Molecular subtypes of Campylobacter spp., Salmonella enterica, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolated from faecal and surface water samples in the Oldman River watershed, Alberta, Canada

Campylobacter spp., Salmonella enterica, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolated from 898 faecal, 43 sewage, and 342 surface water samples from the Oldman River were characterized using bacterial subtyping methods in order to investigate potential sources of contamination of the watershed. Among these pathogens, Campylobacter spp. were the most frequently isolated from faecal, sewage, and surface water samples (266/895, 11/43, and 91/342, respectively), followed by Salmonella (67/898, 8/43, and 29/342, respectively), and E. coli O157:H7 (16/898, 2/43, and 8/342, respectively). Salmonella Rubislaw was the most common serovar isolated from water. This serovar was also isolated from two wild bird species. Most other serovars isolated from water were either not isolated from animals or were isolated from multiple species. E. coli O157:H7 was predominantly isolated from cattle. The most common phage-types of this pathogen from cattle were also the most common among water isolates, and there were exact pulsed field gel electrophoresis and comparative genomic fingerprint matches between cattle, sewage, and water isolates. Campylobacters were commonly isolated from surface waters and faeces from most animal species. Restriction fragment length polymorphism of the Campylobacter flaA gene identified several location and host species-specific (cattle, goose, pig) fingerprints. Molecular subtyping of these bacterial pathogens shows considerable promise as a tool for determining the sources of faecal pollution of water.     

An investigation on recycling the recovered uranium from electro-refining process in a CANDU reactor

Feasibility studies for recycling the recovered uranium from electro-refining process of pyroprocessing into a Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor have been carried out with a source term analysis code ORIGEN-S, a reactor lattice analysis code WIMS-AECL, and a Monte Carlo analysis code MCNPX. The uranium metal can be recovered in a solid cathode during an electro-refining process and has a form of a dendrite phase with about 99.99% expecting recovery purity. Considering some impurities of transuranic (TRU) elements and fission products in the recovered uranium, sensitivity calculations were also performed for the compositions of impurities. For a typical spent PWR fuel of 3.0 wt.% of uranium enrichment, 30 GWD/tU burnup and 10 years cooling, the recovered uranium exhibited an extended burnup up to 14 GWD/tU. And among the several safety parameters, the void reactivity at the equilibrium state was estimated 15 mk. Additionally, a simple sphere model was constructed to analyze surface dose rates with the Monte Carlo calculations. It was found that the recovered uranium from the spent PWR fuel by electro-refining process has a significant radioactivity depending on the impurities such as fission products.     

Modeling and criticality evaluation of the voloxidation process

Voloxidation is a necessary process in the dry reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels. The criticality evaluation plays a considerable role in the design of voloxidation apparatus. As conservative results are always preferred in a criticality evaluation, an optimized model was built in consideration of both the geometry of voloxidation apparatus and the occurring forms of evaluation material. The criticality evaluation of fresh UO₂ fuel and PWR spent fuel were then performed by employing Monte Carlo techniques, respectively. It is demonstrated that there is no criticality risk concerning the voloxidation process dealing with fresh UO₂ or PWR spent fuel if water does not intrude into the cell. However, if water intrudes and mixes with the fuels, the subcritical mass limit is 40.1 ± 0.1 kg for fresh UO₂ and 19,155 ± 50 kg for spent fuel. The contributions of ¹H and ²³⁵U were analyzed quantitatively by the TSUNAMI code to clarify the competition between ¹H moderation effect and its dilution effect on the concentration of ²³⁵U.     

Analytical prediction of turbulent friction factor for a rod bundle

An analytical calculation has been performed to predict the turbulent friction factor in a rod bundle. For each subchannel constituting a rod bundle, the geometry parameters are analytically derived by integrating the law of the wall over each subchannel with the consideration of a local shear stress distribution. The correlation equations for a local shear stress distribution are supplied from a numerical simulation for each subchannel. The explicit effect of a subchannel shape on the geometry parameter and the friction factor is reported. The friction factor of a corner subchannel converges to a constant value, while the friction factor of a central subchannel steadily increases with a rod distance ratio. The analysis for a rod bundle shows that the friction factor of a rod bundle is largely affected by the characteristics of each subchannel constituting a rod bundle. The present analytic calculations well predict the experimental results from the literature with rod bundles in circular, hexagonal, and square channels.     

Effect of axial reflector on radial uniformity in neutron transmutation doping of silicon

Significant axial variation of radial uniformity is observed in Si-ingot neutron transmutation doping in the flux screening method, and leads to non-uniform resistivity distribution for a certain part of Si-ingot. This axial variation of radial uniformity is caused by the installation of a partial neutron screen which decreases the reaction rates differently in the center and surface at the region not surrounded by the partial neutron screen. For the improvement of the specific distribution of radial uniformity in the axial direction, a new concept of axial reflector is introduced to partly change the reaction rate at a certain region of Si-ingot, and neutron irradiation experiments are carried out at the heavy water neutron irradiation facility in the Kyoto University Research Reactor. Based on the experimental and numerical results, the new axial reflector is proved to be effective for improving the axial variation of radial uniformity.     

Testing whether failure rate changes its trend

A new test procedure is proposed for testing the constant failure rate against the alternative that the failure rate changes its trend, assuming that the proportion of the population that fails at or before the change-point of failure rate is known. The test procedure is based on the L-statistic theory and the power of the test is investigated for small samples by Monte Carlo experiment     

Novel hemispherical vertical cavity 1.3 mu m surface-emitting laser on semi-insulating substrate

A vertical cavity GaInAsP/InP surface-emitting laser at 1.3 mu m wavelength is demonstrated with a hemispherical cavity structure. The laser consists of a circular mesa buried (passivated) in polyimide and is made on a semi-insulating InP substrate. CW operation was obtained at 77 K with a threshold current density of 90 kA/cm/sup 2/.<>     

A study of the separation efficiency of wired thermal diffusion columns with tubes rotating in opposite directions

Rotating the tubes oppositely in a wired concentric-tube thermal diffusion column substantially increases the separation efficiency by improving the cascading effect. Considerable improvement in separation was obtained by employing the rotating wired column, operation at the best tube-speed of rotation and the best wire-angle of inclination instead of using the stationary column without a wire spiral.     

Parallel electron energy-loss spectroscopy free from gain variation

A new method is presented for removing the effect of the gain variation of parallel detectors used for the quantitation of trace elements with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Use of the ratio of two first-difference spectra eliminates the effect of gain variation of the detector, therefore eliminating the need for gain normalization and dark current subtraction. This method is particularly suitable for revealing small signals superimposed on a large background, a typical scenario for trace element quantitation of both biological and inorganic materials. This method has been tested on a system with a cooled CCD camera as the parallel detector and illustrated by the analysis of low concentration Ca in an organic matrix. The method is expected to be generally applicable to spectral analysis affected by gain variations of parallel detectors.     

TEM investigations of MN nitride phases in a 9% chromium ferritic/martensitic steel with normalization conditions for nuclear reactors

The investigations on the precipitate phases in a 9%Cr ferritic/martensitic steel under different normalization conditions have been made by using a transmission electron microscope and an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Hot-rolled steel samples were normalized at 1050-1200 °C for 1-2 h followed by an air cooling to room temperature. MN vanadium nitride precipitates with a plate-like morphology and a chemical formula of about (V_0.4Nb_0.4Cr_0.2)N have been observed at triple junctions, grain boundaries and within matrix in the steel samples normalized at 1050-1150 °C for 1-2 h, but they were dissolved out at 1200 °C within 1 h. Vanadium nitride is a stable phase at 1050 °C according to thermocalc prediction of equilibrium phases in the steel. With increasing normalizing temperature and time, there was no a striking change in the chemical composition of metallic elements in the MN phase, but a considerable increase in the size of the MN precipitate.