Considerations on ex-vessel corium behavior: Scenarios, MCCI and coolability

The aim of this editorial article is to provide some structuring of the subject addressed in this part of the issue, which, in the view of the present authors, has not that clearly been reached by the specific contributions. Ex-vessel corium behavior is a wide field. Therefore, classification of the goals of investigations within a safety philosophy is especially required to get not lost in detailed aspects. The overall goals here are the coolability and retention options under ex-vessel conditions. Based on scenario considerations generally addressing risks and options, general principles of cooling and retention devices are outlined. Since the concrete erosion by melt yields a major risk and has to be considered in the concepts and devices, and also since several contributions to this part are dealing with specific aspects of this molten core-concrete interaction (MCCI), a large part of this editorial paper concerns the status of knowledge and modeling and the lines of research in this area. The status and the perspectives of codes is especially addressed by own contributions of one of the authors with the GRS code WEX and with MEDICIS, both codes included in the European integral code ASTEC. Finally, the coolability questions are discussed with respect to the different concepts in general and those addressed specifically in the present contributions. In some considerations, gas production by erosion plays a role to produce porous or particulate debris and thus to enhance coolability. Water injection from bottom is a more direct and probably more effective measure to reach this, specifically designed in the COMET core catcher concept. Specific contributions in this part deal with this concept, which is most closely related to the general subject of the present issue.     

High-rate sulphidogenic fluidised-bed treatment of metal-containing wastewater at high temperature.

The applicability of fluidised-bed reactor (FBR) based sulphate reducing bioprocess was investigated for the treatment of iron containing (40-90 mg/L) acidic wastewater at 65 degrees C. The FBR was inoculated with sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) originally enriched from a hot mining environment. Ethanol or acetate was supplemented as carbon and electron source for the SRB. A rapid startup with 99.9, 46 and 29% ethanol, sulphate and acetate removals, in respective order, was observed even after 6 days. Iron was almost completely removed with a rate of 90 mg/L.d. The feed pH was decreased gradually from its initial value of 6 to around 3.7 during 100 days of operation. The wastewater pH of 4.3-4.4 was neutralised by the alkalinity produced in acetate oxidation and the average effluent pH was 7.8 +/- 0.8. Although ethanol removal was complete, acetate accumulated. Later the FBR was fed with acetate only. Although acetate was present in the reactor for 295 days, its oxidation rates did not improve, which may be due to low growth rate and poor attachment ability of acetate oxidising SRB. Hence, the oxidation of acetate is the rate limiting step in the sulphidogenic ethanol oxidation by the thermophilic SRB.     

Breakdown behavior of GaAs/AlGaAs HBTs

Avalanche breakdown behavior at the collector junction of the GaAs/AlGaAs HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) has been studied. Junction breakdown characteristics displaying hard breakdown, soft breakdown, and negative resistance breakdown behavior were observed and are interpreted by analysis of localized microplasma effects, uniform microplasma-free behavior, and associated current gain measurements. Light emission from the collector-base junction of the GaAs/AlGaAs HBT was observed and used to investigate breakdown uniformity. Using a simple punchthrough breakdown model, the theoretical breakdown curves at different collector doping concentrations and thicknesses were computed and found to be in agreement with maximum breakdown voltages measured from devices displaying the most uniform junction breakdown. The serious current gain degradation of GaAs/AlGaAs HBTs at low current densities was analyzed in connection with the measurement of a large collector-emitter breakdown voltage. The unexpected functional relationship between the collector-emitter breakdown voltage and collector-base breakdown voltage is explained by the absence of a hole-feedback effect for devices not exhibiting transistor action     

A note on the use of conductimetry in brewery microbiological control

The growth in beer of 15 brewery strains of Lactobacillus was detected using the automatic conductance measuring technique afforded by the Malthus 8 Growth Analyser. 0·15% ammonium chloride was added to the beer as an electrolyte and sodium acetate was used to raise the pH from ca 4·0 to 4·2 or above. No measurable responses were obtained using unmodified beer. The value of the method for development in routine brewery microbiological control is briefly discussed.     

Maximization of Good Chips Per Wafer by Optimization of Memory Redundancy

In the optimization of the number of good chips per wafer, yield is obviously one key factor. It plays the major role in the manufacturing phase, as at this time circuit design and chip area cannot be modified. In the design phase, however, chip area as the second factor defining good chips per wafer can still be influenced. If there are no strong relationships between yield and chip area, both can be optimized independently. In some cases, however, there are such strong relationships, and an optimum of yield gain versus area growth has to be found. Maybe the most important example where strong relationships between area and yield have to be considered is the estimation of optimum memory redundancy. In this paper, we will review and discuss relationships between yield and area and present methods for optimization of good chips per wafer, with special focus on the optimization of memory redundancy     

Magnetic induction micromachine-part I: Design and analysis

Most microscale electric and magnetic machines studied in the last decade lack the power density to support many practical applications. This paper introduces a design for a magnetic induction machine that offers power densities in excess of 200 MW/m/sup 3/ and efficiencies of up to 50%, while providing more than 10 W of mechanical power. This is a substantial performance increase in MEMS electromagnetic machines studied to date.