Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ARIEL (Accelerator and Research reactor Infrastructures for Education and Learning)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-03-01 bis 2022-08-31
For the continued improvement of the safety of current and future nuclear facilities, accurate and precise nuclear data are required for example in detailed nuclear models embedded in computer simulations. Producing these nuclear data is a complex and lengthy process, which relies on neutron facilities and on highly-trained nuclear physicists. As an entire generation of experienced nuclear specialists is retiring, a general challenge for nuclear energy is to make sure that a new generation of young physicists is properly trained to take over from the retiring one.
In order to foster the seamless transfer of knowledge to this younger generation, including in countries with less advanced nuclear programs, 26 partners from 15 European countries home to the most modern and state-of- the-art neutron beam facilities based on accelerators and research reactors have united, forming an exceptional training ground where interested early-stage researchers (both before and after their PhD) and technicians can work on the most challenging problems together with international experts.
Experimental work in international teams at these facilities will be the most effective training and competence building tool. The project will provide at least 3000 additional beam time hours for external users groups at the neutron facilities of the consortium. Up to 90 early stage researchers and technicians will be able to receive full mobility and logistical support to participate in these experiments at 23 different accelerator or reactor-based neutron facilities.
The training of early stage researchers in the field of nuclear physics and nuclear engineering will be complemented by up to 30 research stays of up to 12 weeks duration for extended work at the participating facilities. These activities, which also address senior scientists, technical and professional staff, will help foster the transfer of knowledge with the EURATOM project SANDA.
The scientific proposals for experiments and training of early-stage researchers will be selected by a Project Advisory Committee consisting of high-level experts, based on scientific excellence and relevance to improve nuclear safety and support of nuclear data needs.
In order to increase the visibility and attractiveness at the university level, four summer schools with about 80 participants in total shall be organized during the project, targeting a wide spectrum of students with physics and engineering backgrounds.
In order to foster the seamless transfer of knowledge to this younger generation, including in countries with less advanced nuclear programs, 26 partners from 15 European countries home to the most modern and state-of- the-art neutron beam facilities based on accelerators and research reactors have united, forming an exceptional training ground where interested early-stage researchers (both before and after their PhD) and technicians can work on the most challenging problems together with international experts.
Experimental work in international teams at these facilities will be the most effective training and competence building tool. The project will provide at least 3000 additional beam time hours for external users groups at the neutron facilities of the consortium. Up to 90 early stage researchers and technicians will be able to receive full mobility and logistical support to participate in these experiments at 23 different accelerator or reactor-based neutron facilities.
The training of early stage researchers in the field of nuclear physics and nuclear engineering will be complemented by up to 30 research stays of up to 12 weeks duration for extended work at the participating facilities. These activities, which also address senior scientists, technical and professional staff, will help foster the transfer of knowledge with the EURATOM project SANDA.
The scientific proposals for experiments and training of early-stage researchers will be selected by a Project Advisory Committee consisting of high-level experts, based on scientific excellence and relevance to improve nuclear safety and support of nuclear data needs.
In order to increase the visibility and attractiveness at the university level, four summer schools with about 80 participants in total shall be organized during the project, targeting a wide spectrum of students with physics and engineering backgrounds.
In the first 36 months 27 proposals for transnational access to neutron beam facilities were received and 17 where selected to be realized with ARIEL support. Eight experiments with 928 additional beam time hours were completed at the ARIEL partner facilities. These experiments form essential parts of the PhD theses of eight students from Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden.
For the education and training of early stage researchers 25 research stays were supported out of which 9 stays were completed with a total duration of 62 weeks.
The first school within the ARIEL project “NUDATAPATH - 1st international on-line school on nuclear data: the path from the detector to the reactor calculation” was organized by CIEMAT as an online-course from February 21-March 04, 2022. Theory lectures were complemented by online exercises with software and PHP tools developed especially for the school. These were taught in 3 groups of 8 students and one lecturer. The topics included neutron reaction calculations, sensitivity analyses for thermal and fast reactors, and validation with integral experiments. ENEN has promoted and advertised the schools to the nuclear engineering students interested in nuclear data activities.
The first joint ARIEL and SANDA meeting took place on March 7-11, 2022 as a virtual event organized by JRC and CIEMAT. There are strong synergies between the two projects. The progress meeting had 89 registered participants.
The completed experiments include the following achievements:
The Medley setup was used to measure double differential cross sections for light ion production on carbon at the new Neutrons for Science facility at GANIL, Caen by a group from Uppsala University.
The plasma delay time effect of the timing of PIPS detectors for the VERDI spectrometer was measured at the LOHENGRIN fission fragment spectrometer of ILL by a collaboration from JRC Geel, Uppsala, Bucharest, Edinburgh and Manchester.
The inelastic neutron scattering on 238U is being studied with the ν- ball 2 at the LICORNE facility by a collaboration from Surrey, Darmstadt, Strasbourg and Bucharest.
Several novel neutron detection systems were studied and their response function determined at PTB Braunschweig, HISPANOS Seville, and the BR1 research reactor at SCK CEN Mol.
The completed education and training projects included important work on
Preparation and building of the two arm fission spectrometer VERDI with double Energy and velocity measurement at JRC Geel
Neutron capture measurements on chromium isotopes relevant for criticality safety at CERN n_TOF.
From all completed experiments and education and training projects already eight peer reviewed publications were published. The ARIEL project and supported research was presented on international conferences, e.g. the International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology July 21-29,2022 and the 10th edition of the Euratom research and training conferences on fission safety of reactor systems (FISA 2022).
For the education and training of early stage researchers 25 research stays were supported out of which 9 stays were completed with a total duration of 62 weeks.
The first school within the ARIEL project “NUDATAPATH - 1st international on-line school on nuclear data: the path from the detector to the reactor calculation” was organized by CIEMAT as an online-course from February 21-March 04, 2022. Theory lectures were complemented by online exercises with software and PHP tools developed especially for the school. These were taught in 3 groups of 8 students and one lecturer. The topics included neutron reaction calculations, sensitivity analyses for thermal and fast reactors, and validation with integral experiments. ENEN has promoted and advertised the schools to the nuclear engineering students interested in nuclear data activities.
The first joint ARIEL and SANDA meeting took place on March 7-11, 2022 as a virtual event organized by JRC and CIEMAT. There are strong synergies between the two projects. The progress meeting had 89 registered participants.
The completed experiments include the following achievements:
The Medley setup was used to measure double differential cross sections for light ion production on carbon at the new Neutrons for Science facility at GANIL, Caen by a group from Uppsala University.
The plasma delay time effect of the timing of PIPS detectors for the VERDI spectrometer was measured at the LOHENGRIN fission fragment spectrometer of ILL by a collaboration from JRC Geel, Uppsala, Bucharest, Edinburgh and Manchester.
The inelastic neutron scattering on 238U is being studied with the ν- ball 2 at the LICORNE facility by a collaboration from Surrey, Darmstadt, Strasbourg and Bucharest.
Several novel neutron detection systems were studied and their response function determined at PTB Braunschweig, HISPANOS Seville, and the BR1 research reactor at SCK CEN Mol.
The completed education and training projects included important work on
Preparation and building of the two arm fission spectrometer VERDI with double Energy and velocity measurement at JRC Geel
Neutron capture measurements on chromium isotopes relevant for criticality safety at CERN n_TOF.
From all completed experiments and education and training projects already eight peer reviewed publications were published. The ARIEL project and supported research was presented on international conferences, e.g. the International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology July 21-29,2022 and the 10th edition of the Euratom research and training conferences on fission safety of reactor systems (FISA 2022).
The basic objective of ARIEL is to provide young scientists, researchers and experts with access to high quality nuclear research and training facilities for nuclear data, nuclear applications and fundamental physics experiments. Highest priority will be given to disseminate the results as fast and as widely as possible towards the nuclear data community and to the public at large. In this way, the cooperation between participating experimental facilities that has been established in earlier EURATOM frameworks will be generalized to a wider range of applications.
The essence of the work performed within ARIEL is to train early stage researchers in the nuclear data field by improving the coordination between experimental facilities in Europe for better responding to the measurement needs addressed by the nuclear data users. Relevant data measured with support from the ARIEL project shall be submitted to the EXFOR database of the NEA databank as soon as possible and publications listed on the ARIEL website and the CAP.
The essence of the work performed within ARIEL is to train early stage researchers in the nuclear data field by improving the coordination between experimental facilities in Europe for better responding to the measurement needs addressed by the nuclear data users. Relevant data measured with support from the ARIEL project shall be submitted to the EXFOR database of the NEA databank as soon as possible and publications listed on the ARIEL website and the CAP.