Technical Note: Validation of a material assignment method for a retrospective study of carbon-ion radiotherapy using Monte Carlo simulation

Chang, W.*; Koba, Yusuke*; Furuta, Takuya; Yonai, Shunsuke*; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Matsumoto, Shinnosuke*; Sato, Tatsuhiko

Journal of Radiation Research (Internet), 62(5), p.846 - 855, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1093/jrr/rrab028

With the aim of developing a revaluation tool of treatment plan in carbon-ion radiotherapy using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, we propose two methods; one is dedicated to identify realistic-tissue materials from a CT image with satisfying the well-calibrated relationship between CT numbers and stopping power ratio (SPR) provided by TPS, and the other is to estimate dose to water considering the particle- and energy-dependent SPR between realistic tissue materials and water. We validated these proposed methods by computing depth dose distribution in homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms composed of human tissue materials and water irradiated by a 400 MeV/u carbon beam with 8 cm SOBP using a MC simulation code PHITS and comparing with results of conventional treatment planning system (TPS). Our result suggested that use of water as a surrogate of real tissue materials, which is adopted in conventional TPS, is inadequate for dose estimation from secondary particles because their production rates cannot be scaled by SPR of the primary particle in water. We therefore concluded that the proposed methods can play important roles in the reevaluation of the treatment plans in carbon-ion radiotherapy.

Physical properties of non-stoichiometric (U,Pu)O

Watanabe, Masashi; Matsumoto, Taku; Hiroka, Shun; Morimoto, Kyoichi; Kato, Masato

2018 GIF Symposium Proceedings (Internet), p.315 - 320, 2020/05

Recently, a research group studying at Plutonium Fuel Development Facility (PFDF) in Japan Atomic Energy Agency has systematically measured vast amounts of physical properties in the non-stoichiometric (U, Pu)O. Lattice parameter, elastic modulus, thermal expansion, oxygen potential, oxygen chemical diffusion coefficient and thermal conductivity were successfully measured as function of Pu content, O/M ratio and temperature, and the effects of Pu content and O/M ratio on their physical properties were evaluated. In this work, those experimental data are reviewed, and latest experimental data set on the non-stoichiometric (U, Pu)O are presented. The data set would be available in development of a fuel performance code.

Advanced gel electrophoresis techniques reveal heterogeneity of humic acids based on molecular weight distributions of kinetically inert Cu-humate complexes

Marumo, Kazuki*; Matsumoto, Atsumasa*; Nakano, Sumika*; Shibukawa, Masami*; Saito, Takumi*; Haraga, Tomoko; Saito, Shingo*

Environmental Science & Technology, 53(24), p.14507 - 14515, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b05169

Humic acids (HA) are responsible for the fate of metal ions in the environment. We developed a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) technique to investigate the MW distributions of metal ion (copper ion). Combining contaminant-metal-free and high-resolution PAGE systems for HA provided accurate MW distributions for the metal ions. Coupling this system with UV-Vis spectrometry and the excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectrometry-parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) method revealed new insights into metal-HA complex. Interestingly, the MW distributions of the three metal ions were entirely different, indicating that the presence of specific binding environments in HA for the metal ions depending its MW. The MW distributions of five fluorescent components were associated with the metal ion distributions. Our PAGE-based methodology suggests that metal binding sites and fluorescent components in HA exhibit heterogeneity in terms of metal binding affinity and MW.

Temporal changes in radiocesium deposition on the Fukushima floodplain

Nakanishi, Takahiro; Sato, Seiji; Matsumoto, Takumi*

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 184(3-4), p.311 - 314, 2019/10

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncz086

There has been significant concern about an increase of exposure dose in living sphere due to the accumulation of radiocesium discharged from contaminated mountainous forest in Fukushima. In this study, we investigated the history of radiocesium deposition on some floodplains in Fukushima. Radiocesium concentrations of river suspended particles and air dose rates at floodplains were also observed continuously. In many situations, annual sediment accumulation at floodplains was only several kg m and its radiocesium concentration was gradually decreasing in line with that of suspended particle. Simultaneously, air dose rates on floodplains were decreasing with time. In 2015 with heavy flood discharge, several hundred kg m of sediment accumulation and sharply decrease of air dose rate was observed at rivers without reservoir. Conversely, radiocesium accumulation at floodplain was significant reduced due to deposition on upstream reservoir.

Recent progress on practical materials study by Bragg edge imaging at J-PARC

Oikawa, Kenichi; Su, Y.; Kiyanagi, Ryoji; Kawasaki, Takuro; Shinohara, Takenao; Kai, Tetsuya; Hiroi, Kosuke; Harjo, S.; Parker, J. D.*; Matsumoto, Yoshihiro*; et al.

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 551, p.436 - 442, 2018/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2017.12.038

Deformation analysis of reinforced concrete using neutron imaging technique

Koyama, Taku*; Ueno, Kazuki*; Sekine, Mariko*; Matsumoto, Yoshihiro*; Kai, Tetsuya; Shinohara, Takenao; Iikura, Hiroshi; Suzuki, Hiroshi; Kanematsu, Manabu*

Materials Research Proceedings, Vol.4, p.155 - 160, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.21741/9781945291678-24

Defect chemistry and basic properties of non-stoichiometric PuO

Kato, Masato; Nakamura, Hiroki; Watanabe, Masashi; Matsumoto, Taku; Machida, Masahiko

Defect and Diffusion Forum, 375, p.57 - 70, 2017/05

http://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/DDF.375.57

The basic properties of PuO were reviewed, and the equilibrium defects in PuO were evaluated from the experimental data of the oxygen potential and electrical conductivity as well as the Ab-initio calculation results. Consistency among various properties was confirmed, and the mechanistic models for thermal property representations were derived.

Second-order structural transition in (CaSr)RhSn

Cheung, Y. W.*; Hu, Y. J.*; Goh, S. K.*; Kaneko, Koji; Tsutsui, Satoshi; Logg, P. W.*; Grosche, F. M.*; Kanagawa, Hibiki*; Tanioku, Yasuaki*; Imai, Masaki*; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 807(3), p.032002_1 - 032002_4, 2017/04

BB2016-0329.pdf:0.86MB

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/807/3/032002

Oxygen potential measurement of (PuAm)O at high temperatures

Matsumoto, Taku; Arima, Tatsumi*; Inagaki, Yaohiro*; Idemitsu, Kazuya*; Kato, Masato; Morimoto, Kyoichi; Sunaoshi, Takeo*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 52(10), p.1296 - 1302, 2015/10

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2014.986243

The oxygen potentials of (PuAm)O were measured at 1873K, 1773K and 1473K by gas equilibrium method. It was shown that following the reduction of Am at the O/M ratio above 1.96, Pu was reduced at the O/M ratio below 1.96.

Thermal and mechanical properties of UO and PuO

Kato, Masato; Matsumoto, Taku

NEA/NSC/R(2015)2 (Internet), p.162 - 167, 2015/06

https://www.oecd-nea.org/science/docs/2015/nsc-r2015-2.pdf#page=174

Uranium and plutonium mixed oxide is base material for minor actinide (MA)-bearing MOX fuels. It is important to evaluate basic properties of UO and PuO as fundamental aspects of MA-bearing MOX fuel development. Especially, heat capacity and thermal conductivity of UO and PuO are important data to analyze thermal behaviors depending on Pu content. However, the data of PuO is limited, and it is difficult to understand the mechanism of temperature dependence on their properties. The (Cv+Cd) of UO and PuO is almost same. The analysis results showed that the Schottky term of PuO is 1.5 times as larger as that of UO. The thermal conductivity was analyzed by Slack equation. The calculation results showed that the thermal conductivity of PuO was higher than that of UO. The relationship between mechanical and thermal properties was described, and the heat capacity and thermal conductivity were analyzed.