PIXS: Portable Imaging X-ray Fluorescence System

已经为科学界确定了一些重大挑战，科技基金的专业知识可以帮助解决这些挑战。其中，核废料(核电工业现有废料和规划中的新核电站的未来废料)的处置以及二氧化碳的捕获和储存被视为对电力供应安全和减少温室效应的关键。地下储存库是解决这些挑战的一种方式。在全球范围内，正在花费大量资金探索各种存储方法、储存库类型和监测系统。该项目旨在开发和测试便携式成像X射线荧光系统原型，用于地质储存库，利用空间研究中心在XRF(成像和非成像)方面的专门知识进行行星探索，包括Beagle 2号和比佩科伦坡的水星探测任务。目前与Bruker Elemental联合开发手持式X射线衍射仪/XRF仪器的项目也与拟议的PIXS开发高度协同。

There are a number of major challenges that have been identified for the scientific community which expertise from the STFC could help to address. Of these, disposal of nuclear waste (existing waste from the nuclear power industry and future waste from the planned new nuclear power stations) and the capture and storage of carbon dioxide are seen as critical for security of electricity supply and to reduce greenhouse warming. Subsurface repositories are one way in which these challenges may be addressed. Across the globe a significant amount of funding is being expended in exploring a variety of storage methods, repository types and monitoring systems.The project aims to develop and test a prototype Portable Imaging X-ray Fluorescence System (PIXS) for use in geological repositories building on Space Research Centre expertise in XRF (imaging and non-imaging) for planetary exploration including Beagle 2 and the BepiColombo mission to Mercury. A current project to develop a handheld XRD/XRF instrument in conjunction with Bruker Elemental is also highly synergistic with the proposed development of PIXS.