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In ITER, a remote handling laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system is considered to be able to observe regions where deposition of thick layers is expected to occur and assess the retention of fuel on wall structures. The H and D contents of surface layers on divertor and first-wall materials have been intensely studied by LIBS but mostly by depth profile analysis of D. As far as we know, quantitative analysis of H/D in BeW mixed layer by calibration free-LIBS (CF-LIBS) has not been performed. Thus, the aim of this work is the quantification of the relative concentrations of D and H in Be-based material samples by CF-LIBS. The samples used were Be/W(67:33) as mixed homogeneous coatings (2 μm) on Mo substrates. Laser ablation was performed using a 1064 nm laser with 5 ns pulses. In order to enhance the resolution to distinguish H, D and in future T from each other, two different pressures were used: high vacuum and 0.5 mbar of Ar. Suitable Be and W spectral lines (without interferences and self-absorption) have been selected for precise evaluation of the electron temperature, T e , of the plasma using the Boltzmann plots. The electron density, n e , was extracted from the Saha equation using the average electron temperatures obtained from the Stark broadening of the H α line. With these values, the D content of the samples has been calculated by CF LIBS as ∼4.7% ± 2.9%. These results are in a good agreement with thermal desorption spectroscopy measurements, which gives a 4–5 at% for the D content. In addition, the depth profile is similar to that recorded using secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is one of the most promising methods for quantitative in-situ determination of fuel retention in plasma-facing components (PFCs) of magnetically confined fusion devices like ITER and JET. In this article, the current state of understanding in LIBS development for fusion applications will be presented, based on a complete review of existing results and complemented with newly obtained data. The work has been performed as part of a research programme, set up in the EUROfusion Consortium, to address the main requirements for ITER: (a) quantification of fuel from relevant surfaces with high sensitivity, (b) the technical demonstration to perform LIBS with a remote handling system and (c) accurate detection of fuel at ambient pressures relevant for ITER. For the first goal, the elemental composition of ITER-like deposits and proxies to them, including deuterium (D) or helium (He) containing W–Be, W, W–Al and Be–O–C coatings, was successfully determined with a typical depth resolution ranging from 50 up to 250 nm per laser pulse. Deuterium was used as a substitute for tritium (T) and in the LIBS experiments deuterium surface densities below 1016 D/cm2 could be measured with an accuracy of ∼30%, confirming the required high sensitivity for fuel-retention investigations. The performance of different LIBS configurations was explored, comprising LIBS systems based on single pulse (pulse durations: ps–ns) and double pulse lasers with different pulse durations. For the second goal, a remote handling application was demonstrated inside the Frascati-Tokamak-Upgrade (FTU), where a compact, remotely controlled LIBS system was mounted on a multipurpose deployer providing an in-vessel retention monitor system. During a shutdown phase, LIBS was performed at atmospheric pressure, for measuring the composition and fuel content of different area of the stainless-steel FTU first wall, and the titanium zirconium molybdenum alloy tiles of the toroidal limiter. These achievements underline the capability of a LIBS-based retention monitor, which complies with the requirements for JET and ITER operating in DT with a beryllium wall and a tungsten divertor. Concerning the capabilities of LIBS at pressure conditions relevant for ITER, quantitative determination of the composition of PFC materials at ambient pressures up to 100 mbar of N2, the D content could be determined with an accuracy of 25%, while for atmospheric pressure conditions, an accuracy of about 50% was found when using single-pulse lasers. To improve the LIBS performance in atmospheric pressure conditions, a novel approach is proposed for quantitative determination of the retained T and the D/T ratio. This scenario is based on measuring the LIBS plume emission at two different time delays after each laser pulse. On virtue of application of a double pulse LIBS system, for LIBS application at N2 atmospheric pressure the distinguishability of the spectra from H isotopes could be significantly improved, but further systematic research is required.

Abstract.Computations are pervasive across many domains, where end users have to compose various heterogeneous computational entities to perform professional activities. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a widely used mechanism that can support such forms of compositions as it allows heterogeneous systems to be wrapped as services that can then be combined with each other. However, current SOA orchestration languages require writing scripts that are typically too low-level for end users to write, being targeted at professional programmers and business analysts. To address this problem, this paper proposes a composition approach based on an end user specification style called SCORE. SCORE is an architectural style that uses high-level constructs that can be tailored for different domains and automatically translated into executable constructs by tool support. We demonstrate the use of SCORE in two domainsdynamic network analysis and neuroscience, where users are intelligence analysts and neuroscientists respectively, who use the architectural style based vocabulary in SCORE as a basis of their domain-specific compositions that can be formally analyzed.

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Abstract.Within an increasing number of domains an important emerging need is the ability for technically naïve users to compose computational elements into novel configurations. Examples include astronomers who create new analysis pipelines to process telescopic data, intelligence analysts who must process diverse sources of unstructured text to discover socio-technical trends, and medical researchers who have to process brain image data in new ways to understand disease pathways. Creating such compositions today typically requires low-level technical expertise, limiting the use of computational methods and increasing the cost of using them. In this paper we describe an approach -which we term end-user architecting -that exploits the similarity between such compositional activities and those of software architects. Drawing on the rich heritage of software architecture languages, methods, and tools, we show how those techniques can be adapted to support end users in composing rich computational systems through domain-specific compositional paradigms and component repositories, without requiring that they have knowledge of the low-level implementation details of the components or the compositional infrastructure. Further, we outline a set of open research challenges that the area of end-user architecting raises.