Previous Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) studies were made to assess the effects of the existing accumulation of LWR spent fuel in the United States on the capability to partition/transmute actinides using existing and advanced LWRs. The concept of treating the “oldest fuel first” indicated that significant advantages could be gained in both partitioning, transmutation, and in overall cos...

JNC has proposed an evolutional concept of fast reactor recycle system for minimising high-level waste (HLW) by adopting an unconventional recycling scheme based on the idea of “rough removal of unnecessary elements” instead of a conventional one as “pure recovery of necessary elements”. The concept was named “ORIENT-cycle” (Optimisation by Removing Impedimental Elements). “Unnecessary elements...

SmFeAsO1−xFx was irradiated in a fission reactor by a fast (E > 0.1 MeV) neutron fluence of 4 × 1021 m−2. The introduced defects increased the normal state resistivity due to a reduction in the mean free path of the charge carriers. This leads to an enhancement of the upper critical field at low temperatures. The critical current density within the grains, Jc, increases upon irradiation. The se...

Testing and evaluating candidate fusion reactor materials in a high-flux, high-energy neutron environment are critical to the success and economic feasibility of a fusion device. The current understanding of materials behavior in fission-like environments and existing fusion facilities is insufficient to ensure the necessary performance of future fusion reactor components. An accelerator-based ...

For several decades, the United States has been without an ongoing program measuring levels of fission products in the body. Strontium-90 (Sr-90) concentrations in 2089 deciduous (baby) teeth, mostly from persons living near nuclear power reactors, reveal that average levels rose 48.5% for persons born in the late 1990s compared to those born in the late 1980s. This trend represents the first s...

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my parents for providing me with a loving and supportive environment which cultivated my love for science and the drive to pursue it; my advisor, Professor Stacey for his insight, guidance, and reassurance throughout my introduction to the discipline of nuclear engineering; Professor Petrovic who helped refine my understanding of reactor physics; the p...

Report presents project for the construction of a low power integral system on the basis of the proton accelerator of energy 660 MeV and sub-critical MOX blanket with uranium-plutonium fuel. Installation includes sub-critical core with a nominal thermal power of 15-20 kW. Multiplication coefficient keff = 0.95 and the accelerator beam power of 0.75-1 kW. The experimental programme for SAD will ...

Cosmological variation of the fine structure constant α due to the evolution of a spatially homogeneous ultra-light scalar field (m ∼ H0) during the matter and Λ dominated eras is analyzed. Agreement of ∆α/α with the value suggested by recent observations of quasar absorption lines is obtained by adjusting a single parameter, the coupling of the scalar field to matter. Asymptotically α(t) in th...