Radiation imaging of a highly contaminated filter train inside Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 using an integrated Radiation Imaging System based on a Compton camera

佐藤 優樹; 寺阪 祐太

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(8), p.1013 - 1026, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2159894

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) suffered a meltdown in the aftermath of the large tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on 11 March 2011. A massive amount of radioactive substance was spread over a wide area both inside and outside the FDNPS site. In this study, we present an approach for visualizing a radioactive hotspot on a standby gas-treatment system filter train, a highly contaminated piece of equipment in the air-conditioning room of the Unit 2 reactor building of FDNPS, using radiation imaging based on a Compton camera. In addition to fixed-point measurements using only the Compton camera, data acquisition while moving using an integrated Radiation Imaging System (iRIS), which combines a Compton camera with a simultaneous localization and mapping device and a survey meter, enabled the three-dimensional visualization of the hotspot location on the filter train. In addition, we visualized the hotspot and quantitatively evaluated its radioactivity. Notably, the visualized hotspot location and estimated radioactivity value are consistent with the accident investigation report of the FDNPS. Finally, the extent to which the radioactivity increased the ambient dose equivalent rate in the surrounding environment was explored.

もんじゅ燃料体取出し作業報告書; 2018年度及び2019年度の「燃料体の処理」作業

塩田 祐揮; 矢部 孝則; 村上 牧生; 磯部 祐太; 佐藤 方実; 浜野 知治; 高木 剛彦; 長沖 吉弘

JAEA-Technology 2022-001, 117 Pages, 2022/07

JAEA-Technology-2022-001.pdf:25.55MB

もんじゅ廃止措置計画の第一段階では「燃料体取出し作業」を行う。「燃料体取出し作業」では、炉外燃料貯蔵槽に貯蔵中の燃料体を洗浄・缶詰し燃料池に貯蔵する「燃料体の処理」、炉心にある燃料体を模擬体等と交換し炉外燃料貯蔵槽に貯蔵する「燃料体の取出し」を交互に行い、炉心にある370体と炉外燃料貯蔵槽にある160体の燃料体を全て燃料池に貯蔵する。「燃料体の処理作業」に用いる燃料取扱設備の自動化運転は約10年ぶりの作業であった。このため、2017年度から作業開始までに設備の点検を行い、作業に先立ち使用済み制御棒等を用いて総合試験、模擬訓練を行った。そのうえで、最初の「燃料体の処理作業」として、2018年度に炉外燃料貯蔵槽にあった86体の燃料体を洗浄・缶詰し燃料池に貯蔵した。あわせて、「燃料体の取出し」に向けて76体の模擬体を炉外燃料貯蔵槽の空ポット内に貯蔵した。その間、86種類、232件の警報・不具合等が発生したが、何れも燃料体や設備の安全に直ちに影響を及ぼした事象ではなく、燃料体落下等の安全上重要な事象及び移送機器の機構部分のスティック等の長期停止可能性のある事象は発生していない。機器故障は、燃料出入機本体Bグリッパの爪開閉クラッチ破損の1件であるが補修して作業を再開できた。複数回発生したナトリウム化合物の固着や機器の連続使用が直接要因となった機器の動作・性能の状態異常は、直接要因の除去あるいは特別採用した上で作業を継続した。その他、動作のタイムアウト等の系統制御に係る不具合等も多く発生したものの、安全を確保したうえで作業を継続することができた。もんじゅの燃料取扱設備はナトリウム冷却高速炉固有の機能を持つものであり、実燃料体を対象とした連続・継続的な運転は途に就いたばかりである。このため、原理的に完全な発生防止が難しい事象、使用実績が少ないことに起因する事象、システムの最適化が十分でないことに起因する事象を「対策を施したとしても発生する事象」と想定し、その発生頻度を出来る限り抑える対策と工程影響を最小化する復旧策を施すこととした。

Observation of domain structure in non-collinear antiferromagnetic MnSn thin films by magneto-optical Kerr effect

内村 友宏*; Yoon, J.-Y.*; 佐藤 佑磨*; 竹内 祐太郎*; 金井 駿*; 武智 涼太*; 岸 桂輔*; 山根 結太*; DuttaGupta, S.*; 家田 淳一; et al.

Applied Physics Letters, 120(17), p.172405_1 - 172405_5, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0089355

We perform a hysteresis-loop measurement and domain imaging for -oriented -MnSn thin films using magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and compare it with the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) measurement. We obtain a large Kerr rotation angle of 10 mdeg., comparable with bulk single-crystal MnSn. The composition dependence of AHE and MOKE shows a similar trend, suggesting the same origin, i.e., the non-vanishing Berry curvature in the momentum space. Magnetic domain observation at the saturated state shows that x dependence of AHE and MOKE is explained by an amount of reversible area that crucially depends on the crystalline structure of the film. Furthermore, in-depth observation of the reversal process reveals that the reversal starts with nucleation of sub-micrometer-scale domains dispersed in the film, followed by a domain expansion, where the domain wall preferentially propagates along the direction. Our study provides a basic understanding of the spatial evolution of the reversal of chiral-spin structure in non-collinear antiferromagnetic thin films.

Simulation study of a shield-free directional gamma-ray detector using Small-Angle Compton Scattering

北山 佳治; 寺阪 祐太; 佐藤 優樹; 鳥居 建男

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 7(4), p.042006_1 - 042006_7, 2021/10

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4048902

Gamma-ray imaging is a technique to visualize the spatial distribution of radioactive materials. Recently, gamma-ray imaging has been applied to research on decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident and environmental restoration, and active research has been conducted. This study is the elemental technology study of the new gamma-ray imager GISAS (Gamma-ray Imager using Small-Angle Scattering), which is assumed to be applied to the decommissioning site of FDNPS. GISAS consists of a set of directional gamma-ray detectors that do not require a shield. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of the shield free directional gamma-ray detector by simulation. The simulation result suggests that by measuring several keV of scattered electron energy by scatterer detector, gamma rays with ultra-small angle scattering could be selected. By using Compton scattering kinematics, a shield-free detector with directivity of about 10 could be feasible. By arranging the directional gamma-ray detectors in an array, it is expected to realize the GISAS, which is small, light, and capable of quantitative measurement.

福島第一原子力発電所廃炉作業環境における遠隔放射線イメージング技術の開発と実証; 統合型放射線イメージングシステムiRISの構築

佐藤 優樹; 寺阪 祐太; 鳥居 建男

日本原子力学会誌ATOMO, 62(11), p.645 - 649, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.3327/jaesjb.62.11_645

東京電力ホールディングス福島第一原子力発電所の廃炉作業を円滑に進めるにあたり、作業環境に飛散・沈着した放射性物質の分布を「見える化」して把握することは、作業者の被ばく線量の低減や詳細な作業計画の立案を行う上で重要である。ここではわれわれが福島第一原子力発電所やその周辺で行なってきた放射線イメージング技術の開発及び現場における実証例を紹介する。

Development of one-dimensional optical fiber type radiation distribution sensing method based on wavelength spectrum unfolding

寺阪 祐太; 渡辺 賢一*; 瓜谷 章*; 山崎 淳*; 佐藤 優樹; 鳥居 建男; 若井田 育夫

Proceedings of International Youth Nuclear Congress 2020 (IYNC 2020) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2020/05

For the application in the measurement of the high dose rate hot spots inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station buildings, we propose a wavelength-resolved type one-dimensional radiation distribution sensing method using plastic scintillating fiber (PSF). The proposing method estimates the incident position of radiation to the PSF by the unfolding of the wavelength spectrum output from the fiber edge using the fact that the attenuation length of scintillating light depends on the wavelength. By measuring the response function in advance, which defined as the wavelength spectrum measured at the fiber edge by the spectrometer with every transmission distance, the spectrum which can obtain when measured a certain radiation distribution can be expressed as the convolution of the response function. This method can avoid the problem of chance coincidence effect and signal pile-up, which occurs in the radiation detector with pulse counting mode under high dose rate field because this method measures the integrated light intensity. Through basic experiment using the ultraviolet irradiation source and Sr point source, basic properties of inverse estimation of irradiated position were confirmed, which showed that source position was reasonably estimated using the response function which obtained by the ultraviolet irradiation source in advance.

Radiation imaging using a compact Compton camera mounted on a crawler robot inside reactor buildings of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

佐藤 優樹; 寺阪 祐太; 宇津木 弥*; 菊地 弘幸*; 清岡 英男*; 鳥居 建男

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 56(9-10), p.801 - 808, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2019.1581111

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., went into meltdown in the aftermath of a large tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011. Measurement of radiation distribution inside the FDNPS buildings is indispensable to execute decommissioning tasks in the reactor buildings. We conducted a radiation imaging experiment inside the reactor building of Unit 1 of FDNPS by using a compact Compton camera mounted on a crawler robot and remotely visualized gamma-rays streaming from deep inside the reactor building. Moreover, we drew a radiation image obtained using the Compton camera onto the three-dimensional (3-D) structural model of the experimental environment created using photogrammetry. In addition, the 3-D model of the real working environment, including the radiation image, was imported into the virtual space of the virtual reality system. These visualization techniques help workers recognize radioactive contamination easily and decrease their own exposure to radiation because the contamination cannot be observed with the naked eye.

Radiation imaging using a compact Compton camera inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station building

佐藤 優樹; 谷藤 祐太; 寺阪 祐太; 宇佐美 博士; 冠城 雅晃; 川端 邦明; 宇津木 弥*; 菊地 弘幸*; 高平 史郎*; 鳥居 建男

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 55(9), p.965 - 970, 2018/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2018.1473171

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., went into meltdown after the occurrence of a large tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. The radiation distribution measurements inside the FDNPS buildings are indispensable to execute decommissioning tasks in the reactor buildings. We conducted the radiation imaging experiment inside the turbine building of Unit 3 of the FDNPS using a compact Compton camera, and succeeded in visualizing the high-dose contamination (up to 3.5 mSv/h). We also drew a three-dimensional radiation distribution map inside the turbine building by integrating the radiation image resulting from the Compton camera into the point cloud data of the experimental environment acquired using the scanning laser range finder. The radiation distribution map shows the position of these contaminations on the real space image of the turbine building. The radiation distribution map helps workers to easily recognize the radioactive contamination and to decrease the radiation exposure; the contamination cannot be observed with the naked eye, naturally.

A Three-dimensional radiation image display on a real space image created via photogrammetry

佐藤 優樹; 小澤 慎吾*; 谷藤 祐太; 鳥居 建男

Journal of Instrumentation (Internet), 13(3), p.P03001_1 - P03001_8, 2018/03

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/13/03/P03001

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., went into meltdown after the large tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. Radiation distribution measurements inside FDNPS buildings are indispensable to execute decommissioning tasks in the reactor buildings. We have developed a method of three-dimensional (3-D) image reconstruction for radioactive substances using a compact Compton camera. We also succeeded in visually recognize the position of the radioactive substances on the real space by integration of the 3D radiation image and the 3D photo-model created by photogrammetry.

Development of compact Compton camera for 3D image reconstruction of radioactive contamination

佐藤 優樹; 寺阪 祐太; 小澤 慎吾*; 宮村 浩子; 冠城 雅晃; 谷藤 祐太; 川端 邦明; 鳥居 建男

Journal of Instrumentation (Internet), 12(11), p.C11007_1 - C11007_8, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/12/11/C11007

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., went into meltdown after the large tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. Very large amounts of radionuclides were released from the damaged plant. Radiation distribution measurements inside the building of FDNPS are indispensable to execute the decommission tasks in the reactor buildings. We have developed a light-weight compact Compton camera to three-dimensionally measure the distribution of radioactive contamination inside FDNPS. The total weight of the Compton camera is lower than 1.0 kg. The -ray sensor of the Compton camera employs the Ce-doped GAGG scintillators coupled with a multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC: Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.,). We performed the 3D image reconstruction of the Cs-radioactive sources as shown in Fig. 1; the 3D radiation image is reconstructed using the multi-angle data measured with the Compton camera. Here, we introduce the development status of the 3D radiation imaging system consisting of the Compton camera. Moreover, we present the results of a performance evaluation test for 3D image reconstruction of radioactive contaminations in details.