A Cause and the measures that the expansion joint of the steam plumbing for Reprocessing Plants damaged

Nishino, Shohei; Nishida, Tetsuro; Kawasaki, Ichio; Motohashi, Masahiro; Kambara, Takashi*; Suzuki, Takaichi*; Kinoshita, Masato*

Nihon Hozen Gakkai Dai-20-Kai Gakujutsu Koenkai Yoshishu, p.14 - 21, 2024/08

Steam is used to a process and air conditioning in Nuclear fuel Cycle engineering Laboratories (NCL). The steam is used mainly in Reprocessing Plant, and it is supplied by two steam plumbing. A leak occurred from the steam plumbing in November, 2022. As a result of cause investigation, I estimated that it had leaked by a water hammer caused for the trouble of the steam trap.

Cavitation damage in double-walled mercury target vessel

Naoe, Takashi; Wakui, Takashi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Haga, Katsuhiro; Harada, Masahide; Takada, Hiroshi; Futakawa, Masatoshi

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 506, p.35 - 42, 2018/08

BB2016-1013.pdf:0.96MB

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.10.044

A mercury target vessel made of 316L SS is damaged due to the cavitation caused by the pressure waves in mercury. Cavitation damage reduces the structural integrity of the target front, called "beam window", being major factor to determine the lifetime of target vessel. Aiming at mitigating the cavitation damage by faster mercury flow in narrow channel, we employed a target vessel with a double-walled structure at the beam window along with a gas microbubbles injection. After operating the double-walled target vessel with a beam power of 300 to 500 kW, we cut out the beam window using an annular cutter to examine the damage inside it, and found that damages with maximum pit depth of approximately 25 m distributed in a belt on the specimen facing narrow channel. Furthermore, numerical simulation result showed that the distribution of negative pressure period from beam injection to 1 ms was correlated with the damage distribution in the narrow channel. It was suggested that the cavitation induced by relatively short negative pressure period contributed to the damage formation.

Development of microbubble generator for suppression of pressure waves in mercury target of spallation source

Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; Kyoto, Harumichi*; Haga, Katsuhiro; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Futakawa, Masatoshi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 52(12), p.1461 - 1469, 2015/12

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2015.1009188

MW-class mercury target for the spallation neutron source is subjected to the pressure waves. Propagation of the pressure wave causes negative pressure which causes cavitation erosion and degrades the vessel. Microbubbles injection into mercury is an effective technique to suppress the pressure waves and cavitation erosion. The bubble-generator utilizing swirl flow of liquid (swirl-type bubble-generator) is suitable for a mercury target system. However, when the single generator was used, swirl flow remains at downstream. The remaining swirl flow causes the coalescence of bubbles which results in ineffective suppression of pressure waves. To solve this concern, a multi swirl-type bubble-generator, which consists of several single generators arraying in the plane perpendicular to mercury flow direction, was invented. The multi swirl-type bubble-generator generated the microbubbles with the sufficient size to suppress the pressure waves.

Magnetic patterning of FeRh thin films by energetic light ion microbeam irradiation

Koide, Tetsuya*; Sato, Takahiro; Koka, Masashi; Saito, Yuichi; Kamiya, Tomihiro; Okochi, Takuo*; Kotsugi, Masato*; Kinoshita, Toyohiko*; Nakamura, Tetsuya*; Iwase, Akihiro*; et al.

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 53(5S1), p.05FC06_1 - 05FC06_4, 2014/05

https://doi.org/10.7567/JJAP.53.05FC06

We previously reported that the magnetic state of FeRh can be controlled by irradiation with ion beams. In this paper, we evaluate possibility of magnetic patterning on FeRh thin films using energetic light ion microbeam irradiation with various shapes and dimensions. Proton microbeam irradiation with 2 MeV was performed at JAEA-Takasaki to produce micron-sized magnetic patterns. XMCD-PEEM observation was performed at SPring8 to confirm the synthesized magnetic patterns. As a result, the XMCD-PEEM images of the various micrometer sized patters in FeRh film were observed using 2 MeV H ion beam. The observed bright regions are considered to have ferromagnetic spin orders, in contrast that the gray areas have anti-ferromagnetic spin order. Since the brightness of the PEEM images is strongly correlated with the magnetization of the samples, we reveal that the magnetic state in local regions of the FeRh thin films can be controlled by changing the ion fluences.

Epitaxy of graphene on 3C-SiC(111) thin films on microfabricated Si(111) substrates

Ide, Takayuki*; Kawai, Yusuke*; Handa, Hiroyuki*; Fukidome, Hirokazu*; Kotsugi, Masato*; Okochi, Takuo*; Enta, Yoshiharu*; Kinoshita, Toyohiko*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Teraoka, Yuden; et al.

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 51(6), p.06FD02_1 - 06FD02_4, 2012/06

https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.51.06FD02

Influence of Great East Japan Earthquake on neutron source station in J-PARC

Sakai, Kenji; Sakamoto, Shinichi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Seki, Masakazu; Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; Naoe, Takashi; Kasugai, Yoshimi; Tatsumoto, Hideki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2011-039, 121 Pages, 2012/03

JAEA-Technology-2011-039.pdf:10.87MB

This report investigates the behavior, damage and restoration of a neutron source station of the MLF at the Great East Japan Earthquake and verified the safety design for emergency accidents in the neutron source station. In the MLF, after an occurrence of the Earthquake, strong quakes were detected at the instruments, the external power supply was lost, all of the circulators shut down automatically, and the hydrogen gas was released. The leakages of mercury, hydrogen and radio-activation gases did not occur. While, the quakes made gaps between the shield blocks and ruptured external pipe lines by subsidence around the building. But significant damages to the components were not found though the pressure drop of compressed air lines influenced on a target trolley lock system and so on. These results substantiated the validity of the safety design for emergency accidents in the source station, and suggested several points of improvement.

Influence of Great East Japan Earthquake on neutron target station in J-PARC

Sakai, Kenji; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Takada, Hiroshi; Sakamoto, Shinichi; Maekawa, Fujio; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Seki, Masakazu; Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; et al.

Proceedings of 20th Meeting of the International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources (ICANS-20) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2012/03

This report investigates behaviors and damages of each component in a neutron target station of the MLF at the J-PARC at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE). At the date of the GEJE, in the MLF, strong quakes were detected at several instruments, an external power supply were lost, all of the circulation systems were shut down automatically, and a hydrogen gas was released as planned. Leakage of activation liquids and gases did not occur. While, the quakes made gaps between shield blocks and ruptured external pipe lines for air and water by subsidence. But significant damages on the components of the target station were not found though a loss of compressed air supply affected lock systems with air cylinders and pneumatic operation values. These results substantiated a validity of safety design on the target station for emergency accidents.

Control of epitaxy of graphene by crystallographic orientation of a Si substrate toward device applications

Fukidome, Hirokazu*; Takahashi, Ryota*; Abe, Shunsuke*; Imaizumi, Kei*; Handa, Hiroyuki*; Kang, H. C.*; Karasawa, Hiromi*; Suemitsu, Tetsuya*; Otsuji, Taiichi*; Enta, Yoshiharu*; et al.

Journal of Materials Chemistry, 21(43), p.17242 - 17248, 2011/11

https://doi.org/10.1039/c1jm12921j

Development of a thermal-hydraulics experimental system for high Tc superconductors cooled by liquid hydrogen

Tatsumoto, Hideki; Shirai, Yasuyuki*; Shiotsu, Masahiro*; Hata, Koichi*; Kobayashi, Hiroaki*; Naruo, Yoshihiro*; Inatani, Yoshifumi*; Kato, Takashi; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Kinoshita, Katsuhiro*

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 234, p.032056_1 - 032056_9, 2010/07

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/234/3/032056

A thermal-hydraulics experimental system of liquid hydrogen was developed in order to investigate the forced flow heat transfer characteristics in the various cooling channels for wide ranges of subcoolings, flow velocities, and pressures up to supercritical. Forced flow through the channel is produced by adjusting the pressure difference between the tanks and the valve opening. The mass flow rate is measured from the weight change of the main tank. For the explosion protection, electrical equipments are covered with a nitrogen gas blanket layer and a remote control system has been established. The first cryogenic performance tests have confirmed that the experimental system has satisfied with the required performances. The forced convection heat transfer characteristics have been successfully measured at the pressure of 0.7 MPa for various flow velocities.

Anionic fluoro complex of element 105, Db

Kasamatsu, Yoshitaka*; Toyoshima, Atsushi; Asai, Masato; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Li, Z.; Ishii, Yasuo; Tome, Hayato*; Sato, Tetsuya; Kikuchi, Takahiro; Nishinaka, Ichiro; et al.

Chemistry Letters, 38(11), p.1084 - 1085, 2009/10

https://doi.org/10.1246/cl.2009.1084

We report on the characteristic anion-exchange behavior of the superheavy element dubnium (Db) with atomic number Z = 105 in HF/HNO solution at the fluoride ion concentration [F] = 0.003 M. The result clearly demonstrates that the fluoro complex formation of Db is significantly different from that of the group-5 homologue Ta in the 6th period of the periodic table while the behavior of Db is similar to that of the lighter homologue Nb in the 5th period.