Decommissioning of uranium handling facility for development of nuclear fuel manufacturing equipment

Kageyama, Tomio; Denuma, Akio; Koizumi, Jin*; Odakura, Manabu*; Haginoya, Masahiro*; Isaka, Shinichi*; Kadowaki, Hiroyuki*; Kobayashi, Shingo*; Morimoto, Taisei*; Kato, Yoshiaki*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2022-033, 130 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Technology-2022-033.pdf:9.87MB

Uranium handling facility for development of nuclear fuel manufacturing equipment (Mockup room) was constructed in 1972. The Mockup room has a weak seismic resistance and is deteriorating with age. Also, the original purpose with this facility have been achieved and there are no new development plans using this facility. Therefore, interior equipment installed in this facility had been dismantled and removed since March 2019. After that, the Mockup room was inspected for contamination, and then controlled area in the Mockup room was cancelled on March 29th 2022. A total of 6,549 workers (not including security witnesses) were required for this work. The amount of non-radioactive waste generated by this work was 31,300 kg. The amount of radioactive waste generated by this work was 3,734 kg of combustible waste (103 drums), 4,393 kg of flame resistance waste (61 drums), 37,790 kg of non-combustible waste (124 drums, 19 containers). This report describes about the dismantling and removing the interior equipment in the Mockup room, the amount of waste generated by this work, and procedure for cancellation the controlled area in the facility.

Radiochemical research for the advancement of Mo/Tc generator by (n,) method, 2

Fujita, Yoshitaka; Seki, Misaki; Namekawa, Yoji*; Nishikata, Kaori; Kato, Yoshiaki; Sayato, Natsuki; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Sano, Tadafumi*; Fujihara, Yasuyuki*; Hori, Junichi*; et al.

KURNS Progress Report 2019, P. 157, 2020/08

https://www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/PUB/report/PR/ProgRep2019/ProgressReport2019_online.pdf#page=173

no abstracts in English

Development of multi-colored neutron talbot-lau interferometer with absorption grating fabricated by imprinting method of metallic glass

Seki, Yoshichika; Shinohara, Takenao; Parker, J. D.*; Yashiro, Wataru*; Momose, Atsushi*; Kato, Kosuke*; Kato, Hidemi*; Sadeghilaridjani, M.*; Otake, Yoshie*; Kiyanagi, Yoshiaki*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 86(4), p.044001_1 - 044001_5, 2017/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.86.044001

For the effective phase imaging at pulsed neutron sources, we have designed and developed the multi-colored Talbot-Lau interferometer which works at several wavelengths. At the Energy Resolved Neutron Imaging System RADEN in J-PARC, we demonstrated its operation by observing the visibilities of moire fringes derived from different wavelengths (0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 nm). We also investigated the variation of moire fringes dependent on the wavelength resolution from 18% to 50% and showed the advantage of pulsed beams. At the central wavelength of 0.5 nm, we have succeeded in interferometric imaging for the samples of metal rods made of aluminum, lead, and copper. An absorption grating as an analyzer was fabricated by imprinting of metallic glass for the first time, and showed a clear moire fringe with the high visibility of 68% and a well-controlled shape in comparison with previous ones fabricated by oblique evaporation of gadolinium.

Corrosion properties of Zircaloy-4 and M5 under simulated PWR water conditions

Shibata, Akira; Kato, Yoshiaki; Taguchi, Taketoshi; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Maekawa, Katsuhiro*

Nuclear Technology, 196(1), p.89 - 99, 2016/10

https://doi.org/10.13182/NT16-54

Cladding material Zircaloy-4 is gradually replaced by M5 (Zr-Nb alloy) and other new Nb added Zirconium alloys which are expected to have long operating life. Corrosion tests on Zircaloy-4 and M5 were performed in various hydrogen concentrations in water to research corrosion properties of those alloys. Specimens were exposed under PWR conditions. Increase of oxide layer was analysed by weight gain and observation. Electro chemical impedance spectroscopy was performed to compare corrosion properties. And effect of dissolved hydrogen concentration on increase of oxide layer of M5 is smaller than that of Zircaloy-4. M5 is less affected by local uniformity of dissolved hydrogen concentration and is more suitable as PWR fuel cladding. Results of Electro chemical spectroscopy shows that structural significant difference existed in oxidizing reaction of Zircaloy-4 and M5.

Performance tests of radiation detectors for inspection of Mo/Tc solution, 1

Suzuki, Yumi*; Nakano, Hiroko; Suzuki, Yoshitaka; Ishida, Takuya; Shibata, Akira; Kato, Yoshiaki; Kawamata, Kazuo; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko

JAEA-Technology 2015-031, 58 Pages, 2015/11

JAEA-Technology-2015-031.pdf:14.57MB

Technetium-99m (Tc) is one of the most commonly used radioisotopes in the field of nuclear medicine. In the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), the research and development (R&D) have been carried out for production of molybdenum-99 (Mo) by (n, ) method, a parent nuclide of Tc, with the Japan Material Testing Reactor (JMTR). On the other hand, the new project as "Domestic Production of Medical Radioisotope (Technetium preparation) in Japan" was adopted in the Tsukuba International Strategic Zone on October, 2013 and the demonstration tests will be planned for the domestic production of Mo/Tc with the JMTR. Thus, new facilities and analysis devices were equipped in the JMTR Hot Laboratory in 2014 as the part of this project. As the part of the analytical device equipment, the -TLC analyzer and the radiation detector connected with the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) were installed for quality inspection of the Mo/Tc solution and the extracted Tc solution in the JMTR Hot Laboratory. The performance tests of these devices such as detection sensitivity, resolution, linearity and selectivity of energy range were carried out with Cs and Eu as alternative radionuclides of Mo and Tc, respectively. In the results, bright prospects were obtained concerning the quality inspection of the Mo/Tc and Tc solutions using these devices. This report describes the results of those performance tests.

Soft X-ray laser observation of femtosecond-laser-driven ablation of tungsten

Nishikino, Masaharu; Hasegawa, Noboru; Ishino, Masahiko; Ochi, Yoshihiro; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Yamagiwa, Mitsuru; Kato, Yoshiaki*

Chinese Optics Letters, 13(7), p.070002_1 - 070002_3, 2015/07

https://doi.org/10.3788/COL201513.070002

Current post irradiation examination techniques at the JMTR Hot laboratory

Shibata, Akira; Kato, Yoshiaki; Oishi, Makoto; Taguchi, Taketoshi; Ito, Masayasu; Yonekawa, Minoru; Kawamata, Kazuo

KAERI/GP-418/2015, p.151 - 165, 2015/05

The JMTR stopped its operation in 2006 for refurbishment. The reactor facilities have been refurbished from 2007. After refurbishment, JMTR Hot laboratory is expected to perform various post irradiation examinations. In this report, installations of experimental apparatuses and recent experimental method are introduced. (1) A nano-indenter with radius spherical indenter. Inverse analysis using FEM could presume material constants from load-depth curve of indentation. Mechanical properties of oxide layer of zirconium alloy and irradiated stainless steel will be analyzed. (2) Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). TEM is capable of imaging at a significantly higher resolution than light microscopes or normal SEM. JAEA installed a TEM apparatus (JEOL JEM-2800) in JMTR Hot laboratory. The maximum magnification is 150,000,000 times. It can be operated from a remote location using a computer network. This contributes to the convenience of remote researchers and reducing the amount of exposure.

Neutron irradiation effect of high-density MoO pellets for Mo-99 production

Nishikata, Kaori; Ishida, Takuya; Yonekawa, Minoru; Kato, Yoshiaki; Kurosawa, Makoto; Kimura, Akihiro; Matsui, Yoshinori; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Sano, Tadafumi*; Fujihara, Yasuyuki*; et al.

KURRI Progress Report 2013, P. 242, 2014/10

As one of effective applications of the Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR), JAEA has a plan to produce Mo-99 (Mo) by (n,) method ((n,)Mo production), a parent nuclide of Tc. In this study, preliminary irradiation tests were carried out with the high-density MoO pellets in the KUR and the Mo production amount was evaluated between the calculation results and measurement results.

Renewal of monitoring boards in control room at the hot laboratory

Kurosawa, Makoto; Kato, Yoshiaki; Yonekawa, Minoru; Taguchi, Taketoshi

UTNL-R-0486, p.9_1 - 9_11, 2014/03

It has been irradiated in the concrete cell, the microscope lead cell, the lead cell for materials examinations and the iron cell and, in the JMTR Hot Laboratory Facilities, examines it after the irradiation such as fuel and nuclear reactor structure materials. I install a monitoring board for a concrete cell, a microscope lead cell, a lead cell for materials examinations and iron cells in the control room I watch concentration such as the minus number pressure in these each cell, the air absorption dose rate in the cell, the cover door opening and shutting indication and to control it. As for these monitoring boards, about 30 through 40 or more passed after an in-service start, and high aging decided to update it in consideration of the driving of approximately 20 years after JMTR re-operation because trouble by becoming it and outbreak of the malfunction were concerned about.

Observation and theory of X-ray mirages

Magnitskiy, S.*; Nagorskiy, N.*; Faenov, A.*; Pikuz, T.; Tanaka, Momoko; Ishino, Masahiko; Nishikino, Masaharu; Fukuda, Yuji; Kando, Masaki; Kawachi, Tetsuya; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 4, p.1936_1 - 1936_7, 2013/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2923

Advent of plasma-based transient collisional excitation X-ray lasers allowed us to realize compact coherent X-ray sources, thus opening the way to a wide range of applications. Here we report the observation of unexpected concentric rings in the far-field beam profile at the output of a two-stage plasma-based X-ray laser developed in Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which can be considered as the first manifestation of a mirage phenomenon in X-rays. We have developed a method of solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations, which has allowed to find that the observed phenomenon is due to the emergence in the plasma-amplifier of X-ray mirage in the form of the phase matched coherent virtual point source. The obtained results bring a new insight into physical nature of amplification of X-ray radiation in laser-induced plasma amplifiers and open new opportunities for X-ray plasma diagnostics and extreme UV lithography.