Natural systems evidence for the effects of temperature and the activity of aqueous silica upon montmorillonite stability in clay barriers for the disposal of radioactive wastes

Savage, D.*; Wilson, J.*; Benbow, S.*; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Oda, Chie; Walker, C.*; Kawama, Daisuke*; Tachi, Yukio

Applied Clay Science, 179, p.105146_1 - 105146_10, 2019/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2019.105146

Natural systems evidence for the effects of temperature and the activity of aqueous silica upon montmorillonite stability was evaluated. Thermodynamic modeling using three different TDBs shows that stability fields for montmorillonite exist from 0 to 140C, but at low values of silica activity, a stability field for illite replaces that for montmorillonite. Pore fluid chemical and mineralogical data for sediments from ODP sites from offshore Japan show a trend from montmorillonite + amorphous silica stability at temperatures up to 60C to that for illite + quartz at higher temperatures. However, even over very long timescales ( 1 Ma), smectite does not transform to illite under thermodynamically-favourable conditions at temperatures less than 80C.

Quantum dynamics of hydrogen in the iron-based superconductor LaFeAsOD measured with inelastic neutron spectroscopy

Yamaura, Junichi*; Hiraka, Haruhiro*; Iimura, Soshi*; Muraba, Yoshinori*; Bang, J.*; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Honda, Takashi*; Hiraishi, Masatoshi*; et al.

Physical Review B, 99(22), p.220505_1 - 220505_6, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.220505

Inelastic neutron scattering was performed for an iron-based superconductor, where most of D (deuterium) replaces oxygen, while a tiny amount goes into interstitial sites. By first-principle calculation, we characterize the interstitial sites for D (and for H slightly mixed) with four equivalent potential minima. Below the superconducting transition temperature Tc = 26 K, new excitations emerge in the range 5-15 meV, while they are absent in the reference system LaFeAsOF. The strong excitations at 14.5 meV and 11.1 meV broaden rapidly around 15 K and 20 K, respectively, where each energy becomes comparable to twice of the superconducting gap. The strong excitations are ascribed to a quantum rattling, or a band motion of hydrogen, which arises only if the number of potential minima is larger than two.

Routing study of above core structure with mock-up experiment for ASTRID

Takano, Kazuya; Sakamoto, Yoshihiko; Morohoshi, Kyoichi*; Okazaki, Hitoshi*; Gima, Hiromichi*; Teramae, Takuma*; Ikarimoto, Iwao*; Botte, F.*; Dirat, J.-F.*; Dechelette, F.*

Proceedings of 2019 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2019) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2019/05

ASTRID has the objective to integrate innovative options in order to prepare the 4th generation reactors. In ASTRID, large number of tubes are installed above each fuel subassembly to monitor the core. These instrumentations such as thermocouples (TC) and Failed Fuel Detection and Location (FFDL) systems are integrated into Above Core Structure (ACS) with various sizes tubes. In the present study, the routing study for TC tubes and FFDL tubes was performed with 3D modeling and mock-up experiment of the ACS designed for ASTRID with 1500 MW thermal power in order to clarify the integration process and secure the design hypotheses. Although some problems on fabricability were found in the mock-up experiment, the possible solutions were proposed. The present study gives manufacturing feedback to design team and will contribute to increase the knowledge for ACS design and fabricability.

Coolability evaluation of debris bed on core catcher in a sodium-cooled fast reactor

Matsuo, Eiji*; Sasa, Kyohei*; Koyama, Kazuya*; Yamano, Hidemasa; Kubo, Shigenobu; Hourcade, E.*; Bertrand, F.*; Marie, N.*; Bachrata, A.*; Dirat, J. F.*

Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2019/05

Discharged molten-fuel from the core during Core Disruptive Accident (CDA) could become solidified particle debris by fuel-coolant interaction in the lower sodium plenum, and then the debris could form a bed on a core catcher located at the bottom of the reactor vessel. Coolability evaluations for the debris bed are necessary for the design of the core catcher. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the coolability of the debris bed on the core catcher for the ASTRID design. For this purpose, as a first step, the coolability calculations of the debris beds formed both in short term and later phase have been performed by modeling only the debris bed itself. Thus, details of core catcher design and decay heat removal system are not described in this paper. In all the calculations, coolant temperature around the debris bed is a parameter. The calculation tool is the debris bed module implemented into a one-dimensional plant dynamics code, Super-COPD. The evaluations have shown that the debris beds formed both in short term and later phase are coolable by the design which secures sufficient coolant flow around the core catcher located in the cold pool.

Colossal barocaloric effects in plastic crystals

Li, B.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kawamura, Seiko; Sugahara, Takeshi*; Wang, H.*; Wang, J.*; Chen, Y.*; Kawaguchi, Saori*; Kawaguchi, Shogo*; Ohara, Koji*; et al.

Nature, 567(7749), p.506 - 510, 2019/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1042-5

Refrigeration is of vital importance for modern society for example, for food storage and air conditioning- and 25 to 30% of the world's electricity is consumed for refrigeration. Current refrigeration technology mostly involves the conventional vapour compression cycle, but the materials used in this technology are of growing environmental concern because of their large global warming potential. As a promising alternative, refrigeration technologies based on solid-state caloric effects have been attracting attention in recent decades. However, their application is restricted by the limited performance of current caloric materials, owing to small isothermal entropy changes and large driving magnetic fields. Here we report colossal barocaloric effects (CBCEs) (barocaloric effects are cooling effects of pressure-induced phase transitions) in a class of disordered solids called plastic crystals. The obtained entropy changes in a representative plastic crystal, neopentylglycol, are about 389 joules per kilogram per kelvin near room temperature. Pressure-dependent neutron scattering measurements reveal that CBCEs in plastic crystals can be attributed to the combination of extensive molecular orientational disorder, giant compressibility and highly anharmonic lattice dynamics of these materials. Our study establishes the microscopic mechanism of CBCEs in plastic crystals and paves the way to next-generation solid-state refrigeration technologies.

Nuclear structure of Ni from the (,) reaction

Elekes, Z.*; Kripk, *; Sohler, D.*; Sieja, K.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Authelet, G.*; Baba, Hidetada*; et al.

Physical Review C, 99(1), p.014312_1 - 014312_7, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.99.014312

The nuclear structure of the Ni nucleus was investigated by (,) reaction using a NaI(Tl) array to detect the deexciting prompt rays. A new transition with an energy of 2227 keV was identified by and coincidences. Our shell-model calculations using the Lenzi, Nowacki, Poves, and Sieja interaction produced good candidates for the experimental proton hole states in the observed energy region, and the theoretical cross sections showed good agreement with the experimental values. Although we could not assign all the experimental states to the theoretical ones unambiguously, the results are consistent with a reasonably large Z = 28 shell gap for nickel isotopes in accordance with previous studies.

Electrical and crystallographic study of an electrothermodynamic cycle for a waste heat recovery

Kim, J.*; Yamanaka, Satoru*; Nakajima, Akira*; Kato, Takanori*; Kim, J.*; Kim, Y.*; Fukuda, Tatsuo; Yoshii, Kenji; Nishihata, Yasuo; Baba, Masaaki*; et al.

Advanced Sustainable Systems (Internet), 2(11), p.1800067_1 - 1800067_8, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.1002/adsu.201800067

First ionization potentials of Fm, Md, No, and Lr; Verification of filling-up of 5f electrons and confirmation of the actinide series

Sato, Tetsuya; Asai, Masato; Borschevsky, A.*; Beerwerth, R.*; Kaneya, Yusuke*; Makii, Hiroyuki; Mitsukai, Akina*; Nagame, Yuichiro; Osa, Akihiko; Toyoshima, Atsushi; et al.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140(44), p.14609 - 14613, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b09068

The first ionization potential (IP) yields information on valence electronic structure of an atom. IP values of heavy actinides beyond einsteinium (Es, Z = 99), however, have not been determined experimentally so far due to the difficulty in obtaining these elements on scales of more than one atom at a time. Recently, we successfully measured IP of lawrencium (Lr, Z = 103) using a surface ionization method. The result suggests that Lr has a loosely-bound electron in the outermost orbital. In contrast to Lr, nobelium (No, Z = 102) is expected to have the highest IP among the actinide elements owing to its full-filled 5f and the 7s orbitals. In the present study, we have successfully determined IP values of No as well as fermium (Fm, Z = 100) and mendelevium (Md, Z = 101) using the surface ionization method. The obtained results indicate that the IP value of heavy actinoids would increase monotonically with filling electrons up in the 5f orbital like heavy lanthanoids.

Multi-dimensional numerical investigation of sodium spray combustion; Benchmark analysis of SNL T3 experiment

Sonehara, Masateru; Aoyagi, Mitsuhiro; Uchibori, Akihiro; Takata, Takashi; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Clark, A. J.*; Denman, M. R.*

Proceedings of 11th Korea-Japan Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS-11) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2018/11

no abstracts in English

Quark model estimate of hidden-charm pentaquark resonances

Hiyama, Emiko; Hosaka, Atsushi; Oka, Makoto; Richard, J.-M.*

Physical Review C, 98(4), p.045208_1 - 045208_8, 2018/10

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.98.045208

A quark model, which reproduces the ground-state mesons and baryons, i.e., the threshold energies, is applied to the configurations, where is a light quark and the charmed quark. In the calculation, several open channels are explicitly included such as , , , etc. To distinguish genuine resonances and estimate their width, we employ Gaussian Expansion Method supplemented by the real scalingmethod (stabilization). No resonance is found at the energies of the and pentaquarks. On the other hand, there is a sharp resonant state at 4690 MeV with state and another one at 4920 MeV with state, which have a compact structure.