Third international challenge to model the medium- to long-range transport of radioxenon to four Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations

Maurer, C.*; Galmarini, S.*; Solazzo, E.*; Kumierczyk-Michulec, J.*; Bar, J.*; Kalinowski, M.*; Schoeppner, M.*; Bourgouin, P.*; Crawford, A.*; Stein, A.*; et al.

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 255, p.106968_1 - 106968_27, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.106968

After performing multi-model exercises in 2015 and 2016, a comprehensive Xe-133 atmospheric transport modeling challenge was organized in 2019. For evaluation measured samples for the same time frame were gathered from four International Monitoring System stations located in Europe and North America with overall considerable influence of IRE and/or CNL emissions. As a lesion learnt from the 2nd ATM-Challenge participants were prompted to work with controlled and harmonized model set ups to make runs more comparable, but also to increase diversity. Effects of transport errors, not properly characterized remaining emitters and long IMS sampling times (12 to 24 hours) undoubtedly interfere with the effect of high-quality IRE and CNL stack data. An ensemble based on a few arbitrary submissions is good enough to forecast the Xe-133 background at the stations investigated. The effective ensemble size is below five.

Predictive modeling of a simple field matrix diffusion experiment addressing radionuclide transport in fractured rock. Is it so straightforward?

Soler, J. M.*; Neretnieks, I.*; Moreno, L.*; Liu, L.*; Meng, S.*; Svensson, U.*; Iraola, A.*; Ebrahimi, K.*; Trinchero, P.*; Molinero, J.*; et al.

Nuclear Technology, 208(6), p.1059 - 1073, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1988822

The SKB Task Force is an international forum on modelling of groundwater flow and solute transport in fractured rock. The WPDE experiments are matrix diffusion experiments in gneiss performed at the ONKALO underground facility in Finland. Synthetic groundwater containing several conservative and sorbing tracers was injected along a borehole interval. The objective of Task 9A was the predictive modelling of the tracer breakthrough curves from the WPDE experiments. Several teams, using different modelling approaches and codes, participated in this exercise. An important conclusion from this exercise is that the modelling results were very sensitive to the magnitude of dispersion in the borehole opening, which is related to the flow of water. Focusing on the tails of the breakthrough curves, which are more directly related to matrix diffusion and sorption, the results from the different teams were more comparable.

Evaluation report of Task 9B based on comparisons and analyses of modelling results for the sp HRL LTDE-SD experiments

Soler, J. M.*; Meng, S.*; Moreno, L.*; Neretnieks, I.*; Liu, L.*; Keklinen, P.*; Hokr, M.*; ha, J.*; Vetenk, A.*; Reimitz, D.*; et al.

SKB TR-20-17, 71 Pages, 2021/07

Task 9B of the SKB Task Force on Modelling of Groundwater Flow and Transport of Solutes in fractured rock focused on the modelling of experimental results from the LTDE-SD in situ tracer test performed at the sp Hard Rock Laboratory in Sweden. Ten different modelling teams provided results for this exercise, using different concepts and codes. Three main types of modelling approaches were used: (1) analytical solutions to the transport-retention equations, (2) continuum-porous-medium numerical models, and (3) microstructure-based models accounting for small-scale heterogeneity (i.e. mineral grains and microfracture distributions). The modelling by the different teams allowed the comparison of many different model concepts, especially in terms of potential zonations of rock properties (porosity, diffusion, sorption), such as the presence of a disturbed zone at the rock and fracture surface, the potential effects of micro- and cm-scale fractures.

Signatures of the vortical quark-gluon plasma in hadron yields

Taya, Hidetoshi*; Park, A.*; Cho, S.*; Gubler, P.; Hattori, Koichi*; Hong, J.*; Huang, X.-G.*; Lee, S. H.*; Monnai, Akihiko*; Onishi, Akira*; et al.

Physical Review C, 102(2), p.021901_1 - 021901_6, 2020/08

AA2020-0306.pdf:0.47MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.102.021901

Synergetic strengthening of layered steel sheet investigated using an neutron diffraction tensile test

Kim, J. G.*; Bae, J. W.*; Park, J. M.*; Woo, W.*; Harjo, S.; Chin, K.-G.*; Lee, S.*; Kim, H. S.*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 9, p.6829_1 - 6829_7, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43369-2

Evaluation and modelling report of Task 9A based on comparisons and analyses of predictive modelling results for the REPRO WPDE experiments; Task 9 of SKB Task Force GWFTS - Increasing the realism in solute transport modelling based on the field experiments REPRO and LTDE-SD

Soler, J. M.*; Neretnieks, I.*; Moreno, L.*; Liu, L.*; Meng, S.*; Svensson, U.*; Trinchero, P.*; Iraola, A.*; Ebrahimi, H.*; Molinero, J.*; et al.

SKB R-17-10, 153 Pages, 2019/01

The SKB Task Force is an international forum on modeling of groundwater flow and solute transport in fractured rock. The WPDE experiments are matrix diffusion experiments in gneiss performed at the ONKALO underground facility in Finland. Synthetic groundwater containing several conservative and sorbing tracers was injected along a borehole interval. The objective of Task 9A was the predictive modeling of the tracer breakthrough curves from the WPDE experiments. Several teams, using different modelling approaches, participated in this exercise. An important conclusion from this exercise is that the modeling results were very sensitive to the magnitude of dispersion in the borehole opening, which is related to the flow of water. Focusing on the tails of the breakthrough curves, which are more directly related to matrix diffusion and sorption, the results from the different teams were more comparable. The modeling results have also been finally compared to the measured breakthroughs.

Spontaneous decays of magneto-elastic excitations in non-collinear antiferromagnet (Y,Lu)MnO

Oh, J.*; Le, M. D.*; Nahm, H.-H.*; Sim, H.*; Jeong, J.*; Perring, T. G.*; Woo, H.*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Yamani, Z.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 7, p.13146_1 - 13146_6, 2016/10

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13146

Magnons and phonons are fundamental quasiparticles in a solid and can be coupled together to form a hybrid quasi-particle. However, detailed experimental studies on the underlying Hamiltonian of this particle are rare for actual materials. Moreover, the anharmonicity of such magnetoelastic excitations remains largely unexplored, although it is essential for a proper understanding of their diverse thermodynamic behaviour and intrinsic zero-temperature decay. Here we show that in non-collinear antiferromagnets, a strong magnon phonon coupling can significantly enhance the anharmonicity, resulting in the creation of magnetoelastic excitations and their spontaneous decay. By measuring the spin waves over the full Brillouin zone and carrying out anharmonic spin wave calculations using a Hamiltonian with an explicit magnon phonon coupling, we have identified a hybrid magnetoelastic mode in (Y,Lu)MnO and quantified its decay rate and the exchange-striction coupling termrequired to produce it.

Polymerization mechanism for radiation-induced grafting of styrene into Alicyclic polyimide films for preparation of polymer electrolyte membranes

Park, J.; Enomoto, Kazuyuki; Yamashita, Takashi*; Takagi, Yasuyuki*; Todaka, Katsunori*; Maekawa, Yasunari

Journal of Membrane Science, 438, p.1 - 7, 2013/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2013.03.007

Alicyclic polyimides (APIs) were successfully applied to radiation-induced graft polymerization for developing polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells. The grafting into fully aromatized polyimide barely proceeded (grafting degrees (GDs) of less than 5%), whereas that of styrene into the API films proceeded with styrene GDs of up to 70%. In combination of electron spin resonance measurements and ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy, the radical species was identified as a long-lived intermediate and 10% of the radicals were consumed as grafting initiators. The moderate reaction conditions allowed for selective sulfonation on the polystyrene grafts, and not on the API substrates, to give API-based polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) with ion exchange capacities (IEC) of 1.7-2.8 mmol/g. The PEMs exhibited appropriate proton conductivity and low water uptake, together with excellent mechanical properties, compared with conventional PEMs such as Nafion.

Experimental investigation and validation of neutral beam current drive for ITER through ITPA joint experiments

Suzuki, Takahiro; Akers, R.*; Gates, D. A.*; Gnter, S.*; Heidbrink, W. W.*; Hobirk, J.*; Luce, T. C.*; Murakami, Masanori*; Park, J. M.*; Turnyanskiy, M.*; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 51(8), p.083020_1 - 083020_8, 2011/08

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/51/8/083020

Joint experiments investigating the off-axis neutral beam current drive (NBCD) capability to be utilized for advanced operation scenario development in ITER was conducted in 5 tokamaks (AUG, DIII-D, JT-60U, MAST and NSTX) through the ITPA. We discuss results obtained in the joint experiments, where the toroidal field, , covered 0.3-3.7 T, the plasma current, , 0.6-1.2 MA, and the beam energy, Eb, 67-350 keV. A current profile broadened by off-axis NBCD was observed in MAST. In DIII-D, good agreement between the measured and calculated NB driven current profile was observed. In JT-60U, agreement between measured and calculated NBCD location was obtained, when the NBCD location (0.3-0.6 in /), heating power (6-13 MW), triangularity (0.25-0.45), and (85 and 350 keV) were widely scanned. In AUG (at low 0.2) and DIII-D, introduction of a fast ion diffusion coefficient of 0.3-0.5 m/s in the calculation gave better agreement at high heating power (5 and 7.2 MW), suggesting anomalous transport of fast ions by turbulence. It was found through these ITPA joint experiments that NBCD related physics quantities reasonably agree with calculations (with = 0-0.5 m/s) in all devices when there is no MHD activity except ELMs. Proximity of measured off-axis beam driven current to the corresponding calculation with = 0 has been discussed for ITER in terms of a theoretically predicted scaling of fast-ion diffusion that depends on / for electrostatic turbulence or for electromagnetic turbulence.

Validation of on- and off-axis neutral beam current drive against experiment in DIII-D

Park, J. M.*; Murakami, Masanori*; Petty, C. C.*; Heidbrink, W. W.*; Osborne, T. H.*; Holcomb, C. T.*; Van Zeeland, M. A.*; Prater, R.*; Luce, T. C.*; Wade, M. R.*; et al.

Physics of Plasmas, 16(9), p.092508_1 - 092508_10, 2009/09

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3213614

Neutral beam current drive (NBCD) experiments in DIII-D using vertically shifted plasmas to move the current drive away from the axis have clearly demonstrated robust off-axis NBCD. Time-dependent measurements of magnetic pitch angles by the motional Stark effect diagnostic are used to obtain the evolution of the poloidal magnetic flux, which indicates a broad off-axis NBCD profile with a peak at about half the plasma radius. In most cases, the measured off-axis NBCD profile is consistent with calculations using an orbit-following Monte-Carlo code for the beam ion slowing down including finite-orbit effects, provided there is no large-scale MHD activity such as Alfvn eigenmodes modes or sawteeth. Good agreement is found between the measured pitch angles and those from simulations using transport-equilibrium codes. Two-dimensional image of Doppler-shifted fast ion D light emitted by neutralized energetic ions shows clear evidence for a hollow profile of beam ion density, consistent with classical beam ion slowing down. The magnitude of off-axis NBCD is sensitive to the alignment of the beam injection relative to the helical pitch of the magnetic field lines. If the signs of B and I yield the proper helicity, both measurement and calculation indicate that the efficiency is as good as on-axis NBCD because the increased fraction of trapped electrons reduces the electron shielding of the injected ion current, in contrast with electron current drive schemes where the trapping of electrons degrades the efficiency. The measured off-axis NBCD increases approximately linearly with the injection power, although a modest amount of fast ion diffusion is needed to explain an observed difference in the NBCD profile between the measurement and the calculation at high injection power.