Wetting of W by liquid Pb and PbLi alloys and surface interactions

Wetting of W by Pb and Pb–17 at.%Li in the range 400–900 °C is studied by the dispensed drop technique. Experiments are performed using different furnace atmospheres (high vacuum, reducing gas) and different heat treatments to achieve W deoxidation. A simple pairwise model is used to explain the relation between surface interaction, which is responsible for wetting, and bulk interactions determining miscibility.     

Metastable States in Liquid–Gas Phase Transition. Simulation by the Method of Molecular Dynamics

The method of molecular dynamics is used to investigate the p, , T-properties and the structural characteristics of the Lennard–Jones fluid in the stable and metastable states in the liquid–gas phase transition. The calculation results demonstrate the presence of phase separation in molecular models at close-to-spinodal supersaturation. The effect of the cut-off radius of the interparticle potential on the process of phase transformation is analyzed, and the position of spinodal of superheated liquid and supersaturated vapor is estimated.     

Nuclear-energy complexes and the economic and ecological problems of nuclear power development

Conclusions In the long term, serious economic and ecological problems may arise if the required scale and rate of growth of power production is to be ensured while retaining the principle of dispersed location of ever larger power stations in regions with high population density and a developed infrastructure, since the ecological capacity of these regions is limited. This is particularly true of nuclear power, which in the long term will become the main source of electrical energy.Prospects for a solution to the economic and ecological problems of nuclear power and for an increase in its economic efficiency are offered by the construction of nuclear-energy complexes—large industrial units that contain within a single site a group of atomic power stations of total rated power output of the order of 10–50,000 MW and also the facilities of the external fuel cycle, the complexes being remote from densely populated regions but connected to the centers of energy demand by electrical transmission lines.Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 43, No. 5, pp. 369–373, November, 1977.     

Large-scale electron vortex structure formation in a plasma lens

The first experimental data on the observation of electron vortices in an electrostatic plasma lens at a considerable radial gradient of electron density are reported. It is established that anharmonic potential waves of large amplitude appear and propagate in the azimuthal direction. The results of measurements of the electric field distribution show that electron bunches formed as a result of instability development contain trapped particles, which rotate at a large velocity around the centers of bunches, thus creating vortices. The main factor leading to limitation of the maximum amplitude of vortices in a strong magnetic field has been experimentally established.