Analysis of nuclear materials in process solution during flush-out activities for decommissioning of reprocessing plant

Yamamoto, Masahiko; Horigome, Kazushi; Goto, Yuichi; Taguchi, Shigeo

Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Fuel Cycle (GLOBAL2024) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2024/10

Flush-out activities of Tokai Reprocessing Plant were completed in February, 2024. Since it contained remaining nuclear materials in main process of the facility, purpose of activities was to flush-out them and to rinse with nitric acid solution. This paper describes analysis of nuclear materials related to flush-out activities.

Hot cell equipment improvement effortsat Analytical Laboratory in Tokai Reprocessing Plant

Ishibashi, Atsushi; Masui, Kenji; Goto, Yuichi; Yamamoto, Masahiko; Taguchi, Shigeo; Ishikawa, Satoshi*; Ishikawa, Tomoya*

Nihon Hozen Gakkai Dai-19-Kai Gakujutsu Koenkai Yoshishu, p.18 - 21, 2023/08

An inner-box typed hot cell for analysis of highly radioactive samples has been operated for about 40 years in Tokai Reprocessing Plant since its installation in 1980. During the operation of analytical hot cell, improvement and upgrades including auxiliary equipment have been performed, in addition to keep the equipment in proper condition through periodic inspections and maintenance. This paper describes about these efforts for analytical hot cell and its results.

Physical property investigation of gloves for glove boxes in nuclear fuel reprocessing plants; Physical properties of used gloves and estimation of its life-time

Yamamoto, Masahiko; Nishida, Naoki; Kobayashi, Daisuke; Nemoto, Ryo*; Hayashi, Hiroyuki*; Kitao, Takahiko; Kuno, Takehiko

JAEA-Technology 2023-004, 30 Pages, 2023/06

JAEA-Technology-2023-004.pdf:1.94MB

Glove-box gloves, that are used for handling nuclear fuel materials at the Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, have an expiration date by internal rules. All gloves are replaced at a maximum of every 4-year. However, degrees of glove deterioration varies depending on its usage environment such as frequency, chemicals, and radiation dose. Therefore, physical properties such as tensile strength, elongation, hardness of gloves are measured and technical evaluation method for the glove life-time is established. It was found that gloves without any defects in its appearance have enough physical properties and satisfies the acceptance criteria values of new gloves. Thus, it was considered that the expired gloves could be used for total of 8-year, by adding 4-year of new glove life-time. In addition, the results of extrapolation by plotting the glove's physical properties versus the used years showed that the physical properties at 8-year is on the safer side than the reported physical properties of broken glove. Also, the data are not significantly different from the physical properties of the long-term storage glove (8 and 23 years). Based on these results, life-time of gloves at TRP is set to be 8-year. The frequency of glove inspections are not changed, and if any defects is found, the glove is promptly replaced. Thus, the risk related to glove usage is not increased. The cost of purchasing gloves, labor for glove replacement, and the amount of generated waste can be reduced by approximately 40%, respectively, resulting in more efficient and rationalized glove management.

Accurate and precise measurement of uranium content in uranium trioxide by gravimetry; Comparison with isotope dilution mass spectrometry and its uncertainty estimation

Yamamoto, Masahiko; Horigome, Kazushi; Kuno, Takehiko

Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 190, p.110460_1 - 110460_7, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2022.110460

Gravimetric measurement of U content in UO with ignition in the air has been investigated. The ignition temperature, ignition time and aliquot sample mass are optimized as 900C, 60 minutes, and 1 g, respectively. The method is validated by IDMS with uncertainty estimation. The obtained result by gravimetry is 0.782360.00051 g/g (k=2) and agreed with IDMS value within its uncertainty. It has been found that U in UO can be measured accurately and precisely by gravimetry.

Investigation of physical properties of glove for glove-box and estimation of its life-time

Kobayashi, Daisuke; Yamamoto, Masahiko; Nishida, Naoki; Miyoshi, Ryuta; Nemoto, Ryo*; Hayashi, Hiroyuki*; Kato, Keisuke; Nishino, Saki; Kuno, Takehiko; Kitao, Takahiko; et al.

Nihon Hozen Gakkai Dai-18-Kai Gakujutsu Koenkai Yoshishu, p.237 - 240, 2022/07

All gloves attached to glove-box in Tokai Reprocessing Plant have a fixed expiration date and have to be replaced every 4-year. However, degrees of glove deterioration are different depending on its usage environment (frequency, chemicals, radiation, etc.), because of rubber products. Therefore, physical properties such as tensile strength, elongation, hardness of gloves are measured, and the life-time of gloves are estimated. As a result, gloves without any defects in its appearance have enough physical property for acceptance criteria of new glove. The extrapolated physical property of glove is sufficiently larger than the reported values of damaged glove. No deterioration in physical properties of gloves, that are periodically replaced without any defects in its appearance, is observed and the usable life-time of the glove is estimated to be 8 years.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

Automation technique of analytical pre-treatment for radioactive sample measurement using the program written by visual basic for applications

Yamamoto, Masahiko; Karo, Yoshinori*; Kodaka, Noriyasu; Kuno, Takehiko

JAEA-Technology 2019-014, 68 Pages, 2019/10

JAEA-Technology-2019-014.pdf:2.93MB

Analytical devices like syringe pump, electric burette, fraction collector, and electric valve have been controlled by the program written with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA Macro) to automate the column separation of radioactive sample measurement. It is found that VBA Macro can control each device. Therefore, automatic conditioning and separation equipment were made by combining each device and sequentially controlling with the program. The automation conditioning equipment can repeatedly perform conditioning operation with maximum of 8 columns. The automation separation equipment can separate and recover Sr in simulated highly active liquid waste by using Eichrom Technologies Sr resin. It is found that the developed automation method, using commercially available VBA Macro, is effective to reduce labor work, operator's radiation exposure, and to prevent operational error of analysis, together with reducing the cost of automation.

A New approach for measuring the muon anomalous magnetic moment and electric dipole moment

Abe, Mitsushi*; Bae, S.*; Beer, G.*; Bunce, G.*; Choi, H.*; Choi, S.*; Chung, M.*; da Silva, W.*; Eidelman, S.*; Finger, M.*; et al.

Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Internet), 2019(5), p.053C02_1 - 053C02_22, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptz030

This paper introduces a new approach to measure the muon magnetic moment anomaly and the muon electric dipole moment (EDM) at the J-PARC muon facility. The goal of our experiment is to measure and using an independent method with a factor of 10 lower muon momentum, and a factor of 20 smaller diameter storage-ring solenoid compared with previous and ongoing muon g-2 experiments with unprecedented quality of the storage magnetic field. Additional significant differences from the present experimental method include a factor of 1000 smaller transverse emittance of the muon beam (reaccelerated thermal muon beam), its efficient vertical injection into the solenoid, and tracking each decay positron from muon decay to obtain its momentum vector. The precision goal for is a statistical uncertainty of 450 parts per billion (ppb), similar to the present experimental uncertainty, and a systematic uncertainty less than 70 ppb. The goal for EDM is a sensitivity of ecm.

The Surface composition of asteroid 162173 Ryugu from Hayabusa2 near-infrared spectroscopy

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Arai, Takehiko*; Nakauchi, Yusuke*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Science, 364(6437), p.272 - 275, 2019/04

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav7432

The near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, the target of Hayabusa2 sample return mission, is believed to be a primitive carbonaceous object. The Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on Hayabusa2 acquired reflectance spectra of Ryugu's surface to provide direct measurements of the surface composition and geological context for the returned samples. A weak, narrow absorption feature centered at 2.72 micron was detected across the entire observed surface, indicating that hydroxyl (OH)-bearing minerals are ubiquitous there. The intensity of the OH feature and low albedo are similar to thermally- and/or shock-metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. There are few variations in the OH-band position, consistent with Ryugu being a compositionally homogeneous rubble-pile object generated from impact fragments of an undifferentiated aqueously altered parent body.

Effect of surface conditions of the filament used in thermal ionization mass spectrometry on an uranium isotopic measurement

Taguchi, Shigeo; Miyauchi, Hironari*; Horigome, Kazushi; Yamamoto, Masahiko; Kuno, Takehiko

Bunseki Kagaku, 67(11), p.681 - 686, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.2116/bunsekikagaku.67.681

In thermal ionization mass spectrometry, de-gassing is one of the important treatments to release impurities of filaments and to minimize the influence of background. In this work, the effect of the surface change in the tungsten filament induced by the conductively heating treatment on uranium isotopic (U/U) measurement has been investigated. It was found that the conductively heating treatment of the filament has the effect of smoothing the surface of the filament and also has the effect of improving the deposition of the sample on the filament surface. As a result of either these effects, the precision of uranium isotopic (U/U) measurement was improved.