Demonstration of the inherent safety feature of HTGRs through the loss-of-forced-cooling test in the HTTR

Nagasumi, Satoru; Hasegawa, Toshinari; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Kubo, Shinji; Shimazaki, Yosuke; Nakajima, Kunihiro; Sakurai, Yosuke; Shinohara, Masanori; Saito, Kenji; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 446(Part A), p.114542_1 - 114542_14, 2026/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2025.114542

To demonstrate HTGR's safety features, a loss-of-forced-cooling (LOFC) test was conducted using the HTTR. In this test, the forced cooling in the reactor core was intentionally lost by shutting down all helium gas circulators (HGCs) without reactor scram. During steady-state operation at 100% reactor power (30 MW), after the LOFC, the reactor power spontaneously decreased. This power reduction occurred due to the negative reactivity feedback effect triggered by an increase in core temperature. The power stabilized at a lower value of 1.2% after re-criticality. Additionally, the measured radioactivity concentration in the primary coolant remained nearly unchanged during this LOFC operation and during an immediately subsequent HTTR operation. This indicates no failure of the coated particle fuel, even after the increase in core temperature associated with the LOFC event. These results provide experimental evidence of the safety features of HTGRs.

Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of Pt/YFeO

Kobata, Masaaki; Yoshii, Kenji; Fukuda, Tatsuo; Kawasaki, Ikuto; Okane, Tetsuo; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Yaita, Tsuyoshi; Harii, Kazuya; Ieda, Junichi; Okayasu, Satoru; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 30, p.011192_1 - 011192_6, 2020/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.30.011192

High energy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) measurements were carried out for the Spin Seebeck system Pt/YFeO(YIG). This system was found to show anomalous Hall effect, possible due to the formation of intermetallic compounds between Fe and Pt. To reveal this possibility, we have measured the Fe 1s photoelectron peaks by using HAXPES. It was found that the Fe ions consist of Fe in YIG and metallic Fe. The formation of the metallic state is consistent with the proposed origin of the anomalous Hall effect. Other spectra such as Pt 4f will be presented at the conference.

Generation of He clusters via neutron-He absorption reaction toward visualization of full velocity field in quantum turbulence

Matsushita, Taku*; Sonnenschein, V.*; Guo, W.*; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Hiroi, Kosuke; Hirota, Katsuya*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Ito, Daisuke*; Kitaguchi, Masaaki*; Kiyanagi, Yoshiaki*; et al.

Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 196(1-2), p.275 - 282, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-018-02112-3

Isotope-selective microscale imaging of radioactive Cs without isobaric interferences using sputtered neutral mass spectrometry with two-step resonant ionization employing newly-developed Ti:Sapphire lasers

Sakamoto, Tetsuo*; Morita, Masato*; Kanenari, Keita*; Tomita, Hideki*; Sonnenschein, V.*; Saito, Kosuke*; Ohashi, Masaya*; Kato, Kotaro*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Kawai, Toshihide*; et al.

Analytical Sciences, 34(11), p.1265 - 1270, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.18P249

Electronic structure of URuSi studied by photoelectron spectroscopy (INVITED)

Fujimori, Shinichi; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; Saito, Yuji; Fujimori, Atsushi; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Haga, Yoshinori; Yamamoto, Etsuji; Onuki, Yoshichika*

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology (Internet), 5, p.82 - 85, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.15669/pnst.5.82

Electronic structures of U (=Al, Ga, and In) studied by photoelectron spectroscopy

Fujimori, Shinichi; Kobata, Masaaki; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; Saito, Yuji; Fujimori, Atsushi; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Haga, Yoshinori; Yamamoto, Etsuji; Onuki, Yoshichika*

Physical Review B, 96(11), p.115126_1 - 115126_10, 2017/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115126

Electronic structure of EuAl studied by photoelectron spectroscopy

Kobata, Masaaki; Fujimori, Shinichi; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; Saito, Yuji; Kobayashi, Keisuke*; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Ai*; Hedo, Masato*; Nakama, Takao*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 85(9), p.094703_1 - 094703_6, 2016/09

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.85.094703

Recent progress of soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies of uranium compounds

Fujimori, Shinichi; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; Saito, Yuji; Fujimori, Atsushi; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Yamamoto, Etsuji; Haga, Yoshinori; Onuki, Yoshichika

Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena, 208, p.105 - 110, 2016/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elspec.2015.08.001

Recent progresses in the soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) studies ( 100 eV) for uranium compounds are briefly reviewed. The soft X-ray PES has enhanced sensitivities for the bulk U 5f electronic structure, which is essential to understand the unique physical properties of uranium compounds. In particular, the recent remarkable improvement in energy resolutions from an order of 1 eV to 100 meV made it possible to observe fine structures in Uf density of states. Furthermore, soft X-ray ARPES becomes available due to the increase of photon flux at beamlines in third generation synchrotron radiation facilities. The technique made it possible to observe bulk band structures and Fermi surfaces of uranium compounds and therefore, the results can be directly compared with theoretical models such as band-structure calculations. The core-level spectra of uranium compounds show a systematic behavior depending on their electronic structures, suggesting that they can be utilized to determine basic physical parameters such as the U 5f-ligand hybridizations or Coulomb interaction between U 5f electrons. It is shown that soft X-ray PES provides unique opportunities to understand the electronic structures of uranium compounds.

Electronic structures of ferromagnetic superconductors UGe and UCoGe studied by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy

Fujimori, Shinichi; Okochi, Takuo*; Kawasaki, Ikuto*; Yasui, Akira*; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; Saito, Yuji; Fujimori, Atsushi; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Haga, Yoshinori; et al.

Physical Review B, 91(17), p.174503_1 - 174503_9, 2015/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.174503

The electronic structures of the ferromagnetic superconductors UGe and UCoGe in the paramagnetic phase were studied by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy using soft X-rays ( = 400-500 eV). The quasi-particle bands with large contributions from U 5 states were observed in the vicinity of EF, suggesting that the U 5 electrons of these compounds have an itinerant character. Their overall band structures were explained by the band-structure calculations treating all the U 5 electrons as being itinerant. Meanwhile, the states in the vicinity of EF show considerable deviations from the results of band-structure calculations, suggesting that the shapes of Fermi surface of these compounds are qualitatively different from the calculations, possibly caused by electron correlation effect in the complicated band structures of the low-symmetry crystals. Strong hybridization between U 5 and states in UCoGe were found by the 2p-3d resonant photoemission experiment, suggesting that states have finite contributions to the magnetic, transport, and superconducting properties.

Orbital magnetic moment and coercivity of SiO-coated FePt nanoparticles studied by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Takahashi, Yukio*; Kadono, Toshiharu*; Yamamoto, Shimpei*; Singh, V. R.*; Verma, V.*; Ishigami, Keisuke*; Shibata, Goro*; Harano, Takayuki*; Takeda, Yukiharu; Okane, Tetsuo; et al.

Physical Review B, 90(2), p.024423_1 - 024423_5, 2014/07

AA2015-0417.pdf:0.45MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.024423