1st Campaign Research Articles

Global distribution of tritium in JET with the ITER-like wall

• Tritium (T) distributions in Be, W and W-coated CFC tiles from JET were examined. • The center of Be outer limiter showed the highest T retention in the main chamber. • The co-deposits in the divertor with high C fraction showed high T content. • The C fraction and T content after 3rd campaign were low compared to 1st campaign. • T retention in the bulk W tile was far smaller than that in the W-coated CFC tiles. Nondestructive analysis of tritium (T) distribution was performed by means of imaging plate technique on specimens cut from the Be limiters, W-coated carbon tiles and bulk W lamellae retrieved from the JET tokamak after the first and third experimental campaigns with the ITER-like wall. Afterwards, analyses were continued using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, microscopy techniques and thermal desorption spectroscopy. Co-deposits formed on the W-coated tiles in the 1st campaign showed large T retention because of high carbon content reaching up to 50 atomic %, while the carbon fraction in co-deposits after the 3rd campaign was distinctly lower. The T retention of the plasma-facing surface of the bulk W tile was smaller than that of the W-coated tiles by a factor of 20, while deposition of small amount of T was found at the side surfaces facing to the gaps in a lamella structure. The correlation of T distributions with surface morphology and the discharge conditions is discussed.

Estudo da fertilidade dos solos de cobertura de um aterro sanitário do Estado do Ceará (Nordeste, Brasil)

<p class="yiv0149913358msonormal">O objetivo da pesquisa foi avaliar o potencial dos solos de cobertura de um aterro sanitário do Estado do Ceará (Nordeste, Brasil), em termos de fertilidade, como substrato para a sobrevivência e desenvolvimento da cobertura vegetal. Foram escolhidos quatro pontos de amostragem do solo de cobertura, extraídas amostras simples (500g) em duas profundidades (0-20 cm e 20-40 cm) que resultaram em 16 amostras (1ª campanha: agosto de 2014, 2ª campanha: dezembro de 2014) analisadas quanto à concentração de 20 atributos químicos. A maior parte dos atributos indicou condição favorável para a sobrevivência e desenvolvimento da cobertura vegetal. Houve grande tendência de diminuição da concentração dos atributos com a profundidade, concordando com a literatura. O solo de cobertura parece ter permitido às raízes boa fixação, pois existem árvores de grande porte sobre a área estudada e não foram verificados tombamentos.</p>

ASSESSMENT OF THE ROOF - HARVESTED RAINWATER QUALITY IN SOME SUBURB DISTRICTS, HANOI, VIET NAM

In this paper, the quality of roof harvested rainwater in Dan Phuong, Phuc Tho and Ung Hoa districts, Ha Noi city was assessed. Roof-harvested rainwater were taken in 2 campaigns (November 2015 and April 2016) then analyzed according to the QCVN 01:2009/BYT. The findings showed that in the studied districts, rainwater was collected from the tile, concrete, fibro cement and metal roofing, of which tile roof is the most common one which accounted for 65.6 %. The quality of roof-harvested rainwater in general was rather good. However, parameters including pH, permanganate value, total coliform and Ecoli did not meet the standards. The pH values obtained were almost in the basic range, of which 38/90 samples (42.2 %) were greater than 8.5 and exceeded the standard (QCVN 01:2009/BYT), only 4 samples had acidic water with pH around 4.5. For permanganate value, they ranged from 0.33 to 5.61 mg/L with the number of samples exceeded the permitted standard reaching 30/90 and 17/90 samples in the 1st and 2nd campaign, respectively. In the 1st campaign, the total coliforms and E.coli were detected in 75 and 72 % of the roof harvested rainwater samples, respectively; while in the 2nd campaign these numbers were 62 and 38 %, respectively.

Experiences on vacuum conditioning in the cryostat of KSTAR tokamak

Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device has been successfully operated for the plasma experiment from KSTAR 1st campaign to 4th campaign. The main pumping system for the cryostat has to maintain the target pressure below 1.0×10−4mbar at room temperature and 1.0×10−5mbar at extremely low temperature for the plasma experiment against the air leak coming from ports of vessel and/or the helium leak from cooling loops in the cryostat.No leak has been detected at room temperature. Unexpectedly, the cold-leak appeared in the cryostat at temperature around 50K during the cool-down in the KSTAR 2nd campaign. We carefully analyzed the characteristics of detected cold leak because it can cause the increase of the base pressure in the cryostat.After the cool-down, the leak detection was performed to locate the position and size of the leak by the pressurizing the loops. As a result, it is found that the cold leak was located at cooling loops for PF/CS coils and CS structure. Nevertheless, the vacuum inside the cryostat was well maintained below 6.0×10−8mbar during the entire operation period. The impact of the He-leak in present status on the plasma operation is negligible. However, we have found that the leak rate increases as a function of time. Therefore careful monitoring on cold-leak is an important technical issue for the operation of superconducting tokamak.

DETERMINANTS OF INDOOR AND OUTDOOR LEVELS OF NO2 IN A COHORT OF 4-YEARS-OLD CHILDREN

Background and Aims: Home outdoor NO2 has been used as a marker of personal exposure to traffic-related air pollution. However, recent studies suggest that exposure to indoor NO2 may be a risk factor in itself for respiratory health and neurodevelopment. We aimed at assessing the relationship between indoor and outdoor NO2 levels and their determinants in a subset of the INMA birth cohort of Sabadell, Spain. Methods: Indoor and outdoor NO2 levels were measured with passive samplers during two measurement campaigns of one week (1st campaign in fall/winter, 2nd campaign in summer) at home addresses of 96 children. Characteristics of the home surroundings (street configuration, building density, and traffic-related variables) were obtained by the field workers and by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Information on sources of NO2 indoor levels (gas appliances, tobacco smoke) and additional variables (e.g.use of extractor fan, air conditioning) were obtained through questionnaires in each campaign. Results: Mean levels of outdoor NO2 were 36.7 µg/m3 in fall/winter and 34 µg/m3 in summer, while mean levels of indoor NO2 were 22.8 µg/m3 in fall/winter and 26 µg/m3 in summer. The correlation between indoor and outdoor levels was lower in fall/winter (r=0.35) than in summer (r=0.51). The main determinants of outdoor NO2 were the street configuration (continuous buildings on both sides vs. other configurations) and traffic-related GIS variables. Indoor NO2 levels were influenced by tobacco smoke, time using gas cooking, time opening windows to ventilate, house age, and an interaction between outdoor NO2 levels and use of air conditioning. Conclusions: The influence of traffic-related NO2 pollution on indoor levels is higher in summer than in fall/winter, probably due to differences in ventilation patterns. Gas cooking and tobacco smoke are the main indoor sources of NO2, whereas ventilation, use of air conditioning, and house age are additional determinants.

A two-way approach for the definition of anthropogenic and natural copper anomalies at a massive sulphide mine. The case of the Neves Corvo mine in Iberian Pyrite Belt, Portugal

The Neves Corvo mine is situated in a very important massive sulphide metallogenic province, the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB). The study area includes this copper mine and six other abandoned Cu, Mn and pyrite mines. The objective of the study was to distinguish pre-mining concentrations of Cu from mining sources. This was done to evaluate the real extension of mining induced copper in soils. To decrease costs in the remediation stage, by means of the presented approach, the mining induced Cu in the environment will be separated from its pre-mining baseline concentration.The mathematical approach used is based on two regressions with two distinct sets of soil samples (surface horizon) collected in the same locations in different periods (campaigns). One set of soil samples was collected before the existence of the Neves Corvo mine in the 1970 decade (1st campaign) and the other set was sampled in 1998, ten years after Neves Corvo mining began (2nd campaign). Regressions were made independently, with samples from the two sets: one with a group of samples selected from the 1st campaign, in an area where no mining activity was known, and the second regression was performed with all the samples of the 2nd campaign set.From the first regression, the tests proved that it was possible to distinguish mining induced copper concentrations from the pre-mining baseline copper values. The second regression resulted not suitable for the objective because the independent variables were not appropriate for the tests and probably the complete set of samples of the second campaign was also not appropriate. This study establishes areas where Cu concentrations were possibly only prior to mining and others, which were mining induced.

Improvement of initial vacuum condition along 2008–2010 KSTAR campaign by vessel baking

Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) is upgraded for its KSTAR 3rd campaign for new target mission to produce the D-shaped plasma with a target plasma current of 500 kA and/or pulse length of 5 s. New Plasma Facing Components (PFCs) are installed which leads to the increase of the surface area of the vessel by a factor of about 5. The vacuum conditioning such as the vessel baking has been performed in order to remove various kinds of impurities including H 2O, carbon and oxygen for the plasma. The total outgassing rate in the KSTAR 1st campaign was measured as 1.5 × 10 −4 mbar ℓ s −1 which is increased by a factor of 3 (6.49 × 10 −4 mbar ℓ s −1) in the KSTAR 3rd campaign. Nevertheless, the outgassing rates per unit area have been decreased from 9.31 × 10 −5 mbar ℓ m −2 s −1 to 1.22 × 10 −5 mbar ℓ m −2 s −1 due to the upgrade of baking system and series of baking operation.

The operation result of supervisory interlock system for the KSTAR 1st campaign

The supervisory interlock system (SIS), the personal safety interlock (PSI) and the radiation monitoring system (RMS) are the safety and protection system for the KSTAR operations. The supervisory interlock system prevents men and devices from an accident and it protects auxiliary systems and the superconducting tokamak against the propagation hazardous events. SIS is collecting events of the tokamak and auxiliary systems and decides a level of the event and command to stop the actions of local I&C for the KSTAR operation. The local interlock system is self-protecting from local accidents and executing orders from supervisory interlock system. SIS had accomplished its own functions at the first campaign of the KSTAR. Even though several unexpected incidents and mismanagement had occurred, the interlock function had been properly responding. We have test result of the emergency stop function for the superconducting magnet power supplies against accidents. We measured different shutdown time of each magnet power supply, which is about 1 min, but we need to more analysis to the source of delay. We had inserted the current and density fault protection logics to stop the ECH and the ICRF at central control system through the first campaign. The short message system (SMS) had helped to restore fast of faults in local and KSTAR integrated control system (ICS). The processor regular scanning time is about 75 ms that is longer than recommended scanning time of the redundancy system. We had reduced it <20 ms by optimization of logic program during the maintenance period. This paper describes the interlock system functions of the first campaign, operation results, and update contents and results.

Benchmarking the Three-Dimensional CAD-Based Discrete Ordinates Code “ATTILA” Using Integral Dose-Rate Experiments and Comparison to MCNP Results

The new feature of the ATTILA 3-D code to calculate dose rates in a given geometry was benchmarked using the dose rate experiments performed at the FNG 14.1 MeV source facility located at ENEA, Frascati, Italy. Two experimental campaigns were performed. Post irradiation measurements were undertaken using Geiger-Müller, TLD, and tissue-equivalent scintillators. Other measurements were also performed during irradiation. ATTILA results were compared to the experimental data and to the results of the MCNP Monte Carlo code published earlier. The calculations were performed through three consecutive steps using the same ATTILA code along with its built-in activation library, FORNAX. The ANSI/ANS6.1.1-77 and ICRP74 Ka flux-to--dose conversion factors were used. Good agreement with the experimental data and the MCNP results was obtained for times >7 d after irradiation in the 1st campaign but large underestimation was found at shorter time steps. Both dose rates and integrated gamma fluxes are largely underestimated (∼20-40%) in the 2nd campaign.

The Evaluation of a Mass Media Campaign Aimed at Weight Gain Prevention Among Young Dutch Adults**

The objective was to evaluate a 3-year nationwide mass media campaign aimed at preventing weight gain. The campaign was aimed primarily at raising awareness of the importance of weight-gain prevention and bringing these issues to the attention of the Dutch public. Eleven serial, independent, cross-sectional, population-based telephone surveys were used to assess campaign awareness and impact (N ranged between 483 and 493 for each of the 11 surveys). The surveys were conducted before and after six campaign waves. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were used to test for trends over time and for differences among the surveys for campaign awareness, message recall, perceived body weight status, overweight-related risk perceptions, attitudes, perceived social support, self-efficacy expectations, and motivations for preventing weight gain. Campaign awareness ranged from 61% after the 1st campaign wave to 88.4% after the final wave. The campaign's television broadcasting activities were an important source of campaign awareness, from both the campaign's television commercials and television-based free publicity. Message recall ranged from 41.9% to 68.1%. Small positive differences were found in attitudes, perceived social support, and intentions for preventing weight gain. Additionally, the results suggest mixed effects on self-efficacy expectations and a negative effect on risk perception. The campaign resulted in high campaign awareness, especially as a result of television commercials and free publicity on television. The results suggest that the campaign was able to create more positive attitudes and motivation but lower risk perceptions and efficacy for preventing weight gain.

Fertility Decline and Birth Control in the People's Republic of China

The main problem with assessing the Chinese effort to reduce fertility is the lack of reliable data. Vital statistics and data-gathering efforts during the pre-1949 era the 1950s and 1960s and the 1st and 2nd birth control campaigns under the Peoples Republic are summarized. The 1st campaign probably had less effect on the national birthrate than the urbanization changing age composition and the socioeconomic upheavals of that era. Figures regarding the campaign of the 1960s are even less reliable. This situation eased somewhat in the 1970s. Very low levels of fertility mortality and natural increase are reported for the 1970s but all these figures are doubtful. For 1 thing the figures do not vary as much as is normal from urban to rural areas. The organization and tactics used in the present campaign which began in 1968 are outlined. A major effort has been made to change traditional views of marriage and family to institute later marriage and 2-child families. Modern means of contraception have been introduced to facilitate this movement. Traditional views and practice persist and coercion has been necessary. Most evidence indicates progress in reducing birth and natural increase rates. Credit is given to the birth planning program.