Consistent modelling of material weight loss and gas release due to pyrolysis and conducting benchmark tests of the model; A Case for glovebox panel materials such as polymethyl methacrylate

Ono, Takuya; Tashiro, Shinsuke; Amano, Yuki; Yoshida, Naoki; Yoshida, Ryoichiro; Abe, Hitoshi

PLOS ONE (Internet), 16(1), p.e0245303_1 - e0245303_16, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245303

It is necessary to consider how a glove box's confinement function will be lost when evaluating the amount of radioactive material leaking from a nuclear facility during a fire. In this study, we build a model that consistently explains the weight loss of glove box materials because of heat input from a flame and accompanying generation of the pyrolysis gas. The weight loss suggests thinning of the glove box housing, and the generation of pyrolysis gas suggests the possibility of fire spreading. The target was polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), used as the glove box panel. Thermal gravimetric tests on PMMA determined the parameters to be substituted in the Arrhenius equation for predicting the weight loss in pyrolysis. The pyrolysis process of PMMA was divided into 3 stages with activation energies of 62 kJ/mol, 250 kJ/mol, and 265 kJ/mol. Furthermore, quantifying the gas composition revealed that the composition of the pyrolysis gas released from PMMA can be approximated as 100 percent methyl methacrylate. This result suggests that the released amount of methyl methacrylate can be estimated by the Arrhenius equation. To investigate the validity of such estimation, a sealed vessel test was performed. In this test, we observed increase of the number of gas molecules during the pyrolysis as internal pressure change of the vessel. The number of gas molecules was similar to that estimated from the Arrhenius equation, and indicated the validity of our method. Moreover, we also performed the same tests on bisphenol-A-polycarbonate (PC) for comparison. In case of PC, the number of gas molecules obtained in the vessel test was higher than the estimated value.

Decomposition behavior of gaseous ruthenium tetroxide under atmospheric conditions assuming evaporation to dryness accident of high-level liquid waste

Yoshida, Naoki; Ono, Takuya; Yoshida, Ryoichiro; Amano, Yuki; Abe, Hitoshi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 57(11), p.1256 - 1264, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1780991

Emphasis has been placed on the behavior of ruthenium (Ru) in the evaporation to dryness accident due to the loss of cooling functions (EDLCF) of high-level liquid waste in fuel reprocessing plants. It is because Ru would form volatile compounds such as ruthenium tetroxide (RuO) and could be released into the environment with other coexisting gasses such as nitric acid (HNO), water (HO). To contribute to the safety evaluation of this accident, we experimentally evaluated the decomposition and chemical change behavior of the gaseous RuO (RuO(g)) under the various atmospheric conditions: temperature and composition of coexisting gasses. As a result, the behavior of the RuO(g) was diverse depending on the atmospheric conditions. In the experiments with the dry air or HO vapor, decomposition of RuO(g) was observed. In the experiment with the mixed gas which containing HNO, almost no decomposition of the RuO(g) was observed, and chemical form of the RuO(g) was retained.

Degassing behavior of noble gases from groundwater during groundwater sampling

Nakata, Kotaro*; Hasegawa, Takuma*; Solomon, D. K.*; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Tomioka, Yuichi*; Ota, Tomoko*; Matsumoto, Takuya*; Hama, Katsuhiro; Iwatsuki, Teruki; Ono, Masahiko*; et al.

Applied Geochemistry, 104, p.60 - 70, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2019.03.007

no abstracts in English

Status of study of long-term assessment of transport of radioactive contaminants in the environment of Fukushima; As a part of dissemination of evidence-based information

Tsuruta, Tadahiko; Niizato, Tadafumi; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Dohi, Terumi; Nakama, Shigeo; Funaki, Hironori; Misono, Toshiharu; Oyama, Takuya; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Hayashi, Seiji*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2017-018, 86 Pages, 2017/10

JAEA-Review-2017-018.pdf:17.58MB

Since the accidents at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant following the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake on March 11th, 2011, Fukushima Environmental Safety Center has carried out research on natural mobilization of radionuclide (especially radiocesium) and future forecast from forest to water system and surrounding residential areas. The report summarizes the latest results that have been accumulated from each study field, of our agency together with the other related research organizations. The contents of the report is to be used as evidence-based information for the QA-styled pages in the website of JAEA Sector of Fukushima Research and Development at the time of next renewal.

New muonium HFS measurements at J-PARC/MUSE

Strasser, P.*; Aoki, Masaharu*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Higashi, Yoshitaka*; Higuchi, Takashi*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Ikedo, Yutaka*; Ishida, Keiichi*; Ito, Takashi; Iwasaki, Masahiko*; et al.

Hyperfine Interactions, 237(1), p.124_1 - 124_9, 2016/12

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-016-1331-4

Photoelectron diffraction from laser-aligned molecules with X-ray free-electron laser pulses

Nakajima, Kyo*; Teramoto, Takahiro*; Akagi, Hiroshi; Fujikawa, Takashi*; Majima, Takuya*; Minemoto, Shinichiro*; Ogawa, Kanade*; Sakai, Hirofumi*; Togashi, Tadashi*; Tono, Kensuke*; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 5, p.14065_1 - 14065_11, 2015/09

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep14065

We report on the measurement of deep inner-shell 2p X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) patterns from laser-aligned I molecules using X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses. The XPD patterns of the I molecules, aligned parallel to the polarization vector of the XFEL, were well matched with our theoretical calculations. Further, we propose a criterion for applying our molecular-structure-determination methodology to the experimental XPD data. In turn, we have demonstrated that this approach is a significant step toward the time-resolved imaging of molecular structures.

Factors controlling the spatiotemporal variation of Cs in seabed sediment off the Fukushima coast; Implications from numerical simulations

Misumi, Kazuhiro*; Tsumune, Daisuke*; Tsubono, Takaki*; Tateda, Yutaka*; Aoyama, Michio*; Kobayashi, Takuya; Hirose, Katsumi*

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 136, p.218 - 228, 2014/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.06.004

Major controls on spatiotemporal variations of Cs activity in seabed sediments derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident during the first year after the accident were investigated by using numerical simulations. The model successfully reproduced major features of the observed spatiotemporal variations of Cs activity in sediments. The spatial pattern of Cs in sediments, which mainly reflected the history of Cs activity in the bottom water overlying the sediment and the sediment particle size distribution, became established during the first several months after the accident. Taking Cs activities in sediments in the coastal area and in the vicinity of the power plant into account, increased the simulated total inventory of Cs in sediments off the Fukushima coast to a value on the order of 10 Bq.

Oceanic dispersion simulations of Cs released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Masumoto, Yukio*; Miyazawa, Yasumasa*; Tsumune, Daisuke*; Tsubono, Takaki*; Kobayashi, Takuya; Kawamura, Hideyuki; Estournel, C.*; Marsaleix, P.*; Lanerolle, L.*; Mehra, A.*; et al.

Elements, 8(3), p.207 - 212, 2012/06

https://doi.org/10.2113/gselements.8.3.207

Present status of oceanic dispersion simulations of cesium 137 (Cs) directly discharged from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant are reviewed using five model outputs and other available informations, focusing on estimations of discharged amount of Cs and subsequent dispersion in a region off Fukushima during March and April, 2011. Common aspects and discrepancies among the simulated results are described. While the discharged amount spreads from about 1 to 27 P Bq of Cs among the estimates, the values obtained from the five models indicate 2 to 4 P Bq. With these total amounts and time evolutions of the discharge rate, mimicking observed Cs concentration near FDNPP, as a source for the dispersion calculation, all the five models simulated the Cs dispersion in the ocean reasonably well corresponding to the observed distributions.

The H-Invitational Database (H-InvDB); A Comprehensive annotation resource for human genes and transcripts

Yamasaki, Chisato*; Murakami, Katsuhiko*; Fujii, Yasuyuki*; Sato, Yoshiharu*; Harada, Erimi*; Takeda, Junichi*; Taniya, Takayuki*; Sakate, Ryuichi*; Kikugawa, Shingo*; Shimada, Makoto*; et al.

Nucleic Acids Research, 36(Database), p.D793 - D799, 2008/01

https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkm999

Here we report the new features and improvements in our latest release of the H-Invitational Database, a comprehensive annotation resource for human genes and transcripts. H-InvDB, originally developed as an integrated database of the human transcriptome based on extensive annotation of large sets of fulllength cDNA (FLcDNA) clones, now provides annotation for 120 558 human mRNAs extracted from the International Nucleotide Sequence Databases (INSD), in addition to 54 978 human FLcDNAs, in the latest release H-InvDB. We mapped those human transcripts onto the human genome sequences (NCBI build 36.1) and determined 34 699 human gene clusters, which could define 34 057 protein-coding and 642 non-protein-coding loci; 858 transcribed loci overlapped with predicted pseudogenes.

Research and development of cae system for geological disposal, 3

Kurihara, Yuji*; Tokunaga, Masahiro*; Miyazaki, Kiyoshi*; Igarashi, H.*; Ono, O.*; Uchiyama, K.*; Kuzutani, Yoko*; Hayami, Takuya*

PNC TJ1201 94-001, 26 Pages, 1994/02

PNC-TJ1201-94-001.pdf:4.12MB

no abstracts in English