Status and initial experiments of DRAGON-V facility for lithium-lead blanket technologies of hydrogen fusion reactors

A dual-coolant integrated experimental facility named DRAGON-V has been developed at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for the key technology research and performance evaluation of candidate liquid lithium-lead (PbLi) blanket of hydrogen fusion reactors. The loop is composed of a material test sub-loop and thermal-hydraulic test sub-loop, the design parameters are PbLi inventory 20 tons, PbLi temperature up to 550 °C, the maximum PbLi flow rate up to 40 kg/s. A novel cold trap system is designed to remove the suspended and crystalized impurities in PbLi fluid with three cooling zones and cross row arrangement of rod bundle filter elements. The paper describes the loop itself and its major components, initial loop testing, flow and measurement diagnostics and current experiments. The obtained test results of the loop and its components have demonstrated that the new facility is fully functioning and ready for experimental studies of material corrosion with/without a magnetic field, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect, purification, heat and mass transfer phenomena in PbLi flows and can also be used in mock-up testing in conditions relevant to fusion applications.     

Co?N graphene encapsulated cobalt catalyst for H2O2 decomposition under acidic conditions

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) has been listed as one of the 100 most important chemicals in the world. However, huge amount of residual H₂O₂ is hard to timely decomposed into O₂ and H₂O under acidic condition, easily resulting in explosion hazard. Here, we reported a core–shell structure catalyst, that is graphene with Co N structure encapsulated Co nanoparticles. Co N graphene shell serves as the active site for the H₂O₂ decomposition, and Co core further enhance this decomposition. Benefiting from it, the H₂O₂ decomposition were close to 100% after 6 cycles without pH adjustment, which increased 6 orders of magnitude compared with no catalyst. At the same time, the O₂ generation reached 99.67% in 2 h with little metal leaching, and ·OH has been greatly inhibited to only 0.08%. This work can cleanly remove H₂O₂ with little deep oxidation and protect the process of H₂O₂ utilization to achieve a safer world.     

基于移动窗口法的城市遥感生态质量评价研究

为进一步提高城市生态监测的精确度，在前人开展的城市生态遥感监测研究的基础上引入“区域尺度”的概念，充分考虑小区域范围内不同地物间的交互作用，并利用移动窗口模型(Moving Window-Remote Sensing Ecology Index, MW-RSEI)对沈阳市浑南区的遥感影像进行逐像元分析。实验结果表明，MW-RSEI模型和生态遥感监测模型（Remote Sensing Ecology Index, RSEI)在整体生态评价趋势上表现出一致性。但MW-RSEI模型对城市生态中的细节区域表征更明显。考虑到建筑及裸地周围植被的影响，其较差生态区域的占比仅为6%，生态评价为优的区域占比为11%。研究区生态评价结果表现得较为连续，并未出现明显的断层现象。该结果具有现实意义且与实际生态分布更为符合。MW-RSEI模型在城市生态监测中更为适用，可为相关部门提供一定的技术参考。     

Study on vapour dispersion and explosion from compressed hydrogen spill: Risk assessment on a hydrogen plant

Hydrogen produced from renewable resources is one of the cleanest fuels and could be used to store intermittent solar, wind and other energies. The main concern about using hydrogen is its hazards, such as high storage pressure, wide-range flammability, low mass density, and high diffusion. This study investigated the hazards of compressed hydrogen storage by developing a CFD model to understand the gas dispersion behaviour. The model was validated using the past experimental data and showed a good agreement, which could demonstrate the diffusion characteristics and gas stratification of a buoyant gas. A case study of an accidental release of compressed hydrogen from a storage tank was investigated to evaluate the risk of a hydrogen plant. A mathematical model of the jet spill was used to account for the choking effect from a high-pressure release to ensure the input velocity in CFD simulation is suitable for modelling gas dispersion using verified spatial and temporal scales, then the simulation results were used as inputs of vapour cloud explosions (VCEs) to investigate the potential overpressure effect. It was found the CFD model could predict a more reasonable flammable gas amount in cloud than using the bulk hydrogen release rate. The safety distance based on the overpressure prediction was reduced by 35%. The method proposed in this study can provide more validity for the consequence analysis as part of risk assessment.     

Automated prediction system of household energy consumption in cities using web crawler and optimized artificial intelligence

The supply of electrical energy is critical to convenient and comfortable living. However, people consume a large amount of energy, contributing to an energy crisis and global warming, and damaging some ecological cycles. Residential electricity consumption has greater elasticity than industrial and business consumption; it therefore has high energy-saving potential. This work establishes an automated platform, which provides information about residential electricity consumption in each city in Taiwan. Machine learning was used to forecast future residential electricity demand. A nature-inspired optimization method was applied to enhance the accuracy of the best machine learner, yielding an even better hybrid ensemble model. Performance measures indicate that the resulting model is accurate and provides effective information for reference. An automatic web-based system based on the model was combined with a web crawler and scheduled to run automatically to provide information on monthly residential electricity consumption in each county and city. By providing energy consumption information across the country, power providers and government can discuss policy and set different goals for energy use. The results of this study can facilitate the early implementation of energy-saving and carbon emission-reducing in cities and aid utility companies in establishing energy conservation guidelines.     

立柱加固型框架大楼的爆破拆除

采用定向控制爆破技术拆除立柱加固型7层框架大楼。为了彻底炸毁加固立柱,确保大楼顺利定向倾倒,通过多次爆破试验确定了炸药单耗、布孔参数和装药结构。为了控制大楼塌落时的触地震动,采取了秒差分区爆破、空中解体、铺垫缓冲层和开挖减震沟等技术措施。爆破过程中进行了震动监测。此外还介绍了起爆顺序、安全防护措施及爆破结果。     

Fire safe,sustainable loose furnishing

The aim of this exploratory study has been to investigate the fire properties and environmental aspects of different upholstery material combinations, mainly for domestic applications. An analysis of the sustainability and circularity of selected textiles, along with lifecycle assessment, is used to qualitatively evaluate materials from an environmental perspective. The cone calorimeter was the primary tool used to screen 20 different material combinations from a fire performance perspective. It was found that textile covers of conventional fibres such as wool, cotton and polyester, can be improved by blending them with fire resistant speciality fibres. A new three‐dimensional web structure has been examined as an alternative padding material, showing preliminary promising fire properties with regard to ignition time, heat release rates and smoke production.     

某福利院一起肠炎沙门菌食源性疾病的调查分析

目的 对某福利院一起肠炎沙门菌食源性疾病进行调查和溯源,为研究相关食源性疾病提供参考。方法采用流行病学、食品卫生学和脉冲场凝胶电泳(PFGE)同源性分析等方法,分析本次食源性疾病事件。结果 确认本次事件中病例23名,患病率5.65%(23/407)；现场采集病例肛拭子15份和厨房工作人员肛拭子3份、留样菜品3份、水果2份以及冰棒1份,其中从11份病例肛拭子中检出肠炎沙门菌,PFGE结果显示11株肠炎沙门菌的DNA条带图谱相似性为96.4%,聚类分析为同一型,结合流行病学调查,初步判断菌株来自同一克隆系。结论 综合流行病学、食品卫生学和实验室检测结果,确定为一起肠炎沙门菌引起的食源性疾病,福利院应加强对特殊人群的饮食安全管理,制定相应的食源性疾病突发事件应急处理预案,防止此类事故再发生。     

多堆厂址始发事件分析探讨

多堆厂址一级概率安全评价（PSA）研究中，机组数目的增加使得建模工作量剧增，给整个核电厂的风险评估带来困难。结合已有基础，本文研究了多堆厂址始发事件分析的筛选方法，提出利用堆芯损伤频率（CDF）上下限值评估方法，分析厂址内不同机组数对厂址CDF的影响。结果表明，双机组厂址适合优先进行具体分析。针对双机组核电站，对多堆厂址内各始发事件进行筛选。结果表明，丧失厂外电、丧失热阱等事件适合建模分析，并对其他筛选结果给出后续分析建议，为多堆厂址一级PSA后续事故序列建模工作提供了重要基础。     

Improving the shelf life stability of vacuum-packed fresh-cut peaches (Prunus persica L.) by radio frequency heating in water

The present study aimed to investigate the influence of radio frequency (RF) heating at 70 and 80 °C, in comparison with the traditional conventional heating. The RF heating technology was applied for maintaining the colour and textural quality as well as inactivating the enzymatic activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and reducing the Escherichia coli growth in packaged fresh-cut peach samples. To evaluate this, 120 g of freshly cut peach fruit was placed in heat-resistant plastic bags, and 50 mL of sugar solution (12°Brix) was added to each bag and vacuum-packed for conventional heating and radio frequency (RF) heating. Our results demonstrated that the RF heating process could reduce the heating time by up to 83% at 70 and 80 °C as compared to conventional heating. Moreover, RF heating at 70 and 80 °C reduced the PPO enzymatic activity, which caused enzymatic browning, up to 85.46% and 93.5%, respectively, as compared to 40.86% reduction only for conventional heating. Furthermore, RF heating completely inhibited E. coli growth. Collectively, we demonstrated that RF heating is an emerging and promising technology for improving the quality of fresh-cut fruits such as peach during various storage conditions. The present study provides relatively novel information on the effectiveness of RF heating in maintaining the quality of fresh-cut peaches. In the future, we would like to investigate the effectiveness of RF heating on other agricultural products.