Hydrogen absorption and diffusion behaviors in cube-shaped palladium nanoparticles revealed by ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Tang, J.*; Seo, O.*; Rivera Rocabado, D. S.*; Koitaya, Takanori*; Yamamoto, Susumu*; Namba, Yusuke*; Song, C.*; Kim, J.*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Koyama, Michihisa*; et al.

Applied Surface Science, 587, p.152797_1 - 152797_8, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.152797

The hydrogen absorption and diffusion mechanisms on cube-shaped Pd nanoparticles (NPs) which are important hydrogen-storage materials were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and DFT calculations. In the surface region, hydrogen absorption showed almost similar behavior regardless of the NPs size. It was found that the octahedral sites are more favorable than the tetrahedral sites for hydrogen occupation. We also clarified that the hydrogen atoms absorbing on the smaller-sized Pd NPs diffuse to the subsurface more actively because of the weakened Pd-H bond by the surface disordering, which plays an important role in hydrogen adsorption at a low H pressure.

Electronic structure of ThPdAl; Impact of the U states on the electronic structure of UPdAl

Fujimori, Shinichi; Takeda, Yukiharu; Yamagami, Hiroshi; Pospil, J.*; Yamamoto, Etsuji; Haga, Yoshinori

Physical Review B, 105(11), p.115128_1 - 115128_6, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.115128

Comparison of sodium fast reactor core assembly seismic evaluation using the Japanese and French simulation tools

Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Matsubara, Shinichiro*; Harada, Hidenori*; Saunier, P.*; Martin, L.*; Gentet, D.*; Dirat, J.-F.*; Collignon, C.*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 383, p.111406_1 - 111406_14, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2021.111406

Japan-France collaboration on ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) project is launched in 2014. In this project, Japan-France evaluates core assemblies with interferences on seismic event. The object of this study is to verify the seismic evaluation method on core assemblies between Japan and France by comparing the results. The analysis of this benchmark calculation shows a satisfactory agreement between the Japanese and French tools and the figures show a good behavior of the core in horizontal direction under French seismic condition.

Observation of longitudinal magnetic fluctuations at a first-order ferromagnetic quantum phase transition in UGe

Noma, Yuichiro*; Kotegawa, Hisashi*; Kubo, Tetsuro*; To, Hideki*; Harima, Hisatomo*; Haga, Yoshinori; Yamamoto, Etsuji; Onuki, Yoshichika*; Ito, Kohei*; Nakamura, Ai*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 90(7), p.073707_1 - 073707_5, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.90.073707

Study on the predictive evaluation method for loads acting on roof and sidewall of cylindrical tank in nonlinear sloshing based on simplified equations

Ikesue, Shunichi*; Morita, Hideyuki*; Ishii, Hidekazu*; Sago, Hiromi*; Yokoi, Shinobu*; Yamamoto, Tomohiko

Proceedings of ASME 2021 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2021) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2021/07

In this paper, a new method is proposed for the nonlinear sloshing condition of a cylindrical tank, which can evaluate the vertical load acting on the roof and the horizontal load acting on the sidewall. This method is a combination of simplified equations for the liquid surface level and velocity proposed in the past study and the new pressure model modified from the existing model. A long calculation time as CFD analysis is not needed, because this method is consisted of simplified equations. The validity of this method was confirmed by comparing them with the CFD and the test. And future issues on the improvement of this method were clarified from the result.

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.

Internal event level-1 PRA for sodium-cooled fast reactor considering safety measures of defense-in-depth level 1 to 3

Nishino, Hiroyuki; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Naruto, Kenichi*; Gondai, Yoji; Yamamoto, Masaya; Yamano, Hidemasa

Proceedings of Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2020 (ASRAM 2020) (Internet), 12 Pages, 2020/11

The objective of this study is to evaluate the occurrence frequency of accident sequences which may lead to core damage if provisions in defense in depth (DiD) level 1 to 3 are the only safety measures. For this objective, the existing safety measures in this SFR are categorized into those for the DiD level 1-3 and those for the DiD level 4. The safety measures for the DiD level 1-3 are as follows; (1) main reactor shutdown system, (2) double boundary structure in the primary main and auxiliary cooling system and the reactor vessel, which maintain the reactor coolant level sufficient for coolant circulation in the primary main cooling system, (3) decay heat removal in a forced circulation mode. Accident sequences are categorized into typical SFR-specific groups and station blackout (SBO) in this study. The SFR-specific groups are unprotected loss of flow, unprotected transient over power, unprotected loss of heat sink, loss of reactor level, and protected loss of heat sink (PLOHS). The occurrence frequency of these accident sequence groups was quantified to identify major contributors. As the result, PLOHS excluding SBO was indicated as the dominant contribution of 80% or more in the all accident sequence groups and the annual occurrence frequency of the PLOHS was 1.0E-4 order of magnitude. For the PLOHS, loss of offsite power (LOOP) was indicated as major contribution of 30% in initiating events. In the accident sequences of the PLOHS initiated from LOOP, a dominant sequence was combination of common cause failure of primary pumps in the main cooling system and failure-to-start of the auxiliary cooling system after LOOP. The second dominant contribution (15% or more) in the all accident sequence groups is PLOHS in SBO (i.e., decay heat removal failure due to SBO). Each of the other accident sequence groups was 1%.

The -electron state of the heavy fermion superconductor NpPdAl and the isostructural family

Metoki, Naoto; Aczel, A. A.*; Aoki, Dai*; Chi, S.*; Fernandez-Baca, J. A.*; Griveau, J.-C.*; Hagihara, Masato*; Hong, T.*; Haga, Yoshinori; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 30, p.011123_1 - 011123_6, 2020/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.30.011123

Rare earths (4) and actinides (5) provide variety of interesting states realized with competing interactions between the increasing number of electrons. Since crystal field splitting of many-body electron system is smaller than the bandwidth, (1) high resolution experiments are needed, (2) essentially no clear spectrum with well defined peaks is expected in itinerant Ce and U compounds, and (3) Np and Pu is strictly regulated. Therefore, systematic research on magnetic excitations by neutron scattering experiments of localized compounds and rare earth iso-structural reference is useful. We describe the electron states of heavy electron compounds NpPdAl and actinide and rare earth based iso-structural family.

Development of the neutron polarizer for the T-violation search using compound nuclei

Okudaira, Takuya; Oku, Takayuki; Sakai, Kenji; Ino, Takashi*; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Hiroi, Kosuke; Shinohara, Takenao; Kakurai, Kazuhisa*; Aizawa, Kazuya; Shimizu, Hirohiko*; et al.

Proceedings of Science (Internet), 356, 5 Pages, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.22323/1.356.0029

The technology development section carries out the development of the neutron polarization device: He Spin Filter. It is often used for the fundamental physics region. In order to explain the matter-dominated universe, a time reversal violation is necessary and searches for new physics are conducted in the world. The T-violation search using a polarized neutron beam is planned at J-PARC. A large He spin filter is needed to polarize high energy neutrons for the experiment and is developed in JAEA. Recently, we developed the accurate measurement system to evaluate the polarization of He and a vacuum system to make the He spin filter, and large He spin filters for epi-thermal neutron was made using the system. The current status of the development of the He spin filter will be talked.

Novel universality class for the ferromagnetic transition in the low carrier concentration systems UTeS and USeS exhibiting large negative magnetoresistance

Tateiwa, Naoyuki; Haga, Yoshinori; Sakai, Hironori; Yamamoto, Etsuji

Physical Review B, 100(6), p.064413_1 - 064413_7, 2019/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.064413

We report the novel critical behavior of magnetization in low carrier concentration systems UTeS and USeS that exhibit the large negative magnetoresistance around the ferromagnetic transition temperatures 85 and 23 K, respectively. We determine the critical exponents, for the spontaneous magnetization , for the magnetic susceptibility , and for the magnetization isotherm at with several analytical methods. The ferromagnetic states in UTeS and USeS have strong uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. However, the critical exponents in the two compounds are different from those in the three-dimensional Ising system. Similar exponents have been reported for the uranium ferromagnetic superconductors UGe and URhGe. An important finding is that the novel critical phenomenon appears regardless of the charge carrier density or the degree of the itinerancy of the electrons.