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 IN2P3/CNRS IDEA meeting – 19&20 November 2007 ENS Paris

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

Interest of 150Nd for bb studies

150Nd is the best for G0 phase space factor Factor of merit of 150Nd Activity = A A0 =  M0 2 x G0 (Z, Q) x < m>2 Isotope Q (MeV) Isotopic abundance (%) G0(y-1) x 1025 48Ca 4.271 0.187 2.44 76Ge 2.040 7.8 0.24 82Se 2.995 9.2 1.08 96Zr 3.350 2.8 2.24 100Mo 3.034 9.6 1.75 116Cd 2.802 7.5 1.89 130Te 2.528 33.8 1.70 136Xe 2.479 8.9 1.81 150Nd 3.367 5.6 8.00 150Nd is the best for G0 phase space factor Constraint on 222Rn and 214Bi : NO Activity comparison: 100 kg of 150Nd equivalent to 1 700 kg of 76Ge 0 to the excited state: phase space available at Q = 2.7 MeV Nuclear matrix element? M0 (SUSY): 150Nd the best

MENPHIS in France: short description

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

235U + 3 photons  235U+ + e- Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (1/4) Selective photoionization 235U + 3 photons  235U+ + e- Choosing an efficient photoionization scheme is a very difficult task  3 wavelengths l1, l2, l3

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

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

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

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

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

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

SNO+/SuperNEMO: new Nd-150 collaboration

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

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