Decommissioning state of Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility; Dismantling the glove box W-9 and equipment interior, and a part of tunnel F1

Nagai, Yuya; Shuji, Yoshiyuki; Kawasaki, Takeshi; Aita, Takahiro; Kimura, Yasuhisa; Nemoto, Yasunori*; Onuma, Takeshi*; Tomiyama, Noboru*; Hirano, Koji*; Usui, Yasuhiro*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2022-039, 117 Pages, 2023/06

JAEA-Technology-2022-039.pdf:11.96MB

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. In this report, size reduction activities of the glove box W-9 and a part of tunnel F-1, which was connected to W-9, are presented, and the obtained findings are highlighted. The glovebox W-9 had oxidation & reduction furnace, and pellet crushing machine as equipment interior. The duration of activity took six years from February 2014 to February 2020, including suspended period of 4 years due to the enhanced authorization approval process

Structure and magnetic properties of Fe nanoparticles in amorphous silica implanted with Fe ions and effect of subsequent energetic heavy ion irradiation

Iwase, Akihiro*; Fukuda, Kengo*; Saito, Yuichi*; Okamoto, Yoshihiro; Semboshi, Satoshi*; Amekura, Hiroshi*; Matsui, Toshiyuki*

Journal of Applied Physics, 132(16), p.163902_1 - 163902_10, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0102438

Amorphous SiO samples were implanted with 380 keV Fe ions at room temperature. After implantation, some of the samples were irradiated with 16 MeV Au ions. magnetic properties were investigated using a SQUID magnetometer, and the morphology of the Fe-implanted SiO samples was examined using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (EXAFS and XANES), which showed that the size of Fe nanoparticles was increasing The size of Fe nanoparticles increased with increasing Fe implantation amount; some of the Fe nanoparticles consisted of Fe oxides, and the valence and structure of Fe atoms became closer to that of metallic -Fe with increasing Fe injection amount. The magnetization-field curve of the sample implanted with a small amount of Fe was reproduced by Langevin's equation, suggesting that the Fe nanoparticles behave in a superparamagnetic manner. In addition, when a large amount of Fe was implanted, the magnetization-magnetic field curve shows a ferromagnetic state. These magnetic property results are consistent with the X-ray absorption results. Subsequent 16 MeV Au irradiation crushed the Fe nanoparticles, resulting in a decrease in magnetization.

Uranium chelating ability of decorporation agents in serum evaluated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy

Uehara, Akihiro*; Matsumura, Daiju; Tsuji, Takuya; Yakumaru, Haruko*; Tanaka, Izumi*; Shiro, Ayumi*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Ishihara, Hiroshi*; Homma-Takeda, Shino*

Analytical Methods, 14(24), p.2439 - 2445, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1039/D2AY00565D

Fundamental study for decorporation of plutonium by chelating agents; Coordination analyses of simulated plutonium with chelating agents by X-ray absorption spectroscopy

Uehara, Akihiro*; Shuhui, X.*; Sato, Ryotaro*; Matsumura, Daiju; Tsuji, Takuya; Yakumaru, Haruko*; Shiro, Ayumi*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Tanaka, Izumi*; Ishihara, Hiroshi*; et al.

X-sen Bunseki No Shimpo, 53, p.223 - 229, 2022/03

no abstracts in English

Manufacture of substitutive assemblies for MONJU reactor decommissioning

Sakakibara, Hiroshi; Aoki, Nobuhiro; Muto, Masahiro; Otabe, Jun; Takahashi, Kenji*; Fujita, Naoyuki*; Hiyama, Kazuhiko*; Suzuki, Hirokazu*; Kamogawa, Toshiyuki*; Yokosuka, Toru*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2020-020, 73 Pages, 2021/03

JAEA-Technology-2020-020.pdf:8.26MB

The decommissioning is currently in progress at the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. Fuel assemblies will be taken out of its core for the first step of the great task. Fuel assemblies stand on their own spike plugged into a socket on the core support plate and support with adjacent assemblies through their housing pads each other, resulting in steady core structure. For this reason, some substitutive assemblies are necessary for the purpose of discharging the fuel assemblies of the core. Monju side commissioned, therefore, Plutonium Fuel Development Center to manufacture the substitutive assemblies and the Center accepted it. This report gives descriptions of design, manufacture, and shipment in regard to the substitutive assemblies.

Direct observation of the magnetic ordering process in the ferromagnetic semiconductor GaMnAs via soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Takeda, Yukiharu; Oya, Shinobu*; Pham, N. H.*; Kobayashi, Masaki*; Saito, Yuji; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Tanaka, Masaaki*; Fujimori, Atsushi*

Journal of Applied Physics, 128(21), p.213902_1 - 213902_11, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0031605

Estimation of air dose rate using measurement results of monitoring posts in Fukushima Prefecture

Seki, Akiyuki; Mayumi, Akie; Wainwright-Murakami, Haruko*; Saito, Kimiaki; Takemiya, Hiroshi; Idomura, Yasuhiro

Proceedings of Joint International Conference on Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications + Monte Carlo 2020 (SNA + MC 2020), p.158 - 164, 2020/10

We developed a method to estimate the temporal change of the air dose rate at the location with sparse (in time) measurements by using the continuous measurement data from the nearby monitoring post. This method determines an observation model from the correlation between sparse data at the target location and dense data at the monitoring post based on a hierarchical Bayesian model. The developed method was validated against the air dose rate measured at the monitoring posts in Fukushima prefecture from 2012 to 2017. The results showed that the developed method can predict the air dose rate at almost all target locations with an error rate of less than 10%.

Matrix-material dependence on the elongation of embedded gold nanoparticles induced by 4 MeV C and 200 MeV Xe ion irradiation

Li, R.*; Narumi, Kazumasa*; Chiba, Atsuya*; Hirano, Yu*; Tsuya, Daiju*; Yamamoto, Shunya*; Saito, Yuichi*; Okubo, Nariaki; Ishikawa, Norito; Pang, C.*; et al.

Nanotechnology, 31(26), p.265606_1 - 265606_9, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ab7e70

We report the elongation of embedded Au nanoparticles (NPs) in three different matrices under irradiations of 4 MeV C ions and 200 MeV Xe ions. Large elongation of Au NPs was observed for crystalline indium tin oxide (ITO) under both 4 MeV C and 200 MeV Xe irradiation. The ITO layer preserved the crystallinity even after large elongation was induced. This is the first report of the elongation of metal NPs in a crystalline matrix.

Summary of temporal changes in air dose rates and radionuclide deposition densities in the 80 km zone over five years after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident

Saito, Kimiaki; Mikami, Satoshi; Ando, Masaki; Matsuda, Norihiro; Kinase, Sakae; Tsuda, Shuichi; Yoshida, Tadayoshi; Sato, Tetsuro*; Seki, Akiyuki; Yamamoto, Hideaki*; et al.

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 210, p.105878_1 - 105878_12, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2018.12.020

Status of study of long-term assessment of transport of radioactive contaminants in the environment of Fukushima (FY2018)

Nagao, Fumiya; Niizato, Tadafumi; Sasaki, Yoshito; Ito, Satomi; Watanabe, Takayoshi; Dohi, Terumi; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Hagiwara, Hiroki; Funaki, Hironori; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-002, 235 Pages, 2019/08

JAEA-Research-2019-002.pdf:21.04MB

The accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (hereinafter referred to 1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sanriku offshore earthquake, of 9.0 magnitude and the accompanying tsunami. As a result, large amount of radioactive materials was released into the environment. Under these circumstances, JAEA has been conducting Long-term Environmental Dynamics Research concerning radioactive materials released in environment, especially migration behavior of radioactive cesium since November 2012. This report is a summary of the research results that have been obtained in environmental dynamics research conducted by JAEA in Fukushima Prefecture.