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Nuclear transmutation is emerging as a promising approach for reprocessing high-level waste, specifically treating long-lived nuclides like |$^{93}$| Zr from spent fuel. It is essential to accumulate reaction data for these nuclei to advance this prominent treatment and to build a comprehensive understanding of reaction mechanisms. In this study, the residual production cross-sections resulting from proton-induced reactions on |$^{93}$| Zr were measured at 27 MeV/nucleon in inverse kinematics. At the RI Beam Factory (RIBF), the Optimized Energy Degrading Optics beamline was used to deduce production cross-sections for isotopes |$^{91-93}$| Nb, |$^{91,92}$| Zr, and |$^{88,89}$| Y. Comparing the results from this study and prior research with calculated excitation functions, a moderate agreement is found with theoretical predictions derived from TALYS and CCONE. The measured cross-sections offer valuable insights for future considerations in nuclear-waste treatment facilities. This is particularly relevant for facilities exploring innovative methods, such as accelerator-driven systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deuteron is a loosely bound system that can easily break up into its constituent proton and neutron whilst in the presence of Coulomb and nuclear fields. Previous experimental studies have shown that this breakup process has a significant impact on residual-nucleus production from deuteron bombardment in the high-energy range of 50–210 MeV/nucleon. However, there remains a lack of cross-section data at energies below 50 MeV/nucleon. The current study determined 93Zr + d reaction cross sections under inverse kinematics at approximately 28 MeV/nucleon using the BigRIPS separator, OEDO beamline, and SHARAQ spectrometer. Cross sections from this research were compared with previous measurements and theoretical calculations. The experimental results show a large enhancement of the production cross sections of residual nuclei, especially those produced from a small number of particle emissions, compared to the proton-induced reaction data at similar bombarding energy. The DEURACS calculation, which quantitatively takes deuteron-breakup effects into account, reproduces the data well. As a long-lived fission product, 93Zr remains a challenge for nuclear-waste disposal and treatment. This study's low-energy data may assist future consideration of nuclear-waste treatment facilities, where 93Zr + d may feasibly transmute the waste into short-lived/stable nuclei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prototype Dual Gain Multilayer Thick Gas Electron Multiplier (DG-M-THGEM) with an active area of 10 cm × 10 cm was manufactured aiming at the production of a large-volume active-target time projection chamber which can work under the condition of high-intensity heavy-ion beam injections. The DG-M-THGEM has an alternating structure of electrodes and insulators. Effective gas gains of two regions, which are called beam and recoil regions, are separately controlled. Performance of the prototype DG-M-THGEM in hydrogen gas at a pressure of 40 kPa was evaluated. Irradiating a 132Xe beam, an effective gas gain lower than 100 with a charge resolution of 3% was achieved in the beam region while an effective gas gain of 2000 was maintained in the recoil region. Position distributions of measured charges along the beam axis were investigated in order to evaluate gain uniformity in the high-intensity beam injection. The gain shift was estimated by simulations considering space charges in the drift region. The gain shift was suppressed within 3% even at the beam intensity of 2.5 × 106 particles per second. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Optimized Energy Degrading Optics (OEDO) beamline is an upgrade of the High-resolution beamline at the RI Beam Factory at RIKEN. Its purpose is to measure nuclear reactions induced by radioactive ions at |$10$| – |$50$| MeV/u. The main components of the OEDO beamline are two superconducting quadrupole triplet magnets and one radio-frequency deflector, which were recently installed. This setup produces slowed-down, well-focused radioactive-isotope beams by using a degree of freedom in the longitudinal phase space of the beam. This paper describes the OEDO beamline in detail, discusses the unique concept of its ion optics, and demonstrates its feasibility by conducting measurements with medium-mass radioactive-isotope beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]