First observation of O

Kondo, Yosuke*; Achouri, N. L.*; Al Falou, H.*; Atar, L.*; Aumann, T.*; Baba, Hidetada*; Boretzky, K.*; Caesar, C.*; Calvet, D.*; Chae, H.*; et al.

Nature, 620(7976), p.965 - 970, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06352-6

no abstracts in English

Level structures of Ca cast doubt on a doubly magic Ca

Chen, S.*; Browne, F.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Lee, J.*; Obertelli, A.*; Tsunoda, Yusuke*; Otsuka, Takaharu*; Chazono, Yoshiki*; Hagen, G.*; Holt, J. D.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 843, p.138025_1 - 138025_7, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138025

Gamma decays were observed in Ca and Ca following quasi-free one-proton knockout reactions from Sc. For Ca, a ray transition was measured to be 1456(12) keV, while for Ca an indication for a transition was observed at 1115(34) keV. Both transitions were tentatively assigned as the decays. A shell-model calculation in a wide model space with a marginally modified effective nucleon-nucleon interaction depicts excellent agreement with experiment for level energies, two-neutron separation energies, and reaction cross sections, corroborating the formation of a new nuclear shell above the N = 34 shell. Its constituents, the and orbitals, are almost degenerate. This degeneracy precludes the possibility for a doubly magic Ca and potentially drives the dripline of Ca isotopes to Ca or even beyond.

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.

Extended neutron orbital and the shell closure in Ca

Enciu, M.*; Liu, H. N.*; Obertelli, A.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Nowacki, F.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Poves, A.*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Achouri, N. L.*; Baba, Hidetada*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 129(26), p.262501_1 - 262501_7, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.262501

The one-neutron knockout from Ca was performed at 230 MeV/nucleon combined with prompt spectroscopy. The momentum distributions corresponding to the removal of and neutrons were measured. The cross sections are consistent with a shell closure at the neutron number , found as strong as at and in Ca isotopes from the same observables. The analysis of the momentum distributions leads to a difference of the root-mean-square radii of the neutron and orbitals of 0.61(23) fm, in agreement with the modified-shell-model prediction of 0.7 fm suggesting that the large root-mean-square radius of the orbital in neutron-rich Ca isotopes is responsible for the unexpected linear increase of the charge radius with the neutron number.

Decommissioning of Pre-dismantling Temporary Waste Storage Facility 3 (FPG-03a,b,c) in Plutonium Fuel Production Facility

Shinozaki, Masaru; Aita, Takahiro; Iso, Takahito*; Odakura, Manabu*; Haginoya, Masahiro*; Kadowaki, Hiroyuki*; Kobayashi, Shingo*; Inagawa, Takumu*; Morimoto, Taisei*; Iso, Hidetoshi; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2021-043, 100 Pages, 2022/03

JAEA-Technology-2021-043.pdf:7.49MB

It is planned that the MOX (Mixed Oxide) from the decommissioned facilities in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories is going to be consolidated and stored stably and safely for a long term in Plutonium Fuel Production Facility of the Plutonium Fuel Development Center of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories. For this purpose, it is necessary to pelletize nuclear fuel materials in the facility and store them in the assembly storage (hereinafter referred to as "waste packaging work") to secure storage space in the plutonium material storage. As a countermeasure to reduce the facility risk in this waste packing work, it was decided to construct a new powder weighing and homogenization mixing facility to physically limit the amount (batch size) of nuclear fuel materials handled at the entrance of the process. In order to secure the installation space for the new facility in the powder preparation room (1) (FP-101), the pre-dismantling temporary waste storage facility 3 (FPG-03a, b, c) was dismantled and removed. This facility consists of a granulating and sizing facility, an additive mixing facility, and a receiving and delivering guided facility, which started to be used from January 1993, and was discontinued on February 3, 2012 and became a waste facility. Subsequently, the dismantling and removal of the interior equipment was carried out by pellet fabrication section for glove operation to reduce the amount of hold-up, and before the main dismantling and removal, there was almost no interior equipment except for large machinery. This report describes the dismantling and removal of the glove box and some interior equipment and peripherals of the facility, as well as the Green House setup method, dismantling and removal procedures, and issues specific to powder process equipment (dust, etc.).

Investigation of the ground-state spin inversion in the neutron-rich Cl isotopes

Linh, B. D.*; Corsi, A.*; Gillibert, A.*; Obertelli, A.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Barbieri, C.*; Chen, S.*; Chung, L. X.*; Duguet, T.*; Gmez-Ramos, M.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 104(4), p.044331_1 - 044331_16, 2021/10

AA2021-0468.pdf:1.29MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.104.044331

no abstracts in English

Pairing forces govern population of doubly magic Ca from direct reactions

Browne, F.*; Chen, S.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Utsuno, Yutaka; Yoshida, Kazuki; Achouri, N. L.*; Baba, Hidetada*; Calvet, D.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 126(25), p.252501_1 - 252501_7, 2021/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.252501

Direct proton-knockout reactions of Sc were studied at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Populated states of Ca were investigated through -ray and invariant-mass spectroscopy. Level energies were calculated from the nuclear shell model employing a phenomenological inter-nucleon interaction. Theoretical cross sections to states were calculated from distorted-wave impulse approximation estimates multiplied by the shell model spectroscopic factors. Despite the calculations showing a significant amplitude of excited neutron configurations in the ground-state of Sc, valence proton removals populated predominantly the ground-state of Ca. This counter-intuitive result is attributed to pairing effects leading to a dominance of the ground-state spectroscopic factor. Owing to the ubiquity of the pairing interaction, this argument should be generally applicable to direct knockout reactions from odd-even to even-even nuclei.

= 32 shell closure below calcium; Low-lying structure of Ar

Corts, M. L.*; Rodriguez, W.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Holt, J. D.*; Menndez, J.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Schwenk, A.*; Shimizu, Noritaka*; Simonis, J.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 102(6), p.064320_1 - 064320_9, 2020/12

AA2020-0748.pdf:0.75MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.102.064320

Low-lying excited states in the = 32 isotope Ar were investigated by in-beam -ray spectroscopy following proton- and neutron-knockout, multinucleon removal, and proton inelastic scattering at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. The energies of the two previously reported transitions have been confirmed, and five additional states are presented for the first time, including a candidate for a 3 state. The level scheme built using coincidences was compared to shell-model calculations in the model space and to predictions based on chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions. Theoretical proton- and neutron-knockout cross sections suggest that two of the new transitions correspond to 2 states, while the previously proposed 4 state could also correspond to a 2 state.

Shell evolution of = 40 isotones towards Ca; First spectroscopy of Ti

Corts, M. L.*; Rodriguez, W.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Holt, J. D.*; Lenzi, S. M.*; Menndez, J.*; Nowacki, F.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Poves, A.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 800, p.135071_1 - 135071_7, 2020/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.135071

Excited states in the = 40 isotone Ti were populated via the V(,)Ti reaction at 200 MeV/nucleon at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory and studied using -ray spectroscopy. The energies of the and transitions, observed here for the first time, indicate a deformed Ti ground state. These energies are increased compared to the neighboring Cr and Fe isotones, suggesting a small decrease of quadrupole collectivity. The present measurement is well reproduced by large-scale shell-model calculations based on effective interactions, while ab initio and beyond mean-field calculations do not yet reproduce our findings.

Study on optimizing microwave heating denitration method and powder characteristics of uranium trioxide

Segawa, Tomoomi; Kawaguchi, Koichi; Kato, Yoshiyuki; Ishii, Katsunori; Suzuki, Masahiro; Fujita, Shunya*; Kobayashi, Shohei*; Abe, Yutaka*; Kaneko, Akiko*; Yuasa, Tomohisa*

Proceedings of 2019 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2019) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2019/05

A solution of plutonium nitrate and uranyl nitrate is converted into a mixed oxide by microwave heating denitration method. In the present study, for improving the efficiency of microwave heating and achieving high-temperature uniformity to produce homogeneous UO powder, the microwave heating test of potassium chloride and uranyl nitrate solution, and numerical simulation analysis were conducted. The potassium chloride agar was adjusted to the dielectric loss, which is close to that of the uranyl nitrate solution and the optimum support table height was estimated to be 50 mm for denitration of the uranyl nitrate solution by microwave heating. The adiabator improved the efficiency of microwave heating denitration. Moreover, the powder yield was improved by using the adiabator owing to ease of scraping of the denitration product from the bottom of the denitration vessel.