Iron coupled with hydroxylamine turns on the "switch" for free radical degradation of organic pollutants under high pH conditions

Tian, Q.*; Feng, L.*; Wu, C.*; Wen, J.*; Qiu, X.*; Tanaka, Kazuya; Onuki, Toshihiko*; Yu, Q.*

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 669, p.1006 - 1014, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.021

High-temperature test for BGaN semiconductor neutron detectors

Okita, Shoichiro; Sakurai, Tatsuhiro*; Kudo, Ryohei*; Takagi, Katsuyuki*; Nakano, Takayuki*; Hino, Masahiro*

KURNS Progress Report 2023, P. 97, 2024/07

Formation of high-quality SiO/GaN interfaces with suppressed Ga-oxide interlayer via sputter deposition of SiO

Onishi, Kentaro*; Kobayashi, Takuma*; Mizobata, Hidetoshi*; Nozaki, Mikito*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Shimura, Takayoshi*; Watanabe, Heiji*

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 62(5), p.050903_1 - 050903_4, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.35848/1347-4065/acd1ca

While the formation of an GaO interlayer is key to achieving SiO/GaN interfaces with low defect density, it can affect the reliability and stability of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices if the annealing conditions are not properly designed. In the present study, we aimed to minimize the growth of the GaO layer on the basis of the sputter deposition of SiO on GaN. Synchrotron radiation X-ray photoelectron spectrometry measurements confirmed the suppressed growth of the GaO layer compared with a SiO/GaN structure formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Negligible GaO growth was also observed when subsequent oxygen annealing up to 600C was performed. A MOS device with negligible capacitance-voltage hysteresis, nearly ideal flat-band voltage, and low leakage current was demonstrated by performing oxygen and forming gas annealing at temperatures of 600C and 400C, respectively.

Development of tailor-made adsorbents for uranium recovery from seawater on the basis of uranyl coordination chemistry (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2022-028, 54 Pages, 2022/11

JAEA-Review-2022-028.pdf:2.97MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of Tailor-made Adsorbents for Uranium Recovery from Seawater on the Basis of Uranyl Coordination Chemistry" conducted from FY2019 to FY2021. Since the final year of this proposal was FY2021, the results for three fiscal years were summarized. The present study aims to develop a new ligand class for efficient and selective capture of uranium from seawater. On the basis of deep understanding on uranyl coordination chemistry, we design molecular structures of pentadentate ligands as functional moieties for uranium adsorption from seawater and study fundamental coordination chemistry of uranyl ion with those ligands in order to resolve current problems in uranium recovery technology …

Potential bacterial alteration of nuclear fuel debris; A Preliminary study using simulants in powder and pellet forms

Liu, J.; Dotsuta, Yuma; Sumita, Takehiro; Kitagaki, Toru; Onuki, Toshihiko; Kozai, Naofumi

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 331(6), p.2785 - 2794, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08324-y

Remnant nuclear fuel debris in the damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) has contacted the groundwater containing microorganisms for over ten years. Herein, we report the possibility of bacterial alteration of fuel debris. We investigated the physical and chemical changes of fuel debris simulants (FDS) in the powder and pellet forms via exposure to two ubiquitous bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilis. In the experiments using FDS composed of the powders of Fe(0), solid solution of CeO and ZrO, and SiO, Ce, Zr, and Si were hardly dissolved, while Fe was dissolved, a fraction of the dissolved Fe was present in the liquid phase as Fe(II) and Fe(III), and the rest was precipitated as the nano-sized particles of iron (hydr)oxides. In the experiment using P. fluorescens and FDS pellet pieces prepared by melting the Fe(0) particles and solid solution of CeO and ZrO, the bacteria selectively gathered on the Fe(0) particle surface and made corrosion pits. These results suggest that bacteria in groundwater corrode the iron in fuel debris at FDNPP, change fuel debris into porous one, releasing the nano-sized iron (hydr)oxide particles into the water.

Decrease of radionuclide sorption in hydrated cement systems by organic ligands; Comparative evaluation using experimental data and thermodynamic calculations for ISA/EDTA-actinide-cement systems

Ochs, M.*; Dolder, F.*; Tachi, Yukio

Applied Geochemistry, 136, p.105161_1 - 105161_11, 2022/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2021.105161

Various types of radioactive wastes and environments contain organic substances that can stabilize the aqueous complexes with radionuclides and therefore lead to a decrease of sorption. The present study focuses on testing a methodology to quantify sorption reduction factors (SRFs) in the presence of organic ligands for cement systems. Three approaches for the estimation of SRFs; (1) analogy with solubility enhancement factors, (2) radionuclide speciation based on the thermodynamic calculations, and (3) experimental sorption data in ternary systems, were coupled and tested for the representative organic ligands (ISA and EDTA) and selected key radionuclides (actinides). Our approach allows to critically evaluate the dependence of SRFs for various systems on the chosen method of quantification, in accordance with the data availability for a given systems. The reliable SRFs can only be derived from the sorption measurements in ternary systems. SRF often need to be derived in the absence of such direct evidence, and estimations need to be made based on analogies and speciation information. However, such estimates may be subject to substantial uncertainties.

Establishment of the measurement system of radiation dependent mutation in organ cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (Contract research); FY2020 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2021-029, 64 Pages, 2021/12

JAEA-Review-2021-029.pdf:2.74MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2020. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2018, this report summarizes the research results of the "Establishment of the measurement system of radiation dependent mutation in organ cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells" conducted from FY2018 to 2020. Since the final year of this proposal was FY2020, the results for three fiscal years were summarized. The present study aimed to establish measurement system of radiation dependent mutation for analyze radiation effect to the human body. A distinctive feature of this study is to compare several organ cells which possess same genome DNA using human induced pluripotent stem cell. Further, using artificial intelligence technology and machine leaning method, we analyzed differences of mutation frequency during samples.

Additive-free hydrothermal leaching method with low environmental burden for screening of strontium in soil

Kato, Takuma*; Nagaoka, Mika; Guo, H.*; Fujita, Hiroki; Aida, Taku*; Smith, R. L. Jr.*

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(39), p.55725 - 55735, 2021/10

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14916-0

In this work, hydrothermal leaching was applied to simulated soils (clay minerals vermiculite, montmorillonite, kaolinite) and actual soils (Terunuma, Japan) to generate organic acids with the objective to develop an additive-free screening method for determination of Sr in soil. Stable strontium (SrCl) was adsorbed onto soils for study and ten organic acids were evaluated for leaching Sr from simulated soils under hydrothermal conditions (120 to 200C) at concentrations up to 0.3 M. For strontium-adsorbed vermiculite (Sr-V), 0.1 M citric acid was found to be effective for leaching Sr at 150C and 1 h treatment time. Based on these results, the formation of organic acids from organic matter in Terunuma soil was studied. Hydrothermal treatment of Terunuma soil produced a maximum amount of organic acids at 200C and 0.5 h reaction time. To confirm the possibility for leaching of Sr from Terunuma soil, strontium-adsorbed Terunuma soil (Sr-S) was studied. For Sr-S, hydrothermal treatment at 200C for 0.5 h reaction time allowed 40% of the Sr to be leached at room temperature, thus demonstrating an additive-free method for screening of Sr in soil. The additive-free hydrothermal leaching method avoids calcination of solids in the first step of chemical analysis and has application to both routine monitoring of metals in soils and to emergency situations.

Alternation of magnetic anisotropy accompanied by metal-insulator transition in strained ultrathin manganite heterostructures

Kobayashi, Masaki*; Anh, L. D.*; Suzuki, Masahiro*; Kaneta-Takada, Shingo*; Takeda, Yukiharu; Fujimori, Shinichi; Shibata, Goro*; Tanaka, Arata*; Tanaka, Masaaki*; Oya, Shinobu*; et al.

Physical Review Applied (Internet), 15(6), p.064019_1 - 064019_10, 2021/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.15.064019

Development of tailor-made adsorbents for uranium recovery from seawater on the basis of uranyl coordination chemistry (Contract research); FY2019 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2020-026, 41 Pages, 2020/12

JAEA-Review-2020-026.pdf:3.25MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2019. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of Tailor-Made Adsorbents for Uranium Recovery from Seawater on the Basis of Uranyl Coordination Chemistry". On the basis of deep understanding on uranyl coordination chemistry, we design molecular structures of pentadentate ligands as functional moieties for uranium adsorption from seawater and study coordination chemistry of uranyl ion with those ligands in order to resolve current problems in uranium recovery technology from seawater and to develop novel selective and efficient adsorbents for this purpose.