Materials science and fuel technologies of uranium and plutonium mixed oxide

Kato, Masato; Machida, Masahiko; Hirooka, Shun; Nakamichi, Shinya; Ikusawa, Yoshihisa; Nakamura, Hiroki; Kobayashi, Keita; Ozawa, Takayuki; Maeda, Koji; Sasaki, Shinji; et al.

Materials Science and Fuel Technologies of Uranium and Plutonium mixed Oxide, 171 Pages, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003298205

Innovative and advanced nuclear reactors using plutonium fuel has been developed in each country. In order to develop a new nuclear fuel, irradiation tests are indispensable, and it is necessary to demonstrate the performance and safety of nuclear fuels. If we can develop a technology that accurately simulates irradiation behavior as a technology that complements the irradiation test, the cost, time, and labor involved in nuclear fuel research and development will be greatly reduced. And safety and reliability can be significantly improved through simulation of nuclear fuel irradiation behavior. In order to evaluate the performance of nuclear fuel, it is necessary to know the physical and chemical properties of the fuel at high temperatures. And it is indispensable to develop a behavior model that describes various phenomena that occur during irradiation. In previous research and development, empirical methods with fitting parameters have been used in many parts of model development. However, empirical techniques can give very different results in areas where there is no data. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to construct a scientific descriptive model that can extrapolate the basic characteristics of fuel to the composition and temperature, and to develop an irradiation behavior analysis code to which the model is applied.

Research and examination of seismic safety evaluation and function maintenance for important equipment in nuclear facilities

Furuya, Osamu*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Muta, Hitoshi*; Otori, Yasuki*; Itoi, Tatsuya*; Okamura, Shigeki*; Minagawa, Keisuke*; Nakamura, Izumi*; Fujimoto, Shigeru*; Otani, Akihito*; et al.

Proceedings of ASME 2021 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2021) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2021/07

Since the Fukushima accident, with the higher safety requirements of nuclear facilities in Japan, suppliers, manufacturers and academic societies have been actively considering the reconstruction of the safety of nuclear facilities from various perspectives. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has formulated new regulatory standards and is in operation. The new regulatory standards are based on defense in depth, and have significantly raised the levels of natural hazards and have requested to strengthen the countermeasures from the perspective of preventing the simultaneous loss of safety functions due to common factors. Facilities for dealing with specific serious accidents are required to have robustness to ensure functions against earthquakes that exceed the design standards to a certain extent. In addition, since the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and the safety margin evaluation are performed to include the range beyond the design assumption in the safety improvement evaluation, it is very important to extent the special knowledge in the strength of important equipment for seismic safety. This paper summarizes the research and examination results of specialized knowledge on the concept of maintaining the functions of important seismic facilities and the damage index to be considered by severe earthquakes. In the other paper, the study on reliability of seismic capacity analysis for important equipment in nuclear facilities will be reported.

Visualising spatio-temporal distributions of assimilated carbon translocation and release in root systems of leguminous plants

Yin, Y.-G.*; Suzui, Nobuo*; Kurita, Keisuke; Miyoshi, Yuta*; Unno, Yusuke*; Fujimaki, Shu*; Nakamura, Takuji*; Shinano, Takuro*; Kawachi, Naoki*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 10, p.8446_1 - 8446_11, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65668-9

The release of rhizodeposits differs depending on the root position and is closely related to the assimilated carbon (C) supply. Therefore, quantifying the C partitioning over a short period may provide crucial information for clarifying root-soil carbon metabolism. A non-invasive method for visualising the translocation of recently assimilated C into the root system inside the rhizobox was established using CO labelling and the positron-emitting tracer imaging system. The spatial distribution of recent C-photoassimilates translocated and released in the root system and soil were visualised for white lupin () and soybean (). Our method enabled the quantification of the spatial C allocations in roots and soil, which may help to elucidate the relationship between C metabolism and nutrient cycling at specific locations of the root-soil system in response to environmental conditions over relatively short periods.

Energy of the Th nuclear clock isomer determined by absolute -ray energy difference

Yamaguchi, Atsushi*; Muramatsu, Haruka*; Hayashi, Tasuku*; Yuasa, Naoki*; Nakamura, Keisuke; Takimoto, Misaki; Haba, Hiromitsu*; Konashi, Kenji*; Watanabe, Makoto*; Kikunaga, Hidetoshi*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 123(22), p.222501_1 - 222501_6, 2019/11

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.222501

Electronic structure of EuAl studied by photoelectron spectroscopy

Kobata, Masaaki; Fujimori, Shinichi; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; Saito, Yuji; Kobayashi, Keisuke*; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Ai*; Hedo, Masato*; Nakama, Takao*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 85(9), p.094703_1 - 094703_6, 2016/09

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.85.094703

Research for spectroscopy of fuel debris using superconducting phase transition edge sensor microcalorimeter; Measurement experiment and simulated calculation (Joint research)

Takasaki, Koji; Yasumune, Takashi; Onishi, Takashi; Nakamura, Keisuke; Ishimi, Akihiro; Ito, Chikara; Osaka, Masahiko; Ono, Masashi*; Hatakeyama, Shuichi*; Takahashi, Hiroyuki*; et al.

JAEA-Research 2013-043, 33 Pages, 2014/01

JAEA-Research-2013-043.pdf:13.81MB

In the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, it is assumed that the core fuels melted partially or wholly, and the normal technique of accounting for a fuel assembly is not applicable. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the transparent and rational technique of accounting in the process of collection and storage of fuel debris. In this research, an application of the superconducting phase Transition Edge Sensor microcalorimeter (TES microcalorimeter) is studied for the accounting of nuclear materials in the fuel debris. It is expected that the detailed information of nuclear materials and fission products in fuel debris is obtained by using a high-resolution characteristic of TES microcalorimeter. In this report, the principle of TES microcalorimeter, the measurement experiment using TES in JAEA, and the simulated calculation using the EGS5 code system are summarized.

Irradiation history of Itokawa regolith material deduced from noble gases in the Hayabusa samples

Nagao, Keisuke*; Okazaki, Ryuji*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Miura, Yayoi*; Osawa, Takahito; Bajo, Kenichi*; Matsuda, Shintaro*; Ebihara, Mitsuru*; Ireland, T.*; Kitajima, Fumio*; et al.

Science, 333(6046), p.1128 - 1131, 2011/08

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1207785

A steroid surface materials record regolith processes and a history of cosmic-ray irradiation. Noble gas isotopes in three rocky grains from Itokawa have been determined. High concentrations of solar He, Ne, and Ar, as high as those in lunar soils, are released at variable temperatures from each sample. The isotopic compositions are essentially identical to those of solar wind but distinguishable in He relative abundance. These noble gas characteristics can be explained by repeated implantation and preferential loss of solar He by removal of weathered He-rich rim on the grain surface through friction among regolith grains on Itokawa. Residence time of regolith materials on Itokawa is alculated to be shorter than 10 Myr, suggesting that regolith materials of small asteroids would escape easily to space.

Electron compound nature in a surface atomic layer of a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice

Matsuda, Iwao*; Nakamura, Fumitaka*; Kubo, Keisuke*; Hirahara, Toru*; Yamazaki, Shiro*; Choi, W. H.*; Yeom, H. W.*; Narita, Hisashi*; Fukaya, Yuki; Hashimoto, Mie*; et al.

Physical Review B, 82(16), p.165330_1 - 165330_6, 2010/10

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.165330

no abstracts in English

Development of a TES microcalorimeter for spectroscopic measurement of LX-rays emitted by transuranium elements

Maehata, Keisuke*; Nakamura, Keisuke*; Yasumune, Takashi*; Ishibashi, Kenji*; Takasaki, Koji; Tanaka, Keiichi*; Odawara, Akikazu*; Nagata, Atsushi*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 47(3), p.308 - 313, 2010/03

https://doi.org/10.3327/jnst.47.308

A phase transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter was developed for the energy dispersive measurement of LX-ray photons emitted from transuranium elements. The phase transition temperature of the TES was designed to be 200 mK by using bilayer structure of Au of 120 nm thick and Ti of 50 nm thick. The Au layer of 5.0 m thick was deposited on the Au/Ti bilayer for absorption efficiency of 50% and counting rate of 100 counts per second in the detection of LX-ray photons with the energy from 10 to 20 keV. The TES microcalorimeter was operated for the detection of LX-ray photons emitted from Am, Pu and Pu sources. The decay time constant of 180 s of detection signal pulses allowed the TES microcalorimeter operating with the counting rate higher than 100 counts per second. The energy resolution was obtained to be 50 eV of FWHM value for a peak corresponding to Np L X-ray of 17.75 keV.

Operation of JAERI AVF cyclotron system

Nara, Takayuki; Agematsu, Takashi; Ishibori, Ikuo; Kurashima, Satoshi; Yoshida, Kenichi; Fukuda, Mitsuhiro; Okumura, Susumu; Miyawaki, Nobumasa; Kashiwagi, Hirotsugu; Nakamura, Yoshiteru; et al.

JAEA-Review 2005-001, TIARA Annual Report 2004, P. 370, 2006/01

https://jopss.jaea.go.jp/pdfdata/JAEA-Review-2005-001-p0001-p0126.pdf

no abstracts in English