Cooling mechanisms of spent fuel pools

A study on the consecutive cooling mechanisms in a spent fuel pool following a loss of cooling accident, starting from a completely filled pool up until all pool water has evaporated, is presented in this report. It focusses on light water PWR and BWR spent fuel pools, especially the 17x17 PWR and 9x9 BWR types. The report starts with a short section on spent fuel pool design and associated safety concerns. Next the different cooling mechanisms are described. Afterwards a program predicting the coolability of a square assembly in a spent fuel pool for water and air natural convective cooling is developed and described. The results of the simulations are presented and discussed. The study concludes highlighting (i) what the main differences between PWR and BWR spent fuel pools are and (ii) whether the friction pressure loss can be neglected for laminar flow in a spent fuel pool for all cooling mechanisms? The results obtained for the simulations with the attached Matlab programme are in good agreement with the MELCOR simulations

Memoizing a monadic mixin DSL

Modular extensibility is a highly desirable property of a domain-specific language (DSL): the ability to add new features without affecting the implementation of existing features. Functional mixins (also known as open recursion) are very suitable for this purpose. We study the use of mixins in Haskell for a modular DSL for search heuristics used in systematic solvers for combinatorial problems, that generate optimized C++ code from a high-level specification. We show how to apply memoization techniques to tackle performance issues and code explosion due to the high recursion inherent to the semantics of combinatorial search. As such heuristics are conventionally implemented as highly entangled imperative algorithms, our Haskell mixins are monadic. Memoization of monadic components causes further complications for us to deal with

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The abundance of Ixodes ricinus ticks depends on tree species composition and shrub cover

The mainstream forestry policy in many European countries is to convert coniferous plantations into (semi-natural) deciduous woodlands. However, woodlands are the main habitat for Ixodes ricinus ticks. Therefore, assessing to what extent tick abundance and infection with Borrelia spirochetes are affected by forest composition and structure is a prerequisite for effective prevention of Lyme borreliosis. We selected a total of 25 pine and oak stands, both with and without an abundant shrub layer, in northern Belgium and estimated tick abundance between April and October 2008-2010. Additionally, the presence of deer beds was used as an indicator of relative deer habitat use. Borrelia infections in questing nymphs were determined by polymerase chain reactions. The abundance of larvae, nymphs, and adults was higher in oak stands compared to pine stands and increased with increasing shrub cover, most likely due to differences in habitat use by the ticks' main hosts. Whereas tick abundance was markedly higher in structure-rich oak stands compared to homogeneous pine stands, the Borrelia infection rates in nymphs did not differ significantly. Our results indicate that conversion towards structure-rich deciduous forests might create more suitable tick habitats, but we were unable to detect an effect on the infection rate

High spectral and spatial resolution X-ray transmission radiography and tomography using a Color X-ray Camera

High resolution X-ray radiography and computed tomography are excellent techniques for non-destructive characterization of an object under investigation at a spatial resolution in the micrometer range. However, as the image contrast depends on both chemical composition and material density, no chemical information is obtained from this data. Furthermore, lab-based measurements are affected by the polychromatic X-ray beam, which results in beam hardening effects. New types of X-ray detectors which provide spectral information on the measured X-ray beam can help to overcome these limitations. In this paper, an energy dispersive CCD detector with high spectral resolution is characterized for use in high resolution radiography and tomography, where a focus is put on the experimental conditions and requirements of both measurement techniques

Immobilization of Ir(I) complex on covalent triazine frameworks for C-H borylation reactions : a combined experimental and computational study

Metal-modified covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) have attracted considerable attention in heterogeneous catalysis due to their strong nitrogen-metal interactions exhibiting superior activity, stability and hence recyclability. Herein, we report on a post-metalation of a bipyridine-based CTFs with an Ir(I) complex for C\u2013H borylation of aromatic compounds. Physical characterization of the Ir(I)-based bipyCTF catalyst in combination with density functional theory (DFT) calculations exhibit a high stabilization energy of the Ir-bipy moiety in the frameworks in the presence of B2Pin2. By using B2Pin2 as a boron source, Ir(I)@bipyCTF efficiently catalyzed the C\u2013H borylation of various aromatic compounds with excellent activity and good recyclability. In addition, XAS analysis of the Ir(I)@bipyCTF gave clear evidence for the coordination environment of the Ir

Sensing the framework state and guest molecules in MIL-53(Al) via the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum of V-IV dopant ions

X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) were combined to study the structural transformations induced by temperature, pressure and air humidity of the "breathing'' metalorganic framework (MOF) MIL-53(Al), doped with paramagnetic V-IV ions, after activation. The correlation between in situ XRD and thermogravimetric analysis measurements showed that upon heating this MOF in air, starting from ambient temperature and pressure, the narrow pore framework first dehydrates and after that makes the transition to a large pore state (lp). The EPR spectra of V-IV=O molecular ions, replacing Al-OH in the structure, also allow to distinguish the as synthesized, hydrated (np-h) and dehydrated narrow pore (np-d), and lp states of MIL-53(Al). A careful analysis of EPR spectra recorded at microwave frequencies between 9.5 and 275 GHz demonstrates that all V-IV=O in the np-d and lp states are equivalent, whereas in the np-h state (at least two) slightly different V-IV=O sites exist. Moreover, the lp MIL-53(Al) framework is accessible to oxygen, leading to a notable broadening of the V-IV=O EPR spectrum at pressures of a few mbar, while such effect is absent for the np-h and np-d states for pressures up to 1 bar

Intragastric infusion of denatonium benzoate attenuates interdigestive gastric motility and hunger scores in healthy female volunteers

Background: Denatonium benzoate (DB) has been shown to influence ongoing ingestive behavior and gut peptide secretion.Objective: We studied how the intragastric administration of DB affects interdigestive motility, motilin and ghrelin plasma concentrations, hunger and satiety ratings, and food intake in healthy volunteers.Design: Lingual bitter taste sensitivity was tested with the use of 6 concentrations of DB in 65 subjects. A placebo or 1 μmol DB/kg was given intragastrically to assess its effect on fasting gastrointestinal motility and hunger ratings, motilin and ghrelin plasma concentrations, satiety, and caloric intake.Results: Women (n = 39) were more sensitive toward a lingual bitter stimulus (P = 0.005) than men (n = 26). In women (n = 10), intragastric DB switched the origin of phase III contractions from the stomach to the duodenum (P = 0.001) and decreased hunger ratings (P = 0.04). These effects were not observed in men (n = 10). In women (n = 12), motilin (P = 0.04) plasma concentrations decreased after intragastric DB administration, whereas total and octanoylated ghrelin were not affected. The intragastric administration of DB decreased hunger (P = 0.008) and increased satiety ratings (P = 0.01) after a meal (500 kcal) in 13 women without affecting gastric emptying in 6 women. Caloric intake tended to decrease after DB administration compared with the placebo (mean ± SEM: 720 ± 58 compared with 796 ± 45 kcal; P = 0.08) in 20 women.Conclusions: Intragastric DB administration decreases both antral motility and hunger ratings during the fasting state, possibly because of a decrease in motilin release. Moreover, DB decreases hunger and increases satiety ratings after a meal and shows potential for decreasing caloric intak