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.

Fast burnup calculation method based on neutron spectrum reconstruction with proper orthogonal decomposition and regression model

Watanabe, Tomoaki; Aizawa, Naoto*; Chiba, Go*; Tada, Kenichi; Yamamoto, Akio*

Proceedings of International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2025/04

Currently, a major burnup calculation method for the nuclide composition of nuclear fuel conducts neutron transport calculations at each burnup step to account for changes in the neutron spectrum. While this method is highly accurate, the large computational cost of neutron transport calculations can be problematic. Therefore, a fast burnup calculation method based on neutron spectrum reconstruction with the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and regression model is investigated. In this method, dimensionality reduction by POD is applied to many neutron fluxes obtained from detailed burnup calculations for various input parameter sets, and regression models are constructed to connect the dimensionality-reduced neutron fluxes and parameters. By substituting arbitrary input parameters to the regression models, the neutron flux is reconstructed and the burnup calculation is performed. This method performs burnup calculations that consider changes in the neutron spectrum based on input conditions without neutron transport calculations. The present method was applied to a PWR UO fuel pin cell model. The results show the nuclide inventory can be calculated with a prediction accuracy within a few percent. In addition, it is found that the calculation error is dominated by the regression models, which implies the further improvement of the regression models leads to improving the accuracy.

Simulator operation manuals for a reconnaissance robot and work robots

Watanabe, Kaho; Suzuki, Kenta

JAEA-Testing 2024-004, 41 Pages, 2025/02

JAEA-Testing-2024-004.pdf:3.4MB

There is an emergency response team against nuclear facilities' accidents of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). The team is in Naraha Center for Remote Control Technology Development (NARREC). Trainings of maneuvering emergency response robots are performed at NARREC by the team for operators temporarily coming from all facilities which are possibility to have a huge nuclear emergency in JAEA. There are three kinds of robots to be used in the training: (1) Reconnaissance robots (for shooting a video and for measuring radiation level and temperature in nuclear accidents field), (2) Work robots (for obstacles removal in nuclear accidents field) and (3) Drones. As for the training, each operator person has been trained once or twice a year. Therefore, it is difficult for operators to retain their own sense of the maneuvering robots. Then, the team provided a simulator system which is consists of a palm-sized controller and a PC installed operation programs based on Choreonoid as dynamics simulation software, and we provided the system for operators in order to supplement a real robot operation training. This report shows the operation method of the provided simulator system regarding one reconnaissance robot and two work robots.

Effect of neutron beam properties on dose distributions in a water phantom for boron neutron capture therapy

Ishikawa, Akihisa; Tanaka, Hiroki*; Nakamura, Satoshi*; Kumada, Hiroaki*; Sakurai, Yoshinori*; Watanabe, Kenichi*; Yoshihashi, Sachiko*; Tanagami, Yuki*; Uritani, Akira*; Kiyanagi, Yoshiaki*

Journal of Radiation Research (Internet), 65(6), p.765 - 775, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1093/jrr/rrae076

Energy-resolved neutron imaging study of a Japanese sword signed by Bishu Osafune Norimitsu

Oikawa, Kenichi; Matsumoto, Yoshihiro*; Watanabe, Kenichi*; Sato, Hirotaka*; Parker, J. D.*; Shinohara, Takenao; Kiyanagi, Yoshiaki*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 14, p.27990_1 - 27990_11, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79436-6

Comparison between carrier transport property and crystal quality of TlBr semiconductors

Watanabe, Kenichi*; Sugai, Yusuke*; Hasegawa, Sota*; Tanaka, Seishiro*; Hitomi, Keitaro*; Nogami, Mitsuhiro*; Shinohara, Takenao; Su, Y. H.; Parker, J. D.*; Kockelmann, W.*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 14, p.25224_1 - 25224_13, 2024/10

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76005-9

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023); October 1-6, 2023, Sendai International Center, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

Suyama, Kenya; Gunji, Satoshi; Watanabe, Tomoaki; Araki, Shohei; Fukuda, Kodai; Shimada, Kazuya; Fujita, Tatsuya; Ueki, Taro; Nguyen, H.

JAEA-Conf 2024-001, 40 Pages, 2024/07

JAEA-Conf-2024-001.pdf:1.28MB
JAEA-Conf-2024-001-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:163.97MB

The 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) was held from October 1 to October 6, 2023, at the Sendai International Center (Aobayama, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi-prefecture 980-0856, Japan), organized by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and co-organized by the Reactor Physics Division of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) and the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/NEA). 224 presentations passed peer review and 273 technical session registrations, bringing the total number of registered participants to 289, including accompanying persons. Technical tours were also conducted to i) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of TEPCO holdings and Interim Storage Facility Information Center, ii) Nuclear Science Research Institute of JAEA (STACY Renewable Reactor and FCA), iii) NanoTerasu of Tohoku University (synchrotron radiation facility) and Onagawa Nuclear Power Station of Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. This report summarizes the conference and compiles the papers that were presented and agreed to be published in the Proceedings.

Differential pressure rise event for filters of HTTR primary helium gas circulators, 2; Investigation of filter deposits and recurrence prevention measures

Nemoto, Takahiro; Fujiwara, Yusuke; Arakawa, Ryoki; Choyama, Yuya; Nagasumi, Satoru; Hasegawa, Toshinari; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Watanabe, Masashi; Onishi, Takashi; Kawamoto, Taiki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2024-003, 17 Pages, 2024/06

JAEA-Technology-2024-003.pdf:1.91MB

In order to investigate the cause of the increase in differential pressure in the primary helium circulator filter that occurred during the RS-14 cycle, a clogged filter was investigated. As a result of the investigation, deposits caused by silicone oil were confirmed on the surface of the filter element. These results revealed that the cause of filter clogging was silicone oil mixed into the primary system due to performance deterioration of the charcoal filter in the gas circulator of primary helium purification system. As a measure to prevent the recurrence of this event, in addition to the conventional management based on operating hours for replacing of charcoal filter in the gas circulator of primary helium purification system, we have established a new replacement plan for every three years.

Evaluation of quenching characteristics of Li-containing scintillators

Watanabe, Kenichi*; Oshima, Yuya*; Shigyo, Nobuhiro*; Hirata, Yuho

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 63(5), p.056001_1 - 056001_5, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.35848/1347-4065/ad39bd

Lithium-containing scintillators are used for neutron detection; Li-containing scintillators detect tritons and alpha rays produced by neutrons. Since these particles deposit higher energy than gamma rays, Li-containing scintillators can separate gamma rays and neutrons. However, the luminescence efficiency of scintillator decreases for ion beams due to a phenomenon called the quenching effect. Evaluation of the quenching effect is necessary to accurately separate neutrons and gamma rays. The Birks equation is used to predict the scintillation efficiency change due to the quenching effect, but it is necessary to determine the quenching coefficient in the Birks equation. In this study, we used PHITS to calculate the luminescence of Li-containing scintillators considering the quenching effect based on Birks' equation with the quenching coefficient as a free parameter. Then, by comparing the simulated results with the experimentally obtained luminescence, the extinction coefficients of Li glass, Ce:LiCaAlF, and Eu:LiCaAlF scintillators were determined.

Optimization in granulation conditions for adsorbent of extraction chromatography

Hasegawa, Kenta; Goto, Ichiro*; Miyazaki, Yasunori; Ambai, Hiromu; Watanabe, So; Watanabe, Masayuki; Sano, Yuichi; Takeuchi, Masayuki

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 11(2), p.23-00407_1 - 23-00407_8, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.23-00407