Search results for "ISOTOPES"

Investigation of the DEMO WCLL Breeding Blanket Cooling Water Activation

2020

Abstract Within the framework of the activities foreseen by the EUROfusion action on the cooling water activation assessment for a DEMO reactor equipped with a Water Cooled Lithium Lead Breeding Blanket (WCLL BB), the University of Palermo is involved in the assessment of dose rates induced by the decay of nitrogen radioisotopes produced by water activation, nearby the main components (e.g. isolation valves) of both First Wall (FW) and Breeder Zone (BZ) cooling circuits. In particular, the aim of this work is to evaluate the spatial distribution of nitrogen isotopes (16N and 17N) in the WCLL BB cooling circuits. To this purpose, a coupled neutronic/fluid-dynamic problem is solved following …

Precision mass measurements of neutron-rich nuclei between N=50 and 82

2012

Our knowledge of binding energies of neutron-rich nuclei has experienced a major revision during the last five years due to the introduction of Penning-trap based mass measurements. New mass values for nearly 300 nuclides produced in fission with uncertainties of 10 keV or less have become available. The data produced at three Penning trap facilities at Jyvaskyla, CERN-ISOLDE and Argonne cover all isotopic chains from Ni to Pr, except iodine. In this talk some of this data is reviewed and applied using the mass differentials such as two-neutron binding energy and odd-even staggering to probe their sensitivity on changes in nuclear structure and on the strength of the N=82 shell gap and asso…

Possible nitrogen fertilization of the early Earth Ocean by microbial continental ecosystems

2018

While significant efforts have been invested in reconstructing the early evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere–ocean–biosphere biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, the potential role of an early continental contribution by a terrestrial, microbial phototrophic biosphere has been largely overlooked. By transposing to the Archean nitrogen fluxes of modern topsoil communities known as biological soil crusts (terrestrial analogs of microbial mats), whose ancestors might have existed as far back as 3.2 Ga ago, we show that they could have impacted the evolution of the nitrogen cycle early on. We calculate that the net output of inorganic nitrogen reaching the Precambrian hydrogeological system could hav…

A revised model for lipid-normalizing δ13C values from aquatic organisms, with implications for isotope mixing models

2006

1. Stable isotope analyses coupled with mixing models are being used increasingly to evaluate ecological management issues and questions. Such applications of stable isotope analyses often require simultaneous carbon and nitrogen analyses from the same sample. Correction of the carbon isotope values to take account of the varying content of 13 C-depleted lipids is then frequently achieved by a lipid-normalization procedure using a model describing the relationship between change in δ 13 C following lipid removal and the original C:N ratio of a sample. 2. We evaluated the applicability of two widely used normalization models using empirical data for muscle tissue from a wide range of fish an…

Paleoclimatic and Paleoceanographic reconstruction of the Pleistocene-Holocene through the study of planktonic foraminifera of two sedimentary cores …

2017

Quasiparticle alignments and α-decay fine structure of 175Pt

2014

Excited states and decay properties of 175Pt have been investigated using the 92Mo(86Sr,2pn) fusion-evaporation reaction. The JUROGAM I γ -ray spectrometer and the GREAT spectrometer were used in conjunction with the gas-filled recoil separator RITU for the measurement of the radiation at the target and focal plane positions, respectively. Two new band structures, assigned to be based on the I π = (7/2 −) ground state in 175Pt, have been established and the known yrast band has been extended up to I π = (49/2 +). Rotational properties of the excited states in 175Pt have been investigated within the cranked shell-model formalism. The low-frequency changes in the alignments of the positive- a…

Unexpectedly large charge radii of neutron-rich calcium isotopes

2016

Despite being a complex many-body system, the atomic nucleus exhibits simple structures for certain "magic" numbers of protons and neutrons. The calcium chain in particular is both unique and puzzling: evidence of doubly-magic features are known in 40,48Ca, and recently suggested in two radioactive isotopes, 52,54Ca. Although many properties of experimentally known Ca isotopes have been successfully described by nuclear theory, it is still a challenge to predict their charge radii evolution. Here we present the first measurements of the charge radii of 49,51,52Ca, obtained from laser spectroscopy experiments at ISOLDE, CERN. The experimental results are complemented by state-of-the-art theo…

First glimpse of the $N=82$ shell closure below $Z=50$ from masses of neutron-rich cadmium isotopes and isomers

2020

We probe the $N=82$ nuclear shell closure by mass measurements of neutron-rich cadmium isotopes with the ISOLTRAP spectrometer at ISOLDE-CERN. The new mass of $^{132}$Cd offers the first value of the $N=82$, two-neutron shell gap below $Z=50$ and confirms the phenomenon of mutually enhanced magicity at $^{132}$Sn. Using the recently implemented phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance method, the ordering of the low-lying isomers in $^{129}$Cd and their energies are determined. The new experimental findings are used to test large-scale shell-model, mean-field and beyond-mean-field calculations, as well as the ab initio valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group.

Collectivity in ${}^{\mathrm{196,198}}$Pb isotopes probed in Coulomb-excitation experiments at REX-ISOLDE

2017

The neutron-deficient ${}^{\mathrm{196,198}}$Pb isotopes have been studied in Coulomb-excitation experiments employing the Miniball γ-ray spectrometer and radioactive ion beams from the REX-ISOLDE post-accelerator at CERN. The reduced transition probabilities of the first excited 2+ states in 196Pb and 198Pb nuclei have been measured for the first time. Values of $B(E2)={18.2}_{-4.1}^{+4.8}$ W.u. and $B(E2)={13.1}_{-3.5}^{+4.9}$ W.u., were obtained, respectively. The experiment sheds light on the development of collectivity when moving from the regime governed by the generalised seniority scheme to a region, where intruding structures, associated with different deformed shapes, start to com…

Yields of neutron-rich rubidium and cesium isotopes from fast-neutron induced fission of 238U, obtained by studying their release from a thick ISOL t…

2006

Abstract In the framework of the EURISOL project, the production of neutron-rich isotopes of rubidium and cesium has been studied. The intensities of mass-separated beams of rubidium and cesium isotopes generated from a thick 238 UC x target connected to a surface ionizer have been measured. The release properties of 140 Cs and 91 Rb have been investigated. The obtained results allowed us to determine the relative fission yields of rubidium and cesium isotopes with high accuracy.