Performance test results for the Advanced Fuel Assembly Assay System (AFAS) on the active length verification of LWR MOX fuel assembly by neutron detectors

Nakajima, Shinji; Nagatani, Taketeru; Shiromo, Hideo; Asano, Takashi; Marlow, J. B.*; Swinhoe, M. T.*; Menlove, H. O.*; Rael, C. D.*; Kawasue, Akane*; Iso, Shoko*; et al.

Proceedings of INMM 55th Annual Meeting (Internet), 10 Pages, 2014/07

The Advanced Fuel Assembly Assay System (AFAS) is an unattended non-destructive assay (NDA) system by neutron measurement to verify the plutonium amount in an LWR plutonium and uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assembly. The assembly will be fabricated in the MOX fuel fabrication plant under construction by the Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited. The AFAS has been developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory under the auspices of the Secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan. The AFAS is the first NDA system which will verify the active length of the assembly without inspector attendance. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has conducted the performance test for the AFAS under the contract with Nuclear Material Control Center to demonstrate this active length verification technology by using MOX fuel assemblies owned by JAEA. As the results, it was confirmed that measurement error of the active length for the MOX fuel assembly was less than 0.1% and it was satisfied with requirement by IAEA. This paper provides the performance test results for the active length verification of the AFAS.

Performance test results of the advanced verification for inventory sample system (AVIS)

Nakajima, Shinji; Nagatani, Taketeru; Asano, Takashi; Marlow, J. B.*; Swinhoe, M. T.*; Menlove, H. O.*; Rael, C. D.*; Kawasue, Akane*; Iso, Shoko*; Kumakura, Shinichi*; et al.

Proceedings of INMM 54th Annual Meeting (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2013/07

The advanced verification inventory system (AVIS) is a nondestructive assay (NDA) system developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to measure small samples of bulk plutonium and uranium mixed oxide (MOX) powder and pellets at the Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) mixed oxide fuel fabrication plant (J-MOX). In order to mitigate the workload on the Rokkasho On-Site Laboratory (OSL), it is intended that the AVIS measurement will be substituted for a part of the Destructive Assay (DA) for J-MOX. Based on the commission from Office for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Safeguards (JSGO) of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has conducted the performance test of the AVIS in order to confirm the system performance before installation at the J-MOX site. The performance test consists of two phases. In the phase 1 test, detector parameters such as detector efficiency and die-away time were evaluated by using a californium-252 neutron source. These results agreed well with design value and were reported at the 53rd INMM annual meeting. JAEA conducted the phase 2 test by using MOX materials in order to evaluate the total measurement uncertainty (TMU). In the test, influence of sample density, plutonium concentration and organic additives in samples were also evaluated. Consequently, it is expected that AVIS can achieve the target TMU of 0.5% required in user requirement of IAEA by optimizing measurement condition and by using well-characterized standards. This paper provides a summary of the results of comprehensive performance test of AVIS.

Measurement of deuteron induced thick target neutron yields at 9 MeV

Shigyo, Nobuhiro*; Hidaka, Kosuke*; Hirabayashi, Keiichi*; Nakamura, Yasuhiro*; Moriguchi, Daisuke*; Kumabe, Masahiro*; Hirano, Hidetaka*; Hirayama, Shusuke*; Naito, Yuki*; Motooka, Chikahide*; et al.

Journal of the Korean Physical Society, 59(2), p.1725 - 1728, 2011/08

Development of an instrument system for measuring the internal pressure of the small intestine using an ileus tube

Ishikawa, Noriko; Oka, Kiyoshi; Naganawa, Akihiro*; Yoshino, Junji*; Wakabayashi, Takao*; Watanabe, Shinya*; Naito, Takehito*

Nihon Kikai Gakkai Rombunshu, C, 75(756), p.2359 - 2361, 2009/08

Instruments for measuring the internal pressure of digestive organs are used for diagnosing functional diseases, judging how critical the condition is, and deciding the treatment method or determining the degree of alleviation. However, the technique wherein the internal pressure of the small intestine is measured is highly invasive and painful for patients, and the insertion of the catheter via transducers is not preferred because it involves the insertion of an electric instrument in the body. In this study, we developed a system that measures the pressure of the small intestine with an ileus tube, which is generally used for the treatment of ileus. The main feature of our system is that can be used to measure internal pressure without the insertion of electric instruments such as transducers into the body, allowing the assessment of ileus without causing pain to the patient being treated. In this note, we present a brief description of the structure and function of this instrument used to measure the internal pressure of the small intestine.

Nucleon direct-semidirect radiative capture with Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-BCS bound states

Bonearu, L.*; Kawano, Toshihiko*; Watanabe, Takehito*; Chiba, Satoshi

Physical Review C, 75(5), p.054618_1 - 054618_10, 2007/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.75.054618

The nucleon direct-semidirect (DSD) capture cross sections are obtained by calculating a transition amplitude to the Hartree-Fock-BCS bound states. The radial matrix elements in the DSD amplitudes are calculated from the radial part of the single-particle wave functions. For deformed nuclei the single-particle states are expanded in the cylindrical harmonic-oscillator basis and then projected on the spherical harmonic-oscillator basis. The pairing correlations are treated in the BCS approach and the calculated spectroscopic factors are in fairly good agreement with experimental data in the even tin isotopes from Sn to Sn. The resulting DSD cross sections for the neutron capture by Pb and U are found to be in good agreement with the available experimental data. The calculations are also performed for the neutron capture on Sn and Sn isotopes that are important for ther-process in astrophysics.

Vanadium uptake and an effect of vanadium treatment on F-labeled water movement in a cowpea plant by positron emitting tracer imaging system (PETIS)

Furukawa, Jun*; Yokota, Harumi*; Tanoi, Keitaro*; Ueoka, Shiori*; Matsuhashi, Shimpei; Ishioka, Noriko; Watanabe, Satoshi; Uchida, Hiroshi*; Tsuji, Atsunori*; Ito, Takehito*; et al.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 249(2), p.495 - 498, 2001/08

https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013276224300

We present real time Vanadate (V) uptake imaging in a cowpea plant by Positron Emitting Tracer Imaging System (PETIS). Vanadium-48 was produced by bombarding a Sc foil target with 50 MeV -particles at Takasaki Ion accelerators for Advanced Radiation Application (TIARA) AVF cyclotron. Then V was added to the culture solution to investigate the V distribution in a cowpea plant. The real time uptake of the V was monitored by PETIS. We measured the distribution of V in a whole plant after 3, 6 and 20 hours of V treatment by Bio-imaging Analyzer System (BAS). After the 20 hour treatment, vanadate was detected at the up-ground part of the plant. To know the effect of V uptake on plant activity, F-labeled water uptake was analyzed by PETIS. When a cowpea plant was treated with V for 20 hours before F-labeled water uptake experiment, the total amount of F-labeled water absorption was drastically desreased. Results suggest the inhibition of water uptake was mainly caused by the vanadate already moved to the up-ground part of the plant.

Comparison of O-labeled and F-labeled water uptake in a soybean plant by PETIS (Positron Emitting Tracer Imaging System)

Nakanishi, Tomoko*; Yokota, Harumi*; Tanoi, Keitaro*; Ikeue, Natsuko*; Okuni, Yoko*; Furukawa, Jun*; Ishioka, Noriko; Watanabe, Satoshi; Osa, Akihiko; Sekine, Toshiaki; et al.

Radioisotopes, 50(6), p.265 - 269, 2001/06

https://doi.org/10.3769/radioisotopes.50.265

O-Labeled and F-Labeled water uptake manner in a soybean plant was compared by PETIS (Positron Emitting Tracer Imaging System). O-Labeled water (half-life: 2 min) and F-Labeled water (half-life: 110 min) were produced by a cyclotron by N(d,n)O and O(,pn)F reactions, respectively. A root of a soybean plant was cut off and each labeled water was supplied from the basal part of the plant. The gamma-rays emitted from the sample was measured by a BGO counter with a detection area of 5 cm15 cm. The radioactivity from each stem was accumlated every 15 s till 20 min. It was found that F-labeled water was taken up much faster than O-labeled water, suggesting that in F-labeled water, fluorine was moved in the form of F-ion. When BAS image of O-labeled water in a plant after 5 min and 10 min of water supply was taken, it was found that the labeled water was observed only in the lowest internode, between a root and the first leaves.

Interim report on the performance test results for the Advanced Verification for Inventory sample System (AVIS)

Nagatani, Taketeru; Nakajima, Shinji; Asano, Takashi; Kawasue, Akane*; Iso, Shoko*; Kumakura, Shinichi*; Watanabe, Takehito*; Marlow, J.*; Martyn, S.*; Menlove, H.*; et al.

no journal, , 

The AVIS (Advanced Verification for Inventory sample System), which was designed by LANL in partnership with Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC), is a nondestructive assay (NDA) system to measure the plutonium mass for plutonium uranium mixed oxide (MOX) powder and pellet for large scale MOX fuel fabrication plant (J-MOX). The AVIS is intended to meet a performance specification of a total measurement uncertainty of less than 0.5% in the neutron (Pu effective) measurement. It is intended that the AVIS measurement will be substituted for a fraction of the DA samples to reduce the number of DA from J-MOX. Therefore, the AVIS has a crucial role to attain effective safeguards for J-MOX. JAEA, which has experience/knowledge to develop the NDA system and plutonium handling field, was entrusted with performance testing for the AVIS from NMCC. JAEA has conducted performance testing on the AVIS using standard radiation source (neutron and ). As the results of test, it was confirmed that the AVIS has the designed performance. As a next step, JAEA will conduct the AVIS test using MOX materials in order to evaluate the relevant measurement accuracy. This paper reports the performance test results and future MOX test plans of the AVIS.