tests and calculations are in column 5, and in column 6 we have the delivery time for a prototype core in months after UF 6 supply. Column 7 shows the time for the development of specifications including irradiation time in years for 6 and 7 and column is the estimated cost of 6 and 7 There is just one fuel that is not in this summary and that is U-Zr. We now see how complex and sophisticated this business is. I have told you already that we have installed for a lot of millions of Deutsche Mark the physical protection, storage vaults and things like that. Now we have to investigate all these different types of fuels for, as you see, a lot of money. Maybe these are a lot of optimistic figures; anyway the question is, does this make all the overall nuclear situation worldwide easier or not. One cannot answer for the moment, but anyway we have a lot of problems

  17. Licensed fuel facility status report. Inventory difference data, January-June 1983. Volume 4, No. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-03-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, or uranium-233

  18. Licensed fuel facility status report. Inventory difference data, January-June 1985. Volume 6, No. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-02-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  19. Licensed fuel facility status report. Inventory difference data, July-December 1985. Volume 6, No. 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-08-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  20. Licensed fuel facility status report. Inventory difference data, January-June 1984. Volume 5, No. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-04-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or Uranium-233

  1. COGEMA's UMF [Uranium Management Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lamorlette, G.; Bertrand, J.P.

    1988-01-01

    The French government-owned corporation, COGEMA, is responsible for the nuclear fuel cycle. This paper describes the activities at COGEMA's Pierrelatte facility, especially its Uranium Management Facility. UF6 handling and storage is described for natural, enriched, depleted, and reprocessed uranium. UF6 quality control specifications, sampling, and analysis (halocarbon and volatile fluorides, isotopic analysis, uranium assay, and impurities) are described. In addition, the paper discusses the filling and cleaning of containers and security at UMF

  2. SIGMA: the novel approach of a new non-proliferating uranium enrichment technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rivarola, M.; Florido, P.; Brasnarof, D.; Bergallo, E.

    2000-01-01

    The SIGMA concept, under development by Argentina, represents the evolution of the Uranium Enrichment Gaseous Diffusion technology, updated to face the challenge of the new economic-based and competitive world frame. The Enrichment technology has been historically considered as a highly proliferating activity in the nuclear field, and central countries limited the access of the developing countries to this technology. The SIGMA concept incorporates innovative proliferation resistant criteria at the beginning of the design process, and inherits all the non-proliferation features of the gaseous diffusion plants (GDPs). The radical new proliferation resistance approach of the SIGMA technology suggests a new kind of global control of the uranium enrichment market, where some developing countries might access an Enrichment plant without access to the technology itself. In this paper, we investigate the economy of the SIGMA plants, and the implications of this technology on the Uranium Global Market. (authors)

  3. SIGMA, the novel approach of a new non-proliferating uranium enrichment technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rivarola, M.; Florido, P.; Brasnarof, D.; Bergallo, J.

    2001-01-01

    The SIGMA concept, under development by Argentina, represents the evolution of the Uranium Enrichment Gaseous Diffusion technology, updated to face the challenge of the new economic-based and competitive world frame. The Enrichment technology has been historically considered as a highly proliferating activity in the nuclear field, and central countries have limited the access of the developing countries to this technology. The SIGMA concept incorporates innovative proliferation resistant criteria at the beginning of the design process, and inherits all the non-proliferation features of the Gaseous Diffusion Plants (GDPs). The radical new proliferation resistant approach of the SIGMA technology, suggest a new kind of global control of the Uranium Enrichment Market, were some developing countries might access to an Enrichment plant without accessing to the technology itself. In this paper, we analyse the economy of the SIGMA plants, and the implications of this technology on the Uranium Global Market. (authors)

  4. Accident Analyses for Conversion of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) from Highly-Enriched to Low-Enriched Uranium

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stillman, J. A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Div., Research and Test Reactor Dept.; Feldman, E. E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Div., Research and Test Reactor Dept.; Wilson, E. H. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Div., Research and Test Reactor Dept.; Foyto, L. P. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Research Reactor; Kutikkad, K. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Research Reactor; McKibben, J. C. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Research Reactor; Peters, N. J. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Research Reactor; Cowherd, W. M. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). College of Engineering, Nuclear Engineering Program; Rickman, B. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). College of Engineering, Nuclear Engineering Program

    2014-12-01

    This report contains the results of reactor accident analyses for the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). The calculations were performed as part of the conversion from the use of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to the use of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The analyses were performed by staff members of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) Reactor Conversion Program at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the MURR Facility, and the Nuclear Engineering Program – College of Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia. The core conversion to LEU is being performed with financial support from the U. S. government. This report contains the results of reactor accident analyses for the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). The calculations were performed as part of the conversion from the use of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to the use of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The analyses were performed by staff members of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) Reactor Conversion Program at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the MURR Facility, and the Nuclear Engineering Program – College of Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia. The core conversion to LEU is being performed with financial support from the U. S. government. In the framework of non-proliferation policies, the international community presently aims to minimize the amount of nuclear material available that could be used for nuclear weapons. In this geopolitical context most research and test reactors, both domestic and international, have started a program of conversion to the use of LEU fuel. A new type of LEU fuel based on an alloy of uranium and molybdenum (U-Mo) is expected to allow the conversion of U.S. domestic high performance reactors like MURR. This report presents the results of a study of core behavior under a set of accident conditions for MURR cores fueled with HEU U-Alx dispersion fuel or LEU monolithic U-Mo alloy fuel with 10 wt% Mo

  5. On-Line Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) Phase II Final Report Techniques and Equipment for Safeguards at Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Younkin, James R. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Garner, James R. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2017-04-01

    Over the last five years, OLEM has been a collaborative development effort involving the IAEA, LANL, ORNL, URENCO, and the NNSA. The collective team has completed the following: design and modelling, software development, hardware integration, testing with the ORNL UF6 Flow Loop, a field trial at the Urenco facility in Almelo, the Netherlands, and a Demonstration at the Urenco USA facility in Eunice, New Mexico. This combined effort culminated in the deployment of several OLEM collection nodes in Iran. These OLEM units are one unattended monitoring system component of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify Iran’s compliance with the enrichment production aspects of the agreement.

  6. Nuclear fuel cycle facilities and RP: the case of Brazil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tranjan Filho, Alfredo; Costa, Cesar Gustavo S.

    2008-01-01

    Full text: The renewed nuclear energy scenario, national and worldwide, calls for the strengthening of all activities involving the nuclear fuel production, from uranium extraction at the mines to fuel assemblies delivery at the nuclear power plants, which in Brazil is the mission of the Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB). With only a third of its territory prospected, Brazil currently has the sixth largest uranium reserve in the world. Brazil's three main deposits are: the Caldas mine (in the state of Minas Gerais) the first mineral-industrial complex that processed uranium, developed in 1982, and presently being decommissioned; Caetite mine and processing facility (located in the state of Bahia), nowadays operational and with a current production capacity of 400 tonnes per year of uranium concentrates, being in trend of doubling its annual capacity; and the Itataia/Santa Quiteria deposit (in Ceara State), the largest geological uranium reserve in Brazil, although its feasible future production depends on the exploration of the phosphate associated to it. Concerning the nuclear fuel fabrication, INB plant at Resende (in the state of Rio de Janeiro) is responsible for the conversion of Uf 6 to UO 2 the production of fuel pellets and the assembly of the fuel elements, in order to supply the demands of Brazil's two operating PWR (Angra 1 and Angra 2). In addition, in May 2006, INB-Resende inaugurated the uranium enrichment facility, employing the ultra-centrifugation technology. Today still in its first phase of operation, when completed the enrichment facility is intended to provide 100 percent of the domestic requirements, eventually by the year 2015. Detailing present status and future perspectives of INB, in face of the global and national renaissance of nuclear energy, this paper addresses the Radiation Protection (RP) aspects related to INB's achievements and performance, as well as the pressing future challenges to be dealt with, in order to guarantee

  7. Status report on uranium enrichment associates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Langley, R.A. Jr.; O'Donnell, A.J.; Garrett, G.A.

    1977-01-01

    Uranium Enrichment Associates (UEA) had as its priority project financing, an approach in which the total project is financially self-liquidating. UEA worked with financial institutions to define the combination of assurances and guarantees required by lenders in order to provide the required debt funding. UEA's assets against which the debt liability for the plant would be balanced would be the facilities under construction and the equipment on order. On the customer side, there was major concern on the part of the utilities of whether private industry would be able to complete and operate the plant owing to many of the same possibilities which concerned financial institutions. The disparity between the conditions under which financing could be obtained and the terms acceptable to utilities was a significant element in EUA's choice of process to use for its enrichment plants. UEA's technical staff then began to parallel conceptual designs of gaseous diffusion and gas cenrifuge plants. UEA negotiated with ERDA on the terms of a Cooperative Arrangement, within the provisions of the NFAA, providing the minimum conditions necessary to obtain financing and contracts with utilities for enrichment sources. The UEA plant has several features different from the ERDA plants. The UEA plant used only two basic stage sizes. The UEA design employed four main process buildings. The partners in UEA have mutually agreed to follow the private uranium enrichment project to a logical conclusion. 6 figures

  8. Accelerator-driven subcritical facility:Conceptual design development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gohar, Yousry; Bolshinsky, Igor; Naberezhnev, Dmitry; Duo, Jose; Belch, Henry; Bailey, James

    2006-06-01

    A conceptual design development of an accelerator-driven subcritical facility has been carried out in the preparation of a joint activity with Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology of Ukraine. The main functions of the facility are the medical isotope production and the support of the Ukraine nuclear industry. An electron accelerator is considered to drive the subcritical assembly. The neutron source intensity and spectrum have been studied. The energy deposition, spatial neutron generation, neutron utilization fraction, and target dimensions have been quantified to define the main target performance parameters, and to select the target material and beam parameters. Different target conceptual designs have been developed based the engineering requirements including heat transfer, thermal hydraulics, structure, and material issues. The subcritical assembly is designed to obtain the highest possible neutron flux level with a Keff of 0.98. Different fuel materials, uranium enrichments, and reflector materials are considered in the design process. The possibility of using low enrichment uranium without penalizing the facility performance is carefully evaluated. The mechanical design of the facility has been developed to maximize its utility and minimize the time for replacing the target and the fuel assemblies. Safety, reliability, and environmental considerations are included in the facility conceptual design. The facility is configured to accommodate future design improvements, upgrades, and new missions. In addition, it has large design margins to accommodate different operating conditions and parameters. In this paper, the conceptual design and the design analyses of the facility will be presented.

  9. Stabilization of uranium hexafluoride by hydrolysis method for decommissioning of safeguard laboratory facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Inagawa, Jun; Hotoku, Shinobu; Oda, Tetsuzo; Aoyagi, Noboru; Magara, Masaaki [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate, Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan)

    2014-03-15

    In safeguard laboratory (SGL) facility of Nuclear Science Research Institute of JAEA , uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) of enriched uranium of various enrichment was used for research and development of a spectrometric method for the determination of the enrichment of uranium in April 1983 through March 1993. After completion of this R and D, the UF{sub 6} has been stored in SGL facility. It was decided that the UF{sub 6} is carried to out of the facility, because the SGL facility will be decommissioning until March 2015. To transport and store in safety after transportation, it is necessary that the UF{sub 6} should be converted to stable chemical form. Hydrolysis of UF{sub 6} to uranyl fluoride (UO{sub 2}F{sub 2}) and evaporation to solid state were selected for the stabilization method. The equipment for hydrolysis and evaporation was installed in the SGL facility. Stabilization was operated in this equipment, and all of the UF{sub 6} in the SGL facility was converted to UO{sub 2}F{sub 2} solid state in October 2012 through August 2013. In this report, results of examination and operation for stabilization of UF{sub 6} were reported. (author)

  10. The Passive Neutron Enrichment Meter for Uranium Cylinder Assay

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miller, Karen A.; Menlove, Howard O.; Swinhoe, Martyn T.; Marlow, Johanna B. [Safeguards Science and Technology Group (N-1), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos (United States)

    2011-12-15

    As fuel cycle technology becomes more prevalent around the world, international safeguards have become increasingly important in verifying that nuclear materials have not been diverted. Uranium enrichment technology is a critical pathway to nuclear weapons development, making safeguards of enrichment facilities especially important. Independently-verifiable material accountancy is a fundamental measure in detecting diversion of nuclear materials. This paper is about a new instrument for uranium cylinder assay for enrichment plant safeguards called the Passive Neutron Enrichment Meter (PNEM). The measurement objective is to simultaneously verify uranium mass and enrichment in Uf6 cylinders. It can be used with feed, product, and tails cylinders. Here, we consider the enrichment range up to 5% {sup 235}U. The concept is to use the Doubles-to-Singles count rate to give a measure of the {sup 235}U enrichment and the Singles count rate to provide a measure of the total uranium mass. The cadmium ratio is an additional signature for the enrichment that is especially useful for feed and tails cylinders. PNEM is a {sup 3}He-based system that consists of two portable detector pods. Uranium enrichment in UF{sub 6} cylinders is typically determined using a gamma-ray-based method that only samples a tiny volume of the cylinder's content and requires knowledge of the cylinder wall thickness. The PNEM approach has several advantages over gamma-ray-based methods including a deeper penetration depth into the cylinder, meaning it can be used with heterogeneous isotopic mixtures of UF{sub 6}. In this paper, we describe a Monte Carlo modelling study where we have examined the sensitivity of the system to systematic uncertainties such as the distribution of UF{sub 6} within the cylinder. We also compare characterization measurements of the PNEM prototype to the expected measurements calculated with Monte Carlo simulations.

  11. Safety of nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Safety requirements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    This publication covers the broad scope of requirements for fuel cycle facilities that, in light of the experience and present state of technology, must be satisfied to ensure safety for the lifetime of the facility. Topics of specific reference include aspects of nuclear fuel generation, storage, reprocessing and disposal. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. The safety objective, concepts and safety principles; 3. Legal framework and regulatory supervision; 4. The management system and verification of safety; 5. Siting of the facility; 6. Design of the facility; 7. Construction of the facility; 8. Commissioning of the facility; 9. Operation of the facility; 10. Decommissioning of the facility; Appendix I: Requirements specific to uranium fuel fabrication facilities; Appendix II: Requirements specific to mixed oxide fuel fabrication facilities; Appendix III: Requirements specific to conversion facilities and enrichment facilities

  12. DOE hands over uranium enrichment duties to government corporation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Simpson, J.

    1993-01-01

    In an effort to renew the United States' competitiveness in the world market for uranium enrichment services, the Department of Energy (DOE) is turning over control of its Paducah, KY, and Portsmouth, OH, enrichment facilities to a for-profit organization, the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC), which was created by last year's Energy Policy Act. William H. Timbers, Jr., a former investment banker who was appointed acting CEO in March, said the Act's mandate will mean more competitive prices for enriched reactor fuel and greater responsiveness to utility customers. As a government corporation, USEC, with current annual revenues estimated at $1.5 billion, will no longer be part of the federal budget appropriations process, but will use business management techniques, set market-based prices for enriched uranium, and pay annual dividends to the US Treasury-its sole stockholder-from earnings. The goal is to finish privatizing the corporation within two years, and to sell its stock to investors for an estimated $1 to $3 billion. USEC's success will depend in part on developing short- and long-term marketing plants to help stanch the flow of enriched-uranium customers to foreign suppliers. (DOE already has received notice from a number of US utilities that they want to be let out of their long-term enrichment contracts as they expire over the next several years).USEC's plans likely will include exploring new joint ventures with other businesses in the nuclear fuel cycle-such as suppliers, fabricators, and converters-and offering a broader range of enrichment services than DOE provided. The corporation will have to be responsive to utilities on an individual basis

  13. Licensed fuel facility status report. Inventory difference data, July 1983-December 1983. Volume 4, No. 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-08-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  14. Licensed-fuel-facility status report: inventory difference data, July 1982-December 1982. Vol. 3, No. 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-07-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  15. Licensed fuel facility status report. Volume 5, No. 2. Inventory difference data, July 1984-December 1984

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-10-01

    NRC is committed to the periodic publication of licensed fuel facilities' inventory difference data, following agency review of the information and completion of any related investigations. Information in this report includes inventory difference data for active fuel fabrication facilities possessing more than one effective kilogram of high enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, plutonium, or uranium-233

  16. Descriptions of reference LWR facilities for analysis of nuclear fuel cycles. Appendixes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schneider, K.J.; Kabele, T.J.

    1979-09-01

    The appendixes present the calculations that were used to derive the release factors discussed for each fuel cycle facility in Volume I. Appendix A presents release factor calculations for a surface mine, underground mine, milling facility, conversion facility, diffusion enrichment facility, fuel fabrication facility, PWR, BWR, and reprocessing facility. Appendix B contains additional release factors calculated for a BWR, PWR, and a reprocessing facility. Appendix C presents release factors for a UO 2 fuel fabrication facility

  17. A Program Management Framework for Facilities Managers

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Dan

    2012-01-01

    The challenge faced by senior facility leaders is not how to execute a single project, but rather, how to successfully execute a large program consisting of hundreds of projects. Senior facilities officers at universities, school districts, hospitals, airports, and other organizations with extensive facility inventories, typically manage project…

  18. Enrichment measurement in TRIGA type fuels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aguilar H, F.; Mazon R, R.

    2001-05-01

    The Department of Energy of the United States of North America, through the program 'Idaho Operations Nuclear Spent Fuel Program' of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), in Idaho Falls; Idaho USA, hires to Global Technologies Inc. (GTI) to develop a prototype device of detection enrichment uranium (DEU Detection of Enrichment of Uranium) to determine quantitatively the enrichment in remainder U-235 in a TRIGA fuel element at the end of it useful life. The characteristics of the prototype developed by GTI are the following ones: It allows to carry out no-destructive measurements of TRIGA type fuel. Easily transportable due to that reduced of it size. The determination of the enrichment (in grams of U-235) it is obtained with a precision of 5%. The National Institute of Nuclear Research (ININ), in its facilities of the Nuclear Center of Mexico, it has TRIGA type fuel of high and low enrichment (standard and FLIP) fresh and with burnt, it also has the infrastructure (hot cells, armor-plating of transport, etc) and qualified personnel to carry out the necessary maneuvers to prove the operation of the DEU prototype. For this its would be used standard type fuel elements and FLIP, so much fresh as with certain burnt one. In the case of the fresh fuels the measurement doesn't represent any risk, the fuels before and after the measurement its don't contain a quantity of fission products that its represent a radiological risk in its manipulation; but in the case of the fuels with burnt the handling of the same ones represents an important radiological risk reason why for its manipulation it was used the transport armor-plating and the hot cells. (Author)

  19. Current status of irradiation facilities in JRR-3 and JRR-4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hori, Naohiko; Wada, Shigeru; Sasajima, Fumio; Kusunoki, Tsuyoshi

    2006-01-01

    The Department of Research Reactor has operated two research reactors, JRR-3 and JRR-4. These reactors were constructed in the Tokai Research Establishment. Many researchers and engineers use these joint-use facilities. JRR-3 is a light water moderated and cooled, pool type research reactor using low-enriched silicide fuel. JRR-3's maximum thermal power is 20MW. JRR-3 has nine vertical irradiation holes for RI production, nuclear fuels and materials irradiation at reactor core area. JRR-3 has many kinds of irradiation holes in a heavy water tank around the reactor core. These are two hydraulic rabbit irradiation facilities, two pneumatic rabbit irradiation facilities, one activation analysis irradiation facilities, one uniform irradiation facility, one rotating irradiation facility and one capsule irradiation facility. JRR-3 has nine horizontal experimental holes, that are used by many kinds of neutron beam experimental facilities using these holes. JRR-4 is a light water moderated and cooled, swimming pool type research reactor using low-enriched silicide fuel. JRR-4's maximum thermal power is 3.5MW. JRR-4 has five vertical irradiation tubes at reactor core area, three capsule irradiation facilities, one hydraulic rabbit irradiation facility, and one pneumatic rabbit irradiation facility. JRR-4 has a neutron beam hole, and it has used neutron beam experiments, irradiations for activation analysis and medical neutron irradiations. (author)

  20. Iran the aerial defense facing a preventive attack against the nuclear sites; Iran la defense aerienne face a une attaque preventive contre ses sites nucleaires

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gruselle, B.; Payre, G

    2006-01-15

    In the context of the nuclear uranium enrichment program development facing the international opinion, the author discusses the Iran policy of implementing a defense against an aerial attack. Even with the modernization of its anti-aerial defense, the Iran will cannot support an aerial american campaign, precise and long. (A.L.B.)

  1. Empowering Facilities Teams through Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cormier, Scott

    2013-01-01

    Facilities departments at colleges and universities are facing the same challenge: how not to do just the most projects, but also the right projects with the limited funds they are given. In order to make the best decisions, they need more control over the capital planning process, which requires accurate, current facility condition data. Each…

  2. Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) enhances biomass production in a short-rotation poplar plantation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Calfapietra, C.; Gielen, B.; Galema, A.N.J.; Lukac, M.; Angelis, de P.; Moscatelli, M.C.; Ceulemans, R.; Scarascia-Mugnozza, G.

    2003-01-01

    This paper investigates the possible contribution of Short Rotation Cultures (SRC) to carbon sequestration in both current and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations ([CO2]). A dense poplar plantation (1 x 1 m) was exposed to a [CO2] of 550 ppm in Central Italy using the free-air CO2 enrichment

  3. Report of the Working Party on the conversion of HIFAR to low enrichment uranium fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-06-01

    This report states the effect on research reactor operations and applications of international and national political decisions relating to fuel enrichment. Technical work done in Australia and overseas to establish parameters for conversion of research reactors from High Enrichment Uranium (HEU) to Low Enrichment Uranium (LEU) have been considered in developing a strategy for HIFAR. The requirements of the research groups, isotope production group and reactor operating staff have been considered. For HIFAR to continue to provide the required facilities in support of the national need, it is concluded these should be no reduction of neutron flux

  4. Comparison of Knowledge and Attitudes Using Computer-Based and Face-to-Face Personal Hygiene Training Methods in Food Processing Facilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenton, Ginger D.; LaBorde, Luke F.; Radhakrishna, Rama B.; Brown, J. Lynne; Cutter, Catherine N.

    2006-01-01

    Computer-based training is increasingly favored by food companies for training workers due to convenience, self-pacing ability, and ease of use. The objectives of this study were to determine if personal hygiene training, offered through a computer-based method, is as effective as a face-to-face method in knowledge acquisition and improved…

  5. Electrically Cooled Germanium System for Measurements of Uranium Enrichments in UF6 Cylinders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dvornyak, P.; Koestlbauer, M.; Lebrun, A.; Murray, M.; Nizhnik, V.; Saidler, C.; Twomey, T.

    2010-01-01

    Measurements of Uranium enrichment in UF6 cylinders is a significant part of the IAEA Safeguards verification activities at enrichment and conversion plants. Nowadays, one of the main tools for verification of Uranium enrichment in UF6 cylinders used by Safeguards inspectors is the gamma spectroscopy system with HPGe detector cooled with liquid nitrogen. Electrically Cooled Germanium System (ECGS) is a new compact and portable high resolution gamma spectrometric system free from liquid nitrogen cooling, which can be used for the same safeguards applications. It consists of the ORTEC Micro-trans-SPEC HPGe Portable Spectrometer, a special tungsten collimator and UF6 enrichment measurement software. The enrichment of uranium is determined by of quantifying the area of the 185.7 keV peak provided that the measurement is performed with a detector viewing an infinite thickness of material. Prior starting the verification of uranium enrichment at the facility, the ECGS has to be calibrated with a sample of known uranium enrichment, material matrix, container wall thickness and container material. Evaluation of the ECGS capabilities was performed by carrying out a field test on actual enrichment verification of uranium in UF6 cylinder or other forms of uranium under infinite thickness conditions. The results of these evaluations allow to say that the use of ECGS will enhance practicality of the enrichment measurements and support unannounced inspection activities at enrichment and conversion plants. (author)

  6. Elevated CO{sub 2} in a prototype free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment facility affects photosynthetic nitrogen relations in a maturing pine forest

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ellsworth, D.S.; LaRoche, J.; Hendrey, G.R.

    1998-03-01

    A maturing loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forest was exposed to elevated CO{sub 2} in the natural environment in a perturbation study conducted over three seasons using the free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment (FACE) technique. At the time measurements were begun in this study, the pine canopy was comprised entirely of foliage which had developed under elevated CO{sub 2} conditions (atmospheric CO{sub 2} {approx} 550 {micro}mol/mol{sup {minus}1}). Measurements of leaf photosynthetic responses to CO{sub 2} were taken to examine the effects of elevated CO{sub 2} on photosynthetic N nutrition in a pine canopy under elevated CO{sub 2}. Photosynthetic CO{sub 2} response curves (A-c{sub i} curves) were similar in FACE trees under elevated CO{sub 2} compared with counterpart trees in ambient plots for the first foliage cohort produced in the second season of CO{sub 2} exposure, with changes in curve form detected in the foliage cohorts subsequently produced under elevated CO{sub 2}. Differences in the functional relationship between carboxylation rate and N{sub a} suggest that for a given N{sub a} allocated among successive cohorts of foliage in the upper canopy, V{sub c max} was 17% lower in FACE versus Ambient trees. The authors also found that foliar Rubisco content per unit total protein derived from Western blot analysis was lower in late-season foliage in FACE foliage compared with ambient-grown foliage. The results illustrate a potentially important mode of physiological adjustment to growth conditions that may operate in forest canopies. Findings suggest that mature loblolly pine trees growing in the field may have the capacity for shifts in intrinsic nitrogen utilization for photosynthesis under elevated CO{sub 2} that are not dependent on changes in leaf N. Findings suggest a need for continued examination of internal feedbacks at the whole-tree and ecosystem level in forests that may influence long-term photosynthetic responses to elevated CO{sub 2}.

  7. Criticality analysis in uranium enrichment plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okamoto, Tsuyoshi; Kiyose, Ryohei

    1977-01-01

    In a large scale uranium enrichment plant, uranium inventory in cascade rooms is not very large in quantity, but the facilities dealing with the largest quantity of uranium in that process are the UF 6 gas supply system and the blending system for controlling the product concentration. When UF 6 spills out of these systems, the enriched uranium is accumulated, and the danger of criticality accident is feared. If a NaF trap is placed at the forestage of waste gas treatment system, plenty of UF 6 and HF are adsorbed together in the NaF trap. Thus, here is the necessity of checking the safety against criticality. Various assumptions were made to perform the computation surveying the criticality of the system composed of UF 6 and HF adsorbed on NaF traps with WIMS code (transport analysis). The minimum critical radius resulted in about 53 cm in case of 3.5% enriched fuel for light water reactors. The optimum volume ratio of fissile material in the double salt UF 6 .2NaF and NaF.HF is about 40 vol. %. While, criticality survey computation was also made for the annular NaF trap having the central cooling tube, and it was found that the effect of cooling tube radius did not decrease the multiplication factor up to the cooling tube radius of about 5 cm. (Wakatsuki, Y.)

  8. URENCO. Uranium enrichment with advanced technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-01-01

    URENCO Deutschland is a subsidiary of URENCO Enrichment Company Limited, an international enterprise founded in 1970 in the State Treaty of Almelo, which offers uranium enrichment for nuclear power plants all over the world with the use of advanced technology. URENCO facilities at present are operated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, USA, and in Germany. The German URENCO location is Gronau, Westphalia, where cascades have been in operation since 1985 using centrifuge technology to enrich nuclear fuel to up to 5% uranium-235. The URENCO Group supplies nuclear power plants in Europe and overseas countries with a world market share, at present, of more than 25% with a rising tendency. The first uranium separation plant in Gronau (UTA-1) attained its full separation performance of 1,800 t USW/a in late 2005. In February 2005, construction and operation of another plant had been licensed, which can raise the aggregate capacity on site to 4,500 t USW per annum. Construction of the new plant (UTA-2) was begun in summer 2005. UTA-2 will use the latest, most powerful URENCO centrifuge. URENCO has more than 3,500 visitors a year at its German location alone, thus demonstrating its pro-active information policy and offering to the public a maximum of opportunities to acquire information by attending presentations and tours of the plant. (orig.)

  9. Gas separation techniques in nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hioki, Hideaki; Morisue, Tetsuo; Ohno, Masayoshi

    1983-01-01

    The literatures concerning the gas separation techniques which are applied to the waste gases generated from nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, uranium enrichment and the instrumentation of nuclear facilities are reviewed. The gas permeability and gas separation performance of membranes are discussed in terms of rare gas separation. The investigation into the change of the gas permeability and mechanical properties of membranes with exposure to radiation is reported. The theoretical investigation of the separating cells used for the separation of rare gas and the development of various separating cells are described, and the theoretical and experimental investigations concerning rare gas separation using cascades are described. The application of membrane method to nuclear facilities is explained showing the examples of uranium enrichment, the treatment of waste gases from nuclear reactor buildings and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, the monitoring of low level β-emitters in stacks, the detection of failed fuels and the detection of water leak in fast breeder reactors. (Yoshitake, I.)

  10. SIGMA Experimental Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rivarola, Martin; Florido, Pablo; Gonzalez, Jose; Brasnarof, Daniel; Orellano, Pablo; Bergallo, Juan

    2000-01-01

    The SIGMA ( Separacion Isotopica Gaseosa por Metodos Avanzados) concept is outlined.The old gaseous diffusion process to enrich uranium has been updated to be economically competitive for small production volumes.Major innovations have been introduced in the membrane design and in the integrated design of compressors and diffusers.The use of injectors and gas turbines has been also adopted.The paper describes the demonstration facility installed by the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission

  11. Construction of STACY (Static Experiment Critical Facility)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murakami, Kiyonobu; Onodera, Seiji; Hirose, Hideyuki

    1998-08-01

    Two critical assemblies, STACY (Static Experiment Critical Facility) and TRACY (Transient Experiment Critical Facility), were constructed in NUCEF (Nuclear Fuel Cycle Safety Engineering Research Facility) to promote researches on the criticality safety at a reprocessing facility. STACY aims at providing critical data of uranium nitrate solution, plutonium nitrate solution and their mixture while varying concentration of solution fuel, core tank shape and size and neutron reflecting condition. STACY achieved first criticality in February 1995, and passed the licensing inspection by STA (Science and Technology Agency of Japan) in May. After that a series of critical experiments commenced with 10 w/o enriched uranium solution. This report describes the outline of STACY at the end of FY 1996. (author)

  12. Examining heterogeneity in elderly consumers’ acceptance of carriers for protein-enriched food: A segmentation study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zanden, van der L.D.T.; Kleef, van E.; Wijk, de R.A.; Trijp, van J.C.M.

    2015-01-01

    Elderly face an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies due to reduced appetites and increased nutritional needs. The development of appealing enriched functional foods holds a great potential for improving the nutritional status of this group of consumers. However, the elderly population is

  13. Source-driven noise analysis measurements with neptunium metal reflected by high enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valentine, Timothy E.; Mattingly, John K.

    2003-01-01

    Subcritical noise analysis measurements have been performed with neptunium ( 237 Np) sphere reflected by highly enriched uranium. These measurements were performed at the Los Alamos Critical Experiment Facility in December 2002 to provide an estimate of the subcriticality of 237 Np reflected by various amounts of high-enriched uranium. This paper provides a description of the measurements and presents some preliminary results of the analysis of the measurements. The measured and calculated spectral ratios differ by 15% whereas the 'interpreted' and calculated k eff values differ by approximately 1%. (author)

  14. Illumination-invariant face recognition with a contrast sensitive silicon retina

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Buhmann, J.M. [Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Univ., Bonn (Germany). Inst. fuer Informatik II; Lades, M. [Bochum Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Neuroinformatik; Eeckman, F. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

    1993-11-29

    Changes in lighting conditions strongly effect the performance and reliability of computer vision systems. We report face recognition results under drastically changing lighting conditions for a computer vision system which concurrently uses a contrast sensitive silicon retina and a conventional, gain controlled CCD camera. For both input devices the face recognition system employs an elastic matching algorithm with wavelet based features to classify unknown faces. To assess the effect of analog on-chip preprocessing by the silicon retina the CCD images have been digitally preprocessed with a bandpass filter to adjust the power spectrum. The silicon retina with its ability to adjust sensitivity increases the recognition rate up to 50 percent. These comparative experiments demonstrate that preprocessing with an analog VLSI silicon retina generates image data enriched with object-constant features.

  15. Detection of illicit HEU production in gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants using neutron counting techniques on product cylinders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Freeman, Corey R.; Geist, William H.

    2010-01-01

    Innovative and novel safeguards approaches are needed for nuclear energy to meet global energy needs without the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation. Part of these efforts will include creating verification techniques that can monitor uranium enrichment facilities for illicit production of highly-enriched uranium (HEU). Passive nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques will be critical in preventing illicit HEU production because NDA offers the possibility of continuous and unattended monitoring capabilities with limited impact on facility operations. Gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEP) are commonly used to produce low-enriched uranium (LEU) for reactor fuel. In a GCEP, gaseous UF 6 spins at high velocities in centrifuges to separate the molecules containing 238 U from those containing the lighter 235 U. Unfortunately, the process for creating LEU is inherently the same as HEU, creating a proliferation concern. Insuring that GCEPs are producing declared enrichments poses many difficult challenges. In a GCEP, large cascade halls operating thousands of centrifuges work together to enrich the uranium which makes effective monitoring of the cascade hall economically prohibitive and invasive to plant operations. However, the enriched uranium exiting the cascade hall fills product cylinders where the UF 6 gas sublimes and condenses for easier storage and transportation. These product cylinders hold large quantities of enriched uranium, offering a strong signal for NDA measurement. Neutrons have a large penetrability through materials making their use advantageous compared to gamma techniques where the signal is easily attenuated. One proposed technique for detecting HEU production in a GCEP is using neutron coincidence counting at the product cylinder take off stations. This paper discusses findings from Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code simulations that examine the feasibility of such a detector.

  16. Uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-01-01

    This report looks at the following issues: How much Soviet uranium ore and enriched uranium are imported into the United States and what is the extent to which utilities flag swap to disguise these purchases? What are the U.S.S.R.'s enriched uranium trading practices? To what extent are utilities required to return used fuel to the Soviet Union as part of the enriched uranium sales agreement? Why have U.S. utilities ended their contracts to buy enrichment services from DOE?

  17. Using Process Load Cell Information for IAEA Safeguards at Enrichment Plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Laughter, Mark D.; Whitaker, J. Michael; Howell, John

    2010-01-01

    Uranium enrichment service providers are expanding existing enrichment plants and constructing new facilities to meet demands resulting from the shutdown of gaseous diffusion plants, the completion of the U.S.-Russia highly enriched uranium downblending program, and the projected global renaissance in nuclear power. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducts verification inspections at safeguarded facilities to provide assurance that signatory States comply with their treaty obligations to use nuclear materials only for peaceful purposes. Continuous, unattended monitoring of load cells in UF 6 feed/withdrawal stations can provide safeguards-relevant process information to make existing safeguards approaches more efficient and effective and enable novel safeguards concepts such as information-driven inspections. The IAEA has indicated that process load cell monitoring will play a central role in future safeguards approaches for large-scale gas centrifuge enrichment plants. This presentation will discuss previous work and future plans related to continuous load cell monitoring, including: (1) algorithms for automated analysis of load cell data, including filtering methods to determine significant weights and eliminate irrelevant impulses; (2) development of metrics for declaration verification and off-normal operation detection ('cylinder counting,' near-real-time mass balancing, F/P/T ratios, etc.); (3) requirements to specify what potentially sensitive data is safeguards relevant, at what point the IAEA gains on-site custody of the data, and what portion of that data can be transmitted off-site; (4) authentication, secure on-site storage, and secure transmission of load cell data; (5) data processing and remote monitoring schemes to control access to sensitive and proprietary information; (6) integration of process load cell data in a layered safeguards approach with cross-check verification; (7) process mock-ups constructed to provide simulated load

  18. Gas-phase UF6 enrichment monitor for enrichment plant safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strittmatter, R.B.; Tape, J.W.

    1980-03-01

    An in-line enrichment monitor is being developed to provide real-time enrichment data for the gas-phase UF 6 feed stream of an enrichment plant. The nondestructive gamma-ray assay method can be used to determine the enrichment of natural UF 6 with a relative precision of better than 1% for a wide range of pressures

  19. Regulation of fuel cycle facilities in the UK

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ascroft-Hutton, H.W.

    2001-01-01

    The UK has facilities for the production of uranium hexafluoride, its enrichment, conversion into fuel and for the subsequent reprocessing of irradiated fuel and closure of the fuel cycle. All of these facilities must be licensed under UK legislation. HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has delegated powers to issue the licence and to attach any conditions it considers necessary in the interests of safety. The fuel cycle facilities in the UK have been licensed since 1971. This paper describes briefly the UK nuclear regulatory framework and the fuel cycle facilities involved. It considers the regulatory practices adopted together with similarities and differences between regulation of fuel cycle facilities and power reactors. The safety issues associated with the fuel cycle are discussed and NII's regulatory strategy for these facilities is set out. (author)

  20. Selective enrichment of a methanol-utilizing consortium using pulp & paper mill waste streams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gregory R. Mockos; William A. Smith; Frank J. Loge; David N. Thompson

    2007-04-01

    Efficient utilization of carbon inputs is critical to the economic viability of the current forest products sector. Input carbon losses occur in various locations within a pulp mill, including losses as volatile organics and wastewater . Opportunities exist to capture this carbon in the form of value-added products such as biodegradable polymers. Waste activated sludge from a pulp mill wastewater facility was enriched for 80 days for a methanol-utilizing consortium with the goal of using this consortium to produce biopolymers from methanol-rich pulp mill waste streams. Five enrichment conditions were utilized: three high-methanol streams from the kraft mill foul condensate system, one methanol-amended stream from the mill wastewater plant, and one methanol-only enrichment. Enrichment reactors were operated aerobically in sequencing batch mode at neutral pH and 25°C with a hydraulic residence time and a solids retention time of four days. Non-enriched waste activated sludge did not consume methanol or reduce chemical oxygen demand. With enrichment, however, the chemical oxygen demand reduction over 24 hour feed/decant cycles ranged from 79 to 89 %, and methanol concentrations dropped below method detection limits. Neither the non-enriched waste activated sludge nor any of the enrichment cultures accumulated polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) under conditions of nitrogen sufficiency. Similarly, the non-enriched waste activated sludge did not accumulate PHAs under nitrogen limited conditions. By contrast, enriched cultures accumulated PHAs to nearly 14% on a dry weight basis under nitrogen limited conditions. This indicates that selectively-enriched pulp mill waste activated sludge can serve as an inoculum for PHA production from methanol-rich pulp mill effluents.

  1. Selection and use of a low enriched fuel in high performance research reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cerles, J.M.; Schwartz, J.P.

    1978-08-01

    A new nuclear fuel composition for research reactors (Osiris, Siloe) is studied using low enriched (E<20%) uranium oxide. Its utilization leads to modifications in the facilities of these experimental reactors: increase of primary coolant flow, modifications in failed element detection system, handling of materials and storage

  2. Simulation of transportation of low enriched uranium solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hope, E.P.; Ades, M.J.

    1996-01-01

    A simulation of the transportation by truck of low enriched uranium solutions has been completed for NEPA purposes at the Savannah River Site. The analysis involves three distinct source terms, and establishes the radiological risks of shipment to three possible destinations. Additionally, loading accidents were analyzed to determine the radiological consequences of mishaps during handling and delivery. Source terms were developed from laboratory measurements of chemical samples from low enriched uranium feed materials being stored at SRS facilities, and from manufacturer data on transport containers. The transportation simulations were accomplished over the INTERNET using the DOE TRANSNET system at Sandia National Laboratory. The HIGHWAY 3.3 code was used to analyze routing scenarios, and the RADTRAN 4 code was used to analyze incident free and accident risks of transporting radiological materials. Loading accidents were assessed using the Savannah River Site AXAIR89Q and RELEASE 2 codes

  3. Radioactive facilities classification criteria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Briso C, H.A.; Riesle W, J.

    1992-01-01

    Appropriate classification of radioactive facilities into groups of comparable risk constitutes one of the problems faced by most Regulatory Bodies. Regarding the radiological risk, the main facts to be considered are the radioactive inventory and the processes to which these radionuclides are subjected. Normally, operations are ruled by strict safety procedures. Thus, the total activity of the radionuclides existing in a given facility is the varying feature that defines its risk. In order to rely on a quantitative criterion and, considering that the Annual Limits of Intake are widely accepted references, an index based on these limits, to support decisions related to radioactive facilities, is proposed. (author)

  4. Iran the aerial defense facing a preventive attack against the nuclear sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gruselle, B.; Payre, G.

    2006-01-01

    In the context of the nuclear uranium enrichment program development facing the international opinion, the author discusses the Iran policy of implementing a defense against an aerial attack. Even with the modernization of its anti-aerial defense, the Iran will cannot support an aerial american campaign, precise and long. (A.L.B.)

  5. Status of stable isotope enrichment, products, and services at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aaron, W.S.; Tracy, J.G.; Collins, E.D.

    1997-01-01

    The Oak Ridge national laboratory (ORNL) has been supplying enriched stable and radioactive isotopes to the research, medical, and industrial communities for over 50 y. Very significant changes have occurred in this effort over the past several years, and, while many of these changes have had a negative impact on the availability of enriched isotopes, more recent developments are actually improving the situation for both the users and the producers of enriched isotopes. ORNL is still a major producer and distributor of radioisotopes, but future isotope enrichment operations to be conducted at the isotope enrichment facility (IEF)fwill be limited to stable isotopes. Among the positive changes in the enriched stable isotope area are a well-functioning, long-term contract program, which offers stability and pricing advantages; the resumption of calutron operations; the adoption of prorated conversion charges, which greatly improves the pricing of isotopes to small users; ISO 9002 registration of the IEF's quality management system; and a much more customer-oriented business philosophy. Efforts are also being made to restore and improve upon the extensive chemical and physical form processing capablities that once existed in the enriched stable isotope program. Innovative ideas are being pursued in both technical and administrative areas to encourage the beneficial use of enriched stable isotopes and the development of related technologies. (orig.)

  6. Status of stable isotope enrichment, products, and services at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott Aaron, W.; Tracy, Joe G.; Collins, Emory D.

    1997-02-01

    The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been supplying enriched stable and radioactive isotopes to the research, medical, and industrial communities for over 50 y. Very significant changes have occurred in this effort over the past several years, and, while many of these changes have had a negative impact on the availability of enriched isotopes, more recent developments are actually improving the situation for both the users and the producers of enriched isotopes. ORNL is still a major producer and distributor of radioisotopes, but future isotope enrichment operations to be conducted at the Isotope Enrichment Facility (IEF) will be limited to stable isotopes. Among the positive changes in the enriched stable isotope area are a well-functioning, long-term contract program, which offers stability and pricing advantages; the resumption of calutron operations; the adoption of prorated conversion charges, which greatly improves the pricing of isotopes to small users; ISO 9002 registration of the IEF's quality management system; and a much more customer-oriented business philosophy. Efforts are also being made to restore and improve upon the extensive chemical and physical form processing capablities that once existed in the enriched stable isotope program. Innovative ideas are being pursued in both technical and administrative areas to encourage the beneficial use of enriched stable isotopes and the development of related technologies.

  7. Status of stable isotope enrichment, products, and services at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aaron, W.S.; Tracy, J.G.; Collins, E.D.

    1996-01-01

    The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been supplying enriched stable and radioactive isotopes to the research, medical, and industrial communities for over 50 years. Very significant changes have occurred in this effort over the past several years, and, while many of these changes have had a negative impact on the availability of enriched isotopes, more recent developments are actually improving the situation for both the users and the producers of enriched isotopes. ORNL is still a major producer and distributor of radioisotopes, but future isotope enrichment operations conducted at the Isotope Enrichment Facility (IEF) will be limited to stable isotopes. Among the positive changes in the enriched stable isotope area are a well-functioning, long-term contract program, which offers stability and pricing advantages; the resumption of calutron operations; the adoption of prorated conversion charges, which greatly improves the pricing of isotopes to small users; SIO 9002 registration of the IEF's quality management system; and a much more customer-oriented business philosophy. Efforts are also being made to restore and improve upon the extensive chemical and physical form processing capabilities that once existed in the enriched stable isotope program. Innovative ideas are being pursued in both technical and administrative areas to encourage the beneficial use of enriched stable isotopes and the development of related technologies

  8. Determining initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of pressurized-water-reactor spent fuel assemblies by analyzing passive gamma spectra measured at the Clab interim-fuel storage facility in Sweden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Favalli, A.; Vo, D.; Grogan, B.; Jansson, P.; Liljenfeldt, H.; Mozin, V.; Schwalbach, P.; Sjöland, A.; Tobin, S. J.; Trellue, H.; Vaccaro, S.

    2016-06-01

    The purpose of the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI)-Spent Fuel (SF) project is to strengthen the technical toolkit of safeguards inspectors and/or other interested parties. The NGSI-SF team is working to achieve the following technical goals more easily and efficiently than in the past using nondestructive assay measurements of spent fuel assemblies: (1) verify the initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of facility declaration; (2) detect the diversion or replacement of pins; (3) estimate the plutonium mass [which is also a function of the variables in (1)]; (4) estimate the decay heat; and (5) determine the reactivity of spent fuel assemblies. Since August 2013, a set of measurement campaigns has been conducted at the Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel (Clab), in collaboration with Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB). One purpose of the measurement campaigns was to acquire passive gamma spectra with high-purity germanium and lanthanum bromide scintillation detectors from Pressurized Water Reactor and Boiling Water Reactor spent fuel assemblies. The absolute 137Cs count rate and the 154Eu/137Cs, 134Cs/137Cs, 106Ru/137Cs, and 144Ce/137Cs isotopic ratios were extracted; these values were used to construct corresponding model functions (which describe each measured quantity's behavior over various combinations of burnup, cooling time, and initial enrichment) and then were used to determine those same quantities in each measured spent fuel assembly. The results obtained in comparison with the operator declared values, as well as the methodology developed, are discussed in detail in the paper.

  9. Uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rae, H.K.; Melvin, J.G.

    1988-06-01

    Canada is the world's largest producer and exporter of uranium, most of which is enriched elsewhere for use as fuel in LWRs. The feasibility of a Canadian uranium-enrichment enterprise is therefore a perennial question. Recent developments in uranium-enrichment technology, and their likely impacts on separative work supply and demand, suggest an opportunity window for Canadian entry into this international market. The Canadian opportunity results from three particular impacts of the new technologies: 1) the bulk of the world's uranium-enrichment capacity is in gaseous diffusion plants which, because of their large requirements for electricity (more than 2000 kW·h per SWU), are vulnerable to competition from the new processes; 2) the decline in enrichment costs increases the economic incentive for the use of slightly-enriched uranium (SEU) fuel in CANDU reactors, thus creating a potential Canadian market; and 3) the new processes allow economic operation on a much smaller scale, which drastically reduces the investment required for market entry and is comparable with the potential Canadian SEU requirement. The opportunity is not open-ended. By the end of the century the enrichment supply industry will have adapted to the new processes and long-term customer/supplier relationships will have been established. In order to seize the opportunity, Canada must become a credible supplier during this century

  10. From the Lab to the real world : sources of error in UF6 gas enrichment monitoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lombardi, Marcie L.

    2012-01-01

    Safeguarding uranium enrichment facilities is a serious concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Safeguards methods have changed over the years, most recently switching to an improved safeguards model that calls for new technologies to help keep up with the increasing size and complexity of today's gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs). One of the primary goals of the IAEA is to detect the production of uranium at levels greater than those an enrichment facility may have declared. In order to accomplish this goal, new enrichment monitors need to be as accurate as possible. This dissertation will look at the Advanced Enrichment Monitor (AEM), a new enrichment monitor designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Specifically explored are various factors that could potentially contribute to errors in a final enrichment determination delivered by the AEM. There are many factors that can cause errors in the determination of uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ) gas enrichment, especially during the period when the enrichment is being measured in an operating GCEP. To measure enrichment using the AEM, a passive 186-keV (kiloelectronvolt) measurement is used to determine the 235 U content in the gas, and a transmission measurement or a gas pressure reading is used to determine the total uranium content. A transmission spectrum is generated using an x-ray tube and a 'notch' filter. In this dissertation, changes that could occur in the detection efficiency and the transmission errors that could result from variations in pipe-wall thickness will be explored. Additional factors that could contribute to errors in enrichment measurement will also be examined, including changes in the gas pressure, ambient and UF 6 temperature, instrumental errors, and the effects of uranium deposits on the inside of the pipe walls will be considered. The sensitivity of the enrichment calculation to these various parameters will then be evaluated. Previously, UF 6 gas enrichment

  11. Los Alamos National Laboratory case studies on decommissioning of research reactors and a small nuclear facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salazar, M.D.

    1998-01-01

    Approximately 200 contaminated surplus structures require decommissioning at Los Alamos National Laboratory. During the last 10 years, 50 of these structures have undergone decommissioning. These facilities vary from experimental research reactors to process/research facilities contaminated with plutonium-enriched uranium, tritium, and high explosives. Three case studies are presented: (1) a filter building contaminated with transuranic radionuclides; (2) a historical water boiler that operated with a uranyl-nitrate solution; and (3) the ultra-high-temperature reactor experiment, which used enriched uranium as fuel

  12. Los Alamos National Laboratory case studies on decommissioning of research reactors and a small nuclear facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Salazar, M.D.

    1998-12-01

    Approximately 200 contaminated surplus structures require decommissioning at Los Alamos National Laboratory. During the last 10 years, 50 of these structures have undergone decommissioning. These facilities vary from experimental research reactors to process/research facilities contaminated with plutonium-enriched uranium, tritium, and high explosives. Three case studies are presented: (1) a filter building contaminated with transuranic radionuclides; (2) a historical water boiler that operated with a uranyl-nitrate solution; and (3) the ultra-high-temperature reactor experiment, which used enriched uranium as fuel.

  13. Decommissioning Combustible Waste Treatment using Oxygen-Enriched Incinerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Min, Byungyoun; Lee, Yoonji; Yun, Gyoungsu; Lee, Kiwon; Moon, Jeikwon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-05-15

    The aim of the paper is current status of treatment for the decommissioning combustible waste in KAERI and for the purpose of the volume reduction and clearance for decommissioning combustible wastes generated by the decommissioning projects. The incineration technology has been selected for the treatment of combustible wastes. About 34 tons of decommissioning combustible waste has been treated using Oxygen Enriched incineration. Temperature, pressure of major components, stack gas concentration, i. e., SOx, NOx, CO, CO{sub 2} and HCl, and the residual oxygen were measured. Measured major parameters during normal operation were sustained on a stable status within a criteria operation condition. Oxygen enriched air, 22vol. % (dry basis) was used for stable incineration. The volume reduction ratio has achieved about 1/117. The incineration with decommissioning radioactive combustible waste is possible with moderate oxygen enrichment of 22 vol.% (dry basis) into the supply air. The incineration facility operated quite smoothly through the analysis major critical parameters of off-gas. The pressure, off-gas flow and temperature of major components remained constant within the range specified. The measures gases and particulate materials in stack were considerably below the regulatory limits. The achieved volume reduction ratio through incineration is about 1/117.

  14. Advanced enrichment techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, A.

    1988-01-01

    BNFL is in a unique position in that it has commercial experience of diffusion enrichment, and of centrifuge enrichment through its associate company Urenco. In addition BNFL is developing laser enrichment techniques as part of a UK development programme in this area. The paper describes the development programme which led to the introduction of competitive centrifuge enrichment technology by Urenco and discusses the areas where improvements have and will continue to be made in the centrifuge process. It also describes the laser development programme currently being undertaken in the UK. The paper concludes by discussing the relative merits of the various methods of uranium enrichment, with particular reference to the enrichment market likely to obtain over the rest of the century

  15. Advanced enrichment techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, A.

    1987-01-01

    BNFL is in a unique position in that it has commercial experience of diffusion enrichment, and of centrifuge enrichment through its associate company Urenco. In addition BNFL is developing laser enrichment techniques as part of a UK development programme in this area. The paper describes the development programme which led to the introduction of competitive centrifuge enrichment technology by Urenco and discusses the areas where improvements have and will continue to be made in the centrifuge process. It also describes the laser development programme currently being undertaken in the UK. The paper concludes by discussing the relative merits of the various methods of uranium enrichment, with particular reference to the enrichment market likely to obtain over the rest of the century. (author)

  16. Final Environmental Impact Statement for the construction and operation of Claiborne Enrichment Center, Homer, Louisiana (Docket No. 70-3070)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zeitoun, A. [Science Applications International Corp., Germantown, MD (United States)

    1994-08-01

    This two-volume Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in accordance with regulation 10 CFR Part 51, which implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Volume 1 contains the assessment of the potential environmental impacts for licensing the construction and operation of a proposed gaseous centrifuge enrichment facility to be built in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, by Louisiana Energy Services, LP. (LES). The proposed facility would have a production capacity of about 866 metric tons annually of up to 5 weight percent enriched UF{sub 6}, using a proven centrifuge technology. Included in the assessment are construction, both normal operations and potential accidents (internal and external events), and the eventual decontamination and decommissioning (D&D)- of the site. Issues addressed include the purpose and need for the facility, the alternatives to the proposed action, potential disposition of the tails, the site selection process, and environmental justice. The NRC staff concludes that the facility can be constructed and operated with small and acceptable impacts on the public and the environment. The FEIS supports issuance of a license to the applicant, Louisiana Energy Services, to authorize construction and operation of the proposed facility.

  17. Juvenile psittacine environmental enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simone-Freilicher, Elisabeth; Rupley, Agnes E

    2015-05-01

    Environmental enrichment is of great import to the emotional, intellectual, and physical development of the juvenile psittacine and their success in the human home environment. Five major types of enrichment include social, occupational, physical, sensory, and nutritional. Occupational enrichment includes exercise and psychological enrichment. Physical enrichment includes the cage and accessories and the external home environment. Sensory enrichment may be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or taste oriented. Nutritional enrichment includes variations in appearance, type, and frequency of diet, and treats, novelty, and foraging. Two phases of the preadult period deserve special enrichment considerations: the development of autonomy and puberty. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    GAO was asked to address several questions concerning a number of proposed uranium enrichment bills introduced during the 100th Congress. The bill would have restructured the Department of Energy's uranium enrichment program as a government corporation to allow it to compete more effectively in the domestic and international markets. Some of GAO's findings discussed are: uranium market experts believe and existing market models show that the proposed DOE purchase of a $750 million of uranium from domestic producers may not significantly increase production because of large producer-held inventories; excess uranium enrichment production capacity exists throughout the world; therefore, foreign producers are expected to compete heavily in the United States throughout the 1990s as utilities' contracts with DOE expire; and according to a 1988 agreement between DOE's Offices of Nuclear Energy and Defense Programs, enrichment decommissioning costs, estimated to total $3.6 billion for planning purposes, will be shared by the commercial enrichment program and the government

  19. Isotope enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lydtin, H-J.; Wilden, R.J.; Severin, P.J.W.

    1978-01-01

    The isotope enrichment method described is based on the recognition that, owing to mass diffusion and thermal diffusion in the conversion of substances at a heated substrate while depositing an element or compound onto the substrate, enrichment of the element, or a compound of the element, with a lighter isotope will occur. The cycle is repeated for as many times as is necessary to obtain the degree of enrichment required

  20. Elevated CO2 effects on canopy and soil water flux parameters measured using a large chamber in crops grown with free-air CO2 enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burkart, S; Manderscheid, R; Wittich, K-P; Löpmeier, F J; Weigel, H-J

    2011-03-01

    An arable crop rotation (winter barley-sugar beet-winter wheat) was exposed to elevated atmospheric CO(2) concentrations ([CO(2) ]) using a FACE facility (Free-Air CO(2) Enrichment) during two rotation periods. The atmospheric [CO(2) ] of the treatment plots was elevated to 550 ppm during daylight hours (T>5°C). Canopy transpiration (E(C) ) and conductance (G(C) ) were measured at selected intervals (>10% of total growing season) using a dynamic CO(2) /H(2) O chamber measuring system. Plant available soil water content (gravimetry and TDR probes) and canopy microclimate conditions were recorded in parallel. Averaged across both growing seasons, elevated [CO(2) ] reduced E(C) by 9%, 18% and 12%, and G(C) by 9%, 17% and 12% in barley, sugar beet and wheat, respectively. Both global radiation (Rg) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) were the main driving forces of E(C) , whereas G(C) was mostly related to Rg. The responses of E(C) and especially G(C) to [CO(2) ] enrichment were insensitive to weather conditions and leaf area index. However, differences in LAI between plots counteracted the [CO(2) ] impact on E(C) and thus, at least in part, explained the variability of seasonal [CO(2) ] responses between crops and years. As a consequence of lower transpirational canopy water loss, [CO(2) ] enrichment increased plant available soil water content in the course of the season by ca. 15 mm. This was true for all crops and years. Lower transpirational cooling due to a [CO(2) ]-induced reduction of E(C) increased canopy surface and air temperature by up to 2 °C and 0.5 °C, respectively. This is the first study to address effects of FACE on both water fluxes at canopy scale and water status of a European crop rotation. © 2010 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

  1. Influence of urbanization and industrialization on metal enrichment of sediment cores from Shantou Bay, South China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiao, Yongmin; Yang, Yang; Zhao, Jiangang; Tao, Ran; Xu, Ronghua

    2013-01-01

    Four sediment cores were collected to investigate geochemical sources and to assess enrichment and pollution of metals in sediments from Shantou Bay, an area experiencing rapid economic development on the Southeastern Coast of China. The results indicated that the concentrations of the majority of metals showed a decrease with depth, with overall maximum values in the top layers, and that different sampling locations in the Bay received slightly different types of inputs. Three major sources were identified by correlation analysis and principal component analysis: river inputs, metropolitan, and port facilities discharge. Calculation of a pollution load index revealed overall low values, but the enrichment factor values for Pb and Cd were typically high for all cores. The mean concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and to some extent Cd exceeded the Effects-Range-Low values in the majority of the cases, indicating that there were possible ecotoxicological risks to organisms in Shantou Bay. -- Highlights: •Metals had downward decrease with overall maximum value at top layers. •River input, metropolitan and port facilities discharge are identified as major sources. •Pb and Cd are mainly enriched metals. •Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd had potential ecotoxicological risks to organisms in Shantou Bay. -- Shantou Bay was polluted by Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn, and showed an increase trend along time. River input, metropolitan and port facilities were identified as their sources based on multi-analysis

  2. UF/sub 6/ test loop for evaluation and implementation of international enrichment plant safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cooley, J.N.; Fields, L.W.; Swindle, D.W. Jr.

    1987-01-01

    A functional test loop capable of simulating UF/sub 6/ flows, pressures, and pipe deposits characteristic of gas centrifuge enrichment plant piping has been designed and fabricated by the Enrichment Safeguards Program of Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., for use by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at its Safeguards Analytical Laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria. The purpose of the test loop is twofold: (1) to enable the IAEA to evaluate and to calibrate enrichment safeguards measurement instrumentation to be used in limited frequency-unannounced access (LFUA) inspection strategy measurements at gas centrifuge enrichment plants and (2) to train IAEA inspectors in the use of such instrumentation. The test loop incorporates actual sections of cascade header pipes from the centrifuge enrichment plants subject to IAEA inspections. The test loop is described, applications for its use by the IAEA are detailed, and results from an initial demonstration session using the test loop are summarized. By giving the IAEA the in-house capability to evaluate LFUA inspection strategy approaches, to develop inspection procedures, to calibrate instrumentation, and to train inspectors, the UF/sub 6/ cascade header pipe test loop will contribute to the IAEA's success in implementing LFUA strategy inspections at gas centrifuge enrichment facilities subject to international safeguards inspections

  3. Radioactive Waste Issues related to Production of Fission-based Mo-99 by using Low Enriched Uranium (LEU)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hassan, Muhmood ul; Ryu, Ho Jin [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-10-15

    In order to produce fission-based Mo-99 from research reactors, two types of targets are being used and they are highly enriched uranium (HEU) targets with {sup 235}U enrichment more than 90wt% of {sup 235}U and low enriched uranium (LEU) targets with {sup 235}U enrichment less than 20wt% of {sup 235}U. It is worth noting that medium enriched uranium i.e. 36wt% of {sup 235}U as being used in South Africa is also regarded as non-LEU from a nuclear security point of view. In order to cope with the proliferation issues, international nuclear security policy is promoting the use of LEU targets in order to minimize the civilian use of HEU. It is noteworthy that Mo-99 yield of the LEU target is less than 20% of the HEU target, which requires approximately five times more LEU targets to be irradiated and consequently results in increased volume of waste. The waste generated from fission Mo-99 production can be mainly due to: target fabrication, assembling of target, irradiation in reactor and processing of irradiated targets. During the fission of U-235 in a reactor, a large number of radionuclides with different chemical and physical properties are formed. The waste produced from these practices may be a combination of low level waste (LLW) and intermediate level waste (ILW) comprised of all three types, i.e., solid, liquid and gas. Handling and treatment of the generated waste are dependent on its form and activity. In case of the large production facility, waste storage facility should be constructed in order to limit the radiation exposures of the workers and the environment. In this study, we discuss and compare mainly the radioactive waste generated by alkaline digestion of both HEU and LEU targets to assist in planning and deciding the choice of the technology with better arrangements for proper handling and disposal of generated waste. With the use of the LEU targets in Mo-99 production facility, significant increase in liquid and solid waste has been expected.

  4. From the Lab to the real world : sources of error in UF {sub 6} gas enrichment monitoring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lombardi, Marcie L.

    2012-03-01

    Safeguarding uranium enrichment facilities is a serious concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Safeguards methods have changed over the years, most recently switching to an improved safeguards model that calls for new technologies to help keep up with the increasing size and complexity of today’s gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs). One of the primary goals of the IAEA is to detect the production of uranium at levels greater than those an enrichment facility may have declared. In order to accomplish this goal, new enrichment monitors need to be as accurate as possible. This dissertation will look at the Advanced Enrichment Monitor (AEM), a new enrichment monitor designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Specifically explored are various factors that could potentially contribute to errors in a final enrichment determination delivered by the AEM. There are many factors that can cause errors in the determination of uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) gas enrichment, especially during the period when the enrichment is being measured in an operating GCEP. To measure enrichment using the AEM, a passive 186-keV (kiloelectronvolt) measurement is used to determine the {sup 235}U content in the gas, and a transmission measurement or a gas pressure reading is used to determine the total uranium content. A transmission spectrum is generated using an x-ray tube and a “notch” filter. In this dissertation, changes that could occur in the detection efficiency and the transmission errors that could result from variations in pipe-wall thickness will be explored. Additional factors that could contribute to errors in enrichment measurement will also be examined, including changes in the gas pressure, ambient and UF{sub 6} temperature, instrumental errors, and the effects of uranium deposits on the inside of the pipe walls will be considered. The sensitivity of the enrichment calculation to these various parameters will then be evaluated. Previously, UF

  5. Determining initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of pressurized-water-reactor spent fuel assemblies by analyzing passive gamma spectra measured at the Clab interim-fuel storage facility in Sweden

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Favalli, A., E-mail: afavalli@lanl.gov [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States); Vo, D. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States); Grogan, B. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Jansson, P. [Uppsala University, Uppsala (Sweden); Liljenfeldt, H. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Mozin, V. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA (United States); Schwalbach, P. [European Commission, DG Energy, Euratom Safeguards Luxemburg, Luxemburg (Luxembourg); Sjöland, A. [Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, Stockholm (Sweden); Tobin, S.J.; Trellue, H. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States); Vaccaro, S. [European Commission, DG Energy, Euratom Safeguards Luxemburg, Luxemburg (Luxembourg)

    2016-06-01

    The purpose of the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI)–Spent Fuel (SF) project is to strengthen the technical toolkit of safeguards inspectors and/or other interested parties. The NGSI–SF team is working to achieve the following technical goals more easily and efficiently than in the past using nondestructive assay measurements of spent fuel assemblies: (1) verify the initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time of facility declaration; (2) detect the diversion or replacement of pins; (3) estimate the plutonium mass [which is also a function of the variables in (1)]; (4) estimate the decay heat; and (5) determine the reactivity of spent fuel assemblies. Since August 2013, a set of measurement campaigns has been conducted at the Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel (Clab), in collaboration with Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB). One purpose of the measurement campaigns was to acquire passive gamma spectra with high-purity germanium and lanthanum bromide scintillation detectors from Pressurized Water Reactor and Boiling Water Reactor spent fuel assemblies. The absolute {sup 137}Cs count rate and the {sup 154}Eu/{sup 137}Cs, {sup 134}Cs/{sup 137}Cs, {sup 106}Ru/{sup 137}Cs, and {sup 144}Ce/{sup 137}Cs isotopic ratios were extracted; these values were used to construct corresponding model functions (which describe each measured quantity’s behavior over various combinations of burnup, cooling time, and initial enrichment) and then were used to determine those same quantities in each measured spent fuel assembly. The results obtained in comparison with the operator declared values, as well as the methodology developed, are discussed in detail in the paper.

  6. ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING USING LOCATION SPECIFIC AIR MONITORING IN BULK HANDLING FACILITIES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sexton, L.; Hanks, D.; Degange, J.; Brant, H.; Hall, G.; Cable-Dunlap, P.; Anderson, B.

    2011-06-07

    Since the introduction of safeguards strengthening measures approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors (1992-1997), international nuclear safeguards inspectors have been able to utilize environmental sampling (ES) (e.g. deposited particulates, air, water, vegetation, sediments, soil and biota) in their safeguarding approaches at bulk uranium/plutonium handling facilities. Enhancements of environmental sampling techniques used by the IAEA in drawing conclusions concerning the absence of undeclared nuclear materials or activities will soon be able to take advantage of a recent step change improvement in the gathering and analysis of air samples at these facilities. Location specific air monitoring feasibility tests have been performed with excellent results in determining attribute and isotopic composition of chemical elements present in an actual test-bed sample. Isotopic analysis of collected particles from an Aerosol Contaminant Extractor (ACE) collection, was performed with the standard bulk sampling protocol used throughout the IAEA network of analytical laboratories (NWAL). The results yielded bulk isotopic values expected for the operations. Advanced designs of air monitoring instruments such as the ACE may be used in gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEP) to detect the production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) or enrichments not declared by a State. Researchers at Savannah River National Laboratory in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing the next generation of ES equipment for air grab and constant samples that could become an important addition to the international nuclear safeguards inspector's toolkit. Location specific air monitoring to be used to establish a baseline environmental signature of a particular facility employed for comparison of consistencies in declared operations will be described in this paper. Implementation of air monitoring will be contrasted against the use of smear

  7. Uranium enrichment plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thomas, D.C.; Gagne, R.W.

    1978-01-01

    The following topics are covered: the status of the Government's existing uranium enrichment services contracts, natural uranium requirements based on the latest contract information, uncertainty in predicting natural uranium requirements based on uranium enrichment contracts, and domestic and foreign demand assumed in enrichment planning

  8. Education and training at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reactor critical facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harris, D.R.

    1989-01-01

    The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Reactor Critical Facility (RCF) has provided hands-on education and training for RPI and other students for almost a quarter of a century. The RCF was built in the 1950s by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) as a critical facility in which to carry out experiments in support of the Army Package power Reactor (APPR) program. A number of APPRs were built and operated. In the middle 1960s, ALCO went out of business and provided the facility to RPI. Since that time, RPI has operated the RCF primarily in a teaching mode in the nuclear engineering department, although limited amounts of reactor research, activation analysis, and reactivity assays have been carried out as well. Recently, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) upgrade program supported refueling the RCF with 4.81 wt% enriched UO 2 high-density pellets clad in stainless steel rods. The use of these SPERT (F1) fuel rods in the RCF provided a cost-effective approach to conversion from high-enrichment bombgrade fuel to low-enrichment fuel. More important, however, is the fact that the new fuel is of current interest for light water power reactors with extended lifetime fuel. Thus, not only are critical reactor experiments being carried out on the fuel but, more importantly, the quality of the education and training has been enhanced

  9. Converting targets and processes for fission-product molybdenum-99 from high- to low-enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vandegrift, G.F.; Snelgrove, J.L.; Aase, S.

    1999-01-01

    Most of the world's supply of 99 Mo is produced by the fissioning of 235 U in high-enriched uranium targets (HEU, generally 93% 235 U). To reduce nuclear-proliferation concerns, the U.S. Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor Program is working to convert the current HEU targets to low-enriched uranium (LEU, 235 U). Switching to LEU targets also requires modifying the separation processes. Current HEU processes can be classified into two main groups based on whether the irradiated target is dissolved in acid or base. Our program has been working on both fronts, with development of targets for acid-side processes being the furthest along. However, using an LEU metal foil target may allow the facile replacement of HEU for both acid and basic dissolution processes. Demonstration of the irradiation and 99 Mo separation processes for the LEU metal-foil targets is being done in cooperation with researchers at the Indonesian PUSPIPTEK facility. We are also developing LEU UO 2 /Al dispersion plates as substitutes for HEU UA1 x /A1 dispersion plates for base-side processes. Results show that conversion to LEU is technically feasible; working with producers is essential to lowering any economic penalty associated with conversion. (author)

  10. High Temperature Oxidation of Steel in an Oxygen-enriched Low NOX Furnace Environment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poirier, D.; Grandmaison, E.W. [Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen' s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 (Canada); Matovic, M.D. [Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen' s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 (Canada); Barnes, K.R. [KB Technical Services, Inc (formerly) Stelco Inc, Research Manager, Stelco Inc., P.O. Box 2030, Hamilton, ON L8N 3T1 (Canada); Nelson, B.D. [Department of Chemical Engineering, Senior Researcher, Dofasco Inc., P.O. Box 2460, Hamilton, ON L8N 3J5 (Canada)

    2006-09-15

    Steel scaling tests have been performed in a research furnace utilizing an oxygen-enriched, low NOX, burner. This work was performed in conjunction with a study of the combustion characteristics for the Canadian Gas Research Institute (CGRI) low NOX burner. The furnace (a facility of the Centre for Advanced Gas Combustion Technology (CAGCT)) was fired with the burner mounted in a sidewall configuration similar to the geometry encountered in steel reheat furnaces. Scale habit, intactness, adhesion and oxidation rates were examined for five grades of steel over a range of stack oxygen concentrations ({approx}0.8% - {approx}4.3%) and oxygen enrichment levels (0-90%) at 1100C. Steel grade had the largest effect on scaling properties examined in this work. Within the tests for each grade, stack oxygen concentration had the largest effect on the scaling properties while oxygen enrichment level had only a small effect.

  11. Development of uranium enrichment technology by gas centrifugation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sibata, Tomofumi; Kai, Tsunetoshi

    1996-01-01

    The development of a gas-centrifuge for uranium enrichment has been conducted by Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation in Japan after the first several years' fruitless works, the R and D works came to the point and continuing rapid improvements of centrifuges have started, Cascade tests were given with C-1 and C-2 cascade experimental facilities. Life, reliability and feasibility tests were given with the pilot plant and the demonstration plant. As a result of these works, the private commercial plant has started the operation. Although the main efforts were devoted to the development of metal rotor centrifuges in the course mentioned above, composite material rotor centrifuges have also been developed in parallel to achieve higher performance. Promising results have been being obtained with cascade test facilities on the pilot plant scale. Furthermore, R and D works are being proceeded on more excellent and advanced centrifuges. (author)

  12. Getting the plutonium disposition job done: the concept of a joint-venture disposition enterprise financed by additional sales of highly enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bunn, M.

    1996-01-01

    The paper gives an outline of a concept which has the potential to provide both substantial financing needed for disposition of plutonium from excess nuclear weapons and the long-term management structure required to implement this effort. The three most important issues were underlined. First, it is urgent to modernize security and accounting systems for all weapon-usable nuclear materials, particularly from former Soviet Union. Second, excess plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) must be brought under international monitoring to ensure irreversibility of nuclear arms reduction. Third, quick move should be done towards actual disposition of excess plutonium and HEU. Technology already exists, but the key issues are how to get finance and manage this operation, particularly given its immense scope and controversial nature. An international joint venture 'Enterprise for nuclear Security' that would build and operate plutonium disposition facilities under stringent non-proliferation controls, financed through additional sales of HEU is a potentially promising approach to addressing the most difficult issues facing the disposition problem

  13. Other enrichment related contracts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hall, J.C.

    1978-01-01

    In addition to long-term enrichment contracts, DOE has other types of contracts: (1) short-term, fixed-commitment enrichment contract; (2) emergency sales agreement for enriched uranium; (3) feed material lease agreement; (4) enriched uranium storage agreement; and (5) feed material usage agreement

  14. Fuel-cycle facilities: preliminary safety and environmental information document. Volume VII

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1980-01-01

    Information is presented concerning the mining and milling of uranium and thorium; uranium hexafluoride conversion; enrichment; fuel fabrication; reprocessing; storage options; waste disposal options; transportation; heavy-water-production facilities; and international fuel service centers.

  15. Fuel-cycle facilities: preliminary safety and environmental information document. Volume VII

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1980-01-01

    Information is presented concerning the mining and milling of uranium and thorium; uranium hexafluoride conversion; enrichment; fuel fabrication; reprocessing; storage options; waste disposal options; transportation; heavy-water-production facilities; and international fuel service centers

  16. Mowing exacerbates the loss of ecosystem stability under nitrogen enrichment in a temperate grassland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yunhai; Loreau, Michel; He, Nianpeng; Zhang, Guangming; Han, Xingguo

    2017-08-04

    1. Global reactive nitrogen (N) is projected to further increase in the coming years. Previous studies have demonstrated that N enrichment weakens the temporal stability of the ecosystem and the primary productivity through decreased biodiversity and species asynchrony. Mowing is a globally common practise in grasslands; and infrequent mowing can maintain or increase plant diversity under N enrichment conditions. However, it is unclear how infrequent mowing affects ecosystem stability in the face of N enrichment. 2. By independently manipulating the frequency (twice vs. monthly additions per year) and rate (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 50 g N m -2 year -1 ) of NH 4 NO 3 inputs and mowing (unmown vs. mown) over 3 years (2011-2013) in a temperate grassland of northern China, we aimed to examine the interactive effects of N enrichment and mowing on ecosystem stability. 3. The results show that mowing maintained a positive relationship between species richness and ecosystem stability despite N addition, but that it exacerbated the negative effects of N addition on ecosystem stability. Mowing increased mean primary productivity and plant species richness, but it also increased the synchrony of population fluctuations and the variability of primary productivity under N enrichment, thereby contributing to a decline in the ecosystem stability. 4. Thus, our study reveals that infrequent mowing can buffer the negative effects of N enrichment on biodiversity to some extent and further increase the primary productivity, but it exacerbates the loss of ecosystem stability with N enrichment, thereby threatening local and/or semiarid regional food security.

  17. Availability of enriched stable isotopes: present status and future prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoff, R.W.

    1986-01-01

    The Electromagnetic Isotope Enrichment Facility (EMIEF) is currently used to produce 225 enriched stable isotopes of 50 elements. Among these are included most of the known elements with stable isotopes except for the noble gases, certain light elements, monisotopic elements, etc. The EMIEF can also be used to produce enriched samples of radioactive species, most notably the isotopes of uranium and plutonium. These enriched materials are placed in either the Sales Inventory of in the Research Materials Collection (RMC). The materials in the Sales Inventory are for sale to anyone on a first come, first served basis. Prices in the most recent catalog range from $0.05/mg for 99.8% 140 Ce to $1,267/mg for 98.5% 176 Lu. The materials in the RMC are made available to US researchers (or groups that include a US investigator) on a loan basis for use in non-destructive experiments and applications. In addition, certain samples have been provided to European investigators for cross-section studies through the auspices of EURATOM and the European-American Nuclear Data Committee. The status of the enriched isotopes included in the Sales Inventory is tabulated where isotopes are listed that are either not available or are in insufficient quantity or quality to meet current requests, as of 6/30/86. These can be summarized in the following subcategories: isotopes with zero inventory (22), Isotopes of insufficient quantity (17), and isotopes with insufficient enrichment quality (10). Of these 49 species, the supplies of 10 will be replenished by the scheduled FY86 enrichments in process (isotopes of bromine, calcium, nickel, potassium, rubidium, and strontium). In Table 3 are listed isotopes where the current inventory is less than the average annual sales level for the past five years. There are 47 isotopes listed, representing 25 different elements. Thus, there exists considerable potential for a substantial increase in the number of isotopes with zero inventory

  18. Clean-out and Reuse of GCEP Facilities at Portsmouth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franz, William; Hickman, Mark; Wiehle, Kristi

    2008-01-01

    PORTS began operations in 1956 to enrich uranium for both civilian and military use. It operated under Goodyear Atomic Corporation and Lockheed-Martin as a government-owned contractor-operated facility until the formation of the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) as a government corporation in 1993. In 1998, USEC was privatized as a publicly traded corporation. USEC leases the Portsmouth and Paducah GDPs from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Enrichment operations were terminated at Portsmouth in 2001, although USEC continues to lease and maintain the Portsmouth GDP in Cold Shutdown and conduct some DOE projects there. LPP found that removal of old equipment to allow reuse of a facility can present unexpected challenges. Classified components create significant logistics issues. In this case, teamwork and attention to detail by USEC, LATA/Parallax, and DOE resulted in solutions and success. Lessons learnt: - Transportation logistics are particularly important when shipping waste streams with special requirements. - Investment in extra equipment yields tangible benefits where other resources (cleared drivers) are scarce. - An early start to providing specially qualified drivers, in this case providing security clearances, is essential. Availability is limited, and the time required to qualify new drivers may be lengthy. - A dedicated communications station, rather than reliance on existing resources (shift superintendent), is invaluable

  19. Face Spoof Attack Recognition Using Discriminative Image Patches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahid Akhtar

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Face recognition systems are now being used in many applications such as border crossings, banks, and mobile payments. The wide scale deployment of facial recognition systems has attracted intensive attention to the reliability of face biometrics against spoof attacks, where a photo, a video, or a 3D mask of a genuine user’s face can be used to gain illegitimate access to facilities or services. Though several face antispoofing or liveness detection methods (which determine at the time of capture whether a face is live or spoof have been proposed, the issue is still unsolved due to difficulty in finding discriminative and computationally inexpensive features and methods for spoof attacks. In addition, existing techniques use whole face image or complete video for liveness detection. However, often certain face regions (video frames are redundant or correspond to the clutter in the image (video, thus leading generally to low performances. Therefore, we propose seven novel methods to find discriminative image patches, which we define as regions that are salient, instrumental, and class-specific. Four well-known classifiers, namely, support vector machine (SVM, Naive-Bayes, Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA, and Ensemble, are then used to distinguish between genuine and spoof faces using a voting based scheme. Experimental analysis on two publicly available databases (Idiap REPLAY-ATTACK and CASIA-FASD shows promising results compared to existing works.

  20. Materials safeguards and accountability in the low enriched uranium conversion-fabrication sector of the fuel cycle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schneider, R.A.; Nilson, R.; Jaech, J.L.

    1978-01-01

    Today materials accounting in the low enriched conversion-fabrication sector of the LWR fuel cycle is of increased importance. Low enriched uranium is rapidly becoming a precious metal with current dollar values in the range of one dollar per gram comparing with gold and platinum at 7-8 dollars per gram. In fact, people argue that its dollar value exceeds its safeguards value. Along with this increased financial incentive for better material control, the nuclear industry is faced with the impending implementation of international safeguards and increased public attention over its ability to control nuclear materials. Although no quantity of low enriched uranium (LEU) constitutes a practical nuclear explosive, its control is important to international safeguards because of plutonium production or further enrichment to an explosive grade material. The purpose of the paper is to examine and discuss some factors in the area of materials safeguards and accountability as they apply to the low enriched uranium conversion-fabrication sector. The paper treats four main topics: basis for materials accounting; our assessment of the proposed new IAEA requirements; adequacy of current practices; and timing and direction of future modifications

  1. ELEVATED CO{sub 2} IN A PROTOTYPE FREE-AIR CO{sub 2} ENRICHMENT FACILITY AFFECTS PHOTOSYNTHETIC NITROGEN RELATIONS IN A MATURING PINE FOREST

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    ELLSWORTH,D.S.; LA ROCHE,J.; HENDREY,G.R.

    1998-03-01

    A maturing loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forest was exposed to elevated CO{sub 2} in the natural environment in a perturbation study conducted over three seasons using the free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment (FACE) technique. At the time measurements were begun in this study, the pine canopy was comprised entirely of foliage which had developed under elevated CO{sub 2} conditions (atmospheric [CO{sub 2}] {approx} 550 {micro}mol mol{sup {minus}1}). Measurements of leaf photosynthetic responses to CO{sub 2} were taken to examine the effects of elevated CO{sub 2} on photosynthetic N nutrition in a pine canopy under elevated CO{sub 2}. Photosynthetic CO{sub 2} response curves (A-c{sub i} curves) were similar in FACE trees under elevated CO{sub 2} compared with counterpart trees in ambient plots for the first foliage cohort produced in the second season of CO{sub 2} exposure, with changes in curve form detected in the foliage cohorts subsequently produced under elevated CO{sub 2}. Differences in the functional relationship between carboxylation rate and N{sub a} suggest that for a given N{sub a} allocated among successive cohorts of foliage in the upper canopy, V{sub c max} was 17% lower in FACE versus Ambient trees. The authors also found that foliar Rubisco content per unit total protein derived from Western blot analysis was lower in late-season foliage in FACE foliage compared with ambient-grown foliage. The results illustrate a potentially important mode of physiological adjustment to growth conditions that may operate in forest canopies. Their findings suggest that mature loblolly pine trees growing in the field may have the capacity for shifts in intrinsic nitrogen utilization for photosynthesis under elevated CO{sub 2} that are not dependent on changes in leaf N. While carboxylation efficiency per unit N apparently decreased under elevated CO{sub 2}, photosynthetic rates in trees at elevated CO{sub 2} concentrations {approx} 550 pmol mol{sub {minus}1} are still

  2. On-Line Enrichment Monitor for UF{sub 6} Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ianakiev, K. D.; Boyer, B.; Favalli, A.; Goda, J. M.; Hill, T.; Keller, C.; Lombardi, M.; Paffett, M.; MacArthur, D. W.; McCluskey, C.; Moss, C. E.; Parker, R.; Smith, M. K.; Swinhoe, M. T. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos (United States)

    2012-06-15

    This paper is a continuation of the Advanced Enrichment Monitoring Technology for UF{sub 6} Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant (GCEP) work, presented in the 2010 IAEA Safeguards Symposium. Here we will present the system architecture for a planned side-by-side field trial test of passive (186-keV line spectroscopy and pressure-based correction for UF{sub 6} gas density) and active (186-keV line spectroscopy and transmission measurement based correction for UF{sub 6} gas density) enrichment monitoring systems in URENCO's enrichment plant in Capenhurst. Because the pressure and transmission measurements of UF{sub 6} are complementary, additional information on the importance of the presence of light gases and the UF{sub 6} gas temperature can be obtained by cross-correlation between simultaneous measurements of transmission, pressure and 186-keV intensity. We will discuss the calibration issues and performance in the context of accurate, on-line enrichment measurement. It is hoped that a simple and accurate on-line enrichment monitor can be built using the UF{sub 6} gas pressure provided by the Operator, based on online mass spectrometer calibration, assuming a negligible (a small fraction of percent) contribution of wall deposits. Unaccounted-for wall deposits present at the initial calibration will lead to unwanted sensitivity to changes in theUF{sub 6} gas pressure and thus to error in the enrichment results. Because the accumulated deposits in the cascade header pipe have been identified as an issue for Go/No Go measurements with the Cascade Header Enrichment Monitor (CHEM) and Continuous Enrichment Monitor (CEMO), it is important to explore their effect. Therefore we present the expected uncertainty on enrichment measurements obtained by propagating the errors introduced by deposits, gas density, etc. and will discuss the options for a deposit correction during initial calibration of an On-Line Enrichment Monitor (OLEM).

  3. Design of a single variable helium effects experiment for irradiation in FFTF [Fast Flux Test Facility] using alloys enriched in nickel 59

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Simons, R.L.; Brager, H.R.; Matsumoto, W.Y.

    1986-03-01

    Nickel enriched in nickel 59 was extracted from the fragments of a fracture toughness specimen of Inconel 600 irradiated in the Engineering Test Reactor (ETR). The nickel contained 2.0% nickel 59. Three heats of austenitic steel doped with nickel-59 were prepared and inserted in the Materials Open Test Assembly (MOTA) of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). The experiment was single variable in helium effects because chemically identical alloys without nickel-59 were being irradiated side by side with the doped material. The alloys doped with nickel 59 produced 10 to 100 times more helium than the control alloys. The materials included ternary and quaternary alloys in the form of transmission electron microscope (TEM) discs and miniature tensile specimens. The helium to dpa ratio was in the range 5 to 35 and was nearly constant throughout the irradiation. The exposures ranged from 0.25 to 50 displacements per atom (dpa) over the duration of the experiment. The irradiation temperatures covered the range of 360 to 600 0 C

  4. Technologies and methods used for the detection, enrichment and characterization of cancer stem cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Anthony; Datar, Ram; Cote, Richard

    2010-01-01

    Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a subclass of tumour cells with the ability for self-renewal, production of differentiated progeny, prolonged survival, resistance to damaging therapeutic agents, and anchorage-independent survival, which together make this population effectively equipped to metastasize, invade and colonize secondary tissues in the face of therapeutic intervention. In recent years, investigators have increasingly focused on the characterization of CSCs to better understand the mechanisms that govern malignant disease progression in an effort to develop more effective, targeted therapeutic agents. The primary obstacle to the study of CSCs, however, is their rarity. Thus, the study of CSCs requires the use of sensitive and efficient technologies for their enrichment and detection. This review discusses technologies and methods that have been adapted and used to isolate and characterize CSCs to date, as well as new potential directions for the enhanced enrichment and detection of CSCs. While the technologies used for CSC enrichment and detection have been useful thus far for their characterization, each approach is not without limitations. Future studies of CSCs will depend on the enhanced sensitivity and specificity of currently available technologies, and the development of novel technologies for increased detection and enrichment of CSCs.

  5. Uranium enrichment using gas centrifugation. An analysis focusing export control; Urananrikning med gascentrifugering. En analys med fokus paa exportkontroll

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oliver, Lena; Peterson, Jenny; Wilhelmsen, Katarina [Swedish Defense Research Inst., Stockholm (Sweden)

    2005-08-01

    The Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, has performed a study on uranium enrichment by gas centrifugation. The theory and principles of gas centrifugation is described in this report and relevant equipment used in the process has been identified. Different aspects of operating a gas centrifuge facility - and its indicators - are also presented. The separation efficiency and the flow of material through a centrifuge are very small, and therefore, a large number of centrifuges in cascades is needed to produce a larger amount of enriched uranium within a reasonable time. Countries with nuclear weapons ambitions often show an interest in gas centrifuges to produce weapons grade uranium - if they have managed to acquire the technology - because of the efficiency of the process and since it is relatively easy to conceal. Most equipment used in gas centrifuge facilities is under export control to prevent clandestine uranium enrichment. The Nuclear Suppliers' Group has compiled lists of nuclear related equipment and components that are of importance to export control. The control lists have also been included in the EU legislation.

  6. Organization and staffing of the regulatory body for nuclear facilities. Safety guide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this safety guide is to provide recommendations for national authorities on the appropriate management system, organization and staffing for the regulatory body responsible for the regulation of nuclear facilities in order to achieve compliance with the applicable safety requirements. This safety guide covers the organization and staffing in relation to nuclear facilities such as: enrichment and fuel manufacturing plants. Nuclear power plants. Other reactors such as research reactors and critical assemblies. Spent fuel reprocessing plants. And radioactive waste management facilities such as treatment, storage and disposal facilities. This safety guide also covers issues related to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, the closure of waste disposal facilities and site rehabilitation

  7. Results of Cesar II critical facility with low enriched fuel balls

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Langlet, G; Guerange, J; Laponche, B; Morier, F; Neef, R D; Bock, H J; Kring, F J; Scherer, W

    1972-06-15

    The Cesar facility has been transformed to load in its center a pebble bed fuel. This new Cesar assembly is called Cesar II. The program for the measurements with HTR type fuel balls is managed under a cooperation between physicists of CEA/CADARACHE and KFA/JUELICH. A description of the measuring zones of Cesar II and of the experimental results is given.

  8. Economic and Non-proliferation Policy Considerations of Uranium Enrichment in Brazil and Argentina

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Short, Steven M.; Phillips, Jon R.; Weimar, Mark R.; Mahy, Heidi A.

    2008-01-01

    The nuclear development programs of both Argentina and Brazil have, since the 1970s, been premised on the desire for self-sufficiency and assurance of nuclear fuel supply. While military rivalry and mutual distrust led to nuclear weapons related development programs in the 1970s and 1980s, both countries have since terminated these programs. Furthermore, the governments of both countries have pledged their commitment to exclusively non-explosive use of nuclear energy and have signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Utilizing rights provided for under the NPT, both Argentina and Brazil have nuclear fuel production facilities, with the notable exception of enrichment plants, that provide much of the current indigenous fuel requirements for their nuclear power plants. However, both countries are actively developing enrichment capability to fill this gap. The purpose of this report is to assess the economic basis and non-proliferation policy considerations for indigenous enrichment capability within the context of their desired self-sufficiency and to evaluate possible United States Government policy options.

  9. Economic and Non-proliferation Policy Considerations of Uranium Enrichment in Brazil and Argentina

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Short, Steven M.; Phillips, Jon R.; Weimar, Mark R.; Mahy, Heidi A.

    2008-09-01

    The nuclear development programs of both Argentina and Brazil have, since the 1970s, been premised on the desire for self-sufficiency and assurance of nuclear fuel supply. While military rivalry and mutual distrust led to nuclear weapons related development programs in the 1970s and 1980s, both countries have since terminated these programs. Furthermore, the governments of both countries have pledged their commitment to exclusively non-explosive use of nuclear energy and have signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Utilizing rights provided for under the NPT, both Argentina and Brazil have nuclear fuel production facilities, with the notable exception of enrichment plants, that provide much of the current indigenous fuel requirements for their nuclear power plants. However, both countries are actively developing enrichment capability to fill this gap. The purpose of this report is to assess the economic basis and non-proliferation policy considerations for indigenous enrichment capability within the context of their desired self-sufficiency and to evaluate possible United States Government policy options.

  10. A Framework for Managing Core Facilities within the Research Enterprise

    OpenAIRE

    Haley, Rand

    2009-01-01

    Core facilities represent increasingly important operational and strategic components of institutions' research enterprises, especially in biomolecular science and engineering disciplines. With this realization, many research institutions are placing more attention on effectively managing core facilities within the research enterprise. A framework is presented for organizing the questions, challenges, and opportunities facing core facilities and the academic units and institutions in which th...

  11. Problems faced by newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus patients at ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Diabetes mellitus can be a frightening experience for newly diagnosed patients. The aim of this study was to determine and describe the problems faced by newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus patients at primary healthcare facilities at Mopani district, Limpopo Province. A qualitative, descriptive and contextual research ...

  12. Uranium Enrichment, an overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coates, J.H.

    1994-01-01

    This general presentation on uranium enrichment will be followed by lectures on more specific topics including descriptions of enrichment processes and assessments of the prevailing commercial and industrial situations. I shall therefore avoid as much as possible duplications with these other lectures, and rather dwell on: some theoretical aspects of enrichment in general, underlying the differences between statistical and selective processes, a review and comparison between enrichment processes, remarks of general order regarding applications, the proliferation potential of enrichment. It is noteworthy that enrichment: may occur twice in the LWR fuel cycle: first by enriching natural uranium, second by reenriching uranium recovered from reprocessing, must meet LWR requirements, and in particular higher assays required by high burn up fuel elements, bears on the structure of the entire front part of the fuel cycle, namely in the conversion/reconversion steps only involving UF 6 for the moment. (author). tabs., figs., 4 refs

  13. Familiar face + novel face = familiar face? Representational bias in the perception of morphed faces in chimpanzees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoshi-Taka Matsuda

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Highly social animals possess a well-developed ability to distinguish the faces of familiar from novel conspecifics to induce distinct behaviors for maintaining society. However, the behaviors of animals when they encounter ambiguous faces of familiar yet novel conspecifics, e.g., strangers with faces resembling known individuals, have not been well characterised. Using a morphing technique and preferential-looking paradigm, we address this question via the chimpanzee’s facial–recognition abilities. We presented eight subjects with three types of stimuli: (1 familiar faces, (2 novel faces and (3 intermediate morphed faces that were 50% familiar and 50% novel faces of conspecifics. We found that chimpanzees spent more time looking at novel faces and scanned novel faces more extensively than familiar or intermediate faces. Interestingly, chimpanzees looked at intermediate faces in a manner similar to familiar faces with regards to the fixation duration, fixation count, and saccade length for facial scanning, even though the participant was encountering the intermediate faces for the first time. We excluded the possibility that subjects merely detected and avoided traces of morphing in the intermediate faces. These findings suggest a bias for a feeling-of-familiarity that chimpanzees perceive familiarity with an intermediate face by detecting traces of a known individual, as 50% alternation is sufficient to perceive familiarity.

  14. Description of the RA-3 research reactor as a model facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vicens, Hugo E.; Quintana, Jorge A.

    2001-01-01

    The Argentine RA-3 reactor is described as a model facility for the information to be provided to the IAEA in accordance with the requirements of the Model Additional Protocol. RA-3 reactor was designed as a 5 MW swimming pool reactor, moderated and cooled with light water. Its fuel was 90% enriched uranium. The reactor started its operation in 1967, has been modified and improved in many components, including the core, that now is fueled with moderately enriched uranium

  15. Studies of MHD generator performance with oxygen enriched coal combustion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wormhoudt, J.; Yousefian, V.; Kolb, C. E.; Martinez-Sanchez, M.

    1980-07-01

    This paper presents calculations made using the Aerodyne PACKAGE (Plasma Analysis, Chemical Kinetics, and Generator Efficiency) computer code which bear on two questions which arise in connection with choices between oxygen enrichment and air preheating to attain the high combustion temperatures needed for open-cycle, coal-fired MHD power generation. The first question is which method produces the highest enthalpy extraction per unit channel length. The second is, in test facilities intended to study tradeoffs between oxygen enrichment and preheated air, can good generator performance be obtained from the same physical channel for different combustor compositions. The answer to the first question is found to depend on what combustor conditions are taken to be comparable. As for the second question, it is found that operation with channel input from off-design combustor conditions can cause serious problems, which can be partially alleviated by changing the channel load factors.

  16. Over facility design description for the CPDF [Centrifuge Plant Demonstration Facility]: SDD-1 [System Design Description

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-04-01

    The Centrifuge Plant Demonstration Facility (CPDF) is an essential part of the continuing development of first-production-plant centrifuge technology that will integrate centrifuge machines into a process and enrichment plant design. The CPDF will provide facilities for testing and continued development of a unit cascade in direct support of the commercial Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant (GCEP). The basic cascade-oriented equipment, feed, withdrawal, drive system, process piping, utility piping, and other auxiliary and support equipment will be tested in an operating configuration that represents, to the extent possible, GCEP arrangement and operating conditions. The objective will be to demonstrate procedures for production cascade installation, start-up, operation, and maintenance, and to provide proof of overall cascade and associated system design, construction, and operating and maintenance concepts. To the maximum possible extent, all equipment for the CPDF will be procured from commercial sources. Centrifuges will be procured from industry using government-supplied specifications and drawings. The existing Component Preparation Laboratory (CPL) located near the CPDF site will be used for centrifuge component receiving, inspection, assembly, and qualification testing of pre-production test machines. Later in the test program, samples of production machines planned for use in the GCEP will be tested in the CPDF

  17. Uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohrhauer, H.

    1982-01-01

    The separation of uranium isotopes in order to enrich the fuel for light water reactors with the light isotope U-235 is an important part of the nuclear fuel cycle. After the basic principals of isotope separation the gaseous diffusion and the centrifuge process are explained. Both these techniques are employed on an industrial scale. In addition a short review is given on other enrichment techniques which have been demonstrated at least on a laboratory scale. After some remarks on the present situation on the enrichment market the progress in the development and the industrial exploitation of the gas centrifuge process by the trinational Urenco-Centec organisation is presented. (orig.)

  18. United States uranium enrichment policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roberts, R.W.

    1977-01-01

    ERDA's uranium enrichment program policies governing the manner in which ERDA's enrichment complex is being operated and expanded to meet customer requirements for separative work, research and development activities directed at providing technology alternatives for future enrichment capacity, and establishing the framework for additional domestic uranium enrichment capacity to meet the domestic and foreign nuclear industry's growing demand for enrichment services are considered. The ERDA enrichment complex consists of three gaseous diffusion plants located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; and Portsmouth, Ohio. Today, these plants provide uranium enrichment services for commercial nuclear power generation. These enrichment services are provided under contracts between the Government and the utility customers. ERDA's program involves a major pilot plant cascade, and pursues an advanced isotope separation technique for the late 1980's. That the United States must develop additional domestic uranium enrichment capacity is discussed

  19. Blueprint for domestic uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-01-01

    The AEC advisory committee on domestic production of uranium enrichment has studied for more than a year how to achieve the domestic enrichment of uranium by the construction and operation of a commercial enriching plant using centrifugal separation method, and the report was submitted to the Atomic Energy Commission on August 18, 1980. Japan has depended wholly on overseas services for her uranium enrichment needs, but the development of domestic enrichment has been carried on in parallel. The AEC decided to construct a uranium enrichment pilot plant using centrifuges, and it has been forwarded as a national project. The plant is operated by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. since 1979. The capacity of the plant will be raised to approximately 75 ton SWU a year. The centrifuges already operated have provided the first delivery of fuel of about 1 ton for the ATR ''Fugen''. The demand-supply balance of uranium enrichment service, the significance of the domestic enrichment of uranium, the evaluation of uranium enrichment technology, the target for domestic enrichment plan, the measures to promote domestic uranium enrichment, and the promotion of the construction of a demonstration plant are reported. (Kako, I.)

  20. Process for the preparation of deuterium enriched water in the production of hydrogen

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mandrin, Ch.

    1986-01-01

    A synthesis gas facility is operated for n consecutive periods. During the first period excess feed water is added to the facility. The effluent from the resulting mixture is fed to a storage container. During the following n-1 operating periods the stored effluent water is used as feed for the synthesis gas facility. The effluent from each operating period is stored in layers with corresponding deuterium concentration in the storage container. The effluent from the last operating period involving the highest deuterium concentration is fed to a second container and from there to a heavy water production unit. In order to recuperate the deuterium contained in the gas mixture leaving the condensor (consisting of hydrogen, vapour and residual compounds), the mixture is fed to an exchange stage. There the mixture is isotopically exchanged with additional water in a cross flow whereby this water gets enriched in deuterium and is fed to the synthesis gas facility. The process leads to an improved yield of heavy water in the heavy water production facility

  1. Uranium-enrichment-pricing oversight. Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, Ninety-Seventh Congress, First Session, June 5, 1981

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1981-01-01

    Loring Mills of the Edison Electric Institute, Dexter J. Peach of the General Accounting Office, and William R. Voight, Jr. of the Office of Uranium Enrichment and Assessment of DOE testified at a June 5, 1981 hearing on whether accounting for uranium enrichment services should be based on simple cost-recovery or on fair-value pricing. The former method serves as a subsidy to the nuclear industry, which distorts both the domestic and foreign markets, but is also a component of the US nonproliferation policy. Among the issues discussed were whether an overcapacity exists in enrichment capability, the declining demand for US enrichment services, and the future of gaseous diffusion facilities

  2. Isotopes facilities deactivation project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eversole, R.E.

    1997-01-01

    The production and distribution of radioisotopes for medical, scientific, and industrial applications has been a major activity at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since the late 1940s. As the demand for many of these isotopes grew and their sale became profitable, the technology for the production of the isotopes was transferred to private industry, and thus, many of the production facilities at ORNL became underutilized. In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) instructed ORNL to identify and prepare various isotopes production facilities for safe shutdown. In response, ORNL identified 19 candidate facilities for shutdown and established the Isotopes Facilities Shutdown Program. In 1993, responsibility for the program was transitioned from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy to the DOE Office of Environmental Management and Uranium Enrichment Operation's Office of Facility Transition and Management. The program was retitled the Isotopes Facilities Deactivation Project (IFDP), and implementation responsibility was transferred from ORNL to the Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. (LMES), Environmental Restoration (ER) Program

  3. Isotopes facilities deactivation project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eversole, R.E.

    1997-05-01

    The production and distribution of radioisotopes for medical, scientific, and industrial applications has been a major activity at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since the late 1940s. As the demand for many of these isotopes grew and their sale became profitable, the technology for the production of the isotopes was transferred to private industry, and thus, many of the production facilities at ORNL became underutilized. In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) instructed ORNL to identify and prepare various isotopes production facilities for safe shutdown. In response, ORNL identified 19 candidate facilities for shutdown and established the Isotopes Facilities Shutdown Program. In 1993, responsibility for the program was transitioned from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy to the DOE Office of Environmental Management and Uranium Enrichment Operation`s Office of Facility Transition and Management. The program was retitled the Isotopes Facilities Deactivation Project (IFDP), and implementation responsibility was transferred from ORNL to the Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. (LMES), Environmental Restoration (ER) Program.

  4. PULSTAR fuel, low enrichment, long lifetime, economical, proven

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carter, Robert E.; Leonard, Bobby E.

    1993-01-01

    In 1962, the Western New York Research Center, Inc., located at the State University of New York at Buffalo, decided they had a need for a reactor with pulsing and high power steady state capabilities. Both General Atomic and the American Machine and Foundry Corporation (AMF) were contacted to ascertain if it were feasible to construct a dual purpose reactor of this type. The General Atomic proposal indicated the feasibility but would not warrant a steady state power of 2 MW with ultimate capability of 5 MW. AMF did provide a conceptual design for such a dual reactor, call the PULSTAR, and sufficient design information to confirm that the operating specifications could be met. The PULSTAR fuel consisted of 6 enrichment UO 2 sintered pellets in zircaloy tubes (pins) mounted in a x 5 array inside a fuel assembly. The fuel design was patterned after fuel that was under development for light water power reactors and that had been extensively tested under high power pulse conditions in the SPERT Test Reactor. The fuel assemblies are rectangular in a horizontal cross section, 315 inches by 2.74 inches, allowing for flat control blades to be inserted in the core grid arrangement. The active height of the core is approximately 24 inches. In the initial Buffalo AMF contract, a collaborative development agreement was signed in conjunction with agreement to construct the facility. After completion of the Buffalo PULSTAR Reactor, the PULSTAR fuel underwent an extensive test program which resulted in some minor changes in the basic design. In 1965, North Carolina State University contracted with AMF for the construction of a dual MW steady state (with ultimate capability of 5 MW and pulsing PULSTAR Research Reactor. Their fuel is identical to the Buffalo fuel except for having an enrichment of 4% U-235. This paper presented basic information about the characteristics and performance of the PULSTAR Research Reactor fuel. The following summarizes this information. The fuel is of

  5. PULSTAR fuel, low enrichment, long lifetime, economical, proven

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carter, Robert E; Leonard, Bobby E [Institute for Resource Management, Inc., Bethesda, MD (United States)

    1993-08-01

    In 1962, the Western New York Research Center, Inc., located at the State University of New York at Buffalo, decided they had a need for a reactor with pulsing and high power steady state capabilities. Both General Atomic and the American Machine and Foundry Corporation (AMF) were contacted to ascertain if it were feasible to construct a dual purpose reactor of this type. The General Atomic proposal indicated the feasibility but would not warrant a steady state power of 2 MW with ultimate capability of 5 MW. AMF did provide a conceptual design for such a dual reactor, call the PULSTAR, and sufficient design information to confirm that the operating specifications could be met. The PULSTAR fuel consisted of 6 enrichment UO{sub 2} sintered pellets in zircaloy tubes (pins) mounted in a x 5 array inside a fuel assembly. The fuel design was patterned after fuel that was under development for light water power reactors and that had been extensively tested under high power pulse conditions in the SPERT Test Reactor. The fuel assemblies are rectangular in a horizontal cross section, 315 inches by 2.74 inches, allowing for flat control blades to be inserted in the core grid arrangement. The active height of the core is approximately 24 inches. In the initial Buffalo AMF contract, a collaborative development agreement was signed in conjunction with agreement to construct the facility. After completion of the Buffalo PULSTAR Reactor, the PULSTAR fuel underwent an extensive test program which resulted in some minor changes in the basic design. In 1965, North Carolina State University contracted with AMF for the construction of a dual MW steady state (with ultimate capability of 5 MW and pulsing PULSTAR Research Reactor. Their fuel is identical to the Buffalo fuel except for having an enrichment of 4% U-235. This paper presented basic information about the characteristics and performance of the PULSTAR Research Reactor fuel. The following summarizes this information. The fuel

  6. Nuclear-fuel-cycle facility deployment and price generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andress, D.A.

    1981-04-01

    The enrichment process and how it is to be modeled in the International Nuclear Model (INM) is described. The details of enrichment production, planning, unit price generation, demand estimation and ordering are examined. The enrichment process from both the producer's and the utility's point of view is analyzed. The enrichment separative-work-unit (SWU) contracts are also discussed. The relationship of the enrichment process with other sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle, expecially uranium mining and milling is considered. There are portions of the enrichment process that are not completely understood at the present time. These areas, which require further study, will be pinpointed in the following discussion. In many cases, e.g., the advent of SMU brokerage activities, the answers will emerge only in time. In other cases, e.g., political trends, uncertainties will always remain. It is possible to cast the uncertainties in a probabilistic framework, but this is beyond the scope of this report. INM, a comprehensive model of the international nuclear industry, simulates the market decision process based on current and future price expectations under a broad range of scenario specifications. INM determines the proper reactor mix as well as the planning, operation, and unit price generation of the attendant nuclear fuel cycle facilities. The level of detail of many of the enrichment activities presented in this report, e.g., the enrichment contracts, is too fine to be incorporated into INM. Nevertheless, they are presented in a form that is ammendable to modeling. The reasons for this are two-fold. First, it shows the level of complexity that would be required to model the entire system. Second, it presents the structural framework for a detailed, stand-alone enrichment model

  7. Uranium enrichment. Enrichment processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexandre, M.; Quaegebeur, J.P.

    2009-01-01

    Despite the remarkable progresses made in the diversity and the efficiency of the different uranium enrichment processes, only two industrial processes remain today which satisfy all of enriched uranium needs: the gaseous diffusion and the centrifugation. This article describes both processes and some others still at the demonstration or at the laboratory stage of development: 1 - general considerations; 2 - gaseous diffusion: physical principles, implementation, utilisation in the world; 3 - centrifugation: principles, elementary separation factor, flows inside a centrifuge, modeling of separation efficiencies, mechanical design, types of industrial centrifuges, realisation of cascades, main characteristics of the centrifugation process; 4 - aerodynamic processes: vortex process, nozzle process; 5 - chemical exchange separation processes: Japanese ASAHI process, French CHEMEX process; 6 - laser-based processes: SILVA process, SILMO process; 7 - electromagnetic and ionic processes: mass spectrometer and calutron, ion cyclotron resonance, rotating plasmas; 8 - thermal diffusion; 9 - conclusion. (J.S.)

  8. Promotion of uranium enrichment business

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurushima, Morihiro

    1981-01-01

    The Committee on Nuclear Power has studied on the basic nuclear power policy, establishing its five subcommittees, entrusted by the Ministry of Nternational Trade and Industry. The results of examination by the subcommittee on uranium enrichment business are given along with a report in this connection by the Committee. In order to establish the nuclear fuel cycle, the aspect of uranium enrichment is essential. The uranium enrichment by centrifugal process has proceeded steadily in Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation. The following matters are described: the need for domestic uranium enrichment, the outlook for overseas enrichment services and the schedule for establishing domestic enrichment business, the current state of technology development, the position of the prototype enrichment plant, the course to be taken to establish enrichment business the main organization operating the prototype and commercial plants, the system of supplying centrifuges, the domestic conversion of natural uranium the subsidies for uranium enrichment business. (J.P.N.)

  9. The licensing procedure for an intermediate storage facility for radioactive waste in Hanau

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Funke, P.; Graebener, K.H.

    2001-01-01

    Since the beginnings of nuclear energy utilisation in Germany, Hanau has been well-known worldwide as the centre for processing nuclear fuels. Names like Nukem, Alkem, RBU and Siemens are synonymous with the production of fuel elements made of highly enriched uranium for material test reactors, low-enriched uranium and uranium-plutonium mixtures (MOX) for prototype reactors and power reactors. Since the Transnuklear controversy in the late eighties, and particularly during the time of the Socialist-Green coalition in Hesse, the firms in Hanau have increasingly downscaled their activities, and finally closed down their fuel element facilities. Decommissioning of the facilities has been approved under paragraph 7 Para. 3 of the German atomic energy act (AtG). Decommissioning at the Uranium Processing Division of Siemens AG, the former RBU, is already well advanced, while Siemens' MOX Processing Division, the former Alkem, is currently being emptied of remaining nuclear fuels; at Nukem, the first buildings have been demolished. The radioactive waste encountered during decommissioning contains enriched uranium and plutonium, and thus constitutes a special category of radioactive waste. (orig.)

  10. Analysis of RA-8 critical facility core in some configurations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abbate, Maximo J.; Sbaffoni, Maria M.

    2000-01-01

    The RA-8 critical facility was designated and built to be used in the experimental plan of the 'CAREM' Project but is, in itself, very versatile and adequate to perform many types of other experiments. The present paper includes calculated estimates of some critical configurations and comparisons with experimental results obtained during its start up. Results for Core 1 with homogeneous arrangement of rods containing 1.8 % enriched uranium, showed very good agreement. In fact, an experimentally critical configuration was reached with 1.300 rods and calculated values were: 1.310 using the WIMS code and 1.148 from the CONDOR code. Moreover, it was verified that the estimated number of 3.4% enriched uranium rods to be fabricated is enough to build a heterogeneous core or even a homogeneous core with this enrichment. The replacement of 3.4 % enriched uranium by 3.6 % will not present problems related with the original plan. (author)

  11. Safeguards at NRC licensed facilities: Are we doing enough

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asselstine, J.K.

    1986-01-01

    Safeguards at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) facilities are discussed in this paper. The NRC is pursuing a number of initiatives in the safeguards area. The Commission is conducting a reassessment of its safeguards design basis threat statements to consider the possible implications of an explosive-laden vehicle for U.S. nuclear safeguards and to examine the comparability of safeguards features at NRC-licensed and DOE facilities. The Commission is also completing action on measures to protect against the sabotage threat from an insider at NRC-licensed facilities, and is examining the potential safety implications of safeguards measures. Finally, the NRC has developed measures to reduce the theft potential for high-enriched uranium

  12. Spatial interaction models facility location using game theory

    CERN Document Server

    D'Amato, Egidio; Pardalos, Panos

    2017-01-01

    Facility location theory develops the idea of locating one or more facilities by optimizing suitable criteria such as minimizing transportation cost, or capturing the largest market share. The contributions in this book focus an approach to facility location theory through game theoretical tools highlighting situations where a location decision is faced by several decision makers and leading to a game theoretical framework in non-cooperative and cooperative methods. Models and methods regarding the facility location via game theory are explored and applications are illustrated through economics, engineering, and physics. Mathematicians, engineers, economists and computer scientists working in theory, applications and computational aspects of facility location problems using game theory will find this book useful.

  13. Measurement of carbon dioxide fluxes in a free-air carbon dioxide enrichment experiment using the closed flux chamber technique

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Selsted, Merete Bang; Ambus, Per; Michelsen, Anders

    2011-01-01

    Carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes, composing net ecosystem exchange (NEE), ecosystem respiration (ER), and soil respiration (SR) were measured in a temperate heathland exposed to elevated CO2 by the FACE (free-air carbon enrichment) technique, raising the atmospheric CO2 concentration from c. 380 μmol...

  14. The prefect facing emergency situation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Masse, H.

    2006-01-01

    In the field of emergency procedures regarding the protection of life, property and the environment, the 'prefet' of a department is the only public authority both representative of the state and accountable. In France laws and regulations have been in recent years revised in order to modernize emergency situations management. The 'prefet' of the Drome 'department', Henri MASSE, presents a summary of recent developments and explains how his services are organised in order to be able to handle emergency situations. He also focuses on his experience of handling the specific difficulties of nuclear risks, his department sheltering numerous nuclear facilities: EURODIF Pierrelatte nuclear fuel enrichment plant, EDF Tricastin nuclear power plant, AREVA Valence FBFC nuclear fuel manufacturing unit, etc. (author)

  15. Decommissioning the UHTREX Reactor Facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salazar, M.; Elder, J.

    1992-08-01

    The Ultra-High Temperature Reactor Experiment (UHTREX) facility was constructed in the late 1960s to advance high-temperature and gas-cooled reactor technology. The 3-MW reactor was graphite moderated and helium cooled and used 93% enriched uranium as its fuel. The reactor was run for approximately one year and was shut down in February 1970. The decommissioning of the facility involved removing the reactor and its associated components. This document details planning for the decommissioning operations which included characterizing the facility, estimating the costs of decommissioning, preparing environmental documentation, establishing a system to track costs and work progress, and preplanning to correct health and safety concerns in the facility. Work to decommission the facility began in 1988 and was completed in September 1990 at a cost of $2.9 million. The facility was released to Department of Energy for other uses in its Los Alamos program

  16. Neural synchronization during face-to-face communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Jing; Dai, Bohan; Peng, Danling; Zhu, Chaozhe; Liu, Li; Lu, Chunming

    2012-11-07

    Although the human brain may have evolutionarily adapted to face-to-face communication, other modes of communication, e.g., telephone and e-mail, increasingly dominate our modern daily life. This study examined the neural difference between face-to-face communication and other types of communication by simultaneously measuring two brains using a hyperscanning approach. The results showed a significant increase in the neural synchronization in the left inferior frontal cortex during a face-to-face dialog between partners but none during a back-to-back dialog, a face-to-face monologue, or a back-to-back monologue. Moreover, the neural synchronization between partners during the face-to-face dialog resulted primarily from the direct interactions between the partners, including multimodal sensory information integration and turn-taking behavior. The communicating behavior during the face-to-face dialog could be predicted accurately based on the neural synchronization level. These results suggest that face-to-face communication, particularly dialog, has special neural features that other types of communication do not have and that the neural synchronization between partners may underlie successful face-to-face communication.

  17. From high enriched to low enriched uranium fuel in research reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Van Den Berghe, S.; Leenaers, A.; Koonen, E.; Moons, F.; Sannen, L. [Nuclear Materials Science Institute, SCK.CEN, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol (Belgium)

    2010-07-01

    Since the 1970's, global efforts have been going on to replace the high-enriched (>90% {sup 235}U), low-density UAlx research reactor fuel with high-density, low enriched (<20% {sup 235}U) replacements. This search is driven by the attempt to reduce the civil use of high-enriched material because of proliferation risks and terrorist threats. American initiatives, such as the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) and the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program have triggered the development of reliable low-enriched fuel types for these reactors, which can replace the high enriched ones without loss of performance. Most success has presently been obtained with U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} dispersion fuel, which is currently used in many research reactors in the world. However, efforts to search for a replacement with even higher density, which will also allow the conversion of some high flux research reactors that currently cannot change to U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} (eg. BR2 in Belgium), have continued and are for the moment mainly directed towards the U(Mo) alloy fuel (7-10 w% Mo). This paper provides an overview of the past efforts and presents the current status of the U(Mo) development. (authors)

  18. From high enriched to low enriched uranium fuel in research reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Den Berghe, S.; Leenaers, A.; Koonen, E.; Moons, F.; Sannen, L.

    2010-01-01

    Since the 1970's, global efforts have been going on to replace the high-enriched (>90% 235 U), low-density UAlx research reactor fuel with high-density, low enriched ( 235 U) replacements. This search is driven by the attempt to reduce the civil use of high-enriched material because of proliferation risks and terrorist threats. American initiatives, such as the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) and the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program have triggered the development of reliable low-enriched fuel types for these reactors, which can replace the high enriched ones without loss of performance. Most success has presently been obtained with U 3 Si 2 dispersion fuel, which is currently used in many research reactors in the world. However, efforts to search for a replacement with even higher density, which will also allow the conversion of some high flux research reactors that currently cannot change to U 3 Si 2 (eg. BR2 in Belgium), have continued and are for the moment mainly directed towards the U(Mo) alloy fuel (7-10 w% Mo). This paper provides an overview of the past efforts and presents the current status of the U(Mo) development. (authors)

  19. HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM BLEND DOWN PROGRAM AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE PRESENT AND FUTURE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Magoulas, V; Charles Goergen, C; Ronald Oprea, R

    2008-01-01

    The Department of Energy (DOE) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) entered into an Interagency Agreement to transfer approximately 40 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to TVA for conversion to fuel for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. Savannah River Site (SRS) inventories included a significant amount of this material, which resulted from processing spent fuel and surplus materials. The HEU is blended with natural uranium (NU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) with a 4.95% 235U isotopic content and shipped as solution to the TVA vendor. The HEU Blend Down Project provided the upgrades needed to achieve the product throughput and purity required and provided loading facilities. The first blending to low enriched uranium (LEU) took place in March 2003 with the initial shipment to the TVA vendor in July 2003. The SRS Shipments have continued on a regular schedule without any major issues for the past 5 years and are due to complete in September 2008. The HEU Blend program is now looking to continue its success by dispositioning an additional approximately 21 MTU of HEU material as part of the SRS Enriched Uranium Disposition Project

  20. Derived enriched uranium market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rutkowski, E.

    1996-01-01

    The potential impact on the uranium market of highly enriched uranium from nuclear weapons dismantling in the Russian Federation and the USA is analyzed. Uranium supply, conversion, and enrichment factors are outlined for each country; inventories are also listed. The enrichment component and conversion components are expected to cause little disruption to uranium markets. The uranium component of Russian derived enriched uranium hexafluoride is unresolved; US legislation places constraints on its introduction into the US market

  1. SIGMA Experimental Facility; Facilidad Experimental SIGMA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rivarola, Martin; Florido, Pablo; Gonzalez, Jose; Brasnarof, Daniel; Orellano, Pablo; Bergallo, Juan [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Centro Atomico Bariloche, Grupo de Disenos Avanzados y Evaluacion Economica, Complejo Tecnologico Pilcaniyeu (Argentina)

    2000-07-01

    The SIGMA ( Separacion Isotopica Gaseosa por Metodos Avanzados) concept is outlined.The old gaseous diffusion process to enrich uranium has been updated to be economically competitive for small production volumes.Major innovations have been introduced in the membrane design and in the integrated design of compressors and diffusers.The use of injectors and gas turbines has been also adopted.The paper describes the demonstration facility installed by the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission.

  2. Active interrogation of highly enriched uranium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fairrow, Nannette Lea

    Safeguarding special nuclear material (SNM) in the Department of Energy Complex is vital to the national security of the United States. Active and passive nondestructive assays are used to confirm the presence of SNM in various configurations ranging from waste to nuclear weapons. Confirmation measurements for nuclear weapons are more challenging because the design complicates the detection of a distinct signal for highly enriched uranium. The emphasis of this dissertation was to investigate a new nondestructive assay technique that provides an independent and distinct signal to confirm the presence of highly enriched uranium (HEU). Once completed and tested this assay method could be applied to confirmation measurements of nuclear weapons. The new system uses a 14-MeV neutron source for interrogation and records the arrival time of neutrons between the pulses with a high efficiency detection system. The data is then analyzed by the Feynman reduced variance method. The analysis determined the amount of correlation in the data and provided a unique signature of correlated fission neutrons. Measurements of HEU spheres were conducted at Los Alamos with the new system. Then, Monte Carlo calculations were performed to verify hypothesis made about the behavior of the neutrons in the experiment. Comparisons of calculated counting rates by the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) were made with the experimental data to confirm that the measured response reflected the desired behavior of neutron interactions in the highly enriched uranium. In addition, MCNP calculations of the delayed neutron build-up were compared with the measured data. Based on the results obtained from this dissertation, this measurement method has the potential to be expanded to include mass determinations of highly enriched uranium. Although many safeguards techniques exist for measuring special nuclear material, the number of assays that can be used to confirm HEU in shielded systems is

  3. Results from a 'Proof-of-Concept' Demonstration of RF-Based Tracking of UF6 Cylinders during a Processing Operation at a Uranium Enrichment Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pickett, Chris A; Kovacic, Donald N; Whitaker, J Michael; Younkin, James R; Hines, Jairus B; Laughter, Mark D; Morgan, Jim; Carrick, Bernie; Boyer, Brian; Whittle, K.

    2008-01-01

    Approved industry-standard cylinders are used globally for processing, storing, and transporting uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ) at uranium enrichment plants. To ensure that cylinder movements at enrichment facilities occur as declared, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must conduct time-consuming periodic physical inspections to validate facility records, cylinder identity, and containment. By using a robust system design that includes the capability for real-time unattended monitoring (of cylinder movements), site-specific rules-based event detection algorithms, and the capability to integrate with other types of monitoring technologies, one can build a system that will improve overall inspector effectiveness. This type of monitoring system can provide timely detection of safeguard events that could be used to ensure more timely and appropriate responses by the IAEA. It also could reduce reliance on facility records and have the additional benefit of enhancing domestic safeguards at the installed facilities. This paper will discuss the installation and evaluation of a radio-frequency- (RF-) based cylinder tracking system that was installed at a United States Enrichment Corporation Centrifuge Facility. This system was installed primarily to evaluate the feasibility of using RF technology at a site and the operational durability of the components under harsh processing conditions. The installation included a basic system that is designed to support layering with other safeguard system technologies and that applies fundamental rules-based event processing methodologies. This paper will discuss the fundamental elements of the system design, the results from this site installation, and future efforts needed to make this technology ready for IAEA consideration

  4. A security/safety survey of long term care facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acorn, Jonathan R

    2010-01-01

    What are the major security/safety problems of long term care facilities? What steps are being taken by some facilities to mitigate such problems? Answers to these questions can be found in a survey of IAHSS members involved in long term care security conducted for the IAHSS Long Term Care Security Task Force. The survey, the author points out, focuses primarily on long term care facilities operated by hospitals and health systems. However, he believes, it does accurately reflect the security problems most long term facilities face, and presents valuable information on security systems and practices which should be also considered by independent and chain operated facilities.

  5. Radiometric enrichment of nonradioactive ores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mokrousov, V.A.; Lileev, V.A.

    1979-01-01

    Considered are the methods of mineral enrichment based on the use of the radioation of various types. The physical essence of enrichment processes is presented, their classification is given. Described are the ore properties influencing the efficiency of radiometric enrichment, methods of the properties study and estimation of ore enrichment. New possibilities opened by radiometric enrichment in the technology of primary processing of mineral raw materials are elucidated. A considerable attention is paid to the main and auxiliary equipment for radiometric enrichment. The foundations of the safety engineering are presented in a brief form. Presented are also results of investigations and practical works in the field of enrichment of ores of non-ferrous, ferrous and non-metallic minerals with the help of radiometric methods

  6. Development of very-high-density low-enriched uranium fuels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snegrove, J.L.; Hofmann, G.L.; Trybus, C.L.; Wiencek, T.C.

    1997-01-01

    The RERTR (=Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors) program has begun an aggressive effort to develop dispersion fuels for research and test reactors with uranium densities of 8 to 9 g U/cm 3 , based on the use of γ-stabilized uranium alloys. Fabrication development teams and facilities are being put into place, and preparations for the first irradiation test are in progress. The first screening irradiations are expected to begin in late April 1997 and the first results should be available by the end of 1997. Discussions with potential international partners in fabrication development and irradiation testing have begun. (author)

  7. PWR fuel of high enrichment with erbia and enriched gadolinia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bejmer, Klaes-Håkan; Malm, Christian

    2011-01-01

    Today standard PWR fuel is licensed for operation up to 65-70 MWd/kgU, which in most cases corresponds to an enrichment of more than 5 w/o "2"3"5U. Due to criticality safety reason of storage and transportation, only fuel up to 5 w/o "2"3"5U enrichment is so far used. New fuel storage installations and transportation casks are necessary investments before the reactivity level of the fresh fuel can be significantly increased. These investments and corresponding licensing work takes time, and in the meantime a solution that requires burnable poisons in all pellets of the fresh high-enriched fuel might be used. By using very small amounts of burnable absorber in every pellet the initial reactivity can be reduced to today's levels. This study presents core calculations with fuel assemblies enriched to almost 6 w/o "2"3"5U mixed with a small amount of erbia. Some of the assemblies also contain gadolinia. The results are compared to a reference case containing assemblies with 4.95 w/o "2"3"5U without erbia, utilizing only gadolinia as burnable poison. The comparison shows that the number of fresh fuel assemblies can be reduced by 21% (which increases the batch burnup by 24%) by utilizing the erbia fuel concept. However, increased cost of uranium due to higher enrichment is not fully compensated for by the cost gain due to the reduction of the number assemblies. Hence, the fuel cycle cost becomes slightly higher for the high enrichment erbia case than for the reference case. (author)

  8. New facilities in Japan materials testing reactor for irradiation test of fusion reactor components

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kawamura, H.; Sagawa, H.; Ishitsuka, E.; Sakamoto, N.; Niiho, T.

    1996-01-01

    The testing and evaluation of fusion reactor components, i.e. blanket, plasma facing components (divertor, etc.) and vacuum vessel with neutron irradiation is required for the design of fusion reactor components. Therefore, four new test facilities were developed in the Japan Materials Testing Reactor: an in-pile functional testing facility, a neutron multiplication test facility, an electron beam facility, and a re-weldability facility. The paper describes these facilities

  9. Characterization of the fast neutron irradiation facility of the Portuguese Research Reactor after core conversion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marques, J.G.; Sousa, M.; Santos, J.P.; Fernandes, A.C.

    2011-01-01

    The fast neutron irradiation facility of the Portuguese Research Reactor was characterized after the reduction in uranium enrichment and rearrangement of the core configuration. In this work we report on the determination of the hardness parameter and the 1 MeV equivalent neutron flux along the facility, in the new irradiation conditions, following ASTM E722 standard.

  10. Decoding of faces and face components in face-sensitive human visual cortex

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David F Nichols

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available A great challenge to the field of visual neuroscience is to understand how faces are encoded and represented within the human brain. Here we show evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI for spatially distributed processing of the whole face and its components in face-sensitive human visual cortex. We used multi-class linear pattern classifiers constructed with a leave-one-scan-out verification procedure to discriminate brain activation patterns elicited by whole faces, the internal features alone, and the external head outline alone. Furthermore, our results suggest that whole faces are represented disproportionately in the fusiform cortex (FFA whereas the building blocks of faces are represented disproportionately in occipitotemporal cortex (OFA. Faces and face components may therefore be organized with functional clustering within both the FFA and OFA, but with specialization for face components in the OFA and the whole face in the FFA.

  11. Seven layers of security to help protect biomedical research facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mortell, Norman

    2010-04-01

    In addition to risks such as theft and fire that can confront any type of business, the biomedical research community often faces additional concerns over animal rights extremists, infiltrations, data security and intellectual property rights. Given these concerns, it is not surprising that the industry gives a high priority to security. This article identifies security threats faced by biomedical research companies and shows how these threats are ranked in importance by industry stakeholders. The author then goes on to discuss seven key 'layers' of security, from the external environment to the research facility itself, and how these layers all contribute to the creation of a successfully secured facility.

  12. A disposition strategy for highly enriched, aluminum-based fuel from research and test reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McKibben, J.M.; Gould, T.H.; McDonell, W.R.; Bickford, W.E.

    1994-01-01

    The strategy proposed in this paper offers the Department of Energy an approach for disposing of aluminum-based, highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent fuels from foreign and domestic research reactors. The proposal is technically, socially, and economically sound. If implemented, it would advance US non-proliferation goals while also disposing of the spent fuel's waste by timely and proven methods using existing technologies and facilities at SRS without prolonged and controversial storage of the spent fuel. The fuel would be processed through 221-H. The radioactive fission products (waste) would be treated along with existing SRS high level waste by vitrifying it as borosilicate glass in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) for disposal in the national geological repository. The HEU would be isotopically diluted, during processing, to low-enriched uranium (LEU) which can not be used to make weapons, thus eliminating proliferation concerns. The LEU can be sold to fabricators of either research reactor fuel or commercial power fuel. This proposed processing-LEU recycle approach has several important advantages over other alternatives, including: Lowest capital investment; lowest net total cost; quickest route to acceptable waste form and final geologic disposal; and likely lowest safety, health, and environmental impacts

  13. Recent trends of plutonium facilities and their control

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Muto, T [Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Works

    1974-02-01

    Much interest has been focussed on Pu recycle since the oil crisis because of an expected shortage of enriched uranium. Plutonium handling techniques and plutonium fuel fabricating facilities should be developed to meet the future demand of plutonium, but the radioactive property of plutonium to be reprocessed from spent fuel and recycled plutonium is remarkably different, and it has to be handled safely. Technical criteria for plutonium facilities are specified in the USAEC regulatory guides and other rules. Some of these criteria are location condition, quality of confinement, protection against accidents and so on. The control conditions for plutonium facilities are exposure control, criticality control, measurement control and new system of safeguard. These problems are under development to meet the future requirement for the safe handling of Pu material.

  14. Application of pathways analyses for site performance prediction for the Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant and Oak Ridge Central Waste Disposal Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pin, F.G.; Oblow, E.M.

    1984-01-01

    The suitability of the Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant and the Oak Ridge Central Waste Disposal Facility for shallow-land burial of low-level radioactive waste is evaluated using pathways analyses. The analyses rely on conservative scenarios to describe the generation and migration of contamination and the potential human exposure to the waste. Conceptual and numerical models are developed using data from comprehensive laboratory and field investigations and are used to simulate the long-term transport of contamination to man. Conservatism is built into the analyses when assumptions concerning future events have to be made or when uncertainties concerning site or waste characteristics exist. Maximum potential doses to man are calculated and compared to the appropriate standards. The sites are found to provide adequate buffer to persons outside the DOE reservations. Conclusions concerning site capacity and site acceptability are drawn. In reaching these conclusions, some consideration is given to the uncertainties and conservatisms involved in the analyses. Analytical methods to quantitatively assess the probability of future events to occur and the sensitivity of the results to data uncertainty may prove useful in relaxing some of the conservatism built into the analyses. The applicability of such methods to pathways analyses is briefly discussed. 18 refs., 9 figs

  15. Famous face recognition, face matching, and extraversion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lander, Karen; Poyarekar, Siddhi

    2015-01-01

    It has been previously established that extraverts who are skilled at interpersonal interaction perform significantly better than introverts on a face-specific recognition memory task. In our experiment we further investigate the relationship between extraversion and face recognition, focusing on famous face recognition and face matching. Results indicate that more extraverted individuals perform significantly better on an upright famous face recognition task and show significantly larger face inversion effects. However, our results did not find an effect of extraversion on face matching or inverted famous face recognition.

  16. Spatial correction factors for YALINA Booster facility loaded with medium and low enriched fuels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talamo, A.; Gohar, Y.; Bournos, V.; Fokov, Y.; Kiyavitskaya, H.; Routkovskaya, C.

    2012-01-01

    The Bell and Glasstone spatial correction factor is used in analyses of subcritical assemblies to correct the experimental reactivity as function of the detector position. Besides the detector position, several other parameters affect the correction factor: the energy weighting function of the detector, the detector size, the energy-angle distribution of source neutrons, and the reactivity of the subcritical assembly. This work focuses on the dependency of the correction factor on the detector material and it investigates the YALINA Booster subcritical assembly loaded with medium (36%) and low (10%) enriched fuels. (authors)

  17. Spatial correction factors for YALINA Booster facility loaded with medium and low enriched fuels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Talamo, A.; Gohar, Y. [Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States); Bournos, V.; Fokov, Y.; Kiyavitskaya, H.; Routkovskaya, C. [Joint Inst. for Power and Nuclear Research-Sosny, 99 Academician A.K.Krasin Str, Minsk 220109 (Belarus)

    2012-07-01

    The Bell and Glasstone spatial correction factor is used in analyses of subcritical assemblies to correct the experimental reactivity as function of the detector position. Besides the detector position, several other parameters affect the correction factor: the energy weighting function of the detector, the detector size, the energy-angle distribution of source neutrons, and the reactivity of the subcritical assembly. This work focuses on the dependency of the correction factor on the detector material and it investigates the YALINA Booster subcritical assembly loaded with medium (36%) and low (10%) enriched fuels. (authors)

  18. NDA for a new facility at SRP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Studley, R.V.

    1987-01-01

    In 1980, plans were initiated to build a new facility to process high purity highly enriched 235 U. Interest in improving nuclear safeguards had been increasing in the previous few years. A basic objective of the design, therefore, included achievement of maximum performance in special nuclear material (SNM) accountability. A near-real-time accountability system with high accuracy assay measurements was developed for this purpose. Simultaneous design of facility, process equipment, and the accountability system allowed maximum integration of equipment and also permitted influence on process design and material characteristics to optimize accountability performance. This was an ideal situation in which to pursue maximum improvement in nondestructive assay (NDA) measurement performance. The resulting systems are described

  19. TRIGA low enrichment fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gietzen, A.

    1993-01-01

    Sixty TRIGA reactors have been sold and the earliest of these are now passing twenty years of operation. All of these reactors use the uranium zirconium hydride fuel (UZrH) which provides certain unique advantages arising out of its large prompt negative temperature coefficient, very low fission product release, and high temperature capability. Eleven of these Sixty reactors are conversions from plate fuel to TRIGA fuel which were made as a result of these advantages. With only a few exceptions, TRIGA reactors have always used low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel with an enrichment of 19.9%. The exceptions have either been converted from the standard low-enriched fuel to the 70% enriched FLIP fuel in order to achieve extended lifetime, or are higher powered reactors which were designed for long life using 93%-enriched uranium during the time when the use and export of highly enriched uranium (HEU) was not restricted. The advent of international policies focusing attention on nonproliferation and safeguards made the HEU fuels obsolete. General Atomic immediately undertook a development effort (nearly two years ago) in order to be in a position to comply with these policies for all future export sales and also to provide a low-enriched alternative to fully enriched plate-type fuels. This important work was subsequently partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The laboratory and production tests have shown that higher uranium densities can be achieved to compensate for reducing the enrichment to 20%, and that the fuels maintain the characteristics of the very thoroughly proven standard TRIGA fuels. In May of 1978, General Atomic announced that these fuels were available for TRIGA reactors and for plate-type reactors with power levels up to 15 MW with General Atomic's standard commercial warranty

  20. TRIGA low enrichment fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gietzen, A.

    1993-01-01

    Sixty TRIGA reactors have been sold and the earliest of these are now passing twenty years of operation. All of these reactors use the uranium-zirconium hydride fuel (UZrH) which provides certain unique advantages arising out of its large prompt negative temperature coefficient, very low fission product release, and high temperature capability. Eleven of these Sixty reactors are conversions from plate fuel to TRIGA fuel which were made as a result of these advantages. With only a few exceptions, TRIGA reactors have always used low-enriched-uranium (LEU) fuel with an enrichment of 19.9%. The exceptions have either been converted from the standard low-enriched fuel to the 70% enriched FLIP fuel in order to achieve extended lifetime, or are higher powered reactors which were designed for long life using 93%-enriched uranium during the time when the use and export of highly enriched uranium (HEU) was not restricted. The advent of international policies focusing attention on nonproliferation and safeguards made the HEU fuels obsolete. General Atomic immediately undertook a development effort (nearly two years ago) in order to be in a position to comply with these policies for all future export sales and also to provide a low-enriched alternative to fully enriched plate-type fuels. This important work was subsequently partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The laboratory and production tests have shown that higher uranium densities can be achieved to compensate for reducing the enrichment to 20%, and that the fuels maintain the characteristics of the very thoroughly proven standard TRIGA fuels. In May of 1978, General Atomic announced that these fuels were available for TRIGA reactors and for plate-type reactors with power levels up to 15 MW with GA's standard commercial warranty

  1. High enrichment to low enrichment core's conversion. Technical securities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abbate, P.; Madariaga, M.R.

    1990-01-01

    This work presents the fulfillment of the technical securities subscribed by INVAP S.E. for the conversion of a high enriched uranium core. The reactor (of 5 thermal Mw), built in the 50's and 60's, is of the 'swimming pool' type, with light water and fuel elements of the curve plates MTR type, enriched at 93.15 %. These are neutronic and thermohydraulic securities. (Author) [es

  2. CONCEPTUAL PROCESS DESCRIPTION FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LOW-ENRICHED URANIUM-MOLYBDENUM FUEL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Daniel M. Wachs; Curtis R. Clark; Randall J. Dunavant

    2008-02-01

    The National Nuclear Security Agency Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) is tasked with minimizing the use of high-enriched uranium (HEU) worldwide. A key component of that effort is the conversion of research reactors from HEU to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels. The GTRI Convert Fuel Development program, previously known as the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors program was initiated in 1978 by the United States Department of Energy to develop the nuclear fuels necessary to enable these conversions. The program cooperates with the research reactors’ operators to achieve this goal of HEU to LEU conversion without reduction in reactor performance. The programmatic mandate is to complete the conversion of all civilian domestic research reactors by 2014. These reactors include the five domestic high-performance research reactors (HPRR), namely: the High Flux Isotope Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, the National Bureau of Standards Reactor at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Missouri University Research Reactor at the University of Missouri–Columbia, and the MIT Reactor-II at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Characteristics for each of the HPRRs are given in Appendix A. The GTRI Convert Fuel Development program is currently engaged in the development of a novel nuclear fuel that will enable these conversions. The fuel design is based on a monolithic fuel meat (made from a uranium-molybdenum alloy) clad in Al-6061 that has shown excellent performance in irradiation testing. The unique aspects of the fuel design, however, necessitate the development and implementation of new fabrication techniques and, thus, establishment of the infrastructure to ensure adequate fuel fabrication capability. A conceptual fabrication process description and rough estimates of the total facility throughput are described in this document as a basis for

  3. Outline of NUCEF facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takeshita, Isao

    1996-01-01

    NUCEF is a multipurpose research facility in the field of safety and advanced technology of nuclear fuel cycle back-end. Various experiment facilities and its supporting installations, in which nuclear fuel materials, radio isotopes and TRU elements can be handled, are arranged in more than one hundred rooms of two experiment buildings. Its construction was completed in middle of 1994 and hot experiments have been started since then. NUCEF is located on the site (30,000 m 2 ) of southeastern part in the Tokai Research Establishment of JAERI facing to the Pacific Ocean. The base of Experiment Buildings A and B was directly founded on the rock existing at 10-15 m below ground level taking the aseismatic design into consideration. Each building is almost same sized and composed of one basement and three floors of which area is 17,500 m 2 in total. In the basement, there are exhaust facilities of ventilation system, treatment system of solution fuel and radioactive waste solution and storage tanks of them. Major experiment facilities are located on the first or the second floors in each building. An air-inlet facility of ventilation system for each building is equipped on the third floor. Most of experiment facilities for criticality safety research including two critical facilities: Static Experiment Critical Facility (STACY) and Transient Experiment Critical Facility (TRACY) are installed in Experiment Building A. Experiment equipments for research on advanced fuel reprocessing process and on TRU waste management, which are named BECKY (Back End Fuel Cycle Key Elements Research Facility), are installed in laboratories and a-g cells in Experiment Building B. (J.P.N.)

  4. Safeguards at NRC licensed facilities: Are we doing enough

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asselstine, J.K.

    1986-01-01

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is pursuing a number of initiatives in the safeguards area. The Commission is conducting a reassessment of its safeguards design basis threat statements to consider the possible implications of an explosive-laden vehicle for U.S. nuclear safeguards and to examine the comparability of safeguards features at NRC-licensed and DOE facilities. The Commission is also completing action on measures to protect against the sabotage threat from an insider at NRC-licensed facilities, and is examining the potential safety implications of safeguards measures. Finally, the NRC has developed measures to reduce the theft potential for high-enriched uranium

  5. Status of the reduced enrichment for research reactors program in Argentina

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perez, E.; Kohut, C.

    2004-01-01

    In the area of Research and Test Reactors' fuel elements, the different stages of development carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina (CNEA) until now, and the future plans are presented in this paper. Own and foreign programs, for reducing the risk of proliferation due the use of high enriched uranium fuel elements in these types of reactors, is mentioned. A brief description of different work performed is presented: At first the experience with the use of highly enriched uranium, and then the activities related with the development done in order to achieve a good knowledge in low-enriched (LEU) fuels, particularly in the area of U308-Al fuels. This experience has permitted us, supported by the excellent results obtained, to be in a position to satisfy our own requirements and also to supply to other countries, not only fuels but also technology transferences and facilities of the development appropriate for this purpose. The main modifications brought in the design and fabrication of these types of fuel elements is also described. Finally, and with the main objective to complete the development and to qualify the LEU fuels based on silicides and to improve the actual MO-99 blanket fabrication technology two new C.N.E.A. projects, are outlined.(author)

  6. Responses of soil Collembola to long-term atmospheric CO2 enrichment in a mature temperate forest

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Guoliang; Fu Shenglei; Schleppi, Patrick; Li Maihe

    2013-01-01

    Responses of Collembola to 7 years of CO 2 enrichment (550 ppm) in a Swiss free-air CO 2 enrichment (FACE) experiment in a forest with 80- to 120-year-old trees were investigated in this study. Contrary to our expectations, increased CO 2 caused a significant decrease in Collembola numbers, including a significant decrease in euedaphic Collembola. Increased CO 2 , however, did not affect community group richness. Collembola biomass was not significantly changed by CO 2 enrichment, regardless of whether it was considered in terms of the total community, life-strategy groups, or individual species (with an exception of Mesaphorura krausbaueri). The reason for this is that CO 2 enrichment caused a general increase in individual body size, which compensated for reduced abundances. The results are consistent with the idea that the rhizosphere is important for soil fauna, and the combination of reduced fine root growth and increased soil moisture might trigger a reduction in Collembola abundance. - Highlights: ► Increased CO 2 caused a significant decrease in Collembola abundance. ► Increased CO 2 caused a significant decrease in euedaphic Collembola. ► Collembola body size tended to be larger. ► A decrease in fine roots biomass might trigger the reduction in Collembola. - Seven years of CO 2 enrichment caused a significant decrease in Collembola abundance, especially in euedaphic species.

  7. Disposition of surplus highly enriched uranium: Draft environmental impact statement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-10-01

    This document assesses the environmental impacts at four potential sites that may result from alternatives for the disposition of United States-origin weapons-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU) that has been or may be declared surplus to national defense or defense-related program needs. In addition to the no action alternative, it assesses four alternatives that would eliminate the weapons-usability of HEU by blending it with depleted uranium, natural uranium, or low-enriched uranium (LEU) to create low-enriched uranium, either as commercial reactor fuel feedstock or as low-level radioactive waste. The potential blending sites are DOE's Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge Reservation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; DOE's Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina; the Babcock ampersand Wilcox Naval Nuclear Fuel Division Facility in Lynchburg, Virginia; and the Nuclear Fuel Services Fuel Fabrication Plant in Erwin, Tennessee. Evaluations of impacts on site infrastructure, water resources, air quality and noise, socioeconomic resources, waste management, public and occupational health, and environmental justice for the potential blending sites are included in the assessment. The intersite transportation of nuclear and hazardous materials is also assessed. The preferred alternative is to blend down surplus HEU to LEU for maximum commercial use as reactor fuel feed which would likely be done at a combination of DOE and commercial sites

  8. Isotope enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garbuny, M.

    1979-01-01

    The invention discloses a method for deriving, from a starting material including an element having a plurality of isotopes, derived material enriched in one isotope of the element. The starting material is deposited on a substrate at less than a critical submonatomic surface density, typically less than 10 16 atoms per square centimeter. The deposit is then selectively irradiated by a laser (maser or electronic oscillator) beam with monochromatic coherent radiation resonant with the one isotope causing the material including the one istope to escape from the substrate. The escaping enriched material is then collected. Where the element has two isotopes, one of which is to be collected, the deposit may be irradiated with radiation resonant with the other isotope and the residual material enriched in the one isotope may be evaporated from the substrate and collected

  9. Laser and gas centrifuge enrichment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heinonen, Olli [Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States)

    2014-05-09

    Principles of uranium isotope enrichment using various laser and gas centrifuge techniques are briefly discussed. Examples on production of high enriched uranium are given. Concerns regarding the possibility of using low end technologies to produce weapons grade uranium are explained. Based on current assessments commercial enrichment services are able to cover the global needs of enriched uranium in the foreseeable future.

  10. Enrichment technology. Dependable vendor of gas centrifuges; Enrichment Technology. Zuverlaessiger Lieferant von Gaszentrifugen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon.

    2011-10-15

    Enrichment Technology is an innovative, high-tech company that develops, manufactures and installs gas centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, Enrichment Technology designs enrichment plants that use gas centrifuge technology. This technology offers the most efficient and cost-effective method for enriching uranium yet: high-performance, safe technology that dominates the market with a global share of 45 percent. A determining factor in Enrichment Technology's success is its mission: supplying its customers with safe, reliable technology. Production of the centrifuges requires versatile know-how and collaboration between different departments as well as interdisciplinary teams at the various sites. More than 2000 operators at 8 sites in 5 countries contribute their individual knowledge and personal skills in order to produce this exceptional technology. The head office is in Beaconsfield near London and the operational headquarters are in Almelo in the Netherlands. There are other sites in Germany (Juelich und Gronau), Great Britain (Capenhurst) as well as project sites in the USA and France. Capenhurst is where experienced engineers design new enrichment plants and organise their construction. Centrifuge components are manufactured in Almelo and Juelich, while the pipework needed to connect up the centrifuges is produced at the site in Gronau. In Juelich, highly qualified scientists in interdisciplinary teams are continuously researching ways of improving the current centrifuges. Communication between specialists in the fields of chemistry, physics and engineering forms the basis for the company's success and the key to extending this leading position in the global enrichment market. (orig.)

  11. Face-to-Face Activities in Blended Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærgaard, Annemette

    While blended learning combines online and face-to-face teaching, research on blended learning has primarily focused on the role of technology and the opportunities it creates for engaging students. Less focus has been put on face-to-face activities in blended learning. This paper argues...... that it is not only the online activities in blended learning that provide new opportunities for rethinking pedagogy in higher education, it is also imperative to reconsider the face-to-face activities when part of the learning is provided online. Based on a review of blended learning in business and management...... education, we identify what forms of teaching and learning are suggested to take place face-to-face when other activities are moved online. We draw from the Community of Inquiry framework to analyze how face-to-face activities contribute to a blended learning pedagogy and discuss the implications...

  12. Use of top tethers with forward-facing child restraints: observations and driver interviews.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eichelberger, Angela H; Decina, Lawrence E; Jermakian, Jessica S; McCartt, Anne T

    2014-02-01

    Despite the safety benefits, many parents do not use top tethers with forward-facing child restraints. Detailed information was collected about why parents are not using tethers. The sample included 479 drivers who had forward-facing child restraints installed in passenger vehicles equipped with tether anchors. The survey was conducted primarily at shopping centers, recreation facilities, child care facilities, car seat check events, and health care facilities in mostly suburban areas surrounding Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Fredericksburg (VA), and Seattle. Drivers were surveyed about their knowledge and use of tethers and experience with child restraints. Tether use was observed to verify whether tethers were being used correctly. Fifty-six percent of forward-facing child restraints were installed with the tether; 39% were installed with the tether used correctly. The tether was used with 71% of LATCH lower anchor installations and 33% of seat belt installations. Drivers who installed child restraints without tethers most often said they did not know about the tether or how to use it. Although the tether use rate was slightly higher in the current research than in previous studies, many parents and caregivers still use forward-facing child restraints without attaching the tether. Because the main problem is lack of awareness of the tether or how to use it, public education should focus specifically on the safety benefits of tethers and how to use them. Information about why caregivers fail to use top tethers is potentially useful to child restraint manufacturers, child passenger safety technicians, and others who work with parents to improve motor vehicle safety. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and National Safety Council. All rights reserved.

  13. Face recognition system and method using face pattern words and face pattern bytes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yufeng

    2014-12-23

    The present invention provides a novel system and method for identifying individuals and for face recognition utilizing facial features for face identification. The system and method of the invention comprise creating facial features or face patterns called face pattern words and face pattern bytes for face identification. The invention also provides for pattern recognitions for identification other than face recognition. The invention further provides a means for identifying individuals based on visible and/or thermal images of those individuals by utilizing computer software implemented by instructions on a computer or computer system and a computer readable medium containing instructions on a computer system for face recognition and identification.

  14. Evaluation of environmental-control technologies for commercial nuclear fuel-conversion (UF6) facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perkins, B.L.

    1982-10-01

    At present in the United States, there are two commercial conversion facilities. These facilities process uranium concentrate into UF 6 for shipment to the enrichment facilities. One conversion facility uses a dry hydrofluor process, whereas the other facility uses a process known as the wet solvent extraction-fluorination process. Because of the different processes used in the two plants, waste characteristics, quantities, and treatment practices differ at each facility. Wastes and effluent streams contain impurities found in the concentrate (such as uranium daughters, vanadium, molybdenum, selenium, arsenic, and ammonia) and process chemicals used in the circuit (including fluorine, nitrogen, and hydrogen), as well as small quantities of uranium. Studies of suitable disposal options for the solid wastes and sludges generated at the facilities and the long-term effects of emissions to the ambient environment are needed. 30 figures, 34 tables

  15. Soil Carbon Storage and N{sub 2}O Emissions from Wheat Agroecosystems as Affected by Free-Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment (FACE) and Nitrogen Treatments. Annual Progress Report - Year 1: August 1, 1996 to July 31, 1997 [Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leavitt, S.W.; Matthias, A.; Thompson, T.L.

    1999-02-17

    Rising atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations have prompted concern about response of plants and crops to future elevated CO{sub 2} levels, and particularly the extent to which ecosystems will sequester carbon and thus impact the rate of rise of CO{sub 2} concentrations. Free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment (FACE) experimentation was used with wheat agroecosystems for two growing seasons to assess effects of CO{sub 2} and soil nitrogen. Over 20 researchers on this experiment variously examined plant production and grow yield, phenology, length of growing season, water-use efficiency, ecosystem productivity, below ground processes (root and microbial activity, carbon and nitrogen cycling), etc.

  16. Enrichment plants. A survey of major new uranium enriching projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovan, D.

    1976-01-01

    The work enrichment situation is reported. The development of enrichment in the U.S. and in Europe is outlined. A brief description is given of the technology of separation by diffusion and by centrifugation and the advantages and disadvantages of the two processes are compared. Finally the supply and demand situation is briefly considered. (U.K.)

  17. Effects of Enrichment and Litter Parity on Reproductive Performance and Behavior in BALB/c and 129/Sv Mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitaker, Julia W; Moy, Sheryl S; Pritchett-Corning, Kathleen R; Fletcher, Craig A

    2016-01-01

    We examined the effect of adding species-appropriate environmental enrichment items to breeding cages of BALB/cAnNCrl and 129S2/SvPasCrl mice. The 3 enrichment conditions were: 1) cotton nesting material; 2) nesting material plus a paper shelter and rolled paper bedding; and 3) an igloo dome with an exercise wheel in addition to the shelter-group enrichments. We measured litter size, litter survival to weaning age, average pup weight at 21 d, and the interlitter interval to evaluate reproductive performance. A random subset of the first- or second-litter offspring from each enrichment condition and strain was assessed in multiple behavioral tests. Enrichment significantly affected anxiety-like behavior and sociability, with the direction of change dependent on strain and sex. Litter parity had greater effects on some reproductive parameters than did the enrichment condition, and this effect was not solely due to a difference between the first compared with subsequent litters. The significant effects of litter parity on the number of pups born and weaned, female pup weight, and interlitter interval were dependent on the enrichment condition in BALB/c but not 129/Sv mice. Offspring from the first or second litter were included in a generational component to investigate whether enrichment effects on reproduction persist in adult offspring after transfer to a different facility for breeding. Natal cage enrichment had no effect on any reproductive parameter in the transferred mice. Overall, additional enrichment beyond nesting material had a beneficial effect on the interlitter interval in BALB/c mice and on the number of pups weaned in 129/Sv mice.

  18. Developments in uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohrhauer, H.

    1995-01-01

    The enrichment services market is still characterized by overcapacities. While consumption worldwide will rise by some 15% to 39,000 t SWU/a over the next ten years, capacities amount to nearly 50,000 t SWU/a. The price for enrichment services probably has reached its all time low. Prices below U.S. $ 100/kg SWU are not likely to cover costs even of the economically most advanced enrichment processes. Urenco has prepared for the difficult enrichment business in the years to come by streamlining and cost cutting measures. The company intends to hold and increase its share of more than 10% in the world market. The uranium enrichment plant of Gronau will be expanded further. Expansion beyond 1000 t is subject to another permit being granted under the Atomic Energy Act, an application for which was filed in December 1994. Centrifuge technology is the superior enrichment technology, i.e., there is still considerable potential for further development. Construction of enrichment plants employing the centrifuge technology in the United States and in France is being pursued in various phases, from feasibility studies to licensing procedures. Before these plants could be implemented, however, considerable problems of organization would have to be solved, and the market would have to change greatly, respectively. The laser process, at the present time, does not seem to be able to develop into a major industrial competitor. (orig.) [de

  19. Uranium enrichment plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gagne, R.W.; Thomas, D.C.

    1977-01-01

    The status of existing uranium enrichment contracts in the US is reviewed and expected natural uranium requirements for existing domestic uranium enrichment contracts are evaluated. Uncertainty in natural uranium requirements associated with requirements-type and fixed-commitment type contracts is discussed along with implementation of variable tails assay

  20. Virtual & Real Face to Face Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teneqexhi, Romeo; Kuneshka, Loreta

    2016-01-01

    In traditional "face to face" lessons, during the time the teacher writes on a black or white board, the students are always behind the teacher. Sometimes, this happens even in the recorded lesson in videos. Most of the time during the lesson, the teacher shows to the students his back not his face. We do not think the term "face to…

  1. Volume Reduction of Decommissioning Burnable Waste with Oxygen Enrich Incinerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Min, B. Y.; Yang, D. S.; Lee, K. W.; Choi, J. W.

    2016-01-01

    The incineration technology is an effective treatment method that contains hazardous chemicals as well as radioactive contamination. The volume reduction of the combustible wastes through the incineration technologies has merits from the view point of a decrease in the amount of waste to be disposed of resulting in a reduction of the disposal cost. Incineration is generally accepted as a method of reducing the volume of radioactive waste. The incineration technology is an effective treatment method that contains hazardous chemicals as well as radioactive contamination. This paper covers the general facility operation of an oxygen-enriched incinerator for the treatment of decommissioning wastes generated from a decommissioning project. The combustible wastes have been treated by the utilization of incinerator the capacity of the average 20 kg/hr. The decommissioning combustible waste of about 31 tons has been treated using Oxygen Enriched incinerator by at the end of 2016. The off-gas flow and temperature were maintained constant or within the desired range. The measured gases and particulate materials in the stack were considerably below the regulatory limits.

  2. Volume Reduction of Decommissioning Burnable Waste with Oxygen Enrich Incinerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Min, B. Y.; Yang, D. S.; Lee, K. W.; Choi, J. W. [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-05-15

    The incineration technology is an effective treatment method that contains hazardous chemicals as well as radioactive contamination. The volume reduction of the combustible wastes through the incineration technologies has merits from the view point of a decrease in the amount of waste to be disposed of resulting in a reduction of the disposal cost. Incineration is generally accepted as a method of reducing the volume of radioactive waste. The incineration technology is an effective treatment method that contains hazardous chemicals as well as radioactive contamination. This paper covers the general facility operation of an oxygen-enriched incinerator for the treatment of decommissioning wastes generated from a decommissioning project. The combustible wastes have been treated by the utilization of incinerator the capacity of the average 20 kg/hr. The decommissioning combustible waste of about 31 tons has been treated using Oxygen Enriched incinerator by at the end of 2016. The off-gas flow and temperature were maintained constant or within the desired range. The measured gases and particulate materials in the stack were considerably below the regulatory limits.

  3. Stem respiration of Populus species in the third year of free-air CO2 enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gielen, Birgit; Scarascia-Mugnozza, Giuseppe; Ceulemans, Reinhart

    2003-04-01

    Carbon cycling in ecosystems, and especially in forests, is intensively studied to predict the effects of global climate change, and the role which forests may play in 'changing climate change'. One of the questions is whether the carbon balance of forests will be affected by increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Regarding this question, effects of elevated [CO2] on woody-tissue respiration have frequently been neglected. Stem respiration of three Populus species (P. alba L. (Clone 2AS-11), P. nigra L. (Clone Jean Pourtet), and P. x euramericana (Clone I-214)) was measured in a managed, high-density forest plantation exposed to free-air CO2 enrichment (POPFACE). During the period of measurements, in May of the third year, stem respiration rates were not affected by the FACE treatment. Moreover, FACE did not influence the relationships between respiration rate and both stem temperature and relative growth rate. The results were supported by the reported absence of a FACE-effect on growth and stem wood density.

  4. A Systematic Approach to Marital Enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinkmeyer, Don; Carlson, Jon

    1986-01-01

    Presents a systematic approach to enriching marital relationships. The history and current status of marital enrichment is reviewed. An Adlerian approach to marital enrichment is described. Applications of the program in enrichment groups, marriage therapy and couple groups are included. (Author)

  5. Reading faces and Facing words

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Robotham, Julia Emma; Lindegaard, Martin Weis; Delfi, Tzvetelina Shentova

    unilateral lesions, we found no patient with a selective deficit in either reading or face processing. Rather, the patients showing a deficit in processing either words or faces were also impaired with the other category. One patient performed within the normal range on all tasks. In addition, all patients......It has long been argued that perceptual processing of faces and words is largely independent, highly specialised and strongly lateralised. Studies of patients with either pure alexia or prosopagnosia have strongly contributed to this view. The aim of our study was to investigate how visual...... perception of faces and words is affected by unilateral posterior stroke. Two patients with lesions in their dominant hemisphere and two with lesions in their non-dominant hemisphere were tested on sensitive tests of face and word perception during the stable phase of recovery. Despite all patients having...

  6. The enrichment secondary market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Einbund, D.R.

    1986-01-01

    This paper will addresses two topics: the background to the present status of the enrichment secondary market and the future outlook of the secondary market in enrichment services, and the viability of the nuclear fuel brokerage industry. These two topics are inevitably connected, as most secondary market activity, not only in enrichment but also in natural uranium, has traditionally been conducted with the participation of brokers. Therefore, the author interrelates these topics

  7. Thermal breeder fuel enrichment zoning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Capossela, H.J.; Dwyer, J.R.; Luce, R.G.; McCoy, D.F.; Merriman, F.C.

    1992-01-01

    A method and apparatus for improving the performance of a thermal breeder reactor having regions of higher than average moderator concentration are disclosed. The fuel modules of the reactor core contain at least two different types of fuel elements, a high enrichment fuel element and a low enrichment fuel element. The two types of fuel elements are arranged in the fuel module with the low enrichment fuel elements located between the high moderator regions and the high enrichment fuel elements. Preferably, shim rods made of a fertile material are provided in selective regions for controlling the reactivity of the reactor by movement of the shim rods into and out of the reactor core. The moderation of neutrons adjacent the high enrichment fuel elements is preferably minimized as by reducing the spacing of the high enrichment fuel elements and/or using a moderator having a reduced moderating effect. 1 figure

  8. Soil Carbon Storage and N(sub 2)O Emissions from Wheat Agroecosystems as Affected by Free-Air CO(sub 2) Enrichment (FACE) and Nitrogen Treatments. Annual Progress Report - Year 1: August 1, 1996 to July 31, 1997[Final Report]; FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leavitt, S.W.; Matthias, A.; Thompson, T.L.

    1999-01-01

    Rising atmospheric CO(sub 2) concentrations have prompted concern about response of plants and crops to future elevated CO(sub 2) levels, and particularly the extent to which ecosystems will sequester carbon and thus impact the rate of rise of CO(sub 2) concentrations. Free-air CO(sub 2) enrichment (FACE) experimentation was used with wheat agroecosystems for two growing seasons to assess effects of CO(sub 2) and soil nitrogen. Over 20 researchers on this experiment variously examined plant production and grow yield, phenology, length of growing season, water-use efficiency, ecosystem productivity, below ground processes (root and microbial activity, carbon and nitrogen cycling), etc

  9. Recent ORNL experience in site performance prediction: the Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant and the Oak Ridge Central Waste Disposal Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pin, F.G.

    1985-01-01

    The suitability of the Portsmouth Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant Landfill and the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Central Waste Disposal Facility for disposal of low-level radioactive waste was evaluated using pathways analyses. For these evaluations, a conservative approach was selected; that is, conservatism was built into the analyses when assumptions concerning future events had to be made or when uncertainties concerning site or waste characteristics existed. Data from comprehensive laboratory and field investigations were used in developing the conceptual and numerical models that served as the basis for the numerical simulations of the long-term transport of contamination to man. However, the analyses relied on conservative scenarios to describe the generation and migration of contamination and the potential human exposure to the waste. Maximum potential doses to man were calculated and compared to the appropriate standards. Even under this conservative framework, the sites were found to provide adequate buffer to persons outside the DOE reservations and conclusions concerning site capacity and site acceptability were drawn. Our experience through these studies has shown that in reaching conclusions in such studies, some consideration must be given to the uncertainties and conservatisms involved in the analyses. Analytical methods to quantitatively assess the probability of future events to occur and to quantitatively determine the sensitivity of the results to data uncertainty may prove useful in relaxing some of the conservatism built into the analyses. The applicability of such methods to pathways analyses is briefly discussed

  10. Face Attention Network: An Effective Face Detector for the Occluded Faces

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Jianfeng; Yuan, Ye; Yu, Gang

    2017-01-01

    The performance of face detection has been largely improved with the development of convolutional neural network. However, the occlusion issue due to mask and sunglasses, is still a challenging problem. The improvement on the recall of these occluded cases usually brings the risk of high false positives. In this paper, we present a novel face detector called Face Attention Network (FAN), which can significantly improve the recall of the face detection problem in the occluded case without comp...

  11. Challenges in elevated CO2 experiments on forests

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Calfapietra, Carlo; Ainsworth, Elizabeth A.; Beier, Claus

    2010-01-01

    Current forest Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiments are reaching completion. Therefore, it is time to define the scientific goals and priorities of future experimental facilities. In this opinion article, we discuss the following three overarching issues (i) What are the most urgent scienti...

  12. The commercial role for centrifuge enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Readle, P.H.; Wilcox, P.

    1987-01-01

    The enrichment market is extremely competitive and capacity greatly exceeds demand. BNFL [British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.] is in a unique position in having commercial experience of the two enrichment technologies currently used industrially: diffusion, and centrifuge enrichment through its associate company Urenco. In addition, BNFL is developing laser enrichment techniques as part of a UK development programme. The paper describes the enrichment market, briefly discusses the relative merits of the various methods of uranium enrichment and concludes that the gas centrifuge will be best able to respond to market needs for at least the remainder of the century. (author)

  13. Safety concerning the alteration in fuel material usage (new installation of the uranium enrichment pilot plant) at Ningyo Pass Mine of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-01-01

    A report of the Committee on Examination of Nuclear Fuel Safety was presented to the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan, which is concerned with the safety in the alteration of fuel material usage (new installation of the uranium enrichment pilot plant) at the Ningyo Pass Mine. Its safety was confirmed. The alteration, i.e. installation of the uranium enrichment pilot plant, is as follows. Intended for the overall test of centrifugal uranium enrichment technology, the pilot plant includes a two-storied main building of about 9,000 m 2 floor space, containing centrifuges, UF 6 equipment, etc., a uranium storage of about 1,000 m 2 floor space, and a waste water treatment facility, two-storied with about 300 m 2 floor space. The contents of the examination are safety of the facilities, criticality control, radiation control, waste treatment, and effects of accidents on the surrounding environment. (Mori, K

  14. How Well Do Computer-Generated Faces Tap Face Expertise?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kate Crookes

    Full Text Available The use of computer-generated (CG stimuli in face processing research is proliferating due to the ease with which faces can be generated, standardised and manipulated. However there has been surprisingly little research into whether CG faces are processed in the same way as photographs of real faces. The present study assessed how well CG faces tap face identity expertise by investigating whether two indicators of face expertise are reduced for CG faces when compared to face photographs. These indicators were accuracy for identification of own-race faces and the other-race effect (ORE-the well-established finding that own-race faces are recognised more accurately than other-race faces. In Experiment 1 Caucasian and Asian participants completed a recognition memory task for own- and other-race real and CG faces. Overall accuracy for own-race faces was dramatically reduced for CG compared to real faces and the ORE was significantly and substantially attenuated for CG faces. Experiment 2 investigated perceptual discrimination for own- and other-race real and CG faces with Caucasian and Asian participants. Here again, accuracy for own-race faces was significantly reduced for CG compared to real faces. However the ORE was not affected by format. Together these results signal that CG faces of the type tested here do not fully tap face expertise. Technological advancement may, in the future, produce CG faces that are equivalent to real photographs. Until then caution is advised when interpreting results obtained using CG faces.

  15. A study about siblings in the face of intellectual disability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga Lizasoain

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Research has shown that siblings of a person with intellectual disabilities can present problems of identification and socialization, the need for compensation, early adoption of large responsibilities, feelings of abandonment, guilt, shame or sadness. Nevertheless, if the needs of these brothers and sisters are facing, disability can become a source of personal and family enrichment. This article presents the initial conclusions drawn after a series of personal interviews conducted with siblings of students in a special education school. Awareness of the issue leads us to approach this study with the aim of providing guidelines of intervention to help siblings to minimize the potential negative impact of having a brother or sister with intellectual disabilities, and facilitate the development of attitudes and behaviours that enable them to face stressful situations in a constructive manner. Thanks to the direct experience of those who have been confronted with this situation, is issued to prevent psychosocial problems associated with having a brother or sister with these features.

  16. Decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Feasibility, needs and costs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-01-01

    Reactor decommissioning activities generally are considered to begin after operations have ceased and the fuel has been removed from the reactor, although in some countries the activities may be started while the fuel is still at the reactor site. The three principal alternatives for decommissioning are described. The factors to be considered in selecting the decommissioning strategy, i.e. a stage or a combination of stages that comprise the total decommissioning programme, are reviewed. One presents a discussion of the feasibility of decommissioning techniques available for use on the larger reactors and fuel cycle facilities. The numbers and types of facilities to be decommissioned and the resultant waste volumes generated for disposal will then be projected. Finally, the costs of decommissioning these facilities, the effect of these costs on electricity generating costs, and alternative methods of financing decommissioning are discussed. The discussion of decommissioning draws on various countries' studies and experience in this area. Specific details about current activities and policies in NEA Member Countries are given in the short country specific Annexes. The nuclear facilities that are addressed in this study include reactors, fuel fabrication facilities, reprocessing facilities, associated radioactive waste storage facilities, enrichment facilities and other directly related fuel cycle support facilities. The present study focuses on the technical feasibility, needs, and costs of decommissioning the larger commercial facilities in the OECD member countries that are coming into service up to the year 2000. It is intended to inform the public and to assist in planning for the decommissioning of these facilities

  17. Current Status and Performance Tests of Korea Heat Load Test Facility KoHLT-EB

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Sukkwon; Jin, Hyunggon; Shin, Kyuin; Choi, Boguen; Lee, Eohwak; Yoon, Jaesung; Lee, Dongwon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Duckhoi; Cho, Seungyon [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-05-15

    A commissioning test has been scheduled to establish the installation and preliminary performance experiments of the copper hypervapotron mockups. And a qualification test will be performed to evaluate the CuCrZr duct liner in the ITER neutral beam injection facility and the ITER first wall small-scale mockups of the semi-prototype, at up to 1.5 and 5 MW/m{sup 2} high heat flux. Also, this system will be used to test other PFCs for ITER and materials for tokamak reactors. Korean high heat flux test facility(KoHLT-EB; Korea Heat Load Test facility - Electron Beam) by using an electron beam system has been constructed in KAERI to perform the qualification test for ITER blanket FW semi-prototype mockups, hypervapotron cooling devices in fusion devices, and other ITER plasma facing components. The commissioning and performance tests with the supplier of e-gun system have been performed on November 2012. The high heat flux test for hypervapotron cooling device and calorimetry were performed to measure the surface heat flux, the temperature profile and cooling performance. Korean high heat flux test facility for the plasma facing components of nuclear fusion machines will be constructed to evaluate the performance of each component. This facility for the plasma facing materials will be equipped with an electron beam system with a 60 kV acceleration gun.

  18. Advanced Neutron Source enrichment study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bari, R.A.; Ludewig, H.; Weeks, J.R.

    1996-01-01

    A study has been performed of the impact on performance of using low-enriched uranium (20% 235 U) or medium-enriched uranium (35% 235 U) as an alternative fuel for the Advanced Neutron Source, which was initially designed to use uranium enriched to 93% 235 U. Higher fuel densities and larger volume cores were evaluated at the lower enrichments in terms of impact on neutron flux, safety, safeguards, technical feasibility, and cost. The feasibility of fabricating uranium silicide fuel at increasing material density was specifically addressed by a panel of international experts on research reactor fuels. The most viable alternative designs for the reactor at lower enrichments were identified and discussed. Several sensitivity analyses were performed to gain an understanding of the performance of the reactor at parametric values of power, fuel density, core volume, and enrichment that were interpolations between the boundary values imposed on the study or extrapolations from known technology

  19. Neural synchronization during face-to-face communication

    OpenAIRE

    Jiang, J.; Dai, B.; Peng, D.; Zhu, C.; Liu, L.; Lu, C.

    2012-01-01

    Although the human brain may have evolutionarily adapted to face-to-face communication, other modes of communication, e.g., telephone and e-mail, increasingly dominate our modern daily life. This study examined the neural difference between face-to-face communication and other types of communication by simultaneously measuring two brains using a hyperscanning approach. The results showed a significant increase in the neural synchronization in the left inferior frontal cortex during a face-to-...

  20. Challenges facing effective implementation of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis in children born to HIV-infected mothers in the public health facilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamuhabwa AAR

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Appolinary AR Kamuhabwa,1 Vicky Manyanga21Unit of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 2Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaBackground: If children born to HIV-infected mothers are not identified early, approximately 30% of them will die within the first year of life due to opportunistic infections. In order to prevent morbidity and mortality due to opportunistic infections in children, the World Health Organization recommends the use of prophylaxis using co-trimoxazole. However, the challenges affecting effective implementation of this policy in Tanzania have not been documented.Aim: In this study, we assessed the challenges facing the provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis among children born to HIV-infected mothers in the public hospitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Methodology: Four hundred and ninety-eight infants' PMTCT (Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV register books for the past 2 years were reviewed to obtain information regarding the provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis. One hundred and twenty-six health care workers were interviewed to identify success stories and challenges in the provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis in children. In addition, 321 parents and guardians of children born to HIV-infected mothers were interviewed in the health facilities.Results: Approximately 80% of children were initiated with co-trimoxazole prophylaxis within 2 months after birth. Two hundred and ninety-one (58.4% children started using co-trimoxazole within 4 weeks after birth. Majority (n=458, 91.8% of the children were prescribed 120 mg of co-trimoxazole per day, whereas 39 (7.8% received 240 mg per day. Only a small proportion (n=1, 0.2% of children received 480 mg/day. Dose determination was based on the child's age rather than body weight. Parents and guardians reported that 42 (13.1% children had missed one or more doses of co

  1. Prospects and problems of uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imai, Ryukichi

    1974-01-01

    The problem of uranium enrichment now concerns principally peaceful nuclear power generation. With the current oil crisis, energy resources assume unprecedented importance. However, the requirements for enriched uranium vary with the vicissitude of the world situation in nuclear power generation; the enterprise of uranium enrichment is related to economic aspect. The following matters are described: dimension of enrichment problem, political factors, changes in requirements, projects in each country, and strategy of enrichment in Japan. (Mori, K.)

  2. Uranium enrichment: an overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cazalet, J.

    1995-01-01

    This paper is a general presentation of uranium enrichment processes and assessments of the prevailing commercial and industrial situations. It gives first some theoretical aspects of enrichment in general and explains the differences between statistical and selective processes in particular. Then a review of the different processes is made with a comparison between them. Finally, some general remarks concerning applications are given and the risks of proliferation related to enrichment are mentioned. (J.S.). 4 refs., 5 figs., 8 tabs

  3. Feasibility study for a postaccident heat removal facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barts, E.W.; Apperson, C.E. Jr.; Dunwoody, W.E.; Bennett, J.G.

    1978-01-01

    An initial feasibility investigation for PAHRTEF, a Postaccident Heat Removal Test Facility, is presented. The facility would provide an experimental capability for PAHR experiments beyond that available in any currently existing or proposed U.S. safety test facility. The facility design presented in this report is based upon the technology developed for the ROVER nuclear rocket propulsion program. The core is a graphite-moderated, helium-cooled, epithermal core with radial reflector control. The PAHR experiments are located just below the reactor containment vessel, very near the bottom of the core. The experiments (up to 55% enriched) are driven and controlled by neutrons leaking axially from the core such that the PAHRTEF core and the experiment form a coupled reactor system. The experiment can be designed so that it is extremely unlikely that the test fuel by itself could form a critical system. The investigation indicates that adequate fission heating of large PAHR experiments could be provided at low driver core power levels. Both the reactor and the experiment handling and examination equipment can use available technology and, whenever possible, existing equipment and buildings

  4. Supply of low enriched (LEU) and highly enriched uranium (HEU) for research reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mueller, H.

    1997-01-01

    Enriched uranium for research reactors in the form of LEU /= low enriched uranium at 19.75% U-235) and HEU (= highly enriched uranium at 90 to 93% U-235) was and is - due to its high U-235 enrichment - a political fuel other than enriched uranium for power reactors. The sufficient availability of LEU and HEU is a vital question for research reactors, especially in Europe, in order to perform their peaceful research reactor programs. In the past the USA were in the Western hemisphere sole supplier of LEU and HEU. Today the USA have de facto stopped the supply of LEU and HEU, for HEU mainly due to political reasons. This paper deals, among others, with the present availability of LEU and HEU for European research reactors and touches the following topics: - historical US supplies, - influence of the RERTR-program, - characteristics of LEU and HEU, - military HEU enters the civil market, -what is the supply situation for LEU and HEU today? - outlook for safe supplies of LEU and HEU. (author)

  5. Facing aggression: cues differ for female versus male faces.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shawn N Geniole

    Full Text Available The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio, is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F(1,36 = 7.43, p = 0.01. In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively and masculinity (negatively ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as "honest signals".

  6. Facing aggression: cues differ for female versus male faces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geniole, Shawn N; Keyes, Amanda E; Mondloch, Catherine J; Carré, Justin M; McCormick, Cheryl M

    2012-01-01

    The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F(1,36) = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as "honest signals".

  7. Facing Aggression: Cues Differ for Female versus Male Faces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geniole, Shawn N.; Keyes, Amanda E.; Mondloch, Catherine J.; Carré, Justin M.; McCormick, Cheryl M.

    2012-01-01

    The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F1,36 = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as “honest signals”. PMID:22276184

  8. Tritium surveillance around nuclear facilities in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inoue, Y.; Kasida, Y.

    1978-01-01

    In order to measure the tritium levels in the environmental water around the nuclear facilities, the tritium surveillance program began in 1967 locally at Tsuruga and Mihama districts. Nowadays it has been expanded to the ten commercial nuclear power stations and three nuclear facilities. For samples whose tritium concentration is believed less than about 100 pCi/l, they were electrolytically enriched, and then counted by the liquid scintillation counter. Some of samples believed higher than 100 pCi/l were analysed without any enrichment by the low background liquid scintillation counters, Aloka LB 600 or Aloka LB 1. The results of each station are listed in Table. The sampling points corresponding to each results are shown in Figure. Tritium from the effluent was not reflected in all the land water and the tap water around the nuclear power stations and the nuclear facilities. Tritium concentration in rivers, streams, and reservoirs (pools) decreased exponentially from about 600 pCi/l in 1967 to about 150 pCi/l in 1972 at Tsuruga and Mihama, and 360 pCi/l in 1968 to 120 pCi/l in 1973 at Genkai, with the half life of about 2.5 years in both cases. After around 1972, tritium levels of river system in all districts of Japan kept nearly constant up to the end of 1975 and they were in the range from 100 to 300 pCi/l corresponding to the districts. Thereafter, it seems to start to decrease again in 1976. Sea water sampled at the intake of the station or on the seashore far from the outlet was regarded not to be influenced by the effluent from the nuclear reactors or facilities. Tritium concentration in these coastal waters decreased from 100 - 300 pCi/l in 1971 to 30 - 40 pCi/l in 1972 in Fukushima, Ibaraki and Fukui prefectures. (author)

  9. WASH and gender in health care facilities: The uncharted territory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohler, Petra; Renggli, Samuel; Lüthi, Christoph

    2017-11-08

    Health care facilities in low- and middle-income countries are high-risk settings, and face special challenges to achieving sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. Our applied interdisciplinary research conducted in India and Uganda analyzed six dimensions of WASH services in selected health care facilities, including menstrual hygiene management. To be effective, WASH monitoring strategies in health care facilities must include gender sensitive measures. We present a novel strategy, showing that applied gender sensitive multitool assessments are highly productive in assessments of WASH services and facilities from user and provider perspectives. We discuss its potential for applications at scale and as an area of future research.

  10. Central fuel banking to reduce the number of proliferation sensitive enrichment activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cserhati, A.

    2008-01-01

    Central fuel banking is a complex international political, economic and technical concept that aims to reduce uncontrolled spreading of uranium enrichment technology in the world in order to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons. This paper first gives an outline of the notions: 'non-proliferation', the 'front-end' of the fuel cycle, the scope of fuel baking, nuclear fuel and the 60 years of enrichment technology. Enrichment technology is highly concentrated in the nuclear weapon states and other developed countries, but this is not exclusive any more. The technology is spreading. The global demand for enrichment services - parallel to massive nuclear investments in the civil sector and the ageing of older facilities - is constantly growing. Proliferation sensitivity calls for an effective and comprehensive non-proliferation regime. The solution may be multilateralizing the nuclear fuel cycle. After a historical overview, the proposals on multilateral nuclear approaches are presented. The assessment of the proposals is complex in the dimensions of: the non-proliferation aim, the assurance of supply aspect and other variables such as legal issues and non-nuclear inducements. A general evaluation and the recommendations of the Expert Panel of the IAEA are introduced outlining a plan on a middle- and long-term basis. The conclusion of the paper stresses the importance and challenge in finding the 'new balance' between obligations and interests of the members of the global community stating that the answers will have a significant impact on the nuclear indus- try, world wide economics and security policy. (orig.)

  11. Nitrogen-enriched carbon with extremely high mesoporosity and tunable mesopore size for high-performance supercapacitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Xiaoqing; Li, Chengfei; Fu, Ruowen

    2016-07-01

    As one of the most potential electrode materials for supercapacitors, nitrogen-enriched nanocarbons are still facing challenge of constructing developed mesoporosity for rapid mass transportation and tailoring their pore size for performance optimization and expanding their application scopes. Herein we develop a series of nitrogen-enriched mesoporous carbon (NMC) with extremely high mesoporosity and tunable mesopore size by a two-step method using silica gel as template. In our approach, mesopore size can be easily tailored from 4.7 to 35 nm by increasing the HF/TEOS volume ratio from 1/100 to 1/4. The NMC with mesopores of 6.2 nm presents the largest mesopore volume, surface area and mesopore ratio of 2.56 cm3 g-1, 1003 m2 g-1 and 97.7%, respectively. As a result, the highest specific capacitance of 325 F g-1 can be obtained at the current density of 0.1 A g-1, which can stay over 88% (286 F g-1) as the current density increases by 100 times (10 A g-1). This approach may open the doors for preparation of nitrogen-enriched nanocarbons with desired nanostructure for numerous applications.

  12. Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) reduces the inhibitory effect of soil nitrate on N2 fixation of Pisum sativum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butterly, Clayton R; Armstrong, Roger; Chen, Deli; Tang, Caixian

    2016-01-01

    Additional carbohydrate supply resulting from enhanced photosynthesis under predicted future elevated CO2 is likely to increase symbiotic nitrogen (N) fixation in legumes. This study examined the interactive effects of atmospheric CO2 and nitrate (NO3(-)) concentration on the growth, nodulation and N fixation of field pea (Pisum sativum) in a semi-arid cropping system. Field pea was grown for 15 weeks in a Vertosol containing 5, 25, 50 or 90 mg NO3(-)-N kg(-1) under either ambient CO2 (aCO2; 390 ppm) or elevated CO2 (eCO2; 550 ppm) using free-air CO2 enrichment (SoilFACE). Under aCO2, field pea biomass was significantly lower at 5 mg NO3(-)-N kg(-1) than at 90 mg NO3(-)-N kg(-1) soil. However, increasing the soil N level significantly reduced nodulation of lateral roots but not the primary root, and nodules were significantly smaller, with 85% less nodule mass in the 90 NO3(-)-N kg(-1) than in the 5 mg NO3(-)-N kg(-1) treatment, highlighting the inhibitory effects of NO3(-). Field pea grown under eCO2 had greater biomass (approx. 30%) than those grown under aCO2, and was not affected by N level. Overall, the inhibitory effects of NO3(-) on nodulation and nodule mass appeared to be reduced under eCO2 compared with aCO2, although the effects of CO2 on root growth were not significant. Elevated CO2 alleviated the inhibitory effect of soil NO3(-) on nodulation and N2 fixation and is likely to lead to greater total N content of field pea growing under future elevated CO2 environments. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  13. Management of tritium at nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-01-01

    This report presents extending summaries of the works of the participants to an IAEA co-ordinated research programme, ''Handling Tritium - bearing effluents and wastes''. The subjects covered include production of tritium in nuclear power plants (mainly heavy water and light water reactors), as well as at reprocessing plants; removal and enrichment of tritium at nuclear facilities; conditioning methods and characteristics of immobilized tritium of low and high concentration; some potential methods of storage and disposal of tritium. In addition to the conclusions of this three-years work, possible activities in the field are recommended

  14. The competitive enrichment market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parks, J.W.; Huffman, F.C.

    1984-01-01

    With the enactment of the ''Private Ownership of Special Nuclear Materials Act'' in 1964, the U.S. Government made provisions to enter into the uranium enrichment services business. Since nuclear power was in its infancy and the Government was promoting its growth as well as trying to help U.S. industry sell reactors overseas, the initial contracts (Requirements Contracts) for enrichment services placed most of the risks associated with the supplying of the services on the Government. Projections of nuclear power additions continued to grow and in 1972 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) stopped contracting under Requirements Contracts in order to study which mode of contracting best suited the commercial development of the industry. In mid-1973, the AEC introduced the Long-Term Fixed Commitment (LTFC) contract which shifted the risk to the customer. By mid-1974, AEC had contracts which completely used the enrichment capacity of its complex and refused to accept requests for additional contracts. This action further convinced European nations that they should continue to develop their own enrichment capacity and resulted in the EURODIF and URENCO projects. Before this time the U.S. supplied 100% of the world market for enriching services

  15. Comparison of HEU and LEU neutron spectra in irradiation facilities at the Oregon State TRIGA® Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schickler, R.A.; Marcum, W.R.; Reese, S.R.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: • The Oregon State TRIGA ® Reactor neutron spectra is characterized herein. • Neutron spectra between highly enriched uranium and low enriched uranium cores are compared. • Discussion is given as to differences between HEU and LEU core spectra results and impact on experiments. -- Abstract: In 2008, the Oregon State TRIGA ® Reactor (OSTR) was converted from highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel lifetime improvement plan (FLIP) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. This effort was driven and supported by the Department of Energy's (DoE's) Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program. The basis behind the RERTR program's ongoing conversion effort is to reduce the nuclear proliferation risk of civilian research and test reactors. The original intent of the HEU FLIP fuel was to provide fuel to research reactors that could be utilized for many years before a necessary refueling cycle. As a research reactor, the OSTR provides irradiation facilities for a variety of applications, such as activation analysis, fission-track dating, commercial isotope production, neutron radiography, prompt gamma characterization, and many others. In order to accurately perform these research functions, several studies had been conducted on the HEU FLIP fuel core to characterize the neutron spectra in various experimental facilities of the OSTR (Tiyapun, 1997; Ashbaker, 2005). As useful as these analyses were, they are no longer valid due to the change in fuel composition and the resulting alteration of core performance characteristics. Additionally, the core configuration (fuel reconfiguration) was altered between the HEU and LEU cores. This study characterizes the neutron spectra in various experimental facilities within and around the current LEU core. It also compares the spectra to that which was yielded in the HEU core through use of Monte Carlo n-Particle 5 (MCNP5) and experimental adjustment via a least-squares technique. The quantification of

  16. Updated on effluents releases of the CEA nuclear fuel cycle facilities - 1995 to 2010 period

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ferreira, Nelson Luiz Dias [Centro Tecnologico da Marinha em Sao Paulo (CTMSP) Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

    2011-07-01

    The environmental impact assessment of the Centro Experimental Aramar (CEA) facilities has been presented in a former work, based on the measured effluent releases data, for the period from 1995 to 2007. This work shows the update up to 2010. The effluents releases to the environment result from the routine operation of CEA nuclear fuel cycle facilities (LEI - Isotopic Enrichment Laboratory, USIDE - Pilot Plant for Industrial Verification of Uranium Enrichment and LABMAT - Nuclear Materials Laboratory). Basically, this work presents the radioactive release source terms, as described at the CEA Effluent Report sent to the National Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNEN) each semester, and a historical assessment of the critical group annual doses from 1995 up to 2010. The assessed doses are compared to the maximum dose constraint as well as to the exemption level specified by CNEN. (author)

  17. Updated on effluents releases of the CEA nuclear fuel cycle facilities - 1995 to 2010 period

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferreira, Nelson Luiz Dias

    2011-01-01

    The environmental impact assessment of the Centro Experimental Aramar (CEA) facilities has been presented in a former work, based on the measured effluent releases data, for the period from 1995 to 2007. This work shows the update up to 2010. The effluents releases to the environment result from the routine operation of CEA nuclear fuel cycle facilities (LEI - Isotopic Enrichment Laboratory, USIDE - Pilot Plant for Industrial Verification of Uranium Enrichment and LABMAT - Nuclear Materials Laboratory). Basically, this work presents the radioactive release source terms, as described at the CEA Effluent Report sent to the National Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNEN) each semester, and a historical assessment of the critical group annual doses from 1995 up to 2010. The assessed doses are compared to the maximum dose constraint as well as to the exemption level specified by CNEN. (author)

  18. Development of on-line uranium enrichment monitor of gaseous UF6 for uranium enrichment plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu Xuesheng; Liu Guorong; Jin Huimin; Zhao Yonggang; Li Jinghuai; Hao Xueyuan; Ying Bin; Yu Zhaofei

    2013-01-01

    An on-line enrichment monitor was developed to measure the enrichment of UF 6 , flowing through the processing pipes in uranium enrichment plant. A Nal (Tl) detector was used to measure the count rates of the 185.7 keV γ-ray emitted from 235 U, and the total quantity of uranium was determined from thermodynamic characteristics of gaseous uranium hexafluoride. The results show that the maximum relative standard deviation is less than 1% when the measurement time is 120 s or more and the pressure is more than 2 kPa in the measurement chamber. Uranium enrichment of gaseous uranium hexafluoride in the output end of cascade can be monitored continuously by using the device. It should be effective for nuclear materials accountability verifications and materials balance verification at uranium enrichment plant. (authors)

  19. Preliminary analysis of 500 MWt MHD power plant with oxygen enrichment

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-04-01

    An MHD Engineering Test Facility design concept is analyzed. A 500 MWt oxygen enriched MHD topping cycle integrated for combined cycle operation with a 400 MWe steam plant is evaluated. The MHD cycle uses Montana Rosebud coal and air enriched to 35 mole percent oxygen preheated to 1100 F. The steam plant is a 2535 psia/1000 F/1000 F reheat recycle that was scaled down from the Gilbert/Commonwealth Reference Fossil Plant design series. Integration is accomplished by blending the steam generated in the MHD heat recovery system with steam generated by the partial firing of the steam plant boiler to provide the total flow requirement of the turbine. The major MHD and steam plant auxiliaries are driven by steam turbines. When the MHD cycle is taken out of service, the steam plant is capable of stand-alone operation at turbine design throttle flow. This operation requires the full firing of the steam plant boiler. A preliminary feasibility assessment is given, and results on the system thermodynamics, construction scheduling, and capital costs are presented.

  20. Facility design, construction, and operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-04-01

    France has been disposing of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) at the Centre de Stockage de la Manche (CSM) since 1969 and now at the Centre de Stockage de l'Aube (CSA) since 1992. In France, several agencies and companies are involved in the development and implementation of LLW technology. The Commissariat a l'Energie Atomic (CEA), is responsible for research and development of new technologies. The Agence National pour la Gestion des Dechets Radioactifs is the agency responsible for the construction and operation of disposal facilities and for wastes acceptance for these facilities. Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires provides fuel services, including uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication, and fuel reprocessing, and is thus one generator of LLW. Societe pour les Techniques Nouvelles is an engineering company responsible for commercializing CEA waste management technology and for engineering and design support for the facilities. Numatec, Inc. is a US company representing these French companies and agencies in the US. In Task 1.1 of Numatec's contract with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Numatec provides details on the design, construction and operation of the LLW disposal facilities at CSM and CSA. Lessons learned from operation of CSM and incorporated into the design, construction and operating procedures at CSA are identified and discussed. The process used by the French for identification, selection, and evaluation of disposal technologies is provided. Specifically, the decisionmaking process resulting in the change in disposal facility design for the CSA versus the CSM is discussed. This report provides' all of the basic information in these areas and reflects actual experience to date

  1. Analysis of fuel management in the KIPT neutron source facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhong Zhaopeng, E-mail: zzhong@anl.gov [Nuclear Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States); Gohar, Yousry; Talamo, Alberto [Nuclear Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)

    2011-05-15

    Research highlights: > Fuel management of KIPT ADS was analyzed. > Core arrangement was shuffled in stage wise. > New fuel assemblies was added into core periodically. > Beryllium reflector could also be utilized to increase the fuel life. - Abstract: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) of USA and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine have been collaborating on the conceptual design development of an experimental neutron source facility consisting of an electron accelerator driven sub-critical assembly. The neutron source driving the sub-critical assembly is generated from the interaction of 100 KW electron beam with a natural uranium target. The sub-critical assembly surrounding the target is fueled with low enriched WWR-M2 type hexagonal fuel assemblies. The U-235 enrichment of the fuel material is <20%. The facility will be utilized for basic and applied research, producing medical isotopes, and training young specialists. With the 100 KW electron beam power, the total thermal power of the facility is {approx}360 kW including the fission power of {approx}260 kW. The burnup of the fissile materials and the buildup of fission products continuously reduce the system reactivity during the operation, decrease the neutron flux level, and consequently impact the facility performance. To preserve the neutron flux level during the operation, the fuel assemblies should be added and shuffled for compensating the lost reactivity caused by burnup. Beryllium reflector could also be utilized to increase the fuel life time in the sub-critical core. This paper studies the fuel cycles and shuffling schemes of the fuel assemblies of the sub-critical assembly to preserve the system reactivity and the neutron flux level during the operation.

  2. High heat flux facility GLADIS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Greuner, H.; Boeswirth, B.; Boscary, J.; McNeely, P.

    2007-01-01

    The new ion beam facility GLADIS started the operation at IPP Garching. The facility is equipped with two individual 1.1 MW power ion sources for testing actively cooled plasma facing components under high heat fluxes. Each ion source generates heat loads between 3 and 55 MW/m 2 with a beam diameter of 70 mm at the target position. These parameters allow effective testing from probes to large components up to 2 m length. The high heat flux allows the target to be installed inclined to the beam and thus increases the heated surface length up to 200 mm for a heat flux of 15 MW/m 2 in the standard operating regime. Thus the facility has the potential capability for testing of full scale ITER divertor targets. Heat load tests on the WENDELSTEIN 7-X pre-series divertor targets have been successfully started. These tests will validate the design and manufacturing for the production of 950 elements

  3. Engineering and technology in the deconstruction of nuclear materials production facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kingsley, R.S.; Reynolds, W.E.; Heffner, D.C.

    1996-01-01

    Technology and equipment exist to support nuclear facility deactivation, decontamination, and decommissioning. In reality, this statement is not surprising because the nuclear industry has been decontaminating and decommissioning production plants for decades as new generations of production technology were introduced. Since the 1950s, the Babcock and Wilcox Company (B ampersand W) has operated a number of nuclear materials processing facilities to manufacture nuclear fuel for the commercial power industry and the U.S. Navy. These manufacturing facilities included a mixed oxide (PuO 2 -UO 2 ) nuclear fuel manufacturing plant, low- and high-enriched uranium (HEU/LEU) chemical and fuel plants, and fuel assembly plants. In addition, B ampersand W designed and build a major nuclear research center in Lynchburg, Virginia, to support these nuclear fuel manufacturing activities and to conduct nuclear power research. These nuclear research facilities included two research reactors, a hot-cell complex for nuclear materials research, four critical experiment facilities, and a plutonium fuels research and development facility. This article describes the B ampersand W deactivation, decomtanimation, and decommisioning program

  4. 78 FR 33995 - Nuclear Proliferation Assessment in Licensing Process for Enrichment or Reprocessing Facilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-06-06

    ... NRC's regulations on physical security, information security, material control and accounting, cyber... security, information security, material control and accounting, cyber security, and export control create... construction and operation of the proposed facility. While the NRC recognizes the importance of the petitioner...

  5. Establishing a LEU MTR fuel manufacturing facility in South Africa

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jamie, R.W.; Kocher, A.

    2010-01-01

    The South African MTR Fuel Manufacturing Facility was established in the 1970's to supply SAFARI-1 with Fuel Elements and Control Rods. South African capability was developed in parallel with the uranium enrichment program to meet the needs of the Reactor. Further to the July 2005 decision by the South African Governmnent to convert both SAFARI-1 and the Fuel Plant to LEU, the SAFARI-1 phase has been successfully completed and Necsa has commenced with the conversion of the MTR Fuel Manufacturing Facility. In order to establish, validate and qualify the facility, Necsa has entered into a co-operation and technology transfer agreement with AREVA CERCA, the French manufacturer of Research Reactor fuel elements. Past experiences, conversion challenges and the status of the MTR Fuel Facility Project are discussed. On-going co-operation with AREVA CERCA to implement the local manufacture of LEU fuel is explained and elaborated on. (author)

  6. S. 2415: Title I may be cited as the Uranium Enrichment Act of 1990; Title II may be cited as the Uranium Security and Tailings Reclamation Act of 1989; and Title III may be cited as The Solar, Wind, Waste, and Geothermal Power Production Incentives Act of 1990, introduced in the Senate, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session, April 4, 1990

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1990-01-01

    S. 2415 (which started out as a bill to encourage solar and geothermal power generation) now would amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to redirect uranium enrichment enterprises to further the national interest, respond to competitive market forces, and to ensure the nation's common defense and security. It would establish a United States Enrichment Corporation for the following purposes: to acquire feed materials, enriched uranium, and enrichment facilities; to operate these facilities; to market enriched uranium for governmental purposes and qualified domestic and foreign persons; to conduct research into uranium enrichment; and to operate as a profitable, self-financing, reliable corporation and in a manner consistent with the health and safety of the public. The bill describes powers and duties of the corporation; the organization, finance, and management; decontamination and decommissioning. The second part of the bill would ensure an adequate supply of domestic uranium for defense and power production; provide assistance to the domestic uranium industry; and establish, facilitate, and expedite a comprehensive system for financing reclamation and remedial action at active uranium and thorium processing sites. The third part of the bill would remove the size limitations on power production facilities now part of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. Solar, wind, waste, or geothermal power facilities would no longer have to be less than 80 MW to qualify as a small power production facility

  7. Recommissioning the K-1600 seismic test facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wynn, C.C.; Brewer, D.W.

    1991-01-01

    The Center for Natural Phenomena Engineering (CNPE) was established under the technical direction of Dr. James E. Beavers with a mandate to assess, by analyses and testing, the seismic capacity of building structures that house sensitive processes at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. This mandate resulted in a need to recommission the K-1600 Seismic Test Facility (STF) at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site, which had been shutdown for 6 years. This paper documents the history of the facility and gives some salient construction, operation, and performance details of its 8-ton, 20-foot center of gravity payload biaxial seismic simulator. A log of activities involved in the restart of this valuable resource is included as Table 1. Some of the problems and solutions associated with recommissioning the facility under a relatively limited budget are included. The unique attributes of the shake table are discussed. The original mission and performance requirements are compared to current expanded mission and performance capabilities. Potential upgrades to further improve the capabilities of the test facility as an adjunct to the CNPE are considered. Additional uses for the facility are proposed, including seismic qualification testing of devices unique to enrichment technologies and associated hazardous waste treatment and disposal processes. In summary, the STF restart in conjunction with CNPE has added a vital, and unique facility to the list of current national resources utilized for earthquake engineering research and development

  8. The low-enrichment fuel development program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stahl, D.

    1993-01-01

    In the 1950s and 1960s, low-power research reactors were built around the world utilized MTR-type fuel elements containing 20% enriched uranium. However, the demand for higher specific power created a need for greater uranium-235 concentrations. Early difficulties in increasing uranium content led to the substitution of highly enriched uranium in place of the 20% enriched fuel previously utilized. The highly enriched material also yielded other benefits including longer core residence time, higher specific reactivity, and somewhat lower cost. Highly enriched material then became readily available and was used for high-power reactors as well as in low-power reactors where 20% enriched material would have sufficed. The trend toward higher and higher specific power also led to the development of the dispersion-type fuels which utilized highly enriched uranium at a concentration of about 40 wt%. In the 1970's, however, concerns were raised about the proliferation resistance of fuels and fuel cycles. As a consequence, the U.S. Department of State has recently prohibited the foreign shipment of highly enriched material, except where prior contractual obligation or special merit exists. This will impact on the availability and utilization of highly enriched uranium for research and test reactor fuel. It has also stimulated development programs on fuels with higher uranium content which would allow the use of uranium of lower enrichment. The purpose of this report is to briefly describe the overall fuel-development program which is coordinated by Argonne National Laboratory for the Department of Energy, and to indicate the current and potential uranium loadings. Other reports will address the individual fuel-development activities in greater detail

  9. Long-term outlook for global natural uranium and uranium enrichment supply and demand situations after the impact of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuo, Yuhji; Murakami, Tomoko

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, the authors propose long-term projections of global nuclear power generation, uranium production, and uranium enrichment capacities by region, and estimate the trade flows of natural uranium and uranium enrichment activities in 2020 and 2035. In spite of the rapid nuclear power generation capacity growth expected especially in Asia, the natural uranium and uranium enrichment trade will not be tightened by 2020 due to the projected increase in both natural uranium production and uranium enrichment capacities, which may cause a drop in natural uranium and uranium enrichment prices. Thus, there is a great possibility that the current projects for capacity expansion will be delayed considerably. However, in the 'high-demand scenario', where nuclear expansion will be accelerated due to growing concerns about global warming and energy security issues, additional investments in uranium production and enrichment facilities will be needed by 2035. In Asia, the self-sufficiency ratio for both natural uranium supply and uranium enrichment activities will remain relatively low until 2035. However, the Herfindahl-Hirschman (HH) index of natural uranium and uranium enrichment activity trade to Asia will be lowered considerably up to 2035, indicating that nuclear capacity expansion can contribute to enhancing energy security in Asia. (author)

  10. Early enrichment in free-range laying hens: effects on ranging behaviour, welfare and response to stressors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, D L M; Hinch, G N; Downing, J A; Lee, C

    2018-03-01

    Free-range laying hen systems are increasing within Australia. The pullets for these systems are typically reared indoors before being provided first range access around 21 to 26 weeks of age. Thus, the rearing and laying environments are disparate and hens may not adapt well to free-range housing. In this study, we reared 290 Hy-Line® Brown day-old chicks divided into two rooms each with feed, water and litter. In the enriched room, multiple structural, manipulable, visual and auditory stimuli were also provided from 4 to 21 days, the non-enriched room had no additional objects or stimuli. Pullets were transferred to the laying facility at 12 weeks of age and divided into six pens (three enriched-reared, three non-enriched-reared) with identical indoor resources and outdoor range area. All birds were first provided range access at 21 weeks of age. Video observations of natural disturbance behaviours on the range at 22 to 23 and 33 to 34 weeks of age showed no differences in frequency of disturbance occurrences between treatment groups (P=0.09) but a decrease in disturbance occurrences over time (Prange each day (Prange visits than non-enriched birds from 21 to 24 weeks of age (P=0.01). Enriched birds accessed the range on more days (P=0.03) but over time, most birds in both treatment groups accessed the range daily. Basic external health scoring showed minimal differences between treatment groups with most birds in visibly good condition. At 38 weeks of age all birds were locked inside for 2 days and from 40 to 42 weeks of age the outdoor range was reduced to 20% of its original size to simulate stressful events. The eggs from non-enriched birds had higher corticosterone concentrations following lock-in and 2 weeks following range reduction compared with the concentrations within eggs from enriched birds (Prange area reduction compared to non-enriched hens (P=0.02). Only one rearing room per treatment was used but these preliminary data indicate 3 weeks of early

  11. Enrichment measurement in TRIGA type fuels; Medicion de enriquecimiento en combustibles tipo Triga

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aguilar H, F.; Mazon R, R. [ININ, 52045 Ocoyoacac, Estado de Mexico (Mexico)

    2001-05-15

    The Department of Energy of the United States of North America, through the program 'Idaho Operations Nuclear Spent Fuel Program' of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), in Idaho Falls; Idaho USA, hires to Global Technologies Inc. (GTI) to develop a prototype device of detection enrichment uranium (DEU Detection of Enrichment of Uranium) to determine quantitatively the enrichment in remainder U-235 in a TRIGA fuel element at the end of it useful life. The characteristics of the prototype developed by GTI are the following ones: It allows to carry out no-destructive measurements of TRIGA type fuel. Easily transportable due to that reduced of it size. The determination of the enrichment (in grams of U-235) it is obtained with a precision of 5%. The National Institute of Nuclear Research (ININ), in its facilities of the Nuclear Center of Mexico, it has TRIGA type fuel of high and low enrichment (standard and FLIP) fresh and with burnt, it also has the infrastructure (hot cells, armor-plating of transport, etc) and qualified personnel to carry out the necessary maneuvers to prove the operation of the DEU prototype. For this its would be used standard type fuel elements and FLIP, so much fresh as with certain burnt one. In the case of the fresh fuels the measurement doesn't represent any risk, the fuels before and after the measurement its don't contain a quantity of fission products that its represent a radiological risk in its manipulation; but in the case of the fuels with burnt the handling of the same ones represents an important radiological risk reason why for its manipulation it was used the transport armor-plating and the hot cells. (Author)

  12. Soils radiological characterization under a nuclear facility - 59046

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aubonnet, Emilie; Dubot, Didier

    2012-01-01

    Nowadays, nuclear industry is facing a crucial need in establishing radiological characterization for the appraisal and the monitoring of any remediation work. Regarding its experience in this domain, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) of Fontenay-aux- Roses, established an important feedback and developed over the last 10 years a sound methodology for radiological characterization. This approach is based on several steps: - historical investigations; - assumption and confirmation of the contamination; - surface characterization; - in-depth characterization; - rehabilitation objectives; - remediation process. The amount of measures, samples and analysis is optimized for data processing using geo-statistics. This approach is now used to characterize soils under facilities. The paper presents the radiological characterization of soils under a facility basement. This facility has been built after the first generation of nuclear facilities, replacing a plutonium facility which has been dismantled in 1960. The presentation details the different steps of radiological characterization from historical investigations to optimization of excavation depths, impact studies and contaminated volumes. (authors)

  13. Virtual laboratories: Collaborative environments and facilities-on-line

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thomas, C.E. Jr. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). I and C Div.; Cavallini, J.S.; Seweryniak, G.R.; Kitchens, T.A.; Hitchcock, D.A.; Scott, M.A.; Welch, L.C. [Dept. of Energy, Germantown, MD (United States). Mathematical Information, and Computational Sciences Div.; Aiken, R.J. [Dept. of Energy, Germantown, MD (United States). Mathematical Information, and Computational Sciences Div.]|[Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); Stevens, R.L. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Sciences Div.

    1995-07-01

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has major research laboratories in a number of locations in the US, typically co-located with large research instruments or research facilities valued at tens of millions to even billions of dollars. Present budget exigencies facing the entire nation are felt very deeply at DOE, just as elsewhere. Advances over the last few years in networking and computing technologies make virtual collaborative environments and conduct of experiments over the internetwork structure a possibility. The authors believe that development of these collaborative environments and facilities-on-line could lead to a ``virtual laboratory`` with tremendous potential for decreasing the costs of research and increasing the productivity of their capital investment in research facilities. The majority of these cost savings would be due to increased productivity of their research efforts, better utilization of resources and facilities, and avoiding duplication of expensive facilities. A vision of how this might all fit together and a discussion of the infrastructure necessary to enable these developments is presented.

  14. AEC determines uranium enrichment policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    The Advisory Committee on Uranium Enrichment of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has submitted a report to AEC chairman concerning the promotion of the introduction of advanced material, high performance centrifuges to replace conventional metallic drum centrifuges, and the development of next generation advanced centrifuges. The report also called for the postponement until around 1997 of the decision whether the development should be continued or not on atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) and molecular laser isotope separation (MLIS) processes, as well as the virtual freezing of the construction of a chemical process demonstration plant. The report was approved by the AEC chairman in August. The uranium enrichment service market in the world will continue to be characterized by oversupply. The domestic situation of uranium enrichment supply-demand trend, progress of the expansion of Rokkasho enrichment plant, the trend in the development of gas centrifuge process and the basic philosophy of commercializing domestic uranium enrichment are reported. (K.I.)

  15. Initial test results of the Omron face cue entry system at the University of Missouri-Rolla Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tokuhiro, Akira T.; Vaughn, Brian J.

    2004-01-01

    The University of Missouri-Rolla Reactor facility is testing, in collaboration with Omron Transaction Systems, Inc., the Omron Face Cue facial recognition system for access control to its restricted area. The installation of this system is the first of its kind at a security-relevant facility in the U.S. and within the research reactor community. The Face Cue is an on-demand device based on facial recognition and storage technology. The image processing methodology is as follows: (1) facial position detection, (2) background elimination, (3) facial features discrimination via application of a wavelet transform. The extracted facial feature values are compared to the data archived in its database and access is provided upon meeting the authorization criteria. The current test phase consisted of assessing the functionality of the Face Cue during daily use and in terms of its robustness (flexibility) as a function of the following physical parameters: (1) subject's distance away from the Face Cue, (2) ambient lighting conditions, (3) subject's facial orientation, (4) subject's facial expression and (5) peripheral facial features/modifications. The system has operated at nearly 100% reliability during several test intervals with approximately 7,000 entry attempts to date. (author)

  16. ToNER: A tool for identifying nucleotide enrichment signals in feature-enriched RNA-seq data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuttachon Promworn

    Full Text Available Biochemical methods are available for enriching 5' ends of RNAs in prokaryotes, which are employed in the differential RNA-seq (dRNA-seq and the more recent Cappable-seq protocols. Computational methods are needed to locate RNA 5' ends from these data by statistical analysis of the enrichment. Although statistical-based analysis methods have been developed for dRNA-seq, they may not be suitable for Cappable-seq data. The more efficient enrichment method employed in Cappable-seq compared with dRNA-seq could affect data distribution and thus algorithm performance.We present Transformation of Nucleotide Enrichment Ratios (ToNER, a tool for statistical modeling of enrichment from RNA-seq data obtained from enriched and unenriched libraries. The tool calculates nucleotide enrichment scores and determines the global transformation for fitting to the normal distribution using the Box-Cox procedure. From the transformed distribution, sites of significant enrichment are identified. To increase power of detection, meta-analysis across experimental replicates is offered. We tested the tool on Cappable-seq and dRNA-seq data for identifying Escherichia coli transcript 5' ends and compared the results with those from the TSSAR tool, which is designed for analyzing dRNA-seq data. When combining results across Cappable-seq replicates, ToNER detects more known transcript 5' ends than TSSAR. In general, the transcript 5' ends detected by ToNER but not TSSAR occur in regions which cannot be locally modeled by TSSAR.ToNER uses a simple yet robust statistical modeling approach, which can be used for detecting RNA 5'ends from Cappable-seq data, in particular when combining information from experimental replicates. The ToNER tool could potentially be applied for analyzing other RNA-seq datasets in which enrichment for other structural features of RNA is employed. The program is freely available for download at ToNER webpage (http://www4a

  17. ToNER: A tool for identifying nucleotide enrichment signals in feature-enriched RNA-seq data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Promworn, Yuttachon; Kaewprommal, Pavita; Shaw, Philip J; Intarapanich, Apichart; Tongsima, Sissades; Piriyapongsa, Jittima

    2017-01-01

    Biochemical methods are available for enriching 5' ends of RNAs in prokaryotes, which are employed in the differential RNA-seq (dRNA-seq) and the more recent Cappable-seq protocols. Computational methods are needed to locate RNA 5' ends from these data by statistical analysis of the enrichment. Although statistical-based analysis methods have been developed for dRNA-seq, they may not be suitable for Cappable-seq data. The more efficient enrichment method employed in Cappable-seq compared with dRNA-seq could affect data distribution and thus algorithm performance. We present Transformation of Nucleotide Enrichment Ratios (ToNER), a tool for statistical modeling of enrichment from RNA-seq data obtained from enriched and unenriched libraries. The tool calculates nucleotide enrichment scores and determines the global transformation for fitting to the normal distribution using the Box-Cox procedure. From the transformed distribution, sites of significant enrichment are identified. To increase power of detection, meta-analysis across experimental replicates is offered. We tested the tool on Cappable-seq and dRNA-seq data for identifying Escherichia coli transcript 5' ends and compared the results with those from the TSSAR tool, which is designed for analyzing dRNA-seq data. When combining results across Cappable-seq replicates, ToNER detects more known transcript 5' ends than TSSAR. In general, the transcript 5' ends detected by ToNER but not TSSAR occur in regions which cannot be locally modeled by TSSAR. ToNER uses a simple yet robust statistical modeling approach, which can be used for detecting RNA 5'ends from Cappable-seq data, in particular when combining information from experimental replicates. The ToNER tool could potentially be applied for analyzing other RNA-seq datasets in which enrichment for other structural features of RNA is employed. The program is freely available for download at ToNER webpage (http://www4a.biotec.or.th/GI/tools/toner) and Git

  18. Successful decoding of famous faces in the fusiform face area.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vadim Axelrod

    Full Text Available What are the neural mechanisms of face recognition? It is believed that the network of face-selective areas, which spans the occipital, temporal, and frontal cortices, is important in face recognition. A number of previous studies indeed reported that face identity could be discriminated based on patterns of multivoxel activity in the fusiform face area and the anterior temporal lobe. However, given the difficulty in localizing the face-selective area in the anterior temporal lobe, its role in face recognition is still unknown. Furthermore, previous studies limited their analysis to occipito-temporal regions without testing identity decoding in more anterior face-selective regions, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. In the current high-resolution functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, we systematically examined the decoding of the identity of famous faces in the temporo-frontal network of face-selective and adjacent non-face-selective regions. A special focus has been put on the face-area in the anterior temporal lobe, which was reliably localized using an optimized scanning protocol. We found that face-identity could be discriminated above chance level only in the fusiform face area. Our results corroborate the role of the fusiform face area in face recognition. Future studies are needed to further explore the role of the more recently discovered anterior face-selective areas in face recognition.

  19. Lessons Learned and Present Day Challenges of Addressing 20th Century Radiation Legacies of Russia and the United States

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    KRISTOFZSKI, J.G.

    2000-01-01

    The decommissioning of nuclear submarines, disposal of highly-enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, and processing of high-level radioactive wastes represent the most challenging issues facing the cleanup of 20th century radiation legacy wastes and facilities. The US and Russia are the two primary countries dealing with these challenges, because most of the world's fissile inventory is being processed and stored at multiple industrial sites and nuclear weapons production facilities in these countries

  20. Characterization of the irradiation facilities SINCA and SIRCA of the TRIGA Mark III reactor using the code MCNPX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Delfin L, A.; Garcia M, T.; Lucatero, M. A.; Cruz G, H. S.; Gonzalez, J. A.; Vargas E, S.

    2011-11-01

    The commitment of changing fuels of high enrichment for fuels of low enrichment in the TRIGA Mark III reactor of the Nuclear Center of Mexico generates the necessity to know the distribution of the spectrum of the neutrons flux in the irradiation facilities like they are: the Pneumatic System of Capsules Irradiation and the Rotational System of Capsules Irradiation. Is very important for the experiments design as well as for the reactor safety to know the profiles of the neutrons flux and the spectrum that these maintain with the mixed core with which operates, to effect of conserving the same characteristics when the reactor core will be operated with fuel of low enrichment totally. Also, knowing the profiles of the neutrons flux, the reactor operators can optimize the irradiation conditions of the processed samples and likewise the users can select the irradiation positions more adaptable to their necessities. This work present the characterization of the neutron flux in the irradiation facilities SINCA and SIFCA, calculated with the code MCNPX. (Author)

  1. Real Time Face Quality Assessment for Face Log Generation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kamal, Nasrollahi; Moeslund, Thomas B.

    2009-01-01

    Summarizing a long surveillance video to just a few best quality face images of each subject, a face-log, is of great importance in surveillance systems. Face quality assessment is the back-bone for face log generation and improving the quality assessment makes the face logs more reliable....... Developing a real time face quality assessment system using the most important facial features and employing it for face logs generation are the concerns of this paper. Extensive tests using four databases are carried out to validate the usability of the system....

  2. The Development of Environmentally Friendly Technologies of Using Coals and Products of Their Enrichment in the Form of Coal Water Slurries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murko, Vasily; Hamalainen, Veniamin

    2017-11-01

    The article presents the current state of the technology for production and combustion of fuel coal water slurries in Russia and foreign countries. Experimental and industrial facilities show the technological and economic efficiency of using this technology for disposal of wastes resulting after coal processing and enrichment. The feasibility studies of use of the technology at large Kuzbass thermal power stations are presented. The possibility of solving a serious environmental problem of reducing storage of the most toxic waste of coal enrichment in the location areas of coal washing plants and coal mining enterprises is demonstrated.

  3. Uranium enrichment by laser: a technology for the future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cazalet, J.

    1999-01-01

    The SILVA (Isotopic Separation by Laser on atomic Vapor of uranium) process, developed by CEA and COGEMA, is an innovative system of production of enriched uranium, to be used as the fuel of nuclear reactors. It is a sound research program, calling on advanced technologies that are quickly changing. The goal is to cut drastically the production cost in comparison with the operating cost of the present plants based on gaseous diffusion. its industrialization is forecast for the beginning of next century. The SILVA process consists in putting a vapor of uranium through a beam of photons emitted by finely tuned lasers capable of ionising selectively the isotopes 235. The ionised isotopes are attracted on plates by an electric field, they are condensed and collected on these plates. The very high selectivity of enrichment technologies by laser, which are quite new, pave the way for compact and modular plants, which will consume little energy. Accordingly their production cost will be very low. So a new process could take a significant part of the uranium enrichment market after 2010. Even if the multinational EURODIF gaseous diffusion plant is modern and performing, it will be necessary to strengthen the French industry of uranium enrichment to maintain or improve its competitive position on the world market. This could be achieved by smoothly replacing EURODIF by a high performance laser plant. This is the common goal of CEA and COGEMA: all the efforts are concentrated on SILVA, the qualities of which (high selectivity, separation in one single step) have been demonstrated in the facilities of Saclay and Pierrelatte. 400 researchers and technicians are involved, as well as many industrial firms. The budget is equally by CEA and COGEMA through a cooperation agreement. The program includes: a phase of scientific and technical research, which has been highlighted in 1997-1998 by a demonstration of feasibility of the process; a phase of technological development, with

  4. Helium generation reaction rates for 6Li and 10B in benchmark facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farrar, Harry IV; Oliver, B.M.; Lippincott, E.P.

    1980-01-01

    The helium generation rates for 10 B and 6 Li have been measured in two benchmark reactor facilities having neutron spectra similar to those found in a breeder reactor. The irradiations took place in the Coupled Fast Reactivity Measurements Facility (CFRMF) and in the 10% enriched 235 U critical assembly, BIG-10. The helium reaction rates were obtained by precise high-sensitivity gas mass spectrometric analyses of the helium content of numerous small samples. Comparison of these reaction rates with other reaction rates measured in the same facilities, and with rates calculated from published cross sections and from best estimates of the neutron spectral shapes, indicate significant discrepancies in the calculated values. Additional irradiations in other benchmark facilities have been undertaken to better determine the energy ranges where the discrepancies lie

  5. Considering the post-1995 enrichment market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunter, L.

    1994-01-01

    World demand for uranium enrichment services is likely to grow only a little over the next decade, from the current 28 million separative work units (SWU) per year to 33 MSWU per year. Much of the growth will come from Asia where nuclear generating capacity is still increasing. The current situation of the primary enrichment companies is summarized. The primary Western suppliers, Cogema, United States Enrichment Corporation and Urenco, are competing for increased market share in the USA, Europe and Asia as utilities purchase their post-1995 requirements. Entry of the Russian enrichment company, Tenex, into Western markets has been limited by trade restrictions. As a consequence of disarmament, blended weapons material has resulted in a surplus of low-enriched uranium. Together with over-capacity amongst the primary enrichers this has led to an expectation that reduced prices will be negotiable in the medium term. (3 figures). (UK)

  6. Present state of development of uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-01-01

    The pilot plant for uranium enrichment started the operation on September 12, 1979. The pilot plant has been constructed by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. in Ningyo Pass, Okayama Prefecture. 7000 centrifugal separators will be installed by mid 1981, and yearly production of 70 t SWU is expected. The Uranium Enrichment Committee of Japan Atomic Industrial Forum has made the proposal on the method of forwarding the development of uranium enrichment in Japan to Atomic Energy Commission and related government offices in December, 1978. This survey summarized the trends of uranium enrichment in Japan and foreign countries and the problems about nuclear non-proliferation, and provides with the reference materials. The demand and supply of uranium enrichment in the world, the present states and plans in USA, Europe, USSR and others, the demand and supply of uranium enrichment and the measures for securing it in Japan, the present state and future plan of uranium enrichment project in Japan, the international regulation of uranium enrichment, the recent policy of USA and INFCE, and the trend of the regulation of utilizing enriched uranium are described. Moreover, the concept of separation works in uranium enrichment and the various technologies of separation are explained. (Kako, I.)

  7. Review and assessment of nuclear facilities by the regulatory body. Safety guide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-01-01

    The purpose of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations for regulatory bodies on reviewing and assessing the various safety related submissions made by the operator of a nuclear facility at different stages (siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning or closure) in the facility's lifetime to determine whether the facility complies with the applicable safety objectives and requirements. This Safety Guide covers the review and assessment of submissions in relation to the safety of nuclear facilities such as: enrichment and fuel manufacturing plants. Nuclear power plants. Other reactors such as research reactors and critical assemblies. Spent fuel reprocessing plants. And facilities for radioactive waste management, such as treatment, storage and disposal facilities. This Safety Guide also covers issues relating to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, the closure of waste disposal facilities and site rehabilitation. Objectives, management, planning and organizational matters relating to the review and assessment process are presented in Section 2. Section 3 deals with the bases for decision making and conduct of the review and assessment process. Section 4 covers aspects relating to the assessment of this process. The Appendix provides a generic list of topics to be covered in the review and assessment process

  8. Review and assessment of nuclear facilities by the regulatory body. Safety guide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations for regulatory bodies on reviewing and assessing the various safety related submissions made by the operator of a nuclear facility at different stages (siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning or closure) in the facility's lifetime to determine whether the facility complies with the applicable safety objectives and requirements. This Safety Guide covers the review and assessment of submissions in relation to the safety of nuclear facilities such as: enrichment and fuel manufacturing plants. Nuclear power plants. Other reactors such as research reactors and critical assemblies. Spent fuel reprocessing plants. And facilities for radioactive waste management, such as treatment, storage and disposal facilities. This Safety Guide also covers issues relating to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, the closure of waste disposal facilities and site rehabilitation. Objectives, management, planning and organizational matters relating to the review and assessment process are presented in Section 2. Section 3 deals with the bases for decision making and conduct of the review and assessment process. Section 4 covers aspects relating to the assessment of this process. The Appendix provides a generic list of topics to be covered in the review and assessment process

  9. Cross-modal face recognition using multi-matcher face scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yufeng; Blasch, Erik

    2015-05-01

    The performance of face recognition can be improved using information fusion of multimodal images and/or multiple algorithms. When multimodal face images are available, cross-modal recognition is meaningful for security and surveillance applications. For example, a probe face is a thermal image (especially at nighttime), while only visible face images are available in the gallery database. Matching a thermal probe face onto the visible gallery faces requires crossmodal matching approaches. A few such studies were implemented in facial feature space with medium recognition performance. In this paper, we propose a cross-modal recognition approach, where multimodal faces are cross-matched in feature space and the recognition performance is enhanced with stereo fusion at image, feature and/or score level. In the proposed scenario, there are two cameras for stereo imaging, two face imagers (visible and thermal images) in each camera, and three recognition algorithms (circular Gaussian filter, face pattern byte, linear discriminant analysis). A score vector is formed with three cross-matched face scores from the aforementioned three algorithms. A classifier (e.g., k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, binomial logical regression [BLR]) is trained then tested with the score vectors by using 10-fold cross validations. The proposed approach was validated with a multispectral stereo face dataset from 105 subjects. Our experiments show very promising results: ACR (accuracy rate) = 97.84%, FAR (false accept rate) = 0.84% when cross-matching the fused thermal faces onto the fused visible faces by using three face scores and the BLR classifier.

  10. Study of physical resistance of the disposal facility for accidental artificial event in LLW disposal facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ogawa, Suihei; Irie, Masaaki; Uchida, Masahiro

    2013-11-01

    This report refer to results of examine what follows for structural stability evaluation for the LLW disposal facility in depth over general human activity in underground. Study of physically resistance on the facility for accidental artificial event, namely tunneling an operation facing the disposal facility in future. Physically resistance to excavation of tunneling etc. in disposal facility is studied based on supposing of Tunnel Boring Machine as an excavator, paying attention to reinforcement bar in concrete and steel plate of waste package, as feature of strength in these material differs from rock strength. And it is examined not only resistibility on excavation but also about hard situations of excavation in tunneling works, and namely give thorough consideration to critical quantity of cutting to reinforcement bar and steel plate that could keep resistibility on excavation based on tunneling velocity and limits time furthermore. It requests necessity of evaluation in consider with metal corrosion that status alteration on disposal facility is considered with on timescale. Period of keep on the physically resistance is estimated by velocity of metal corrosion consequently. The physically resistance is kept until metal corrosion reach remaining its material, giving a limits of the physically resistance on inside of facility. Main point of physically resistance in the report will be made the good use of a practice to physically resistance evaluation of in safety assessment. (author)

  11. Challenges facing effective implementation of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis in children born to HIV-infected mothers in the public health facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamuhabwa, Appolinary Ar; Manyanga, Vicky

    2015-01-01

    If children born to HIV-infected mothers are not identified early, approximately 30% of them will die within the first year of life due to opportunistic infections. In order to prevent morbidity and mortality due to opportunistic infections in children, the World Health Organization recommends the use of prophylaxis using co-trimoxazole. However, the challenges affecting effective implementation of this policy in Tanzania have not been documented. In this study, we assessed the challenges facing the provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis among children born to HIV-infected mothers in the public hospitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Four hundred and ninety-eight infants' PMTCT (Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV) register books for the past 2 years were reviewed to obtain information regarding the provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis. One hundred and twenty-six health care workers were interviewed to identify success stories and challenges in the provision of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis in children. In addition, 321 parents and guardians of children born to HIV-infected mothers were interviewed in the health facilities. Approximately 80% of children were initiated with co-trimoxazole prophylaxis within 2 months after birth. Two hundred and ninety-one (58.4%) children started using co-trimoxazole within 4 weeks after birth. Majority (n=458, 91.8%) of the children were prescribed 120 mg of co-trimoxazole per day, whereas 39 (7.8%) received 240 mg per day. Only a small proportion (n=1, 0.2%) of children received 480 mg/day. Dose determination was based on the child's age rather than body weight. Parents and guardians reported that 42 (13.1%) children had missed one or more doses of co-trimoxazole during the course of prophylaxis. The majority of health care workers (89.7%) reported that co-trimoxazole is very effective for the prevention of opportunistic infections among children, but frequent shortage of co-trimoxazole in the health facilities was

  12. Inoculation stress hypothesis of environmental enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crofton, Elizabeth J; Zhang, Yafang; Green, Thomas A

    2015-02-01

    One hallmark of psychiatric conditions is the vast continuum of individual differences in susceptibility vs. resilience resulting from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The environmental enrichment paradigm is an animal model that is useful for studying a range of psychiatric conditions, including protective phenotypes in addiction and depression models. The major question is how environmental enrichment, a non-drug and non-surgical manipulation, can produce such robust individual differences in such a wide range of behaviors. This paper draws from a variety of published sources to outline a coherent hypothesis of inoculation stress as a factor producing the protective enrichment phenotypes. The basic tenet suggests that chronic mild stress from living in a complex environment and interacting non-aggressively with conspecifics can inoculate enriched rats against subsequent stressors and/or drugs of abuse. This paper reviews the enrichment phenotypes, mulls the fundamental nature of environmental enrichment vs. isolation, discusses the most appropriate control for environmental enrichment, and challenges the idea that cortisol/corticosterone equals stress. The intent of the inoculation stress hypothesis of environmental enrichment is to provide a scaffold with which to build testable hypotheses for the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying these protective phenotypes and thus provide new therapeutic targets to treat psychiatric/neurological conditions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Voicing on Virtual and Face to Face Discussion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamat, Hamidah

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents and discusses findings of a study conducted on pre-service teachers' experiences in virtual and face to face discussions. Technology has brought learning nowadays beyond the classroom context or time zone. The learning context and process no longer rely solely on face to face communications in the presence of a teacher.…

  14. Facing Aggression: Cues Differ for Female versus Male Faces

    OpenAIRE

    Geniole, Shawn N.; Keyes, Amanda E.; Mondloch, Catherine J.; Carr?, Justin M.; McCormick, Cheryl M.

    2012-01-01

    The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judge...

  15. Buzz: Face-to-Face Contact and the Urban Economy

    OpenAIRE

    Michael Storper; Anthony J. Venables

    2003-01-01

    This paper argues that existing models of urban concentrations are incomplete unless grounded in the most fundamental aspect of proximity; face-to-face contact. Face-to-face contact has four main features; it is an efficient communication technology; it can help solve incentive problems; it can facilitate socialization and learning; and it provides psychological motivation. We discuss each of these features in turn, and develop formal economic models of two of them. Face-to-face is particular...

  16. Benchmark calculation for water reflected STACY cores containing low enriched uranyl nitrate solution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyoshi, Yoshinori; Yamamoto, Toshihiro; Nakamura, Takemi

    2001-01-01

    In order to validate the availability of criticality calculation codes and related nuclear data library, a series of fundamental benchmark experiments on low enriched uranyl nitrate solution have been performed with a Static Experiment Criticality Facility, STACY in JAERI. The basic core composed of a single tank with water reflector was used for accumulating the systematic data with well-known experimental uncertainties. This paper presents the outline of the core configurations of STACY, the standard calculation model, and calculation results with a Monte Carlo code and JENDL 3.2 nuclear data library. (author)

  17. Noble gas enrichment studies at JET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Groth, M.; Andrew, P.; Fundamenski, W.; Guo, H.Y.; Hillis, D.L.; Hogan, J.T.; Horton, L.D.; Matthews, G.F.; Meigs, A.G.; Morgan, P.M.; Stamp, M.F.; Hellermann, M. von

    2001-01-01

    Adequate helium exhaust has been achieved in reactor-relevant ELMy H-mode plasmas in JET performed in the MKII AP and MKII GB divertor geometry. The divertor-characteristic quantities of noble gas compression and enrichment have been experimentally inferred from Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy measurements in the core plasma, and from spectroscopic analysis of a Penning gauge discharge in the exhaust gas. The retention of helium was found to be satisfactory for a next-step device, with enrichment factors exceeding 0.1. The helium enrichment decreases with increasing core plasma density, while the neon enrichment has the opposite behaviour. Analytic and numerical analyses of these plasmas using the divertor impurity code package DIVIMP/NIMBUS support the explanation that the enrichment of noble gases depends significantly on the penetration depth of the impurity neutrals with respect to the fuel atoms. Changes of the divertor plasma configuration and divertor geometry have no effect on the enrichment

  18. European cinema: face to face with Hollywood

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Elsaesser, T.

    2005-01-01

    In the face of renewed competition from Hollywood since the early 1980s and the challenges posed to Europe's national cinemas by the fall of the Wall in 1989, independent filmmaking in Europe has begun to re-invent itself. European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood re-assesses the different

  19. Extraosseus enrichments in bone scintigraphy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jochens, R.; Schumacher, T.; Amthauer, H.; Wolter, M.; Stock, W.; Stroszczynski, C.; Moersler, J.P.; Eichstaedt, H.

    1996-01-01

    Extraosseus enrichments are common findings in bone scintigraphy. Main causes are artifacts by skin or cloth contamination, paravenous and subcutaneous injection. Physical examination, removal of cloths, skin cleaning or further images in differing projections lead to the correct diagnosis artefact or extraosseous enrichments. Further on, extraosseous enrichments are seen in physiological variants. In different diseases extraosseous enrichments are common, especially in urinary tract, liver and extremities. Further diagnostics, e.g. conventional radiologic procedures, sonography and CT scans, have to be performed. In individual cases side results in bone scintigraphy lead to formerly unknown diagnosis, further diagnostic procedure is influenced decisively. Own cases show for example a cerebral apoplectic insult, formerly unknown liver metastasis or metastasis in extraosseous Ewings's sarcoma. (orig.) [de

  20. ESARDA approach to facility oriented safeguards problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stewart, R.

    1979-01-01

    The paper outlines the brief history of a Working Group composed of nuclear fuel plant operators, safeguards research workers and safeguards inspectors who are examining facility orientated problems of nuclear materials control and verification activities. The working program is reviewed together with some examples of various problems and the way the group is collaborating to develop solutions by pooling resources and effort. Work in European low enriched uranium fabrication plants from UF 6 to finished fuel is discussed in connection with mesurement practices, real time accounting, error propagation and analysis, verification and surveillance

  1. Report of the Subcommittee on Domestic Uranium Enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-01-01

    A report by the Subcommittee on Domestic Uranium Enrichment to the Atomic Energy Commission is described; which covers the procedure of the domestic uranium enrichment by centrifugal process up to the commercial production, reviewing the current situation in this field. Domestic uranium enrichment is important in the aspects of securing stable enrichment service, establishing sound fuel cycle, and others. As the future target, the production around the year 2000 is set at 3,000 tons SWU per year at least. The business of uranium enrichment, which is now developed in the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, is to be carried out by private enterprise. The contents are as follows: demand and supply balance of uranium enrichment service, significance of domestic uranium enrichment, evaluation of centrifugal uranium enrichment technology, the target of domestic uranium enrichment, the policy of domestic uranium enrichment promotion. (J.P.N.)

  2. Analysis of fuel management in the KIPT neutron source facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhong Zhaopeng; Gohar, Yousry; Talamo, Alberto

    2011-01-01

    Research highlights: → Fuel management of KIPT ADS was analyzed. → Core arrangement was shuffled in stage wise. → New fuel assemblies was added into core periodically. → Beryllium reflector could also be utilized to increase the fuel life. - Abstract: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) of USA and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine have been collaborating on the conceptual design development of an experimental neutron source facility consisting of an electron accelerator driven sub-critical assembly. The neutron source driving the sub-critical assembly is generated from the interaction of 100 KW electron beam with a natural uranium target. The sub-critical assembly surrounding the target is fueled with low enriched WWR-M2 type hexagonal fuel assemblies. The U-235 enrichment of the fuel material is <20%. The facility will be utilized for basic and applied research, producing medical isotopes, and training young specialists. With the 100 KW electron beam power, the total thermal power of the facility is ∼360 kW including the fission power of ∼260 kW. The burnup of the fissile materials and the buildup of fission products continuously reduce the system reactivity during the operation, decrease the neutron flux level, and consequently impact the facility performance. To preserve the neutron flux level during the operation, the fuel assemblies should be added and shuffled for compensating the lost reactivity caused by burnup. Beryllium reflector could also be utilized to increase the fuel life time in the sub-critical core. This paper studies the fuel cycles and shuffling schemes of the fuel assemblies of the sub-critical assembly to preserve the system reactivity and the neutron flux level during the operation.

  3. Conversion of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute nuclear reactor to low enriched uranium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Newton, T.H. Jr.

    1991-01-01

    The Training Reactor was converted to Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) aluminide fuel in 1988 and 1989. Tests on the Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) core and LEU cores were performed and comparisons made. The testing consisted of critical loading, thermal neutron flux distribution, excess reactivity, regulating blade reactivity worth, and temperature coefficient of reactivity measurement. Comparisons between the LEU and HEU showed that the critical loading configurations were somewhat different with the HEU core consisting of 24 elements and the LEU core consisting of 21 1/3 elements with excess reactivities of 0.24% ΔK/K for the HEU and 0.16% for the LEU. Thermal neutron flux distributions showed similar trends in both the LEU and HEU cores. The regulating blade worth showed a larger LEU value due to thermal peaking in the blade region and temperature coefficients showed a more negative LEU value due to Doppler broadening. Low induced activity of the HEU fuel permitted shipment to the Westinghouse Savannah River Facility using DOT-6M type B containers on 8 August, 1989. (orig.)

  4. 31 CFR 540.316 - Uranium enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Uranium enrichment. 540.316 Section 540.316 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued) OFFICE OF... REGULATIONS General Definitions § 540.316 Uranium enrichment. The term uranium enrichment means the process of...

  5. Water detritiation processing of JET purified waste water using the TRENTA facility at Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michling, R., E-mail: robert.michling@kit.edu; Bekris, N.; Cristescu, I.; Lohr, N.; Plusczyk, C.; Welte, S.; Wendel, J.

    2013-10-15

    Highlights: • Operation of a water detritiation facility under optimized conditions for high detritiation performances. • Improvement of operational procedures to process tritiated waste water. • Handling and reduction of tritiated waste water to achieve enriched low volume tritiated water for sufficient storage. • Demonstration of the efficient availability of the TRENTA WDS facility for technical scale operation. -- Abstract: A Water Detritiation System (WDS) is required for any Fusion machine in order to process tritiated waste water, which is accumulated in various subsystems during operation and maintenance. Regarding the European procurement packages for the ITER tritium fuel cycle, the WDS test facility TRENTA applying the Combined Electrolysis Catalytic Exchange (CECE) process was developed, installed and is currently in operation at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK). Besides the on-going R and D work for the design of ITER WDS, the current status of the TRENTA facility provides the option to utilize the WDS for processing tritiated water. Therefore, in the framework of the EFDA JET Fusion Technology Work Programme 2011, the TLK was able to offer the capability on a representative scale to process tritiated water, which was produced during normal operation at JET. The task should demonstrate the availability of the CECE process to handle and detritiate the water in terms of tritium enrichment and volume reduction. The operational program comprised the processing of purified tritiated water from JET, with a total volume of 180 l and an activity of 74 GBq. The paper will give an introduction to the TRENTA WDS facility and an overview of the operational procedure regarding tritiated water reduction. Data concerning required operation time, decontamination and enrichment performances and different operating procedures will be presented as well. Finally, a preliminary study on a technical implementation of processing the entire stock of JET

  6. Water detritiation processing of JET purified waste water using the TRENTA facility at Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michling, R.; Bekris, N.; Cristescu, I.; Lohr, N.; Plusczyk, C.; Welte, S.; Wendel, J.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: • Operation of a water detritiation facility under optimized conditions for high detritiation performances. • Improvement of operational procedures to process tritiated waste water. • Handling and reduction of tritiated waste water to achieve enriched low volume tritiated water for sufficient storage. • Demonstration of the efficient availability of the TRENTA WDS facility for technical scale operation. -- Abstract: A Water Detritiation System (WDS) is required for any Fusion machine in order to process tritiated waste water, which is accumulated in various subsystems during operation and maintenance. Regarding the European procurement packages for the ITER tritium fuel cycle, the WDS test facility TRENTA applying the Combined Electrolysis Catalytic Exchange (CECE) process was developed, installed and is currently in operation at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK). Besides the on-going R and D work for the design of ITER WDS, the current status of the TRENTA facility provides the option to utilize the WDS for processing tritiated water. Therefore, in the framework of the EFDA JET Fusion Technology Work Programme 2011, the TLK was able to offer the capability on a representative scale to process tritiated water, which was produced during normal operation at JET. The task should demonstrate the availability of the CECE process to handle and detritiate the water in terms of tritium enrichment and volume reduction. The operational program comprised the processing of purified tritiated water from JET, with a total volume of 180 l and an activity of 74 GBq. The paper will give an introduction to the TRENTA WDS facility and an overview of the operational procedure regarding tritiated water reduction. Data concerning required operation time, decontamination and enrichment performances and different operating procedures will be presented as well. Finally, a preliminary study on a technical implementation of processing the entire stock of JET

  7. A facile and selective approach for enrichment of l-cysteine in human plasma sample based on zinc organic polymer: Optimization by response surface methodology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahrani, Sonia; Ghaedi, Mehrorang; Ostovan, Abbas; Javadian, Hamedreza; Mansoorkhani, Mohammad Javad Khoshnood; Taghipour, Tahere

    2018-02-05

    In this research, a facile and selective method was described to extract l-cysteine (l-Cys), an essential α-amino acid for anti-ageing playing an important role in human health, from human blood plasma sample. The importance of this research was the mild and time-consuming synthesis of zinc organic polymer (Zn-MOP) as an adsorbent and evaluation of its ability for efficient enrichment of l-Cys by ultrasound-assisted dispersive micro solid-phase extraction (UA-DMSPE) method. The structure of Zn-MOP was investigated by FT-IR, XRD and SEM. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied for the experimental data to reach the best optimum conditions. The quantification of l-Cys was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection set at λ=230nm. The calibration graph showed reasonable linear responses towards l-Cys concentrations in the range of 4.0-1000μg/L (r 2 =0.999) with low limit of detection (0.76μg/L, S/N=3) and RSD≤2.18 (n=3). The results revealed the applicability and high performance of this novel strategy in detecting trace l-Cys by Zn-MOP in complicated matrices. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. The Caledonian face test: A new test of face discrimination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Logan, Andrew J; Wilkinson, Frances; Wilson, Hugh R; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

    2016-02-01

    This study aimed to develop a clinical test of face perception which is applicable to a wide range of patients and can capture normal variability. The Caledonian face test utilises synthetic faces which combine simplicity with sufficient realism to permit individual identification. Face discrimination thresholds (i.e. minimum difference between faces required for accurate discrimination) were determined in an "odd-one-out" task. The difference between faces was controlled by an adaptive QUEST procedure. A broad range of face discrimination sensitivity was determined from a group (N=52) of young adults (mean 5.75%; SD 1.18; range 3.33-8.84%). The test is fast (3-4 min), repeatable (test-re-test r(2)=0.795) and demonstrates a significant inversion effect. The potential to identify impairments of face discrimination was evaluated by testing LM who reported a lifelong difficulty with face perception. While LM's impairment for two established face tests was close to the criterion for significance (Z-scores of -2.20 and -2.27) for the Caledonian face test, her Z-score was -7.26, implying a more than threefold higher sensitivity. The new face test provides a quantifiable and repeatable assessment of face discrimination ability. The enhanced sensitivity suggests that the Caledonian face test may be capable of detecting more subtle impairments of face perception than available tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Face-Lift Satisfaction Using the FACE-Q.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sinno, Sammy; Schwitzer, Jonathan; Anzai, Lavinia; Thorne, Charles H

    2015-08-01

    Face lifting is one of the most common operative procedures for facial aging and perhaps the procedure most synonymous with plastic surgery in the minds of the lay public, but no verifiable documentation of patient satisfaction exists in the literature. This study is the first to examine face-lift outcomes and patient satisfaction using a validated questionnaire. One hundred five patients undergoing a face lift performed by the senior author (C.H.T.) using a high, extended-superficial musculoaponeurotic system with submental platysma approximation technique were asked to complete anonymously the FACE-Q by e-mail. FACE-Q scores were assessed for each domain (range, 0 to 100), with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with appearance or superior quality of life. Fifty-three patients completed the FACE-Q (50.5 percent response rate). Patients demonstrated high satisfaction with facial appearance (mean ± SD, 80.7 ± 22.3), and quality of life, including social confidence (90.4 ± 16.6), psychological well-being (92.8 ± 14.3), and early life impact (92.2 ± 16.4). Patients also reported extremely high satisfaction with their decision to undergo face lifting (90.5 ± 15.9). On average, patients felt they appeared 6.9 years younger than their actual age. Patients were most satisfied with the appearance of their nasolabial folds (86.2 ± 18.5), cheeks (86.1 ± 25.4), and lower face/jawline (86.0 ± 20.6), compared with their necks (78.1 ± 25.6) and area under the chin (67.9 ± 32.3). Patients who responded in this study were extremely satisfied with their decision to undergo face lifting and the outcomes and quality of life following the procedure.

  10. A Face Inversion Effect without a Face

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandman, Talia; Yovel, Galit

    2012-01-01

    Numerous studies have attributed the face inversion effect (FIE) to configural processing of internal facial features in upright but not inverted faces. Recent findings suggest that face mechanisms can be activated by faceless stimuli presented in the context of a body. Here we asked whether faceless stimuli with or without body context may induce…

  11. Stem respiration of Populus species in the third year of free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bielen, B.; Geulemans, R. [Univ. of Antwerp, Dept. of Biology, Research Group of Plant and Vegetation Ecology, Wilrijk (Belgium); Scarascia-Mugnozza, G. [Univ. degli Studi della Tuscia, Dept. of Forest Environment and Resources, Viterbo (Italy)

    2003-04-01

    Carbon cycling in ecosystems, and especially in forests, is intensively studied to predict the effects of global climate change, and the role which forests may play in 'changing climate change'. One of the questions is whether the carbon balance of forests will be affected by increasing atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations. Regarding this question, effects of elevated [CO{sub 2}] on woody-tissue respiration have frequently been neglected. Stem respiration of three Populus species (P. alba L. (Clone 2AS-11), P. nigra L. (Clone Jean Pourtet), and P. x euramericana (Clone I-214)) was measured in a managed, high-density forest plantation exposed to free-air CO{sub 2} enrichment (POPFACE). During the period of measurements, in May of the third year, stem respiration rates were not affected by the FACE treatment. Moreover, FACE did not influence the relationships between respiration rate and both stem temperature and relative growth rate. The results were supported by the reported absence of a FACE-effect on growth and stem wood density. (au)

  12. Comparison of HEU and LEU neutron spectra in irradiation facilities at the Oregon State TRIGA{sup ®} Reactor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schickler, R.A., E-mail: robert.schickler@oregonstate.edu; Marcum, W.R., E-mail: wade.marcum@oregonstate.edu; Reese, S.R.

    2013-09-15

    Highlights: • The Oregon State TRIGA{sup ®} Reactor neutron spectra is characterized herein. • Neutron spectra between highly enriched uranium and low enriched uranium cores are compared. • Discussion is given as to differences between HEU and LEU core spectra results and impact on experiments. -- Abstract: In 2008, the Oregon State TRIGA{sup ®} Reactor (OSTR) was converted from highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel lifetime improvement plan (FLIP) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. This effort was driven and supported by the Department of Energy's (DoE's) Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program. The basis behind the RERTR program's ongoing conversion effort is to reduce the nuclear proliferation risk of civilian research and test reactors. The original intent of the HEU FLIP fuel was to provide fuel to research reactors that could be utilized for many years before a necessary refueling cycle. As a research reactor, the OSTR provides irradiation facilities for a variety of applications, such as activation analysis, fission-track dating, commercial isotope production, neutron radiography, prompt gamma characterization, and many others. In order to accurately perform these research functions, several studies had been conducted on the HEU FLIP fuel core to characterize the neutron spectra in various experimental facilities of the OSTR (Tiyapun, 1997; Ashbaker, 2005). As useful as these analyses were, they are no longer valid due to the change in fuel composition and the resulting alteration of core performance characteristics. Additionally, the core configuration (fuel reconfiguration) was altered between the HEU and LEU cores. This study characterizes the neutron spectra in various experimental facilities within and around the current LEU core. It also compares the spectra to that which was yielded in the HEU core through use of Monte Carlo n-Particle 5 (MCNP5) and experimental adjustment via a least

  13. Public Computer Assisted Learning Facilities for Children with Visual Impairment: Universal Design for Inclusive Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siu, Kin Wai Michael; Lam, Mei Seung

    2012-01-01

    Although computer assisted learning (CAL) is becoming increasingly popular, people with visual impairment face greater difficulty in accessing computer-assisted learning facilities. This is primarily because most of the current CAL facilities are not visually impaired friendly. People with visual impairment also do not normally have access to…

  14. Difficulties facing healthcare workers in the era of AIDS treatment in Lesotho.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koto, Masebeo Veronica; Maharaj, Pranitha

    2016-01-01

    Sub-Saharan Africa is most affected by the AIDS pandemic and Lesotho is no exception. In many countries, healthcare workers are at the forefront of the fight against AIDS. This study explores the difficulties facing healthcare workers in Lesotho using a combination of qualitative methods--focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. The findings suggest that healthcare workers are afraid of contracting HIV from their patients and this affects their delivery of services. In addition, the results revealed that poor infrastructure and shortage of supplies at the facilities hinder healthcare workers from performing their duties effectively. The other concern was the heavy workload and severe time constraints which puts enormous stress on healthcare workers. Stigma and discrimination emerged as major problems for healthcare workers. Addressing the challenges facing healthcare workers is essential in effectively managing the AIDS pandemic facing the continent.

  15. Series 'Facing Radiation'. 2 Facing radiation is facing residents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanzawa, Takahiro

    2013-01-01

    The series is to report how general people, who are not at all radiological experts, have faced and understood the problems and tasks of radiation given by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident (Mar. 2011). The section 2 is reported by an officer of Date City, which localizes at 60 km northern west of the Plant, borders on Iitate Village of Fukushima prefecture, and is indicated as the important area of contamination search (IACS), which the reporter has been conducted for as responsible personnel. In July 2011, the ambient dose was as high as 3.0-3.5 mc-Sv/h and the tentative storage place of contaminated materials was decided by own initiative of residents of a small community, from which the real decontamination started in the City. The target dose after decontamination was defined to be 1.0 mc-Sv/h: however, 28/32 IACS municipalities in the prefecture had not defined the target although they had worked for 2 years after the Accident for their areas exceeding the standard 0.23 mc-Sv/h. At the moment of decontamination of the reporter's own house, he noticed that resident's concerns had directed toward its work itself, not toward the target dose, and wondered if these figures had obstructed to correctly face the radiation. At present that about 2.5 years have passed since the Accident, all of Date citizens have personal accumulated glass dosimeters for seeing the effective external dose and it seems that their dose will not exceed 1 mSv/y if the ambient dose estimated is 0.3-5 mc-Sv/h. Media run to popularity not to face radiation, experts tend to hesitate to face media and residents, and radiation dose will be hardly reduced to zero, despite that correct understanding of radiation is a shorter way for residents' own ease: facing radiation is facing residents. (T.T.)

  16. NARCISS critical stand experiments for studying the nuclear safety in accident water immersion of highly enriched uranium dioxide fuel elements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ponomarev-Stepnoj, N.N.; Glushkov, E.S.; Bubelev, V.G.

    2005-01-01

    A brief description of the Topaz-2 SNPS designed under scientific supervision of RRC KI in Russia, and of the NARCISS critical facility, is given. At the NARCISS critical facility, neutronic peculiarities and nuclear safety issues of the Topaz-2 system reactor were studied experimentally. This work is devoted to a detailed description of experiments on investigation of criticality safety in accident water immersion og highly enriched uranium dioxide fuel elements, performed at the NARCISS facility. The experiments were carried out at water-moderated critical assemblies with varying height, number, and spacing of fuel elements. The results obtained in the critical experiments, computational models of the investigated critical configurations, and comparison of the computational and experimental results are given [ru

  17. Facile synthesis of a boronate affinity sorbent from mesoporous nanomagnetic polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes composite and its application for enrichment of catecholamines in human urine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    He, Haibo, E-mail: hbhe2006@shu.edu.cn [Department of Chemistry, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444 (China); Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China); Zhou, Ziqing; Dong, Chen; Wang, Xin [Department of Chemistry, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444 (China); Yu, Qiong-wei [Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China); Lei, Yunyi; Luo, Liqiang [Department of Chemistry, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444 (China); Feng, Yuqi [Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China)

    2016-11-09

    A boronate-decorated nanomagnetic organic-inorganic hybrid material was facilely synthesized by utilizing the nanomagnetic polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) composite (Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}@POSS) as the base platform. A simple copolymerization occurred between 3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid (AAPBA) and the residual end vinyl groups supplied by the substrate. Here the special emphasis was placed on the octavinyl POSS, which not only acted as the building blocks for a hybrid architecture but also facilitated the process of grafting boronate groups onto the surface of POSS based nanomagnetic composite (Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}@POSS). The successful immobilization of affinity ligand-AAPBA on the Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}@POSS was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), elemental analysis, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES), field emission scanning electron microscope. A magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) for cis-diols enrichment was developed using the as-prepared Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}@POSS-AAPBA material as an affinity sorbent and three catecholamines (CAs), namely noradrenaline, epinephrine and isoprenaline, as model analytes. Under the optimal extraction conditions, sensitive and simultaneous analysis of three CAs from the urine sample was achieved by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (HPLC-UV). The limits of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) and the limits of quantitation (LOQ, S/N = 10) for the target analytes were 0.81–1.32 ng mL{sup −1} and 2.70–4.40 ng mL{sup −1}, respectively. Also good recoveries (85.5–101.7%) and repeatability (RSD≤10.1%) were obtained by this method. This work not only showed a facility for the utilization of Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}@POSS as a substrate for constructing a boronate functionalized nanomagnetic sorbent, but also demonstrated the capability of the derived material for recognition of trace amount of cis-diols biomolecules presented in complicated biological matrices

  18. Community-level sensitivity of a calcifying ecosystem to acute in situ CO2 enrichment

    KAUST Repository

    Burdett, HL

    2017-11-23

    The rate of change in ocean carbonate chemistry is a vital determinant in the magnitude of effects observed. Benthic marine ecosystems are facing an increasing risk of acute CO2 exposure that may be natural or anthropogenically derived (e.g. engineering and industrial activities). However, our understanding of how acute CO2 events impact marine life is restricted to individual organisms, with little understanding for how this manifests at the community level. Here, we investigated in situ the effect of acute CO2 enrichment on the coralline algal ecosystem—a globally ubiquitous, ecologically and economically important habitat, but one which is likely to be sensitive to CO2 enrichment due to its highly calcified reef-like structures engineered by coralline algae. Most notably, we observed a rapid community-level shift to favour net dissolution rather than net calcification. Smaller changes from net respiration to net photosynthesis were also observed. There was no effect on the net flux of DMS/DMSP (algal secondary metabolites), nor on the nutrients nitrate and phosphate. Following return to ambient CO2 levels, only a partial recovery was seen within the monitoring timeframe. This study highlights the sensitivity of biogenic carbonate marine communities to acute CO2 enrichment and raises concerns over the capacity for the system to ‘bounce back’ if subjected to repeated acute high-CO2 events.

  19. The reduced enrichment program for JRR-4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takayanagi, M.

    1992-01-01

    Japan Research Reactor No. 4(JRR-4) with the rated power of 3.5 MW, swimming pool type research reactor, 93 % enriched uranium ETR-type fuel used, light water moderated and cooled. The first criticality reached on 28th January, 1965. The reactor has operated for about 26 years. However, it was planed to the reduced enrichment of the fuels to low enrichment according to the International Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program. This paper describes the program for conversion of the enrichment of fuel from 93 % to less than 20 %. (author)

  20. Healthy firms: constraints to growth among private health sector facilities in Ghana and Kenya.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicholas E Burger

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Health outcomes in developing countries continue to lag the developed world, and many countries are not on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The private health sector provides much of the care in many developing countries (e.g., approximately 50 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, but private providers are often poorly integrated into the health system. Efforts to improve health systems performance will need to include the private sector and increase its contributions to national health goals. However, the literature on constraints private health care providers face is limited. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyze data from a survey of private health facilities in Kenya and Ghana to evaluate growth constraints facing private providers. A significant portion of facilities (Ghana: 62 percent; Kenya: 40 percent report limited access to finance as the most significant barrier they face; only a small minority of facilities report using formal credit institutions to finance day to day operations (Ghana: 6 percent; Kenya: 11 percent. Other important barriers include corruption, crime, limited demand for goods and services, and poor public infrastructure. Most facilities have paper-based rather than electronic systems for patient records (Ghana: 30 percent; Kenya: 22 percent, accounting (Ghana: 45 percent; Kenya: 27 percent, and inventory control (Ghana: 41 percent; Kenya: 24 percent. A majority of clinics in both countries report undertaking activities to improve provider skills and to monitor the level and quality of care they provide. However, only a minority of pharmacies report undertaking such activities. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that improved access to finance and improving business processes especially among pharmacies would support improved contributions by private health facilities. These strategies might be complementary if providers are more able to take advantage of increased access to

  1. Healthy firms: constraints to growth among private health sector facilities in Ghana and Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burger, Nicholas E; Kopf, Daniel; Spreng, Connor P; Yoong, Joanne; Sood, Neeraj

    2012-01-01

    Health outcomes in developing countries continue to lag the developed world, and many countries are not on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The private health sector provides much of the care in many developing countries (e.g., approximately 50 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa), but private providers are often poorly integrated into the health system. Efforts to improve health systems performance will need to include the private sector and increase its contributions to national health goals. However, the literature on constraints private health care providers face is limited. We analyze data from a survey of private health facilities in Kenya and Ghana to evaluate growth constraints facing private providers. A significant portion of facilities (Ghana: 62 percent; Kenya: 40 percent) report limited access to finance as the most significant barrier they face; only a small minority of facilities report using formal credit institutions to finance day to day operations (Ghana: 6 percent; Kenya: 11 percent). Other important barriers include corruption, crime, limited demand for goods and services, and poor public infrastructure. Most facilities have paper-based rather than electronic systems for patient records (Ghana: 30 percent; Kenya: 22 percent), accounting (Ghana: 45 percent; Kenya: 27 percent), and inventory control (Ghana: 41 percent; Kenya: 24 percent). A majority of clinics in both countries report undertaking activities to improve provider skills and to monitor the level and quality of care they provide. However, only a minority of pharmacies report undertaking such activities. The results suggest that improved access to finance and improving business processes especially among pharmacies would support improved contributions by private health facilities. These strategies might be complementary if providers are more able to take advantage of increased access to finance when they have the business processes in place for operating a successful business

  2. A study of a zone approach to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards: The low-enriched-uranium zone of a light-water-reactor fuel cycle

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fishbone, L.G.; Higinbotham, W.A.

    1986-06-01

    At present the IAEA designs its safeguards approach with regard to each type of nuclear facility so that the safeguards activities and effort are essentially the same for a given type and size of nuclear facility wherever it may be located. Conclusions regarding a state are derived by combining the conclusions regarding the effectiveness of safeguards for the individual facilities within a state. In this study it was convenient to define three zones in a state with a closed light-water-reactor nuclear fuel cycle. Each zone contains those facilities or parts thereof which use or process nuclear materials of the same safeguards significance: low-enriched uranium, radioactive spent fuel, or recovered plutonium. The possibility that each zone might be treated as an extended material balance area for safeguards purposes is under investigation. The approach includes defining the relevant features of the facilities in the three zones and listing the safeguards activities which are now practiced. This study has focussed on the fresh-fuel zone, the several facilities of which use or process low-enriched uranium. At one extreme, flows and inventories would be verified at each material balance area. At the other extreme, the flows into and out of the zone and the inventory of the whole zone would be verified. There are a number of possible safeguards approaches which fall between the two extremes. The intention is to develop a rational approach which will make it possible to compare the technical effectiveness and the inspection effort for the facility-oriented approach, for the approach involving the zone as a material balance area, and for some reasonable intermediate safeguards approaches.

  3. A study of a zone approach to IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards: The low-enriched-uranium zone of a light-water-reactor fuel cycle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fishbone, L.G.; Higinbotham, W.A.

    1986-06-01

    At present the IAEA designs its safeguards approach with regard to each type of nuclear facility so that the safeguards activities and effort are essentially the same for a given type and size of nuclear facility wherever it may be located. Conclusions regarding a state are derived by combining the conclusions regarding the effectiveness of safeguards for the individual facilities within a state. In this study it was convenient to define three zones in a state with a closed light-water-reactor nuclear fuel cycle. Each zone contains those facilities or parts thereof which use or process nuclear materials of the same safeguards significance: low-enriched uranium, radioactive spent fuel, or recovered plutonium. The possibility that each zone might be treated as an extended material balance area for safeguards purposes is under investigation. The approach includes defining the relevant features of the facilities in the three zones and listing the safeguards activities which are now practiced. This study has focussed on the fresh-fuel zone, the several facilities of which use or process low-enriched uranium. At one extreme, flows and inventories would be verified at each material balance area. At the other extreme, the flows into and out of the zone and the inventory of the whole zone would be verified. There are a number of possible safeguards approaches which fall between the two extremes. The intention is to develop a rational approach which will make it possible to compare the technical effectiveness and the inspection effort for the facility-oriented approach, for the approach involving the zone as a material balance area, and for some reasonable intermediate safeguards approaches

  4. Competing for the non-US enrichment markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1980-01-01

    The article discusses three basic steps: first, the historical perspectives; second, where the enrichment industry and the non-US markets for enrichment stand today (the present situation); and third, the likely future developments, which, for practical purposes, are dealt with in two parts: the non-US enrichment markets in the 1980s; and the non-US enrichment markets beyond the 1980s;

  5. Enriched uranium sales: effect on supply industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andersen, R.K.

    1985-01-01

    The subject is covered in sections: introduction (combined effect of low-enriched uranium (LEU) inventory sales and utility services enrichment contract terms); enrichment market overview; enrichment market dynamics; the reaction of the US Department of Energy; elimination of artificial demand; draw down of inventories; purchase and sale of LEU inventories; tails assay option; unfulfilled requirements for U 3 O 8 ; conclusions. (U.K.)

  6. Conversion of research and test reactors to low enriched uranium fuel: technical overview and program status

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roglans-Ribas, J.

    2008-01-01

    Many of the nuclear research and test reactors worldwide operate with high enriched uranium fuel. In response to worries over the potential use of HEU from research reactors in nuclear weapons, the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a program - the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) - in 1978 to develop the technology necessary to reduce the use of HEU fuel by converting research reactors to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The Reactor Conversion program is currently under the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI). 55 of the 129 reactors included in the scope have been already converted to LEU fuel or have shutdown prior to conversion. The major technical activities of the Conversion Program include: (1) the development of advanced LEU fuels; (2) conversion analysis and conversion support; and (3) technology development for the production of Molybdenum-99 (Mo 99 ) with LEU targets. The paper provides an overview of the status of the program, the technical challenges and accomplishments, and the role of international collaborations in the accomplishment of the Conversion Program objectives. Nuclear research and test reactors worldwide have been in operation for over 60 years. Many of these facilities operate with high enriched uranium fuel. In response to increased worries over the potential use of HEU from research reactors in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons, the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a program - the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) - in 1978 to develop the technology necessary to reduce the use of HEU fuel in research reactors by converting them to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The reactor conversion program was initially focused on U.S.-supplied reactors, but in the early 1990s it expanded and began to collaborate with Russian institutes with the objective of converting Russian supplied reactors to the use of LEU fuel.

  7. Face time: educating face transplant candidates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamparello, Brooke M; Bueno, Ericka M; Diaz-Siso, Jesus Rodrigo; Sisk, Geoffroy C; Pomahac, Bohdan

    2013-01-01

    Face transplantation is the innovative application of microsurgery and immunology to restore appearance and function to those with severe facial disfigurements. Our group aims to establish a multidisciplinary education program that can facilitate informed consent and build a strong knowledge base in patients to enhance adherence to medication regimes, recovery, and quality of life. We analyzed handbooks from our institution's solid organ transplant programs to identify topics applicable to face transplant patients. The team identified unique features of face transplantation that warrant comprehensive patient education. We created a 181-page handbook to provide subjects interested in pursuing transplantation with a written source of information on the process and team members and to address concerns they may have. While the handbook covers a wide range of topics, it is easy to understand and visually appealing. Face transplantation has many unique aspects that must be relayed to the patients pursuing this novel therapy. Since candidates lack third-party support groups and programs, the transplant team must provide an extensive educational component to enhance this complex process. As face transplantation continues to develop, programs must create sound education programs that address patients' needs and concerns to facilitate optimal care.

  8. Development of long-life low enrichment fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gietzen, A.J.; West, G.B.

    1978-01-01

    With only a few exceptions, TRIGA reactors have always used low-enriched-uranium (LEU) fuel with an enrichment of 19.9%. The exceptions have either been converted from the standard low-enriched fuel to the 70% enriched FLIP fuel in order to achieve extended lifetime, or are higher powered reactors which were designed for long life using 93%-enriched uranium during the time when the use and export of highly enriched uranium (HEU) was not restricted. The advent of international policies focusing attention on non-proliferation and safeguards made the HEU fuels obsolete. General Atomic immediately undertook a development effort (nearly two years ago) in order to be in a position to comply with these policies for all future export sales and also to provide a low-enriched alternative to fully enriched plate-type fuels. This important work was subsequently partially supported by the U. S. Department of Energy. The laboratory and production tests have shown that higher uranium densities can be achieved to compensate for reducing the enrichment to 20%, and that the fuels maintain the characteristics of the very thoroughly proven standard TRIGA fuels. In May of this year, General Atomic announced that these fuels were available for TRIGA reactors and for plate-type reactors with power levels up to 15 MW with GA's standard commercial warranty

  9. World enrichment requirements to 2005

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1991-01-01

    The primary enrichment suppliers-Eurodif, Techsnabexport, Urenco, and the US DOE - are positioning themselves to take advantage of the post - 1995 market. Overall, unfilled requirements represent about 40 percent of world requirements in the year 2000. The USA will be the primary market, as US utilities' unfilled enrichment requirements account for over 60 percent of the world's total unfilled requirements. The enrichment market is moving toward more global competition, as each supplier tries to maintain its current regional market base and then to capture additional market share in other regions

  10. Colleges Struggle to Dispose of Hazardous Wastes in Face of Rising Costs and Increased Regulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magner, Denise K.

    1989-01-01

    After years of being ignored by federal regulators because of the low volume of hazardous waste in question, colleges and universities are facing increased enforcement of environmental laws concerning waste disposal and storage, at great cost in money, facilities, and personnel. (MSE)

  11. On-line item control at a high enriched nuclear fuel fabrication facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, T.W.; Lewis, H.M.

    1984-01-01

    The on-line item control system at Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc., is a near-real time method capable of tracking uniquely identified items from creation through disposition. The system provides for improved control, timeliness, accuracy and usability of company information and the necessary data required to support the regulatory program for the protection against diversion of Special Nuclear Materials. The system consists of software applications (approximately 150 programs) with man/machine interface controls which provide facilities for correct data entry and for the protection of data integrity. This system went into stand-alone operation in September, 1983 after a twenty month parallel test run with the previous keybatched (manual forms) item control system

  12. DOE enrichment plants-safeguards means business

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donnelly, R.

    1987-01-01

    The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and operated by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., is a full service enrichment plant. Its long enriching cascade can process uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ) feeds at almost any 235 U level and can produce UF 6 over the complete spectrum from depleted to very highly enriched uranium. The DOE uranium enrichment program is a government-owned enterprise operating as a business. The operating concerns of the DOE uranium enrichment plants and their safeguards programs have evolved together over the past three decades, and that evolution will likely continue. As the risk associated with possession, processing, and shipment of strategic nuclear material increased, the protection and control of it increased; as the value of the product grew with time, better ways were found to measure and conserve it. In each of these areas, safeguards objectives and the business requirements of the plant are complementary, and the progress made in one area has been reflected by progress in the other. The plant's material control and accountability program has become crucial to such business requirements as quantifying the enriched uranium (separative work units) produced in each monthly period and convincing financial auditors that the multibillion dollar enriched uranium assets located at the Portsmouth plant are properly stated

  13. From face processing to face recognition: Comparing three different processing levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Besson, G; Barragan-Jason, G; Thorpe, S J; Fabre-Thorpe, M; Puma, S; Ceccaldi, M; Barbeau, E J

    2017-01-01

    Verifying that a face is from a target person (e.g. finding someone in the crowd) is a critical ability of the human face processing system. Yet how fast this can be performed is unknown. The 'entry-level shift due to expertise' hypothesis suggests that - since humans are face experts - processing faces should be as fast - or even faster - at the individual than at superordinate levels. In contrast, the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis suggests that faces are processed from coarse to fine, so that the opposite pattern should be observed. To clarify this debate, three different face processing levels were compared: (1) a superordinate face categorization level (i.e. detecting human faces among animal faces), (2) a face familiarity level (i.e. recognizing famous faces among unfamiliar ones) and (3) verifying that a face is from a target person, our condition of interest. The minimal speed at which faces can be categorized (∼260ms) or recognized as familiar (∼360ms) has largely been documented in previous studies, and thus provides boundaries to compare our condition of interest to. Twenty-seven participants were included. The recent Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure paradigm (SAB) was used since it constrains participants to use their fastest strategy. Stimuli were presented either upright or inverted. Results revealed that verifying that a face is from a target person (minimal RT at ∼260ms) was remarkably fast but longer than the face categorization level (∼240ms) and was more sensitive to face inversion. In contrast, it was much faster than recognizing a face as familiar (∼380ms), a level severely affected by face inversion. Face recognition corresponding to finding a specific person in a crowd thus appears achievable in only a quarter of a second. In favor of the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis or coarse-to-fine account of the face visual hierarchy, these results suggest a graded engagement of the face processing system across processing

  14. Uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-08-01

    This paper reports that in 1990 the Department of Energy began a two-year project to illustrate the technical and economic feasibility of a new uranium enrichment technology-the atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) process. GAO believes that completing the AVLIS demonstration project will provide valuable information about the technical viability and cost of building an AVLIS plant and will keep future plant construction options open. However, Congress should be aware that DOE still needs to adequately demonstrate AVLIS with full-scale equipment and develop convincing cost projects. Program activities, such as the plant-licensing process, that must be completed before a plant is built, could take many years. Further, an updated and expanded uranium enrichment analysis will be needed before any decision is made about building an AVLIS plant. GAO, which has long supported legislation that would restructure DOE's uranium enrichment program as a government corporation, encourages DOE's goal of transferring AVLIS to the corporation. This could reduce the government's financial risk and help ensure that the decision to build an AVLIS plant is based on commercial concerns. DOE, however, has no alternative plans should the government corporation not be formed. Further, by curtailing a planned public access program, which would have given private firms an opportunity to learn about the technology during the demonstration project, DOE may limit its ability to transfer AVLIS to the private sector

  15. Bayesian Face Recognition and Perceptual Narrowing in Face-Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balas, Benjamin

    2012-01-01

    During the first year of life, infants' face recognition abilities are subject to "perceptual narrowing", the end result of which is that observers lose the ability to distinguish previously discriminable faces (e.g. other-race faces) from one another. Perceptual narrowing has been reported for faces of different species and different races, in…

  16. SINGLE-FACED GRAYQB{trademark} - A RADIATION MAPPING DEVICE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mayer, J.; Farfan, E.; Immel, D.; Phillips, M.; Bobbitt, J.; Plummer, J.

    2013-12-12

    share the same fundamental detection system design (e.g., pinhole and PSPs). Therefore, performance tests completed on the single face GrayQB in this report is also applicable to the six- faced GrayQB (e.g., ambient light sensitivity and PSP response). This report details the characterization of the GrayQb{trademark} SF in both an uncontrolled environment; specifically, the Savannah River Site (SRS) Plutonium Fuel Form Facility in Building 235-F (Metallurgical Building) and controlled testing at SRS’s Health Physics Instrument Calibration Facility and SRS’s R&D Engineering Imaging and Radiation Systems Building. In this report, the resulting images from the Calibration Facility were obtained by overlaying the PSP and visual images manually using ImageJ. The resulting images from the Building 235-F tests presented in this report were produced using ImageJ and applying response trends developed from controlled testing results. The GrayQb{trademark} technology has been developed in two main stages at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL): 1) the GrayQb{trademark} development was supported by SRNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and 2) the GrayQb{trademark} SF development and its testing in Building 235-F were supported by the Office of Deactivation and Decommissioning and Facility Engineering (EM-13), U.S. Department of Energy – Office of Environmental Management.

  17. Availability of enrichment services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Svenke, E.

    1977-01-01

    The report summarizes major uncertainties which are likely to influence future demands for uranium isotopic enrichment. Since for the next decade the development of nuclear power will be largely concerned with the increment in demand the timely need for enrichment capacity will be particularly sensitive to assumptions about growth rates. Existing worldwide capacity together with capacities under construction will be sufficient well into the 1980's. However, long decision and construction leadtime, uncertainty as to future demand as well as other factors, specifically high capital need, all of which entail financial risks, create hindrances to a timely development of increment. The adequacy of current technology is well demonstrated in plant operation and new technology is under way. Technology is, however, not freely available on a purely commercial basis. Commercial willingness, which anticipates a limited degree of financial risk, is requesting both long term back-up from the utilities that would parallel their firm decisions on the acquisition of nuclear power units, and a protective government umbrella. This situation depends on the symbiotic relationship that exists between the nuclear power generating organizations, the enrichment undertakings and the governments involved. The report accordingly stresses the need for a more cooperative approach and this, moreover, at the multinational level. There is otherwise a risk that proper resources and financing means will not be allocated to the enrichment sector. Export limitations that request the highest degree of industrial processing of nuclear fuel, i.e. the compulsory enrichment of natural uranium, do not serve the interests of overall industrial efficiency

  18. Analysis of the performance of fuel cells PWR with a single enrichment and radial distribution of enrichments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vargas, S.; Gonzalez, J. A.; Alonso, G.; Del Valle, E.; Xolocostli M, J. V.

    2008-01-01

    One of the main challenges in the design of fuel assemblies is the efficient use of uranium achieving burnt homogeneous of the fuel rods as well as the burnt maximum possible of the same ones to the unload. In the case of the assemblies type PWR has been decided actually for fuel assemblies with a single radial enrichment. The present work has like effect to show the because of this decision, reason why a comparison of the neutronic performance of two fuel cells takes place with the same enrichment average but one of them with radial distribution of enrichment and the other with a single enrichment equal to the average. The results shown in the present study of the behavior of the neutron flow as well as the power distribution through of assembly sustain the because of a single radial enrichment. (Author)

  19. Attention to internal face features in unfamiliar face matching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fletcher, Kingsley I; Butavicius, Marcus A; Lee, Michael D

    2008-08-01

    Accurate matching of unfamiliar faces is vital in security and forensic applications, yet previous research has suggested that humans often perform poorly when matching unfamiliar faces. Hairstyle and facial hair can strongly influence unfamiliar face matching but are potentially unreliable cues. This study investigated whether increased attention to the more stable internal face features of eyes, nose, and mouth was associated with more accurate face-matching performance. Forty-three first-year psychology students decided whether two simultaneously presented faces were of the same person or not. The faces were displayed for either 2 or 6 seconds, and had either similar or dissimilar hairstyles. The level of attention to internal features was measured by the proportion of fixation time spent on the internal face features and the sensitivity of discrimination to changes in external feature similarity. Increased attention to internal features was associated with increased discrimination in the 2-second display-time condition, but no significant relationship was found in the 6-second condition. Individual differences in eye-movements were highly stable across the experimental conditions.

  20. Face recognition : implementation of face recognition on AMIGO

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Geelen, M.J.A.J.; Molengraft, van de M.J.G.; Elfring, J.

    2011-01-01

    In this (traineeship)report two possible methods of face recognition were presented. The first method describes how to detect and recognize faces by using the SURF algorithm. This algorithm finally was not used for recognizing faces, with the reason that the Eigenface algorithm was an already tested

  1. NRC licensing of uranium enrichment plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moran, B.W.

    1991-01-01

    The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is preparing a rule making that establishes the licensing requirements for low-enriched uranium enrichment plants. Although implementation of this rule making is timed to correspond with receipt of a license application for the Louisiana Energy Services centrifuge enrichment plant, the rule making is applicable to all uranium enrichment technologies. If ownership of the US gaseous diffusion plants and/or atomic vapor laser isotope separation is transferred to a private or government corporation, these plants also would be licensable under the new rule making. The Safeguards Studies Department was tasked by the NRC to provide technical assistance in support of the rule making and guidance preparation process. The initial and primary effort of this task involved the characterization of the potential safeguards concerns associated with a commercial enrichment plant, and the licensing issues associated with these concerns. The primary safeguards considerations were identified as detection of the loss of special nuclear material, detection of unauthorized production of material of low strategic significance, and detection of production of uranium enriched to >10% 235 U. The primary safeguards concerns identified were (1) large absolute limit of error associated with the material balance closing, (2) the inability to shutdown some technologies to perform a cleanout inventory of the process system, and (3) the flexibility of some technologies to produce higher enrichments. Unauthorized production scenarios were identified for some technologies that could prevent conventional material control and accounting programs from detecting the production and removal of 5 kg 235 U as highly enriched uranium. Safeguards techniques were identified to mitigate these concerns

  2. Evaluation of a RF-Based Approach for Tracking UF6 Cylinders at a Uranium Enrichment Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pickett, Chris A; Younkin, James R; Kovacic, Donald N; Laughter, Mark D; Hines, Jairus B; Boyer, Brian Martinez

    2008-01-01

    Approved industry-standard cylinders are used globally to handle and store uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ) feed, product, tails, and samples at uranium enrichment plants. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) relies on time-consuming physical inspections to verify operator declarations and detect possible diversion of UF 6 . Development of a reliable, automated, and tamper-resistant system for near real-time tracking and monitoring UF 6 cylinders (as they move within an enrichment facility) would greatly improve the inspector function. This type of system can reduce the risk of false or misreported cylinder tare weights, diversion of nuclear material, concealment of excess production, utilization of undeclared cylinders, and misrepresentation of the cylinders contents. This paper will describe a proof-of-concept approach that was designed to evaluate the feasibility of using radio frequency (RF)-based technologies to track individual UF 6 cylinders throughout a portion of their life cycle, and thus demonstrate the potential for improved domestic accountability of materials, and a more effective and efficient method for application of site-level IAEA safeguards. The evaluation system incorporates RF-based identification devices (RFID) which provide a foundation for establishing a reliable, automated, and near real-time tracking system that can be set up to utilize site-specific, rules-based detection algorithms. This paper will report results from a proof-of-concept demonstration at a real enrichment facility that is specifically designed to evaluate both the feasibility of using RF to track cylinders and the durability of the RF equipment to survive the rigors of operational processing and handling. The paper also discusses methods for securely attaching RF devices and describes how the technology can effectively be layered with other safeguard systems and approaches to build a robust system for detecting cylinder diversion. Additionally, concepts for off

  3. Environmental enrichment choices of shelter cats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, J J; Stryhn, H; Spears, J; Cockram, M S

    2017-08-01

    Choices made by cats between different types of environmental enrichment may help shelters to prioritize how to most effectively enrich cat housing, especially when limited by space or funds. This study investigates the environmental enrichment use of cats in a choice test. Twenty-six shelter cats were kept singularly in choice chambers for 10days. Each chamber had a central area and four centrally-linked compartments containing different types of environmental enrichment: 1) an empty control, 2) a prey-simulating toy, 3) a perching opportunity, and 4) a hiding opportunity. Cat movement between compartments was quantitatively recorded using a data-logger. Enriched compartments were visited significantly more frequently during the light period than during the dark period. Cats spent a significantly greater percentage of time in the hiding compartment (median=55%, IQR=46) than in the toy compartment (median=2%, IQR=9), or in the empty control compartment (median=4%, IQR=4). These results provide additional evidence to support the value of a hiding box to cats housed in a novel environment, in that they choose hiding relative to other types of environmental enrichment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Isotope Enrichment Detection by Laser Ablation - Laser Absorption Spectrometry: Automated Environmental Sampling and Laser-Based Analysis for HEU Detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anheier, Norman C.; Bushaw, Bruce A.

    2010-01-01

    The global expansion of nuclear power, and consequently the uranium enrichment industry, requires the development of new safeguards technology to mitigate proliferation risks. Current enrichment monitoring instruments exist that provide only yes/no detection of highly enriched uranium (HEU) production. More accurate accountancy measurements are typically restricted to gamma-ray and weight measurements taken in cylinder storage yards. Analysis of environmental and cylinder content samples have much higher effectiveness, but this approach requires onsite sampling, shipping, and time-consuming laboratory analysis and reporting. Given that large modern gaseous centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs) can quickly produce a significant quantity (SQ ) of HEU, these limitations in verification suggest the need for more timely detection of potential facility misuse. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing an unattended safeguards instrument concept, combining continuous aerosol particulate collection with uranium isotope assay, to provide timely analysis of enrichment levels within low enriched uranium facilities. This approach is based on laser vaporization of aerosol particulate samples, followed by wavelength tuned laser diode spectroscopy to characterize the uranium isotopic ratio through subtle differences in atomic absorption wavelengths. Environmental sampling (ES) media from an integrated aerosol collector is introduced into a small, reduced pressure chamber, where a focused pulsed laser vaporizes material from a 10 to 20-(micro)m diameter spot of the surface of the sampling media. The plume of ejected material begins as high-temperature plasma that yields ions and atoms, as well as molecules and molecular ions. We concentrate on the plume of atomic vapor that remains after the plasma has expanded and then cooled by the surrounding cover gas. Tunable diode lasers are directed through this plume and each isotope is detected by monitoring absorbance

  5. The complex duration perception of emotional faces: Effects of face direction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katrin Martina Kliegl

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The perceived duration of emotional face stimuli strongly depends on the expressed emotion. But, emotional faces also differ regarding a number of other features like gaze, face direction, or sex. Usually, these features have been controlled by only using pictures of female models with straight gaze and face direction. Doi and Shinohara (2009 reported that an overestimation of angry faces could only be found when the model’s gaze was oriented towards the observer. We aimed at replicating this effect for face direction. Moreover, we explored the effect of face direction on the duration perception sad faces. Controlling for the sex of the face model and the participant, female and male participants rated the duration of neutral, angry and sad face stimuli of both sexes photographed from different perspectives in a bisection task. In line with current findings, we report a significant overestimation of angry compared to neutral face stimuli that was modulated by face direction. Moreover, the perceived duration of sad face stimuli did not differ from that of neutral faces and was not influenced by face direction. Furthermore, we found that faces of the opposite sex appeared to last longer than those of the same sex. This outcome is discussed with regards to stimulus parameters like the induced arousal, social relevance and an evolutionary context.

  6. A causal relationship between face-patch activity and face-detection behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadagopan, Srivatsun; Zarco, Wilbert; Freiwald, Winrich A

    2017-04-04

    The primate brain contains distinct areas densely populated by face-selective neurons. One of these, face-patch ML, contains neurons selective for contrast relationships between face parts. Such contrast-relationships can serve as powerful heuristics for face detection. However, it is unknown whether neurons with such selectivity actually support face-detection behavior. Here, we devised a naturalistic face-detection task and combined it with fMRI-guided pharmacological inactivation of ML to test whether ML is of critical importance for real-world face detection. We found that inactivation of ML impairs face detection. The effect was anatomically specific, as inactivation of areas outside ML did not affect face detection, and it was categorically specific, as inactivation of ML impaired face detection while sparing body and object detection. These results establish that ML function is crucial for detection of faces in natural scenes, performing a critical first step on which other face processing operations can build.

  7. Waste from decommissioning of research reactors and other small nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Massaut, V.

    2001-01-01

    Full text: Small nuclear facilities were often built for research or pilot purposes. It includes the research reactors of various types and various aims (physics research, nuclear research, nuclear weapons development, materials testing reactor, isotope production, pilot plant, etc.) as well as laboratories, hot cells and accelerators used for a broad spectrum of research or production purposes. These installations are characterized not only by their size (reduced footprint) but also, and even mostly, by the very diversified type of materials, products and isotopes handled within these facilities. This large variety can sometimes enhance the difficulties encountered for the dismantling of such facilities. The presence of materials like beryllium, graphite, lead, PCBs, sodium, sometimes in relatively large quantities, are also challenges to be faced by the dismantlers of such facilities, because these types of waste are either toxic or no solutions are readily available for their conditioning or long term disposal. The paper will review what is currently done in different small nuclear facilities, and what are the remaining problems and challenges for future dismantling and waste management. The question of whether Research and Development for waste handling methods and processes is needed is still pending. Even for the dismantling operation itself, important improvements can be brought in the fields of characterization, decontamination, remote handling, etc. by further developments and innovative systems. The way of funding such facilities decommissioning will be reviewed as well as the very difficult cost estimation for such facilities, often one-of-a-kind. The aspects of radioprotection optimization (ALARA principle) and classical operators safety will also be highlighted, as well as the potential solutions or improvements. In fact, small nuclear facilities encounter often, when dismantling, the same problems as the large nuclear power plants, but have in

  8. Security culture for nuclear facilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Deeksha; Bajramovic, Edita

    2017-01-01

    Natural radioactive elements are part of our environment and radioactivity is a natural phenomenon. There are numerous beneficial applications of radioactive elements (radioisotopes) and radiation, starting from power generation to usages in medical, industrial and agriculture applications. But the risk of radiation exposure is always attached to operational workers, the public and the environment. Hence, this risk has to be assessed and controlled. The main goal of safety and security measures is to protect human life, health, and the environment. Currently, nuclear security considerations became essential along with nuclear safety as nuclear facilities are facing rapidly increase in cybersecurity risks. Therefore, prevention and adequate protection of nuclear facilities from cyberattacks is the major task. Historically, nuclear safety is well defined by IAEA guidelines while nuclear security is just gradually being addressed by some new guidance, especially the IAEA Nuclear Security Series (NSS), IEC 62645 and some national regulations. At the overall level, IAEA NSS 7 describes nuclear security as deterrence and detection of, and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear, other radioactive substances and their associated facilities. Nuclear security should be included throughout nuclear facilities. Proper implementation of a nuclear security culture leads to staff vigilance and a high level of security posture. Nuclear security also depends on policy makers, regulators, managers, individual employees and members of public. Therefore, proper education and security awareness are essential in keeping nuclear facilities safe and secure.

  9. Critical enrichment and critical density of infinite systems for nuclear criticality safety evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naito, Yoshitaka; Koyama, Takashi; Komuro, Yuichi

    1986-03-01

    Critical enrichment and critical density of homogenous infinite systems, such as U-H 2 O, UO 2 -H 2 O, UO 2 F 2 aqueous solution, UO 2 (NO 3 ) 2 aqueous solution, Pu-H 2 O, PuO 2 -H 2 O, Pu(NO 3 ) 4 aqueous solution and PuO 2 ·UO 2 -H 2 O, were calculated with the criticality safety evaluation computer code system JACS for nuclear criticality safety evaluation on fuel facilities. The computed results were compared with the data described in European and American criticality handbooks and showed good agreement with each other. (author)

  10. Alternative face models for 3D face registration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salah, Albert Ali; Alyüz, Neşe; Akarun, Lale

    2007-01-01

    3D has become an important modality for face biometrics. The accuracy of a 3D face recognition system depends on a correct registration that aligns the facial surfaces and makes a comparison possible. The best results obtained so far use a one-to-all registration approach, which means each new facial surface is registered to all faces in the gallery, at a great computational cost. We explore the approach of registering the new facial surface to an average face model (AFM), which automatically establishes correspondence to the pre-registered gallery faces. Going one step further, we propose that using a couple of well-selected AFMs can trade-off computation time with accuracy. Drawing on cognitive justifications, we propose to employ category-specific alternative average face models for registration, which is shown to increase the accuracy of the subsequent recognition. We inspect thin-plate spline (TPS) and iterative closest point (ICP) based registration schemes under realistic assumptions on manual or automatic landmark detection prior to registration. We evaluate several approaches for the coarse initialization of ICP. We propose a new algorithm for constructing an AFM, and show that it works better than a recent approach. Finally, we perform simulations with multiple AFMs that correspond to different clusters in the face shape space and compare these with gender and morphology based groupings. We report our results on the FRGC 3D face database.

  11. Withholding response to self-face is faster than to other-face.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Min; Hu, Yinying; Tang, Xiaochen; Luo, Junlong; Gao, Xiangping

    2015-01-01

    Self-face advantage refers to adults' response to self-face is faster than that to other-face. A stop-signal task was used to explore how self-face advantage interacted with response inhibition. The results showed that reaction times of self-face were faster than that of other-face not in the go task but in the stop response trials. The novelty of the finding was that self-face has shorter stop-signal reaction time compared to other-face in the successful inhibition trials. These results indicated the processing mechanism of self-face may be characterized by a strong response tendency and a corresponding strong inhibition control.

  12. Profile of World Uranium Enrichment Programs - 2007

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Laughter, Mark D.

    2007-01-01

    It is generally agreed that the most difficult step in building a nuclear weapon is acquiring weapons grade fissile material, either plutonium or highly enriched uranium (HEU). Plutonium is produced in a nuclear reactor, while HEU is produced using a uranium enrichment process. Enrichment is also an important step in the civil nuclear fuel cycle, in producing low enriched uranium (LEU) for use in fuel for nuclear reactors. However, the same equipment used to produce LEU for nuclear fuel can also be used to produce HEU for weapons. Safeguards at an enrichment plant are the array of assurances and verification techniques that ensure uranium is only enriched to LEU, no undeclared LEU is produced, and no uranium is enriched to HEU or secretly diverted. There are several techniques for enriching uranium. The two most prevalent are gaseous diffusion, which uses older technology and requires a lot of energy, and gas centrifuge separation, which uses more advanced technology and is more energy efficient. Gaseous diffusion plants (GDPs) provide about 40% of current world enrichment capacity, but are being phased out as newer gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs) are constructed. Estimates of current and future enrichment capacity are always approximate, due to the constant upgrades, expansions, and shutdowns occurring at enrichment plants, largely determined by economic interests. Currently, the world enrichment capacity is approximately 53 million kg-separative work units (SWU) per year, with 22 million in gaseous diffusion and 31 million in gas centrifuge plants. Another 23 million SWU/year of capacity are under construction or planned for the near future, almost entirely using gas centrifuge separation. Other less-efficient techniques have also been used in the past, including electromagnetic and aerodynamic separations, but these are considered obsolete, at least from a commercial perspective. Laser isotope separation shows promise as a possible enrichment technique

  13. A conversion development program to LEU targets for medical isotope production in the MAPLE Facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malkoske, G.R.

    2000-01-01

    Historically, the production of molybdenum-99 in the NRU research reactors at Chalk River, Canada has been extracted from reactor targets employing highly enriched uranium (HEU). The molybdenum extraction process from the HEU targets provided predictable, consistent yields for our high-volume molybdenum production process. A reliable supply of HEU for the NRU research reactor targets has enabled MDS Nordion to develop a secure chain of medical isotope supply for the international nuclear medicine community. Each link of the isotope supply chain, from isotope production to patient application, has been established on a proven method of HEU target irradiation and processing. To ensure a continued reliable and timely supply of medical isotopes, the design of the MAPLE facilities was based on our established process - extraction of isotopes from HEU target material. However, in concert with the global trend to utilize low enriched uranium (LEU) in research reactors, MDS Nordion has launched a program to convert the MAPLE facilities to LEU targets. An initial feasibility study was initiated to identify the technical issues to convert the MAPLE targets from HEU to LEU. This paper will present the results of the feasibility study. It will also describe future challenges and opportunities in converting the MAPLE facilities to LEU targets for large scale, commercial medical isotope production. (author)

  14. Report of third regular inspection of Tokai reprocessing facilities, Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1987-01-01

    The reprocessing facilities passed the inspection before use on December 25, 1980, and started the full operation. Since then, this is the third regular inspection. It was begun on April 1, 1986, and finished on August 18, 1986, with the inspection of the rate of recovery of products. The reprocessing facilities which became the object of inspection were the facilities for accepting and storing spent fuel, the reprocessing facilities proper (the facilities of shearing, dissolution, separation, refining, denitration and recovery of acid and solvent), the facilities for storing products, measurement and control system, radioactive waste facilities, radiation control facilities and attached facilities (power, water, steam and testing). The main works carried out during the period of this regular inspection were the repair of an enriched uranium dissolution tank by welding, the renewal of a piping for a low activity waste liquid storing tank, and the removal of a washing tank. The total exposure dose in the first half of fiscal year 1986 was about 30.81 man-rem. (Kako, I.)

  15. Boronic Acid functionalized core-shell polymer nanoparticles prepared by distillation precipitation polymerization for glycopeptide enrichment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qu, Yanyan; Liu, Jianxi; Yang, Kaiguang; Liang, Zhen; Zhang, Lihua; Zhang, Yukui

    2012-07-16

    The boronic acid-functionalized core-shell polymer nanoparticles, poly(N,N-methylenebisacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid)@4-vinylphenylboronic acid (poly(MBA-co-MAA)@VPBA), were successfully synthesized for enriching glycosylated peptides. Such nanoparticles were composed of a hydrophilic polymer core prepared by distillation precipitation polymerization (DPP) and a boronic acid-functionalized shell designed for capturing glycopeptides. Owing to the relatively large amount of residual vinyl groups introduced by DPP on the core surface, the VPBA monomer was coated with high efficiency, working as the shell. Moreover, the overall polymerization route, especially the use of DPP, made the synthesis of nanoparticles facile and time-saving. With the poly(MBA-co-MAA)@VPBA nanoparticles, 18 glycopeptides from horseradish peroxidase (HRP) digest were captured and identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric analysis, relative to eight glycopeptides enriched by using commercially available meta-aminophenylboronic acid agarose under the same conditions. When the concentration of the HRP digest was decreased to as low as 5 nmol, glycopeptides could still be selectively isolated by the prepared nanoparticles. Our results demonstrated that the synthetic poly(MBA-co-MAA)@VPBA nanoparticles might be a promising selective enrichment material for glycoproteome analysis. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  16. About-face on face recognition ability and holistic processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richler, Jennifer J; Floyd, R Jackie; Gauthier, Isabel

    2015-01-01

    Previous work found a small but significant relationship between holistic processing measured with the composite task and face recognition ability measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). Surprisingly, recent work using a different measure of holistic processing (Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test [VHPT-F]; Richler, Floyd, & Gauthier, 2014) and a larger sample found no evidence for such a relationship. In Experiment 1 we replicate this unexpected result, finding no relationship between holistic processing (VHPT-F) and face recognition ability (CFMT). A key difference between the VHPT-F and other holistic processing measures is that unique face parts are used on each trial in the VHPT-F, unlike in other tasks where a small set of face parts repeat across the experiment. In Experiment 2, we test the hypothesis that correlations between the CFMT and holistic processing tasks are driven by stimulus repetition that allows for learning during the composite task. Consistent with our predictions, CFMT performance was correlated with holistic processing in the composite task when a small set of face parts repeated over trials, but not when face parts did not repeat. A meta-analysis confirms that relationships between the CFMT and holistic processing depend on stimulus repetition. These results raise important questions about what is being measured by the CFMT, and challenge current assumptions about why faces are processed holistically.

  17. The future cost of uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pouris, A.

    1986-01-01

    The cost of uranium enrichment is the most important factor determining the fuel cost of nuclear energy. This paper attempts to forecast the future direction of the price of separative work by examining the forces that determine it. It is argued that the interplay among the characteristics of enrichment technologies, the structure of the international market, and the balance of supply and demand determine the enrichment price. The analysis indicates that all forces point towards a price much lower than the current one. It is predicted that, depending on the technological advances, the price of separative work unit for uranium enrichment will range between $40 and $90 by the year 2000. (author)

  18. 31 CFR 540.308 - Low Enriched Uranium (LEU).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Low Enriched Uranium (LEU). 540.308... OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM (HEU) AGREEMENT ASSETS CONTROL REGULATIONS General Definitions § 540.308 Low Enriched Uranium (LEU). The term low enriched...

  19. Nondestructive assay of special nuclear material for uranium fuel-fabrication facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, H.A. Jr.; Schillebeeckx, P.

    1997-01-01

    A high-quality materials accounting system and effective international inspections in uranium fuel-fabrication facilities depend heavily upon accurate nondestructive assay measurements of the facility's nuclear materials. While item accounting can monitor a large portion of the facility inventory (fuel rods, assemblies, storage items), the contents of all such items and mass values for all bulk materials must be based on quantitative measurements. Weight measurements, combined with destructive analysis of process samples, can provide highly accurate quantitative information on well-characterized and uniform product materials. However, to cover the full range of process materials and to provide timely accountancy data on hard-to-measure items and rapid verification of previous measurements, radiation-based nondestructive assay (NDA) techniques play an important role. NDA for uranium fuel fabrication facilities relies on passive gamma spectroscopy for enrichment and U isotope mass values of medium-to-low-density samples and holdup deposits; it relies on active neutron techniques for U-235 mass values of high-density and heterogeneous samples. This paper will describe the basic radiation-based nondestructive assay techniques used to perform these measurements. The authors will also discuss the NDA measurement applications for international inspections of European fuel-fabrication facilities

  20. Industrial aspects in uranium enrichment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mezin, M.

    1982-05-01

    Characteristics of isotope separation processes in operation and under development are discussed. These include the number of stages in series, the number of components, the component unit capacity and enery requirements. The implementation of an enrichment process and the question of an enrichment plant in Australia are also considered