Study of Luminescence in Noble Gases and Binary Kr-Xe Mixture Excited by the Products of 6Li(n,α)T Nuclear Reaction

Abstract

At the present time the direct nuclear energy conversion into optical radiation is realized in gas media in which filling of energy levels takes place in the low-temperature plasma (nuclear-excited plasma) induced by ionizing radiation. The research of optical radiation of the nuclear-excited plasma induced by products of nuclear reactions is interest for development of an alternative outlet method of energy from the nuclear reactor, creation of control and regulating bodies for parameters of nuclear reactors as well as creation of one of diagnostics of high-temperature plasma in fusion reactors. The purpose of this work was to obtain new experimental data about processes of nuclear energy conversion into optical radiation with the optimal gas media having high coefficient of nuclear energy conversion into optical radiation and also with a possibility of outlet method of energy from the nuclear reactor core. In this article, description of the reactor experimental bench (LIANA) and the experiment scheme, the irradiating ampoule device (AD) with surface source of charged particles is provided, and the procedure of reactor experiment is presented. This paper presents the results of the reactor experiments of studying the spectral-luminescent characteristics of unary noble gases (Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) and binary Kr-Xe gas mixture in a 200–975 nm spectral range with ionization gaseous media by products of 6Li(n,α)T nuclear reaction under irradiation at research water-cooled heterogeneous reactor (the IVG.1M).

Keywords

• nuclear-excited plasma
• lithium
• noble gases
• reactor irradiation
• ampoule device