Nuclear Physics in Norway, 1933–1955

In the late 1940s and the 1950s, Norwegian nuclear scientists, engineers, and administrators were deeply split over their nation’s goals, organization, politics, and tools for research in nuclear physics. One faction was determined to build a nuclear reactor in Norway, while another fiercely opposed the reactor plans and focused on particle accelerators. The first faction comprised scientific entrepreneurs and research technologists, the second academic scientists, most of whom began their research careers in nuclear physics in the 1930s. To understand this conflict, I trace the development of nuclear research in Norway from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s, placing it within an international context. Roland Wittje is working on his habilitation thesis in the History of Science Unit at the University of Regensburg, Germany.     

XPS investigations of ruthenium deposited onto representative inner surfaces of nuclear reactor containment buildings

In the case of a hypothetical severe accident in a nuclear power plant, interactions of gaseous RuO₄ with reactor containment building surfaces (stainless steel and epoxy paint) could possibly lead to a black Ru-containing deposit on these surfaces. Some scenarios include the possibility of formation of highly radiotoxic RuO₄(g) by the interactions of these deposits with the oxidizing medium induced by air radiolysis, in the reactor containment building, and consequently dispersion of this species. Therefore, the accurate determination of the chemical nature of ruthenium in the deposits is of the high importance for safety studies. An experiment was designed to model the interactions of RuO₄(g) with samples of stainless steel and of steel covered with epoxy paint. Then, these deposits have been carefully characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The analysis by XPS of Ru deposits formed by interaction of RuO₄(g), revealed that the ruthenium is likely to be in the IV oxidation state, as the shapes of the Ru 3d core levels are very similar with those observed on the RuO₂·xH₂O reference powder sample. The analysis of O 1s peaks indicates a large component attributed to the hydroxyl functional groups. From these results, it was concluded that Ru was present on the surface of the deposits as an oxyhydroxide of Ru(IV). It has also to be pointed out that the presence of “pure” RuO₂, or of a thin layer of RuO₃ or Ru₂O₅, coming from the decomposition of RuO₄ on the surface of samples of stainless steel and epoxy paint, could be ruled out. These findings will be used for further investigations of the possible revolatilisation phenomena induced by ozone.     

Radiation attenuation and nuclear properties of high density concrete made with steel aggregates

Abstract

The fast neutron and gamma ray spectra measured behind different thickness of steel scrap concrete with density of 4 g/cm³ have been studied. The mix proportions by weight of this type of concrete were 1 cement: 6.89 steel scrap: 2.9 sand and 0.5 Water. Comparison with a standard ordinary concrete of density 2.3 g/cm³ have been carried out. The measurements were made using a collimated beam of both gamma rays and neutrons emitted from one of the horizontal channel of the Egyptian Research Reactor-1. A fast neutron and gamma ray spectrometer with a stilbene crystal was used to measure the spectra of fast neutrons and gamma rays. Pulse shape discrimination using the zero cross over technique was used to separate the photon pulses from the electron pulses. The equation due to Schmidt has been modified and applied for determining the neutron effective removal cross sections (～_R) for steel scrap, ordinary, hematite–serpentine, ilmenite–limonite and ilmenite concretes. This equation gives results which are in good agreement with the measured values. The derived empirical equation in a previous work to calculate the neutron integral flux behind different thicknesses of different types of concretes, gives good results for steel scrap concrete under investigation comparing with the corresponding experimental data. Total neutron macroscopic cross sections, linear attenuation coefficients for gamma rays and the half-value layers for both radiations at different energies have been obtained for steel scrap concrete and comparing with the corresponding values of ordinary concrete. The results show that steel scrap concrete is better than ordinary, hematite–serpentine, ilmenite–limonite and ilmenite concretes from the radiation shielding point of view.     

A kinetic investigation of removal of chromium from aqueous solutions with a strong cation exchange resin

A kinetic investigation was performed with an ion exchange resin for chromium. A strong cation exchange resin (Amberlite IR 120) was used for removal of chromium. The effects of concentration, resin amount, and stirring speed on kinetics were investigated. The metal concentration range studied was between 5 to 160 mg/dm³ (the amount of solution was 4 dm³), the resin amount range was between 5 to 20 mg, and the stirring speed range was between 1000 to 3500 rpm. Equilibrium experiments were performed for calculation of separation factor. Kinetic studies were done using a Kressman-Kitchener stirrer reactor system and the results were compared with existing kinetic models. Two models, Nernst-Plank film diffusion control model (fdc) and solid phase diffusion control model (pdc), respectively were identified, and the dependence of the rate on parameters such as solution concentration, resin amount, stirring speed, etc. was examined for each of them. The interpretation of these data shows that the system is probably controlled by both film and particle diffusion. Correspondence: Sevgi Kocaoba, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Art and Science, Yildiz Technical University, Davutpasa Cad. No: 127, 34210 Davutpasa-Istanbul, Turkey.     

Phenylboronic acid immunoaffinity reactor coupled with flow injection chemiluminescence for determination of α-fetoprotein

A reusable and sensitive immunoassay based on phenylboronic acid immunoaffinity reactor in combination with flow injection chemiluminescence (CL) for determination of glycoprotein was described. The reactor was fabricated by immobilizing 3-aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) on glass microbeads with γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPMS) as linkage. The α-fetoprotein (AFP) could be easily immobilized on the APBA coated beads through sugar-boronic interaction. After an off-line incubation, the mixture of the analyte AFP with horseradish peroxidase-labeled AFP antibody (HRP-anti-AFP) was injected into the reactor. This led the trapping of free HRP-anti-AFP by the surface coated AFP on glass beads. The trapped HRP-anti-AFP was detected by chemiluminescence due to its sensitizing effect on the reaction of luminol and hydrogen peroxide. Under optimal conditions, the chemiluminescent signal was proportional to AFP concentration in the range of 10-100 ng mL⁻¹. The whole assay process including regeneration of the reactor could be completed within 31 min. The proposed system showed acceptable detection and fabrication reproducibility, and the results obtained with the present method were in acceptable agreement with those from parallel single-analyte test of practical clinical sera. The described method enabled a low-cost, time saving and was potential to detect the serum AFP level in clinical diagnosis.     

Effect of oxygen addition on the hydrogen production from ethanol steam reforming in a Pd–Ag membrane reactor

In this communication, a porous stainless steel (PSS) tube was electrolessly plated into Pd–Ag membrane reactor which was used for separating hydrogen produced in an ethanol steam reforming reaction with the addition of oxygen, which has not been reported before. Palladium and silver were deposited on porous stainless steel tube via the sequential electroless plating procedure with an overall film thickness of 20 μm and Pd/Ag weight ratio of 78/22. Ethanol–water mixture (n_water/n_ethanol = 1 or 3) and oxygen (n_oxygen/n_ethanol = 0.2 or 0.7) were fed concurrently into the membrane reactor packed with MDC-3. The reaction temperatures were set at 593–723 K and the pressures 3–10 atm. The effect of oxygen addition plays a vital role on the ethanol steam reforming reaction, especially for the Pd–Ag membrane reactor in which a higher flux of hydrogen is required. If oxygen in the feed is not sufficient, it would be possible that steam reforming reaction prevails. Inversely, high O₂ addition will shift the reaction scenario to be partial oxidation dominating, and selectivity of CO₂ increases with increasing oxygen feed. At high pressure, autothermal reaction of ethanol would be easily reached.     

Open tubular columns and non-porous packings in copolymer HPLC analysis

Summary The separation of poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) is presented in open tubular stainless steel columns and columns packed with non-porous glass beads. Furthermore separation on a short silica packed column proved to be better than on a similar longer column. A definition of the term high performance precipitation liquid chromatography is suggested for gradient elution with sample injection into a starting eluent which is a nonsolvent for the copolymer under investigation. The choice of a suitable solvent-nonsolvent combination is of essential importance.     

Hydrogen Production by Steam Reforming of Ethanol: A Two Step Process

A two-layer fixed-bed catalytic reactor for hydrogen production by steam reforming of ethanol is proposed. In this reactor ethanol is first converted to acetaldehyde over a Cu-based catalyst and then acetaldehyde is converted to a hydrogen-rich mixture over a Ni-based catalyst. It is shown that the use of such type of reactor prevents coke formation and provides hydrogen yields closed to equilibrium.     

Model‐based design and synthesis of gradient MMA/tBMA copolymers by computer‐programmed semibatch atom transfer radical copolymerization

Methyl methacrylate (MMA)/tert‐butyl methacrylate (tBMA) gradient copolymers having linear and hyperbolic composition profiles were synthesized. These special copolymer products were achieved via a model‐based computer‐controlled semibatch atom transfer radical copolymerization (ATRcoP) process. A simple ATRcoP model was developed based on the terminal model. The equilibrium constants in the ATRP of MMA and tBMA were estimated by the data correlation. The model was verified by batch experiments and was found to give good correlation for the polymerization rate, molecular weight, and copolymer composition data. The model coupled with a reactor model was then applied to the semibatch ATRcoP and was used to calculate comonomer feeding rates for the targeted gradient composition profiles. It was found that the experimental monomer conversion, molecular weight, and cumulative copolymer composition were in good agreement with their targeted theoretical values. The gradient copolymers had low polydispersities close to 1.1. This work demonstrated the feasibility of the model‐based semibatch ATRcoP in fine‐tuning gradient copolymer composition profiles. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 69–79, 2009