Hyptiogastrites electrinus Cockerell, 1917, from Myanmar (Burmese) amber: Redescription and its placement within the Evanioidea (Insecta: Hymenoptera)

© The Natural History MuseumThe wasp Hyptiogastrites electrinus Cockerell, 1917, from the Lower Cretaceous (Upper Albian) Myanmar (Burmese) amber is redescribed from the well-preserved holotype and its relationship with extant Aulacidae and Gasteruptiidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) evaluated. Although the wing venation is identical to the majority of extant Hyptiogastrinae (Gasteruptiidae), phylogenetic analysis places H. electrinus as sister taxon to the Aulacidae s.str., (i.e. Aulacus + Pristaulacus). Thus, Hyptiogastrinae is confirmed as having a restricted Southern Hemisphere distribution (i.e. Australasia and South America). Consistent with this result, H. electrinus is included within a slightly more broadly defined Aulacidae rather than being placed in a new monotypic family. Characters that align this species with the Aulacidae include: having small circular eyes, percurrent Y-shaped notauli, pyramidal shape of the propodeum and the presence of a groove or ovipositor guide on the hind coxae.John T. Jennings, Andrew D. Austin and Nicholas B. Steven

Strategies for Application of Isotopic Uncertainties in Burnup Credit

Uncertainties in the predicted isotopic concentrations in spent nuclear fuel represent one of the largest sources of overall uncertainty in criticality calculations that use burnup credit. The methods used to propagate the uncertainties in the calculated nuclide concentrations to the uncertainty in the predicted neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) of the system can have a significant effect on the uncertainty in the safety margin in criticality calculations and ultimately affect the potential capacity of spent fuel transport and storage casks employing burnup credit. Methods that can provide a more accurate and realistic estimate of the uncertainty may enable increased spent fuel cask capacity and fewer casks needing to be transported, thereby reducing regulatory burden on licensee while maintaining safety for transporting spent fuel. This report surveys several different best-estimate strategies for considering the effects of nuclide uncertainties in burnup-credit analyses. The potential benefits of these strategies are illustrated for a prototypical burnup-credit cask design. The subcritical margin estimated using best-estimate methods is discussed in comparison to the margin estimated using conventional bounding methods of uncertainty propagation. To quantify the comparison, each of the strategies for estimating uncertainty has been performed using a common database of spent fuel isotopic assay measurements for pressurized-light-water reactor fuels and predicted nuclide concentrations obtained using the current version of the SCALE code system. The experimental database applied in this study has been significantly expanded to include new high-enrichment and high-burnup spent fuel assay data recently published for a wide range of important burnup-credit actinides and fission products. Expanded rare earth fission-product measurements performed at the Khlopin Radium Institute in Russia that contain the only known publicly-available measurement for {sup 103}Rh have also been included

Decay Heat Code Validation Activities at ORNL: Supporting Expansion of NRC Regulatory Guide 3.54

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a long history of involvement in the development and validation of the ORIGEN series of isotope summation codes and nuclear data libraries, widely recognized and used to predict the decay heat for spent nuclear fuel. In particular, the ORIGEN-S code, the depletion/decay module of the SCALE code system, has been extensively validated using experimental isotopic assay data and decay heat measurements for commercial spent fuel. This work was used in the development of the technical basis for NRC Regulatory Guide 3.54 on spent fuel decay heat. The bulk of the experimental data used to validate spent fuel decay heat predictions are from programs of the 1970s and 1980s and consequently involve older-design fuel assemblies with a relatively low enrichment and burnup. This has led to a situation where the spent fuel now being discharged from operating reactors extends well beyond the regime of the experimental data and area of code applicability based o n the data. The absence of validation data for modern fuel designs has potentially serious consequences for decay heat predictions in terms of added safety factors to account for larger uncertainties and lower volumetric transport and storage capacities

Evaluation of Cross-Section Sensitivities in Computing Burnup Credit Fission Product Concentrations

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Interim Staff Guidance 8 (ISG-8) for burnup credit covers actinides only, a position based primarily on the lack of definitive critical experiments and adequate radiochemical assay data that can be used to quantify the uncertainty associated with fission product credit. The accuracy of fission product neutron cross sections is paramount to the accuracy of criticality analyses that credit fission products in two respects: (1) the microscopic cross sections determine the reactivity worth of the fission products in spent fuel and (2) the cross sections determine the reaction rates during irradiation and thus influence the accuracy of predicted final concentrations of the fission products in the spent fuel. This report evaluates and quantifies the importance of the fission product cross sections in predicting concentrations of fission products proposed for use in burnup credit. The study includes an assessment of the major fission products in burnup credit and their production precursors. Finally, the cross-section importances, or sensitivities, are combined with the importance of each major fission product to the system eigenvalue (k{sub eff}) to determine the net importance of cross sections to k{sub eff}. The importances established the following fission products, listed in descending order of priority, that are most likely to benefit burnup credit when their cross-section uncertainties are reduced: {sup 151}Sm, {sup 103}Rh, {sup 155}Eu, {sup 150}Sm, {sup 152}Sm, {sup 153}Eu, {sup 154}Eu, and {sup 143}Nd

Measurements of the branching fractions of B+→ppK+ decays

The branching fractions of the decay B+ → pp̄K+ for different intermediate states are measured using data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb-1, collected by the LHCb experiment. The total branching fraction, its charmless component Mpp̄ < 2.85 GeV/c2 and the branching fractions via the resonant cc̄ states η c(1S) and ψ(2S) relative to the decay via a J/ψ intermediate state are [Equation not available: see fulltext.] Upper limits on the B + branching fractions into the η c(2S) meson and into the charmonium-like states X(3872) and X(3915) are also obtained

Observation of the decay Bc→J/ψK+K−π+B_c \rightarrow J/\psi K^+ K^- \pi^+

The decay $B_c\rightarrow J/\psi K^+ K^- \pi^+$ is observed for the first time, using proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb$^{-1}$. A signal yield of $78\pm14$ decays is reported with a significance of 6.2 standard deviations. The ratio of the branching fraction of \B_c \rightarrow J/\psi K^+ K^- \pi^+ decays to that of $B_c \rightarrow J/\psi \pi^+$ decays is measured to be $0.53\pm 0.10\pm0.05$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure

Search for the rare decays B0→J/ψγB^{0}\to J/\psi \gamma and Bs0→J/ψγB^{0}_{s} \to J/\psi \gamma

A search for the rare decay of a $B^{0}$ or $B^{0}_{s}$ meson into the final state $J/\psi\gamma$ is performed, using data collected by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ and $8$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$. The observed number of signal candidates is consistent with a background-only hypothesis. Branching fraction values larger than $1.7\times 10^{-6}$ for the $B^{0}\to J/\psi\gamma$ decay mode are excluded at 90% confidence level. For the $B^{0}_{s}\to J/\psi\gamma$ decay mode, branching fraction values larger than $7.4\times 10^{-6}$ are excluded at 90% confidence level, this is the first branching fraction limit for this decay.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-044.htm

A model-independent confirmation of the Z(4430)−Z(4430)^- state

The decay $B^0\to \psi(2S) K^+\pi^-$ is analyzed using $\rm 3~fb^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data collected with the LHCb detector. A model-independent description of the $\psi(2S) \pi$ mass spectrum is obtained, using as input the $K\pi$ mass spectrum and angular distribution derived directly from data, without requiring a theoretical description of resonance shapes or their interference. The hypothesis that the $\psi(2S)\pi$ mass spectrum can be described in terms of $K\pi$ reflections alone is rejected with more than 8$\sigma$ significance. This provides confirmation, in a model-independent way, of the need for an additional resonant component in the mass region of the $Z(4430)^-$ exotic state.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-038.htm

A study of CPCP violation in B∓→Dh∓B^\mp \rightarrow Dh^\mp (h=K,πh=K,\pi) with the modes D→K∓π±π0D \rightarrow K^\mp \pi^\pm \pi^0, D→π+π−π0D \rightarrow \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0 and D→K+K−π0D \rightarrow K^+K^-\pi^0

An analysis of the decays of $B^\mp \rightarrow D K^\mp$ and $B^\mp \rightarrow D \pi^\mp$ is presented in which the $D$ meson is reconstructed in the three-body final states $K^\mp \pi^\pm \pi^0$, $\pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0$ and $K^+ K^- \pi^0$. Using data from LHCb corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions, measurements of several $CP$ observables are performed. First observations are obtained of the suppressed ADS decay $B^\mp \rightarrow [\pi^\mp K^\pm \pi^0]_D \pi^\mp$ and the quasi-GLW decay $B^\mp \rightarrow [K^+ K^- \pi^0]_D \pi^\mp$. The results are interpreted in the context of the unitarity triangle angle $\gamma$ and related parameters