Recent status of the cryogenic sample environment at the MLF, J-PARC

Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Takahashi, Ryuta*; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Nakamura, Masatoshi*; Ishimaru, Sora*; Yamauchi, Sara*; Kawamura, Seiko; Kira, Hiroshi*; Sakaguchi, Yoshifumi*; Watanabe, Masao; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 41, p.011010_1 - 011010_7, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.41.011010

Arrangements for telephone consultation on radiation health effects in a nuclear emergency in Japan; Lessons learned from the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, 2011

Okuno, Hiroshi; Kawakami, Takeshi; Watanabe, Fumitaka; Horikoshi, Hidehiko*

Journal of Disaster Research, 18(8), p.911 - 917, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.20965/jdr.2023.p0911

In response to residents' concerns about the radiation health effects following the nuclear accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of the Tokyo Electric Power Company in March 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) established a telephone consultation system. Eight toll-free telephone lines were prepared, and employees with knowledge of radiation health effects were assigned for consultation. Approximately 35,000 consultations were conducted from March 17, 2011, to September 18, 2012. The results of the text mining analysis revealed that the greatest source of anxiety was the impact on children's health from radiation. The JAEA's system for telephone consultation was improved following this telephone consultation experience. The description of telephone hotlines in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guide, GSG-14, was discussed for further improvements of the JAEA's telephone consultation system.

Demonstration of a kicker impedance reduction scheme with diode stack and resistors by operating the 3-GeV rapid cycling synchrotron of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex

Shobuda, Yoshihiro; Harada, Hiroyuki; Saha, P. K.; Takayanagi, Tomohiro; Tamura, Fumihiko; Togashi, Tomohito; Watanabe, Yasuhiro; Yamamoto, Kazami; Yamamoto, Masanobu

Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (Internet), 26(5), p.053501_1 - 053501_45, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.26.053501

At the Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), theoretical predictions have indicated that the kicker-impedance would excite the beam-instability. A 1 MW beam with large emittance can be delivered to the Material and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) through suppression of the beam instabilities by choosing the appropriate machine parameters. However, we require other high-intensity and high-quality smaller emittance beams (than the 1 MW beam) for the Main Ring (MR). Hence, we proposed a scheme for suppressing the kicker-impedance by using prototype diodes and resistors, thereby demonstrating the effect on the kicker impedance reduction. However, the J-PARC RCS must be operated with a repetition rate of 25 Hz, which urged us to consider special diodes that are tolerant to heating. After developments, we have demonstrated that the special diodes with resistors can suppress the beam instability by reducing the kicker impedance. Enhanced durability of the prototype diodes and resistors for the 25 Hz operation was also realized. Moreover, the new diodes and the resistors have negligible effect on the extracted beam from the RCS. From a simulation point of view, the scheme can be employed for at least 5 MW beam operation within the stipulated specifications.

Magnetic orderings from spin-orbit coupled electrons on kagome lattice

Watanabe, Jin*; Araki, Yasufumi; Kobayashi, Koji*; Ozawa, Akihiro*; Nomura, Kentaro*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 91(8), p.083702_1 - 083702_5, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.91.083702

We investigate magnetic orderings on kagome lattice numerically from the tight-binding Hamiltonian of electrons, governed by the filling factor and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of electrons. We find that even a simple kagome lattice model can host both ferromagnetic and noncollinear antiferromagnetic orderings depending on the electron filling, reflecting gap structures in the Dirac and flat bands characteristic to the kagome lattice. Kane-Mele- or Rashba-type SOC tends to stabilize noncollinear orderings, such a magnetic spirals and 120-degree antiferromagnetic orderings, due to the effective Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction from SOC. The obtained phase structure helps qualitative understanding of magnetic orderings in various kagome-layered materials with Weyl or Dirac electrons.

Improving the safety of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor "HTTR" based on Japan's new regulatory requirements

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Shimizu, Atsushi; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Tochio, Daisuke; Homma, Fumitaka; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Sekita, Kenji; Watanabe, Shuji; Furusawa, Takayuki; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 388, p.111642_1 - 111642_11, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2021.111642

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency adapted High-Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) to meet the new regulatory requirements that began in December 2013. The safety and seismic classifications of the existing structures, systems, and components were discussed to reflect insights regarding High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) that were acquired through various HTTR safety tests. Structures, systems, and components that are subject to protection have been defined, and countermeasures to manage internal and external hazards that affect safety functions have been strengthened. Additionally, measures are in place to control accidents that may cause large amounts of radioactive material to be released, as a beyond design based accident. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rigorously and appropriately reviewed this approach for compliance with the new regulatory requirements. After nine amendments, the application to modify the HTTR's installation license that was submitted in November 2014 was approved in June 2020. This response shows that facilities can reasonably be designed to meet the enhanced regulatory requirements, if they reflect the characteristics of HTGRs. We believe that we have established a reference for future development of HTGR.

PSTEP: Project for solar-terrestrial environment prediction

Kusano, Kanya*; Ichimoto, Kiyoshi*; Ishii, Mamoru*; Miyoshi, Yoshizumi*; Yoden, Shigeo*; Akiyoshi, Hideharu*; Asai, Ayumi*; Ebihara, Yusuke*; Fujiwara, Hitoshi*; Goto, Tadanori*; et al.

Earth, Planets and Space (Internet), 73(1), p.159_1 - 159_29, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-021-01486-1

The PSTEP is a nationwide research collaboration in Japan and was conducted from April 2015 to March 2020, supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. It has made a significant progress in space weather research and operational forecasts, publishing over 500 refereed journal papers and organizing four international symposiums, various workshops and seminars, and summer school for graduate students at Rikubetsu in 2017. This paper is a summary report of the PSTEP and describes the major research achievements it produced.

Nodal lines and boundary modes in topological Dirac semimetals with magnetism

Araki, Yasufumi; Watanabe, Jin*; Nomura, Kentaro*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 90(9), p.094702_1 - 094702_9, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.90.094702

While nodal-line semimetals with magnetism have been theoretically predicted and experimentally observed in a few compounds, idea on the relation between the magnetic order and the electronic structure is still limited. We theoretically explore the electronic structure in bulk and boundary of such a magnetic nodal-line state by introducing magnetism in topological Dirac semimetal (TDSM). TDSMs, such as and ,are characterized by a pair of spin-degenerate Dirac points protected by rotational symmetries of crystals. By introducing local magnetic moments coupled to the electron spins in the lattice model of TDSM, we show that the TDSM can turn into either a Weyl semimetal or a nodal-line semimetal, which is determined by the orbital dependence in the exchange coupling and the direction of magnetization formed by the magnetic moments. In this magnetic nodal-line semimetal state, we find zero modes with drumhead-like band structure at the boundary that are characterized by the topological number of . Those zero modes are numerically demonstrated by introducing magnetic domain walls in the lattice model.

Dynamical response of transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters to a pulsed charged-particle beam

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I.-H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 31(5), p.2101704_1 - 2101704_4, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2021.3067793

A superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter is an ideal X-ray detector for experiments at accelerator facilities because of good energy resolution and high efficiency. To study the performance of the TES detector with a high-intensity pulsed charged-particle beam, we measured X-ray spectra with a pulsed muon beam at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan. We found substantial temporal shifts of the X-ray energy correlated with the arrival time of the pulsed muon beam, which was reasonably explained by pulse pileup due to the incidence of energetic particles from the initial pulsed beam.

Cs outflow from forest floor adjacent to a residential area; Comparison of decontaminated and non-decontaminated forest floor

Niizato, Tadafumi; Watanabe, Takayoshi

Global Environmental Research (Internet), 24(2), p.129 - 136, 2021/06

http://www.airies.or.jp/ebook/Global_Environmental_Research_Vol.24No.2.pdf

The 3-years monitoring of Cs outflow associated with soil erosion in the decontaminated and no decontaminated sites using experimental plot was conducted in the forest of Fukushima during the rainy season. The Cs outflow in the decontaminated site was 10 to 14 times larger than that of no decontaminated site. However, the outflow in the decontaminated site decreased from 3.24% to 0.61% in corresponding with the recovery of the forest floor cover. When reaching of the forest floor cover to 60% and over, the Cs outflow in the decontaminated site turned into relatively minor fluctuations and similar level to the no decontaminated site. The decrease in the Cs outflow corresponding to the restoration of the forest floor cover was owing to the recovering of the protective effect of forest floor against the raindrop splash and decrease in ratio of the soil component with relatively high Cs activity in the particulate matter.

Characteristics in trace elements compositions of tephras (B-Tm and To-a) for identification tools

Nara, Fumiko*; Yokoyama, Tatsunori; Yamasaki, Shinichi*; Minami, Masayo*; Asahara, Yoshihiro*; Watanabe, Takahiro; Yamada, Kazuyoshi*; Tsuchiya, Noriyoshi*; Yasuda, Yoshinori*

Geochemical Journal, 55(3), p.117 - 133, 2021/00

https://doi.org/10.2343/geochemj.2.0619

The absolute date of the Millennium Eruption (ME) of Changbaishan Volcano is widely recognized as AD 946. The Baegdosan-Tomakomai (B-Tm) tephra dispersed during the ME is a robust-age key bed. In order to identify the tephra, refractive index and major-element compositions of volcanic glass shards are conventionally used. However, trace-element analysis has been rarely carried out, especially for rare-earth elements (REEs) and for tephra layer bulk sediments. Here we present the datasets of major- and trace-element compositions datasets for the glass shards and bulk sediments of the B-Tm and Towada caldera eruptions (To-a) tephra deposits from the Lake Ogawara sediment core, Tohoku region, northern Japan. The depth profiles of the major and trace elements show the significant peaks for the KO and some trace elements (Zn, Rb, Zr, Nb, Sn, Y, La, Ce, Nd, Th, and U) at the B-Tm tephra layer in the Lake Ogawara sediment core, but no peaks of these elements at the To-a tephra layer. High concentrations of the trace elements in the B-Tm tephra layer were observed in individual glass shards as well as in the bulk sediment. These concentrations are highlighted by the elemental abundance pattern normalized by the crustal abundance. The elemental pattern in individual glass shards from other Japanese tephras showed significant differences from those of the B-Tm tephra, especially in REEs compositions. The trace-element compositions of the glass shards and bulk sediment show strong advantages for distinguishing the B-Tm tephra from other Japanese tephras.