JAEA's action on medical RI production using research reactor

Arai, Masaji; Maeda, Shigetaka

Rinsho Hoshasen, 68(10), p.963 - 970, 2023/10

Ac-225 is attracting attention as an alpha-emitting medical radioisotope. Since its demand is expected to increase, domestic production of Ac-225 is required from the viewpoint of Japan's medical research and economic security. To establish the technical bases for the Ac-225 production, JAEA has evaluated the radioactivity that can be produced in the experimental fast reactor Joyo and designed the concept that upgrades the existing facilities for transporting the irradiated target from Joyo to a neighboring PIE facility rapidly. Efficient Actinium-225 Separation from Ra-226 irradiated in a fast reactor was studied. This study has revealed that Joyo can sufficiently produce Ac-225 as a raw material for pharmaceuticals.

Validation of evaluation model for analysis of steam reformer in HTGR hydrogen production plant

Ishii, Katsunori; Aoki, Takeshi; Isaka, Kazuyoshi; Noguchi, Hiroki; Shimizu, Atsushi; Sato, Hiroyuki

Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/05

New JENDL-4.0/HE neutron and proton ACE files

Konno, Chikara

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 6 Pages, 2023/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2237970

The JENDL-4.0/HE neutron and proton ACE files were produced in 2017 and those of 22 nuclei for neutron and 25 nuclei for proton were bundled in the PHITS code. Recently it was found that the following five data in the JENDL-4.0/HE neutron and proton ACE files had any problems; ACE files for N and O, heating numbers, damage energy production cross sections, secondary neutron multiplicities and fission cross sections. Thus new JENDL-4.0/HE neutron and proton ACE files were produced with the problems fixed. This paper describes the problems and how to produce the new neutron and proton ACE files in detail.

Nuclear data as foundation of nuclear research and development

Fukahori, Tokio; Nakayama, Shinsuke; Katabuchi, Tatsuya*; Shigyo, Nobuhiro*

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO, 64(7), p.413 - 414, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.3327/jaesjb.64.7_413

The Investigation Advisory Committee on Nuclear Data monitors global nuclear research and development trends, and conducts collaborative nuclear data activities with domestic and foreign academic institutions in a wide range of fields. The aims are to contact, to exchange information, and to build an interdisciplinary cooperation system. Reported are the activities on the request list site, human resources development, and roadmap creation regarding nuclear data directly related to future nuclear data research activities, among the main activities in the 2019-2020 period.

Neutronic analysis of beam window and LBE of an Accelerator-Driven System

Nakano, Keita; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Nishihara, Kenji; Meigo, Shinichiro; Sugawara, Takanori; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Takeshita, Hayato*; Maekawa, Fujio

JAEA-Research 2021-018, 41 Pages, 2022/03

JAEA-Research-2021-018.pdf:2.93MB

Neutronic analysis of beam window of the Accelerator-Driven System (ADS) proposed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducted using PHITS and DCHAIN-PHITS codes. We investigate gas production of hydrogen and helium isotopes in the beam window, displacement per atom of beam window material, and heat generation in the beam window. In addition, distributions of produced nuclides, heat density, and activity are derived. It was found that at the maximum 12500 appm H production, 1800 appm He production, and damage of 62.1 DPA occurred in the beam window by the ADS operation. On the other hand, the maximum heat generation in the beam window was 374 W/cm. In the analysis of LBE, Bi and Po were found to be the dominant nuclides in decay heat and radioactivity. Furthermore, the heat generation in the LBE by the proton beam was maximum around 5 cm downstream of the beam window, which was 945 W/cm.

Nuclide production cross section of Lu target irradiated with 0.4-, 1.3-, 2.2-, and 3.0-GeV protons

Takeshita, Hayato; Meigo, Shinichiro; Matsuda, Hiroki; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Nakano, Keita; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Maekawa, Fujio

JAEA-Conf 2021-001, p.207 - 212, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.11484/jaea-conf-2021-001

Prediction of nuclide production of spallation products by high-energy proton injection plays a fundamental and important role in shielding design of high-intensity proton accelerator facilities such as accelerator driven nuclear transmutation system (ADS). Since the prediction accuracy of the nuclear reaction models used in the production quantity prediction simulation is insufficient, it is necessary to improve the nuclear reaction models. We have measured nuclide production cross sections for various target materials with the aim of acquiring experimental data and improving nuclear reaction models. In this study, 1.3-, 2.2- and 3.0-GeV proton beams were irradiated to Lu target, and nuclide production cross-section data were acquired by the activation method. The measured data were compared with several nuclear reaction models used in Monte Carlo particle transport calculation codes to grasp the current prediction accuracy and to study how the nuclear reaction model could be improved.

Study on chemical form of tritium in coolant helium of high temperature gas-cooled reactor with tritium production device

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Goto, Minoru; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Katayama, Kazunari*; Otsuka, Teppei*; Tobita, Kenji*

Proceedings of 2021 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2021) (USB Flash Drive), 5 Pages, 2021/10

Impurity concentrations of hydrogen and hydride in the coolant were investigated in detail for the HTTR, a block type high-temperature gas reactor owned by Japan. As a result, it was found that CH was 1/10 of H concentration, which was under the conventional detection limit. If the ratio of H to CH in the coolant is the same as the ratio of HT to CHT, the CHT has a larger dose conversion factor, and this compositional ratio is an important finding for the optimal dose evaluation. Further investigation of the origin of CH suggested that CH was produced as a result of a thermal equilibrium reaction rather than being released as an impurity from the core.

Hydrogen production using thermochemical water-splitting iodine-sulfur process test facility made of industrial structural materials; Engineering solutions to prevent iodine precipitation

Noguchi, Hiroki; Kamiji, Yu; Tanaka, Nobuyuki; Takegami, Hiroaki; Iwatsuki, Jin; Kasahara, Seiji; Myagmarjav, O.; Imai, Yoshiyuki; Kubo, Shinji

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(43), p.22328 - 22343, 2021/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.02.071

An iodine-sulfur process offers the potential for mass producing hydrogen with high-efficiency, and it uses high-temperature heat sources, including HTGR, solar heat, and waste heat of industries. R&D tasks are essential to confirm the integrity of the components that are made of industrial materials and the stability of hydrogen production in harsh working conditions. A test facility for producing hydrogen was constructed from corrosion-resistant components made of industrial materials. For stable hydrogen production, technical issues for instrumental improvements (i.e., stable pumping of the HIx solution, improving the quality control of glass-lined steel, prevention of I precipitation using a water removal technique in a Bunsen reactor) were solved. The entire process was successfully operated for 150 h at the rate of 30 L/h. The integrity of components and the operational stability of the hydrogen production facility in harsh working conditions were demonstrated.

Measurement of nuclide production cross-sections of Fe for 0.4-3.0 GeV protons in J-PARC

Matsuda, Hiroki; Takeshita, Hayato*; Meigo, Shinichiro; Maekawa, Fujio; Iwamoto, Hiroki

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011047_1 - 011047_6, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011047

Accurate nuclide production cross-section data are required for the design of Accelerator-Driven nuclear transmutation System (ADS) such as the design of radioactive waste disposal, design of remote-handling procedure of highly activated components, and evaluation of exposure doses of rad-workers. Although much efforts have been devoted to nuclide production cross-section measurements so far, uncertainties of the measured data are sometimes large as several tens percentage, and there is no experimental data in the GeV energy region even for some of important nuclides. In this study, proton induced nuclide production cross-section of iron, which is the most important constituent element of steel, was measured. The present experiment was compared with calculations by the PHITS code with several physics models including Bertini and INCL4.6 and evaluated nuclear data JENDL-HE/2007. The most significant discrepancy found in this study was the production cross sections via the (p,xn) reaction. It was suggested that further improvements, such as the in-medium effect on the nucleon-nucleon scattering and the Pauli blocking, were required in the intra-nuclear cascade models used in this study.

Recent status of the pulsed spallation neutron source at J-PARC

Takada, Hiroshi; Haga, Katsuhiro

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 28, p.081003_1 - 081003_7, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.28.081003

At the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), the pulsed spallation neutron source has been in operation with a redesigned mercury target vessel from October 2017 to July 2018, during which the operational beam power was restored to 500 kW and the operation with a 1-MW equivalent beam was demonstrated for one hour. The target vessel includes a gas-micro-bubbles injector and a 2-mm-wide narrow mercury flow channel at the front end as measures to suppress the cavitation damage. After the operating period, it was observed that the cavitation damage at the 3-mm-thick front end of the target vessel could be suppressed less than 17.5 m.