The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is in the process of modernizing the various reactor physics modeling and simulation tools used to support operation and safety assurance of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). Key accomplishments so far have encompassed both computational as well as experimental work. A new suite of stochastic and deterministic transport theory based reactor physics codes and their supporting nuclear data libraries (HELIOS, KENO6/SCALE, NEWT/SCALE, ATTILA, and an extended implementation of MCNP5) has been installed at the INL. Corresponding models of the ATR and ATRC are now operational with all five codes, demonstrating the basic feasibility of the new code packages for their intended purpose. Of particular importance, a set of as-run core depletion HELIOS calculations for all ATR cycles since August 2009 was successfully completed during 2011. This demonstration supported a decision late in the year to proceed with the phased incorporation of the HELIOS methodology into the ATR fuel cycle management process beginning in 2012. On the experimental side of the project, new hardware was fabricated, measurement protocols were finalized, and the first four of six planned physics code validation experiments based on neutron activation spectrometry were conducted at the ATRC facility. Data analysis for the …

The goal of the Coherent Electron Cooling Proof-of-Principle (CeC PoP) experiment being designed at RHIC is to demonstrate longitudinal (energy spread) cooling before the expected CD-2 for eRHIC. The scope of the experiment is to longitudinally cool a single bunch of 40 GeV/u gold ions in RHIC. This paper will describe the instrumentation systems proposed to meet the diagnostics challenges. These include measurements of beam intensity, emittance, energy spread, bunch length, position, orbit stability, and transverse and temporal alignment of electron and ion beams.

Conclusions of this presentation are: (1) JLab energy upgrade will offer new exciting opportunities to study the nucleon (spin) structure such as high precision, unexplored phase space, flavor decomposition; (2) Large technological efforts is in progress to optimally exploit these opportunities; (3) HallA will be the first hall to get the new beam, first experiment expected to run in 2014; (4) A1n likely one of the first experiments to take data in the new 12 GeV era; and (5) SIDIS exp. will follow in couple of years.

This presentation provides a brief summary of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, discussion on map uses and production, early phase maps, intermediate phase maps, and late phase maps.

Harmonic compensated synchronous detection (HCSD) is a technique that can be used to measure wideband impedance spectra within seconds based on an input sum-of-sines signal having a frequency spread separated by harmonics. The battery (or other energy storage device) is excited with a sum-of-sines current signal that has a duration of at least one period of the lowest frequency. The voltage response is then captured and synchronously detected at each frequency of interest to determine the impedance spectra. This technique was successfully simulated using a simplified battery model and then verified with commercially available Sanyo lithium-ion cells. Simulations revealed the presence of a start-up transient effect when only one period of the lowest frequency is included in the excitation signal. This transient effect appears to only influence the low-frequency impedance measurements and can be reduced when a longer input signal is used. Furthermore, lithium-ion cell testing has indicated that the transient effect does not seem to impact the charge transfer resistance in the mid-frequency region. The degradation rates for the charge transfer resistance measured from the HCSD technique were very similar to the changes observed from standardized impedance spectroscopy methods. Results from these studies, therefore, indicate that HCSD is a …

Detection and identification of gas species using tunable laser diode laser absorption spectroscopy has been performed using vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL). Two detection methods are compared: direct absorbance and wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS). In the first, the output of a DC-based laser is directly monitored to detect for any quench at the targeted specie wavelength. In the latter, the emission wavelength of the laser is modulated by applying a sinusoidal component on the drive current of frequency {omega}, and measuring the harmonics component (2{omega}) of the photo-detected current. This method shows a better sensitivity measured as signal to noise ratio, and is less susceptible to interference effects such as scattering or fouling. Gas detection was initially performed at room temperature and atmospheric conditions using VCSELs of emission wavelength 763 nm for oxygen and 1392 nm for water, scanning over a range of approximately 10 nm, sufficient to cover 5-10 gas specific absorption lines that enable identification and quantization of gas composition. The amplitude and frequency modulation parameters were optimized for each detected gas species, by performing two dimensional sweeps for both tuning current and either amplitude or frequency, respectively. We found that the highest detected signal is observed …

Precision computation of hadronic physics with lattice QCD is becoming feasible. The last decade has seen precent-level calculations of many simple properties of mesons, and the last few years have seen calculations of baryon masses, including the nucleon mass, accurate to a few percent. As computational power increases and algorithms advance, the precise calculation of a variety of more demanding hadronic properties will become realistic. With this in mind, I discuss the current lattice QCD calculations of generalized parton distributions with an emphasis on the prospects for well-controlled calculations for these observables as well. I will do this by way of several examples: the pion and nucleon form factors and moments of the nucleon parton and generalized-parton distributions.

We developed a high bandwidth differential amplifier for gas gun shock experiments/applications. The circuit has a bandwidth > 1 GHz, and is capable of measuring signals of ≤1.5 V with a common mode rejection of 250 V. Conductivity measurements of gas gun targets are measured by flowing high currents through the targets. The voltage is measured across the target using a technique similar to a four-point probe. Because of the design of the current source and load, the target voltage is approximately 250 V relative to ground. Since the expected voltage change in the target is < 1 V, the differential amplifier must have a large common mode rejection. High pass filters suppress internal ringing of operational amplifiers. Results of bench tests are shown.

The optimal performance of the two electron lenses that are being implemented for high intensity polarized proton operation of RHIC requires excellent collinearity of the {approx}0.3 mm RMS wide electron beams with the proton bunch trajectories over the {approx}2m interaction lengths. The main beam overlap diagnostic tool will make use of electrons backscattered in close encounters with the relativistic protons. These electrons will spiral along the electron guiding magnetic field and will be detected in a plastic scintillator located close to the electron gun. A fraction of these electrons will have energies high enough to emerge from the vacuum chamber through a thin window thus simplifying the design and operation of the detector. The intensity of the detected electrons provides a measure of the overlap between the e- and the opposing proton beams. Joint electron arrival time and energy discrimination may be used additionally to gain some longitudinal position information with a single detector per lens.

One of the primary aims of lattice QCD is to accurately compute the spectrum of hadronic excitations from first principles. However, obtaining an accurate resolution of excited states using methods of lattice QCD is not a trivial problem due to faster decay of excited-states correlation functions in Euclidean space in comparison to those of ground states. To overcome this difficulty, anisotropic lattices with a finer temporal discretization are used. To go beyond the spectrum, in order to study the properties of the states, one needs to compute corresponding matrix elements. Thus, for example, the quark distribution amplitudes in mesons are given by matrix elements of quark bilinear operators, while in baryons, the corresponding quark distribution amplitudes are related to matrix elements of three-quark operators. To relate the matrix elements calculated on the lattice to those in the continuum, and hence to relate to the measured experimentally, it is necessary to evaluate matching coefficients. In this work we describe the calculation of the matching coefficients using perturbation theory for the improved anisotropic-clover fermion action used for our studies of excited states.

We develop a model for describing excited mesons decay into three mesons. The properties of the excited mesons can be extracted with this model. The model maintains the three-body unitarity that has been missed in previous data analyses based on the conventional isobar models. We study an importance of the three-body unitarity in extracting hadron properties from data. For this purpose, we use the unitary and isobar models to analyze the same pseudo data of {gamma}p {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}n, and extract the properties of excited mesons. We find a significant difference between the unitary and isobar models in the extracted properties of excited mesons, such as the mass, width and coupling strength to decay channels. Hadron properties such as quantum numbers (spin, parity, etc.), mass and (partial) width have been long studied as a subject called hadron spectroscopy. The hadron properties provide important information for understanding internal structure of the hadron and dynamics which governs it. The dynamics here is of course QCD in its nonperturbative regime. The hadron properties can be extracted from data through a careful analysis, in many cases, partial wave analysis (PWA). Thus it is essential for hadron spectroscopy to have a reliable theoretical …

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Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is an ever-present challenge at laser facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The major source of EMI at such facilities is laser-target interaction that can generate intense electromagnetic fields within, and outside of, the laser target chamber. In addition, the diagnostics themselves can be a source of EMI, even interfering with themselves. In this paper we describe EMI generated by ARIANE and DIXI, present measurements, and discuss effects of the diagnostic-generated EMI on ARIANE's CCD and on a PMT nearby DIXI. Finally we present some of the efforts we have made to mitigate the effects of diagnostic-generated EMI on NIF diagnostics.

A generalized, computationally tractable fluid model for capturing the effects of neutral particles in plasmas is derived. The model derivation begins with Boltzmann equations for singly charged ions, electrons, and a single neutral species. Electron-impact ionization, radiative recombination, and resonant charge exchange reactions are included. Moments of the reaction collision terms are detailed. Moments of the Boltzmann equations for electron, ion, and neutral species are combined to yield a two-component plasma-neutral fluid model. Separate density, momentum, and energy equations, each including reaction transfer terms, are produced for the plasma and neutral equations. The required closures for the plasma-neutral model are discussed.

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Important aspects of fuel rod behavior, for example pellet-clad mechanical interaction (PCMI), fuel fracture, oxide formation, non-axisymmetric cooling, and response to fuel manufacturing defects, are inherently multidimensional in addition to being complicated multiphysics problems. Many current modeling tools are strictly 2D axisymmetric or even 1.5D. This paper outlines the capabilities of a new fuel modeling tool able to analyze either 2D axisymmetric or fully 3D models. These capabilities include temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of fuel; swelling and densification; fuel creep; pellet fracture; fission gas release; cladding creep; irradiation growth; and gap mechanics (contact and gap heat transfer). The need for multiphysics, multidimensional modeling is then demonstrated through a discussion of results for a set of example problems. The first, a 10-pellet rodlet, demonstrates the viability of the solution method employed. This example highlights the effect of our smeared cracking model and also shows the multidimensional nature of discrete fuel pellet modeling. The second example relies on our the multidimensional, multiphysics approach to analyze a missing pellet surface problem. As a final example, we show a lower-length-scale simulation coupled to a continuum-scale simulation.

The tri-isotropic (TRISO) fuel developed for High Temperature reactors is known for its extraordinary fission product retention capabilities [1]. Recently, the possibility of extending the use of TRISO particle fuel to Light Water Reactor (LWR) technology, and perhaps other reactor concepts, has received significant attention [2]. The Deep Burn project [3] currently focuses on once-through burning of transuranic fissile and fissionable isotopes (TRU) in LWRs. The fuel form for this purpose is called Fully-Ceramic Micro-encapsulated (FCM) fuel, a concept that borrows the TRISO fuel particle design from high temperature reactor technology, but uses SiC as a matrix material rather than graphite. In addition, FCM fuel may also use a cladding made of a variety of possible material, again including SiC as an admissible choice. The FCM fuel used in the Deep Burn (DB) project showed promising results in terms of fission product retention at high burnup values and during high-temperature transients. In the case of DB applications, the fuel loading within a TRISO particle is constituted entirely of fissile or fissionable isotopes. Consequently, the fuel was shown to be capable of achieving reasonable burnup levels and cycle lengths, especially in the case of mixed cores (with coexisting DB and regular …

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One of the goals of the Fermilab A0 photoinjector is to experimentally investigate the transverse to longitudinal emittance exchange (EEX) principle. Coherent synchrotron radiation in the emittance exchange line could limit the performance of the emittance exchanger at short bunch lengths. In this paper, we present experimental and simulation studies of the coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in the emittance exchange line at the A0 photoinjector. We report on time-resolved CSR studies using a skew-quadrupole technique. We also demonstrate the advantages of running the EEX with an energy chirped beam.

The Relativistic Heavy Ions Collider (RHIC) would benefit from improved beam position measurements near the interaction points that see both beams, especially as the tolerances become tighter when reducing the beam sizes to obtain increased luminosity. Two limitations of the present beam position monitors (BPMs) would be mitigated if the proposed approach is successful. The small but unavoidable cross-talk between signals from bunches traveling in opposite directions when using conventional BPMs will be reduced by adopting directional BPMs. Further improvements will be achieved by cancelling residual cross-talk using pairs of such BPMs. Appropriately delayed addition and integration of the signals will also provide pulses with relatively flat maxima that will be easier to digitize by relaxing the presently very stringent timing requirements.

The use of TRISO-particle-based dispersion fuel within SiC matrix and cladding materials has the potential to allow the design of extremely safe LWRs with failure-proof fuel. This paper examines the feasibility of LWR-like cycle length for such a low enriched uranium fuel with the imposed constraint of strictly retaining the original geometry of the fuel pins and assemblies. The motivation for retaining the original geometry is to provide the ability to incorporate the fuel 'as-is' into existing LWRs while retaining their thermal-hydraulic characteristics. The feasibility of using this fuel is assessed by looking at cycle lengths and fuel failure rates. Other considerations (e.g., safety parameters, etc.) were not considered at this stage of the study. The study includes the examination of different TRISO kernel diameters without changing the coating layer thicknesses. The study shows that a naive use of UO{sub 2} results in cycle lengths too short to be practical for existing LWR designs and operational demands. Increasing fissile inventory within the fuel compacts shows that acceptable cycle lengths can be achieved. In this study, starting with the recognized highest packing fraction practically achievable (44%), higher enrichment, larger fuel kernel sizes, and the use of higher density fuels have been …

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