Understanding the behaviour of absorber elements in silver–indium–cadmium control rods during PWR severe accident sequences

Spectroscopic properties of diatomic molecules CdI and CsCd: ab initio calculations

“…9, low-lying doublets and the lowest quartets are significantly separated by approximately ~ 1.6 eV. Quartet states are tentatively assigned as a 4 Σ, b 4 Π, c 4 ∑, d 4 Π, e 4 Δ and f 4 Π. Among these higher excited states, only the a 4 ∑ and b 4 Π exhibit well developed minima and can be spectroscopically important.…”

“…For higher excited doublet states, we used notation from experiment; there are states A 2 Π, B 2 ∑, C 2 Π, D 2 Δ, E 2 ∑, F 2 ∑, G 2 Π, H 2 ∑, I 2 Δ, J 2 ∑, K 2 ∑, L 2 Π and M 2 ∑, quartet states are a 4 ∑, b 4 Δ, c 4 ∑, d 4 Π, e 4 Π, f 4 ∑, g 4 Π and h 4 ∑. For calculating spectroscopic constants, we took into account only bound states X 2 ∑, B 2 ∑, C 2 Π, a 4 ∑, D 2 Δ, H 2 ∑, g 4 Π and h 4 ∑.…”

“…Cadmium and its compounds are very toxic even in small quantities; this element is able to accumulate in the organism and ecosystems. In a substantial amount, it can be released from silver-indium-cadmium (Ag-In-Cd) control rods [1][2][3][4][5] in nuclear reactor. This composition of the control rods has a good absorption capacity of neutrons with different energies [1].…”

Reaction-induced surface reconstruction of silver in contact with zirconium

“…Silver is a metal of interest for many industries including dentistry where silver is alloyed with mercury for amalgams [3,4,5], microelectronics for solder purposes [6,7,8,9] and the nuclear industry where silver is used to make control rods in nuclear reactors thanks to the capability of silver to absorb free neutrons [10,11]. Moreover, the catalytic properties of silver are widely used by the chemical industry for the epoxidation of ethylene or the partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde [12,13,14].…”

Aerosol behavior during SIC control rod failure in QUENCH-13 test

“…The experiment QUENCH-13 was the first in this programme to include a control rod of prototypic PWR design consisting of a SIC cylinder enclosed by stainless steel cladding within a Zircaloy guide tube [9][10][11][12][13][14]. The effects of the control rod on degradation and reflood behavior were examined under integral conditions, and for the first time the release of SIC aerosols following control rod rupture was measured.…”