Machine learning sintering density prediction model for MOX fuel pellet

Kato, Masato; Nakamichi, Shinya; Hirooka, Shun; Watanabe, Masashi; Murakami, Tatsutoshi; Ishii, Katsunori

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Wabun Rombunshi (Internet), 22(2), p.51 - 58, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.3327/taesj.J22.008

Uranium and Plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) pellets used as fast reactor fuels have been produced from several raw materials by mechanical blending method through processes of ball milling, additive blending, granulation, pressing, sintering and so on. It is essential to control the pellet density which is one of the important fuel specifications, but it is difficult to understand relationships among many parameters in the production. Database for MOX production was prepared from production results in Japan, and input data of eighteen types were chosen from production process and made a data set. Machine learning model to predict sintered density of MOX pellet was derived by gradient boosting regressor, and represented the measured sintered density with coefficient of determination of R=0.996

Restoration of oxygen vacancies on an anatase TiO(001) surface with supersonic seeded oxygen molecular beam

Katsube, Daiki*; Ono, Shinya*; Inami, Eiichi*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Abe, Masayuki*

Vacuum and Surface Science, 65(11), p.526 - 530, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1380/vss.65.526

The oxidation of oxygen vacancies at the surface of anatase TiO (001) was investigated by synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy and supersonic O beam (SSMB). The oxygen vacancies at the top surface and subsurface could be eliminated by the supply of hyperthermal oxygen molecules. Oxygen vacancies are present on the surface of anatase TiO(001) when it is untreated before transfer to a vacuum chamber. These vacancies, which are stable in the ambient condition, could also be effectively eliminated by using oxygen SSMB. This result is promising as a surface processing for various functional oxides.

Multi-scale turbulence simulation suggesting improvement of electron heated plasma confinement

Maeyama, Shinya*; Watanabe, Tomohiko*; Nakata, Motoki*; Nunami, Masanori*; Asahi, Yuichi; Ishizawa, Akihiro*

Nature Communications (Internet), 13, p.3166_1 - 3166_8, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30852-0

Turbulent transport is a key physics process for confining magnetic fusion plasma. Recent theoretical and experimental studies of existing fusion experimental devices revealed the existence of cross-scale interactions between small (electron)-scale and large (ion)-scale turbulence. Since conventional turbulent transport modelling lacks cross-scale interactions, it should be clarified whether cross-scale interactions are needed to be considered in future experiments on burning plasma, whose high electron temperature is sustained with fusion-born alpha particle heating. Here, we present supercomputer simulations showing that electron scale turbulence in high electron temperature plasma can affect the turbulent transport of not only electrons but also fuels and ash. Electron-scale turbulence disturbs the trajectories of resonant electrons responsible for ion-scale micro-instability and suppresses large-scale turbulent fluctuations. Simultaneously, ion-scale turbulent eddies also suppress electron-scale turbulence. These results indicate a mutually exclusive nature of turbulence with disparate scales. We demonstrate the possibility of reduced heat flux via cross-scale interactions.

Dynamical response of transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters to a pulsed charged-particle beam

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.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 31(5), p.2101704_1 - 2101704_4, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2021.3067793

A superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter is an ideal X-ray detector for experiments at accelerator facilities because of good energy resolution and high efficiency. To study the performance of the TES detector with a high-intensity pulsed charged-particle beam, we measured X-ray spectra with a pulsed muon beam at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan. We found substantial temporal shifts of the X-ray energy correlated with the arrival time of the pulsed muon beam, which was reasonably explained by pulse pileup due to the incidence of energetic particles from the initial pulsed beam.

Quantitative and semi-quantitative analyses using a portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer; Geochemical applications in fault rocks, lake sediments, and event deposits

Watanabe, Takahiro; Ishii, Chikako; Ishizaka, Chika; Niwa, Masakazu; Shimada, Koji; Sawai, Yuki*; Tsuchiya, Noriyoshi*; Matsunaka, Tetsuya*; Ochiai, Shinya*; Nara, Fumiko*

Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences, 116(3), p.140 - 158, 2021/00

https://doi.org/10.2465/jmps.201224

A portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (potable XRF) can be an effective tool for detecting chemical elements in various materials, such as geological, and environmental samples. In this study, working curves were confirmed using reference materials, such as igneous rocks and other geochemical standards, distributed by national and international organizations. Subsequently, quantification and semi-quantification analyses were performed by the portable XRF for inorganic elements in (A) fault rocks, (B) lake sediments from the middle Japan, and (C) soils with paleotsunami deposits from the Pacific coast of northeast Japan. Twenty-four elements (Mg-U) in these geological samples were measured by potable XRF using our working curves. Measured values by the portable XRF of the samples were good agreement with the reported values in almost cases.

Determination of fusion barrier distributions from quasielastic scattering cross sections towards superheavy nuclei synthesis

Tanaka, Taiki*; Narikiyo, Yoshihiro*; Morita, Kosuke*; Fujita, Kunihiro*; Kaji, Daiya*; Morimoto, Koji*; Yamaki, Sayaka*; Wakabayashi, Yasuo*; Tanaka, Kengo*; Takeyama, Mirei*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 87(1), p.014201_1 - 014201_9, 2018/01

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.87.014201

Excitation functions of quasielastic scattering cross sections for the Ca + Pb, Ti + Pb, and Ca + Cm reactions were successfully measured by using the gas-filled recoil-ion separator GARIS. Fusion barrier distributions were extracted from these data, and compared with the coupled-channels calculations. It was found that the peak energies of the barrier distributions for the Ca + Pb and Ti + Pb systems coincide with those of the 2n evaporation channel cross sections for the systems, while that of the Ca + Cm is located slightly below the 4n evaporation ones. This results provide us helpful information to predict the optimum beam energy to synthesize superheavy nuclei.

Cross-scale interactions between turbulence driven by electron and ion temperature gradients via sub-ion-scale structures

Maeyama, Shinya*; Watanabe, Tomohiko*; Idomura, Yasuhiro; Nakata, Motoki*; Ishizawa, Akihiro*; Nunami, Masanori*

Nuclear Fusion, 57(6), p.066036_1 - 066036_10, 2017/05

https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/aa687c

Multi-scale plasma turbulence including electron and ion temperature gradient (ETG/ITG) modes has been investigated by means of electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations. Triad transfer analyses on nonlinear mode coupling reveal cross-scale interactions between electron and ion scales. One of the interactions is suppression of electron-scale turbulence by ion- scale turbulence, where ITG-driven short-wavelength eddies act like shear flows and suppress ETG turbulence. Another cross-scale interaction is enhancement of ion-scale turbulence in the presence of electron-scale turbulence. This is caused via short-wavelength zonal flows, which are created by the response of passing kinetic electrons in ITG turbulence, suppress ITG turbulence by their shearing, and are damped by ETG turbulence. In both cases, sub-ion-scale structures between electron and ion scales play important roles in the cross-scale interactions.

Improved strong scaling of a spectral/finite difference gyrokinetic code for multi-scale plasma turbulence

Maeyama, Shinya; Watanabe, Tomohiko*; Idomura, Yasuhiro; Nakata, Motoki; Nunami, Masanori*; Ishizawa, Akihiro*

Parallel Computing, 49, p.1 - 12, 2015/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.parco.2015.06.001

Cross-scale interactions between electron and ion scale turbulence in a tokamak plasma

Maeyama, Shinya*; Idomura, Yasuhiro; Watanabe, Tomohiko*; Nakata, Motoki*; Yagi, Masatoshi; Miyato, Naoaki; Ishizawa, Akihiro*; Nunami, Masanori*

Physical Review Letters, 114(25), p.255002_1 - 255002_5, 2015/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.255002

Multiscale gyrokinetic turbulence simulations with the real ion-to-electron mass ratio and value are realized for the first time, where the value is given by the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure and characterizes electromagnetic effects on microinstabilities. Numerical analysis at both the electron scale and the ion scale is used to reveal the mechanism of their cross-scale interactions. Even with the real- mass scale separation, ion-scale turbulence eliminates electron-scale streamers and dominates heat transport, not only of ions but also of electrons. When the ion-scale modes are stabilized by finite- effects, the contribution of the electron-scale dynamics to the turbulent transport becomes non-negligible and turns out to enhance ion-scale turbulent transport.

Risk communication activity which used "YUME Chisoukan" in the Horonobe Underground Research Center

Abe, Shinya; Katada, Inao; Hoshino, Masato; Tokunaga, Hiroaki*; Horikoshi, Hidehiko*

JAEA-Review 2014-034, 81 Pages, 2014/11

JAEA-Review-2014-034.pdf:8.76MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Center conducts research and development to enhance the reliability of geological disposal technology, indicate the margin of technical safety for legally decided depth of repository, improve understanding of the deep geological environment, and promote greater public understanding for geological disposal technology. "YUME chisoukan" ceased its role as an exhibition facility as of end August 2012 as part of an administrative reform under the then Democratic Party rule, and came to be focused on disclosing the underground drifts to ascertain that JAEA is true to its tripartite agreement signed between the Hokkaido Prefecture, Town of Horonobe and JAEA (i.e., no nuclear materials will be used, etc.). It is also used as the facility to provide information on the research results of the Center. This report presents the statistical results of a questionnaire (2,566 responses) conducted from April to October 2013.