Nuclear hydrogen demonstration project using the HTTR; Demarcation of nuclear-industrial laws and design standards

Aoki, Takeshi; Shimizu, Atsushi; Ishii, Katsunori; Morita, Keisuke; Mizuta, Naoki; Kurahayashi, Kaoru; Yasuda, Takanori; Noguchi, Hiroki; Nomoto, Yasunobu; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; et al.

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 220, p.111503_1 - 111503_7, 2025/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111503

Aiming to establish coupling technologies between a high temperature gas cooled reactor and a hydrogen production plant, JAEA has initiated the HTTR Heat Application Test Project and is conducting the safety design and the safety analysis for the licensing of the HTTR Heat Application Test Facility. The present study proposed a relative evaluation methodology for the demarcation of applicable laws and design standards for the nuclear hydrogen production system and applied it to the HTTR Heat Application Test Facility. The evaluation results showed that a candidate applying the High Pressure Gas Safety Act to the Heat Application Test Facility (hydrogen production plant) and design standards established under the High Pressure Gas Safety Act to the steam reformer did not show the lowest category in any of the metrics, and was proposed as the most superior demarcation option for the HTTR Heat Application Test Facility.

Achievements and status of the STRAD project for radioactive liquid waste management

Arai, Yoichi; Watanabe, So; Nakahara, Masaumi; Funakoshi, Tomomasa; Hoshino, Takanori; Takahatake, Yoko; Sakamoto, Atsushi; Aihara, Haruka; Hasegawa, Kenta; Yoshida, Toshiki; et al.

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology (Internet), 7, p.168 - 174, 2025/05

https://doi.org/10.15669/pnst.7.168

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting a project named "Systematic Treatment of RAdioactive liquid waste for Decommissioning (STRAD)" project since 2018 for fundamental and practical studies for treating radioactive liquid wastes with complicated compositions. Fundamental studies have been conducted using genuine liquid wastes accumulated in a hot laboratory of the JAEA called the Chemical Processing Facility (CPF), and treatment procedures for all liquid wastes in CPF were successfully designed on the results obtained. As the next phase of the project, new fundamental and practical studies on primarily organic liquid wastes accumulated in different facilities of JAEA are in progress. This paper reviews the representative achievements of the STRAD project and introduces an overview of ongoing studies.

Development of a chemical code applicable to ions based on the PHITS code for efficient and visual radiolysis simulations

Matsuya, Yusuke; Yoshii, Yuji*; Kusumoto, Tamon*; Ogawa, Tatsuhiko; Onishi, Seiki*; Hirata, Yuho; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Kai, Takeshi

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 27(14), p.6887 - 6898, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CP04216F

Radicals by water radiolysis play an important role in evaluating radiation-induced biological effects, such as DNA damage induction, chromosomal aberrations, and carcinogenesis. In the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS), a track-structure simulation mode enabling the estimation of each atomic interactions in water and a chemical simulation code (PHITS-Chem) dedicated to electron beams that can simulate radical dynamics have been developed in our previous study. Here, we developed the PHITS-Chem code applicable to any ion species, considering a space partitioning method to detect radical reactions more efficiently and the 4D visualization function. The updated PHITS-Chem code was verified by comparing the simulated G values of proton beams, particle beams, and carbon ion beams to the corresponding values in the literature. We succeeded in intuitively evaluating the diffusion dynamics of radicals using the PHITS 3D drawing software, PHIG-3D. The time to calculate the G values was reduced (e.g., about 28 times faster) while maintaining its calculation accuracy. The developed PHITS-Chem code is expected to contribute to precise and intuitive understanding of the biological effects induced by radicals in ion-beam radiotherapy.

Construction of a Compton camera-equipped robotic system capable of moving autonomously towards the radiation source

Sato, Yuki; Kakuto, Takeshi*; Tanaka, Takayuki*; Shimano, Hiroyuki*

European Physical Journal; Special Topics, 10 Pages, 2025/00

https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01483-5

Overview of PHITS Ver.3.34 with particular focus on track-structure calculation

Ogawa, Tatsuhiko; Hirata, Yuho; Matsuya, Yusuke; Kai, Takeshi; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Furuta, Takuya; Abe, Shinichiro; Matsuda, Norihiro; et al.

EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies (Internet), 10, p.13_1 - 13_8, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2024012

The latest updates on PHITS, a versatile radiation transport code, focusing specifically on track-structure models are presented. Track structure calculations are methods used to simulate the movement of charged particles while explicitly considering each atomic reaction. Initially developed for radiation biology, these calculation methods aimed to analyze the radiation-induced damage to DNA and chromosomes. Several track-structure calculation models, including PHITS-ETS, PHITS-ETS for Si, PHITS-KURBUC, ETSART, and ITSART, have been developed and implemented to PHITS. These models allow users to study the behavior of various particles at the nano-scale across a wide range of materials. Furthermore, potential applications of track-structure calculations have also been proposed so far. This collection of track-structure calculation models, which encompasses diverse conditions, opens up new avenues for research in the field of radiation effects.

Methodology development for explosion hazard evaluation in hydrogen production system using high temperature gas-cooled reactor

Morita, Keisuke; Aoki, Takeshi; Shimizu, Atsushi; Sato, Hiroyuki

Proceedings of 31st International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE31) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE31-135407

Project plan of HTTR heat application test facility; Safety design and Safety analysis

Aoki, Takeshi; Hasegawa, Takeshi; Kurahayashi, Kaoru; Nomoto, Yasunobu; Shimizu, Atsushi; Sato, Hiroyuki; Sakaba, Nariaki

Proceedings of 11th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2024), 6 Pages, 2024/10

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is planning to perform a test named HTTR heat application test coupling HTTR (High temperature engineering test reactor) and a hydrogen production plant. The present study reports results of the safety design and safety analysis for HTTR heat application test facility. As a safety design, safety classification of structures, systems, and components was defined in the test facility based on their safety functions. As a preliminary safety analysis, a thermal-hydraulic analysis was performed with RELAP5 code. The safety analysis revealed that newly identified events for HTTR heat application test facility except for the rupture of heat transfer tube of steam generator was enveloped by the licensing basis events in conventional HTTR. The preliminary analysis proved that the safety criteria is satisfied in the candidate of licensing basis event.

Development of a radioactive substance detection system integrating a Compton camera and a LiDAR camera with a hexapod robot

Sato, Yuki; Kakuto, Takeshi*; Tanaka, Takayuki*; Shimano, Hiroyuki*; Morohashi, Yuko; Hatakeyama, Tomoyoshi*; Nakajima, Junsaku; Ishiyama, Masahiro

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1063, p.169300_1 - 169300_7, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2024.169300

Changes in molecular conformation and electronic structure of DNA under C ions based on first-principles calculations

Sekikawa, Takuya; Matsuya, Yusuke; Hwang, B.*; Ishizaka, Masato*; Kawai, Hiroyuki*; Ono, Yoshiaki*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Kai, Takeshi

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 548, p.165231_1 - 165231_6, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2023.165231

One of the main causes of radiation effects on the human body is thought to be damage to DNA, which carries genetic information. However, it is not fully understood what kind of molecular structural changes DNA undergoes upon radiation damage. Since it has been reported that various types of DNA damage are formed when DNA is irradiated, our group has investigated the relationship between DNA damage and various patterns of radiation-induced ionization induced by radiation. Although we have so far analyzed DNA damage in a simple system using a rigid body model of DNA, more detailed calculations are required to analyze the molecular structural changes in DNA, which are considered to be important in considering the effects on the human body. In this study, we attempted to clarify the molecular conformational changes of DNA using OpenMX, a first-principles calculation software that can discuss electronic states based on molecular structures. Specifically, we calculated the most stable structure, band dispersion, and wave function of DNA under the assumption that one and two electrons are ionized by various radiation. In the presentation, we will discuss the relationship between the energy dependence of each incident radiation type and the molecular conformational change of DNA. In addition, the radiation-induced changes in the basic physical properties of DNA (corresponding to the initial stage of DNA damage) will be discussed from the viewpoints of both radiation physics and solid state physics.

A Step-by-step simulation code for estimating yields of water radiolysis species based on electron track-structure mode in the PHITS code

Matsuya, Yusuke; Yoshii, Yuji*; Kusumoto, Tamon*; Akamatsu, Ken*; Hirata, Yuho; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Kai, Takeshi

Physics in Medicine & Biology, 69(3), p.035005_1 - 035005_12, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ad199b

Time-dependent yields of chemical products resulted in water radiolysis play a great role in evaluating DNA damage response after exposure to ionizing radiation. Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) is a general-purpose Monte Carlo simulation code for radiation transport, which allows to determine several atomic interactions such as ionizations and electronic excitations as physical stage. However, a chemical code for simulating products of water radiolysis does not exist in the PHITS package. Here, we developed a chemical simulation code dedicated for the PHITS code, hereafter called PHITS-Chem code, which enables calculating G values of water radiolysis species (OH radical, e, H, HO etc) by electron beams. The estimated G values during 1 s are in agreement with the experimental ones and other simulations. This PHITS-Chem code enables simulating the dynamics in the presence of OH radical scavenger, and is useful for evaluating contributions of direct and indirect effects on DNA damage induction. This code will be included and be available in the future version of PHITS.