Modeling of the performance of weapons MOX fuel in light water reactors

Both the Russian Federation and the US are pursing mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel in light water reactors (LWRs) for the disposition of excess plutonium from disassembled nuclear warheads. Fuel performance models are used which describe the behavior of MOX fuel during irradiation under typical power reactor conditions. The objective of this project is to perform the analysis of the thermal, mechanical, and chemical behavior of weapons MOX fuel pins under LWR conditions. If fuel performance analysis indicates potential questions, it then becomes imperative to assess the fuel pin design and the proposed operating strategies to reduce the probability of clad failure and the associated release of radioactive fission products into the primary coolant system. Applying the updated code to anticipated fuel and reactor designs, which would be used for weapons MOX fuel in the US, and analyzing the performance of the WWER-100 fuel for Russian weapons plutonium disposition are addressed in this report. The COMETHE code was found to do an excellent job in predicting fuel central temperatures. Also, despite minor predicted differences in thermo-mechanical behavior of MOX and UO{sub 2} fuels, the preliminary estimate indicated that, during normal reactor operations, these deviations remained within limits foreseen by fuel pin design

Diversity and toxicity of Pseudo-nitzschia species in Monterey Bay : perspectives from targeted and adaptive sampling

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2018. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Harmful Algae 78 (2018): 129-141, doi:10.1016/j.hal.2018.08.006.Monterey Bay, California experiences near-annual blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia that can affect marine animal health and the economy, including impacts to tourism and commercial/recreational fisheries. One species in particular, P. australis, has been implicated in the most toxic of events, however other species within the genus can contribute to widespread variability in community structure and associated toxicity across years. Current monitoring methods are limited in their spatial coverage as well as their ability to capture the full suite of species present, thereby hindering understanding of HAB events and limiting predictive accuracy. An integrated deployment of multiple in situ platforms, some with autonomous adaptive sampling capabilities, occurred during two divergent bloom years in the bay, and uncovered detailed aspects of population and toxicity dynamics. A bloom in 2013 was characterized by spatial differences in Pseudo39 nitzschia populations, with the low-toxin producer P. fraudulenta dominating the inshore community and toxic P. australis dominating the offshore community. An exceptionally toxic bloom in 2015 developed as a diverse Pseudo-nitzschia community abruptly transitioned into a bloom of highly toxic P. australis within the time frame of a week. Increases in cell density and proliferation coincided with strong upwelling of nutrients. High toxicity was driven by silicate limitation of the dense bloom. This temporal shift in species composition mirrored the shift observed further north in the California Current System off Oregon and Washington. The broad scope of sampling and unique platform capabilities employed during these studies revealed important patterns in bloom formation and persistence for Pseudo-nitzschia. Results underscore the benefit of expanded biological observing capabilities and targeted sampling methods to capture more comprehensive spatial and temporal scales for studying and predicting future events.This work was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NA11NOS4780055, NA11NOS4780056, NA11NOS4780030) and a fellowship to H. Bowers from the Packard Foundation

Electronic structures and photophysics of d(8)-d(8) complexes

This work was supported by the NSF CCI Solar Fuels Program (CHE-1305124), the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic - grant LH13015, and the COST Action CM1405

La Maleta

This was one of the first interesting things I saw during my times abroad. In Pamplona we came across a street in which every house had a differently decorated suitcase hanging outside its window. One looked like an old boom box, another had handlebars and wheels as if it was a bicycle, and others had stories written on them. This one was simple but stunning nonetheless with the intense red interior set against the calm white exterior.https://crossworks.holycross.edu/study_abroad_photos/1014/thumbnail.jp