Bulletin of the American Physical Society
86th Annual Meeting of the APS Southeastern Section
Volume 64, Number 19
Thursday–Saturday, November 7–9, 2019; Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Session C02: Industrial and Applied Physics |
Hide Abstracts |
Chair: Timothy Black, University of North Carolina Wilmington Room: Holiday Inn Resort Airlie/Tidewater |
Thursday, November 7, 2019 2:00PM - 2:30PM |
C02.00001: Innovating a cost-competitive small modular nuclear reactor: BWRX-300 Invited Speaker: Jon W. Ball The nuclear industry has seen an unprecedented number of small modular and advanced reactor designs being developed in the global market. Today there are over 100 designs currently under development globally, and over 50 being developed in the United States alone. This presentation will highlight the macro drivers for new nuclear development and discuss the different technologies that are being contemplated. \\ General Electric has been involved in the nuclear industry for several decades and has been continuously developing new reactor technologies. This presentation will discuss a potentially disruptive small modular reactor called the BWRX-300 that is being developed to be cost competitive with gas and renewable generation. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 7, 2019 2:30PM - 3:00PM |
C02.00002: Alternatives to Californium-252 as a Neutron Source for the Non-Destructive Assay of Commercial Nuclear Fuel Invited Speaker: Ralph Reda Non-Destructive Assay has long been used for quality control and nuclear material accounting of light-water reactor nuclear fuel rods. In this method, fuel rods traverse through a scanner with an activation zone in which they are subjected to neutron radiation. The induced fission activity is subsequently measured as the rods exit the irradiator. From this and other information, the enrichment and other quality control characteristics of each rod and pellet are determined. Californium-252 ($^{\mathrm{252}}$Cf) has long been used as the neutron source in the fuel rod scanners, because it is an intense neutron emitter and is readily packaged in compact, portable capsules. Due to increasing cost and supply concerns with $^{\mathrm{252}}$Cf, nuclear fuel manufacturers, are seeking alternate neutron sources. This talk will discuss the pros and cons of replacing $^{\mathrm{252}}$Cf-based active interrogation with high-flux, accelerator-based neutron sources or eliminating neutron sources all together and shifting to passive non-destructive assay methods. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 7, 2019 3:00PM - 3:30PM |
C02.00003: The Relative Importance of Winds and Ocean Currents in Determining the Drift of Icebergs and Other Floating Objects Invited Speaker: Till Wagner It has been known for decades that Arctic icebergs drift at approximately 2\% of the wind velocity relative to the water. Unconstrained sea ice floes have been found to follow a similar 2\% drift law. Oil slicks, on the other hand, have been observed to follow a 3\% drift law. At a first glance the similarity of these empirical drift relationships may seem surprising, since drag coefficients, densities, and aspect ratios vary greatly between icebergs, sea ice, and oil slicks. Here, we investigate the relative roles of skin and form drag, density, and aspect ratio in determining how an object is driven by winds and ocean currents. Based on theoretical considerations, we find that there are substantial differences in the drift laws for end members of the parameter space (very thin/thick or very light/dense objects). However, for most realistic cases, we show that floating objects should be expected to drift at close to 3\% of the wind velocity. This factor arises from the square root of the ratio of the density of air to that of water. Finally, we test our theoretical findings using idealized laboratory flume experiments. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 7, 2019 3:30PM - 4:00PM |
C02.00004: Role of Physics in Atmospheric Sciences: Laboratory Measurement of the Optical and Physicochemical Properties of Fresh and Aged Biomass Burning Aerosols and impacts on Climate and Health Invited Speaker: Solomon Bililign Students increasingly want their studies to serve a societal good, and show increasing enthusiasm about problems of global importance. Physics plays a role in solving societal problems such as mitigate the effects of climate change and combat air pollution etc. We report an interdisciplinary project that use laser spectroscopy t for atmospheric application. An indoor smog chamber facility is used for studying the optical properties of biomass burning (BB) aerosols using sub-Saharan Africa fuels. The chamber is coupled with a cavity ring-down spectrometer, nephelometer, CPC, DMA and other analytical instruments. BB aerosols are generated by combusting wood samples in a tube furnace that allows to control burn conditions (temperature, air flow, oxygen content, and amount of fuel burned) and differentiate burning stages. Results of the measurements of extinction, scattering and single scattering albedo, of fresh and photo chemically aged (in clean and VOC polluted environment) BB aerosols will be presented. Refractive indices are obtained by fitting experimental results with approach using the Raleigh-Debye-Ghan theory models and TEM images of filter samples. Results are compared with FIREX-AQ field campaign observations. . [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700