1,765 research outputs found
A model study of a homogeneous light-water thorium reactor
This work presents a computational study of a 232 Th -based homogeneous light-water reactor. Thorium reactors have been proposed as an alternative to the uranium fuel cycle since they exploit both the availability of thorium and its ability to afford fissile uranium isotopes by a sequence of neutron captures. Besides 233 U , as a result of the neutron captures, a significant amount of 234 U (36.3%) and 6.46% of 235 U are formed in the reactor under study. More importantly, the proposed simulation points out the possibility of a continuous withdrawal of the uranium isotopes without compromising the criticality and the power output of the reactor. This withdrawal affords the fissile material for the startup of reactors other than the first one, which requires a one-time only limited amount of fissile material. The significant molar fraction of the 234 U (0.17) in the extracted fuel does not pose a limitation on weapon proliferation, as a consequence of its high fission cross section for high-energy neutrons
On the chemical diversity of the prebiotic ocean of early Earth
AbstractThis work investigates the consequences on the diverse number of chemical species in a pre-biotic terrestrial aqueous environment endowed with an amino acid source induced by the spontaneous build-up of catalytically active polypeptides from amino acid monomers. The assumed probability that a randomly formed polypeptide exhibits catalytic properties is dependent on constraining both the chemical identity and the position of a fraction of the amino acid residues. Within this hypothesis, and using values of the average length n of the catalytic polypeptides about one half of the present-day enzymes, the stationary-state concentration of the catalytically active polypeptides is ≈10−30 −10−19 M, and the ratio of the concentration of a product of a catalytic process to the initial concentration of the corresponding substrate is predicted to be ≈10−6−105. Matching the mean life of each catalytic polypeptide to the mean life of its substrate (λ ≈ ω) is only possible by significantly raising the intensity of the source of the amino acid monomers. Under these hypothetical optimal conditions, the mean lives of the catalytic polypeptides and their substrates have values ω−1 ≈ λ−1 ≈10 yr and the asymptotic concentration of each product is of the same order of magnitude as the concentration of the substrate. In all cases the catalytic efficiency necessary to form the active peptides takes the typical values of present-day enzymes.</jats:p
On the Physical and Evolutionary Limits to the Rates of Enzyme-Catalyzed Reactions
An existing model for the rate coefficients of enzyme-catalyzed processes involves the regularized gamma function of Euler replacing the exponential dependence of the rate coefficient from the reaction barrier. The application of this model to experimental data, on one hand, validates the model by correctly describing the negative curvature of Eyring plots. On the other hand, this analysis evidences that enzymes never reach the maximum theoretical efficiency, a counterintuitive fact that requires an explanation. This work interprets this evolutionary limit in terms of the necessity of living systems to achieve and maintain homeostasis. Further validation of the expression for the rate coefficients comes from the analysis of the discrepancy between the theoretically predicted energy difference between reactants and products in a chemical equilibrium and the corresponding value obtained by regression to the classical expression for the equilibrium constant. The discrepancy is resolved by making use of the proposed model
A MODEL STUDY ON THE ABSORBED DOSE OF RADIATION FOLLOWING RESPIRATORY INTAKE OF 238U3O8 AEROSOLS
The role of autocatalysis on the chemical diversity of the prebiotic ocean of early Earth
AbstractThe spontaneous formation of catalytic polypeptides of various lengths in a primordial ocean endowed with a source of amino acids from micrometeorites was investigated and found to be sufficient to induce the transformation of potential substrates under the assumption of a high propensity of the environment to catalyse the formation of the peptide bond. This work aims to include in this picture the effect of autocatalysis, i.e. the ability of a polypeptide with a specific length to promote the formation of the peptide bond. Once the formation of an autocatalytic species is attained, the concentrations of the polypeptides, substrates and products of reaction exhibit a time-dependent rate of formation and undergo a catastrophic change. While in the absence of autocatalysis the concentrations of polypeptides are stationary and the formation of reaction products is limited by the proper frequency λ, autocatalysis induces a steady growth of the concentrations of polypeptides and a 100 − 105-fold increase of reaction products at t = ω−1<0.46 Gyr, with a subsequent linear growth in time according to the law u/z0 = 1+s(ω−1+t)/z0, provided the autocatalytic species be active with length fewer than 70 amino acid units. A relationship was found between the catalytic ability of the environment (expressed by the ratio η/ηh of the rate coefficient for peptide bond formation to the corresponding rate coefficient for hydrolysis) and the time of the sharp increase of the concentration of both the polypeptides and their products of transformation. Although the formation of autocatalytic polypeptides is able to rapidly induce a sharp increase in the concentration of both polypeptides and their products of transformation, the crucial formation of the first autocatalytic polypeptides relies on the ability of the environment to promote the formation of the peptide bond. The value of the ratio η/ηh, constrained by the available time for chemical evolution to values bordering the catalytic activity of present-day enzymes, suggests that the correlation between the presence of water and the formation of a complex chemistry should be taken with caution.</jats:p
A Model Study on the Dynamics of the Amino Acid Content in Micrometeoroids during Atmospheric Entry
A model for the survival of the amino acid content in micrometeorites and its possible transformations upon atmospheric entry is described. Since any organic species released in the atmosphere at high altitudes would exhibit a limited lifetime with respect to the typical timescale for atmospheric mixing (due to the substantial radiation field of the early Sun), only the organic content inside the meteorites could have contributed to prebiotic chemistry. It is thus important to determine both the amino acid loss from meteorites, due to both degassing and chemical degradation, and the extent of the chemical transformation of amino acids subjected to the increased temperature due to friction with the atmosphere. According to the interplay between the potential energy barrier and the pre-exponential factor in rate coefficients, either diffusion or chemical processing might be the dominant process following the rising temperature upon atmospheric entry. The possibility of the elimination of water from glycine to form aminoketene, or CO2 to form methylamine, ultimately driven by gravitational energy, was examined along with the more conventional formation of a peptide bond between two glycine units to afford Gly–Gly. While retention, degassing, and decarboxylation are the fastest processes, each dominating in different ranges of the initial velocity and radius, the formation of either Gly–Gly from bimolecular water elimination or aminoketene from unimolecular water elimination appears to be negligible
The dynamics of the detection of 226Ra in water by scintillation counting in nonequilibrium conditions
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