Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2022

Kokubun, Yuji; Nakada, Akira; Seya, Natsumi; Koike, Yuko; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Yamada, Ryohei*; Uchiyama, Rei; Yamashita, Daichi; Nagai, Shinji; et al.

JAEA-Review 2023-046, 164 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-046.pdf:4.2MB

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories conducts environmental radiation monitoring around the reprocessing plant in accordance with the "Safety Regulations for Reprocessing Plant of JAEA, Part IV: Environmental Monitoring". This report summarizes the results of environmental radiation monitoring conducted during the period from April 2022 to March 2023 and the results of dose calculations for the surrounding public due to the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and ocean. In the results of the above environmental radiation monitoring, many items were affected by radioactive materials emitted from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (changed to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. on April 1, 2016), which occurred in March 2011. Also included as appendices are an overview of the environmental monitoring plan, an overview of measurement methods, measurement results and their changes over time, meteorological statistics results, radioactive waste release status, and an evaluation of the data which deviated of the normal range.

Analysis of deposits inside the reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in JFY2021; The Subsidy program of "Project of Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Management (Development of Analysis and Estimation Technology for Characterization of Fuel Debris)" starting FY2021

Ikeuchi, Hirotomo; Sasaki, Shinji; Onishi, Takashi; Nakayoshi, Akira; Arai, Yoichi; Sato, Takumi; Ohgi, Hiroshi; Sekio, Yoshihiro; Yamaguchi, Yukako; Morishita, Kazuki; et al.

JAEA-Data/Code 2023-005, 418 Pages, 2023/12

JAEA-Data-Code-2023-005-01.pdf:24.59MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2023-005-02.pdf:32.18MB

For safe and steady decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F), information concerning composition and physical/chemical properties of fuel debris generated in the reactors should be estimated and provided to other projects conducting the decommissioning work including the retrieval of fuel debris and the subsequent storage. For this purpose, in FY2021, samples of contaminants (the wiped smear samples and the deposits) obtained through the internal investigation of the 1F Unit 2 were analyzed to clarify the components and to characterize the micro-particles containing uranium originated from fuel (U-bearing particles) in detail. This report summarized the results of analyses performed in FY2021, including the microscopic analysis by SEM and TEM, radiation analysis, and elemental analysis by ICP-MS, as a database for evaluating the main features of each sample and the probable formation mechanism of the U-bearing particles.

Fetal and maternal atomic bomb survivor dosimetry using the J45 pregnant female phantom series; Considerations of the kneeling and lying posture with comparisons to the DS02 system

Domal, S. J.*; Correa-Alfonso, C. M.*; Paulbeck, C. J.*; Griffin, K. T.*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Funamoto, Sachiyo*; Cullings, H. M.*; Egbert, S. D.*; Endo, Akira; Hertel, N. E.*; et al.

Health Physics, 125(4), p.245 - 259, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1097/HP.0000000000001710

The RERF Working Group on Organ Dose (WGOD) has established the J45 (Japan 1945) series of high-resolution voxel phantoms, which were derived from the UF/NCI series of hybrid phantoms and scaled to match mid-1940s Japanese body morphometries. In this present study, we present the J45 pregnant female phantoms in both a kneeling and lying posture, and assess the dosimetric impact of these more anatomically realistic survivor models in comparisons to current organ doses given by the DS02 system. For the kneeling phantoms facing the bomb hypocenter, organ doses from bomb source photon spectra were shown to be overestimated by the DS02 system by up to a factor of 1.45 for certain fetal organs and up to a factor of 1.17 for maternal organs. For lying phantoms with their feet in the direction of the hypocenter, fetal organ doses from bomb source photon spectra were underestimated by the DS02 system by factors as low as 0.77 while maternal organ doses were overestimated by up to a factor of 1.38. Results from this study highlight the degree to which the existing DS02 system can differ from organ dosimetry based upon 3D radiation transport simulations using more anatomically realistic models of those survivors exposed during pregnancy while in a kneeling or lying position.

Development of an iron(II) complex exhibiting thermal- and photoinduced double proton-transfer-coupled spin transition in a short hydrogen bond

Nakanishi, Takumi*; Hori, Yuta*; Shigeta, Yasuteru*; Sato, Hiroyasu*; Kiyanagi, Ryoji; Munakata, Koji*; Ohara, Takashi; Okazawa, Atsushi*; Shimada, Rintaro*; Sakamoto, Akira*; et al.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 145(35), p.19177 - 19181, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c06323

Investigation of the electronic structure of the MgZnY alloy using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Miyazaki, Hidetoshi*; Akatsuka, Tatsuyoshi*; Kimura, Koji*; Egusa, Daisuke*; Sato, Yohei*; Itakura, Mitsuhiro; Takagi, Yasumasa*; Yasui, Akira*; Ozawa, Kenichi*; Mase, Kazuhiko*; et al.

Materials Transactions, 64(6), p.1194 - 1198, 2023/06

https://doi.org/10.2320/matertrans.MT-MD2022019

We investigated the electronic structure of the MgZnY alloy using hard and soft X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and electronic band structure calculations to understand the mechanism of the phase stability of this material. Electronic structure of the MgZnY alloy showed a semi-metallic electronic structure with a pseudo-gap at the Fermi level. The observed electronic structure of the MgZnY alloy suggests that the presence of a pseudogap structure is responsible for phase stability.

Phase analysis of simulated nuclear fuel debris synthesized using UO, Zr, and stainless steel and leaching behavior of the fission products and matrix elements

Tonna, Ryutaro*; Sasaki, Takayuki*; Kodama, Yuji*; Kobayashi, Taishi*; Akiyama, Daisuke*; Kirishima, Akira*; Sato, Nobuaki*; Kumagai, Yuta; Kusaka, Ryoji; Watanabe, Masayuki

Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 55(4), p.1300 - 1309, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2022.12.017

Simulated debris was synthesized using UO, Zr, and stainless steel and a heat treatment method under inert or oxidizing conditions. The primary U solid phase of the debris synthesized at 1473 K under inert conditions was UO, whereas a (U,Zr)O solid solution formed at 1873 K. Under oxidizing conditions, a mixture of UO and (Fe,Cr)UO phases formed at 1473 K whereas a (U,Zr)O solid solution formed at 1873 K. The leaching behavior of the fission products from the simulated debris was evaluated using two methods: the irradiation method, for which fission products were produced via neutron irradiation, and the doping method, for which trace amounts of non-radioactive elements were doped into the debris. The dissolution behavior of U depended on the properties of the debris and aqueous medium the debris was immersed in. Cs, Sr, and Ba leached out regardless of the primary solid phases. The leaching of high-valence Eu and Ru ions was suppressed, possibly owing to their solid-solution reaction with or incorporation into the uranium compounds of the simulated debris.

Local environmental effects on cosmic ray observations at Syowa Station in the Antarctic; PARMA-based snow cover correction for neutrons and machine learning approach for neutrons and muons

Kataoka, Ryuho*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Kato, Chihiro*; Kadokura, Akira*; Kozai, Masayoshi*; Miyake, Shoko*; Murase, Kiyoka*; Yoshida, Rihito*; Tomikawa, Yoshihiro*; Munakata, Kazuoki*

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (Internet), 12, p.37_1 - 37_11, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2022033

Solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays around the solar minimum in 2019-2020 looks different in the secondary neutrons and muons observed at the ground. To compare the solar modulation of primary cosmic rays in detail, we have to remove the possible seasonal variations caused by the atmosphere and surrounding environment. As such surrounding environment effects, we evaluate the snow cover effect on neutron count rate and the atmospheric temperature effect on muon count rate both simultaneously observed at Syowa Station in the Antarctic (69.01 S, 39.59 E). The corrected muon count rate starts decreasing in late 2019, earlier than the corrected neutron count rate which starts decreasing in early 2020, possibly indicating the rigidity dependent solar modulation in the heliosphere.

Structure, stability, and actinide leaching of simulated nuclear fuel debris synthesized from UO, Zr, and stainless-steel

Kirishima, Akira*; Akiyama, Daisuke*; Kumagai, Yuta; Kusaka, Ryoji; Nakada, Masami; Watanabe, Masayuki; Sasaki, Takayuki*; Sato, Nobuaki*

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 567, p.153842_1 - 153842_15, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153842

To understand the chemical structure and stability of nuclear fuel debris consisting of UO, Zr, and Stainless Steel (SUS) generated by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in Japan in 2011, simulated debris of the UO-SUS-Zr system and other fundamental component systems were synthesized and characterized. The simulated debris were synthesized by heat treatment for 1 to 12 h at 1600C, in inert (Ar) or oxidative (Ar + 2% O) atmospheres. Np and Am tracers were doped for the leaching tests of these elements and U from the simulated debris. The characterization of the simulated debris was conducted by XRD, SEM-EDX, Raman spectroscopy, and Mssbauer spectroscopy, which provided the major uranium phase of the UO -SUS-Zr debris was the solid solution of UO (s.s.) with Zr(IV) and Fe(II) regardless of the treatment atmosphere. The long-term immersion test of the simulated debris in pure water and that in seawater revealed the macro scale crystal structure of the simulated debris was chemically very stable in the wet condition for a year or more. Furthermore, the leaching test results showed that the actinide leaching ratios of U, Np, Am from the UO-SUS-Zr debris were very limited and less than 0.08 % for all the experiments in this study.

Theoretical and experimental estimation of the relative optically stimulated luminescence efficiency of an optical-fiber-based BaFBr:Eu detector for swift ions

Hirata, Yuho; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Watanabe, Kenichi*; Ogawa, Tatsuhiko; Parisi, A.*; Uritani, Akira*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(7), p.915 - 924, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2021.2017372

The reliability of dose assessment with radiation detectors is an important feature in various fields, such as radiotherapy, radiation protection, and high-energy physics. However, many detectors irradiated by high linear energy transfer (LET) radiations exhibit decreased efficiency called the quenching effect. This quenching effect depends not only on the particle LET but strongly on the ion species and its microscopic pattern of energy deposition. Recently, a computational method for estimating the relative efficiency of luminescence detectors was proposed following analysis of microdosimetric specific energy distributions simulated using the particle and heavy ion transport code system (PHITS). This study applied the model to estimate the relative optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) efficiency of BaFBr:Eu detectors. Additionally, we measured the luminescence intensity of BaFBr:Eu detectors exposed to He, C and Ne ions to verify the calculated data. The model reproduced the experimental data in the cases of adopting a microdosimetric target diameter of approximately 30-50 nm. The calculated relative efficiency exhibit ion-species dependence in addition to LET. This result shows that the microdosimetric calculation from specific energy is a successful method for accurately understanding the results of OSL measurements with BaFBr:Eu detectors irradiated by various particles.

Mesospheric ionization during substorm growth phase

Murase, Kiyoka*; Kataoka, Ryuho*; Nishiyama, Takanori*; Nishimura, Koji*; Hashimoto, Taishi*; Tanaka, Yoshimasa*; Kadokura, Akira*; Tomikawa, Yoshihiro*; Tsutsumi, Masaki*; Ogawa, Yasunobu*; et al.

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (Internet), 12, p.18_1 - 18_16, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2022012

We identified two energetic electron precipitation (EEP) events during the growth phase of moderate substorms and estimated the mesospheric ionization rate for an EEP event for which the most comprehensive dataset from ground-based and space-born instruments was available. The mesospheric ionization signature reached below 70 km altitude and continued for ~15 min until the substorm onset, as observed by the PANSY radar and imaging riometer at Syowa Station in the Antarctic region. We also used energetic electron flux observed by the Arase and POES 15 satellites as the input for the air-shower simulation code PHITS to quantitatively estimate the mesospheric ionization rate. Combining the cutting-edge observations and simulations, we shed new light on the space weather impact of the EEP events during geomagnetically quiet times, which is important to understand the possible link between the space environment and climate.