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High helium contents will be generated within minor actinide doped uranium dioxide blankets which could be used in fourth generation reactors. In this framework, it is essential to improve our understanding of the type of damage which a pellet could incur as a result of extensive helium build-up. This paper is an attempt at tackling this issue. Sintered uranium dioxide disks have been implanted with helium ions then annealed at various temperatures. Above a concentration of 0.4 at.% and above 1000°C, optical images of the sample surface revealed swollen grains and extensive areas which have exfoliated. Nuclear reaction microanalyses and atomic force microscopy observations were performed to demonstrate that helium has substantially precipitated within the swollen grains. Massive precipitation of the gas leads under these conditions to sample surface blistering which appears to precede flaking. Deuterium ion irradiations have also been performed at ambient and a direct flaking of the sample surface was observed, but for this phenomenon to be observed required much higher doses than in the He study, indicating that temperature could be an essential ingredient for gas to migrate and cause extensive precipitation. Such phenomena could possibly lead to degradation of the fuel.

Despite the theoretical advantages of a high local concentration of anti-cancer drugs, local chemotherapy often fails to produce complete and lasting responses in experimental and human solid tumors. Experiments using Patent Blue dye showed that fluids diffused poorly into tumor mass when injected inside or around s.c. rat tumors in rats. In the same way, Patent Blue dye distributed poorly from the peritoneal cavity into the tumor nodules of rats with peritoneal carcinomatosis. The potent vasoconstrictor, epinephrine (1 mg/kg of body weight) was shown to facilitate the penetration of Patent Blue dye into s.c. and peritoneal rat tumors. Platinum concentration evaluated by micro-PIXE in s.c. DHD/K12/PROb colon tumors or by atomic absorption spectrometry in DHD/K12/PROb peritoneal tumors was 4- to 12-fold higher when epinephrine was added to local cisplatin. Peri-tumoral or intra-tumoral injection of cisplatin (2 mg/kg) alone does not cure s.c. DHD/K12/PROb colon tumors or GV1A1 glioma tumors in BD IX rats. By contrast, a complete and lasting cure of s.c. tumors was achieved regularly and without skin necrosis when epinephrine was added to intra-tumoral or peri-tumoral cisplatin. Rats with peritoneal-tumor nodules 1 to 2 mm in diameter, and insensitive to i.p. cisplatin alone, were cured when the anti-cancer drug was combined with epinephrine. These experimental results could justify clinical trials using a combination of cisplatin and epinephrine in the treatment of locally growing solid tumors. Int. J. Cancer 81:779–784, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

STIM tomography has been recently implemented in the nuclear microbeam line of the CENBG. In addition to the design of the experimental device, the main development consisted in the elaboration of data reduction programs based on analytic reconstruction methods usually employed for X-ray tomography. This report describes the first results that we obtained in the analysis of biological samples. In a first step, plant specimens such as single pollen grains and stamens were investigated in order to assess the performances of the technique. Individual cells isolated from a human cancer cell line were then analysed. One of the main advantages pointed out by these experiments is the capability to reveal the cell ultrastructure using simply freeze-dried unsectioned specimens.