Heat transfer coefficient modeling for downward saturated boiling flows in vertical pipes

Wada, Yuki; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Hibiki, Takashi*

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 249, p.127219_1 - 127219_16, 2025/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.127219

Compliance measures at the Radioactive Waste Treatment Facilities at the Nuclear Science Research Institute; Aseismic reinforcement of the Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility No. 3, Waste Size Reduction and Storage Facility, and Waste Volume Reduction Facility

Iketani, Shotaro; Suzuki, Takeshi; Yokobori, Tomohiko; Sugawara, Satoshi; Yokota, Akira; Kikuchi, Genta; Muraguchi, Yoshinori; Kitahara, Masaru; Seya, Manato; Kurosawa, Tsuyoshi; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2025-001, 169 Pages, 2025/08

JAEA-Technology-2025-001.pdf:14.22MB

The radioactive waste treatment facilities at the Nuclear Science Research Institute includes the Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility No. 3, Waste Size Reduction and Storage Facility, and Waste Volume Reduction Facility. These three facilities come under the purview of the Act on the Regulation of Nuclear Source Material, Nuclear Fuel Material and Reactors, and are included under Class C of the act based on the seismic requirements specified in the Act. We assessed the seismic capacity of these three radioactive waste treatment facilities based on the current Building Standards Act, to verify whether they comply with the new regulatory requirements enforced by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company. We found that the allowable stress of a few structural members used in the construction of the facilities did not meet the regulatory requirements. After studying the approval granted by the NRA for the construction plans, including the design and construction methods (design and construction plans) of the three facilities on March 5, 2021, we made aseismic reinforcement at these facilities between 2021 and 2022. This report presents an overview of the seismic design of these facilities and an outline of the aseismic reinforcement conducted, management system existing, safety measures adopted, and the preoperational inspections conducted at these facilities.

Downward terrestrial gamma-ray flash associated with collision of lightning leaders

Wada, Yuki*; Morimoto, Takeshi*; Wu, T.*; Wang, D.*; Kikuchi, Hiroshi*; Nakamura, Yoshitaka*; Yoshikawa, Eiichi*; Ushio, Tomoo*; Tsuchiya, Harufumi

Science Advances (Internet), 11(21), p.eads6906_1 - eads6906_10, 2025/05

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ads6906

Quantitative evaluation of carbon dioxide emissions from the subsoils of volcanic and non-volcanic ash soils in temperate forest ecosystems

Abe, Yukiko; Nakayama, Masataka*; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko; Tange, Takeshi*; Sawada, Haruo*; Liang, N.*; Koarashi, Jun

Geoderma, 455, p.117221_1 - 117221_11, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117221

Subsoils (typically below a depth of 30 cm) contain more than half of global soil carbon (C) as soil organic C (SOC). However, the extent to which subsoil SOC contributes to the global C cycle and the factors that control it are unclear because quantitative evaluation of carbon dioxide (CO) emission from subsoils through direct observations is limited. This study aimed to quantify CO emission from subsoils and determine factors that control CO emission, focusing on the decomposability of soil organic matter (SOM) and the characteristics of the mineral-SOM association in soils. Therefore, a laboratory incubation experiment was conducted using surface soils (0-10 cm and 10-25 cm depth) and subsoils (30-45 cm and 45-60 cm depth) collected from four Japanese forest sites with two different soil types (volcanic ash and non-volcanic ash soils). The CO emission from the subsoils was found to be responsible for 6%-23% of total CO emission from the upper 60-cm mineral soil across all sites. Radiocarbon signatures of CO released from the subsoils indicated the decomposition of decades-old SOM in the subsoils. The correlations between CO emission rate and soil factors across both soil types suggested that the CO emission from the subsoils is mainly controlled by the amounts of SOC easily available to soil microbes and microbial biomass C, not by the amounts of reactive minerals. Given the potential active participation of subsoils in terrestrial C cycling, most of the current soil C models that ignore subsoil C cycling are likely to underestimate the response of soil C to future climate change. The quantitative and mechanistic understanding of C cycling through a huge subsoil C pool is critical to accurately evaluating the role of soil C in the global C balance.

Quantitative importance of subsoil nitrogen cycling processes in Andosols and Cambisols under temperate forests

Nakayama, Masataka; Abe, Yukiko; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko; Tange, Takeshi*; Sawada, Haruo*; Liang, N.*; Koarashi, Jun

Applied Soil Ecology, 201, p.105485_1 - 105485_12, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105485

Nitrogen often limits plant growth in forest ecosystems. Plants, including trees, change vertical root distribution when nutrient competition is strong within surface soil layer and take up nitrogen even from subsurface soil layers in addition to the surface soil. However, there is still limited knowledge about nitrogen cycles within deeper soil layers. In this study, we investigated the vertical profiles (0-60 cm) of the net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification rates at four Japanese forest sites with two different soil types (Andosols and Cambisols). The partial least square path modeling (PLS-PM) was used to determine factors affecting nitrogen-cycling processes. The net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification rates per unit soil weight were considerably higher in surface soil layer than in deeper soil layers in Andosols but not in Cambisols. PLS-PM analysis showed that microbial biomass and soil organic matter quantities were the main factors influencing the net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification rates, indicating that a similar mechanism creating the spatial variations of nitrogen-cycling processes in surface soil layer predominantly regulates the processes in subsoil layers. Moreover, it was estimated that the net nitrogen mineralization rate could be comparable at all soil types and depths when the rate was expressed per unit soil volume. Therefore, our results suggest that subsoil layers are a quantitatively important nitrogen source for plant nutrients in Andosols and Cambisols, supporting high forest productivity.

Analyses of hierarchical structures in SBR rubber by using contrast-variation SANS; Effects of a silane coupling agent

Nakanishi, Yohei*; Shibata, Motoki*; Sawada, Satoshi*; Kondo, Hiroaki*; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Kumada, Takayuki; Yamamoto, Katsuhiro*; Mita, Kazuki*; Miyazaki, Tsukasa*; Takenaka, Mikihito*

Polymer, 306, p.127209_1 - 127209_7, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2024.127209

Negative excursion of surface electric fields during gamma-ray glows in winter thunderstorms

Wada, Yuki*; Kamogawa, Masashi*; Kubo, Mamoru*; Enoto, Teruaki*; Hayashi, Shugo*; Sawano, Tatsuya*; Yonetoku, Daisuke*; Tsuchiya, Harufumi

Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 128(21), p.e2023JD039354_1 - e2023JD039354_20, 2023/11

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039354

Termination of downward-oriented gamma-ray glow by normal-polarity in-cloud discharge activity

Wada, Yuki*; Wu, T.*; Wang, D.*; Enoto, Teruaki*; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro*; Morimoto, Takeshi*; Nakamura, Yoshitaka*; Shinoda, Taro*; Tsuchiya, Harufumi

Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 128(15), p.e2023JD038606_1 - e2023JD038606_9, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD038606

Development of nondestructive elemental analysis system for Hayabusa2 samples using muonic X-rays

Osawa, Takahito; Nagasawa, Shunsaku*; Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Takahashi, Tadayuki*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Wada, Taiga*; Taniguchi, Akihiro*; Umegaki, Izumi*; Kubo, Kenya*; Terada, Kentaro*; et al.

ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (Internet), 7(4), p.699 - 711, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.2c00303

The concentrations of carbon and other major elements in asteroid samples provide very important information on the birth of life on the Earth and the solar-system evolution. Elemental analysis using muonic X-rays is one of the best analytical methods to determine the elemental composition of solid materials, and notably, is the only method to determine the concentration of light elements in bulk samples in a non-destructive manner. We developed a new analysis system using muonic X-rays to measure the concentrations of carbon and other major elements in precious and expectedly tiny samples recovered from the asteroid Ryugu by spacecraft Hayabusa2. Here we report the development process of the system in 4 stages and their system configurations, The analysis system is composed of a stainless-steel analysis chamber, an acrylic glove box for manipulating asteroid samples in a clean environment, and Ge semiconductor detectors arranged to surround the analysis chamber. The performance of the analysis system, including the background level, which is crucial for the measurement, was greatly improved from the first stage to the later ones. Our feasibility study showed that the latest model of our muonic X-ray analysis system is capable of determining the carbon concentration in Hayabusa2's sample model with an uncertainty of less than 10 percent in a 6-day measurement.

Design and actual performance of J-PARC 3 GeV rapid cycling synchrotron for high-intensity operation

Yamamoto, Kazami; Kinsho, Michikazu; Hayashi, Naoki; Saha, P. K.; Tamura, Fumihiko; Yamamoto, Masanobu; Tani, Norio; Takayanagi, Tomohiro; Kamiya, Junichiro; Shobuda, Yoshihiro; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(9), p.1174 - 1205, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2038301

In the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, the purpose of the 3 GeV rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) is to accelerate a 1 MW, high-intensity proton beam. To achieve beam operation at a repetition rate of 25 Hz at high intensities, the RCS was elaborately designed. After starting the RCS operation, we carefully verified the validity of its design and made certain improvements to establish a reliable operation at higher power as possible. Consequently, we demonstrated beam operation at a high power, namely, 1 MW. We then summarized the design, actual performance, and improvements of the RCS to achieve a 1 MW beam.