Experimental visualization of water/ice phase distribution at cold start for practical-sized polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Higuchi, Yuki*; Yoshimune, Wataru*; Kato, Satoru*; Hibi, Shogo*; Setoyama, Daigo*; Isegawa, Kazuhisa*; Matsumoto, Yoshihiro*; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Nozaki, Hiroshi*; Harada, Masashi*; et al.

Communications Engineering (Internet), 3, p.33_1 - 33_7, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-024-00176-6

Extraction of Mo hot atoms made by a neutron capture method from -MoO to water

Quach, N. M.*; Ngo, M. C.*; Yang, Y.*; Nguyen, T. B.*; Nguyen, V. T.*; Fujita, Yoshitaka; Do, T. M. D.*; Nakayama, Tadachika*; Suzuki, Tatsuya*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 332(10), p.4057 - 4064, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09125-7

Technetium-99m (Tc) is the most widely used medical radioisotope in the world and is produced from molybdenum-99 (Mo). Production of Mo via the neutron capture method draws attention as an alternative to fission-derived Mo due to non-proliferation issues, but the specific radioactivity of Mo is extremely low. In this work, a porous -MoO wire was prepared as an irradiation target in order to improve the specific activity by extracting Mo. Porous -MoO wire is synthesized from Mo metal wire by a two-step heating procedure. The hot atom effect of Mo was confirmed by activity and isotope measurements of the porous -MoO wire after neutron irradiation and the water used for extraction. In term of the extraction effectiveness, the effectiveness of Mo extraction in the porous -MoO wire was comparable to that of commercial -MoO powder.

-MoO whiskers in Mo/Tc radioisotope production and Mo/Tc extraction using hot atoms

Ngo, M. C.*; Fujita, Yoshitaka; Suzuki, Tatsuya*; Do, T. M. D.*; Seki, Misaki; Nakayama, Tadachika*; Niihara, Koichi*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*

Inorganic Chemistry, 62(32), p.13140 - 13147, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c02125

Technetium-99m (Tc) is one of the most important radioisotopes for diagnostic radio-imaging applications. Tc is a daughter product of the Mo isotope. There are two methods used to produce Mo/Tc: the nuclear fission (n,f) and the neutron capture (n,) methods. Between them, the (n,f) method is the main route, used for approximately 90% of the world's production. However, the (n,f) method faces numerous problems, including the use of highly enriched uranium, the release of highly radioactive waste, and nonproliferation problems. Therefore, the (n,) method is being developed as a future replacement for the (n,f) method. In this work, -MoO whiskers prepared by the thermal evaporation method and -MoO particles were irradiated in a nuclear reactor to produce Mo/Tc via neutron capture. The irradiated targets were dispersed into water to extract the Mo/Tc. As a result, -MoO whisker yielded higher Mo extraction rate than that from -MoO. In addition, by comparing the dissolved Mo concentrations in water, we clarified a prominent hot-atom of -MoO whiskers. This research is the first demonstration of -MoO being used as an irradiation target in the neutron capture method. On the basis of the results, -MoO is considered a promising irradiation target for producing Mo/Tc by neutron capture and using water for the radioisotope extraction process in the future.

Reaction of Np, Am, and Cm ions with CO and O in a reaction cell in triple quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Kazama, Hiroyuki; Konashi, Kenji*; Suzuki, Tatsuya*; Koyama, Shinichi; Maeda, Koji; Sekio, Yoshihiro; Onishi, Takashi; Abe, Chikage*; Shikamori, Yasuyuki*; Nagai, Yasuyoshi*

Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 38(8), p.1676 - 1681, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.1039/D3JA00136A

Study on Tc separation/concentration technology from Mo by (n, ) method

Fujita, Yoshitaka; Hu, X.*; Takeuchi, Tomoaki; Takeda, Ryoma; Fujihara, Yasuyuki*; Yoshinaga, Hisao*; Hori, Junichi*; Suzuki, Tatsuya*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*; Ide, Hiroshi

KURNS Progress Report 2022, P. 110, 2023/07

https://www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/PUB/report/PR/ProgRep2022/ProgressReport2022.pdf#page=125

no abstracts in English

Anaerobic methane-oxidizing activity in a deep underground borehole dominantly colonized by Methanoperedenaceae

Nishimura, Hiroki*; Kozuka, Mariko*; Fukuda, Akari*; Ishimura, Toyoho*; Amano, Yuki; Beppu, Hikari*; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Suzuki, Yohei*

Environmental Microbiology Reports (Internet), 15(3), p.197 - 205, 2023/06

https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.13146

The family Methanoperedenaceae archaea mediate anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). We newly developed a high-pressure laboratory incubation system and investigated groundwater from 214- and 249-m deep boreholes at Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory, Japan, where the high and low abundances of Methanoperedenaceae archaea have been revealed, respectively. We incubated the samples amended with or without amorphous Fe(III) and C-labelled methane at an in-situ pressure of 1.6 MPa. After three to seven-day incubation, AOM activities were not detected from the 249-m sample but from the 214-m sample. The AOM rates were 93.740.6 and 27.737.5 nM/day with and without Fe(III) amendment. Suspended particulates were not visible in the 249-m sample on the filter, while they were abundant and contained amorphous Fe(III) and Fe(III)-bearing phyllosilicates in the 214-m sample. This supports the in-situ activity of Fe(III)-dependent AOM in the deep subsurface borehole.

Multiple mechanisms in proton-induced nucleon removal at 100 MeV/nucleon

Pohl, T.*; Sun, Y. L.*; Obertelli, A.*; Lee, J.*; Gmez-Ramos, M.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Cai, B. S.*; Yuan, C. X.*; Brown, B. A.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 130(17), p.172501_1 - 172501_8, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.172501

We report on the first proton-induced single proton- and neutron-removal reactions from the neutron deficient O nucleus with large Fermi-surface asymmetry at 100 MeV/nucleon. Our results provide the first quantitative contributions of multiple reaction mechanisms including the quasifree knockout, inelastic scattering, and nucleon transfer processes. It is shown that the inelastic scattering and nucleon transfer, usually neglected at such energy regime, contribute about 50% and 30% to the loosely bound proton and deeply bound neutron removal, respectively.

Polarized neutron scattering study of hollow FeO submicron spherical particles

Kobayashi, Satoru*; Nomura, Eiji*; Chiba, Momoko*; Kawamura, Yukihiko*; Oishi, Kazuki*; Hiroi, Kosuke; Suzuki, Junichi*

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 569, p.170410_1 - 170410_9, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2023.170410

Stepwise renewal of JRR-3 process control computer system

Isaka, Koji; Suwa, Masayuki; Kimura, Kazuya; Suzuki, Makoto; Ikekame, Yoshinori; Nagadomi, Hideki

JAEA-Technology 2021-039, 48 Pages, 2023/02

JAEA-Technology-2021-039.pdf:6.97MB

JRR-3 Process control system is used from the initial criticality (1990) after remodeling JRR- 3 as equipment used for monitoring and control of flow rate, temperature, pressure, water level, etc. of coolant and operation of nuclear reactor equipment, and it became necessary to renew as the aging progressed and spare parts could not be obtained sufficiently. Upon renewal, from the viewpoint of ensuring conservation of the core such as decay heat removal and minimizing the impact on reactor users and minimizing costs, it is important not to stop long-term reactor shutdown we planned to divide it into three stages and make it on a continuous basis. This report summarizes the renewal plan and renewal work divided into three stages.

LASSO reconstruction scheme to predict radioactive source distributions inside reactor building rooms; Practical applications

Machida, Masahiko; Shi, W.*; Yamada, Susumu; Miyamura, Hiroko; Yoshida, Toru*; Hasegawa, Yukihiro*; Okamoto, Koji; Aoki, Yuto; Ito, Rintaro; Yamaguchi, Takashi; et al.

Proceedings of Waste Management Symposia 2023 (WM2023) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2023/02