TENDL-2017 benchmark test with iron shielding experiment at QST/TIARA

Kwon, Saerom*; Konno, Chikara; Ota, Masayuki*; Ochiai, Kentaro*; Sato, Satoshi*; Kasugai, Atsushi*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 144, p.209 - 214, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2019.05.009

We performed a TENDL-2017 benchmark test with iron shielding experiments by using 40 and 65 MeV neutrons, in order to verify a nuclear data library above 20 MeV for neutronics analyses of A-FNS. We found out that the calculated neutron spectra with TENDL-2017 unnaturally increased near 30 MeV. We figured out that incorrect secondary neutron spectrum data in Fe, Fe and Fe at 30 MeV caused the increase of the neutron flux. Similar problems occurred in a lot of nuclei of TENDL-2017, TENDL-2015 and FENDL-3.1d from TENDL-2010 and TENDL-2011.

Proton chelating ligands drive improved chemical separations for rhodium

Narita, Hirokazu*; Nicolson, R. M.*; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Ito, Fumiyuki*; Morisaku, Kazuko*; Goto, Midori*; Tanaka, Mikiya*; Heller, W. T.*; Shiwaku, Hideaki; Yaita, Tsuyoshi; et al.

Inorganic Chemistry, 58(13), p.8720 - 8734, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b01136

Long-term simulations of radiocesium discharge in watershed with improved radiocesium wash-off model; Applying the model to Abukuma River basin of Fukushima

Liu, X.; Machida, Masahiko; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Akihiro

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 203, p.135 - 146, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.03.001

In order to simulate the long-term migration and distribution of radiocesium after the Fukushima accident, a numerical model, Soil and Cesium Transport (SACT) based on universal soil loss equation (USLE), has been developed in previous studies. Although the SACT model's results on radiocesium discharge in 2011 are in reasonable agreement with field measurements, it fails to capture the sharp decrease of radiocesium flux in subsequent years, especially in the case of Abukuma River. We therefore have improved SACT by implementing the vertical migration and fixation of radiocesium in soil. For validation purpose, the annual average radiocesium concentration in sediments discharged from Abukuma River has been evaluated from measurement data. New model achieved much better agreement with the measurement results without parameter tuning.

Study on BC decoupler with burn-up reduction aiming at 1-MW pulsed neutron source

Oi, Motoki; Teshigawara, Makoto; Harada, Masahide; Ikeda, Yujiro

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 56(7), p.573 - 579, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2019.1604273

In pulsed neutron sources, a neutron absorber called decoupler is attached to the moderator to sharpen the neutron pulses for achieving good neutron energy resolutions. Cadmium and boron carbide (BC) are widely used as the decoupler materials. However, it is difficult to use BC in MW-class spallation neutron sources owing to high burn-up, which decreases cut-off energy and increase of helium gas swelling. To solve these issues, we introduce the concept of pre-decoupler to reduce neutron absorption in the BC decoupler, which is sandwiched by appropriate neutron absorption materials. Then, we study impacts of the pre-decouplers on BC decoupler in terms of burn-up by performing simplified model calculations. It is shown that neutron absorption in BC is reduced by 60% by using a Cd pre-decoupler without neutron intensity penalty. Moreover, helium gas swelling in BC is restrained to be one-third of the value when not using the pre-decoupler.

Performance of large volume LaBr scintillation detector equipped with specially-designed shield for neutron resonance capture analysis

Tsuchiya, Harufumi; Koizumi, Mitsuo; Kitatani, Fumito; Harada, Hideo

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 932, p.16 - 26, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2019.04.048

Universal methodology for statistical error and convergence of correlated Monte Carlo tallies

Ueki, Taro

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 193, p.776 - 789, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1562779

It is known that the convergence of standardized time series (STS) to Brownian bridge yields standard deviation estimators of the sample mean of correlated Monte Carlo tallies. In this work, a difference scheme based on a stochastic differential equation is applied to STS in order to obtain a new functional statistic (NFS) that converges to Brownian motion (BM). As a result, statistical error estimation improves twofold. First, the application of orthonormal weighting to NFS yields a new set of asymptotically unbiased standard deviation estimators of sample mean. It is not necessary to store tallies once the updating of estimator computation is finished at each generation. Second, it becomes possible to assess the convergence of sample mean in an assumption-free manner by way of the comparison of power spectra of NFS and BM. The methodology is demonstrated for three different types of problems encountered in Monte Carlo criticaliti calculation.

High-pressure structure and electronic properties of YbD to 34 GPa

Klotz, S.*; Casula, M.*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Machida, Shinichi*; Hattori, Takanori

Physical Review B, 100(2), p.020101_1 - 020101_5, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.020101

Ytterbium dihydride (YbH) shows a well-known transition at 16 GPa from a CaH-type structure to a high-pressure (high-) phase with Yb at hcp sites and unknown H-positions. Here, we report its complete structure determination by neutron diffraction at 34 GPa. Hydrogen(deuterium) is located at 2 and 2 positions of space group , thus forming a high-symmetry "collapsed" close-packed lattice. The transition is sluggish and can be seen as a transfer of 1/2 of the hydrogen atoms from strongly corrugated H-layers to interstitial sites of the Yb-lattice. We demonstrate by first-principles calculations that the transition is related to a change from a completely filled -electron conguration to a fractional -hole (0.25 h) occupation in the high- phase. The charge transfer closes the gap at the transition and leads to a metallic ground state with sizeable electron-phonon interaction involving out-of-plane vibrational modes of interstitial hydrogen.

Intensity modulated radiation fields induce protective effects and reduce importance of dose-rate effects

Matsuya, Yusuke; McMahon, S. J.*; Ghita, M.*; Yoshii, Yuji*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Date, Hiroyuki*; Prise, K. M.*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 9(1), p.9483_1 - 9483_12, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45960-z

In radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation fields and complex dose-delivery are used to prescribe doses to tumors. Here, we analyzed the impact of modulated field on radio-sensitivity and cell recovery during irradiation time. The dose was delivered to either 50% of the area of the flask containing cells (half-field) or 100% of the flask (uniform-field). We also modelled cell-killing considering dose-rate effects and intercellular signals. It is found that (i) in-field cell survival under half-field exposure is higher than uniform-field exposure even with the same dose; (ii) the importance of sub-lethal damage repair in normal human skin fibroblast cells under the half-field is reduced; (iii) the increase of cell survival under half-field is predominantly attributed to not rescue effects (increased repair) but protective effects (reduced initial DNA lesion yield). These findings provide new understanding of radio-sensitivity for hit and non-hit cells under non-uniform exposure.

Development of evaluation method for variability of groundwater flow conditions associated with long-term topographic change and climate perturbations

Onoe, Hironori; Kosaka, Hiroshi*; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Komatsu, Tetsuya; Takeuchi, Ryuji; Iwatsuki, Teruki; Yasue, Kenichi

Genshiryoku Bakkuendo Kenkyu (CD-ROM), 26(1), p.3 - 14, 2019/06

https://nuce.aesj.or.jp/jnuce/vol26/Jnuce-Vol26-1-p3-14.pdf

In this study, it is focused on topographic changes due to uplift and denudation, also climate perturbations, a method which is able to assess the long-term variability of groundwater flow conditions using the coefficient variation based on some steady-state groundwater flow simulation results was developed. Spatial distribution of long residence time area which is not much influenced due to long-term topographic change and recharge rate change during the past one million years was able to estimate through the case study of the Tono area, Central Japan. By applying this evaluation method, it is possible to identify the local area that has low variability of groundwater flow conditions due to topographic changes and climate perturbations from the regional area quantitatively and spatially.

Risk communication at Horonobe Underground Research Center, using the Public Information House and Underground Research Laboratory

Osawa, Hideaki; Nogami, Toshinobu; Hoshino, Masato; Tokunaga, Hiroaki*; Horikoshi, Hidehiko*

Genshiryoku Bakkuendo Kenkyu (CD-ROM), 26(1), p.45 - 55, 2019/06

https://nuce.aesj.or.jp/jnuce/vol26/Jnuce-Vol26-1-p45-55.pdf

Japan Atomic Energy Agency has performed risk communication at Horonobe Underground Research Center, using the Public Information House and Underground Research Laboratory (URL), to promote understanding R&D of geological disposal technology and waste disposal against public. In this paper, we conducted the analysis of questionnaire investigation performing after visiting those facilities from FY2013 to FY2017. The results show that long-term safety would gain prominent attention as agita factor by growing understanding. The results also shows that visiting to those facility would become valuable experience to understand geological disposal because, for example, respondents with visiting to URL positively evaluated necessity, appropriates and safety of geological disposal, compared with those without visiting URL.