Application of medium energy plasma focus device in study of radioisotopes

Pulsed neutrons generated in a plasma focus device are used for the thermal neutron activation analysis (TNAA) of selected three elements having widely different half-lives varying from a few seconds to a few days [Dysprosium (Dy), Manganese (Mn) and Gold (Au)]. Neutron pulse having strength of $(1.2\pm 0.3)\times {10}^9$ neutrons/pulse with a pulse width of $46\pm 5\text{ns}$ is produced by “MEPF-12” device operated at a filling gas (deuterium + 0.5% krypton) pressure of 3 mbar. The fast 2.45 MeV D–D neutrons are thermalized before irradiating the sample. The decay gammas from the radioisotopes ^165mDy ($T_{1/2}=1.26\text{min.}$), ⁵⁶Mn ($T_{1/2}=2.58\text{hrs.}$), and ¹⁹⁸Au ($T_{1/2}=2.69\text{days}$) produced via reactions, ¹⁶⁴Dy($n,\gamma$)^165mDy, ⁵⁵Mn($n,\gamma$) ⁵⁶Mn, and ¹⁹⁷Au($n,\gamma$) ¹⁹⁸Au respectively are counted off-line in a lead shielded well type $76\times 76{\text{mm}}^2$ NaI(Tl) detector coupled to a calibrated 2048 channel analyzer. The values of half-lives evaluated from the measured decay gammas, $1.43\pm 0.3\text{min.}$, $2.56\pm 0.5\text{hrs.}$ and $2.84\pm 0.6\text{days}$ respectively for the radioisotopes of Dy, Mn and Au, are seen to be close to the values reported in literature.     

Mass resolved angular distribution in helium ion induced fission of233U

Mass resolved fission fragment angular distribution was measured in the 28.5 MeV alpha induced fission of²³³U using recoil catcher technique and direct gamma spectrometry. The angular distribution of 8 fission products were obtained. The angular anisotropies of asymmetric fission products were found to be higher than those of symmetric products indicating a correlation between the fragment angular distribution and the mass distribution.The authors are grateful to Dr. S.K. Kataria and Dr. T. Datta for fruitful discussions. We thank the operation crew of the variable energy cyclotron, Calcutta for their help in carrying out the irradiations. Thanks are due to Dr. P.R. Natarajan, Head of the Radiochemistry Division for his keen interest in the work.     

Complete and incomplete fusion in12C+93Nb and16O+89Y reactions

Excitation functions for the evaporation residues for the reactions¹²C+⁹³Nb and¹⁶O+⁸⁹Y in the projectile energy range of 4 to 6.5 MeV/amu have been measured using off-line gamma spectrometry. The excitation functions for neutron(xn), proton(pxn) and one alpha(xn) emission channels are practically similar for both the reactions. However the products formed by two alpha(2xn) emission show much higher cross sections in the¹²C+⁹³Nb than the¹⁶O+⁸⁹Y system. This has been explained in terms of the incomplete fusion process involving transfer of an alpha particle from the projectile to the target in the former case.Authors thank Shri D.C. Ephraim for making the rolled metal foils and the operation crew of PELLETRON facility for their help in carrying out the irradiations. Authors are grateful to Dr. P.R. Natarajan, Head Radiochemistry Division for his keen interest in this work.     

After effects of β− on time differential perturbed angular correlation spectra

The after effects of β⁻ -decay on time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) spectra of II–VI semiconductor CdS have been studied using β⁻ -emitting¹¹¹Ag as well as^111mCd as probe nuclei. The TDPAC spectrum of¹¹¹Ag in CdS exhibits a time dependent interaction indicating that the preceding β⁻ -decay leaves the daughter nucleus in an excited state. The recovery time (τ_g) of the probe atom was found to be 16±6 ns while Abragam and Pound's relaxation time (τ_kr) was found to be 9±2 ns. The results show that β⁻ -decay does change the chemical environment around the probe atom.     

The time differential perturbed angular correlation study of binding of hafnium to humic acid and its model compound

Time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) spectroscopy has been used to study the binding of hafnium to mandelic acid, which is a model compound of humic acid. The Fourier transform of TDPAC spectrum of Hf–mandelate complex showed two ω values, namely, ω_Q1 = 77 (±0.4) Mrad/s and ω_Q2 = 111 (±3.1) Mrad/s. The asymmetry parameters for the two sites were found to be 0.7 and 0.3, respectively. The electric field gradient (EFG) around the metal ion was theoretically calculated using the computer code GAMESS. The calculated EFG value was found to be in reasonable agreement with that deduced from experiment. Contrary to Hf–mandelate, the TDPAC spectrum of Hf–humate system did not show characteristic features of discrete binding sites.     

Dielectric relaxation phenomena of rigid polar liquid molecules under giga hertz electric field

The dielectric relaxation phenomena of rigid polar liquid molecules chloral and ethyltrichloroacetate (j) in benzene, n-hexane and n-heptane (i) under 4.2, 9.8 and 24.6 GHz electric fields at 30°C are studied to show the possible existence of double relaxation times τ ₂ and τ ₁ for rotations of the whole and the flexible parts of molecules. The probability of showing double relaxation is more in aliphatic solvents indicating their nonrigidity. The symmetric and asymmetric distribution parameters γ and δ are obtained from X _ij ^′ /X _0ij and X _ij ^″ /X _0ij and w _j →0 where X _ij ^′ and X _ij ^″ are real and imaginary parts of the complex orientational susceptibility X _i ^* and X _0ij is the low frequency susceptibility which is real. X _ij ’s are involved with the measured dielectric relative permittivities ε _ij ^′ , ε _in ^″ , ε _0ij and ε _∞ij of solutions. The theoretical weighted contributions c ₁ and c ₂ towards dielectric dispersions by Fröhlich’s method are compared with the experimental ones obtained from the graphical variation of X _ij ^′ /X _0ij and X _ij ^″ /X _0ij with weight fractions w _j ’s at w _j → 0. The measured dipole moments μ ₂ and μ ₁ of the whole and the flexible part of a polar molecule in terms of the linear coefficients β’s of X _ij ^′ ’s with w _j ’s and the estimated τ ₂ and τ ₁ reveal their associations with aliphatic solvents. The theoretical dipole moments μ _theo’s from the available bond angles and bond moments of the substituent polar groups of the molecules with the estimated μ’s suggest the mesomeric, inductive and electromeric effects in them under GHz electric field.     

Exact controllability of a semilinear thermoelastic system with control and nonlinearity in thermal component only

A result concerning the exact controllability of semilinear thermoelastic system, in which the control and nonlinear term occurs solely in the thermal equation, is derived under the influence of rotational inertia and Lipschitz nonlinearity, subject to the clamped/Dirichlet boundary conditions. In the proof we make use the result given by Avalos G. [Differential and Integral Equations, 13 (2000), 613-630] which states that the corresponding linear system is exact controllable. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Two-dimensional wave propagation in a rotating elastic solid with voids

Two-dimensional wave propagation is studied in an isothermal linear isotropic elastic material with voids rotating with constant angular velocity based on a theory of elastic material with voids developed by Ie?an (1986) in the thermoelastic context. It is found that there exist three coupled plane waves propagating with distinct phase speeds. The presence of voids and the rotation of the medium are responsible for this coupling. In the absence of voids, the classical longitudinal and transverse waves are found to be coupled through the rotation of the medium. At very large frequency or when the angular rotation is very small relative to the wave frequency the waves are decoupled and propagate with distinct phase speeds. These are (i) a longitudinal wave, (ii) a transverse wave and (iii) a longitudinal wave corresponding to the change in void volume fraction. The first two correspond to the waves of classical elasticity, while the third is new and arises from the presence of the voids. The results are illustrated graphically.     

Sorption of plutonium from low level liquid waste using nano MnO2

Nano-crystalline MnO₂ has been synthesized by the method of alcoholic hydrolysis of KMnO₄ and its potential as a sorbent for plutonium present in the low level liquid waste (LLW) solutions was investigated. The kinetic studies on the sorption of Pu by MnO₂ reveal the attainment of equilibrium sorption in 15 h, however 90 % of sorption could be achieved within an hour. In the studies on optimization of the solution conditions for sorption, it was observed that the sorption increases with the pH of the aqueous solution, attains the maximum value of 100 % at pH = 3 and remains constant thereafter. The sorption was found to be nearly independent of the ionic strength (0.01–1.0 M) of the aqueous solutions maintained using NaClO₄, indicating the inner sphere complexation between the Pu⁴⁺ ions and the surface sites on MnO₂. Interference studies with different fission products, viz., Cs⁺, Sr²⁺ and Nd³⁺, revealed decrease in the percentage sorption with increasing pH of the suspension indicating the competition between the metal ions. However, at the metal ion concentrations prevalent in the low level liquid waste solutions, the decrease in the Pu sorption was only marginally decreased to 90 % at pH = 3, the decrease being more in the case of Nd³⁺ than that in the case of Cs⁺. This study, therefore, shows nano-crystalline MnO₂ can be used as a sorbent for separation of Pu from LLW solutions.     

Simultaneous determination of Cs and Sr in the high level waste by ion-chromatography

A method based on ion-chromatography has been developed for determination of Cs and Sr in high level waste (HLW) without matrix separation. The acidity of HLW (3 M HNO₃) was decreased to 0.01 M by addition of NaOH. Chromatographic separation of Cs⁺ and Sr⁺⁺ in presence of bulk Na⁺ has achieved using methane sulphonic acid as mobile phase in isocratic and gradient mode. The calibration plot was linear for the concentration range of 0.5–12 mg/L for Cs and 0.025–6 mg/L for Sr with regression coefficients close to 1. RSD obtained for Cs and Sr was 1 and 5 % respectively. Detection limit calculated as 3(S/N) was found to be 20 μg/L for Cs and 30 μg/L for Sr. The standard addition procedure was used to validate the developed method. The samples received from PREFRE, Tarapur and WIP, BARC were analyzed by the new method and the results are presented.