Vol.15,

Review of X-ray dark-field imaging under development is presented. Its goal is its application to clinical diagnosis of organs that have been invisible by the ordinary techniques. In order to clinically visualize tissues in detail one needs high contrast and high spatial resolution say ~50 μmm. This X-ray optics comprises a Bragg asymmetric monochro-collimator and a Bragg case or a Laue case filter with capability of analyzing angle in a parallel position. Their diffraction index is 4,4,0 and the X-ray energy 35 keV (λ= 0.0354 nm). The filter has 0.6 mm thickness in the Bragg case or 1.075 mm or 2.15 mm thickness in the Laue case. Under this condition only the refracted X-rays from object can transmit through the filter while the beam that may receive absorption and/or phase change will not. Soft tissues at human joints thus taken show high contrast images so that the DFI is promising for clinical diagnosis. Preliminary X-ray absorption images of another clinical candidates of ear bones are also shown.

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Nano-manipulation of single atoms and molecules is a critical technique in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This review paper will focus on the recent development of the manipulation of single DNA molecules based on atomic force microscopy (AFM). Precise manipulation has been realized including varied manipulating modes such as "cutting" , "pushing" , "folding" , "kneading" , "picking up" , "dipping" , etc. The cutting accuracy is dominated by the size of the AFM tip, which is usually 10nm or less. Single DNA fragments can be cut and picked up and then amplified by single molecule PCR. Thus positioning isolation and sequencing can be performed.

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Plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII&D) has been shown to be an effective technique to enhance the surface bioactivity of materials. In this paper, recent progress made in our laboratory on plasma surface modification single-crystal silicon and amorphous carbon is reviewed. Silicon is the most important material in the integrated circuit industry but its surface biocompatibility has not been investigated in details. We have recently performed hydrogen PIII into silicon and observed the biomimetic growth of apatite on its surface in simulated body fluid. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is widely used in the industry due to its excellent mechanical properties and chemical inertness. The use of this material in biomedical engineering has also attracted much attention. It has been observed in our laboratory that doping DLC with nitrogen by means of PIII can improve the surface blood compatibility. The properties as well as in vitro biological test results will be discussed in this article.

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Mo ions extracted from a metal vapor vacuum arc ion source (MEVVA) were implanted into 4Cr5MoV1Si(H13) steel samples with a high implantation dose of 5×10¹⁷cm^-2 and a pulsed ion beam flux of about 300 μA·cm^-2·An optical interference microscope and pin-on-disc apparatus were used to investigate the wear and friction characteristics of the steel. The results from Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and the collision theory demonstrated that the radiation enhanced diffusion gave great influence on the Mo profile. It was observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and grazing-angle X-ray diffraction (GXRD) that carbide of Mo appeared in the doped region for the implantation at 48 kV. The results showed that improvement in the wear resistance of the Mo-implanted steel were mainly due to the formation of Mo₂C in the doped zone and the implantation affected zone underneath. Oxidation resistance of the surface iron and the surface with small crystal grains gave influences on the wear resistance in a way.

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X-ray fluorescence holography (XFH) is a novel method for three-dimensional (3D) imaging of atomic structure. Theoretically, in an XFH experiment, one has to measure the fluorescence energy on a spherical surface to get well-resolved 3D images of atoms. But in practice, the experimental system arrangement does not allow the measurement of the fluorescent intensity oscillations in the full sphere. The holographic information losses because of the limited sampling range (less than 4π) will directly result in defective reconstructed atomic images. In this work, the atomic image of a Fe single crystal (001) was reconstructed by numerically simulating X-ray fluorescence holograms of the crystal at different recording angle's ranges and step lengths. Influences of the ranges of azimuth angles and polar angles and the step length of polar angles on the reconstructed atomic images were discussed.

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Dose inter-comparison studies for ⁶⁰Co γ-ray and 10MeV electron beam irradiation were carried out from July to October in 2002. The purpose of the studies was to check the reliability of the alanine-PE film dosimeters made by CIAE, which will be used as transfer standard dosimetry system mainly for electron beam irradiation. The expanded uncertainty of CIAE alanine/EPR dosimetry system was 4.1% for doses not higher than 10kGy and 5.4% for those above 10kGy (k=2). CIAE alanine-PE film dosimeters were sent to JAERI, RISO (National Laboratory in Denmark) and INCT respectively, which were irradiated by ⁶⁰Co gamma-rays or electron beams in each laboratory. The irradiated dosimeters were then sent back to CIAE for electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis. The agreements were obtained to be ±1.9% for gamma-ray dose measurement and ±4.3% for electron beam dose measurement, which were all within the combined uncertainty of the reference and CIAE alanine/EPR dosimetry system. Furthermore, the overall mean ratio was found to be 0.995 with 1.8% in the coefficient of variation (CV). The preliminary inter-comparison studies indicated that CIAE film alanine/EPR dosimetry system had the potential to be used as a transfer dosimetry system for high dose measurement.

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This paper reports the observed changes for equilibrium factors between ²²⁶Ra and ²²²Rn with sealing time of the samples. The samples include soil, raw coal, mineral water, cement, rock, etc. Especially the conceptions of "pre-equilibrium time" and "pre-equilibrium factor" have been put forward and methods of measuring and processing data have been given which can be used for rapidly reporting activity of ²²⁶Ra in samples with unknown equilibrium factor. It is definitely concluded that, using methods given in the paper, a test report will be completed in 3~7 days, instead of one month, after receiving the sample whose activity is not lower than LLD of the spectrometer.

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High neutron economy, on line refueling and channel design result in the unsurpassed fuel cycle flexibility and variety for CANDU reactors. According to the Chinese national conditions that China has both PWR and CANDU reactors and the closed cycle policy of reprocessing the spent PWR fuel is adopted, one of the advanced nuclear fuel cycles of PWR/CANDU synergism using the reprocessed uranium of spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactor is proposed, which will save the uranium resource (~22.5%), increase the energy output (~41%), decrease the quantity of spent fuels to be disposed (~2/3) and lower the cost of nuclear power. Because of the inherent flexibility of nuclear fuel cycle in CANDU reactor, and the low radiation level of recycled uranium(RU), which is acceptable for CANDU reactor fuel fabrication, the transition from the natural uranium to the RU can be completed without major modification of the reactor core structure and operation mode. It can be implemented in Qinshan Phase Ⅲ CANDU reactors with little or no requirement of big investment in new design. It can be expected that the reuse of recycled uranium of spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactor is a feasible and desirable strategy in China.

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Microorganisms have a number of applications in the nuclear industry, which would benefit from the use of radiation-resistant microorganisms. Environmentally isolated bacteria have shown to be resistant to gamma irradiation up to a dose of 30,000 Gy. It has also been reported that the presence of ionizing radiation may induce radio-resistance in bacteria. Recent demonstrations of the removal and immobilization of inorganic contaminants by microbial transformations, sorption and mineralization show the potential of both natural and engineered microorganisms as bioremedial tools. This review is to provide an overview of the application of radiation-resistant bacteria to decontamination of metal and radionuclide.

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