Solvent extraction behaviors of rhodium and palladium in nitric acid solutions using amide extractants

Ito, Kengo*; Morita, Misaki*; Araki, Yuta*; Kato, Chizu*; Fukutani, Satoshi*; Matsumura, Tatsuro; Fujii, Toshiyuki*

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan, 32(1), p.53 - 62, 2025/00

https://doi.org/10.15261/serdj.32.53

Rhodium (Rh) and palladium (Pd) in high-level radioactive waste are primarily fission products. This study focused on understanding the extraction behavior of these platinum group elements (PGEs) using the novel extractants HONTA and ADAAM. Both extractants showed affinity for Pd, with distribution coefficients significantly exceeding 1, demonstrating their effectiveness in Pd separation. In contrast, the distribution coefficients for Rh were consistently below 10, indicating low extraction efficiency from nitric acid. However, by leveraging the salting-out effect with calcium nitrate hydrate, a distribution coefficient of 570 for Rh was achieved using HONTA. To overcome the difficult back-extraction of PGEs with HONTA, experiments were conducted using HEDTA and thiourea. Back-extraction with HEDTA in high-concentration nitric acid (2 M) resulted in 90 % recovery of Pd, while thiourea-based back-extraction with nitric acid yielded over 40 % recovery for Rh, with a maximum recovery of 62.7 % achieved using hydrochloric acid.

Solvent extraction of selenium in nitric acid; Evaluation of multiple extractants and proposal of a novel separation process

Ito, Kengo*; Kawakami, Takahiro*; Kato, Chizu*; Fukutani, Satoshi*; Matsumura, Tatsuro; Fujii, Toshiyuki*

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 333(10), p.5183 - 5189, 2024/10

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-024-09681-6

Solvent extraction behaviors of Se (VI) from nitric acid solutions were investigated with multiple extractants used for uranium, plutonium, minor actinides, and rare earthelements separation processes from high-level liquid waste. During the processes, Se remained in the residual aqueous solutions, as all extractants showed distributionratios 1. In contrast, Se showed distribution ratios 1 with -phenylenediamine in dilute nitric acid ( 2 M HNO), octanol as the organic phase, and concentrated nitric acid (8 M HNO) for back extraction, suggesting a potential new single separation process and recovery of Se.

Role of retained austenite and deformation induced martensite in 0.15C-5Mn steel monitored by neutron diffraction measurement during tensile deformation

Yamashita, Takayuki*; Morooka, Satoshi; Gong, W.; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.; Hojo, Tomohiko*; Okitsu, Yoshitaka*; Fujii, Hidetoshi*

Tetsu To Hagane, 110(3), p.241 - 251, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.2355/tetsutohagane.TETSU-2023-059

Nature of the physicochemical process in water photolysis uncovered by a computer simulation

Kai, Takeshi; Toigawa, Tomohiro; Ukai, Masatoshi*; Fujii, Kentaro*; Watanabe, Ritsuko*; Yokoya, Akinari*

Journal of Chemical Physics, 158(16), p.164103_1 - 164103_8, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0149333

New insight into water radiolysis and photolysis is indispensable in the dramatic progress of sciences and technologies in various research areas. In the radiation field, reactive hydrated electrons are considerably produced along radiation tracks. Although the formation results from a transient dynamic correlation between ejected electrons and water, the individual mechanisms of electron thermalization, delocalization, and polarization are unknown. Using a dynamic Monte Carlo code, we show herein that the ejected electrons are immediately delocalized by molecular excitations in parallel with phonon polarization and gradually thermalized by momentum transfer with an orientation polarization in a simultaneous manner. Our results show that these mechanisms heavily depend on the intermolecular vibration and rotation modes peculiar to water. We expect our approach to be a powerful technique for connecting physical and chemical processes in various solvents.

Valence control of charge and orbital frustrated system YbFeO with electrochemical Li intercalation

Murase, Satoshi*; Yoshikawa, Yumi*; Fujiwara, Kosuke*; Fukada, Yukimasa*; Teranishi, Takashi*; Kano, Jun*; Fujii, Tatsuo*; Inada, Yasuhiro*; Katayama, Misaki*; Yoshii, Kenji; et al.

Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 162, p.110468_1 - 110468_6, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2021.110468

We report a trial of the valence control for mixed valence iron triangular oxide YbFeO in order to develop an effective technique to control the frustration of charges in strongly correlated electron systems. The electro-chemical doping of Li into YbFeO was examined on the cell type sample similar to the Li-ion secondary battery cell. Systematic change of the lattice constant, Fe-Fe and Fe-Yb distance were observed with Li doping. Maximum value of the doping was over 300 mAh/g. An EXAFS experiment indicated that Li positioned between Yb octahedron layer (U-layer) and Fe-bipyramidal layer (W-layer). However, detailed change of iron valence state of YbFeO was not clearly observed because of the superimpose of the signal from iron metal nano particles in XANES observation. The results indicate that the electrochemical method might be one of the potential technique to control the frustration of charges in YbFeO.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

Compressing the time series of five dimensional distribution function data from gyrokinetic simulation using principal component analysis

Asahi, Yuichi; Fujii, Keisuke*; Heim, D. M.*; Maeyama, Shinya*; Garbet, X.*; Grandgirard, V.*; Sarazin, Y.*; Dif-Pradalier, G.*; Idomura, Yasuhiro; Yagi, Masatoshi*

Physics of Plasmas, 28(1), p.012304_1 - 012304_21, 2021/01

AA2020-0790.pdf:7.13MB

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0023166

This article demonstrates a data compression technique for the time series of five dimensional distribution function data based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Phase space bases and corresponding coefficients are constructed by PCA in order to reduce the data size and the dimensionality. It is shown that about 83% of the variance of the original five dimensional distribution can be expressed with 64 components. This leads to the compression of the degrees of freedom from to . One of the important findings - resulting from the detailed analysis of the contribution of each principal component to the energy flux - deals with avalanche events, which are found to be mostly driven by coherent structures in the phase space, indicating the key role of resonant particles.

Measurement of cesium isotopic ratio by thermal ionization mass spectrometry for neutron capture reaction studies on Cs

Shibahara, Yuji*; Nakamura, Shoji; Uehara, Akihiro*; Fujii, Toshiyuki*; Fukutani, Satoshi*; Kimura, Atsushi; Iwamoto, Osamu

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 325(1), p.155 - 165, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07198-2

The measurements of isotopic ratios of Cs samples by thermal ionization mass spectrometry were performed for the analysis of their samples used to evaluate nuclear data obtained for Cs. To obtain a high intensity and stable ion beam, the effects of additive agents on the ionization of Cs were examined. The effect of silicotungstic acid on the ionization of Cs was the largest among the additive agents studied in the present study, while the silicotungstic acid also showed the largest isobaric interference of polyatomic ions. It was demonstrated that as small as 210 g of a Cs sample was sufficient to achieve the analytical precision required to measure the Cs/Cs ratio in the case where an additive agent of TaO/glucose was employed. After examining of the analytical conditions, such as the interference effect due to Ba, the measurements of the isotopic ratios of two Cs samples used in our study using TIMS were conducted, and it was discussed how much the ratios contributed to evaluation of the neutron capture cross-section of Cs.

Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2018

Nakano, Masanao; Fujii, Tomoko; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Kono, Takahiko; Hosomi, Kenji; Nishimura, Shusaku; Matsubara, Natsumi; Maehara, Yushi; Narita, Ryosuke; et al.

JAEA-Review 2019-048, 165 Pages, 2020/03

JAEA-Review-2019-048.pdf:2.69MB

Environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant has been performed by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, based on "Safety Regulations for the Reprocessing Plant of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Chapter IV - Environmental Monitoring". This annual report presents the results of the environmental monitoring and the dose estimation to the hypothetical inhabitant due to the radioactivity discharged from the plant to the atmosphere and the sea during April 2018 to March 2019. In this report, some data include the influence of the accidental release from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (the trade name was changed to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. on April 1, 2016) in March 2011. Appendices present comprehensive information, such as monitoring programs, monitoring methods, monitoring results and their trends, meteorological data and discharged radioactive wastes. In addition, the data which were influenced by the accidental release and exceeded the normal range of fluctuation in the monitoring, were evaluated.

Measurements of the Am neutron capture and total cross sections with ANNRI at J-PARC

Kimura, Atsushi; Nakamura, Shoji; Terada, Kazushi*; Nakao, Taro*; Mizuyama, Kazuhito*; Iwamoto, Nobuyuki; Iwamoto, Osamu; Harada, Hideo; Katabuchi, Tatsuya*; Igashira, Masayuki*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 56(6), p.479 - 492, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2019.1598508