Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2022

Kokubun, Yuji; Nakada, Akira; Seya, Natsumi; Nagaoka, Mika; Koike, Yuko; Kubota, Tomohiro; Hirao, Moe; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2023-052, 118 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-052.pdf:3.67MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and by law of Ibaraki Prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2022. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Urban factors and mental health symptoms in children of the Tokyo Early Adolescence Survey; Impact of proximity to railway stations

Davies, S. J. C.*; Bolea-Alamanac, B.*; Endo, Kaori*; Yamamoto, Yu*; Yamasaki, Shudo*; Malins, A.; Evans, J.*; Sullivan, S.*; Ando, Shuntaro*; Nishida, Atsushi*; et al.

Journal of Transport & Health, 28, p.101564_1 - 101564_11, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2022.101564

An Automotive intelligent catalyst that contributes to hydrogen safety for the Decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1FD)

Tanaka, Hirohisa*; Masaki, Sayaka*; Aotani, Takuro*; Inagawa, Kohei*; Iwata, Sogo*; Aida, Tatsuya*; Yamamoto, Tadasuke*; Kita, Tomoaki*; Ono, Hitomi*; Takenaka, Keisuke*; et al.

SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-0534 (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.4271/2022-01-0534

Development of fireproof sheet on glove box panels

Kawasaki, Kohei; Shinada, Kenta; Okamoto, Naritoshi; Kageyama, Tomio; Eda, Takashi; Okazaki, Hiro; Suzuki, Hiromichi; Yamamoto, Kazuya; Otabe, Jun

JAEA-Technology 2020-025, 80 Pages, 2021/03

JAEA-Technology-2020-025.pdf:3.72MB

Plutonium Fuel Production Facility was built in 1988 for the purpose of mainly producing MOX fuel of the prototype fast breeder reactor MONJU, and large glove boxes were installed for handling unsealed nuclear fuel material remotely. The panels of these glove boxes are made of acrylic, except for those installed after December 2013. For fires inside the glove box, automatic fire extinguishing systems using halides have been introduced since the beginning of construction, but for fires outside the glove box, there have been issues with direct measures for acrylic. Therefore, we have developed a fireproof sheet that mitigates the effect of fire outside the glove box on the panels as much as possible. As a result, fire-retardant sheets have been selected and attached to the glove box panels. We conducted a flammability test of the acrylic plate attached with these fireproof sheets and a usage environment influence test of fireproof sheets, and obtained good results. In addition, we set up a working group in the Plutonium Fuel Development Center in view of reducing external exposure during the work of attaching fireproof sheets, in which we discussed and examined the work procedure, and summarized it in the basic procedure manual.

New method for visualizing the dose rate distribution around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant using artificial neural networks

Sasaki, Miyuki; Sanada, Yukihisa; Katengeza, E. W.*; Yamamoto, Akio*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 11, p.1857_1 - 1857_11, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81546-4

This study proposed a new method to visualize the ambient dose rate distribution using artificial neural networks from the results of airborne radiation monitoring. The method used airborne radiation monitoring conducted around Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant by an unmanned aerial vehicle. A lot of survey data which had obtained in the past was used as training data for building a network. The reliability of the artificial neural network method was evaluated by comparison with the ground-based survey data. The dose rate map that was created by the artificial neural networks method reproduced the ground-based survey results better than traditional methods.

Application of the forest shielding factor to the maximum-likelihood expectation maximization method for airborne radiation monitoring

Sasaki, Miyuki; Sanada, Yukihisa; Yamamoto, Akio*

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 184(3-4), p.400 - 404, 2019/10

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncz095

The maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (ML-EM) method is expected to improve the accuracy of airborne radiation monitoring using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The accuracy of the ML-EM method depends on various parameters, including detector efficiency, attenuation factor, and shielding factor. In this study, we evaluate the shielding factor of trees based on several field radiation measurements. From the actual measurement, the shielding factors were well correlated with the heights of the trees. The evaluated shielding factors were applied to the ML-EM method in conjunction with the measured data obtained from above the Fukushima forest. Compared with the conventional methods used for calculating the dose rate, the proposed method is found to be more reliable.

New precise measurements of muonium hyperfine structure at J-PARC MUSE

Strasser, P.*; Abe, Mitsushi*; Aoki, Masaharu*; Choi, S.*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Higashi, Yoshitaka*; Higuchi, Takashi*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Ikedo, Yutaka*; Ishida, Katsuhiko*; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 198, p.00003_1 - 00003_8, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201919800003

Fast reactor core seismic experiment and analysis under strong excitation

Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Iwasaki, Akihisa*; Kawamura, Kazuki*; Matsubara, Shinichiro*; Harada, Hidenori*

Proceedings of 2018 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2018), 8 Pages, 2018/07

To design fast reactor (FR) core components, seismic response must be evaluated in order to ensure structural integrity. Thus, a core seismic analysis method has been developed to evaluate 3D core vibration behavior considering fluid structure interaction and vertical displacements (rising). 1/1.5 scale 37 core element mock-ups hexagonal-matrix experiment was performed to validate the core elements vibration analysis code in three dimensions (REVIAN-3D). Based on the test data, the analysis model newly incorporated to respond to strong excitation was verified.

New precise measurement of muonium hyperfine structure interval at J-PARC

Ueno, Yasuhiro*; Aoki, Masaharu*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Higashi, Yoshitaka*; Higuchi, Takashi*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Ikedo, Yutaka*; Ishida, Katsuhiko*; Ito, Takashi; Iwasaki, Masahiko*; et al.

Hyperfine Interactions, 238(1), p.14_1 - 14_6, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-016-1381-7

Core seismic experiment and analysis of full scale single model for fast reactor

Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Kitamura, Seiji; Iwasaki, Akihisa*; Matsubara, Shinichiro*; Okamura, Shigeki*

Proceedings of 2017 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2017) (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2017/07

To design fast reactor (FR) components, seismic response must be evaluated in order to ensure structural integrity. Therefore, a sophisticated analysis method has to be developed to study the seismic response of FR core. The fast reactors are made of several hundred core assemblies in hexagonal arrangement. When a big earthquake occurs, large horizontal displacement and impact force of each core assembly may cause a trouble for control rod insertability and core assembly intensity. Therefore, a seismic analysis method of fast reactor core considering horizontal nonlinear behavior, such as impact, fluid-structure interaction, etc. is needed. Validation of the core assembly vibration analysis code in three dimension (REVIAN-3D) was conducted by a full scale experiment. In this validation, the vertical behavior (raising displacement) and horizontal behavior (Impact force, horizontal response) of the analysis result agreed very well with the experiments.