Nuclear hydrogen demonstration project using the HTTR; Demarcation of nuclear-industrial laws and design standards

Aoki, Takeshi; Shimizu, Atsushi; Ishii, Katsunori; Morita, Keisuke; Mizuta, Naoki; Kurahayashi, Kaoru; Yasuda, Takanori; Noguchi, Hiroki; Nomoto, Yasunobu; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; et al.

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 220, p.111503_1 - 111503_7, 2025/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111503

Aiming to establish coupling technologies between a high temperature gas cooled reactor and a hydrogen production plant, JAEA has initiated the HTTR Heat Application Test Project and is conducting the safety design and the safety analysis for the licensing of the HTTR Heat Application Test Facility. The present study proposed a relative evaluation methodology for the demarcation of applicable laws and design standards for the nuclear hydrogen production system and applied it to the HTTR Heat Application Test Facility. The evaluation results showed that a candidate applying the High Pressure Gas Safety Act to the Heat Application Test Facility (hydrogen production plant) and design standards established under the High Pressure Gas Safety Act to the steam reformer did not show the lowest category in any of the metrics, and was proposed as the most superior demarcation option for the HTTR Heat Application Test Facility.

Neutron diffraction study of the crystal and magnetic structures of antiferromagnetic manganese deuteride at high temperatures and high pressures

Machida, Akihiko*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Aoki, Katsutoshi*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Hattori, Takanori; Sano, Asami; Funakoshi, Kenichi*; Machida, Shinichi*; Sato, Toyoto*; Orimo, Shinichi*

Physical Review B, 111(22), p.224413_1 - 224413_6, 2025/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/yf8k-cy61

The crystal and magnetic structures of antiferromagnetic Mn deuterides formed by hydrogenating Mn metal at high temperature and high pressure, fcc -MnDx and hcp -MnDx, were investigated by in-situ neutron powder diffraction. Deuterium atoms partially occupied the octahedral interstitial positions of the fcc and hcp metal lattices. The site occupancies increased rapidly with decreasing temperature from 700 to 450 K and remained down to 300 K. Nel temperature of 543(10) K was determined for -MnD. For -MnD, saturation magnetic moment and Nel temperature were determined to be 0.82(1) and 347(3) K, respectively. The Nel temperatures determined for -MnD and -MnD are consistent with those predicted by the respective Slater-Pauling curves proposed in previous studies. The updated Nel temperatures provide insights into the development of more accurate Slater-Pauling curves based on electronic band structure calculations.

A Decade of neutron diffraction study of iron hydrides

Aoki, Katsutoshi*; Machida, Akihiko*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Hattori, Takanori

Koatsuryoku No Kagaku To Gijutsu, 35(1), p.4 - 11, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.4131/jshpreview.35.4

Iron reacts with hydrogen to form solid solutions with body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, hexagonal close packed, and double hexagonal close packed structures at high temperatures and high pressures. Neutron diffraction is the most powerful tool for determining the occupation sites and occupancies of hydrogen atoms dissolved in a metal lattice. Structural parameters, including hydrogen occupation sites and occupancies, are refined via Rietveld analysis for neutron diffraction data. We present our expertise in Rietveld refinement of iron hydrides accumulated over 10 years.

Water-intercalated and humidity-responsive lamellar materials by self-assembly of sodium acrylate random copolymers

Horiike, Yuki*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Ouchi, Makoto*; Terashima, Takaya*

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 147(8), p.6727 - 6738, 2025/02

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c16219

Surface depth analysis of chemical changes in random copolymer thin films composed of hydrophilic and hydrophobic silicon-based monomers induced by plasma treatment as studied by hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and neutron reflectivity measurements

Yamamoto, Katsuhiro*; Imai, Tatsuya*; Kawai, Atsuki*; Ito, Eri*; Miyazaki, Tsukasa*; Miyata, Noboru*; Yamada, Norifumi*; Seto, Hideki*; Aoki, Hiroyuki

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 16(48), p.66782 - 66791, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c17393

Separating the transverse and longitudinal modes of , , and mesons through their angular-dependent two-body decay modes

Park, I. W.*; Sako, Hiroyuki; Aoki, Kazuya*; Gubler, P.; Lee, S. H.*

Journal of Subatomic Particles and Cosmology (Internet), 1-2, p.100014_1 - 100014_11, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jspc.2024.100014

Addendum: Site occupancy of interstitial deuterium atoms in face-centred cubic iron

Machida, Akihiko*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Sugimoto, Hidehiko*; Hattori, Takanori; Sano, Asami; Endo, Naruki*; Katayama, Yoshinori*; Iizuka, Riko*; Sato, Toyoto*; Matsuo, Motoaki*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 15, p.8861_1 - 8861_2, 2024/10

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52736-1

In our previous article (Nature Commun. 5, 5063 (2014)), the site occupancies of D atoms dissolved in an fcc Fe metal lattice were investigated via Rietveld refinement of neutron powder diffraction patterns collected at 988 K and 6.3 GPa. The fcc metal lattice has two interstitial sites available for accommodating D atoms: octahedral and tetrahedral sites. The Rietveld refinement revealed that D atoms occupied mainly the octahedral sites with occupancy of 0.532 and slightly the tetrahedral sites with occupancy of 0.056. Subsequent density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations by Antonov (Phys. Rev. Mater. 2019)) showed that the occupation energy on the tetrahedral site was significantly higher than that on the octahedral site; the tetrahedral site occupation was unlikely to occur even at temperatures as high as 988 K. We reexamined the site occupancies of D-atom by Rietveld refinement including extinction correction. As a result, the octahedral occupancy was increased to 0.60 and the tetrahedral occupancy was reduced to zero. The occupation of only the octahedral site for D atom is consistent with the DFT calculation, although in contrast to the previous results.

Stability enhancement by hydrophobic anchoring and a cross-linked structure of a phospholipid copolymer film for medical devices

Uchida, Kazuto*; Masuda, Tsukuru*; Hara, Shintaro*; Matsuo, Yoichi*; Liu, Y.*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Asano, Yoshihiko*; Miyata, Kazuki*; Fukuma, Takeshi*; Ono, Toshiya*; et al.

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 16(30), p.39104 - 39116, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c07752

In-plane movement of isolated poly(methacrylate) chains on a hydrophilic solid surface

Kawano, Masayuki*; Morimitsu, Yuma*; Liu, Y.*; Miyata, Noboru*; Miyazaki, Tsukasa*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Kawaguchi, Daisuke*; Yamamoto, Satoru*; Tanaka, Keiji*

Macromolecules, 57(14), p.6625 - 6633, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.4c00724

Identifying the transverse and longitudinal modes of the and mesons through their angular-dependent decay modes

Park, I. W.*; Sako, Hiroyuki; Aoki, Kazuya*; Gubler, P.; Lee, S. H.*

Physical Review D, 109(11), p.114042_1 - 114042_10, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.114042