Stable C and N isotope abundances in water-extractable organic matter from air-dried soils as potential indices of microbially utilized organic matter

Nagano, Hirohiko*; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko; Tanaka, Sota*; Yomogida, Takumi; Kozai, Naofumi; Koarashi, Jun

Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (Internet), 6, p.1228053_1 - 1228053_9, 2023/00

10.3389/ffgc.2023.1228053

Variation of crystallinity and secondary ion quantity of uranium particles with heating temperature of Sample preparation

Tomita, Ryohei; Tomita, Jumpei; Yomogida, Takumi; Suzuki, Daisuke; Yasuda, Kenichiro; Esaka, Fumitaka; Miyamoto, Yutaka

KEK Proceedings 2022-2, p.108 - 113, 2022/11

https://lib-extopc.kek.jp/preprints/PDF/2022/2225/2225002.pdf

Automated Particle Measurement (APM) is the first measurement of environmental sample for safeguard purpose. APM tells us the number of particles in sample, their enrichment and their location. Precision and accuracy of APM is easily affected by particle condition. We have investigated how influential baking temperature in sample preparation are for uranium secondary ion quantity, uranium hydride generation and particle crystallinity. Our experimental results showed that baking temperature of 800C reduced uranium secondary ion quantity to 33% compared with baking at 350C. Uranium hydride generation ratio of the sample baked at 850C was also 4 times higher than the sample baked at 350C. Baking at 850C raised only crystallinity of uranium particles. Baking sample at too high temperature caused less uranium secondary ion generation and much more uranium hydride generation. It made precision and accuracy of APM worse. In our experiment, baking at 350C is suitable for uranium particles in the safeguards sample.

Analysis of particles containing alpha-emitters in stagnant water at torus room of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station's Unit 2 reactor

Yomogida, Takumi; Ouchi, Kazuki; Oka, Toshitaka; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro; Koma, Yoshikazu; Konno, Katsuhiro*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 12(1), p.7191_1 - 7191_10, 2022/05

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11334-1

Particles containing alpha () nuclides were identified from sediment in stagnant water at the torus room of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station (FDiNPS)'s Unit 2 reactor. Several uranium-bearing particles were identified by SEM observation. These particles contained Zr and other elements which constituted fuel cladding and structural materials. The U/U isotope ratio in the solid fractions that included U particles was consistent with the nuclear fuel in the Unit 2 reactor, which indicated that the U particles had been derived from nuclear fuel. The particles with alpha-emitters detected by alpha track analysis were several tens to several hundred m in size. The EDX spectra showed that these particles mainly comprised iron, which indicated Pu, Am, and Cm were adsorbed on the Fe-baring particles. This study clarifies that the major morphologies of U and other -nuclides were differed in the sediment of stagnant water in the torus room of FDiNPS's Unit 2 reactor.

Selective Pd separation from simulated radioactive liquid waste by precipitation using xenon lamp irradiation for a simplified procedure

Yomogida, Takumi; Saeki, Morihisa*; Morii, Shiori; Oba, Hironori*; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro

Analytical Sciences, 37(12), p.1843 - 1846, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.21N013

In this study, we developed a simple and one-step Pd separation technique based on photoreduction with Xe lamp irradiation for the determination of Pd in highly radioactive samples. A simulated high-level radioactive liquid wastes (HLLW) solution, which consists of 14 major elements (Rb, Sr, Zr, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm) in a 3 mol L HNO solution, was used to evaluate the separation performance. The Pd precipitate were formed by Xe lamp irradiation and recovered by centrifugation. The results showed that the recovery of Pd from a simulated HLLW solution depend on the irradiation time and concentration of ethanol. By optimizing the conditions at photo irradiation, the Pd recovery from the simulated HLLW solution reached up to 50 %, while 99.5 % of the other 13 elements were separated. The Pd precipitate could be separated from the elements that are the main source of radioactivity (Sr, Cs, and Ba) and the source of spectral interference for the determination of Pd (Zr, and Ru). These results indicate that selective separation of Pd is achieved with the proposed method, showing the applicability of the proposed separation technique to HLLW samples.

Distribution of studtite and metastudtite generated on the surface of UO; Application of Raman imaging technique to uranium compound

Kusaka, Ryoji; Kumagai, Yuta; Yomogida, Takumi; Takano, Masahide; Watanabe, Masayuki; Sasaki, Takayuki*; Akiyama, Daisuke*; Sato, Nobuaki*; Kirishima, Akira*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(6), p.629 - 634, 2021/06

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1854881

Direct quantitation of Cs in spent Cs adsorbent used for the decontamination of radiocesium-containing water by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Asai, Shiho*; Ohata, Masaki*; Hanzawa, Yukiko; Horita, Takuma; Yomogida, Takumi; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro

Analytical Chemistry, 92(4), p.3276 - 3284, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.9b05161

The long-term safety assessment of spent Cs adsorbents produced during the decontamination of radiocesium-containing water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant requires one to estimate their Cs content prior to final disposal. Cs is usually quantified by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), which necessitates the elution of Cs from Cs adsorbents. However, this approach suffers from the high radiation dose from Cs. To address this challenge, we herein employed laser ablation ICP-MS for direct quantitation of Cs in Cs adsorbents and used a model Cs adsorbent prepared by immersion of a commercially available Cs adsorbent into radiocesium-containing liquid waste to verify the developed technique. The use of the Cs/Cs ratio and Cs radioactivity obtained by gamma spectrometry achieved simple and precise quantitation of Cs and the resulting Cs activity of 0.36 Bq agreed well with that in the original radiocesium-containing liquid waste.

In Situ Time-Resolved XAFS Studies on Laser-induced Particle Formation of Palladium Metal in an Aqueous/EtOH solution

Saeki, Morihisa*; Matsumura, Daiju; Yomogida, Takumi; Taguchi, Tomitsugu*; Tsuji, Takuya; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Oba, Hironori*

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 123(1), p.817 - 824, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b09532

Reaction kinetics of laser-induced particle formation in an aqueous solution of PdCl was investigated by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and dispersive X-ray absorption fine structure (DXAFS). The Pd particle was generated by irradiation of nanosecond pulsed 266-nm laser. The TEM observation showed dependence of the particle size on the laser fluence and promotion of the particle growth by irradiation of high-fluence laser. The DXAFS data give us the Pd concentration. Temporal changes of the Pd concentration analyzed based on Finke-Watzky two step mechanism. The analysis elucidates that the laser photon contributes to the reduction of the PdCl ion by the one-photon process and to the autocatalytic growth of the Pd particles by the multi-photon process.

Non-contact and selective Pd separation based on laser-induced photoreduction for determination of Pd by ICP-MS; The Relation between separation conditions and Pd recovery

Yomogida, Takumi; Asai, Shiho; Saeki, Morihisa*; Hanzawa, Yukiko; Horita, Takuma; Esaka, Fumitaka; Oba, Hironori*; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro

Bunseki Kagaku, 66(9), p.647 - 652, 2017/09

https://doi.org/10.2116/bunsekikagaku.66.647

Palladium-107 is a long-lived fission product, which can be found in high-level radioactive liquid wastes (HLLW). Determination of the Pd contents in HLLW is essential to evaluate the long-term safety of HLLW repositories. However, the Pd content in HLLW has not been reported because of difficulties in pretreatment for the measurement. In this study, we investigated applicability of laser-induced photoreduction to HLLW solution: it enables a simple and non-contact separation of Pd. The results showed the recovery of 60% was achieved at the conditions: 40% ethanol, 20 min irradiation, 100 mJ of pulse energy. Additionally, major radionuclides and potentially interfering components in ICP-MS were removed from the simulated HLLW over a wide concentration range of Pd from 0.24 to 24 mg L, showing the applicability of the proposed separation technique to HLLW samples.

Determination of Pd in Pd recovered by laser-induced photoreduction with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Asai, Shiho; Yomogida, Takumi; Saeki, Morihisa*; Oba, Hironori*; Hanzawa, Yukiko; Horita, Takuma; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro

Analytical Chemistry, 88(24), p.12227 - 12233, 2016/12

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.6b03286

Safety evaluation of a radioactive waste repository requires credible activity estimates confirmed by actual measurements. A long-lived radionuclide, Pd, which can be found in radioactive wastes, is one of the difficult-to-measure nuclides and results in a deficit in experimentally determined contents. In this study, a precipitation-based separation method has been developed for the determination of Pd with ICP-MS. The photoreduction induced by laser irradiation at 355 nm provides short-time and one-step recovery of Pd. The proposed method was verified by applying it to a spent nuclear fuel sample. In order to efficiently recover Pd, a natural Pd standard was employed as the Pd carrier. The chemical yield of Pd was about 90% with virtually no impurities, allowing accurate quantification of Pd.

Development of analytical methods for Pd in high-level radioactive wastes using laser-induced particle formation

Yomogida, Takumi; Asai, Shiho; Saeki, Morihisa; Hanzawa, Yukiko; Esaka, Fumitaka; Oba, Hironori; Magara, Masaaki

no journal, , 

Pd contained in high-level radioactive wastes (HLW) is a long-lived fission product. The procedure for Pd determination in HLW is demanded for safety assessment of geological disposal. Radiation measurement is difficult due to very low energy of beta radiation of Pd. Chemical separations and mass spectrometry methods are superior to the radiation measurement, but it has some problems on complicated analysis processes and Ag isobar contamination. We performed a novel procedure for Pd determination by laser-induced particle formation to overcome those problems. In this study, Pd separation by laser-induced particle formation was applied to the analysis of simulated HLW solutions. ICP-MS measurements demonstrated that the recovery ratio of Pd depended on solutions and ethanol concentrations in laser irradiation. The low contamination ratio indicated the high elemental selectivity of laser-induced particle formation.