Application of transition-edge sensors for micro-X-ray fluorescence measurements and micro-X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy; a case study of uranium speciation in biotite obtained from a uranium mine

Yomogida, Takumi; Hashimoto, Tadashi; Okumura, Takuma*; Yamada, Shinya*; Tatsuno, Hideyuki*; Noda, Hirofumi*; Hayakawa, Ryota*; Okada, Shinji*; Takatori, Sayuri*; Isobe, Tadaaki*; et al.

Analyst, 149(10), p.2932 - 2941, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/D4AN00059E

In this study, we successfully applied a transition-edge sensor (TES) spectrometer as a detector for microbeam X-ray measurements from a synchrotron X-ray light source to determine uranium (U) distribution at the micro-scale and its chemical species in biotite obtained from the U mine. It is difficult to separate the fluorescent X-ray of the U L line at 13.615 keV from that of the Rb K line at 13.395 keV in the X-ray fluorescence spectrum with an energy resolution of approximately 220 eV of the conventional silicon drift detector (SDD). Meanwhile, the fluorescent X-rays of U L and Rb K were fully separated by TES with 50 eV energy resolution at the energy of around 13 keV. The successful peak separation by TES led to an accurate mapping analysis of trace U in micro-X-ray fluorescence measurements and a decrease in the signal-to-background ratio in micro-X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy.

Historical changes and Correspondence to Research and Test Reactors New Regulatory Standards for Monitoring Post in Oarai Research and Development Institute, JAEA

Hamaguchi, Takumi; Yamada, Junya; Komatsuzaki, Naoya*; Hatakeyama, Takumi; Seya, Natsumi; Muto, Yasunobu; Miyauchi, Hideaki; Hashimoto, Makoto

JAEA-Technology 2022-038, 65 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Technology-2022-038.pdf:4.3MB

New regulatory requirements were developed taking into account the lessons-learnt from the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on March 2011. The new regulatory standards required that monitoring posts should be diversified in transmission systems and equipped with backup power supply equipment for design basis accidents. In this report, we look back on the history of monitoring posts in Oarai Research and Development Institute, explained the application for the permission of reactor installment license, application for approval of the design and construction method, pre-use operator's inspection and improvement design of monitoring posts. This report also includes about inspection based on act on special measures concerning nuclear emergency preparedness and the installation of KURAMA-II, which was carried out in conjunction with the improvement of monitoring post for new regulatory standards. As an appendix, application document for approval of the design and construction method are included.

Recent improvements of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System; PHITS version 3.33

Sato, Tatsuhiko; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Ogawa, Tatsuhiko; Furuta, Takuya; Abe, Shinichiro; Kai, Takeshi; Matsuya, Yusuke; Matsuda, Norihiro; Hirata, Yuho; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 9 Pages, 2023/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2275736

The Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) is a general-purpose Monte Carlo radiation transport code that can simulate the behavior of most particle species with energies up to 1 TeV (per nucleon for ions). Its new version, PHITS3.31, was recently developed and released to the public. In the new version, the compatibility with high-energy nuclear data libraries and the algorithm of the track-structure modes have been improved. In this paper, we summarize the upgraded features of PHITS3.31 with respect to the physics models, utility functions, and application software introduced since the release of PHITS3.02 in 2017.

Mesospheric ionization during substorm growth phase

Murase, Kiyoka*; Kataoka, Ryuho*; Nishiyama, Takanori*; Nishimura, Koji*; Hashimoto, Taishi*; Tanaka, Yoshimasa*; Kadokura, Akira*; Tomikawa, Yoshihiro*; Tsutsumi, Masaki*; Ogawa, Yasunobu*; et al.

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (Internet), 12, p.18_1 - 18_16, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2022012

We identified two energetic electron precipitation (EEP) events during the growth phase of moderate substorms and estimated the mesospheric ionization rate for an EEP event for which the most comprehensive dataset from ground-based and space-born instruments was available. The mesospheric ionization signature reached below 70 km altitude and continued for ~15 min until the substorm onset, as observed by the PANSY radar and imaging riometer at Syowa Station in the Antarctic region. We also used energetic electron flux observed by the Arase and POES 15 satellites as the input for the air-shower simulation code PHITS to quantitatively estimate the mesospheric ionization rate. Combining the cutting-edge observations and simulations, we shed new light on the space weather impact of the EEP events during geomagnetically quiet times, which is important to understand the possible link between the space environment and climate.

Large scale production of Cu and Cu via the Zn(n, p)Cu and Zn(n, np/d)Cu reactions using accelerator neutrons

Kawabata, Masako*; Motoishi, Shoji*; Ota, Akio*; Motomura, Arata*; Saeki, Hideya*; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Iwamoto, Nobuyuki; Nagai, Yasuki*; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki*

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 330(3), p.913 - 922, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07987-3

Both Cu and Cu are promising radionuclides in nuclear medicine. Production yields of these radionuclides were quantified by irradiating 55.4 g of natural zinc with accelerator neutrons. Clinically suitable Cu and Cu yields were estimated by experimental based numerical simulations using 100 g of enriched Zn and Zn, respectively, and elevated neutron fluxes from 40 MeV, 2 mA deuterons. A combined thermal- and resin-separation method was developed to isolate Cu and Cu from zinc, resulting in 73% separation efficiency and 97% zinc recovery. Such methods can provide large scale production of Cu and Cu for clinical applications.

Deexcitation dynamics of muonic atoms revealed by high-precision spectroscopy of electronic X rays

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I. H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(5), p.053001_1 - 053001_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.053001

We observed electronic X rays emitted from muonic iron atoms using a superconducting transition-edge-type sensor microcalorimeter. The energy resolution of 5.2 eV in FWHM allowed us to observe the asymmetric broad profile of the electronic characteristic and X rays together with the hypersatellite X rays around 6 keV. This signature reflects the time-dependent screening of the nuclear charge by the negative muon and the -shell electrons, accompanied by electron side-feeding. Assisted by a simulation, this data clearly reveals the electronic - and -shell hole production and their temporal evolution during the muon cascade process.

Impact of the angle of incidence on negative muon-induced SEU cross sections of 65-nm Bulk and FDSOI SRAMs

Liao, W.*; Hashimoto, Masanori*; Manabe, Seiya*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Abe, Shinichiro; Tampo, Motonobu*; Takeshita, Soshi*; Miyake, Yasuhiro*

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 67(7), p.1566 - 1572, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2020.2976125

Muon-induced single event upset (SEU) is predicted to increase with technology scaling. The angle of incidence of terrestrial muons is not always perpendicular to the chip surface. Consequently, the impact of the angle of incidence of muons on SEUs should be evaluated. This study conducts negative muon irradiation tests on bulk SRAM and FDSOI SRAM at two angles of incidence: 0 degree (vertical) and 45 degree (tilted). The tilted incidence drifts the muon energy peak to a higher energy. Moreover, the SEU characteristics (i.e., such as the voltage dependences of the SEU cross sections and multiple cells upset patterns) between the vertical and tilted incidences are similar.

Impact of hydrided and non-hydrided materials near transistors on neutron-induced single event upsets

Abe, Shinichiro; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Kuroda, Junya*; Manabe, Seiya*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Liao, W.*; Ito, Kojiro*; Hashimoto, Masanori*; Harada, Masahide; Oikawa, Kenichi; et al.

Proceedings of IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS 2020) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1109/IRPS45951.2020.9128951

Single event upsets (SEUs) caused by neutrons have been recognized as a serious reliability problem for microelectronic devices on the ground level. In our previous work, it was found that hydride placed in front of the memory chip has considerably impact on SEU cross sections because H ions generated via elastic scattering of neutrons with hydrogen atoms are only emitted in a forward direction. In this study, the effect of components neighboring transistors on neutron-induced SEUs was investigated for 65-nm bulk SRAMs by using PHITS. It was found that the shape of the SEU cross section around few MeV comes from the thickness and the position of components placed in front of transistors when that components do not contains hydrogen atoms. By considering components adjoin memory cells in the test board used in the simulation, measured data at J-PARC BL10 were reproduced well. In addition, it was found that the effect of components neighboring transistors on neutron-induced SERs does not negligible in terrestrial environment.

Impact of irradiation side on neutron-induced single-event upsets in 65-nm Bulk SRAMs

Abe, Shinichiro; Liao, W.*; Manabe, Seiya*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Hashimoto, Masanori*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 66(7, Part 2 ), p.1374 - 1380, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2019.2902176

Single event upsets (SEUs) caused by secondary cosmic-ray neutrons have recognized as a serious reliability problem for microelectronic devices. Acceleration tests at neutron facilities are convenient to validate soft error rates (SERs) quickly, but some corrections caused from measurement conditions are required to derive realistic SERs at actual environment or to compare other measured data. In this study, the effect of irradiation side on neutron-induced SEU cross sections was investigated by performing neutron transport simulation using PHITS. SERs for 65-nm bulk CMOS SRAMs are estimated using the sensitive volume model. It was found from simulation that SERs for the sealant side irradiation are 30-50% larger than those for the board side irradiation. This difference comes from the difference of production yield and angular distribution of secondary H and He ions, which are the main cause of SEUs. Thus the direction of neutron irradiation should be reported when the result of acceleration tests are published. This result also indicates that SERs can be reduced by equipping device with sealant side facing downward.

Estimation of muon-induced SEU rates for 65-nm bulk and UTBB-SOI SRAMs

Manabe, Seiya*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Liao, W.*; Hashimoto, Masanori*; Abe, Shinichiro

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 66(7), p.1398 - 1403, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2019.2916191

Cosmic ray-induced soft errors have been recognized as a major threat for electronics used at ground level. Recently, cosmic-ray muon-induced soft errors have received much attention due to the reduction of soft error immunity on SRAMs. In the previous studies, muon-induced soft error rates (SERs) for various technology devices were predicted with only the positive muon irradiation tests and simulation. In this paper, the muon-induced SEU rates for the 65-nm bulk and UTBB-SOI SRAMs are estimated by using the experimental data of both negative and positive muons. The experimental results showed that the negative muon SEU cross sections for the bulk SRAM are significantly larger than those for the UTBB-SOI. Estimation of muon-induced SEU rates at ground level was performed using PHITS with the experimental results. The muon-induced SER on the first floor of the building was estimated to be at most 10% of the neutron-induced SER on the same floor.