Mhd r&d activities for liquid metal blankets

According to the most recently revised European design strategy for DEMO breeding blankets, mature concepts have been identified that require a reduced technological extrapolation towards DEMO and will be tested in ITER. In order to optimize and finalize the design of test blanket modules, a number of issues have to be better understood that are related to the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) interactions of the liquid breeder with the strong magnetic field that confines the fusion plasma. The aim of the present paper is to describe the state of the art of the study of MHD effects coupled with other physical phenomena, such as tritium transport, corrosion and heat transfer. Both numerical and experimental approaches are discussed, as well as future requirements to achieve a reliable prediction of these processes in liquid metal blankets

Diversification of Asaphellus Callaway, 1877 (Asaphidae: Trilobita) during the Tremadocian in South West Gondwana (Cordillera Oriental, Argentina)

Asaphellus Callaway, 1877 is the earliest widespread genus of the family Asaphidae Burmeister, 1843, and although its systematics bears several problematic issues, an input to overcome these difficulties has been attempted. Our main focus is a group of strongly effaced Asaphellus species from the Cordillera Oriental (NW Argentina), including new material from the Santa Rosita Formation (Furongian- Tremadocian), mainly belonging to Alfarcito and Rupasca members (Quebrada del Arenal, Perchel, Jujuy Province). Asaphellus is reconsidered herein in order to restrict some features and discuss others not taken in account before. Moreover, several problematic Argentinean species are revised. The poorly known, but extensively cited, A. catamarcensis Kobayashi, 1935 is assessed here upon the type series in order to clarify its taxonomy and previous assignments. A reappraisal of A. stenorhachis (Harrington, 1938), another enduring problematic taxon, is proposed. Besides, A. isabelae n. sp., a unique species within the genus mainly due to its extreme effacement is defined herein. Other species left in open nomenclature are also described. Regarding local random occurrences in the Furongian, the genus radiated locally from the early Tremadocian (Tr1) onwards, however, taxonomic diversification was not mirrored by the abundance of Asaphellus in local communities. From the middle Tremadocian (Tr2) this diversification is associated with an increase in abundance, and even dominance of the taxon in numerous assemblages, further expanding its environmental range into shallower settings. The increase of Asaphellus diversity (Tr1- early Tr2) is decoupled from the records of local increase in Asaphidae diversity since the late Tremadocian (Tr3) and Floian, underscoring the complex pattern of diversification at different taxonomic levels.Fil: Meroi Arcerito, Facundo René. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Waisfeld, Beatriz Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Balseiro, Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; Argentin

The Furongian break-up (rift/drift) unconformity in the central Anti-Atlas, Morocco

This paper presents a stratigraphic, sedimentological and palaeontological study of the Cambrian–Ordovician transition in the central Anti-Atlas in order to characterize the rift-drift transition of the Cambrian Atlas Rift. The event stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Cambrian–Ordovician transition in the central Anti-Atlas, and the endemic character of the latest shelly faunas from the Cambrian Atlas Rift have been reviewed, the latter by sampling the Bailiella Formation and the base of the Jbel Lmgaysmat Formation. In the vicinity of Foum Zguid, central Anti-Atlas, several unconformities (joined laterally into one single angular discordance or paraconformity) can be recognized across the Cambrian–Ordovician transition: (i) a ravinement surface capped by lenses of polymictic conglomerates marking the top of the Azlag Formation and reflecting reworking of the substrate under sharp transgressive conditions; (ii) a skeletal calcareous siltstone bed at the base of the Jbel Lmgaysmat Formation preserving surficial silicification (silcretization related to broad uplift, denudation and weathering of an exposed landscape dominated by silica-rich rocks), postdated by fissuring associated with hydrothermal mineralization of Fe (Ba-Mn-Pb) ore deposits, linked to the opening of the so-called El Graara graben; (iii) generalized uplift and denudation, followed by sedimentation of alluvial-to-fluvial and proximal coastal-plain deposits (lower member of the Lower Fezouata Formation); and (iv) a final drowning and shaly blanketing of the inherited palaeorelief by the upper member of the same formation, which marks the beginning of passive-margin conditions. The Bailiella Formation has yielded the trilobite species Planolimbus hessikouanus, Maladioidella? destombesi n.sp. and Bailiella sepulcra n.sp., and the Jbel Lmgaysmat Formation Bailiaspis? glabrata, which point to biogeographic connections with the neighbouring Avalonian and west-European margins of Northwest Gondwana and Baltica.Financial support for this work was provided by project CGL2017-87631-P from Spanish MINECO.Peer reviewe