Integrated thermal power measurement in the modified STACY for the performance inspections

Araki, Shohei; Aizawa, Eiju; Murakami, Takahiko; Arakaki, Yu; Tada, Yuta; Kamikawa, Yutaka; Hasegawa, Kenta; Yoshikawa, Tomoki; Sumiya, Masato; Seki, Masakazu; et al.

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 217, p.111323_1 - 111323_8, 2025/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111323

JAEA has modified the STACY from a homogeneous system using solution fuel to a heterogeneous system using fuel rods in order to obtain criticality characteristics of fuel debris. The modification of the STACY was completed in December 2023. A series of performance inspections were conducted for the start of experimental operations. A new thermal power calibration is required for the performance inspections in order to operate at less than 200 W, which is the permitted thermal power. However, the thermal power measurement method and calibration data used in the former STACY is no longer available due to the modification of the modified STACY. We measured the thermal power of the STACY using the activation method that was improved to adapt to the measurement condition and calibrated the power meter system. Since the positions where activation foils could be installed were very limited, the thermal power was evaluated using numerical calculations supplemented by experimental data. Neutron flux data at the positions of the activation foil was measured by the activation method. Neutron distribution in the core was calculated by the Monte Carlo code MVP. A response function of the activation foil was calculated using the PHITS. The uncertainty of the thermal power measurement was conservatively estimated to be about 15%. Four operations were conducted for the thermal power measurement. The power meter was calibrated by using three operational data and tested with the one operational data. It was found that the indicated value of the meter adjusted by the STACY before the modification work would tend to overestimate the actual output by about 40%. In addition, the current calibration was able to calibrate the meter to within 3% accuracy.

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2023

Kokubun, Yuji; Hosomi, Kenji; Seya, Natsumi; Nagaoka, Mika; Inoue, Kazumi; Koike, Yuko; Hasegawa, Ryo; Kubota, Tomohiro; Hirao, Moe; Iizawa, Shogo; et al.

JAEA-Review 2024-053, 116 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Review-2024-053.pdf:3.26MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution prevention act, and by law of Ibaraki Prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2023. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Pulse shape discrimination in JSNS

Dodo, Taku; Haga, Katsuhiro; Harada, Masahide; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Kasugai, Yoshimi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Masuda, Shiho; Meigo, Shinichiro; Sakai, Kenji; Suzuya, Kentaro; et al.

Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Internet), 2025(2), p.023H02_1 - 023H02_8, 2025/02

https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptaf016

Comparison between carrier transport property and crystal quality of TlBr semiconductors

Watanabe, Kenichi*; Sugai, Yusuke*; Hasegawa, Sota*; Tanaka, Seishiro*; Hitomi, Keitaro*; Nogami, Mitsuhiro*; Shinohara, Takenao; Su, Y. H.; Parker, J. D.*; Kockelmann, W.*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 14, p.25224_1 - 25224_13, 2024/10

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76005-9

R&D status of digital technology on inverse estimation of radioactive source distributions and related source countermeasures; Fast Digital Twin Tech. in Decommissioning Field: 3D-ADRES-Indoor FrontEnd

Machida, Masahiko; Yamada, Susumu; Kim, M.; Tanaka, Satoshi*; Tobita, Yasuhiro*; Iwata, Ayako*; Aoki, Yuto; Aoki, Kazuhisa; Yanagisawa, Kenichi*; Yamaguchi, Takashi; et al.

RIST News, (70), p.3 - 22, 2024/09

Inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (1F), there are many locations with high radiation levels due to contamination by radioactive materials that leaked from the reactor. These pose a significant obstacle to the smooth progress of decommissioning work. To help solve this issue, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), under a subsidy from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry's decommissioning and contaminated water management project, is conducting research and development on digital technologies to improve the radiation environment inside the decommissioning site. This project, titled "Development of Technology to Improve the Environment Inside Reactor Buildings (Enhancing Digital Technology for Environment and Source Distribution to Reduce Radiation Exposure)," began in April of FY 2023. In this project, the aim is to develop three interconnected systems: FrontEnd, Pro, and BackEnd. The FrontEnd system, based on the previously developed 3D-ADRES-Indoor (prototype) from FY 2021-2022, will be upgraded to a high-speed digital twin technology usable on-site. The Pro system will carry out detailed analysis in rooms such as the new office building at 1F, while the BackEnd system will serve as a database to centrally manage the collected and analyzed data. This report focuses on the FrontEnd system, which will be used on-site. After point cloud measurement, the system will quickly create a 3D mesh model, estimate the radiation source from dose rate measurements, and refine the position and intensity of the estimated source using recalculation techniques (re-observation instructions and re-estimation). The results of verification tests conducted on Unit 5 are also presented. Furthermore, the report briefly discusses the future research and development plans for this project.

Investigation of adsorption mechanism of Mo(VI) by baker's yeast and applicability to the uranium liquid waste treatment process

Arai, Yoichi; Hasegawa, Kenta; Watanabe, So; Watanabe, Masayuki; Minowa, Kazuki*; Matsuura, Haruaki*; Hagura, Naoto*; Katsuki, Kenta*; Arai, Tsuyoshi*; Konishi, Yasuhiro*

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 333(7), p.3585 - 3593, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09278-5

Study on the accidental background of the JSNS experiment

Lee, D. H.*; Dodo, Taku; Haga, Katsuhiro; Harada, Masahide; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Kasugai, Yoshimi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Masuda, Shiho; Meigo, Shinichiro; Sakai, Kenji; et al.

European Physical Journal C, 84, p.409_1 - 409_6, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-12778-7

Overview of development program for engineering scale extraction chromatography MA(III) recovery system

Watanabe, So; Takahatake, Yoko; Hasegawa, Kenta; Goto, Ichiro*; Miyazaki, Yasunori; Watanabe, Masayuki; Sano, Yuichi; Takeuchi, Masayuki

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 11(2), p.23-00461_1 - 23-00461_10, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.23-00461

Comparison between neutron bragg dip and electron backscatter diffraction images of TlBr semiconductors

Watanabe, Kenichi*; Sugai, Yusuke*; Hasegawa, Sota*; Hitomi, Keitaro*; Nogami, Mitsuhiro*; Shinohara, Takenao; Su, Y. H.; Parker, J. D.*; Kockelmann, W.*

Sensors and Materials, 36(1), p.149 - 154, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.18494/SAM4629

Validation of integrated thermal power measurement using solution fuel STACY experimental data for modified STACY performance test

Araki, Shohei; Gunji, Satoshi; Arakaki, Yu; Murakami, Takahiko; Yoshikawa, Tomoki; Hasegawa, Kenta; Tada, Yuta; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya

Proceedings of 4th Reactor Physics Asia Conference (RPHA2023) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2023/10

To conduct integrated thermal power measurements for the performance test of the modified STACY, we re-analyzed the experimental data measured in the solution fuel STACY using the activation method. We validated its feasibility under the limited number of activation detectors. The re-analyzed results of the activation method by using MVP and PHITS with JENDL-4.0 indicated that the effect of the difference of the position between activation detectors was small enough, and the results agreed with that of the fission product analysis within almost 10%. It is conceivable that the activation method could be adopted instead of the fission product analysis.