Citizen science observation of a gamma-ray glow associated with the initiation of a lightning flash

Tsurumi, Miwa*; Enoto, Teruaki*; Ikkatai, Yuko*; Wu, T.*; Wang, D.*; Shinoda, Taro*; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro*; Tsuji, Naoki*; Diniz, G.*; Kataoka, Jun*; et al.

Geophysical Research Letters, 50(13), p.e2023GL103612_1 - e2023GL103612_9, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL103612

Optimized TES microcalorimeters with 14 eV energy resolution at 30 keV for -ray measurements of the Th isomer

Muramatsu, Haruka*; Hayashi, Tasuku*; Yuasa, Naoki*; Konno, Ryohei*; Yamaguchi, Atsushi*; Mitsuda, Kazuhisa*; Yamasaki, Noriko*; Maehata, Keisuke*; Kikunaga, Hidetoshi*; Takimoto, Misaki; et al.

Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 200(5-6), p.452 - 460, 2020/09

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-020-02458-7

Final report on feasibility study of Pu monitoring and solution measurement of high active liquid waste containing fission product at Reprocessing Facility

Sekine, Megumi; Matsuki, Takuya; Suzuki, Satoshi*; Tsutagi, Koichi; Nishida, Naoki; Kitao, Takahiko; Tomikawa, Hirofumi; Nakamura, Hironobu; LaFleur, A.*; Browne, M.*

JAEA-Technology 2019-023, 160 Pages, 2020/03

JAEA-Technology-2019-023.pdf:9.43MB

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has proposed in its Research and Development plan (STR-385), the development of technology to enable real-time flow measurement of nuclear material as a part of an advanced approach to effective and efficient safeguards for reprocessing facilities. To address this, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been tackling development of a new detector to enable monitoring of Pu in solutions with numerous FPs as a joint research program with U.S. DOE to cover whole reprocessing process. In this study, High Active Liquid Waste (HALW) Storage Facility in Tokai Reprocessing Plant was used as the test field. At first, the design information of HALW storage tank and radiation (type and intensity) were investigated to develop a Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) model. And then, dose rate distribution outside/ inside of the concrete cell where the HALW tank is located was measured to design new detectors and check MCNP model applicability. Using the newly designed detectors, gamma rays and neutron were continuously measured at the outside/ inside of the concrete cell to assess the radiation characteristics and to optimize detector position. Finally, the applicability for Pu monitoring technology was evaluated based on the simulation results and gamma-ray/neutron measurement results. We have found that there is possibility to monitor the change of Pu amount in solution by combination both of gamma-ray and neutron measurement. The results of this study suggested the applicability and capability of the Pu motoring to enhance safeguards for entire reprocessing facility which handles Pu with FP as a feasibility study. This is final report of this project.

Enhancement of element production by incomplete fusion reaction with weakly bound deuteron

Wang, H.*; Otsu, Hideaki*; Chiga, Nobuyuki*; Kawase, Shoichiro*; Takeuchi, Satoshi*; Sumikama, Toshiyuki*; Koyama, Shumpei*; Sakurai, Hiroyoshi*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Nakayama, Shinsuke; et al.

Communications Physics (Internet), 2(1), p.78_1 - 78_6, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0165-1

Searching for effective pathways for the production of proton- and neutron-rich isotopes through an optimal combination of reaction mechanism and energy is one of the main driving forces behind experimental and theoretical nuclear reaction studies as well as for practical applications in nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste. We report on a study on incomplete fusion induced by deuteron, which contains one proton and one neutron with a weak binding energy and is easily broken up. This reaction study was achieved by measuring directly the cross sections for both proton and deuteron for Pd at 50 MeV/u via inverse kinematics technique. The results provide direct experimental evidence for the onset of a cross-section enhancement at high energy, indicating the potential of incomplete fusion induced by loosely-bound nuclei for creating proton-rich isotopes and nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste.

Study on use of superconducting magnet and first inelastic neutron scattering experiment under magnetic field at 4SEASONS spectrometer

Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Kira, Hiroshi*; Kaneko, Koji; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Kamazawa, Kazuya*; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Iida, Kazuki*; Murai, Naoki; et al.

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 556, p.26 - 30, 2019/03

BB2018-0570.pdf:2.17MB

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2018.11.065

Status report of the chopper spectrometer 4SEASONS

Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Kamazawa, Kazuya*; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Iida, Kazuki*; Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Murai, Naoki; Kira, Hiroshi*; Nakatani, Takeshi; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 1021(1), p.012030_1 - 012030_6, 2018/06

BB2016-1727.pdf:0.39MB

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1021/1/012030

Vibrational states of atomic hydrogen in bulk and nanocrystalline palladium studied by neutron spectroscopy

Kofu, Maiko; Hashimoto, Naoki*; Akiba, Hiroshi*; Kobayashi, Hirokazu*; Kitagawa, Hiroshi*; Iida, Kazuki*; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Yamamuro, Osamu*

Physical Review B, 96(5), p.054304_1 - 054304_7, 2017/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.054304

The vibrational states of hydrogen atoms in bulk and nanocrystalline palladium were examined in a wide energy region meV using neutron spectroscopy. In bulk PdH, the vibrational excitations of H atoms were roughly reproduced by the quantum harmonic oscillator (QHO) model. In PdH nanocrystals with a diameter of 8 nm, however, additional vibrational excitations were found at energies above 80 meV. The energies and intensities of the additional states were not explained by QHO but reasonably described as vibrations in a highly anharmonic trumpet-like potential. The additional excitations are attributed to the vibrations of H atoms at tetrahedral sites in the subsurface region stabilized by surface effects. This is an experimental work which clearly detects hydrogen vibration metal nanoparticles.

2016 Professional Engineer (PE) test preparation course; Nuclear and radiation technical disciplines

Takahashi, Naoki; Suzuki, Soju; Saito, Hiroto; Ueno, Takashi; Abe, Sadayoshi; Yamanaka, Atsushi; Tanigawa, Masafumi; Nakamura, Daishi; Sasaki, Shunichi; Mine, Tadaharu

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Homu Peji (Internet), 20 Pages, 2017/05

no abstracts in English

Electronic structure of Pt and Pt-Co nanoparticles with O and O/HO adsorption revealed by in situ XAFS and hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Cui, Y.*; Harada, Yoshihisa*; Hatanaka, Tatsuya*; Nakamura, Naoki*; Ando, Masaki*; Yoshida, Toshihiko*; Ikenaga, Eiji*; Ishii, Kenji*; Matsumura, Daiju; Li, R.*; et al.

ECS Transactions, 72(8), p.131 - 136, 2016/10

https://doi.org/10.1149/07208.0131ecst

Feasibility study of technology for Pu solution monitoring including FP; Composition research of high active liquid waste and radiation measurement results on the surface of cell

Matsuki, Takuya; Masui, Kenji; Sekine, Megumi; Tanigawa, Masafumi; Yasuda, Takeshi; Tsutagi, Koichi; Ishiyama, Koichi; Nishida, Naoki; Horigome, Kazushi; Mukai, Yasunobu; et al.

Proceedings of INMM 57th Annual Meeting (Internet), 9 Pages, 2016/07

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has proposed in its long-term research and development (R&D) plan, development of a real-time measurement technology to monitor and verify nuclear material movement continuously as part of an advanced approach to effectively and efficiently conduct safeguards for reprocessing facilities. Since the Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) has solutions containing both Pu and fission products (FP), a new detector development project to monitor Pu with FP is being carried out from 2015 to 2017. This project is mainly conducted in the High Active Liquid Waste Storage (HALWS) in the TRP. For the first step of this project, as the confirmation of composition of high active liquid waste (HALW) to evaluate neutron/-ray emitted from solution in the selected HALW tank which has the most amount of Pu in HALW tanks at the TRP, we took HALW sample and conducted -ray spectrum measurement for HALW. As a study of detector setting location, to survey the available neutron/-ray (i.e. intensity) at the outside surface of the cell where HALW tank is located, we implemented continuous measurement by neutron/-ray detector. In this paper, we report three -ray peaks related with Pu and Pu measured in the composition research of HALW, which is needed to identify Pu amount by the new detector that we are developing and the result of radiation measurement on the surface of the cell.