High temperature nanoindentation of (U,Ce)O compounds

Frazer, D.*; Saleh, T. A.*; Matsumoto, Taku; Hirooka, Shun; Kato, Masato; McClellan, K.*; White, J. T.*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 423, p.113136_1 - 113136_7, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113136

Nanoindentation based techniques can be employed on minute volumes of material to measure mechanical properties, including Young's modulus, hardness, and creep stress exponents. In this study, (U,Ce)O solid solutions samples are used to develop elevated temperature nanoindentation and nanoindentation creep testing methods for use on mixed oxide fuels. Nanoindentation testing was performed on 3 separate (Ux-1,Cex)O compounds ranging from x equals 0.1 to 0.3 at up to 800 C: their Young's modulus, hardness, and creep stress exponents were evaluated. The Young's modulus decreases in the expected linear manner while the hardness decreases in the expected exponential manner. The nanoindentation creep experiments at 800 C give stress exponent values, n=4.7-6.9, that suggests dislocation motion as the deformation mechanism.

Pressure-modulated magnetism and negative thermal expansion in the HoFe intermetallic compound

Cao, Y.*; Zhou, H.*; Khmelevskyi, S.*; Lin, K.*; Avdeev, M.*; Wang, C.-W.*; Wang, B.*; Hu, F.*; Kato, Kenichi*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Chemistry of Materials, 35(8), p.3249 - 3255, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c00158

Hydrostatic and chemical pressure are efficient stimuli to alter the crystal structure and are commonly used for tuning electronic and magnetic properties in materials science. However, chemical pressure is difficult to quantify and a clear correspondence between these two types of pressure is still lacking. Here, we study intermetallic candidates for a permanent magnet with a negative thermal expansion (NTE). Based on in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction, negative chemical pressure is revealed in HoFe on Al doping and quantitatively evaluated by using temperature and pressure dependence of unit cell volume. A combination of magnetization and neutron diffraction measurements also allowed one to compare the effect of chemical pressure on magnetic ordering with that of hydrostatic pressure. Intriguingly, pressure can be used to control suppression and enhancement of NTE. Electronic structure calculations indicate that pressure affected the top of the majority band with respect to the Fermi level, which has implications for the magnetic stability, which in turn plays a critical role in modulating magnetism and NTE. This work presents a good example of understanding the effect of pressure and utilizing it to control properties of functional materials.

Design and actual performance of J-PARC 3 GeV rapid cycling synchrotron for high-intensity operation

Yamamoto, Kazami; Kinsho, Michikazu; Hayashi, Naoki; Saha, P. K.; Tamura, Fumihiko; Yamamoto, Masanobu; Tani, Norio; Takayanagi, Tomohiro; Kamiya, Junichiro; Shobuda, Yoshihiro; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(9), p.1174 - 1205, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2038301

In the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, the purpose of the 3 GeV rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) is to accelerate a 1 MW, high-intensity proton beam. To achieve beam operation at a repetition rate of 25 Hz at high intensities, the RCS was elaborately designed. After starting the RCS operation, we carefully verified the validity of its design and made certain improvements to establish a reliable operation at higher power as possible. Consequently, we demonstrated beam operation at a high power, namely, 1 MW. We then summarized the design, actual performance, and improvements of the RCS to achieve a 1 MW beam.

Deexcitation dynamics of muonic atoms revealed by high-precision spectroscopy of electronic X rays

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I. H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(5), p.053001_1 - 053001_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.053001

We observed electronic X rays emitted from muonic iron atoms using a superconducting transition-edge-type sensor microcalorimeter. The energy resolution of 5.2 eV in FWHM allowed us to observe the asymmetric broad profile of the electronic characteristic and X rays together with the hypersatellite X rays around 6 keV. This signature reflects the time-dependent screening of the nuclear charge by the negative muon and the -shell electrons, accompanied by electron side-feeding. Assisted by a simulation, this data clearly reveals the electronic - and -shell hole production and their temporal evolution during the muon cascade process.

Gamma-ray spectroscopy with a CeBr scintillator under intense -ray fields for nuclear decommissioning

Kaburagi, Masaaki; Shimazoe, Kenji*; Kato, Masahiro*; Kurosawa, Tadahiro*; Kamada, Kei*; Kim, K. J.*; Yoshino, Masao*; Shoji, Yasuhiro*; Yoshikawa, Akira*; Takahashi, Hiroyuki*; et al.

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 988, p.164900_1 - 164900_8, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164900

An increasing number of nuclear facilities have been decommissioned worldwide following the 2011 accident of the TEPCO' Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. During the decommissioning, radioactive materials have to be retrieved under proper management. In this study, a small cubic CeBr spectrometer with dimensions of 5 mm 5 mm 5 mm was manufactured to perform -ray spectroscopy under intense -ray fields. Furthermore, thanks to a fast digital process unit and a customized photomultiplier, the device could perform -ray spectroscopy at dose rates of over 1 Sv/h. The energy resolution (FWHM) at 662 keV ranged from 4.4% at 22 mSv/h to 5.2% at 1407 mSv/h for a Cs radiation field. Correspondingly, at 1333 keV, it ranged from 3.1% at 26 mSv/h to 4.2% at 2221 mSv/h for a Co radiation field, which suggested to realize -ray assessment of Cs, Cs, Co, and Eu at dose rates of over 1 Sv/h.

Post-irradiation examinations of annular mixed oxide fuels with average burnup 4 and 5% FIMA

Cappia, F.*; Tanaka, Kosuke; Kato, Masato; McClellan, K.*; Harp, J.*

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 533, p.152076_1 - 152076_14, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2020.152076

Structure of active sites of Fe-N-C nano-catalysts for alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells

Kishi, Hirofumi*; Sakamoto, Tomokazu*; Asazawa, Koichiro*; Yamaguchi, Susumu*; Kato, Takeshi*; Zulevi, B.*; Serov, A.*; Artyushkova, K.*; Atanassov, P.*; Matsumura, Daiju; et al.

Nanomaterials (Internet), 8(12), p.965_1 - 965_13, 2018/12

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8120965

Status of proof-of-principle experiment for 400 MeV H stripping to protons by using only lasers in the 3-GeV RCS of J-PARC

Saha, P. K.; Harada, Hiroyuki; Yamane, Isao*; Kinsho, Michikazu; Miura, Akihiko; Okabe, Kota; Liu, Y.*; Yoshimoto, Masahiro; Kato, Shinichi; Irie, Yoshiro*

Proceedings of 14th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.866 - 870, 2017/12

http://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2017/proceedings/PDF/WEP0/WEP024.pdf

Laser storage ring with high power for realization of laser stripping injection

Harada, Hiroyuki; Yamane, Isao*; Saha, P. K.; Suganuma, Kazuaki; Kinsho, Michikazu; Irie, Yoshiro*; Kato, Shinichi

Proceedings of 14th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.684 - 688, 2017/12

http://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2017/proceedings/PDF/TUP1/TUP117.pdf

The high-intensity proton accelerator adopts a charge exchange injection scheme, which injects with exchanging from negative Hydrogen ion to proton by using carbon foil. This scheme can realize high intensity proton beam but the uncontrolled beam losses are caused by scattering between beams and the foil. Additionally, the collision may occur the foil beak. Therefore, a new injection scheme for higher intensity is needed as an alternative to the foil. In the J-PARC 3GeV RCS, we newly propose and develop a laser stripping injection scheme. However, it is necessary that laser power is two order higher than latest laser one. To realize this big issue, we develop the laser storage ring, which can provide laser pulse of high repetition rate by recycling one. In this presentation, we will introduce the laser stripping injection scheme and describe the concept of the laser storage ring with high repetition rate and report the current status.

Achievement of a low-loss 1-MW beam operation in the 3-GeV rapid cycling synchrotron of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex

Hotchi, Hideaki; Harada, Hiroyuki; Hayashi, Naoki; Kato, Shinichi; Kinsho, Michikazu; Okabe, Kota; Saha, P. K.; Shobuda, Yoshihiro; Tamura, Fumihiko; Tani, Norio; et al.

Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (Internet), 20(6), p.060402_1 - 060402_25, 2017/06

AA2017-0154.pdf:4.88MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.20.060402

The 3-GeV rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) is the world's highest class of high-power pulsed proton driver, aiming for an output beam power of 1 MW. The most important issues in realizing such a high-power beam operation are to control and minimize beam loss for maintaining machine activations within permissible levels. In RCS, numerical simulation was successfully utilized along with experimental approaches to isolate the mechanism of beam loss and find its solution. By iteratively performing actual beam experiments and numerical simulations, and also by several hardware improvements, we have recently established a 1-MW beam operation with very low fractional beam loss of a couple of 10. In this paper, our recent efforts toward realizing such a low-loss high-intensity beam acceleration are presented.