Nuclear Commons^™

Neutron Time Of Flight Spectrometry As A Diagnostic Tool For Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Plasmas, Andrew H. Dempsey, Erik J. Sanchez

Student Research Symposium

Inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) is a method for achieving fusion of light nuclei wherein ions are injected into a spherically symmetric system of concentric electrodes. When the innermost electrode is held at negative high voltage with respect to the outer electrode, ions injected into the reactor at cathode (ground) potential accelerate toward the anode where they may undergo collisions with sufficient energy to overcome Coulomb repulsion and achieve nuclear fusion. The most commonly used IEC fusion fuels are deuterium-deuterium (D-D) and deuterium-tritium (D-T). Both fuels undergo fusion reactions that result in production of fast neutrons with distinct energies. Neutron production …

Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning For Radiation Localization, Benjamin Scott Totten

Dissertations and Theses

For the safety of both equipment and human life, it is important to identify the location of orphaned radioactive material as quickly and accurately as possible. There are many factors that make radiation localization a challenging task, such as low gamma radiation signal strength and the need to search in unknown environments without prior information. The inverse-square relationship between the intensity of radiation and the source location, the probabilistic nature of nuclear decay and gamma ray detection, and the pervasive presence of naturally occurring environmental radiation complicates localization tasks. The presence of obstructions in complex environments can further attenuate the …

Efficient Neuromorphic Algorithms For Gamma-Ray Spectrum Denoising And Radionuclide Identification, Merlin Phillip Carson

Dissertations and Theses

Radionuclide detection and identification are important tasks for deterring a potentially catastrophic nuclear event. Due to high levels of background radiation from both terrestrial and extraterrestrial sources, some form of noise reduction pre-processing is required for a gamma-ray spectrum prior to being analyzed by an identification algorithm so as to determine the identity of anomalous sources. This research focuses on the use of neuromorphic algorithms for the purpose of developing low power, accurate radionuclide identification devices that can filter out non-anomalous background radiation and other artifacts created by gamma-ray detector measurement equipment, along with identifying clandestine, radioactive material.

A sparse …

Proximal Policy Optimization For Radiation Source Search, Philippe Erol Proctor

Dissertations and Theses

Rapid localization and search for lost nuclear sources in a given area of interest is an important task for the safety of society and the reduction of human harm. Detection, localization and identification are based upon the measured gamma radiation spectrum from a radiation detector. The nonlinear relationship of electromagnetic wave propagation paired with the probabilistic nature of gamma ray emission and background radiation from the environment leads to ambiguity in the estimation of a source's location. In the case of a single mobile detector, there are numerous challenges to overcome such as weak source activity, multiple sources, or the …

Periodic State Revivals In Commensurate Waveguide Arrays, Jovan Petrovic, J. J. P. Veerman

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Emerging optical and quantum computers require hardware capable of coherent transport of and operations on quantum states. Here, we investigate finite optical waveguide arrays with linear coupling as means of efficient and compact coherent state transfer. Coherent transfer with periodic state revivals is enabled by engineering coupling coefficients between neighbouring waveguides to yield commensurate eigenvalue spectrum. Particular cases of finite arrays have been actively studied to achieve the perfect state transfer by mirroring the input into the output state.

We explore a much wider scope of coherent propagation and revivals of both the state amplitude and phase. We analytically solve …

The Potential Contribution Of Organic Salts To New Particle Growth, Kelley Barsanti, Peter H. Mcmurry, J. N. Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Field and lab measurements suggest that low-molecular weight (MW) organic acids and bases exist in accumulation and nucleation mode particles, despite their relatively high pure-liquid vapor pressures. The mechanism(s) by which such compounds contribute to the mass growth of existing aerosol particles and newly formed particles has not been thoroughly explored. One mechanism by which low- MW compounds may contribute to new particle growth is through the formation of organic salts. In this paper we use thermodynamic modeling to explore the potential for organic salt formation by atmospherically relevant organic acids and bases for two system types: one in which …

Formation Of Positronium In E+ + H- Collisions, Jack C. Straton, Richard J. Drachman

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cross sections for positronium formation by capture from the negative hydrogen ion are given. Orthogonalization corrections to the Coulomb (first-order) Born approximation (CBA) differential and total cross sections are calculated using approximate H- wave functions of both Löwdin [Phys. Rev. 90, 123 (1953)] and Chandrasekhar [Astrophys. J. 100, 176 (1944)]. The present calculation of the CBA cross sections using the post interaction for Löwdin’s wave function (LCBAPS) disagrees with the calculation of Choudhury, Mukherjee, and Sural (CMS) [Phys. Rev. A 33, 2358 (1986)], whereas our results using the prior interaction agree. Thus, where CMS found an order …

Fock-Tani Hamiltonian For Reactions Involving Two-Electron Atoms, Jack C. Straton

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Fock-Tani Hamiltonian is found for scattering processes involving up to two ions and two electrons. Possible bound-state species include one or two electrons bound on an ion fixed at the origin, and a one-electron projectile atom. A diagrammatic technique is illustrated that simplifies the algebra of the transformation. Coulomb- or plane-wave states are automatically generated by the same asymptotic Hamiltonian for all arrangement channels.

"Nuclear Power: Its Role In Our Future", Betsy Macinness, Dave Ferg, Rudi Nussbaum, Tom Davis, Sandra Kiefer

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

Directional Correlation Of The 346-136 Kev Gamma-Gamma Cascade In Ta¹⁸¹, Robert Allan Wilson

Dissertations and Theses

The directional correlation of the 346-136 Kev gamma-gamma cascade in Ta¹⁸¹ was measured using the delayed coincidence method with a source of Hf¹⁸¹ in 27 N HF. The contributions to the composite delayed coincidence spectrum of the interfering 133-482 Kev and 133-346 Kev cascades were removed by the subtraction from this spectrum of appropriate 133-482 Kev pure delayed coincidence data. The extracted 346-136 Kev coincidence data then yielded the correlation coefficients A₂₂ = 0.190±0.011 and A₄₄. = -0.025±0.024 that are consistent with the established spin sequence 5/2(E2)9/2(M1 + E2)7/2 and with an admixture of 16.2%±1. 2% E2 radiation in the …

"The Effects Of Radioactive Fallout And Disarmament", Linus Carl Pauling

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

There is a slight lapse of about 5 seconds where re-recorded overlap didn't quite cover. Recorded on a Berlout 33 stereo recorded using both tracks in one direction.

"American Foreign Policy In The Atomic Age", Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr.

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.