Surface settlement of backfilled shafts and rebackfilling of settled shafts at the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory

Kokubu, Yoko; Takeuchi, Ryuji; Nishio, Kazuhisa*; Ikeda, Koki

JAEA-Review 2024-066, 67 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Review-2024-066.pdf:8.25MB

The Tono Geoscience Center of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency has undertaken backfilling and restoration activities at the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) site since fiscal year 2020. These activities are being conducted in accordance with "The MIU Project from FY2020 Onwards," outlining the procedures for backfilling, restoration, and environmental monitoring at the MIU site. The backfilling activity was completed in January 2022, and thereafter, the observation of the backfilled shafts was commenced. On November 6, 2023, the settlement of the backfilled surface was observed in the Main Shaft and the Ventilation Shaft. By December 5, 2023, the depth of the settlement reached 12.9 m in the Main Shaft and 27.7 m in the Ventilation Shaft. After an evaluation by the MIU safety confirmation committee, which assessed the settlement condition and recommended countermeasures, the affected areas were backfilled for safety reasons. This report summarizes the observed settlement of the backfilled surface, the subsequent rebackfilling efforts, and the condition of the surface settlement areas. The condition of the backfilled sections has been confirmed up to June 2024.

In-situ measurement of radiation driven back-conversion from para to ortho liquid hydrogen state in cold moderators at J-PARC

Teshigawara, Makoto; Lee, Y.*; Tatsumoto, Hideki*; Hartl, M.*; Aso, Tomokazu; Iverson, E. B.*; Ariyoshi, Gen; Ikeda, Yujiro*; Hasegawa, Takumi*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 557, p.165534_1 - 165534_10, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2024.165534

At Japanese Spallation Neutron Source in J-PARC, the para-hydrogen fraction was measured by using Raman spectroscopy in-situ for an integrated beam power of 9.4 MWh at 1 MW operation, to evaluate the functionality of the ferric oxyhydroxide catalyst. This result showed that full functionality of the catalyst was retained up to the 1 MW operation. We attempted to study the effect of neutron scattering driven para to ortho-hydrogen back-conversion rate in the absence of the catalyst effect with a bypass line without catalyst. The measured increase of ortho-hydrogen fraction was 0.44% for an integrated beam power of 2.4 MWh at 500 kW operation, however, which was considered to be due to not only to neutron collisions in cold moderators but also to the high ortho-hydrogen fraction of initially static liquid hydrogen in the bypass line and passive exudation of quasi-static hydrogen in the catalyst vessel to the main loop.

Development of nanosized graphene material for neutron intensity enhancement below cold neutron energy

Teshigawara, Makoto; Ikeda, Yujiro*; Muramatsu, Kazuo*; Sutani, Koichi*; Fukuzumi, Masafumi*; Noda, Yohei*; Koizumi, Satoshi*; Saruta, Koichi; Otake, Yoshie*

Journal of Neutron Research, 26(2-3), p.69 - 74, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.3233/JNR-240002

Slow neutrons, such as cold neutrons, are important non-destructive probes not only for basic physics but also for the structural genomics advancements in the life sciences and the battery technology advancements needed for the transition to a hydrogen society. Neutron-based science is also known as high-neutron-intensity-dependent science. A new unique method focusing on nanosized particle aggregation has been proposed to increase neutron intensity in that energy region. The method is based on intensity enhancement by multiple coherent scatterings with nanosized particle aggregation. The aggregation of nanosized particles matches the wavelength of below cold neutrons, causing a similar effect to coherent scattering, so-called Bragg scattering, leading to neutron intensity enhancement by several orders of magnitude. Nanodiamonds and magnesium hydride have recently been studied numerically and experimentally. The major challenge with nanodiamonds in practical applications is the molding method. Another carbon structure, graphene is focused on to find a solution to this problem. It is hypothesized that nanosized graphene could aid coherent neutron scattering under particle size conditions similar to nanodiamonds. We report the potential of nanosized graphene as a reflector material below cold neutrons, together with experimental results.

Globular pattern formation of hierarchical ceria nanoarchitectures

Aoyagi, Noboru; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Okumura, Masahiko; Ueda, Yuki; Saito, Takumi*; Nishitsuji, Shotaro*; Taguchi, Tomitsugu*; Yomogida, Takumi; Sazaki, Gen*; Ikeda, Atsushi

Communications Chemistry (Internet), 7, p.128_1 - 128_13, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-024-01199-y

Local structural changes in V-Ti-Cr alloy hydrides with hydrogen absorption/desorption cycling

Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Sashida, Sho*; Otomo, Toshiya*; Oshita, Hidetoshi*; Honda, Takashi*; Hawai, Takafumi*; Saito, Hiraku*; Ito, Shinichi*; Yokoo, Tetsuya*; Sakaki, Koji*; et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 51(Part A), p.79 - 87, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.10.318

Summary report in FY2022 of subsidy program for "the Project of Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Management (Development of Analysis and Estimation Technology for Characterization of Fuel Debris (Development of Technologies for Enhanced Analysis Accuracy, Thermal behavior Estimation, and Simplified Analysis of Fuel Debris)" started in FY2011

Koyama, Shinichi; Ikeuchi, Hirotomo; Mitsugi, Takeshi; Maeda, Koji; Sasaki, Shinji; Onishi, Takashi; Tsai, T.-H.; Takano, Masahide; Fukaya, Hiroyuki; Nakamura, Satoshi; et al.

Hairo, Osensui, Shorisui Taisaku Jigyo Jimukyoku Homu Peji (Internet), 216 Pages, 2023/11

https://en.dccc-program.jp/wp-content/uploads/20231117_JAEA.pdf

In FY 2021 and 2022, JAEA perfomed the subsidy program for "the Project of Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Management (Development of Analysis and Estimation Technology for Characterization of Fuel Debris (Development of Technologies for Enhanced Analysis Accuracy, Thermal Bahavior Estimation, and Simplified Analysis of Fuel Debris)" started in FY 2021. This presentation material summarized the results of the project, which will be available shortly on the website of Management Office for the Project of Decommissioning, Contaminated Water and Treated Water Management.

Intercorrelated anomalous Hall and spin Hall effect in kagome-lattice CoSnS-based shandite films

Lau, Y.-C.*; Ikeda, Junya*; Fujiwara, Kohei*; Ozawa, Akihiro*; Zheng, J.*; Seki, Takeshi*; Nomura, Kentaro*; Du, L.*; Wu, Q.*; Tsukazaki, Atsushi*; et al.

Physical Review B, 108(6), p.064429_1 - 064429_11, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.064429

Report of backfilling and restoration works in the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory

Takeuchi, Ryuji; Mikake, Shinichiro; Ikeda, Koki; Nishio, Kazuhisa*; Kokubu, Yoko; Hanamuro, Takahiro

JAEA-Review 2023-007, 114 Pages, 2023/07

JAEA-Review-2023-007.pdf:12.02MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) at Tono Geoscience Center has been conducting the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project to enhance the reliability of geological disposal technologies through investigations of the deep geological environment in the crystalline rock (granite) at Mizunami City, Gifu Prefecture, central Japan since fiscal year 1996. Backfilling and restoration works in the MIU site have been being conducted based on "the MIU Project from FY2020 onwards" which is defined the way forward of backfilling and restoration works and environmental monitoring investigations in the MIU site, since fiscal year 2020. This report summarizes the outline, process, and achievements of the construction and the safety patrol of the backfilling and restoration works in the MIU site performed from May 16, 2020 to January 16, 2022.

Quasielastic neutron scattering probing H dynamics in the H conductors LaHO

Tamatsukuri, Hiromu; Fukui, Keiga*; Iimura, Soshi*; Honda, Takashi*; Tada, Tomofumi*; Murakami, Yoichi*; Yamaura, Junichi*; Kuramoto, Yoshio*; Sagayama, Hajime*; Yamada, Takeshi*; et al.

Physical Review B, 107(18), p.184114_1 - 184114_8, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.184114

Probing strain and doping along a graphene wrinkle using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Balois-Oguchi, M. V.*; Hayazawa, Norihiko*; Yasuda, Satoshi; Ikeda, Katsuyoshi*; Nguyen, T. Q.*; Escao, M. C.*; Tanaka, Takuo*

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 127(12), p.5982 - 5990, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c08529

Micrometer-sized wrinkles in graphene are known to affect the electronic properties of graphene due to their shape and the strain variations they create. Here, we analyze the strain distribution and doping of a graphene wrinkle having 1.9 nm width using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) in ambient conditions. We found a strong correlation between the TERS images of the graphene wrinkle and the electronic Raman scattering (eRS) of the Au(111) substrate. Our work demonstrates that the as-fabricated physical and electronic properties of nanometer-sized features, such as wrinkles, can be probed and studied in detail with TERS which is essential for nanodevice characterization.