Корпорация «Uranium Corporation India Limited» (UCIL) будет разрабатывать крупнейшее в Индии месторождение урана, что потребует инвестирования около 845 млн долл. США. Корпорация прогнозирует добычу 6000 т/сутки.
Национальное управление по ядерной безопасности (NNSA) Министерства энергетики (МЭ) достигло всеобъемлющего соглашения об урегулировании с компанией «MOX Services» и ее материнскими компаниями, чтобы разрешить все вопросы закрытия контракта, относящегося к проекту установки по производству смешанного оксидного топлива (МОКС-топливо) в Саванна-Ривере (Айкен, штат Южная Каролина).
On September 9, 2019 the world’s only floating power unit (FPU) that left Murmansk on August 23 together with the Dickson icebreaker and two towboats reached town of Pevek, Chukotka Autonomous Region, ahead of schedule.
On September 14 an official welcoming ceremony took place in Pevek. (далее…)
Time-series analysis methods are commonly used in many research areas for extracting useful information related to the structure and the characteristics of the analysed system. Inferring the underlying interconnections between signals of complex systems such as the human brain, social networks, stock markets, etc., is a challenging and complicated task. Similar developments and applications of time-series analysis techniques for monitoring and diagnostics of the nuclear reactors’ operation continue to be a hot topic of research. The so-called causality analysis is commonly used in various research fields for identifying the cause-and-effect relationships between signals within multivariate and complex models. This work summarizes a systematic approach for applying the causality analysis technique, for the first time, on nuclear reactor systems.
One of the broad research areas at PSI covers the topic of energy. Part of that, in turn, is the research for nuclear energy and safety. And one of the research groups based here is engaged with nuclear fuels. Johannes Bertsch is the head of this group and investigates the importance of so-called cladding tubes and their protective layers.
Proton irradiations of lead, tantalum, and tungsten targets were performed twenty years ago at the SATURNE II synchrotron of the Laboratorie National Saturne (LNS) at Saclay. Due to a long time after irradiation, the short lived reaction products had already decayed. These targets were used to determine the production cross sections of long-lived α-emitting radionuclides (148Gd (T1/2 = 74.6 y), 154Dy (3 × 106 y)) and the long-lived β-emitting radionuclides (36Cl (T1/2 = 3.01 × 105 y) and 129I (T1/2 = 0.57 × 107 y)).
Shortly after the Big Bang, radioactive atoms of the type beryllium-7, among others, came into being. Today, throughout the universe, they have long since decayed and do not occur naturally, in contrast to their decay product lithium. Now researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have helped to better understand the first minutes of the universe: They collected artificially produced beryllium-7 and made it into a sample that could be investigated. The beryllium-7 was subsequently probed by researchers at CERN. The joint study by PSI, CERN, and 41 other research institutions addresses the so-called cosmological lithium problem: There is a marked discrepancy between the amount of lithium the Big Bang theory predicts should be in the universe and the amount of lithium actually observed. According to the present study, it now appears more likely that the cause of this cosmological lithium problem lies in the theoretical description of the origin of the universe. The scientific community will thus have to keep searching for a solution to the cosmological lithium problem. The researchers now published their results in the journal Physical Review Letters. (далее…)
The future of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is the focus of a large number of recent studies regarding intermediate and long-term storage. Three quantities are of prime importance considering the fuel itself: its long-lived radioactivity content (actinides and fission products), heat generation (also called decay heat) and radiation level (or source term). The high radiation level implies the use of shielding and remote handling systems, the heat generation limits the stored amount in a given volume of rock, and the radioactivity content means that the criticality safety of a repository can be an issue for the duration of the repository. Some of these quantities can also be measured (decay heat, radiation level), but systematic measurements on the thousands of SNF cannot be performed in practice (in Switzerland alone, about 12,000 fuel assemblies are expected to be finally discharged). (далее…)
More than 220 representatives from science and research, authorities and industry met this week in Cologne for this year’s EUROSAFE. Participants from more than 28 countries came together at the conference of the European Technical Safety Organisations Network (ETSON) to discuss current topics related to the safety of nuclear installations, radioactive waste management and radiation protection.
18 ноября в Агентстве природных ресурсов и энергетики (Agency for Natural Resources & Energy – ANRE) Министерства экономики, торговли и промышленности Японии (METI) состоялось заседание комитета, посвященное обращению с очищенной загрязненной водой на АЭС «Фукусима-I». Комитет обсудил вопросы хранения и удаления очищенной воды после того, как компания «Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.» (TEPCO) представила график. (далее…)