Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in the Market for Corporate Control. Evidences and Rationalities of Acquisition in Western Countries

In this chapter, we propose an exploratory analysis of the Chinese acquisition of foreigner companies by state-owned enterprises during the last ten years (2008–2017). Cross-border merger and acquisition (M & A) carried out by Chinese companies have shown strong growth, and have gradually emerged as the dominant vehicle for Chinese outward investment. Our aim is to understand the main dynamics underling the phenomenon of Chinese state-owned enterprises acquisitions in advanced countries. For this purpose, in our analysis we target only mergers and acquisition of companies in western countries in the last ten years. Our data collection returned a sample of around 150 cases. We use both quantitative and qualitative data to get insights about the main patterns of acquisition, industry choice, and country location. Moreover, we try to fill the gap related to the understanding of the rationalities for such strategic-asset-seeking M & A. Our conclusion contributes to the literature on international M & A and supports the business-oriented strategy of state-owned enterprises in dealing with cross border acquisitions

Overview of the JET results

Since the installation of an ITER-like wall, the JET programme has focused on the consolidation of ITER design choices and the preparation for ITER operation, with a specific emphasis given to the bulk tungsten melt experiment, which has been crucial for the final decision on the material choice for the day-one tungsten divertor in ITER. Integrated scenarios have been progressed with the re-establishment of long-pulse, high-confinement H-modes by optimizing the magnetic configuration and the use of ICRH to avoid tungsten impurity accumulation. Stationary discharges with detached divertor conditions and small edge localized modes have been demonstrated by nitrogen seeding. The differences in confinement and pedestal behaviour before and after the ITER-like wall installation have been better characterized towards the development of high fusion yield scenarios in DT. Post-mortem analyses of the plasma-facing components have confirmed the previously reported low fuel retention obtained by gas balance and shown that the pattern of deposition within the divertor has changed significantly with respect to the JET carbon wall campaigns due to the absence of thermally activated chemical erosion of beryllium in contrast to carbon. Transport to remote areas is almost absent and two orders of magnitude less material is found in the divertor

Micro ion beam analysis for the erosion of beryllium marker tiles in a tokamak limiter

Beryllium limiter marker tiles were exposed to plasma in the Joint European Torus to diagnose the erosion of main chamber wall materials. A limiter marker tile consists of a beryllium coating layer (7-9 mu m) on the top of bulk beryllium, with a nickel interlayer (2-3 mu m) between them. The thickness variation of the beryllium coating layer, after exposure to plasma, could indicate the erosion measured by ion beam analysis with backscattering spectrometry. However, interpretations from broad beam backscattering spectra were limited by the non-uniform surface structures. Therefore, micro-ion beam analysis (mu-IBA) with 3 MeV proton beam for Elastic back scattering spectrometry (EBS) and PIXE was used to scan samples. The spot size was in the range of 3-10 mu m. Scanned areas were analysed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well. Combining results from mu-IBA and SEM, we obtained local spectra from carefully chosen areas on which the surface structures were relatively uniform. Local spectra suggested that the scanned area (approximate to 600 mu m x 1200 mu m) contained regions with serious erosion with only 2-3 mu m coating beryllium left, regions with intact marker tile, and droplets with 90% beryllium. The nonuniform erosion, droplets mainly formed by beryllium, and the possible mixture of beryllium and nickel were the major reasons that confused interpretation from broad beam EBS

Direct gyrokinetic comparison of pedestal transport in JET with carbon and ITER-like walls

This paper compares the gyrokinetic instabilities and transport in two representative JET pedestals, one (pulse 78697) from the JET configuration with a carbon wall (C) and another (pulse 92432) from after the installation of JET's ITER-like Wall (ILW). The discharges were selected for a comparison of JET-ILW and JET-C discharges with good confinement at high current (3 MA, corresponding also to low rho(*)) and retain the distinguishing features of JET-C and JET-ILW, notably, decreased pedestal top temperature for JET-ILW. A comparison of the profiles and heating power reveals a stark qualitative difference between the discharges: the JET-ILW pulse (92432) requires twice the heating power, at a gas rate of 1.9 x 10(22) e s(-1), to sustain roughly half the temperature gradient of the JET-C pulse (78697), operated at zero gas rate. This points to heat transport as a central component of the dynamics limiting the JET-ILW pedestal and reinforces the following emerging JET-ILW pedestal transport paradigm, which is proposed for further examination by both theory and experiment. ILW conditions modify the density pedestal in ways that decrease the normalized pedestal density gradient a/L-n, often via an outward shift in relation to the temperature pedestal. This is attributable to some combination of direct metal wall effects and the need for increased fueling to mitigate tungsten contamination. The modification to the density profile increases eta = L-n/L-T, thereby producing more robust ion temperature gradient (ITG) and electron temperature gradient driven instability. The decreased pedestal gradients for JET-ILW (92432) also result in a strongly reduced E x B shear rate, further enhancing the ion scale turbulence. Collectively, these effects limit the pedestal temperature and demand more heating power to achieve good pedestal performance. Our simulations, consistent with basic theoretical arguments, find higher ITG turbulence, stronger stiffness, and higher pedestal transport in the ILW plasma at lower rho(*)

Radial variation of heat transport in L-mode JET discharges

In this paper, we analyze heat transport in the JET tokamak using data from its high resolution ECE diagnostic and analyses based on the transfer entropy (TE). The analysis reveals that heat transport is not smooth and continuous, but is characterized by 'trapping regions' separated by `minor transport barriers'. Meat may 'jump over' these barriers and when the heating power is raised, this 'jumping' behavior becomes more prominent. To check that our results are relevant for global heat transport, we deduced an effective diffusion coefficient from the TE results. Both its value and overall radial variation are consistent with heat diffusivities reported in literature. The detailed radial structure of the effective diffusion coefficient was shown to be linked to the mentioned minor transport barriers

14 MeV calibration of JET neutron detectors-phase 1: Calibration and characterization of the neutron source

In view of the planned DT operations at JET, a calibration of the JET neutron monitors at 14 MeV neutron energy is needed using a 14 MeV neutron generator deployed inside the vacuum vessel by the JET remote handling system. The target accuracy of this calibration is 10% as also required by ITER, where a precise neutron yield measurement is important, e.g. for tritium accountancy. To achieve this accuracy, the 14 MeV neutron generator selected as the calibration source has been fully characterised and calibrated prior to the in-vessel calibration of the JET monitors. This paper describes the measurements performed using different types of neutron detectors, spectrometers, calibrated long counters and activation foils which allowed us to obtain the neutron emission rate and the anisotropy of the neutron generator, i.e.The neutron flux and energy spectrum dependence on emission angle, and to derive the absolute emission rate in 4π sr. The use of high resolution diamond spectrometers made it possible to resolve the complex features of the neutron energy spectra resulting from the mixed D/T beam ions reacting with the D/T nuclei present in the neutron generator target. As the neutron generator is not a stable neutron source, several monitoring detectors were attached to it by means of an ad hoc mechanical structure to continuously monitor the neutron emission rate during the in-vessel calibration. These monitoring detectors, two diamond diodes and activation foils, have been calibrated in terms of neutrons/counts within ± 5% total uncertainty. A neutron source routine has been developed, able to produce the neutron spectra resulting from all possible reactions occurring with the D/T ions in the beam impinging on the Ti D/T target. The neutron energy spectra calculated by combining the source routine with a MCNP model of the neutron generator have been validated by the measurements. These numerical tools will be key in analysing the results from the in-vessel calibration and to derive the response of the JET neutron detectors to DT plasma neutrons starting from the response to the generator neutrons, and taking into account all the calibration circumstances

Investigation of deuterium trapping and release in the JET divertor during the third ILW campaign using TDS

Selected set of samples from JET ITER-Like Wall (JET-ILW) divertor tiles exposed in 2015-2016 has been analysed using Thermal Desorption Spectrometry (TDS). The deuterium (D) amounts obtained with TDS were compared with Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA). The highest amount of D was found on the top part of inner divertor which has regions with the thickest deposited layers as for divertor tiles removed in 2014. This area resides deep in the scrape-off layer and plasma configurations for the second (ILW-2, 2013-2014) and the third (ILW-3, 2015-2016) JET-ILW campaigns were similar. Agreement between TDS and NRA is good on the apron of Tile 1 and on the upper vertical region whereas on the lower vertical region of Tile 1 the NRA results are clearly smaller than the TDS results. Inner divertor Tile 3 has somewhat less D than Tiles 0 and 1, and the D amount decreases towards the lower part of the tile. The D retention at the divertor inner and outer corner regions is not symmetric as there is more D retention poloidally at the inner than at the outer divertor corner. In most cases the TDS spectra for the ILW-3 samples are different from the corresponding ILW-2 spectra because HD and D-2 release occurs at higher temperatures than from the ILW-2 samples indicating that the low energy traps have been emptied during the plasma operations and that D is either in the energetically deep traps or located deeper in the sample

Long-lived coupled peeling ballooning modes preceding ELMs on JET

In some JET discharges, type-I edge localised modes (ELMs) are preceded by a class of low-frequency oscillations (Perez et al 2004 Nucl. Fusion 44 609). While in many cases the ELM is triggered during the growth phase of this oscillation, it is also observed that this type of oscillation can saturate and last for several tens of ms until an ELM occurs. In order to identify the nature of these modes, a wide pre-ELM oscillation database, including detailed pedestal profile information, has been assembled and analysed in terms of MHD stability parameters. The existence domain of these pre-ELM oscillations and the statistical distribution of toroidal mode numbers (n) up to n = 16 have been mapped in ballooning alpha (alpha(ball)) and either edge current density (J(edge)) or pedestal collisionality (nu(ee,ped)*) coordinates and compared to linear MHD stability predictions. The pre-ELM oscillations are reliably observed when the J/alpha ratio is high enough for the pedestal to access the coupled peeling-ballooning (PB) domain (aka stability nose). Conversely, when the pedestal is found to be in or near the high-n ballooning domain (which is at low J/alpha ratio), ELMs are usually triggered promptly, i.e. with no detectable pre-ELM oscillations, or with pre-ELM oscillations only observable on ECE whose n appears to be too high to be resolved by the magnetics. Individual discharges can sometimes exhibit a fairly wide range of pre-ELM mode numbers, but for a wider database, the statistical n-number domains are found to be well ordered along the J - alpha stability boundary and behave as expected from PB theory: the higher the J/alpha ratio, the lower the mode's measured n tends to be. Within the measurement uncertainties, the measured n is usually found to be compatible with the most unstable n predicted by the linear stability code MISHKA1. These results confirm the earlier hypothesis that these modes are coupled peeling-ballooning modes, and extend and generalise to higher-mode numbers the work by Huysmans et al (1998 Nucl. Fusion 38 179), who identified the lowest n modes as pure external kink modes. Since the destabilisation of PB modes is widely accepted to give rise to ELMs, the mode saturation and delayed ELM triggering that is sometimes observed is rather unexpected. Possibilities to reconcile the extended lifetime of these modes with current ELM models are briefly discussed, but will require further investigation