Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2022

Kokubun, Yuji; Nakada, Akira; Seya, Natsumi; Nagaoka, Mika; Koike, Yuko; Kubota, Tomohiro; Hirao, Moe; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2023-052, 118 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-052.pdf:3.67MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and by law of Ibaraki Prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2022. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Current-induced crystallisation in a Heusler-alloy-based giant magnetoresistive junction for neuromorphic potentiation

Zhou, Z.*; Frost, W.*; Lloyd, D. C.*; Seki, Takeshi*; Kubota, Takahide*; Ramos, R.*; Saito, Eiji; Takanashi, Koki; Hirohata, Atsufumi*

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 571, p.170575_1 - 170575_5, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2023.170575

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2020

Nakano, Masanao; Nakada, Akira; Kanai, Katsuta; Nagaoka, Mika; Koike, Yuko; Yamada, Ryohei; Kubota, Tomohiro; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2021-040, 118 Pages, 2021/12

JAEA-Review-2021-040.pdf:2.48MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and by law of Ibaraki Prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2020. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Dynamics of radiocaesium within forests in Fukushima; Results and analysis of a model inter-comparison

Hashimoto, Shoji*; Tanaka, Taku*; Komatsu, Masabumi*; Gonze, M.-A.*; Sakashita, Wataru*; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Nishina, Kazuya*; Ota, Masakazu; Ohashi, Shinta*; Calmon, P.*; et al.

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 238-239, p.106721_1 - 106721_10, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2021.106721

This study was aimed at analysing performance of models for radiocesium migration mainly in evergreen coniferous forest in Fukushima, by inter-comparison between models of several research teams. The exercise included two scenarios of countermeasures against the contamination, namely removal of soil surface litter and forest renewal, and a specific konara oak forest scenario in addition to the evergreen forest scenario. All the models reproduced trend of time evolution of radiocesium inventories and concentrations in each of the components in forest such as leaf and organic soil layer. However, the variations between models enlarged in long-term predictions over 50 years after the fallout, meaning continuous field monitoring and model verification/validation is necessary.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

Crystallization processes of quartz in a granitic magma; Cathodoluminescence zonation pattern controlled by temperature and titanium diffusivity

Yuguchi, Takashi*; Ogita, Yasuhiro; Kato, Takenori*; Yokota, Rintaro*; Sasao, Eiji; Nishiyama, Tadao*

Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 192, p.104289_1 - 104289_16, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2020.104289

Quartz from a granitic pluton is found to have formed through sequential growth events under different mechanisms and crystallization temperatures, which can provide new insights into magmatic processes of granitic magmas that were eventually consolidified into plutons. The events were identified using (1) the description of crystal shape and occurrence, (2) the study of the internal structure with cathodoluminescence (CL), and (3) derivation of the crystallization temperatures based on TitaniQ thermometry. The magmatic quartz crystals from the Toki granite, central Japan, are characterized as having the following internal structures: oscillatory zonation, no-oscillatory zonation with luminescence graduation (gradational zonation), and heterogeneous CL. The quartz crystals with oscillatory zonation were formed in the temperature range of about 800 C to below 700 C, which is referred to as oscillatory zoning temperature (OZT) conditions. The CL zonation pattern was controlled by the temperature conditions and titanium diffusivity in the melt (magma). The crystallization process of quartz within the Toki granite reveals the cooling processes of the granitic pluton; the lithofacies with a high frequency of oscillatory-zoned quartz underwent slower cooling under the OZT conditions than those in other lithofacies.

Development of new corrosion test equipment simulating sulfuric acid decomposition gas environment in a thermochemical hydrogen production process

Hirota, Noriaki; Kasahara, Seiji; Iwatsuki, Jin; Imai, Yoshiyuki; Ohashi, Hirofumi; Yan, X.; Tachibana, Yukio

Zairyo To Kankyo, 68(6), p.137 - 142, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.3323/jcorr.68.137

New corrosion test equipment for high temperature gas of decomposed sulfuric acid was manufactured in order to ascertain flow rate of sulfuric acid in the piping, occurrence of sulfuric acid decomposition reaction in the equipment, and temperature distribution inside the furnace tube. The flow rate of the sulfuric acid solution was constantly measured using an ultrasonic flowmeter. The SO concentration at the inlet of the test equipment was almost the same as that at the inlet of the sulfuric acid decomposer in the hydrogen production plant assuming a high-temperature gas cooled reactor hydrogen-power cogeneration system (GTHTR300C). On the other hand, during a test, leakage of sulfuric acid occurred from the fitting part at the outlet side. Hence the temperature distribution of the fitting part at the outlet side was investigated using fluid analysis. As a result, it was found that the temperature at the fitting was low enough to use fluorine joint grease when the distance was 0.05 m or more away from the outlet side pipe. An improved furnace tube was manufactured and the temperature was measured again at fitting part of the outlet side. The temperature was lower that the temperature limit of the joint grease and almost the same as the temperature distribution in the fluid analysis, and leakage of sulfuric acid has not occurred to date.

Depth profile and inventory of Cl in soil near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

Ota, Yuki*; Sueki, Keisuke*; Sasa, Kimikazu*; Takahashi, Tsutomu*; Matsunaka, Tetsuya*; Matsumura, Masumi*; Tosaki, Yuki*; Honda, Maki*; Hosoya, Seiji*; Takano, Kenta*; et al.

JAEA-Conf 2018-002, p.99 - 102, 2019/02

https://doi.org/10.11484/jaea-conf-2018-002

no abstracts in English

A Study of the evaluation of the excavation damaged zone in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory, 2; Investigation in the 250 m gallery (Joint research)

Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Kubota, Kenji*; Nakata, Eiji*; Suenaga, Hiroshi*; Nohara, Shintaro*

JAEA-Research 2017-004, 91 Pages, 2017/06

JAEA-Research-2017-004.pdf:6.07MB

In this study, we performed seismic tomography, seismic refraction survey, resistivity tomography, and hydraulic tests to investigate the hydro-mechanical property of the excavation damaged zone (EDZ) in the 250 m gallery of the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory. As a result of seismic tomography, seismic velocity is significantly decreased within 1 m from the gallery wall. The decrease of seismic velocity is related to the density of fracture induced around the gallery wall as a result of the gallery excavation. Thus the extent of the fractures induced by gallery excavation, i.e., EDZ fractures is clarified to be within 1.0 m from the gallery wall. The enhanced hydraulic conductivity was detected within 0.5 to 1.0 m from the gallery wall on the basis of the result of hydraulic tests. This is almost consistent with the extent of the region that seismic velocity is significantly decreased. Therefore, it is estimated that EDZ fractures induced around the gallery leads to the increase of hydraulic conductivity. In addition, the desaturation zone around the gallery is not induced as a result of resistivity tomography. From these results, the hydro-mechanical property of the EDZ is clarified in detail. Also, the in situ tests and evaluation method applied in this study are appropriate to investigate the EDZ in detail.

Possible singlet-triplet transition of ESR in the kagome-lattice antiferromagnet

Sakai, Toru; Hijii, Keigo*; Okubo, Susumu*; Ota, Hitoshi*; Nakano, Hiroki*; Miyashita, Seiji*

Applied Magnetic Resonance, 46(9), p.997 - 1002, 2015/09

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00723-015-0652-9

The S=1/2 kagome-lattice antiferromagnet is investigated by the numerical diagonalization of 18-spin finite-size cluster. The matrix elements proportional to the intensity of the singlet-triplet ESR transition are calculated in the presence of the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction. Some angle-dependent selection rules is also proposed.