Detection of unexpected recombinant DNA in maize grain

PCR detection of genetically modified (GM) line-specific recombinant DNA was carried out on Bt 11, Event 176 and Non-GM maize grain harvested in 1999. Of 100 grains of Bt 11 line, Event 176 specific DNA was detected in 11 grains. Of 30 grains of Event 176 line, Mon 810 or Bt 11 specific DNA was detected in 5 grains. In addition, Bt 11 or Event 176 specific DNA was detected in 4 of 30 Non-GM grains. These data suggest that maize grains (not seed) often contain DNAs of different lines from what they were expected to contain. Furthermore, quantitative PCR was performed to estimate the genotype of the Event 176 grains described above. The results showed that the genotype of all the grains containing different recombinant DNA is heterozygous. Therefore, it was considered that the grains containing the unintended recombinant DNA were not accidental contaminants, but that airborne pollination had introduced the recombinant DNA into the grains.     

Deuterium Retention and Physical Sputtering of Low Activation Ferritic Steel

Low activation materials have to be developed toward fusion demonstration reactors. Ferritic steel, vanadium alloy and SiC/SiC composite are candidate materials of the first wall, vacuum vessel and blanket components, respectively. Although changes of mechanical-thermal properties owing to neutron irradiation have been investigated so far, there is little data for the plasma material interactions, such as fuel hydrogen retention and erosion. In the present study, deuterium retention and physical sputtering of low activation ferritic steel, F82H, were investigated by using deuterium ion irradiation apparatus. After a ferritic steel sample was irradiated by 1.7 keV D^ ions, the weight loss was measured to obtain the physical sputtering yield. The sputtering yield was 0.04, comparable to that of stainless steel. In order to obtain the retained amount of deuterium, technique of thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) was employed to the irradiated sample. The retained deuterium desorbed at temperature ranging from 450 K to 700 K, in the forms of DHO, D2, D2O and hydrocarbons. Hence, the deuterium retained can be reduced by baking with a relatively low temperature. The fiuence dependence of retained amount of deuterium was measured by changing the ion fiuence. In the ferritic steel without mechanical polish, the retained amount was large even when the fluence was low. In such a case, a large amount of deuterium was trapped in the surface oxide layer containing O and C. When the fluence was large, the thickness of surface oxide layer was reduced by the ion sputtering, and then the retained amount in the oxide layer decreased. In the case of a high fluence, the retained amount of deuterium became comparable to that of ferritic steel with mechanical polish or SS 316 L, and one order of magnitude smaller than that of graphite. When the ferritic steel is used, it is required to remove the surface oxide layer for reduction of fuel hydrogen retention. Ferritic steel sample was exposed to the environment of JFT-2M tokamak in JAERI and after that the deuterium retention was examined. The result was roughly the same as the case of deuterium ion irradiation experiment.     

Investigation on Retention and Release Behaviors of Hydrogen and Helium in Vanadium Alloy

Vanadium alloy is proposed as an attractive candidate for first wall and blanket structural material of fusion reactors. The retention and release behaviors of hydrogen and helium in vanadium alloy may be an important issue. In the present work, 1.7 keV deuterium and 5 keV helium ions are respectively implanted into V-4Cr-4Ti and V-4Ti at room temperature. The retention and release of deuterium and helium are measured with thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). When the helium ion fluence is larger than 3 ×1017 He/cm2, the retained helium saturates with a value of approximately 2.5 ×1017 He/cm2. However, when the ion fluence is 1×1019 D/cm2, the hydrogen saturation in vanadium alloy does not take place. Experimental results indicates that hydrogen and helium retention in vanadium alloy may lead to serious problems and special attention should be paid when it is applied to fusion reactors.     

Development of the package-reactor (2) -core characteristics-

A new small reactor concept named the Package-Reactor has been jointly developed by Hitachi, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The reactor technology was built from that of conventional LWRs. The reactor core consists of 12 cassettes containing fuel rods with a similar design to that of PWR fuel rods. Each cassette has about a 0.4 m outer diameter and they are fixed with about 0.5 m pitch to each other in the atmospheric pressure condition. A tube-type control cluster was developed. It can decrease the rise of reactivity for the one-rod-stuck condition. An advanced cassette design was studied in which the down-comer is placed at the center of the fuel region. This concept, which improves neutron economics and the cold shutdown margin, will increase the marketability of the Package-Reactor. An operation period of more than 8 years can be achieved with UO₂ fuel enrichment of 5.0wt%.     

Analysis of the MOX critical experiments BASALA by pin-by-pin core analysis method using three-dimensional direct response matrix

An analysis of the MOX critical experiments BASALA was performed to verify the pin-by-pin core analysis method using a three-dimensional direct response matrix. The BASALA experiments simulate full MOX BWR cores, and they were carried out in the EOLE critical facility of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) by the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC) in collaboration with CEA. The BASALA experimental cores are very heterogeneous because their size is much smaller than that of commercial power plants. The main features of the pin-by-pin core analysis method using the three-dimensional direct response matrix are that the response matrix can reflect the intra-assembly heterogeneous effect, the diffusion approximation is not involved, and the fuel rod fission rate can be directly evaluated. The maximum difference of the critical k-effective values among all nine cores analyzed was about 0.4% Δk. The root mean square differences between the calculated and measured radial fuel rod fission rate distributions in the test assembly of all cores were within 1.8% and nearly comparable to measurement error. The calculated results of the reactivity worth agreed with the measured results within 9%. These good agreements mean that the pin-by-pin core analysis method using the three-dimensional direct response matrix accurately reflects the effects of the intra- and inter-assembly heterogeneities in heterogeneous systems like the BASALA experimental cores.     

Remote calibration of ionization chambers for radioactivity calibration

A new calibration technique, referred to as e-trace, has been developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). The e-trace technique enables rapid remote calibration of measurement equipment and requires minimal resources. We calibrated radioisotope calibrators of the Japan Radioisotope Association (JRIA) and the Nishina Memorial Cyclotron Center (NMCC) remotely and confirmed that remote calibration provided results that are consistent with the results obtained by existing methods within the limits of uncertainty. Accordingly, e-trace has been approved as the standard calibration method at AIST. We intend to apply remote calibration to radioisotope calibrators in hospitals and isotope facilities.     

Bubble growth and transient heat transfer at the onset of boiling

An experimental study was conducted to investigate transient local heat transfer around a bubble at onset of boiling on a thin glass heating plate immersed in saturated n-hexane at low pressure. Eight rapid response Cu-Ni thermocouples consisting of a vacuum deposited thin film were used to measure the temperature change of the heating surface. Simultaneous high-speed video photographs were also obtained. The surface temperatures near a nucleation site decreased rapidly owing to the evaporation of a thin layer (microlayer) of liquid formed beneath the bubble in the early period and the rate of bubble growth increased with increasing incipient boiling superheat (ΔT_IB). The thickness of the microlayer decreased markedly with increasing ΔT_IB. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 26(7): 484–492, 1997     

Board-to-Board Free-Space Optical Interconnections Passing through Boards for a Bookshelf-Assembled Terabit-Per-Second-Class ATM Switch

We propose free-space optical interconnections for a bookshelf-assembled terabit-per-second-class ATM switch. Thousands of arrayed optical beams, each having a rate of a few gigabits per second, propagate vertically to printed circuit boards, passing through some boards, and are connected to arbitrary transmitters and receivers on boards by polarization controllers and prism arrays. We describe a preliminary experiment using a 1-mm-pitch 2 x 2 beam-collimator array that uses vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes. These optical interconnections can be made quite stable in terms of mechanical shock and temperature fluctuation by the attachment of reinforcing frames to the boards and use of an autoalignment system.     

Observation on the Visibility Decrease in a VCN Spin Resonator Interferometry

The present paper reports on the detailed studies concerning the neutron spin interference visibility observed after transmitting through multilayer magnetic resonators in a spin echo condition with very cold neutrons from a high flux reactor. The observed visibility of the interference between upward and downward spin components perpendicular to the Larmor precession plane of the neutron spin are compared with the numerical simulations in the plane wave theory and also in the Schrödinger wave-packet model. The comparison revealed the instructive characteristic features of obvious additional visibility decrease observed in the interference between the tunnelling and refractive transmissions of each spin components in a single as well as a couple of multilayer magnetic resonators.