Practical approach of airborne gamma-ray spectrometry using UAVs for evaluating ground-level dose rates

Ji, Y.-Y.*; Ji, W.*; Kim, K.*; Kim, M. J.*; Ochi, Kotaro; Morishita, Yuki; Sanada, Yukihisa

Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 244, p.113781_1 - 113781_12, 2026/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2026.113781

UAV-based airborne gamma-ray spectrometry enables rapid radiation mapping, but accurate estimation of ground-level ambient dose rates is difficult because of altitude attenuation, detector field-of-view effects, heterogeneous contamination, and terrain variability. We developed a practical method combining hovering-flight calibration and ground-based validation near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Altitude correction factors were derived using a dual-exponential model and compared with tripod and backpack measurements. Results showed that heterogeneous contamination and terrain introduce systematic biases if correction factors are derived under non-uniform conditions, while calibration at uniform sites improves agreement. The proposed approach demonstrates that UAV airborne surveys can reliably estimate spatial dose-rate distributions when site-dependent corrections are applied.

Fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method (Contract research); FY2023 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

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

JAEA-Review 2025-010, 62 Pages, 2025/08

JAEA-Review-2025-010.pdf:3.63MB

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 FY2023. 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 FY2021, this report summarizes the research results of the "Fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method" conducted from FY2021 to FY2023. The purpose of research was to improve the fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method by the development of the fuel debris criticality characteristics measurement system and the multi-region integral kinetic analysis code. It was performed by Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo City University, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Nagaoka University of Technology. We developed the fuel debris criticality characteristics measurement system which has a two layer structure surrounding a canister containing fuel debris fragments with He proportional counters. The operational validation and performance evaluation were performed on the developed detector system. We have demonstrated the feasibility and accuracy of measuring the amount of fissile material and water content. MIK2.0-MVP code, which can calculate fission reaction rate attributed to both prompt and delayed neutrons and also can take the movement of fuel debris into calculation, was developed. After parallelizing the tally process of C() function, MIK2.0-MVP code will be applicable to weakly coupled reactors which include moving fuel debris particles if a supercomputer will be used for the tally process of C() function and if the coupling of MIK2.0-MVP code with MPS will be weak.

Current status and future prospects of the Horonobe International Project

Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Ozaki, Yusuke; Hayano, Akira; Ono, Hirokazu; Tachi, Yukio

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO, 67(6), p.354 - 358, 2025/06

https://doi.org/10.3327/jaesjb.67.6_354

Japan Atomic Energy Agency launched the Horonobe International Project (HIP) utilizing the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory. The main objectives of this project are to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies to be used in repository design, operation and closure and a realistic safety assessment in deep geological disposal, and to encourage and train the next generation of engineers and researchers. In this review, an overview of the HIP is presented.

Annual report of Nuclear Science Research Institute, JFY 2022

Nuclear Science Research Institute

JAEA-Review 2024-057, 178 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Review-2024-057.pdf:8.51MB

Nuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI) is composed of Planning and Management Department and six departments, namely Department of Operational Safety Administration, Department of Radiation Protection, Engineering Services Department, Department of Research Reactor and Tandem Accelerator, Department of Criticality and Hot Examination Technology and Department of Decommissioning and Waste Management, and each department manages facilities and develops related technologies to achieve the "Medium- to Long-term Plan" successfully and effectively. And, four research centers which are Advanced Science Research Center, Nuclear Science and Engineering Center, Nuclear Engineering Research Collaboration Center and Materials Sciences Research Center, belong to NSRI. In order to contribute the future research and development and to promote management business, this annual report summarizes information on the activities of NSRI of JFY 2022 as well as the activity on research and development carried out by Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science, Nuclear Safety Research Center and activities of Nuclear Human Resource Development Center, using facilities of NSRI.

Analysis of ex-vessel debris coolability of boiling water reactors

Matsumoto, Toshinori; Hibiki, Takashi*; Maruyama, Yu

International Journal of Energy Research, 2024(1), p.9748588_1 - 9748588_18, 2024/08

https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/9748588

To evaluate the effectiveness of the wet cavity strategy, the authors developed a stochastic evaluation method that considers the uncertainties of the molten material conditions ejected from reactor pressure vessels. The first step was uncertainty analysis using the MELCOR code to obtain the melt condition. Five uncertain parameters related to the core degradation process were chosen. The input parameter sets were generated using Latin hypercube sampling. The second step was analyzing of the melt-behavior using the JASMINE code. The probabilistic distribution of parameters for the JASMINE analyses was determined from the MELCOR analysis results. The initial water depth was set to 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 m. The debris height was compared with the criterion to judge its coolability. Consequently, the success probability of debris cooling was obtained through a sequence of calculations. The feasibility and technical difficulties in the MELCOR-JASMINE combined analysis were also discussed.

Measurement of the response of a Li-glass detector to gamma rays by a coincidence method

Ito, Fumiaki*; Lee, J.; Hironaka, Kota; Takahashi, Tone; Suzuki, Satoshi*; Mochimaru, Takanori*; Hori, Junichi*; Terada, Kazushi*; Koizumi, Mitsuo

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1064, p.169465_1 - 169465_9, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2024.169465

Analysis of the radioactivity concentrations in radioactive waste generated from JRR-2, JRR-3 and Hot laboratory

Aono, Ryuji; Mitsukai, Akina; Tsuchida, Daiki; Konda, Miki; Haraga, Tomoko; Ishimori, Kenichiro; Kameo, Yutaka

JAEA-Data/Code 2023-002, 81 Pages, 2023/05

JAEA-Data-Code-2023-002.pdf:3.0MB

Radioactive wastes generated from nuclear research facilities in Japan Atomic Energy Agency are planning to be buried in the near surface disposal field as trench and pit. Therefore, it is required to establish the method to evaluate the radioactivity concentrations of radioactive wastes until the beginning of disposal. In order to contribute to this work, we collected and analyzed the samples generated from JRR-2, JRR-3 and Hot laboratory facilities. In this report, we summarized the radioactivity concentrations of 20 radionuclides (H, C, Cl, Co, Ni, Sr, Nb, Tc, Ag, I, Cs, Eu, Eu, U, U, Pu, Pu, Pu, Am, Cm) which were obtained from radiochemical analysis of the samples in fiscal year 2020.

Mental health measures for the staff of nuclear research and development institution mobilized in dealing with residents during the nuclear disaster caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake

Tomotsune, Yusuke; Yajima, Mayumi; Okuno, Hiroshi; Yamamoto, Kazuya

Rodo Anzen Eisei Kenkyu, 16(1), p.29 - 43, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.2486/josh.JOSH-2021-0017-JI

During the first year of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, a total of about 45,000 employees of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) left their original workplaces to engage in telephone counseling, assistance of temporary return, and environmental monitoring. In particular, the staff who worked on the telephone counseling service, which directly contacted the residents, suffered from the stress associated with emotional labor. Systematic mental health care to the staff who engaged in these tasks was provided them in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of the JAEA. This paper considers this activity as a concrete example of "support for supporters" and discusses the mental health of the staff who provide support to the residents in a nuclear disaster.

Availability analysis for the 30-MW proton linac of the JAEA-ADS project

Yee-Rendon, B.; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Tamura, Jun; Nakano, Keita; Maekawa, Fujio; Meigo, Shinichiro

Proceedings of 19th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.286 - 290, 2023/01

https://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2022/proceedings/PDF/TUP0/TUP006.pdf

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is designing a 30-MW proton linear accelerator (linac) as one of the fundamental components for its accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) project. ADS accelerators demand extremely high reliability and availability to avoid thermal stress in the subcritical reactor structures. Thus, reliability and availability assessments of the accelerator are mandatory to detect weakness in the lattice designed and evaluate redundancy configurations to fulfill the demanded operation. This study applied the Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) method to calculate the Medium Time Between Failures (MTBF) for different linac configurations: all the linac's elements in a series configuration and a combination of hot-standby for the low-energy section of the linac and k-out-n redundancy for the high-energy part. The estimation considered the detailed arrangement of the cavities and magnets that compose the linac lattice. In this report, we describe the reliability model of the JAEA-ADS linac, report the MTBF results, and point out the potential route toward operating with the required availability.

An Attempt to estimate the migration pathway of slab-derived fluid using shear wave splitting analysis

Hiratsuka, Shinya; Asamori, Koichi; Saiga, Atsushi

JAEA-Research 2022-002, 38 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Research-2022-002.pdf:4.49MB

Deep groundwater originates from dehydration of Pacific and Philippine Sea slab subducting beneath Japanese islands, which has characteristics of high temperature and is rich in carbonate species. In this respect, it is very important for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste to estimate reservoir and migration pathway of deep groundwater. The region where cracks are densely distributed can be regarded as the migration pathway of slab-derived fluid. It is highly probable that the region has strong anisotropy. Shear wave propagating through anisotropic media splits into two mutually orthogonally polarized waves due to shear wave polarization anisotropy. In this report, we applied shear wave splitting analysis to Hongu area of Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture and estimated the spatial distribution of leading shear wave polarization direction (LSPD) and arrival time difference between leading and lagging shear waves (dt). Based on comparison with helium isotope ratio of ground water and bubbling gas samples and two-dimensional resistivity structure estimated by previous study, we attempt to estimate migration pathway of slab-derived fluid in Hongu area of Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture. The main results are summarized as follows. When helium isotope ratio of groundwater and bubbling gas samples is high, dt value tends to be large. Shear wave propagating through high and low resistivity anomaly zone show small and large dt values, respectively. Previous study suggested that slab-derived fluid migrates from deeper part of western side of Hongu area and wells out in Yunomine and Kawayu hot springs. This is consistent with spatial distribution of dt values estimated by this study.