Aerial monitoring around TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and development of radiation monitoring technology for unmanned vehicle in fiscal year 2024 (Contract research)

Futemma, Akira; Ochi, Kotaro; Sasaki, Miyuki; Nakama, Shigeo; Kawasaki, Yoshiharu*; Iwai, Takeyuki*; Hiraga, Shogo*; Haginoya, Masashi*; Matsunaga, Yuki*; Yamada, Tsutomu*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2025-016, 253 Pages, 2026/03

JAEA-Technology-2025-016.pdf:20.16MB

Aerial Radiation Monitoring (ARM) has been used to quickly and widely measure radiation distribution caused by the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident resulted from the tsunami accompanying the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011. Since the accident, As a commissioned project of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has continuously conducted ARM around FDNPS. This report summarizes the results of the 2024 monitoring activities, evaluates temporal changes in ambient dose rates, and identifies factors contributing to these changes. A terrain-corrected analysis was applied to improve dose rates conversion accuracy, and results with and without this correction were compared. A radon-progeny discrimination method was also used to assess its impact on manned-helicopter measurements. Furthermore, development of unmanned airplane monitoring technologies was advanced to enhance the efficiency of wide-area surveys.

Nondestructive 3D elemental imaging of Edo's archaeological artifacts via muonic X-ray measurements

Chiu, I.-H.; Osawa, Takahito; Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Takeda, Shinichiro*; Takahashi, Tadayuki*; Katsuragawa, Miho*; Watanabe, Shin*; Kubo, Kenya*; Saito, Tsutomu*; Mizumoto, Kazumi*; et al.

npj Heritage Science (Internet), 13, p.154_1 - 154_9, 2025/05

https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-01741-8

Development of a non-destructive carbon quantification method in iron by negative muon lifetime measurement

Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Kubo, Kenya*; Inagaki, Makoto*; Yoshida, Go*; Takeshita, Soshi*; Tampo, Motonobu*; Shimomura, Koichiro*; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; Strasser, P.*; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; et al.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 333(7), p.3445 - 3450, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09289-2

Development of a non-destructive depth-selective quantification method for sub-percent carbon contents in steel using negative muon lifetime analysis

Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Kubo, Kenya*; Inagaki, Makoto*; Yoshida, Go*; Chiu, I.-H.; Kudo, Takuto*; Asari, Shunsuke*; Sentoku, Sawako*; Takeshita, Soshi*; Shimomura, Koichiro*; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 14, p.1797_1 - 1797_8, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52255-5

The amount of C in steel, which is critical in determining its properties, is strongly influenced by steel production technology. We propose a novel method of quantifying the bulk C content in steel non-destructively using muons. This revolutionary method may be used not only in the quality control of steel in production, but also in analyzing precious steel archaeological artifacts. A negatively charged muon forms an atomic system owing to its negative charge, and is finally absorbed into the nucleus or decays to an electron. The lifetimes of muons differ significantly, depending on whether they are trapped by Fe or C atoms, and identifying the elemental content at the muon stoppage position is possible via muon lifetime measurements. The relationship between the muon capture probabilities of C/Fe and the elemental content of C exhibits a good linearity, and the C content in the steel may be quantitatively determined via muon lifetime measurements. Furthermore, by controlling the incident energies of the muons, they may be stopped in each layer of a stacked sample consisting of three types of steel plates with thicknesses of 0.5 mm, and we successfully determined the C contents in the range 0.20 - 1.03 wt% depth-selectively, without sample destruction.

End-to-end simulations and error studies of the J-PARC muon linac

Takeuchi, Yusuke*; Tojo, Junji*; Yamanaka, T.*; Nakazawa, Yuga*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Kitamura, Ryo; Morishita, Takatoshi; Cicek, E.*; Ego, Hiroyasu*; et al.

Proceedings of 31st International Linear Accelerator Conference (LINAC 2022) (Internet), p.562 - 564, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-LINAC2022-TUPORI08

A muon linac is under development for future muon g-2/EDM experiments at J-PARC. The linac provides a 212 MeV muon beam to an MRI-type compact storage ring. After the initial acceleration using the electrostatic field created by mesh and cylindrical electrodes, the muons are accelerated using four types of radio-frequency accelerators. To validate the linac design as a whole, end-to-end simulations were performed using General Particle Tracer. In addition, error studies were performed to investigate the effects on beam and spin dynamics of various errors in the accelerator components and input beam distribution. This paper describes the results of the end-to-end simulations and error studies.

High-power test of an APF IH-DTL prototype for the muon linac

Nakazawa, Yuga*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Iwata, Yoshiyuki*; Cicek, E.*; Ego, Hiroyasu*; Futatsukawa, Kenta*; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; Mibe, Tsutomu*; Mizobata, Satoshi*; Otani, Masashi*; et al.

Proceedings of 31st International Linear Accelerator Conference (LINAC 2022) (Internet), p.275 - 278, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-LINAC2022-MOPORI22

We conducted a high-power test of a prototype cavity of a 324-MHz inter-digital H-mode drift tube linac (IH-DTL) for the muon g-2/EDM experiment at J-PARC. This prototype cavity (short-IH) was developed to verify the fabrication methodology for the full-length IH cavity with a monolithic DT structure. After 40 h of conditioning, the short-IH has been stably operated with an RF power of 88 kW, which corresponds to 10% higher accelerating field than the design field (E0) of 3.0 MV/m. In addition, the thermal characteristics and frequency response were measured, verifying that the experimental data was consistent with the three-dimensional model. In this paper, the high-power tests of this IH-DTL for muon acceleration are described.

Fabrication and low-power test of disk-and-washer cavity for muon acceleration

Takeuchi, Yusuke*; Tojo, Junji*; Nakazawa, Yuga*; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Kitamura, Ryo; Morishita, Takatoshi; Cicek, E.*; Ego, Hiroyasu*; Futatsukawa, Kenta*; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

Proceedings of 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC 22) (Internet), p.1534 - 1537, 2022/06

https://doi.org/doi:10.18429/JACoW-IPAC2022-TUPOMS046

The muon g-2/EDM experiment is under preparation at Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), and the muon linear accelerator for the experiment is being developed. A Disk-and-Washer (DAW) cavity will be used for the medium-velocity part of the accelerator, and muons will be accelerated from = = 0.3 to 0.7 with the operating frequency of 1.296 GHz. Machining, brazing, and low-power measurements of a prototype cell reflecting the design of the first tank of DAW were performed to identify fabrication problems. Several problems were identified, such as misalignment of washers during brazing, and some measures will be taken in the actual tank fabrication. In this paper, the results of the prototype cell fabrication will be reported.

Space weather benchmarks on Japanese society

Ishii, Mamoru*; Shiota, Daiko*; Tao, Chihiro*; Ebihara, Yusuke*; Fujiwara, Hitoshi*; Ishii, Takako*; Ichimoto, Kiyoshi*; Kataoka, Ryuho*; Koga, Kiyokazu*; Kubo, Yuki*; et al.

Earth, Planets and Space (Internet), 73(1), p.108_1 - 108_20, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-021-01420-5

We surveyed the relationship between the scale of space weather events and their occurrence rate in Japan and we discussed the social impact of these phenomena during the Project for Solar-Terrestrial Environment Prediction (PSTEP). The information was compiled for domestic users of space weather forecasts for appropriate preparedness against space weather disasters. This paper gives a comprehensive summary of the survey, focusing on the fields of electricity, satellite operations, communication and broadcasting, satellite positioning usage, aviation, human space activity, and daily life on the Earth's surface, using the cutting-edge knowledge of space weather. Quantitative estimations of the economic impact of space weather events on electricity and aviation are also given.

Development of negative muonium ion source for muon acceleration

Kitamura, Ryo; Bae, S.*; Choi, S.*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Ishida, Katsuhiko*; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; Kim, B.*; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Mibe, Tsutomu*; et al.

Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (Internet), 24(3), p.033403_1 - 033403_9, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.24.033403

A negative muonium ion (Mu) source using an aluminum foil target was developed as a low-energy muon source. An experiment to produce Mu ions was conducted to evaluate the performance of the Mu ion source. The measured event rate of Mu ions was Mu/s when the event rate of the incident muon beam was /s. The formation probability, defined as the ratio of the Mu ions to the incident muons on the Al target, was . This Mu ion source boosted the development of the muon accelerator, and the practicality of this low-energy muon source obtained using a relatively simple apparatus was demonstrated.

Disk and washer coupled cavity linac design and cold-model for muon linac

Otani, Masashi*; Futatsukawa, Kenta*; Mibe, Tsutomu*; Naito, Fujio*; Hasegawa, Kazuo; Ito, Takashi; Kitamura, Ryo; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Morishita, Takatoshi; Iinuma, Hiromi*; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 1350, p.012097_1 - 012097_7, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012097

A disk and washer (DAW) coupled cavity linac (CCL) has been developed for a middle velocity part in a muon linac to measure muon anomalous magnetic moment and search for electric dipole moment. I will accelerate muons from = = 0.3 to 0.7 at an operational frequency of 1.3GHz. In this poster, the cavity design, beam dynamics design, and the cold-model measurements will be presented.