Conceptual design of the EU-DEMO dual coolant lithium lead equatorial module

© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Within the framework of EUROfusion Program, the Dual Coolant Lithium Lead (DCLL) is one of the four EU breeder blanket concepts that are being investigated as candidates for DEMO. DCLL uses PbLi as the main coolant, tritium breeder, tritium carrier, and neutron multiplier. The main structures, including the first wall, are cooled with helium. The EU program proposed for the next years will consider a DCLL version limited to 550 °C in order to allow the use of conventional materials and technologies. During the first year of EUROfusion activities, a draft design of the DCLL has been proposed. The main blanket performances were adapted to the new specifications and the CAD model of DEMO. The breeder zone has been toroidally divided into four parallel PbLi circuits, separated through stiffening grid radial walls. The PbLi flow routing has been designed to maximize the amount of thermal power extracted by flowing PbLi and to avoid the occurrence of reverse flows due to volumetric heating. Thermal hydraulics, magnetohydrodynamic and neutronics calculations have been performed for the first draft design. The new DCLL design employs Eurofer-alumina-Eurofer sandwich as flow channel insert (FCI).Postprint (published version

The GALATEA Test-Facility for High Purity Germanium Detectors

GALATEA is a test facility designed to investigate bulk and surface effects in high purity germanium detectors. A vacuum tank houses an infrared screened volume with a cooled detector inside. A system of three stages allows an almost complete scan of the detector. The main feature of GALATEA is that there is no material between source and detector. This allows the usage of alpha and beta sources as well as of a laser beam to study surface effects. A 19-fold segmented true-coaxial germanium detector was used for commissioning

Automatic Fracture Characterization Using Tactile and Proximity Optical Sensing

This paper demonstrates how tactile and proximity sensing can be used to perform automatic mechanical fractures detection (surface cracks). For this purpose, a custom-designed integrated tactile and proximity sensor has been implemented. With the help of fiber optics, the sensor measures the deformation of its body, when interacting with the physical environment, and the distance to the environment's objects. This sensor slides across different surfaces and records data which are then analyzed to detect and classify fractures and other mechanical features. The proposed method implements machine learning techniques (handcrafted features, and state of the art classification algorithms). An average crack detection accuracy of ~94% and width classification accuracy of ~80% is achieved. Kruskal-Wallis results (p < 0.001) indicate statistically significant differences among results obtained when analysing only integrated deformation measurements, only proximity measurements and both deformation and proximity data. A real-time classification method has been implemented for online classification of explored surfaces. In contrast to previous techniques, which mainly rely on visual modality, the proposed approach based on optical fibers might be more suitable for operation in extreme environments (such as nuclear facilities) where radiation may damage electronic components of commonly employed sensing devices, such as standard force sensors based on strain gauges and video cameras

The use of cytochrome P450 inhibitors in sport. A new generation of doping masking agents?

The activity of the CYP450 enzymes responsible for the phase I metabolism of most of the compounds included in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substances and methods could be strongly modified by the combined administration of other drugs such as, for example, the antidepressant, the antifungal and the H2 receptor antagonist agents. These compounds act as inhibitors of the CYP450 isoforms and it has been demonstrated that their co-administration with a drug that is also a CYP450 substrate may lead to a substantial alteration of the latter drug bioavailability, metabolism and excretion kinetics. In sports some classes of non-banned drugs, and primarily among them antidepressants, antifungals and the H2 receptor antagonists are extensively used, according to the information available on the doping control forms. Athletes may intentionally combine the CYP450 inhibitors with doping agents to modify in urine the time window of detection of the selected marker(s) of drug abuse, especially in those cases where the parent drugs are extensively metabolized

Seismic resilience of road bridges: lessons learned from the 14 November 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake

ABSTRACT: The 14th of November 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake sequence has highly affected the transport infrastructure in New Zealand. From the perspective of life-safety, the overall bridge performance was satisfactory; however, based on the observed undesirable sub-system performance of the damaged bridges, further investigation into possible improvements of the current design philosophy was warranted. This paper describes the structural performance of the most severely damaged bridges during the Kaikōura Earthquake. The study is based on observations made during site inspections, on subsequent computational analyses performed and on a functionality database collected during the period following the event. The paper also introduces resilience indicators as a tool to predict the lifecycle performance and functionality of bridges. Finally, conclusions on the resilience and functionality of the bridges in the aftermath of the earthquake are raised, highlighting the main performance issues and suggesting strategies and technologies to enhance their seismic resilience during future events

Precise reply and clarifications on behalf of Sicilian Public Health Authorities to the case report published by La Rosa and collegues

As a results of the case report “Post-rotavirus vaccine intussusception in identical twins: a case report” recently published on Human Vaccines & Immunotherapy by La Rosa et al., the principal Sicilian Public Health Authorities decided to specify several points and underline some important details omitted by the authors. In particular, aims to underline the remarkable benefit for Sicilian Regional Health service after the introduction of the rotavirus vaccination. Universal mass vaccination against rotavirus is properly managed by the Regional Health Authorities and is contributing to a consistent increase of public health in the Sicilian pediatric population; any modification of such a program should be based on robust scientific evidences. Finally, a single case report should not be considered as a basis to recommend a change in the clinical practice but instead a possible point of start for discussion and research

Proof-of-principle of parametric stellarator neutronics modeling using Serpent2

This contribution presents neutron transport studies for the 5-period helical-axis advanced stellarator stellarator using the Serpent2 code. These studies utilize a parametric geometry model, enabling scans in neutronics modeling by varying the thickness of the reactor layers. For example, the tritium breeding ratio (TBR) can be determined by exploring various blanket material options and thicknesses to identify the threshold configuration that meets the TBR design criterion of 1.15. We found out that with the helium-cooled pebble ped candidate option, the TBR criterion is met with a breeding zone thickness of 26 cm, while with the dual-coolant lithium lead the threshold is exceeded at a thickness of 46 cm. Furthermore, the geometry includes non-planar field coils, allowing to study the fast neutron flux in these superconducting coils with a technological limit of 1 × 10 9 1 / cm 2 s . It is shown that the neutron fast flux is not constant at the coils, necessitating a neutron transport simulation to determine the distribution of the fast-flux at the coils. We show that the peak fast flux can be more than a factor of 2 higher than the average flux, and that the peak flux location rotates helically.</p