A Systematic approach for the adequacy analysis of a set of experimental databases: Application in the framework of the ATRIUM activity

Baccou, J.*; Glantz, T.*; Ghione, A.*; Sargentini, L.*; Fillion, P.*; Damblin, G.*; Sueur, R.*; Iooss, B.*; Fang, J.*; Liu, J.*; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 421, p.113035_1 - 113035_16, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113035

Development of a non-destructive depth-selective quantification method for sub-percent carbon contents in steel using negative muon lifetime analysis

Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Kubo, Kenya*; Inagaki, Makoto*; Yoshida, Go*; Chiu, I.-H. ; Kudo, Takuto*; Asari, Shunsuke*; Sentoku, Sawako*; Takeshita, Soshi*; Shimomura, Koichiro*; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 14, p.1797_1 - 1797_8, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52255-5

The amount of C in steel, which is critical in determining its properties, is strongly influenced by steel production technology. We propose a novel method of quantifying the bulk C content in steel non-destructively using muons. This revolutionary method may be used not only in the quality control of steel in production, but also in analyzing precious steel archaeological artifacts. A negatively charged muon forms an atomic system owing to its negative charge, and is finally absorbed into the nucleus or decays to an electron. The lifetimes of muons differ significantly, depending on whether they are trapped by Fe or C atoms, and identifying the elemental content at the muon stoppage position is possible via muon lifetime measurements. The relationship between the muon capture probabilities of C/Fe and the elemental content of C exhibits a good linearity, and the C content in the steel may be quantitatively determined via muon lifetime measurements. Furthermore, by controlling the incident energies of the muons, they may be stopped in each layer of a stacked sample consisting of three types of steel plates with thicknesses of 0.5 mm, and we successfully determined the C contents in the range 0.20 - 1.03 wt% depth-selectively, without sample destruction.

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

Rotation of complex ions with ninefold hydrogen coordination studied by quasielastic neutron scattering and first-principles molecular dynamics calculations

Omasa, Yoshinori*; Takagi, Shigeyuki*; Toshima, Kento*; Yokoyama, Kaito*; Endo, Wataru*; Orimo, Shinichi*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Yamada, Takeshi*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Ikeda, Kazutaka*; et al.

Physical Review Research (Internet), 4(3), p.033215_1 - 033215_9, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033215

PSTEP: Project for solar-terrestrial environment prediction

Kusano, Kanya*; Ichimoto, Kiyoshi*; Ishii, Mamoru*; Miyoshi, Yoshizumi*; Yoden, Shigeo*; Akiyoshi, Hideharu*; Asai, Ayumi*; Ebihara, Yusuke*; Fujiwara, Hitoshi*; Goto, Tadanori*; et al.

Earth, Planets and Space (Internet), 73(1), p.159_1 - 159_29, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-021-01486-1

The PSTEP is a nationwide research collaboration in Japan and was conducted from April 2015 to March 2020, supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. It has made a significant progress in space weather research and operational forecasts, publishing over 500 refereed journal papers and organizing four international symposiums, various workshops and seminars, and summer school for graduate students at Rikubetsu in 2017. This paper is a summary report of the PSTEP and describes the major research achievements it produced.

Relation between biomolecular dissociation and energy of secondary electrons generated in liquid water by fast heavy ions

Tsuchida, Hidetsugu*; Kai, Takeshi; Kitajima, Kensei*; Matsuya, Yusuke; Majima, Takuya*; Saito, Manabu*

European Physical Journal D, 74(10), p.212_1 - 212_7, 2020/10

https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2020-10172-x

Fundamental study of interaction between biomolecules and heavy ions in water is very important to predict an initial stage of radiation biological effects. A heavy ion irradiation experiment into droplet target assumed as a biological system in a vacuum was performed to measure production yields of cations and anions for glycine, which was ejected from the droplet target to the vacuum. However, the production mechanisms have been unknown. The PHITS code adapting ion track structure mode was used to analyze the production mechanisms from the dose evaluation at the surface between the vacuum and the water. It is found that induction yields of ionization and excitation, and dissociative electron attachment involved in the secondary electrons were correlated with the production yields of cations and anions of the glycine. The results provide us newly scientific insights to predict an initial stage of radiation biological effects.

Comprehensive evaluation system for environmental remediation of Fukushima; Toward integration of three components as a whole system

Saito, Hiroshi; Nozawa, Takashi; Takemiya, Hiroshi; Seki, Akiyuki; Matsubara, Takeshi; Saito, Kimiaki; Kitamura, Akihiro

JAEA-Review 2017-040, 34 Pages, 2018/03

JAEA-Review-2017-040.pdf:9.52MB

The accidents at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on March 11th 2011, released significant amount of radionuclide to the environment. It has migrated to the human habitation and raised concerns of possible effect on human health, and for that a lot of researches have been performed. JAEA created and opened "Database for Radioactive Substance Monitoring Data" for usage of obtained data. For accurate modelling and future forecast using numerical code and the data, "Supporting Environment for Processing Simulation Codes" has been operated. In addition, research results have been opened as Q&A style "Knowledge Base for Environmental Remediation" in JAEA's website. The "Comprehensive Evaluation System" composed of these components, should act more interrelated and integrated as one system. Besides, information dissemination is not enough to the outside. The report summarizes the current status, remaining issues and expected improvement of each component and the system.

Observation of inverse spin Hall effect in ferromagnetic FePt alloys using spin Seebeck effect

Seki, Takeshi*; Uchida, Kenichi*; Kikkawa, Takashi*; Qiu, Z.*; Saito, Eiji; Takanashi, Koki*

Applied Physics Letters, 107(9), p.092401_1 - 092401_4, 2015/08

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4929691

Annual report of Nuclear Emergency Assistance and Training Center (April 1, 2013 - March 31, 2014)

Sato, Takeshi; Muto, Shigeo; Akiyama, Kiyomitsu; Aoki, Kazufumi; Okamoto, Akiko; Kawakami, Takeshi; Kume, Nobuhide; Nakanishi, Chika; Koie, Masahiro; Kawamata, Hiroyuki; et al.

JAEA-Review 2014-048, 69 Pages, 2015/02

JAEA-Review-2014-048.pdf:13.91MB

JAEA was assigned as a designated public institution under the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act and under the Armed Attack Situations Response Act. Based on these Acts, the JAEA has the responsibility of providing technical support to the national government and/or local governments in case of disaster responses or response in the event of a military attack, etc. In order to fulfill the tasks, the JAEA has established the Emergency Action Plan and the Civil Protection Action Plan. In case of a nuclear emergency, NEAT dispatches specialists of JAEA, supplies the national government and local governments with emergency equipment and materials, and gives technical advice and information. In normal time, NEAT provides various exercises and training courses concerning nuclear disaster prevention to those personnel taking an active part in emergency response institutions of the national and local governments, police, fire fighters, self-defense forces, etc. in addition to the JAEA itself. The NEAT also researches nuclear disaster preparedness and response, and cooperates with international organizations. In the FY2013, the NEAT accomplished the following tasks: (1) Technical support activities as a designated public institution in cooperation with the national and local governments, etc. (2) Human resource development, exercise and training of nuclear emergency response personnel for the national and local governments, etc. (3) Researches on nuclear disaster preparedness and response, and sending useful information (4) International contributions to Asian countries on nuclear disaster preparedness and response in collaboration with the international organizations

Spatial distributions of radionuclides deposited onto ground soil around the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and their temporal change until December 2012

Mikami, Satoshi; Maeyama, Takeshi*; Hoshide, Yoshifumi*; Sakamoto, Ryuichi*; Sato, Shoji*; Okuda, Naotoshi*; Demongeot, S.*; Gurriaran, R.*; Uwamino, Yoshitomo*; Kato, Hiroaki*; et al.

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 139, p.320 - 343, 2015/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.09.010