Effects of melting and coagulating conditions on the structure of simulated waste glasses

Nagai, Takayuki; Aoyama, Yusuke; Okamoto, Yoshihiro; Hasegawa, Takehiko*; Sato, Seiichi*; Kikuchi, Tetsuya*; Hatakeyama, Kiyoshi*

JAEA-Research 2025-012, 43 Pages, 2026/01

JAEA-Research-2025-012.pdf:6.99MB

In the vitrification process study of high-level radioactive waste liquids, precipitates present in the simulated waste glasses are detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD), but due to the state of the precipitates (fine size, extremely small amount), precipitate peaks cannot be observed in the XRD pattern. We have evaluated the glass structure of simulated waste glasses prepared under different melting and coagulated conditions using Raman spectroscopy and other methods, in this study. The simulated waste glass, which does not show any precipitate peaks in the XRD pattern, was subjected to Raman spectroscopy, and it was confirmed that precipitate particles in the glass phase could be detected. And it was confirmed that in glass preparation, stirring the molten glass and increasing the cooling rate from the molten state are likely to suppress the formation of precipitate particles in the glass phase. The evaluation of the Si-O bridging structure of the glass revealed no difference in the Si-O bridging structure between areas with and without precipitates. The precipitates detected by Raman spectroscopy are not ceria (CeO) or calcium molybdate (CaMoO), but they are presumed to be compounds such as spinel. In experiments using synchrotron radiation, X-ray transmission images of the internal state of glasses were observed, and it was confirmed that stirring molten glass is effective in reducing bubbles present in the glass phase. The XAFS measurements of Mo K-edge, Ce L-edge, and Si K-edge confirmed that stirring the molten glass does not affect the chemical state of Mo, Ce, and Si contained in the glass.

Decommissioning state of Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility; Dismantling the Glove Box W-4,W-5,W-6-1,W-6-2 and equipment interior

Nagai, Yuya; Kimura, Yasuhisa; Takeuchi, Kentaro; Shuji, Yoshiyuki; Kawasaki, Takeshi; Hirano, Koji*; Tomiyama, Noboru*; Usui, Yasuhiro*; Nidaira, Seiichiro*; Shinozaki, Tomohiro*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2025-003, 110 Pages, 2025/10

JAEA-Technology-2025-003.pdf:11.5MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) manages wide range of nuclear facilities. Many of these facilities are required to be performed adjustment with the aging and complement with the new regulatory standards and the earthquake resistant, since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. It is therefore desirable to promote decommissioning of facilities that have reached the end of their productive life in order to reduce risk and maintenance costs. However, the progress of facility decommissioning require large amount of money and radioactive waste storage space. In order to address these issues, JAEA has formulated a "The Medium/Long-Term Management Plan of JAEA Facilities" with three pillars: (1) consolidation and prioritization of facilities, (2) assurance of facility safety, and (3) back-end countermeasures. In this plan, Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility has been selected as primary decommissioned facility, and dismantling of equipment in the facilities have been underway. The following gloveboxes were dismantled between March 2020 and March 2022: Glovebox No. W-4, which houses the roasting furnace, washing and dewatering tank, and washing waste tank; Glovebox No. W-5, which houses the weighing tank; Glovebox No. W-6-1, which houses the flocculation-sedimentation tank, slurry-receiving tank, neutralization tank, and receiving tank; and Glovebox No. W-6-2, which houses the adjustment tank, adjustment liquid agitator, adsorption tower, discharge tank, discharge tank agitator, and adsorption tower. This report summarizes the results of the work and the findings obtained through the dismantling of these gloveboxes.

Compliance measures at the Radioactive Waste Treatment Facilities at the Nuclear Science Research Institute; Aseismic reinforcement of the Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility No. 3, Waste Size Reduction and Storage Facility, and Waste Volume Reduction Facility

Iketani, Shotaro; Suzuki, Takeshi; Yokobori, Tomohiko; Sugawara, Satoshi; Yokota, Akira; Kikuchi, Genta; Muraguchi, Yoshinori; Kitahara, Masaru; Seya, Manato; Kurosawa, Tsuyoshi; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2025-001, 169 Pages, 2025/08

JAEA-Technology-2025-001.pdf:14.22MB

The radioactive waste treatment facilities at the Nuclear Science Research Institute includes the Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility No. 3, Waste Size Reduction and Storage Facility, and Waste Volume Reduction Facility. These three facilities come under the purview of the Act on the Regulation of Nuclear Source Material, Nuclear Fuel Material and Reactors, and are included under Class C of the act based on the seismic requirements specified in the Act. We assessed the seismic capacity of these three radioactive waste treatment facilities based on the current Building Standards Act, to verify whether they comply with the new regulatory requirements enforced by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company. We found that the allowable stress of a few structural members used in the construction of the facilities did not meet the regulatory requirements. After studying the approval granted by the NRA for the construction plans, including the design and construction methods (design and construction plans) of the three facilities on March 5, 2021, we made aseismic reinforcement at these facilities between 2021 and 2022. This report presents an overview of the seismic design of these facilities and an outline of the aseismic reinforcement conducted, management system existing, safety measures adopted, and the preoperational inspections conducted at these facilities.

Structural investigation of borosilicate glasses by using XAFS measurement in soft X-ray region, 4 (Joint research)

Nagai, Takayuki; Okamoto, Yoshihiro; Shibata, Daisuke*; Kojima, Kazuo*; Hasegawa, Takehiko*; Sato, Seiichi*; Fukaya, Akane*; Hatakeyama, Kiyoshi*

JAEA-Research 2024-014, 54 Pages, 2025/02

JAEA-Research-2024-014.pdf:7.02MB

XAFS measurements in the soft X-ray region are suitable for evaluating the chemical state of the surface layer of a measurement sample because the X-ray transmittance is low. In this study, the purpose of the study was to confirm the difference between the coagulated surface layer and the inside of the simulated waste glasses by measuring the K-edge of the glass constituent elements boron, oxygen, sodium, and silicon, and the L edge of the waste component cerium. As a result, the B K-edge XANES spectra showed that the proportion of B-O tetracoordinate sp structures (BO) on the surface layer of the coagulated glass samples was higher than that on the cut surface inside the glass samples, which is expected to improve the water resistance of the coagulated surface. On the other hand, the O K-edge XANES spectra suggested that the O abundance in the coagulated surface layer was lower than that in the cut surface inside the glass samples, and that alkali metal elements may be concentrated in the coagulated surface layer. However, no difference was observed in the Na K-edge XANES spectra between the coagulated surface layer and the cut surface, and no difference was observed in the Si K-edge XANES spectra between the solidified surface and the inside of glass samples. In addition, the Ce L-edge XANES spectra confirmed that the Ce valence in the surface layer of coagulated glass samples were oxidized compared to the inside of glass samples.

Imaging Josephson vortices on curved junctions

Fujisawa, Yuita*; Krishnadas, A*; Nakamura, Tomonori*; Hsu, C.-H.*; Smith, B.*; Pardo-Almanza, M*; Hiyane, Hoshu*; Chang, G.*; Nagai, Yuki; Machida, Tadashi*; et al.

Physical Review B, 110(22), p.224511_1 - 224511_5, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.110.224511

Understanding the nature of vortices in type-II superconductors has been vital for deepening the physics of exotic superconductors and applying superconducting materials to future electronic devices. A recent study has shown that the LiTiO(111) thin film offers a unique experimental platform to unveil the nature of the vortex along the curved Josephson junction. This study successfully visualized individual Josephson vortices along the curved Josephson junctions using in-situ spectroscopic scanning tunneling microscopy on LiTiO (111) epitaxial thin films. Notably, the local curvature of the Josephson junction was discovered to control the position of Josephson vortices. Furthermore, the numerical simulation reproduces the critical role of the curvature of the Josephson junction. This study provides guidelines to control Josephson vortices through geometrical ways, such as mechanical controlling of superconducting materials and their devices.

Self-learning Monte Carlo with equivariant Transformer

Nagai, Yuki; Tomiya, Akio*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 93(11), p.114007_1 - 114007_8, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.93.114007

We proposed a new self-learning Monte Carlo method using Transformer, a key technology in generative AI. By using Transformer's Attention mechanism, which can infer the relevance of distant words in a sentence, we have constructed an effective model that can efficiently capture the long-range correlations that are important in the phase transitions in electronic systems. Furthermore, we reduce the number of parameters by incorporating symmetries that the system must satisfy, such as spin rotation and spatial translation, into the network. We also found a scaling law that the loss decreases as the number of layers is increased.

Introduction to dismantling and decommissioning chemistry

Sato, Nobuaki*; Kameo, Yutaka; Sato, Soichi; Kumagai, Yuta; Sato, Tomonori; Yamamoto, Masahiro*; Watanabe, Yutaka*; Nagai, Takayuki; Niibori, Yuichi*; Watanabe, Masayuki; et al.

Introduction to Dismantling and Decommissioning Chemistry, 251 Pages, 2024/09

This book focuses on the dismantling and decommissioning of nuclear facilities and reactors that have suffered severe accidents. In Part 1, we introduce basic aspects ranging from fuel chemistry, analytical chemistry, radiation chemistry, corrosion, and decontamination chemistry to waste treatment and disposal. Then, Part 2 covers the chemistry involved in the decommissioning of various nuclear facilities, and discusses what chemical approaches are necessary and possible for the decommissioning of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants, how decommissioning should be carried out, and what kind of research and development and also human resource development are required for this.

Ferroelectricity induced by a combination of crystallographic chirality and axial vector

Nagai, Takayuki*; Hagihara, Masato; Yokoi, Rie*; Moriwake, Hiroki*; Kimura, Tsuyoshi*

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 146(33), p.23348 - 23355, 2024/08

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c06283

Kolmogorov-Arnold networks in molecular dynamics

Nagai, Yuki*; Okumura, Masahiko

arXiv.org (Internet), 12 Pages, 2024/07

https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.17774

We explore the integration of Kolmogorov-Arnold networks (KANs) into molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to improve interatomic potentials. We propose that widely used potentials, such as the Lennard-Jones potential, the embedded atom model, and artificial neural network (ANN) potentials, can be interpreted within the KAN framework. Specifically, we demonstrate that the descriptors for ANN potentials, typically constructed using polynomials, can be redefined using KAN's non-linear functions. By employing linear or cubic spline interpolations for these KAN functions, we show that the computational cost of evaluating ANN potentials and their derivatives is reduced.

Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2022

Kokubun, Yuji; Nakada, Akira; Seya, Natsumi; Koike, Yuko; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Yamada, Ryohei*; Uchiyama, Rei; Yamashita, Daichi; Nagai, Shinji; et al.

JAEA-Review 2023-046, 164 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-046.pdf:4.2MB

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories conducts environmental radiation monitoring around the reprocessing plant in accordance with the "Safety Regulations for Reprocessing Plant of JAEA, Part IV: Environmental Monitoring". This report summarizes the results of environmental radiation monitoring conducted during the period from April 2022 to March 2023 and the results of dose calculations for the surrounding public due to the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and ocean. In the results of the above environmental radiation monitoring, many items were affected by radioactive materials emitted from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (changed to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. on April 1, 2016), which occurred in March 2011. Also included as appendices are an overview of the environmental monitoring plan, an overview of measurement methods, measurement results and their changes over time, meteorological statistics results, radioactive waste release status, and an evaluation of the data which deviated of the normal range.