Synthesis report on the R&D for the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory; Project carried out during fiscal years 2015-2019

Nakayama, Masashi; Saiga, Atsushi; Kimura, Shun; Mochizuki, Akihito; Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Ono, Hirokazu; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Takeda, Masaki; Hayano, Akira; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-013, 276 Pages, 2020/03

JAEA-Research-2019-013.pdf:18.72MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to enhance the reliability of relevant disposal technologies for geological disposal of High-level Radioactive Waste through investigations of the deep geological environment within the host sedimentary rock at Horonobe Town in Hokkaido, north Japan. The investigations will be conducted in three phases, namely "Phase 1: Surface based investigations", "Phase 2: Construction phase" (investigations during construction of the underground facilities) and "Phase 3: Operation phase" (research in the underground facilities). According to the research plan described in the 3rd Mid- and Long- term Plan of JAEA, "Near-field performance study", "Demonstration of repository design option", and "Verification of crustal-movement buffering capacity of sedimentary rocks" are important issues of the Horonobe URL Project, and schedule of future research and backfill plans of the project will be decided by the end of 2019 Fiscal Year. The present report summarizes the research and development activities of these 3 important issues carried out during 3rd Medium to Long-term Research Phase.

Enhancement of element production by incomplete fusion reaction with weakly bound deuteron

Wang, H.*; Otsu, Hideaki*; Chiga, Nobuyuki*; Kawase, Shoichiro*; Takeuchi, Satoshi*; Sumikama, Toshiyuki*; Koyama, Shumpei*; Sakurai, Hiroyoshi*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Nakayama, Shinsuke; et al.

Communications Physics (Internet), 2(1), p.78_1 - 78_6, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0165-1

Searching for effective pathways for the production of proton- and neutron-rich isotopes through an optimal combination of reaction mechanism and energy is one of the main driving forces behind experimental and theoretical nuclear reaction studies as well as for practical applications in nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste. We report on a study on incomplete fusion induced by deuteron, which contains one proton and one neutron with a weak binding energy and is easily broken up. This reaction study was achieved by measuring directly the cross sections for both proton and deuteron for Pd at 50 MeV/u via inverse kinematics technique. The results provide direct experimental evidence for the onset of a cross-section enhancement at high energy, indicating the potential of incomplete fusion induced by loosely-bound nuclei for creating proton-rich isotopes and nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste.

Study on heterogeneous minor actinide loading fast reactor core concepts with improved safety

Ohgama, Kazuya; Oki, Shigeo; Kitada, Takanori*; Takeda, Toshikazu*

Proceedings of 21st Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference (PBNC 2018) (USB Flash Drive), p.942 - 947, 2018/09

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Synthesis of Phase II (Construction Phase) investigations to a depth of 350m

Sato, Toshinori; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Ishii, Eiichi; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Hayano, Akira; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Fujita, Tomoo*; Tanai, Kenji; Nakayama, Masashi; Takeda, Masaki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2016-025, 313 Pages, 2017/03

JAEA-Research-2016-025.pdf:45.1MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to enhance the reliability of relevant disposal technologies through investigations of the deep geological environment within the host sedimentary formations at Horonobe, northern Hokkaido. This report summarizes the results of the Phase II investigations carried out from April 2005 to June 2014 to a depth of 350m. Integration of work from different disciplines into a "geosynthesis" ensures that the Phase II goals have been successfully achieved and identifies key issues that need to made to be addressed in the Phase II investigations Efforts are made to summarize as many lessons learnt from the Phase II investigations and other technical achievements as possible to form a "knowledge base" that will reinforce the technical basis for both implementation and the formulation of safety regulations.

Evaluation for influence of new volcanic eruption on geological disposal site

Shimada, Taro; Takeda, Seiji; Sakai, Ryutaro*; Takubo, Kazuya; Tanaka, Tadao

MRS Advances (Internet), 1(61), p.4081 - 4086, 2016/00

https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2017.193

Volcanic eruption which may affect geological disposal system directly depends on the regional location in Japan. It is required that the disposal site should be located far from existing volcanos. However, there are regions where it is impossible to exclude the possibility of appearance of new volcanic activity on the site even if the site is located far from existing volcanos. In order to identify the influence of volcanic eruption at disposal site to public if it occurs public exposure doses were evaluated based on the two scenarios considering types of eruption at new volcanic activity in Japan. One is the exposure by tephra widespread by Strombolian eruption and deposited on the ground surface, including radionuclides from vitrified waste forms after a volcanic conduit penetrated disposal galleries. The other is that by waste forms appeared at the surface by Merapi type pyroclastic flow. Exposure doses of the residents living on the tephra do not exceed 1mSv/y even when the eruption occurs at 1,000 years after closure of disposal site. Dose rate for the volcanic researchers temporarily approaching waste forms becomes less than 1mSv/h when the eruption occurs 100,000 years after. It indicated that attention should be paid to the impact by Merapi type pyroclastic flow on researchers approaching waste forms appeared rather than that by Strombolian eruption on residents living on the tephra widespread.

Development of divertor simulation research in the GAMMA 10/PDX tandem mirror

Nakashima, Yosuke*; Sakamoto, Mizuki*; Yoshikawa, Masayuki*; Oki, Kensuke*; Takeda, Hisahito*; Ichimura, Kazuya*; Hosoi, Katsuhiro*; Hirata, Mafumi*; Ichimura, Makoto*; Ikezoe, Ryuya*; et al.

Proceedings of 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2014) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2014/10

Uniaxial-pressure control of magnetic phase transitions in a frustrated magnet CuFeGaO (x =0, 0.018)

Nakajima, Taro*; Mitsuda, Setsuo*; Takahashi, Keiichiro*; Yoshitomi, Keisuke*; Masuda, Kazuya*; Kaneko, Chikafumi*; Homma, Yuki*; Kobayashi, Satoru*; Kitazawa, Hideaki*; Kosaka, Masashi*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 81(9), p.094710_1 - 094710_8, 2012/09

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.81.094710

Current status of a new polarized neutron reflectometer at the intense pulsed neutron source of the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) of J-PARC

Takeda, Masayasu; Yamazaki, Dai; Soyama, Kazuhiko; Maruyama, Ryuji; Hayashida, Hirotoshi; Asaoka, Hidehito; Yamazaki, Tatsuya; Kubota, Masato; Aizawa, Kazuya; Arai, Masatoshi; et al.

Chinese Journal of Physics, 50(2), p.161 - 170, 2012/04

http://psroc.org/cjp/issues.php?vol=50&num=2

Relaxation behaviour of laser peening residual stress due to mechanical loading on aluminum alloy

Miyashita, Daisuke*; Takeda, Kazuya*; Oya, Shinichi*; Sano, Yuji*; Saito, Toshiyuki*; Akita, Koichi

Zairyo, 60(7), p.617 - 623, 2011/07

https://doi.org/10.2472/jsms.60.617

The surface residual stress relaxation under tensile loading occurred when the plastic-deformation started at the inside of material where the balancing tensile residual stress existed. Under the compressive loading, the surface residual stress relaxation started due to the plastic deformation beneath the surface where the maximum compressive residual stress existed. The plastic deformation at the inside of material caused the redistribution of the residual stress and resulted in the relaxation of the surface residual stress. For both tensile and compressive loading, the surface compressive residual stress relaxation occurred before the total stress (= (residual stress) + (applied stress)) at the surface reached to the yield condition. The conclusions of this study are thought to be able to apply to the behavior of the residual stress under the mechanical loading on metallic materials treated by any mechanical surface treatment.

Structure of glasses for He neutron spin filter cells

Sakaguchi, Yoshifumi; Kira, Hiroshi; Oku, Takayuki; Shinohara, Takenao; Suzuki, Junichi; Sakai, Kenji; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Suzuya, Kentaro; Aizawa, Kazuya; Arai, Masatoshi; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 294(1), p.012004_1 - 012004_7, 2011/06

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/294/1/012004