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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

LIBS measurement of trace tantalum and rhenium in tungsten for in-situ diagnostic of nuclear transmutation

Calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) was applied to tungsten (W)- tantalum (Ta) alloy and W-rhenium (Re) alloy. In the W-Ta alloy measurement, an apparent Ta I line at 648.5 nm was found to be isolated from W I lines and used for the concentration determination. Accurate concentration measurements were achieved for a W - 2 at.% Ta specimen at the ambient gas pressure between 0.1 and 10 Torr of He, Ne and Ar gas. Within these ambient gas species, the highest line intensities were obtained by Ar gas. In the W-Re alloy measurement, the detection limit of trace Re in W-Re was investigated. CF-LIBS results agree well with the nominal concentration of Re down to W-0.5 at.% Re specimen which is better than the measurement accuracy of EDX (energy-dispersive X-ray micro-analysis). Further improvements are required in order to measure 0.2 at.% Re in W expected at ITER.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Microstructural evolution and transmutation in tungsten under ion and neutron irradiation

This study aims to compare the effects of neutron and self-ion irradiation on the mechanical properties and microstructural evolution in W. Neutron irradiation at the HFR reactor to 1.67 dpa at 800 °C resulted in the formation of large Re and Os rich clusters and voids. The post-irradiation composition was measured using APT and verfified against FISPACT modelling. The measured Re and Os concentration was used to create alloys with equivalent concentrations of Re and Os. These alloys were exposed to self-ion irradiation to a peak dose of 1.7 dpa at 800 °C. APT showed that self-ion irradiation leads to the formation of small Os clusters, wheras under neutron irradiation large Re/Os clusters form. Voids are formed by both ion and neutron irradiation, but the voids formed by neutron irradiation are larger. By comparing the behaviour of W-1.4Re and W-1.4Re-0.1Os, suppression of Re cluster formation was observed. Irradiation hardening was measured using nanoindentation and was found to be 2.7 GPa, after neutron irradiation and 1.6 GPa and 0.6 GPa for the self-ion irradiated W-1.4Re and W-1.4Re-0.1Os. The higher hardening is attributed to the barrier strength of large voids and Re/Os clusters that are observed after neutron irradiation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Data-driven method to estimate contamination from light ion beam transmutation at colliders

Collisions of relativistic light ions, such as oxygen, neon, and magnesium, have been proposed as a way to examine the system-size dependence of dynamics typically associated with the quark-gluon plasma produced in collisions of heavier ions such as xenon, gold, or lead. Recent efforts at both the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have produced large datasets of proton-oxygen, oxygen-oxygen, and neon-neon collisions, catalyzing intense interest in experimental backgrounds associated with light-ion collisions. In particular, electromagnetic dissociation of light ions while they are circulating in a collider can result in beam contamination that is difficult to simulate precisely. Here we propose a data-driven method for evaluating the potential impact of beam contaminants on physics analyses. The method exploits the time dependence and smaller size of contaminant ion species to define control regions that can be used to quantify potential contamination effects. A simple model is used to illustrate the method and to study its robustness. Furthermore, this method can inform studies of recent LHC and RHIC data and could also be useful for future light-ion programs at the LHC and beyond.

Beam loss↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantum Spin Torque Driven Transmutation of an Antiferromagnetic Mott Insulator

The basic model of spin-transfer torque (STT) in antiferromagnetic spintronics considers the exchange of angular momentum between quantum spins of flowing electrons and noncollinear-to-them localized spins treated as classical vectors. These vectors are assumed to realize Néel order in equilibrium, ↑ ↓ ∙∙∙ ↑ ↓, and their STT-driven dynamics is described by the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation. However, many experimentally employed materials (such as archetypal NiO) are strongly electron-correlated antiferromagnetic Mott insulators (AFMIs) whose localized spins form a ground state quite different from the unentangled Néel state | ↑ ↓ ∙∙∙ ↑ ↓$\rangle$. The true ground state is entangled by quantum spin fluctuations, leading to the expectation value of all localized spins being zero, so that LLG dynamics of classical vectors of fixed length rotating due to STT cannot even be initiated. Instead, a fully quantum treatment of both conduction electrons and localized spins is necessary to capture the exchange of spin angular momentum between them, denoted as quantum STT. We use a recently developed time-dependent density matrix renormalization group approach to quantum STT to predict how injection of a spin-polarized current pulse into a normal metal layer coupled to an AFMI overlayer via exchange interaction and possibly small interlayer hopping—mimicking, e.g., topological-insulator/NiO bilayer employed experimentally—will induce a nonzero expectation value of AFMI localized spins. This new nonequilibrium phase is a spatially inhomogeneous ferromagnet with a zigzag profile of localized spins. The total spin absorbed by AFMI increases with electron-electron repulsion in AFMIs, as well as when the two layers do not exchange any charge.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Novel Synthetic Monoketone Transmute Radiation-Triggered NFκB-Dependent TNFα Cross-Signaling Feedback Maintained NFκB and Favors Neuroblastoma Regression

In United States, each year 650 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma (NB) [1], an embryonal malignancy of sympathetic nervous system that is remarkable for its clinical heterogeneity [2]. Patients with the invasive/metastatic high-risk stage-IV NB showed refraction with all conventional therapeutic modalities and is associated with dismal prognosis [3]. High recurrence rate (20.2%) entailing substantial fractions of both local (17%-74% of patients) [4–8] and distant metastasis (46.8%) present considerable challenges for the clinical management of NB. With only 13 months since first diagnosis to recurrence, the survival ratio was 43% for local and 10% for systemic recurrences. Clinical and laboratory evidence suggests that several human cancers contain populations of rapidly proliferating clonogens that can have substantial impact on local control following chemoradiotherapy [9]. Tumor cell repopulation may arise from remnant cells of the original neoplasm that have escaped therapeutic intervention and later become visible at the original site. Radiotherapy (RT), now widely used for high-risk NB patients after chemotherapy, significantly improved the survival rate [10]. Patients, however, have been confronted with relapse and developed drug/radiation resistance, possibly through favoring alternative pathways. Therapeutic doses of radiation (IR) has been shown to activate various transcription factors including NFκB [11] and studies have suggested their influential role in tumorigenesis and progression [12]. Recently, we demonstrated the radiation triggered NFκB initiates TNFα cross signaling dependent maintenance of NFκB that in turn promotes survival advantage in both in vitro and in vivo NB models [13]. To that end, identifying ‘drug-deliverables’ that selectively disrupt IR-induced NFκB-TNFα feedback signaling and impedes NFκB maintenance could deter NFκB-dependent survival advantage and potentiate RT in NB cure.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

LWR First Recycle of TRU with Thorium Oxide for Transmutation and Cross Sections

Thorium has been considered as an option to uranium-based fuel, based on considerations of resource utilization (thorium is approximately three times more plentiful than uranium) and as a result of concerns about proliferation and waste management (e.g. reduced production of plutonium, etc.). Since the average composition of natural Thorium is dominated (100%) by the fertile isotope Th-232, Thorium is only useful as a resource for breeding new fissile materials, in this case U-233. Consequently a certain amount of fissile material must be present at the start-up of the reactor in order to guarantee its operation. The thorium fuel can be used in both once-through and recycle options, and in both fast and thermal spectrum systems. The present study has been aimed by the necessity of investigating the option of using reprocessed plutonium/TRU, from a once-through reference LEU scenario (50 GWd/ tIHM), mixed with natural thorium and the need of collect data (mass fractions, cross-sections etc.) for this particular fuel cycle scenario. As previously pointed out, the fissile plutonium is needed to guarantee the operation of the reactor.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2013

LWR First Recycle of TRU with Thorium Oxide for Transmutation and Cross Sections

Thorium has been considered as an option to uranium-based fuel, based on considerations of resource utilization (thorium is approximately three times more plentiful than uranium) and as a result of concerns about proliferation and waste management (e.g. reduced production of plutonium, etc.). Since the average composition of natural Thorium is dominated (100%) by the fertile isotope Th-232, Thorium is only useful as a resource for breeding new fissile materials, in this case U-233. Consequently a certain amount of fissile material must be present at the start-up of the reactor in order to guarantee its operation. The thorium fuel can be used in both once-through and recycle options, and in both fast and thermal spectrum systems. The present study has been aimed by the necessity of investigating the option of using reprocessed plutonium/TRU, from a once-through reference LEU scenario (50 GWd/ tIHM), mixed with natural thorium and the need of collect data (mass fractions, cross-sections etc.) for this particular fuel cycle scenario. As previously pointed out, the fissile plutonium is needed to guarantee the operation of the reactor.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

A data-driven method to estimate contamination from light ion beam transmutation at colliders

Collisions of relativistic light ions such as oxygen, neon, and magnesium, have been proposed as a way to examine the system-size dependence of dynamics typically associated with the quark-gluon plasma produced in collisions of heavier ions such as xenon, gold, or lead. Recent efforts at both the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have produced large datasets of proton-oxygen, oxygen-oxygen, and neon-neon collisions, catalyzing intense interest in experimental backgrounds associated with light ion collisions. In particular, electromagnetic dissociation of light ions while they are circulating in a collider can result in beam contamination that is difficult to simulate precisely. Here we propose a data-driven method for evaluating the potential impact of beam contaminants on physics analyses. The method exploits the time-dependence and smaller size of contaminant ion species to define control regions that can be used to quantify potential contamination effects. A simple mode

Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph)↗
NASA NTRS2020

Transmutations Observed from Pressure Cycling Palladium Silver Metals with Deuterium Gas

Hydrogen, deuterium, and helium gases were separately cycled through a Johnson-Mattheypurifier containing coiled palladium silver alloy tubing: Pd25Ag (75 wt% Pd and 25 wt% Ag).During the cycling of D2 gas, evidence of anomalous heat production was observed. However,during the cycling of H2 and He,very little (H2) or no (He) unusual heat events were observed.After cycling the D2 gas through the coiled tubing for several months, Pd25Ag samples showedan increase in Cu and Fe compared with the amounts in unexposed Pd25Ag. Chromium,manganese, and zinc were detected in gas-cycled Pd25Ag samples, whereas they were notdetected in unexposed Pd25Ag samples. In particular, Zn was present in the gas-cycled Pd25Agmaterial in larger quantities than either Cr or Mn. Although a small amount of Cu was present inthe Pd25Ag coil before the D2 gas cycling, 7 times more was present after the cycling. Multiplematerial characterization techniques were used to obtain both pre-test and post-test elementalcomposition. The results indicate that novel post-test elements, primarily on the surface, werecreated by unknown nuclear mechanisms at low energy.

Gustave C Fralick↗