Establishment of characterization method for small fuel debris using the world's first isotope micro imaging apparatus (Contract research); FY2023 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Kogakuin University*

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2023. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2021, this report summarizes the research results of the "Establishment of characterization method for small fuel debris using the world's first isotope micro imaging apparatus" conducted from FY2021 to FY2023. The present study aims to obtain, for the first time in the world, the important data necessary for clarifying the retrieval of small amounts of fuel debris, and to evaluate and examine them. The isotope microimaging apparatus (developed by Kogakuin University) introduced at the JAEA Fuel Monitoring Facility (FMF) can obtain local quantitative data such as isotope composition while processing cross-sections of radioactive micro-samples, which can be used to determine the properties of fuel debris. In FY2021, we improved the isotope microimaging apparatus introduced to the JAEA FMF to accommodate high radiation dose samples. In FY2022, we maintained the isotope microimaging apparatus at the JAEA FMF and succeeded in analyzing real particles containing uranium. In FY2023, we completed development to automate and remotely perform analysis routines using a prototype machine at Kogakuin University. At the JAEA FMF, although manual operations were involved, we succeeded in analyzing each Cs isotope from real particles by resonance ionization. In Nagoya University, we improved the RIMS apparatus to investigate the difference in electronic state caused by ion beam sputtering. And we succeeded in obtaining resonance ionization signals from neutral particles generated by ion beam sputtering. At the JAEA CLADS, they investigated the ionization scheme for important nuclides Nd and Gd. Those proposed ionization schemes were examined at Kogakuin University.