Search results for "Application"

Speciation of neptunium during sorption and diffusion in natural clay

2016

In argillaceous rocks, which are considered as a potential host rock for nuclear waste repositories, sorption and diffusion processes govern the migration behaviour of actinides like neptunium. For the safety analysis of such a repository, a molecular-level understanding of the transport and retardation phenomena of radioactive contaminants in the host rock is mandatory. The speciation of Np during sorption and diffusion in Opalinus Clay was studied at near neutral pH using a combination of spatially resolved synchrotron radiation techniques. During the sorption and diffusion experiments, the interaction of 8 μM Np(V) solutions with the clay lead to the formation of spots at the clay-water …

A framework for vertex reconstruction in the ATLAS experiment at LHC

2010

In anticipation of the first LHC data to come, a considerable effort has been devoted to ensure the efficient reconstruction of vertices in the ATLAS detector. This includes the reconstruction of photon conversions, long lived particles, secondary vertices in jets as well as finding and fitting of primary vertices. The implementation of the corresponding algorithms requires a modular design based on the use of abstract interfaces and a common Event Data Model. An enhanced software framework addressing various physics applications of vertex reconstruction has been developed in the ATLAS experiment. Presented in this paper are the general principles of this framework. A particular emphasis is…

Cold Leg LBLOCA uncertainty analysis using TRACE/DAKOTA coupling

2022

Abstract Safety analyses for nuclear power plants were carried out in the past using a conservative approach. With the increase of the phenomenological knowledge, through experimental data, and computational power, it became possible to adopt best estimate thermal- hydraulic system codes to perform deterministic safety analyses. However, some uncertainties are still present in the models, correlations, initial and boundary conditions, etc. Therefore, it is fundamental to quantify the uncertainty of calculation. This approach is called “Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty” (BEPU). Among the available uncertainty analysis methodologies, the probabilistic method to propagate input uncertainty is wi…

On the modelling of tritium transport phenomena at fluid-structure interfaces

2022

Abstract One of the main functions of the DEMO Breeding Blanket (BB) system is to ensure the tritium breeding inside the reactor. Tritium is a beta emitter radioactive isotope, subjected to several processes that determine its permeation across materials and its leakage towards the environment, posing potential safety issues in terms of radiological hazard. Thus, the evaluation of tritium inventories inside components and tritium losses towards the environment plays a key role in the fulfilment of the pertinent BB safety requirements. In this regard, a research activity has been carried out, in close cooperation between the University of Palermo and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, fo…

Electronic and vibronic problems of nanosized mixed valence clusters: Advances and challenges

2013

Here we discuss the electronic and vibronic problems of mixed valency (MV) in molecular clusters which are of current interest in areas as diverse as solid-state chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular magnetism. Modern research in these areas is focused on the nanosized clusters at the border between classical and quantum scales and for this reason they are particularly difficult to study. First, we describe a general approach to the evaluation of the energy pattern of MV systems containing arbitrary number of localized spins and itinerant electrons with due account for the double exchange and other relevant interactions, like interelectronic Coulomb repulsion in instantly localized configu…

Medium fidelity modelling of loads in wind farms under non-neutral ABL stability conditions – a full-scale validation study

2017

Thermal activated carrier transfer between InAs quantum dots in very low density samples

2010

In this work we develop a detailed experimental study of the exciton recombination dynamics as a function of temperature on QD-ensembles and single QDs in two low density samples having 16.5 and 25 dots/¼m2. We corroborate at the single QD level the limitation of the exciton recombination time in the smallest QDs of the distribution by thermionic emission (electron emission in transient conditions). A portion of these emitted carriers is retrapped again in other (larger) QDs, but not very distant from those emitting the carriers, because the process is limited by the diffusion length at the considered temperature.

Local dynamics and phase transition in quantum paraelectric SrTiO3 studied by Ti K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy

2016

Strontium titanate is a model quantum paraelectric in which, in the region of dominating quantum statistics, the ferroelectric instability is inhibited due to nearly complete compensation of the harmonic contribution into ferroelectric soft mode frequency by the zero- point motion contribution. The enhancement of atomic masses by the substitution of 16 O with 18O decreases the zero-point atomic motion, and low-T ferroelectricity in SrTi18O3 is realized. In this study we report on the local structure of Ti in SrTi16O3 and SrTi18O3 investigated by Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure measurements in the temperature range 6 - 300 K.

Interpretation of the U L3-edge EXAFS in uranium dioxide using molecular dynamics and density functional theory simulations

2016

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is employed to study the local structure of pure and Cr-doped UO2 at 300 K. The U L3-edge EXAFS spectrum is interpreted within the multiplescattering (MS) theory using the results of the classical and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, allowing us to validate the accuracy of theoretical models. The Cr K-edge XANES is simulated within the full-multiple-scattering formalism considering a substitutional model (Cr at U site). It is shown that both unrelaxed and relaxed structures, produced by ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations, fail to describe the experiment.

Zn K-edge XANES in nanocrystalline ZnO

2007

Zn K-edge XANES in ZnO has been calculated within the full-multiple-scattering (FMS) and finite difference method (FDM) formalism using the ab initio FDMNES code. The influence of non-muffin-tin potential, bulk defects, surface termination and polarization effects on XANES has been analysed. The obtained theoretical results are compared with available experimental data for polycrystalline and nanocrystalline zinc oxide systems.