Status of the Nd150 enrichment project Corinne Augier

Status of the Nd-150 enrichment project Corinne Augier – Serge Jullian – Dominique Lalanne – Fabrice Piquemal Presented by Serge JULLIAN LAL Orsay Université Paris-Sud 11, Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay et IN 2 P 3/CNRS IDEA meeting – 19&20 November 2007 ENS Paris 1

Status of the Nd-150 enrichment project Plan Interest of 150 Nd for studies MENPHIS in France: short description SNO+/Super. NEMO: new Nd-150 collaboration Conclusions Presented by Serge Jullian – NEMO/Super. NEMO – LAL Orsay, France IDEA meeting – 19&20 November 2007 – ENS Paris 2

Interest of 150 Nd for studies 3

Factor of merit of Activity = A - 150 Nd A 0 = M 0 2 x G 0 (Z, Q ) x < m >2 Isotope Q (Me. V) Isotopic abundance (%) G 0 (y-1) x 1025 48 Ca 4. 271 0. 187 2. 44 76 Ge 2. 040 7. 8 0. 24 82 Se 2. 995 9. 2 1. 08 96 Zr 3. 350 2. 8 2. 24 100 Mo 3. 034 9. 6 1. 75 116 Cd 2. 802 7. 5 1. 89 130 Te 2. 528 33. 8 1. 70 136 Xe 2. 479 8. 9 1. 81 150 Nd 3. 367 5. 6 8. 00 150 Nd is the best for G 0 phase space factor Constraint on 222 Rn and 214 Bi : NO Activity comparison: 100 kg of 150 Nd equivalent to 1 700 kg of 76 Ge 0 to the excited state: phase space available at Q = 2. 7 Me. V Nuclear matrix element? 4 150 M 0 (SUSY): Nd the best

MENPHIS in France: short description 5

MENPHIS description Achievements of the French SILVA uranium enrichment program A. PETIT, G. BORDIER, P. LEMAIRE et al. , CEA Gaseous diffusion Ultracentrifugation SILVA/AVLIS? 6

Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (1/4) • Selective photoionization 235 U + 3 photons 235 U+ + e- Choosing an efficient photoionization scheme is a very difficult task 3 wavelengths l 1, l 2, l 3 7

Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (2/4) depleted U collecting plate enriched U photoionizing laser beam collecting plate vapour jet ( natural U) 8

Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (3/4) light-vapor interaction volume enriched U collectors enriched U stream depleted U collector depleted U stream feed stream reflux electron beam gun water cooled crucible 9

Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (4/4) Copper Vapor pump Lasers and YAG oscillators Waste collector Dye lasers (oscillators - Amplifiers) Beam folding system Product collectors Beam transport Vapor plume (U nat) Beam shaping with closed loop (steering, centering, wavefront) 10

Milestones of the AVLIS process (USA) 1972: Beginning of the AVLIS Project at Los Alamos 1992: 150 kg (2%); 112 hours (9 hours full flow) 1992 -95: Work on Gd and Er 1997: 400 hours (280 hours for enrichment) 1999: the AVLIS program is stopped in USA 11

2000– 2003 Program: MENPHIS facility Evaporator Dye laser chain Yag laser Copper vapor laser Design : 2001 Building : 2002 1 st test: early 2003 1 st full scale exp. : June 2003 12

MENPHIS enrichment experiment results Main results for the process : • 204 kg of enriched uranium at 2. 5 % mean (predicted) value • About 2000 kg natural U evaporated • 400 “on line” assay measurements 13

SNO+/Super. NEMO: new Nd-150 collaboration 14

Conclusions of the SNO+/Super. NEMO meeting ü Joint SNO+/SN meeting, Idaho State University, Idaho (US) 6 -8 November 2007 Ø Status of the projects: SNO+: phase 1 with natural neodymium (nat. Nd) Super. NEMO: phase 1 with enriched selenium (82 Se) Ø Joint effort: 150 Nd production with MENPHIS chemical purification of 150 Nd (radiopurity) Ø Common interest for liquid scintillator use (LAB) and chemical purification ü New collaboration called Nd-150 15

Conclusions Ø Nd-150 collaboration is opened to other members Ø A step which could help to a new operation of the MENPHIS facility THANK YOU 16