Study on eutectic melting behavior of control rod materials in core disruptive accidents of sodium-cooled fast reactors, 1; Project overview and progress until 2018

Yamano, Hidemasa; Takai, Toshihide; Furukawa, Tomohiro; Kikuchi, Shin; Emura, Yuki; Kamiyama, Kenji; Fukuyama, Hiroyuki*; Higashi, Hideo*; Nishi, Tsuyoshi*; Ota, Hiromichi*; et al.

Proceedings of 2020 International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 2020) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2020/08

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE2020-16075

One of the key issues in a core disruptive accident (CDA) evaluation in sodium-cooled fast reactors is eutectic reactions between boron carbide (BC) and stainless steel (SS) as well as its relocation. Such behaviors have never been simulated in CDA numerical analyses in the past, therefore it is necessary to develop a physical model and incorporate the model into the CDA analysis code. This study focuses on BC-SS eutectic melting experiments, thermophysical property measurement of the eutectic melt, and physical model development for the eutectic melting reaction. The eutectic experiments involve the visualization experiments, eutectic reaction rate experiments and material analyses. The thermophysical properties are measured in a range from solid to liquid state. The physical model is developed for a severe accident computer code based on the measured data of the eutectic reaction rate and the physical properties. This paper describes the project overview and progress of experimental and analytical studies conducted until 2018. Specific results in this paper are boron concentration distributions of solidified BC-SS eutectic sample in the eutectic melting experiments, which would be used for the validation of the eutectic physical model implemented into the computer code.

Background issues encountered by cold-neutron chopper spectrometer AMATERAS

Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Wakai, Daisuke*; Aoyama, Kazuhiro*; Iwahashi, Takaaki*; Kambara, Wataru*

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 564, p.45 - 53, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2019.02.015

Details of the background, that is, unwanted signals accumulated by the data acquisition system of neutron instruments, observed by the cold-neutron chopper spectrometer AMATERAS installed at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility at J-PARC are reported. In the design phase of AMATERAS, we carefully considered the achievement of high signal-to-noise ratio, and possible countermeasures were implemented. Actually, recent scientific outputs from AMATERAS indicates that the spectrometer is one of excellent neutron instruments with low background. In spite of that, in nine years of AMATERAS operation, we have encountered unwanted signals due to various reasons, including gamma-rays emitted at materials on or near the beam line including the sample itself, scattered neutrons from the beam line devices, air scattering, electronic noise in data acquisition system, cosmic rays, T0 burst, and other unknown sources. In this report, we discuss the background observed by AMATERAS, especially in the conditions of without samples, comprehensively. The possible sources of these signals and the countermeasures considered against the above sources are discussed, which may be helpful to those who are engaged in other existing or planned neutron-scattering instruments.

Anomaly of structural relaxation in complex liquid metal of bismuth; Dynamic correlation function of coherent quasi-elastic neutron scattering

Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Tahara, Shuta*; Maruyama, Kenji*; Hanashima, Takayasu*; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Kiyanagi, Ryoji; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Chiba, Kaori*; et al.

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 551, p.291 - 296, 2018/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2017.12.037

There are elemental liquid metals with complex structures far from the hard sphere (HS) packing model. Liquid Bi has an asymmetric first peak in the structure factors S(Q). The pair distribution function g(r) exhibits strange distance ratio of 1:2 between the first and the second peaks. Since a HS model with two kinds of radius produces asymmetry of the main peak in S(Q), existence of short-lived covalent bonds was discussed. Contrarily, modulation of the atomic distribution by the Friedel oscillations of shielding electrons around metallic ions was discussed. To examine its bonding nature from viewpoints of dynamic correlation functions, we have measured neutron quasielastic scattering of liquid Bi by using cold disk chopper spectrometer installed at MLF of J-PARC. The van Hove function revealed that the shoulder structure located at a longer side of the first peak in g(r) exhibits a longer relaxation time than the main structures such as the first and second peaks.

Detailed study of the structure of the low-energy magnetic excitations in overdoped LaSrCuO

Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Wakimoto, Shuichi; Fujita, Masaki*

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 536, p.717 - 719, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2017.11.022

To examine the detailed structure of low-energy magnetic excitations in a high-transition-temperature superconducting cuprate with heavily hole-doping, we performed inelastic neutron scattering experiments on LaSrCuO. We observed clear dispersion relations of the previously reported incommensurate (IC) magnetic correlations at = (0.5 , 0.5)/(0.5, 0.5 ). In addition, we show the emergence of continuum magnetic excitations with a ring shape centered at point in a constant energy spectrum at = 50 K. The radius of the ring ( = 0.109) is smaller than the incommensurability ( = 0.118). This suggests that the origin of the ring-like excitations is different from that of the IC magnetic correlations, and the low-energy magnetic excitations of the LaSrCuO system are inherently composed of these two kinds of excitations.

Liquid-like thermal conduction in intercalated layered crystalline solids

Li, B.; Wang, H.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Zhang, Q.*; Feygenson, M.*; Yu, H. L.*; Wu, D.*; Ohara, Koji*; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Shibata, Kaoru; et al.

Nature Materials, 17(3), p.226 - 230, 2018/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-017-0004-2

Fabrication and test results of testing equipment for remote-handling of MA fuel, 3; Testing equipment for fuel loading

Tazawa, Yujiro; Nishihara, Kenji; Sugawara, Takanori; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi; Sasa, Toshinobu; Eguchi, Yuta; Kikuchi, Masashi*; Inoue, Akira*

JAEA-Technology 2016-029, 52 Pages, 2016/12

JAEA-Technology-2016-029.pdf:5.34MB

Transmutation Physics Experimental Facility (TEF-P) planned in the J-PARC project uses minor actinide (MA) fuels in the experiments. These MA fuels are highly-radioactive, so the fuel handling equipment in TEF-P is necessary to be designed as remote-handling system. This report summarizes fabrication and test results of the testing equipment for fuel loading that is one of components of the testing equipment for remote-handling of MA fuels. The testing equipment which had a remote-handling system for fuel loading was fabricated. And the test in combination with the mock-up core was performed. Through the test, it was confirmed to load/take the dummy fuel pin to/from the mock-up core without failure. It was shown that the concept design of the fuel loading equipment of TEF-P was reasonable.

Difference in the hydration water mobility around F-actin and myosin subfragment-1 studied by quasielastic neutron scattering

Matsuo, Tatsuhito; Arata, Toshiaki*; Oda, Toshiro*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Kikuchi, Tatsuya; Fujiwara, Satoru

Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports (Internet), 6, p.220 - 225, 2016/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrep.2016.04.013

Oscillating radial collimators for the chopper spectrometers at MLF in J-PARC

Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kambara, Wataru; Aoyama, Kazuhiro; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Kikuchi, Tatsuya; Inamura, Yasuhiro; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 8, p.036011_1 - 036011_6, 2015/09

The needs for inelastic neutron scattering experiments under the special sample environment such as strong magnetic field and high temperature are recently increasing. However, the unwanted scatterings originating from these devices affect the detection of weak inelastic signals. In order to overcome this problem we have developed an oscillating radial collimator specialized for the chopper spectrometer at Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) in J-PARC. In this study, we will report the performances of newly-developed oscillating radial collimators both for 4SEASONS and AMATERAS.

Spin-orbit fluctuations in frustrated heavy-fermion metal LiVO

Tomiyasu, Keisuke*; Iwasa, Kazuaki*; Ueda, Hiroaki*; Niitaka, Seiji*; Takagi, Hidenori*; Kawamura, Seiko; Kikuchi, Tatsuya; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Nakajima, Kenji; Yamada, Kazuyoshi*

Physical Review Letters, 113(23), p.236402_1 - 236402_5, 2014/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.236402

Spin fluctuations were studied over a wide momentum () and energy () space in the frustrated -electron heavy-fermion metal LiVO by time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering. We observed the overall evolutions near the characteristic = 0.6 peak and found another weak broad magnetic peak around 2.4 . The data are described by a simple response function, a partially delocalized magnetic form factor, and antiferromagnetic short-range spatial correlations, indicating that heavy-fermion formation is attributable to spin-orbit fluctuations with orbital hybridization.

Local dynamics coupled to hydration water determines DNA-sequence-dependent deformability

Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Yonetani, Yoshiteru; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Kikuchi, Tatsuya; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Kataoka, Mikio; Kono, Hidetoshi

Physical Review E, 90(2), p.022723_1 - 022723_11, 2014/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.90.022723

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering (QENS) experiments were conducted on hydrated two DNA dodecamers with distinct deformability; 5'CGCGAATTCGCG3' and 5'CGCGTTAACGCG3'. The former is known to be rigid and the latter to be flexible. The mean-square displacements (MSDs) of DNA dodecamers exhibit so-called dynamical transition around 200-240 K for both sequences. To investigate the DNA sequence dependent dynamics, the dynamics of DNA and hydration water above the transition temperature were examined using both MD simulations and QENS experiments. The fluctuation amplitude of the AATT central tetramer is smaller, and its relaxation time is longer, than that observed in TTAA, suggesting that the AT step is kinetically more stable than TA. The sequence-dependent local base pair step dynamics correlate with the kinetics of breaking the hydrogen bond between DNA and hydration water. The sequence dependent DNA base pair step fluctuations appear above the dynamical transition temperature. Together with these results, we conclude that DNA deformability is related to the local dynamics of base pair step, themselves coupled to hydration water in the minor groove.