Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2023
Volume 68, Number 6
Minneapolis, Minnesota (Apr 15-18)
Virtual (Apr 24-26); Time Zone: Central Time
Session T16: Applications of Nuclear Physics |
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Sponsoring Units: DNP Chair: Senta Victoria Greene, Vanderbilt Room: Marquette VIII - 2nd Floor |
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
T16.00001: Morphological and Elemental Changes of Palladium Immersed in Deuterium under Laser Irradiation Benjamin Barrowes, Warren Kadoya, Ginger Boitnott Previous experiments by Nassisi and Biberian exploring the properties and behavior of palladium under local optical excitation in hydrogen and deuterium atmospheres have reported the unexpected emergence of lighter elements such as nickel and silicon on the Pd substrate. While morphological and phase changes of Pd bathed in hydrogen have been studied extensively due to the remarkable ability of Pd to absorb hydrogen into the metal matrix, the effect on Pd from local excitation by laser irradiation under these conditions is less well understood. We investigate the origin and mechanism surrounding the emergence of these lighter elements from this relatively simple experiment. We submerged three separate Pd bars in 3 bar abs. of hydrogen and deuterium while simultaneously exposing them to optical stimulation at three different wavelengths and intensities. We acquired optical and SEM/EDS information from the samples both pre and post experiment in order to study before and after potential elemental changes to/on the Pd lattice. Whereas little to no elemental changes were observed under locations not irradiated, we found significant elemental differences under the locations of laser irradiation including the unexpected emergence of two separate 1 mm² patches of silicon under location irradiated with the green 200 mW laser and the 5mW red laser. We report on our methods and findings and recommend further investigation to explain the phenomena associated with these elemental changes. |
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
T16.00002: Measurement of the 18O(α,n)21Ne Reaction Cross Section for Applications of Nuclear Science Rebecca Toomey, Richard J deBoer, Steven D Pain, Michael T Febbraro, Marco T Pigni, Harrison E Sims, Gwenaelle Seymour, Jolie A Cizewski Understanding the decay product spectra is crucial for passive interrogation of nuclear material. For low burnup fuels, (α,n) reactions on 17,18O have been identified as a dominant source of neutrons. In the energy range of the α-decay of actinide elements, little data are available for the 18O(α,n)21Ne reaction, and it has been highlighted as a focus for experimental efforts. There is also interest in this reaction for other applications for nuclear physics. For example, in geochemistry, the production of 21Ne in Earth’s mantle provides insight into mantle processes. Existing data for this reaction are limited, with no partial cross section or neutron angular distribution data available. Therefore, a high-resolution measurement of the 18O(α,n)21Ne reaction was performed at the University of Notre Dame over the range Eα = 2-8 MeV, to extract partial and total cross sections. 10 ODeSA detectors were used for neutron spectroscopy, analyzed via the spectrum unfolding technique. In addition, 2 HPGe detectors were used to detect secondary γ rays. Partial differential cross sections for gamma and neutron channels and SCALE neutron source calculations using these data will be presented. Development of higher energy neutron detection systems for nonproliferation will also be presented. |
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
T16.00003: A physics-based muon trajectory estimation algorithm for muon tomographic applications Reshma S Ughade, Stylianos Chatzidakis Recently, the use of cosmic ray muons in critical national security applications, e.g., nuclear nonproliferation and safeguard verification, has gained attention due to unique muon properties such as high energy and low attenuation even in very dense materials. Applications where muon tomography has been demonstrated include cargo screening for detection of special nuclear materials smuggling, source localization, material identification, determination of nuclear fuel debris location in nuclear reactors, etc. However, muon image reconstruction techniques are still limited in resolution mostly due to multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS) within the target object. Improving and expanding muon tomography would require development of efficient & flexible physics-based algorithms to model the MCS process and accurately estimate the most probable trajectory of a muon as it traverses the target object. In the present work, we will present and discuss the use of a new algorithmic approach based on Bayesian probability theory and a Gaussian approximation of MCS for estimation of the most likely path of a cosmic ray muon traversing uniform or nonuniform media. Using GEANT4 simulations in a simple homogeneous 10 cm cubes of low, medium and high Z materials as a proof of concept, we show that better resolution and reduced measurement time can be achieved for cosmic ray muons of various energies, zenith angles, and flux. |
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
T16.00004: Abstract Withdrawn |
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