The Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) is a 34 kW low enriched uranium (LEU) Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR), tank-in-pool type and cooled by natural circulation under atmospheric pressure operating conditions...The Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) is a 34 kW low enriched uranium (LEU) Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR), tank-in-pool type and cooled by natural circulation under atmospheric pressure operating conditions. GHARR-1 is owned by Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) and operated by National Nuclear Research Institute (NNRI), one of the institutes of GAEC. GHARR-1 is housed by Nuclear Reactors Research Centre (NRRC), one of the Centres of NNRI. Management/Administration, Radiation protection, Reactor operation and maintenance, Reactor utilization and Physical protection are the various systems/units that integrate to manage the activities of operation and utilization of GHARR-1 in addition to the quality assurance and quality control management system of the research reactor facility. The GHARR-1 which is currently in operation follows a robust maintenance culture adopted by the management system and this has made it possible to keep the reactor in operation with minimal interruption. The management system activities adopted at the Centre to ensure safety of the workers, public and the research reactor facility include authorization of the operation of the reactor for any experiments/modifications;providing material and financial resources for maintaining the research reactor facility;following standard procedures while carrying out Neutron Activation Analysis;participation in IAEA proficiency test;irradiation sites/positions characterization;following standard procedures while carrying out reactor operation and maintenance including reactor and pool water purification and other related activities;monitoring radiation levels in the controlled, supervised and uncontrolled areas of the research reactor facility as well as during reactor operation and maintenance;controlling the physical entry of the workers and public into the research reactor facility;and ensuring that the security structures provided to protect the reactor facility are functioning properly. The thorough knowledge on the functions of the various components that make up the electrical/electronic and control systems of the reactor has been observed to be important for continuous successful maintenance of the research reactor to keep the reactor in operation. This work provides some management system activities adopted to monitor the activities of the research reactor operation and utilization to guarantee safety of workers, public and the environment as well as to safeguard a continuous operation of the research reactor. These management system activities adopted among others, are in the form of Monitoring Forms provided for monitoring the activities of the research reactor operation and utilization in order to ensure standard procedures and specifications are followed and quality services are rendered to the public.展开更多
Gamma-emitting radionuclide ^(99m)Tc is globally used for the diagnosis of various pathological conditions owing to its ideal single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) characteristics.However,the short half-l...Gamma-emitting radionuclide ^(99m)Tc is globally used for the diagnosis of various pathological conditions owing to its ideal single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) characteristics.However,the short half-life of ^(99m)Tc (T_(1/2)=6 h)makes it difficult to store or transport.Thus,the production of ^(99m)Tc is tied to its parent radionuclide ^(99)Mo (T_(1/2)=66 h).The major production paths are based on accelerators and research reactors.The reactor process presents the potential for nuclear proliferation owing to its use of highly enriched uranium (HEU).Accelerator-based methods tend to use deuterium–tritium(D–T) neutron sources but are hindered by the high cost of tritium and its challenging operation.In this study,a new ^(99)Mo production design was developed based on a deuterium–deuterium (D–D) gas dynamic trap fusion neutron source (GDT-FNS) and a subcritical blanket system (SBS) assembly with a low-enriched uranium (LEU) solution.GDT-FNS can provide a relatively high-neutron intensity,which is one of the advantages of ^(99)Mo production.We provide a Monte Carlo-based neutronics analysis covering the calculation of the subcritical multiplication factor (k_(s)) of the SBS,optimization design for the reflector,shielding layer,and ^(99)Mo production capacity.Other calculations,including the neutron flux and nuclear heating distributions,are also provided for an overall evaluation of the production system.The results demonstrated that the SBS meets the nuclear critical safety design requirement (k_(s)<0.97) and maintained a high ^(99)Mo production capacity.The proposed system can generate approximately 157 Ci ^(99)Mo for a stable 24 h operation with a neutron intensity of 1×10^(14) n/s,which can meet 50%of China’s demand in 2025.展开更多
Mineral element compositions of Baobab fruit and seed have been determined using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. Total of 18mineral elements were determined of which 10 are not normally reported using other ...Mineral element compositions of Baobab fruit and seed have been determined using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. Total of 18mineral elements were determined of which 10 are not normally reported using other methods. The concentrations of heavy metals were: Arsenic < 0.06 and < 0.04, Mercury < 0.04 and < 0.04 Hg and Cadmium < 0.08 and < 0.04 respectively for the seeds and the fruit. The average concentration of trace elements in the seed were;Aluminium (11.50 μg/g), Barium (17.3 μg/g), Bromine (2.45 μg/g), Cobalt (0.07 μg/g), Copper (28.6 μg/g), Iron (<42 μg/g), Iodine (<0.04 μg/g), Manganese (17.7 μg/g), Sodium (23.53 μg/g), Vanadium (0.035 μg/g), and Zinc (12.06 μg/g), while the average concentrations of Aluminium (27.74 μg/g), Barium (13.10 μg/g), Bromine (3.01 μg/g), Cobalt (0.08 μg/g), Copper (14.9 μg/g), Iron (26.05 μg/g), Iodine (0.27 μg/g), Manganese (7.05 μg/g), Sodium (52.06 μg/g), Vanadium (0.08 μg/g), and Zinc (0.79 μg/g) were determined for the dried fruit pulp. The mineral concentrations of the baobab fruit and seed were characterized with high concentration of potassium, calcium, magnesium and substantive amount of chlorine [K (21350 μg/g), Ca (3170 μg/g), Mg (2310 μg/g) and Cl (211 μg/g), for the fruit pulp and K (12240 μg/g), Ca (2360 μg/g), Mg (4720 μg/g) and Cl (88.6 μg/g), for the seed]. The fruits and seeds present useful source of mineral needs for the indigenous African community where the trees are found and may be recommended as food supplement due to high content of calcium, magnesium and potassium.展开更多
Flow development downstream of a spacer grid is dependent on the upstream conditions and the imposed interface topology, especially at inlet and outlet boundaries. In STAR-CCM+, all interfaces fall into two ...Flow development downstream of a spacer grid is dependent on the upstream conditions and the imposed interface topology, especially at inlet and outlet boundaries. In STAR-CCM+, all interfaces fall into two groups, direct and indirect. A direct interface directly joins together two boundaries composing the interface either permanently or temporarily, for the case of rigid body motion. An explicit connection is created between cells on each side of the interface, so that mass and energy or either of them will occur across the interface. Three options of interface topology namely, in-place, periodic and repeating are available to be imposed at the inlet-outlet boundaries for a flow problem. In the present work, computational fluid dynamic simulation using STAR-CCM+ was performed for the flow of water at a bundle’s Reynolds number of Re1 = 3.4 × 10<sup>4</sup> through a 5 × 5 rod bundle geometry supported by spacer grid with and without split mixing vanes for which the rod-to-rod pitch to diameter ratio was 1.33 and the rod to wall pitch to diameter ratio was 0.74. The two-layer k-epsilon turbulence model with an all y+ automatic wall treatment function in STAR-CCM+ was adopted for an isothermal single phase (water) flow through the geometry with and without imposed cyclic periodic interface boundary condition of fully developed flow type at inlet and outlet boundaries. The objectives were to primarily investigate the extent of predictability of the experimental data by the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation as a measure of reliability on the CFD code employed, and also study the effects of the imposed interface topology on flow redistribution in the presence and absence of split mixing vane. Validation of simulation results with experimental data showed a good correlation of mean flow parameters with experimental data. Generally, the agreement of simulation results with data obtained from the experimental investigation confirmed the suitability of the CFD code, STAR-CCM+ to analyze the physical problem considered. Trends of flow redistribution downstream of the spacer grid indicate that, the split mixing vanes acted to quickly bring the flow to an equitable redistribution downstream of the spacer grid irrespective of the imposed inlet-outlet interface topology. For the case of the spacer grid without mixing vanes, some extents of deviation were realized between the model with no imposed interface topology and that with imposed periodic interface topology. The variation in trends shows that, a much longer inlet segment of the domain is required to completely nullify the effect of the inlet-outlet interface topology on flow distribution in the absence of mixing vanes which may lead to a relatively higher demand for computational resources than required in the presence of mixing vanes.展开更多
文摘The Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) is a 34 kW low enriched uranium (LEU) Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR), tank-in-pool type and cooled by natural circulation under atmospheric pressure operating conditions. GHARR-1 is owned by Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) and operated by National Nuclear Research Institute (NNRI), one of the institutes of GAEC. GHARR-1 is housed by Nuclear Reactors Research Centre (NRRC), one of the Centres of NNRI. Management/Administration, Radiation protection, Reactor operation and maintenance, Reactor utilization and Physical protection are the various systems/units that integrate to manage the activities of operation and utilization of GHARR-1 in addition to the quality assurance and quality control management system of the research reactor facility. The GHARR-1 which is currently in operation follows a robust maintenance culture adopted by the management system and this has made it possible to keep the reactor in operation with minimal interruption. The management system activities adopted at the Centre to ensure safety of the workers, public and the research reactor facility include authorization of the operation of the reactor for any experiments/modifications;providing material and financial resources for maintaining the research reactor facility;following standard procedures while carrying out Neutron Activation Analysis;participation in IAEA proficiency test;irradiation sites/positions characterization;following standard procedures while carrying out reactor operation and maintenance including reactor and pool water purification and other related activities;monitoring radiation levels in the controlled, supervised and uncontrolled areas of the research reactor facility as well as during reactor operation and maintenance;controlling the physical entry of the workers and public into the research reactor facility;and ensuring that the security structures provided to protect the reactor facility are functioning properly. The thorough knowledge on the functions of the various components that make up the electrical/electronic and control systems of the reactor has been observed to be important for continuous successful maintenance of the research reactor to keep the reactor in operation. This work provides some management system activities adopted to monitor the activities of the research reactor operation and utilization to guarantee safety of workers, public and the environment as well as to safeguard a continuous operation of the research reactor. These management system activities adopted among others, are in the form of Monitoring Forms provided for monitoring the activities of the research reactor operation and utilization in order to ensure standard procedures and specifications are followed and quality services are rendered to the public.
基金supported by Anhui Provincial Key R&D Program (202104g0102007)Hefei Municipal Natural Science Foundation (2022011)+2 种基金Collaborative Innovation Program of Hefei Science CenterChinese Academy of Sciences(2022HSC CIP024)International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (116134KYSB20200001)。
文摘Gamma-emitting radionuclide ^(99m)Tc is globally used for the diagnosis of various pathological conditions owing to its ideal single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) characteristics.However,the short half-life of ^(99m)Tc (T_(1/2)=6 h)makes it difficult to store or transport.Thus,the production of ^(99m)Tc is tied to its parent radionuclide ^(99)Mo (T_(1/2)=66 h).The major production paths are based on accelerators and research reactors.The reactor process presents the potential for nuclear proliferation owing to its use of highly enriched uranium (HEU).Accelerator-based methods tend to use deuterium–tritium(D–T) neutron sources but are hindered by the high cost of tritium and its challenging operation.In this study,a new ^(99)Mo production design was developed based on a deuterium–deuterium (D–D) gas dynamic trap fusion neutron source (GDT-FNS) and a subcritical blanket system (SBS) assembly with a low-enriched uranium (LEU) solution.GDT-FNS can provide a relatively high-neutron intensity,which is one of the advantages of ^(99)Mo production.We provide a Monte Carlo-based neutronics analysis covering the calculation of the subcritical multiplication factor (k_(s)) of the SBS,optimization design for the reflector,shielding layer,and ^(99)Mo production capacity.Other calculations,including the neutron flux and nuclear heating distributions,are also provided for an overall evaluation of the production system.The results demonstrated that the SBS meets the nuclear critical safety design requirement (k_(s)<0.97) and maintained a high ^(99)Mo production capacity.The proposed system can generate approximately 157 Ci ^(99)Mo for a stable 24 h operation with a neutron intensity of 1×10^(14) n/s,which can meet 50%of China’s demand in 2025.
文摘Mineral element compositions of Baobab fruit and seed have been determined using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. Total of 18mineral elements were determined of which 10 are not normally reported using other methods. The concentrations of heavy metals were: Arsenic < 0.06 and < 0.04, Mercury < 0.04 and < 0.04 Hg and Cadmium < 0.08 and < 0.04 respectively for the seeds and the fruit. The average concentration of trace elements in the seed were;Aluminium (11.50 μg/g), Barium (17.3 μg/g), Bromine (2.45 μg/g), Cobalt (0.07 μg/g), Copper (28.6 μg/g), Iron (<42 μg/g), Iodine (<0.04 μg/g), Manganese (17.7 μg/g), Sodium (23.53 μg/g), Vanadium (0.035 μg/g), and Zinc (12.06 μg/g), while the average concentrations of Aluminium (27.74 μg/g), Barium (13.10 μg/g), Bromine (3.01 μg/g), Cobalt (0.08 μg/g), Copper (14.9 μg/g), Iron (26.05 μg/g), Iodine (0.27 μg/g), Manganese (7.05 μg/g), Sodium (52.06 μg/g), Vanadium (0.08 μg/g), and Zinc (0.79 μg/g) were determined for the dried fruit pulp. The mineral concentrations of the baobab fruit and seed were characterized with high concentration of potassium, calcium, magnesium and substantive amount of chlorine [K (21350 μg/g), Ca (3170 μg/g), Mg (2310 μg/g) and Cl (211 μg/g), for the fruit pulp and K (12240 μg/g), Ca (2360 μg/g), Mg (4720 μg/g) and Cl (88.6 μg/g), for the seed]. The fruits and seeds present useful source of mineral needs for the indigenous African community where the trees are found and may be recommended as food supplement due to high content of calcium, magnesium and potassium.
文摘Flow development downstream of a spacer grid is dependent on the upstream conditions and the imposed interface topology, especially at inlet and outlet boundaries. In STAR-CCM+, all interfaces fall into two groups, direct and indirect. A direct interface directly joins together two boundaries composing the interface either permanently or temporarily, for the case of rigid body motion. An explicit connection is created between cells on each side of the interface, so that mass and energy or either of them will occur across the interface. Three options of interface topology namely, in-place, periodic and repeating are available to be imposed at the inlet-outlet boundaries for a flow problem. In the present work, computational fluid dynamic simulation using STAR-CCM+ was performed for the flow of water at a bundle’s Reynolds number of Re1 = 3.4 × 10<sup>4</sup> through a 5 × 5 rod bundle geometry supported by spacer grid with and without split mixing vanes for which the rod-to-rod pitch to diameter ratio was 1.33 and the rod to wall pitch to diameter ratio was 0.74. The two-layer k-epsilon turbulence model with an all y+ automatic wall treatment function in STAR-CCM+ was adopted for an isothermal single phase (water) flow through the geometry with and without imposed cyclic periodic interface boundary condition of fully developed flow type at inlet and outlet boundaries. The objectives were to primarily investigate the extent of predictability of the experimental data by the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation as a measure of reliability on the CFD code employed, and also study the effects of the imposed interface topology on flow redistribution in the presence and absence of split mixing vane. Validation of simulation results with experimental data showed a good correlation of mean flow parameters with experimental data. Generally, the agreement of simulation results with data obtained from the experimental investigation confirmed the suitability of the CFD code, STAR-CCM+ to analyze the physical problem considered. Trends of flow redistribution downstream of the spacer grid indicate that, the split mixing vanes acted to quickly bring the flow to an equitable redistribution downstream of the spacer grid irrespective of the imposed inlet-outlet interface topology. For the case of the spacer grid without mixing vanes, some extents of deviation were realized between the model with no imposed interface topology and that with imposed periodic interface topology. The variation in trends shows that, a much longer inlet segment of the domain is required to completely nullify the effect of the inlet-outlet interface topology on flow distribution in the absence of mixing vanes which may lead to a relatively higher demand for computational resources than required in the presence of mixing vanes.
