H2 Generation by the 10B(n,alpha)7Li Reaction in High Temperature Water

Published

July 4, 2023

Author(s)

Alan Keith Thompson, Mohamad Al-Sheikhly, Steven Guerin, David Bartels, Cameron Goodwin, Sangho Nam

Abstract

H2 produced in water from the 10B(n,α)7Li fission reaction has been measured up to 300 oC. Thermal energy neutrons from the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center's 2 MW reactor interact with boric acid-containing water in temperature-controlled high-pressure cells made from tubing of either titanium or zirconium alloy. After exposure for a minimum of one hour, the solution sample is extracted and sparged with argon. The H2 entrained by the sparging gas is sampled with a small mass spectrometer. A small amount of sodium is included in the boric acid solution so that after sparging, samples can be collected for 24Na activation measurements in a gamma spectrometer to determine the neutron exposure and thus the total energy deposited in solution. The G-value (µmol/J) for H2 production is obtained for water at a pressure of 25 MPa, over a temperature range from 20 oC to 300 oC. The weak temperature dependence of this yield between 150 oC and 200 oC demonstrates that the bimolecular reaction of pairs of e_aq^- is a very minor source of H2 in high LET tracks.

Citation

Radiation Physics and Chemistry

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2023.111141

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Keywords

reactor, boron, neutron, radiolysis, radiochemistry, hydrogen, nuclear, power

Citation

Thompson, A. , Al-Sheikhly, M. , Guerin, S. , Bartels, D. , Goodwin, C. and Nam, S. (2023), H2 Generation by the 10B(n,alpha)7Li Reaction in High Temperature Water, Radiation Physics and Chemistry, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2023.111141, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936652 (Accessed May 1, 2024)