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Godzilla is helping ITER prepare for tokamak assembly
ITER employees stand by Godzilla, the most powerful commercially available industrial robot available. (Photo: ITER)
Many people are familiar with Godzilla as a giant reptilian monster that emerged from the sea off the coast of Japan, the product of radioactive contamination. These days, there is a new Godzilla, but it has a positive—and entirely fact-based—association with nuclear energy. This one has emerged inside the Tokamak Assembly Preparation Building of ITER in southern France.
M. B. Chadwick, P. G. Young
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 108 | Number 2 | June 1991 | Pages 117-125
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE91-A23812
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The 178Hf(16+) isomeric state has a 31-yr half-life and could pose serious radioactive activation problems in nuclear fusion reactors if its production in 14-MeV neutron-induced reactions is significant. The relatively high excitation energy (2.447 MeV) of this state causes it to lie in the continuum region. If rotational band members above this state were populated in a reaction, they would gamma cascade into it. While the existence of such levels can be justified theoretically, they have not been experimentally resolved; therefore, it is necessary to reconstruct the rotational levels built on the isomeric state. Using preequilibrium and compound nucleus theories, the cross sections for this and other hafnium isomeric states are calculated and compared with experimental measurements where available.