Sub-pin level distribution tallies and statistical error estimation with POD tallies in two-dimensional C5G7 benchmark

Kondo, Ryoichi; Yamamoto, Akio*; Endo, Tomohiro*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 63(2), p.142 - 153, 2026/02

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2554969

The flux distribution tallies using proper orthogonal decomposition, called POD tallies, have been developed to address issues of high-fidelity Monte Carlo simulations. The POD tallies can reduce both dimensionality and statistical error. The present study verifies the applicability of the POD tallies to sub-pin level flux distribution in the two-dimensional C5G7 benchmark. Statistical error estimation is also proposed by applying the circular block bootstrap method to the POD tallies to estimate the statistical error of the flux distribution in a single Monte Carlo calculation. In the verification, the dimensionality of the finely discretized distribution is reduced by more than 90% compared with conventional cell tallies. The statistical error is reduced by more than half as the average value of all tally regions. The proposed approach is confirmed to properly estimate the statistical error of flux distribution considering both the inter-cycle correlation and the correlation between the expansion coefficients of different POD orders.

Feasibility study on the production of Th as a long-life Ac generator using the experimental fast reactor Joyo

Sasaki, Yuto; Maeda, Shigetaka; Fukasawa, Tetsuo*; Takaki, Naoyuki*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 63(2), p.154 - 165, 2026/02

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2558244

In recent years, targeted alpha therapy, which utilizes Ac combined with antibodies or peptides that selectively accumulate in cancer cells, has garnered attention in the field of nuclear medicine. To meet the resulting increasing demand for Ac, exploring alternative production methods is essential. While several researchers, including the authors, have explored production methods using Ra as a raw material, challenges remain, such as the limited availability of Ra, difficulties in handling it, and the requirement for regular irradiation. To address these challenges, the authors focused on developing a production strategy for a long-life Ac generator using Th as a raw material and the experimental fast reactor Joyo. A detailed investigation was conducted, encompassing chemical processing after irradiation, target availability, and production yields, including the most probable values and associated uncertainties. Results revealed that although enrichment of the raw material and long-term irradiation are required, Ac can be produced in quantities comparable to its current global supply. Furthermore, this research has shown that the THOREX method, which is already in practical use, be applied to effectively separate by-products such as fission products and radioactive materials from thorium during the chemical processing after irradiation, as revealed by a literature survey.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 Accident analysis considering the thermal stratification and containment leakage

Nakamura, Yuki*; Kojima, Yoshihiro*; Yamashita, Takuya; Shimomura, Kenta; Mizokami, Shinya

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(12), p.1226 - 1230, 2025/12

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2570371

Measurements of neutron capture cross-sections for nuclides of interest in decommissioning (IV); Ho(n,)Ho reactions

Nakamura, Shoji; Shibahara, Yuji*; Endo, Shunsuke; Rovira Leveroni, G.; Kimura, Atsushi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(11), p.1086 - 1099, 2025/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2525327

Estimation of the beam trip frequency of a proton linear accelerator for an accelerator-driven nuclear transmutation system and comparison with the allowable beam trip frequency

Takei, Hayanori

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(11), p.1051 - 1070, 2025/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2523023

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is working on the research and development of an accelerator-driven nuclear transmutation system (ADS) for transmuting minor actinides. This system combines a subcritical nuclear reactor with a high-power superconducting proton linear accelerator (JADS-linac). One of the factors limiting the advancement of the JADS-linac is beam trips, which often induce thermal cycle fatigue, thereby damaging the components in the subcritical core. The average beam current of the JADS-linac is 32 times higher than that of the linear accelerator (linac) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). Therefore, according to the development stage, comparing the beam trip frequency of the JADS-linac with the allowable beam trip frequency (ABTF) is necessary. Herein the beam trip frequency of the JADS-linac was estimated through a Monte Carlo program using the reliability functions based on the operational data of the J-PARC linac. The Monte Carlo program afforded the distribution of the beam trip duration, which cannot be obtained using traditional analytical methods. Results show that the frequency of the beam trips with a duration exceeding 5 min must be reduced to 27% of the current J-PARC linac level to be below the ABTF.

Improvement in automated particle measurement using micromanipulation and large geometry secondary ion mass spectrometry to remove the particle mixing effect of uranium particles

Tomita, Ryohei; Tomita, Jumpei; Suzuki, Daisuke; Miyamoto, Yutaka; Yasuda, Kenichiro

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(10), p.939 - 948, 2025/10

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2512812

A new automated particle measurement (APM) combined with micromanipulation using large geometry secondary ion mass spectrometry instrument was proposed and demonstrated to remove the particle mixing effect, which indicated that the aggregation of uranium particles was detected as a single uranium particle, from APM results. The results showed that the new APM method was more effective than the traditional APM method in removing the particle mixing effect from the APM results and determining the existence of minor uranium isotopes in the samples.

Simple technique for the preparation of uranium-impregnated porous silica particles and their application as working standard particles for analysis of the safeguards environmental samples

Tomita, Jumpei; Tomita, Ryohei; Suzuki, Daisuke; Yasuda, Kenichiro; Miyamoto, Yutaka

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 12 Pages, 2025/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2557376

Evaluation of Co inventory in the core of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; Contribution of fuel deposits to the reactor core inventory

Uchida, Shunsuke*; Kino, Chiaki*; Karasawa, Hidetoshi; Takahatake, Yoko; Koma, Yoshikazu

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(9), p.863 - 879, 2025/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2499187

Evaluation of radioactive nuclide behavior on and after the accident is important for the estimating radioactive nuclide composition in the wastes. The reactor core inventories have been obtained from the ORIGEN2 analysis, but the inventory of activation products is determined by the amount of their parent nuclides which are impurities contained in the structural materials. The ORIGEN2 does not treat fuel deposits including the impurities. Estimation of the initial Co-60 inventory in accurate is needed on the evaluation of some kinds of radioactive nuclide amount, since it is possible Co-60 is standard in the scaling factor. In this study, contribution of fuel deposits to the reactor core inventory was estimated by comparing the amount of Co-60 and Ni-63 calculated by the amounts of deposition by the microlayer-evaporation and drying-out model (MEDO model) and the result of the ORIGEN2 analysis, and then the method of estimating the reactor core inventory was proposed.

Estimation of influence of implicit effect due to multi-group cross-section perturbations on uncertainty analysis in PWR-UO and -MOX lattice calculations

Fujita, Tatsuya

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(8), p.731 - 739, 2025/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2470234

This study estimated the influence of implicit effect on the k-infinity uncertainty in the PWR-UO and -MOX fuel lattice geometries. Firstly, the preliminary investigation was performed, where the influence of implicit effect was roughly estimated based on the sandwich formula using the cross-section (XS) covariance matrix and the sensitivity coefficient. It was confirmed that the influence of implicit effect became large in the fission and (n,) reactions of heavy nuclides and the change of this dependence was small for the burnup of UO and MOX fuel assemblies. Then, focussing on the heavy nuclides, the influence of implicit effect was compared under several energy group conditions of the XS covariance matrix and neutron transport calculation. For Pu and Pu, the noticeable influence of implicit effect was observed in MOX fuel pin-cell geometry. However, increasing the number of energy groups for neutron transport calculations and that of the XS covariance matrix can reduce the influence of implicit effect. Consequently, by appropriately setting the number of energy groups for neutron transport calculations and that of the XS covariance matrix, it became practically possible not to explicitly consider the implicit effect during the random sampling.

Measurements of neutron capture cross-section for nuclides of interest in decommissioning (III); Er(n,)Er and Hf(n,)Hf reactions

Nakamura, Shoji; Shibahara, Yuji*; Endo, Shunsuke; Rovira Leveroni, G.; Kimura, Atsushi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 62(7), p.617 - 630, 2025/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2025.2457589