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Yamamoto, Yojiro*; Hayakawa, Sho*; Okita, Taira*; Itakura, Mitsuhiro
Computational Materials Science, 229, p.112389_1 - 112389_9, 2023/10
Times Cited Count：1 Percentile：52.07(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)He bubbles are characteristic microstructures under fusion reactor conditions. They approach and coalesce through their own migration, which significantly impacts the microstructure and material properties. However, these processes, which involve multiple migrations of metal atoms, cannot be treated by molecular dynamics (MD) due to its timescale limitation. In this study, self-evolving atomistic kinetic Monte Carlo (SEAKMC) was used to expand the timescale and reproduce bubble coalescences in Fe. To enhance selections of events that led to the process by avoiding trivial events with an extremely low activation energy such as tiny vibrations of a He atom or short-range displacements of the Fe atom, we introduced two algorithms into SEAKMC, a two-step saddle point search for the former measure and setting a threshold for a displacement distance of the Fe atom for the latter. Furthermore, by adding another algorithm to set an upper bound for the activation energy to prevent selections of events with an impractically high activation energy, we succeeded to reproduce the change in the configuration from dumbbell to elliptical up to a simulated time of 
s, 8 orders longer than MD timescales. The developed method is effective for analyzing microstructures of metallic materials containing light elements and is the only method that can reach timescales comparable to those of experiments.
Suyama, Kenya; Ueki, Taro; Gunji, Satoshi; Watanabe, Tomoaki; Araki, Shohei; Fukuda, Kodai; Yamane, Yuichi; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Nagaya, Yasunobu; Kikuchi, Takeo; et al.
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2023/10
To remove and store safely the fuel debris generated by the severe accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011 is one of the most important and challenging topics for decommissioning of the damaged reactors in Fukushima. To validate the adopted method for the evaluation of criticality safety control of the fuel debris through comparison with the experimental data obtained by the criticality experiments, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) of Japan funds a research and development project which was entrusted to the Nuclear Safety Research Center (NSRC) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) from 2014. In this project, JAEA has been conducting such activities as i) comprehensive computation of the criticality characteristics of the fuel debris and making database (criticality map of the fuel debris), ii) development of new continuous energy Monte Carlo code, iii) evaluation of criticality accident and iv) modification of the critical assembly STACY for the experiments for validation of criticality safety control methodology. After the last ICNC2019, the project has the substantial progress in the modification of STACY which will start officially operation from May 2024 and the development of the Monte Carlo Code "Solomon" suitable for the criticality calculation for materials having spatially random distribution complies with the power spectrum. We present the whole picture of this research and development project and status of each technical topics in the session.
Gunji, Satoshi; Yoshikawa, Tomoki; Araki, Shohei; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/10
Since the compositions and properties of the fuel debris are uncertain, critical experiments are required to validate calculation codes and nuclear data used for the safety evaluation. For this purpose, JAEA has been modifying a critical assembly called "STACY". The first criticality of the new STACY is scheduled for spring 2024. This paper reports the consideration results of the core configurations of the new STACY at the first criticality. We prepared two sets of gird plates with different neutron moderation conditions (their intervals are 1.50 cm and 1.27 cm). However, there is a limitation on the number of available UO
fuel rods. In addition, we would like to set the critical water heights for the first criticality at around 95 cm. This is to avoid the reactive effect of the aluminum alloy middle grid plates (Approx. 98 cm high). The core configurations for the first criticality satisfying these conditions were constructed by computational analysis. A square core configuration with the 1.50 cm grid plate that is close to the optimum moderation condition needs 261 fuel rods to reach criticality. As to the 1.27 cm grid plate, we considered two core configurations with 1.80 cm intervals by using a checkerboard arrangement. One of them has two regions core configuration with 1.27 and 1.80 cm intervals, and the other has only 1.80 cm intervals. They need 341 and 201 fuel rods for the criticality, respectively. This paper shows these three core configurations and their calculation models.
Gunji, Satoshi; Araki, Shohei; Arakaki, Yu; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
JAEA has been modifying a critical assembly called STACY from a solution system to a light-water moderated heterogeneous system to validate computation results of criticality characteristics of fuel debris generated in the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. To experimentally simulate the composition and characteristics of fuel debris, we will prepare several grid plates which make particular neutron moderation conditions and a number of rod-shaped concrete and stainless-steel materials. Experiments to evaluate fuel debris's criticality characteristics are scheduled using these devices and materials. This series of STACY experiments are planned to measure the reactivity of fuel debris-simulated samples, measure the critical mass of core configurations containing structural materials such as concrete and stainless steels, and the change in critical mass when their arrangement becomes non-uniform. Furthermore, two divided cores experiments are scheduled that statically simulate fuel debris falling, and also scheduled that subcriticality measurement experiments with partially different neutron moderation conditions. The experimental plans have been considered taking into account some experimental constraints. This paper shows the schedule of these experiments, as well as the computation results of the optimized core configurations and expected results for each experiment.
Gunji, Satoshi; Araki, Shohei; Watanabe, Tomoaki; Fernex, F.*; Leclaire, N.*; Bardelay, A.*; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
Institut de radioprotection et de s
ret
nuclaire (IRSN) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have a long-standing partnership in the field of criticality safety. In this collaboration, IRSN and JAEA are planning a joint experiment using the new STACY critical assembly, modified by JAEA. In order to compare the codes (MVP3, MORET6, etc.) and nuclear data (JENDL and JEFF) used by both institutes in the planning of the STACY experiment, benchmark calculations of the Apparatus B and TCA, which are critical assemblies once owned by both institutes, benchmarks from the ICSBEP handbook and the computational model of the new STACY were performed. Including the new STACY calculation model, the calculations include several different neutron moderation conditions and critical water heights. There were slight systematic differences in the calculation results, which may have originated from the processing and/or format of the nuclear data libraries. However, it was found that the calculated results, including the new codes and the new nuclear data, are in good agreement with the experimental values. Therefore, there are no issues to use them for the design of experiments for the new STACY. Furthermore, the impact of the new TSL data included in JENDL-5 on the effective multiplication factor was investigated. Experimental validation for them will be completed by critical experiments of the new STACY by both institutes.
Furuta, Takuya
Isotope News, (787), p.20 - 23, 2023/06
Carbon ion radiotherapy has an advantage over conventional radiotherapy such that its superior dose concentration on the tumor helps to reduce unwanted dose to surrounding normal tissues. Nevertheless, a little dose to normal tissues, which is a potential risk of secondary cancer, is still unavoidable. In the current dose assessment, however, only assessment around target volume is performed for the tumor control and prevention of acute radiation injury of fatal organs. We therefore developed a system called RT-PHITS for CIRT to reproduce the carbon ion radiotherapy including the production and transport of secondary particles based on treatment planning data using PHITS. Using this system, whole-body dose assessment of patients in the past carbon ion radiotherapy can be performed. By comparing the dose assessment to the epidemiologic records of the patients, the relation between dose exposure of non-target organs and incidence of side effects such as secondary cancer will be elucidated.
Abe, Shinichiro
Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO
, 65(5), p.326 - 330, 2023/05
Non-destructive faults (the so-called soft errors) in microelectronics caused by environmental radiation such as neutrons and muons have been recognized as a serious reliability problem. The number of microelectronics requiring high reliability increases with the growth of the information society. Therefore, it is not realistic to evaluate the soft error rate (SER) of all microelectronics by measurement. Moreover, the evaluation of SER in the pre-manufacturing stage is sometimes required. As a result, the evaluation of SER by simulation become more important. We have developed the soft error simulation method with PHITS code. We have also simulated the neutron- and muon-induced soft errors. These results will be reported in the journal of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) as the explanatory article.
Ueki, Taro
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 159, p.104630_1 - 104630_9, 2023/05
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)In this work, the methodology of Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) is applied to criticality tallies in Monte Carlo fission source cycles in order to evaluate the utility value of the distribution tail ends. Numerical results obtained under a sufficiently large number of particles per cycle show that the extreme value index (EVI) in GEV falls within the range of Weibull distribution including the EVI of Gumbel distribution as the role of a boundary value layer. GEV is also applied to a historically-challenging loosely-coupled system for demonstrating population diagnosis under an insufficient number of particles per cycle. It turns out that the transition from one equilibrium to other equilibrium makes the EVIs of upper and lower distribution tail ends depart from each other so that one of them falls in the range of Weibull distribution and the other in that of Frechet distribution.
Kai, Takeshi; Toigawa, Tomohiro; Matsuya, Yusuke*; Hirata, Yuho; Tezuka, Tomoya*; Tsuchida, Hidetsugu*; Yokoya, Akinari*
RSC Advances (Internet), 13(11), p.7076 - 7086, 2023/03
Times Cited Count：3 Percentile：81.33(Chemistry, Multidisciplinary)Scientific insights of water radiolysis are widely used in the life sciences and so on, however, the formation mechanism of radicals, a product of water radiolysis, is still not well understood. We are challenging to develop a simulation code to solve this formation mechanism from the viewpoint of radiation physics. Our first-principles calculations have revealed that the behavior of secondary electrons in water is governed not only by collisional effects but also by polarization effects. Furthermore, from the predicted ratio of ionization to electronic excitation, based on the spatial distribution of secondary electrons, we successfully reproduce the initial yield of hydrated electrons predicted in terms of radiation chemistry. The code provides us a reasonable spatiotemporal connection from radiation physics to radiation chemistry. Our findings are expected to provide newly scientific insights for understanding the earliest stages of water radiolysis.
Furuta, Takuya; Koba, Yusuke*; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Chang, W.*; Yonai, Shunsuke*; Matsumoto, Shinnosuke*; Ishikawa, Akihisa*; Sato, Tatsuhiko
Physics in Medicine & Biology, 67(14), p.145002_1 - 145002_15, 2022/07
Times Cited Count：2 Percentile：47.19(Engineering, Biomedical)Carbon ion radiotherapy has an advantage over conventional radiotherapy such that its superior dose concentration on the tumor helps to reduce unwanted dose to surrounding normal tissues. Nevertheless, a little dose to normal tissues, which is a potential risk of secondary cancer, is still unavoidable. The Monte Carlo simulation is a good candidate for the tool to assess secondary cancer risk, including the contributions of secondary particles produced by nuclear reactions. We therefore developed a new dose reconstruction system implementing PHITS as the engine. In this system, the PHITS input is automatically created from the DICOM data sets recorded in the treatment planning. The developed system was validated by comparing to experimental dose distribution in water and treatment plan on an anthropomorphic phantom. This system will be used for retrospective studies using the patient data in National Institute for Quantum and Science and Technology.
Ueki, Taro
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 144, p.104099_1 - 104099_7, 2022/02
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)Randomized Weierstrass function (RWF) has been under development for evaluating the uncertainty of random media criticality due to the material mixture under disorder. In this work, the modelling capability of RWF is refined so that the spectrum range can be controlled by specifying its lower and upper ends of the frequency domain variable. As a result, it becomes possible to make fair criticality comparison among replicas of random media under inverse power law power spectra. Technically, the infinite sum of trigonometric terms in RWF is extended to cover the arbitrarily low frequency domain and then truncated to finite terms for the sole purpose of spectrum range control. This means that the refinement is free of the convergence issue towards a fractal characteristic of Weierstrass function and thus termed Incomplete Randomized Weierstrass function (IRWF). As a demonstration, a three-dimensional version of IRWF is applied to the mixture of three fuels with different burnups in a water-moderated environment. Monte Carlo criticality calculations are carried out to evaluate the uncertainty of neutron effective multiplication factor due to the indeterminacy of the fuel mixture formation.
Chang, W.*; Koba, Yusuke*; Furuta, Takuya; Yonai, Shunsuke*; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Matsumoto, Shinnosuke*; Sato, Tatsuhiko
Journal of Radiation Research (Internet), 62(5), p.846 - 855, 2021/09
Times Cited Count：2 Percentile：26.61(Biology)With the aim of developing a revaluation tool of treatment plan in carbon-ion radiotherapy using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, we propose two methods; one is dedicated to identify realistic-tissue materials from a CT image with satisfying the well-calibrated relationship between CT numbers and stopping power ratio (SPR) provided by TPS, and the other is to estimate dose to water considering the particle- and energy-dependent SPR between realistic tissue materials and water. We validated these proposed methods by computing depth dose distribution in homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms composed of human tissue materials and water irradiated by a 400 MeV/u carbon beam with 8 cm SOBP using a MC simulation code PHITS and comparing with results of conventional treatment planning system (TPS). Our result suggested that use of water as a surrogate of real tissue materials, which is adopted in conventional TPS, is inadequate for dose estimation from secondary particles because their production rates cannot be scaled by SPR of the primary particle in water. We therefore concluded that the proposed methods can play important roles in the reevaluation of the treatment plans in carbon-ion radiotherapy.
Kobayashi, Keita; Nagai, Yuki; Itakura, Mitsuhiro; Shiga, Motoyuki
Journal of Chemical Physics, 155(3), p.034106_1 - 034106_9, 2021/07
Times Cited Count：5 Percentile：44.89(Chemistry, Physical)no abstracts in English
Zhao, C.*; Suzudo, Tomoaki; Toyama, Takeshi*; Nishitani, Shigeto*; Inoue, Koji*; Nagai, Yasuyoshi*
Materials Transactions, 62(7), p.929 - 934, 2021/07
Times Cited Count：3 Percentile：25.78(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)We succeeded in measuring the diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe in a low temperature range that had not been measured so far. Since the diffusion couple, which is a general method for measuring the diffusion coefficient, can be applied only at high temperature, atom probe tomography and Cu precipitation rate theory were used in this study. The estimated diffusion coefficient was found to be more reliable than that obtained in previous studies. Therefore, it is considered that the estimation by the atom probe provided higher accuracy. Furthermore, the kinetic Monte Carlo simulation revealed that the diffusion coefficient estimated by this method tends to be slightly overestimated as the temperature decreases.
Okumura, Keisuke
Fission Product Behavior under Severe Accident, p.116 - 121, 2021/05
no abstracts in English
Ueki, Taro
Nuclear Science and Engineering, 194(6), p.422 - 432, 2020/06
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)In Monte Carlo criticality calculation, the convergence-in-distribution check of the sample mean of tallies can be approached in terms of the influence range of autocorrelation. In this context, it is necessary to evaluate the attenuation of autocorrelation coefficients over lags. However, in just one replica of calculation, it is difficult to accurately estimate small ACCs at large lags because of the comparability with statistical uncertainty. This paper proposes a method to overcome such an issue. Its essential component is the transformation of a standardized time series of tallies so that the resulting series asymptotically converges in distribution to Brownian motion. The convergence-in-distribution check is constructed based on the independent increment property of Brownian motion. The judgment criterion is set by way of the spectral analysis of fractional Brownian motion. Numerical results are demonstrated for extreme and standard types of criticality calculation.
Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Nishino, Sho; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Takahashi, Masa
Radiation Measurements, 133, p.106279_1 - 106279_6, 2020/04
Times Cited Count：5 Percentile：53.85(Nuclear Science & Technology)Uncertainty of the body size on the counting efficiency of a newly developed thyroid monitor was estimated by Monte Carlo simulations using several voxel phantoms. Overlying tissue thickness was a major impact factor on the counting efficiency. As a result, uncertainty related to the body size of the monitored subject was found to be 25%.
Malins, A.; Machida, Masahiko; Vu, TheDang; Aizawa, Kazuya; Ishida, Takekazu*
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 953, p.163130_1 - 163130_7, 2020/02
Times Cited Count：6 Percentile：60.71(Instruments & Instrumentation)Kim, M.; Malins, A.; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Kitamura, Akihiro; Machida, Masahiko; Hasegawa, Yukihiro*; Yanagi, Hideaki*
Isotope News, (765), p.30 - 33, 2019/10
Here we outline a system for generating three dimensional models of urban and rural areas in Fukushima Prefecture. The 
Cs and 
Cs radioactivity distribution can be set flexibly across the different components of the model. The models incorporate realistic representations of local buildings, individual conifer and broadleaf trees, and the topography of the land surface. The system is demonstrated by modelling a suburban area 4 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that has yet to be decontaminated. Air dose rates calculated in PHITS were correlated with measurements taken across the site in a car-borne survey.
Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Kowatari, Munehiko; Hagiwara, Masayuki*; Nagaguro, Seiji*; Nakamura, Hajime*
Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 184(2), p.179 - 188, 2019/08
Times Cited Count：2 Percentile：21.58(Environmental Sciences)
