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Fusion Science and Technology
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Cs-137 sealed source lost in Western Australia
A rendering of the sealed source capsule’s appearance. (Image: DFES)
Authorities are searching 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) of Australia’s Great Northern Highway, between Perth and the remote town of Newman, for a lost sealed-source capsule containing cesium-137. The source was part of a density gauge used by mining company Rio Tinto at its mining operations in Western Australia.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) of Western Australia reported that the density gauge containing a 6-mm-diameter (0.24-inch-diameter) by 8-mm-height (0.31-inch-height) source capsule was sent by flatbed truck to Perth for repair, leaving Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri mine site in Western Australia on January 12 and arriving in Perth on January 16. The package containing the gauge, however, was not inspected until January 25.
Upon opening the package, it was found that the gauge was broken apart with one of four mounting bolts missing. The source itself and all screws on the gauge were also missing. It is assumed that vibrations from the truck broke the gauge apart and allowed the screws and capsule to fall through the bolt hole and away from the truck. DFES said they were notified of the loss on the evening of January 25.
Payam Vaezi, Christopher Holland
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 74 | Number 1 | July-August 2018 | Pages 77-88
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1372987
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Due to the strong nonlinear dependence of plasma turbulence on drive and dissipation mechanisms, uncertainties in experimental inputs can be greatly magnified in simulations of this turbulence. Thus, careful uncertainty quantification (UQ) and its inclusion within validation metrics is an integral part of plasma turbulence validation studies. To minimize the number of simulations required for UQ, we investigate the use of the rapidly converging nonintrusive probabilistic collocation method (PCM) for efficient plasma turbulence UQ. This approach is shown to yield more realistic uncertainty estimates than simple uniform sampling methods for a practical number of nonlinear simulations. The inclusion of UQ above and near critical gradients is discussed. To demonstrate its utility, the advantages of PCM are first illustrated using a simple model of critical gradient turbulence. It is then used on simulations from a validation study of drift-wave turbulence in the CSDX linear plasma device experiment. The advantage of more advanced methods for selecting samples from the uncertainties in the plasma turbulence simulations is also discussed.