The release of technetium from defense waste processing facility glasses

Laboratory tests are being, conducted using two radionuclide-doped Defense Waste Processing, Facility (DWPF) glasses (referred to as SRL 13IA and SRL 202A) to characterize the effects of the glass surface area/solution volume (SN) ratio on the release and disposition of {Tc} and several actinide elements. Tests are being conducted at 90{degrees}C in a tuff ground water solution at SN ratios of 10, 2000, and 20,000 m{sup {minus}1} and have been completed through 1822 days. The formation of certain alteration phases in tests at 2000 and 20,000 m{sup {minus}1} results in an increase in the dissolution rates of both classes. The release of {Tc} parallels that of B and Na under most test conditions and its release increases when alteration phases form. However, in tests with SRL 202A glass at 20,000 ,{sup {minus}1}, the {Tc} concentration in solution decreases coincidentally with an increase in the nitrite/nitrate ratio that indicates a decrease in the solution Eh. This may have occurred due to radiolysis, glass dissolution, the formation of alteration phases, or vessel interactions. Technetium that was reduced from {Tc}(VII) to {Tc}(IV) may have precipitated, thou-h the amount of {Tc} was too low to detect any {Tc}-bearing phases. These results show the importance of conducting long-term tests with radioactive glasses to characterize the behavior of radionuclides, rather than relying on the observed behavior of nonradioactive surrogates

Comparison of the Corrosion Behavior of Tank 51 Sludge-Based Glass and a Nonradioactive Homologue Glass

We are conducting static dissolution tests with a glass made at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) during a demonstration of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) process control for remote vitrification [1]. The glass was made with sludge from Tank 5 1, SRL 202 frit, and added soda. This glass is similar to waste glasses being made in the current DWPF campaign. Parallel tests are being conducted with a nonradioactive glass made at ANL having the same composition as the radioactive glass, except without the radionuclides. The radioactive and nonradioactive glasses are referred to as 5lR and 5lS, respectively. The results of these tests provide information pertinent to assessing the long-term corrosion behavior of DWPF glasses, comparing the corrosion behaviors of radioactive and nonradioactive glasses, and characterizing the disposition of radionuclides as the glass corrodes

Growth Models and Models of Turbulence : A Stochastic Quantization Perspective

We consider a class of growth models and models of turbulence based on the randomly stirred fluid. The similarity between the predictions of these models, noted a decade earlier, is understood on the basis of a stochastic quantization scheme.Comment: 3 page

The release of cesium and the actinides from spent fuel under unsaturated conditions

Tests designed to be similar to the unsaturated and oxidizing conditions expected in the candidate repository at Yucca Mountain are in progress with spent fuel at 90{degree}C. The similarities and the differences in release behavior for {sup 137}Cs during the first 2.6 years and the actinides during the first 1.6 years of testing are presented for tests done with (1) water dripped on the fuel at a rate of 0.075 and 0.75 mL every 3.5 days and (2) in a saturated water vapor environment

Solution-borne colloids from drip tests using actinide-doped and fully-radioactive waste glasses

Drip tests designed to replicate the synergistic interactions between waste glass, repository groundwater, water vapor, and sensitized 304L stainless steel in the potential Yucca Mountain Repository have been ongoing in our laboratory for over ten years. Results will be presented from three sets of these drip tests: two with actinide-doped glasses, and one with a fully-radioactive glass. Periodic sampling of these tests have revealed trends in actinide release behavior that are consistent with their entrainment in colloidal material when as-cast glass is reacted. Results from vapor hydrated glass show that initially the actinides are completely dissolved in solution, but as the reaction proceeds, the actinides become suspended in solution. Sequential filtering and alpha spectroscopy of colloid-bearing leachate solutions indicate that more than 80 percent of the plutonium and americium are bound to particles that are captured by a 0. 1 gm filter, while less than 10 percent of the neptunium is stopped by a 0. 1 gm filter. Analytical transmission electron microscopy has been used to examine particles from leachate solutions and to identify several actinide-bearing phases which are responsible for the majority of actinide release during glass corrosion

Estimation of Hydrodynamical Model Parameters from the Invariant Spectrum and the Bose-Einstein Correlations of pi-mesons Produced in (pi+/K+)p Interactions at 250 GeV/c

The invariant spectra of pi- mesons produced in (pi+/K+)p interactions at 250 GeV/c are analysed in the framework of the hydrodynamical model of three-dimensionally expanding cylindrically symmetric finite systems. A satisfactory description of experimental data is achieved. The data favour the pattern according to which the hadron matter undergoes predominantly longitudinal expansion and non-relativistic transverse expansion with mean transverse velocity = 0.20(7), and is characterized by a large temperature inhomogeneity in the transverse direction: the extracted freeze-out temperature at the center of the tube and at the transverse rms radius are 140(3) MeV and 82(7) MeV, respectively. The width of the (longitudinal) space-time rapidity distribution of the pion source is found to be Delta eta = 1.36(2). Combining this estimate with results of the Bose-Einstein correlation analysis in the same experiment, one extracts a mean freeze-out time of the source of = 1.4(1) fm/c and its transverse geometrical rms radius, R_G (rms)=1.2(2) fm.Comment: latex, 14 pages, 5 figure

Time-keeping and decision-making in living cells: Part I

To survive and reproduce, a cell must process information from its environment and its own internal state and respond accordingly, in terms of metabolic activity, gene expression, movement, growth, division and differentiation. These signal–response decisions are made by complex networks of interacting genes and proteins, which function as biochemical switches and clocks, and other recognizable information-processing circuitry. This theme issue of Interface Focus (in two parts) brings together articles on time-keeping and decision-making in living cells—work that uses precise mathematical modelling of underlying molecular regulatory networks to understand important features of cell physiology. Part I focuses on time-keeping: mechanisms and dynamics of biological oscillators and modes of synchronization and entrainment of oscillators, with special attention to circadian clocks

Time-keeping and decision-making in living cells: Part II

SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Modelling of Optical Detection of Spin-Polarized Carrier Injection into Light-Emitting Devices

We investigate the emission of multimodal polarized light from Light Emitting Devices due to spin-aligned carriers injection. The results are derived through operator Langevin equations, which include thermal and carrier-injection fluctuations, as well as non-radiative recombination and electronic g-factor temperature dependence. We study the dynamics of the optoelectronic processes and show how the temperature-dependent g-factor and magnetic field affect the polarization degree of the emitted light. In addition, at high temperatures, thermal fluctuation reduces the efficiency of the optoelectronic detection method for measuring spin-polarization degree of carrier injection into non-magnetic semicondutors.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, replaced by revised version. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Control of Rayleigh-Taylor instability by vertical vibration in large aspect ratio containers

We consider a horizontal heavy fluid layer supported by a light, immiscible one in a wide (as compared to depth) container, which is vertically vibrated intending to counterbalance the Rayleigh-Taylor instability of the flat, rigid-body vibrating state. In the simplest case when the density and viscosity of the lighter fluid are small compared to their counterparts in the heavier fluid, we apply a long wave, weakly nonlinear analysis that yields a generalized Cahn-Hilliard equation for the evolution of the fluid interface. This equation shows that the stabilizing effect of vibration is like that of surface tension, and is used to analyze the linear stability of the flat state, the local bifurcation at the instability threshold and some global existence and stability properties concerning the steady states without dry spots. The analysis is extended to two cases of practical interest. Namely, (a) the viscosity of one of the fluids is much smaller than that of the other one, and (b) the densities and viscosities of both fluids are quite close to each other