Accumulation possibility of tritium released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in marine organisms

Sato, Yuhi*; Tani, Takashi*; Ikenoue, Tsubasa; Kawamura, Hideyuki; Omori, Yuko*

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 33(13), p.5818 - 5826, 2026/04

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-026-37606-1

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings began the oceanic release of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) in August 2023, in which radioactive materials were effectively removed using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). The environmental behavior of tritium, accounting for almost all radioactivity in ALPS-treated water, is of critical scientific and social concern. The accumulation possibility of tritium in marine organisms under the release conditions of ALPS-treated water was reviewed to ensure the safety of fishery products collected off the Fukushima coast and prevent unfounded reputation damages to the products. First, previous findings from actual measurements and numerical model estimations of the distribution of tritium derived from ALPS-treated water in seawater off the Fukushima coast are summarized to discuss the impact of oceanic release on tritium levels in seawater. As a result, the impact is suggested to be highly limited, which is indistinguishable from a natural level except for within 200 km from FDNPS. Second, the accumulation possibility of organically bound tritium (OBT) in marine organisms, such as phytoplankton, seaweed, and fish, was assessed using previous findings obtained from experimental and numerical studies, resulting in far smaller OBT accumulations in those organisms compared to the food-chain guideline proposed by FAO/WHO. Finally, the risks of internal exposure through the ingestion of fishery products collected off the Fukushima coast are discussed and quantitatively explained to be minimal especially in comparison with the food-chain guideline. However, continuous environmental monitoring of the oceanic release of ALPS-treated water is considered essential.

Mechanical property evaluation of rocks around Tanakura Fault, 1; Applicability of impact and needle penetration tests

Asahina, Daisuke*; Takamura, Hiroaki*; Tsukamoto, Koji*; Honda, Fumito*; ITO, Takashi*; IWATA, Naoki*; Aydan, mer*; Sato, Toshinori

Dai-51-Kai Gamban Rikigaku Ni Kansuru Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu(Internet), p.43 - 47, 2025/12

Fault zones commonly contain distinctive structures such as fault cores and damage zones, where physical properties vary locally. These zones are important for evaluating underground safety and groundwater flow in waste disposal, yet quantitative measurements near faults remain limited. We applied Schmidt hammer and needle penetration tests to assess the mechanical properties of the rocks near the Tanakura Fault, in a simple, non-destructive manner. The results showed a clear spatial variation in measured values with distance from the fault gouge boundary, suggesting that combining methods with different scales and sensitivities can provide a more comprehensive evaluation of rock mass properties near faults.

Large-scale experiment of floating seismic isolation system

Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Imai, Yoshiyuki; Marufuji, Takato; Akasaka, Naoaki; Yan, X.; Otani, Akihito*; Kai, Satoru*; Mori, Takashi*; Uoji, Tomoki*; Ueno, Tomohiro*; et al.

Proceedings of the ASME 2025 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference (PVP2025) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2025/07

https://doi.org/10.1115/PVP2025-152829

Revealing an origin of temperature-dependent structural change in intrinsically disordered proteins

Inoue, Rintaro*; Oda, Takashi; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Tominaga, Taiki*; Ikegami, Takahisa*; Konuma, Tsuyoshi*; Iwase, Hiroki*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Sato, Mamoru*; Sugiyama, Masaaki*

Biophysical Journal, 124(3), p.540 - 548, 2025/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2024.12.022

Sm synchrotron-radiation-based Mssbauer spectroscopy of Sm-based heavy fermion compounds

Tsutsui, Satoshi; Higashinaka, Ryuji*; Mizumaki, Masaichiro*; Kobayashi, Yoshio*; Nakamura, Jin*; Ito, Takashi; Yoda, Yoshitaka*; Matsuda, Tatsuma*; Aoki, Yuji*; Sato, Hideyuki*

Interactions (Internet), 245(1), p.9_1 - 9_10, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-024-01851-y

Production rates of long-lived radionuclides Be and Al under direct muon-induced spallation in granite quartz and its implications for past high-energy cosmic ray fluxes

Sakurai, Hirohisa*; Kurebayashi, Yutaka*; Suzuki, Soichiro*; Horiuchi, Kazuho*; Takahashi, Yui*; Doshita, Norihiro*; Kikuchi, Satoshi*; Tokanai, Fuyuki*; Iwata, Naoyoshi*; Tajima, Yasushi*; et al.

Physical Review D, 109(10), p.102005_1 - 102005_18, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.102005

Secular variations of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) are inseparably associated with the galactic activities and should reflect the environments of the local galactic magnetic field, interstellar clouds, and nearby supernova remnants. The high-energy muons produced in the atmosphere by high-energy GCRs can penetrate deep underground and generate radioisotopes in the rock. As long lived radionuclides such as Be and Al have been accumulating in these rocks, concentrations of Be and Al can be used to estimate the long-term variations in high-energy muon yields, corresponding to those in the high-energy GCRs over a few million years. This study measured the production cross sections for muon induced Be and Al by irradiating positive muons with the momentum of 160 GeV/c on the synthetic silica plates and the granite core at the COMPASS experiment line in CERN SPS. In addition, it the contributions of the direct muon spallation reaction and the nuclear reactions by muon-induced particles on the production of long lived radionuclides in the rocks were clarified.

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.

R&D of digital technology on inverse estimation of radioactive source distributions and related source countermeasures; R&D status of digital platform including 3D-ADRES-indoor

Machida, Masahiko; Yamada, Susumu; Kim, M.; Okumura, Masahiko; Miyamura, Hiroko; Shikaze, Yoshiaki; Sato, Tomoki*; Numata, Yoshiaki*; Tobita, Yasuhiro*; Yamaguchi, Takashi; et al.

RIST News, (69), p.2 - 18, 2023/09

https://www.rist.or.jp/rnews/69/69s2.pdf

The contamination of radioactive materials leaked from the reactor has resulted in numerous hot spots in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F) building, posing obstacles to its decommissioning. In order to solve this problem, JAEA has conducted research and development of the digital technique for inverse estimation of radiation source distribution and countermeasures against the estimated source in virtual space for two years from 2021 based on the subsidy program "Project of Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Management" performed by the funds from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In this article, we introduce the results of the project and the plan of the renewal project started in April 2023. For the former project, we report the derivative method for LASSO method considering the complex structure inside the building and the character of the source and show the result of the inverse estimation using the method in the real reactor building. Moreover, we explain the platform software "3D-ADRES-Indoor" which integrates these achievements. Finally, we introduce the plan of the latter project.

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

Intruder configurations in Ne at the transition into the island of inversion; Detailed structure study of Ne

Wang, H.*; Yasuda, Masahiro*; Kondo, Yosuke*; Nakamura, Takashi*; Tostevin, J. A.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Otsuka, Takaharu*; Poves, A.*; Shimizu, Noritaka*; Yoshida, Kazuki; et al.

Physics Letters B, 843, p.138038_1 - 138038_9, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138038

Detailed -ray spectroscopy of the exotic neon isotope Ne has been performed using the one-neutron removal reaction from Ne. Based on an analysis of parallel momentum distributions, a level scheme with spin-parity assignments has been constructed for Ne and the negative-parity states are identified for the first time. The measured partial cross sections and momentum distributions reveal a significant intruder p-wave strength providing evidence of the breakdown of the N = 20 and N = 28 shell gaps. Only a weak, possible f-wave strength was observed to bound final states. Large-scale shell-model calculations with different effective interactions do not reproduce the large p-wave and small f-wave strength observed experimentally, indicating an ongoing challenge for a complete theoretical description of the transition into the island of inversion along the Ne isotopic chain.