Development and evaluation of XRF imaging instrument for moving objects

Fuchita, Tomoki*; Urata, Taisei*; Matsuyama, Tsugufumi*; Murakami, Masashi; Yoshida, Yukihiko; Ueda, Akihiko; Machida, Masahiko; Sasaki, Toshiki; Tsuji, Koichi*

Advances in X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, 53, p.77 - 87, 2022/03

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis is an analytical method to obtain elemental information by detecting fluorescence X-rays emitted from a sample irradiated with X-rays. It is possible to obtain two-dimensional elemental distribution images by scanning a sample with micro X-ray beam. In this study, we developed an XRF analytical instrument to rapidly obtain the elemental distributions for moving samples on a belt conveyor by applying the micro XRF technique. X-rays were widely irradiated to the belt conveyor. The elemental distributions were measured by scanning an X-ray detector, crossing above the belt conveyor. A collimator was attached to the top of the detector to limit the analyzing area. Both detection limit and spatial resolutions for moving directions of the detector and the belt conveyor were evaluated. Finally, it was demonstrated that the multi-elemental imaging was possible with the developed XRF instrument.

Status of study of long-term assessment of transport of radioactive contaminants in the environment of Fukushima (FY2018) (Translated document)

Nagao, Fumiya; Niizato, Tadafumi; Sasaki, Yoshito; Ito, Satomi; Watanabe, Takayoshi; Dohi, Terumi; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Hagiwara, Hiroki; Funaki, Hironori; et al.

JAEA-Research 2020-007, 249 Pages, 2020/10

JAEA-Research-2020-007.pdf:15.83MB

The accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sanriku offshore earthquake, of 9.0 magnitude and the accompanying tsunami. As a result, large amount of radioactive materials was released into the environment. Under these circumstances, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting "Long-term Assessment of Transport of Radioactive Contaminants in the Environment of Fukushima" concerning radioactive materials released in environment, especially migration behavior of radioactive cesium since November 2012. This report is a summary of the research results that have been obtained in environmental dynamics research conducted by JAEA in Fukushima Prefecture.

Status of study of long-term assessment of transport of radioactive contaminants in the environment of Fukushima (FY2018)

Nagao, Fumiya; Niizato, Tadafumi; Sasaki, Yoshito; Ito, Satomi; Watanabe, Takayoshi; Dohi, Terumi; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Hagiwara, Hiroki; Funaki, Hironori; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-002, 235 Pages, 2019/08

JAEA-Research-2019-002.pdf:21.04MB

The accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (hereinafter referred to 1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sanriku offshore earthquake, of 9.0 magnitude and the accompanying tsunami. As a result, large amount of radioactive materials was released into the environment. Under these circumstances, JAEA has been conducting Long-term Environmental Dynamics Research concerning radioactive materials released in environment, especially migration behavior of radioactive cesium since November 2012. This report is a summary of the research results that have been obtained in environmental dynamics research conducted by JAEA in Fukushima Prefecture.

Electronic structure of Li@C; Photoelectron spectroscopy of the Li@C[PF] salt and STM of the single Li@C molecules on Cu(111)

Yamada, Yoichi*; Kuklin, A. V.*; Sato, Sho*; Esaka, Fumitaka; Sumi, Naoya*; Zhang, C.*; Sasaki, Masahiro*; Kwon, E.*; Kasama, Yasuhiko*; Avramov, P. V.*; et al.

Carbon, 133, p.23 - 30, 2018/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2018.02.106

We report first STM observation of the Li ion endohedral C, which is of a new class of endohedral fullerenes, prepared by means of evaporation of high-purity Li@C[PF] salt in ultra-high vacuum. Prior to the STM measurements, the electronic structure of Li@C in the Li@C[PF] salt was also precisely determined. In the salt, it is shown that Li and PF have nearly single positive and negative charge, respectively, and the C cage is nearly neutral, suggesting that Li@C in the salt retains its original electronic state.

Fate of radiocesium in freshwater aquatic plants and algae in the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Sasaki, Yoshito; Funaki, Hironori; Iri, Shatei; Dohi, Terumi; Hagiwara, Hiroki

Limnology, 17(2), p.111 - 116, 2016/04

AA2015-0204.pdf:3.47MB

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-015-0471-6

The behavior of radiocesium (Cs) in aquatic plants (five species) and algae (three genera) that had been grown in a river (one sampling point) and ponds (four sampling points) in the area around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was investigated. The sediment-to-plant transfer factor (TF) was measured. For aquatic plants, the highest value was 5.55 for from the river; the lowest was 3.34 10 for from a pond. There were significant differences in the values for aquatic plants belonging to the same genus. The water-to-plant TF of filamentous algae ( sp.) and cyanobacteria (coexisting sp. and sp.) were 2.39 10 and 1.26 10, respectively. The Cs concentration of cyanobacteria fraction in pond water was 4.87 10 Bq/L, the same order of magnitude as the Cs concentration of pond water. Enrichment of radiocesium in cyanobacteria was not observed.

Studies on the extraction of soft acid metal species using MIDOA and analogous compounds

Sasaki, Yuji; Saeki, Morihisa; Sugo, Yumi; Ikeda, Yasuhisa*; Kawasaki, Takeshi*; Suzuki, Tomoya*; Ohashi, Akira*

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan, 22(1), p.37 - 45, 2015/05

https://doi.org/10.15261/serdj.22.37

An extractant, methylimino-bis--dioctylacetamide (MIDOA), was used for the extraction of soft acid metals. It was found that MIDOA can extract not only Cr(VI), Mo(VI), W(VI), Tc(VII) and Re(VII), whose metals can form the oxonium anions due to their high oxidation states, but also other metal cations, like Nb(V), Ta(V) and Pd(II). Analogous compounds, imino-bis--dioctylacetamide (IDOA) and methylimino-bis--di-2-ethylhexylacetamide (MIDEHA), are synthesized and compared for their extractability. It is clear that these extractants have almost same or lower values than those for MIDOA. In order to examine the effect on extractability with different donor atoms, TODGA (-tetraoctyl-diglycolamide) and TDGA (-tetraoctyl-tyiodiglycolamide) having oxygen and sulfur donor are employed. The comparison of their extractabilities suggests that the trend of Pd and Re extraction is N S O and N O S, respectively.

"Development of mutual separation technology of minor actinides by the novel hydrophilic and lipophilic diamide compounds" summary of the researches for three years (Contract research)

Sasaki, Yuji; Tsubata, Yasuhiro; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro; Sugo, Yumi; Shirasu, Noriko; Ikeda, Yasuhisa*; Kawasaki, Takeshi*; Suzuki, Tomoya*; Mimura, Hitoshi*; Usuda, Shigekazu*; et al.

JAEA-Research 2014-008, 220 Pages, 2014/06

JAEA-Research-2014-008.pdf:41.81MB

The researches on Development of mutual separation technology of minor actinides by the novel hydrophilic and lipophilic diamide compounds, entrusted to Japan Atomic Energy Agency by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, from 2010 to 2012 are summarized. This project was composed of three themes, those are (1) Development of total recovery of MA+Ln: basic researches for new extractant, DOODA, (2) Development of mutual separation of Am/Cm/Ln: basic researches of Ln-complex, solvent extraction, and extraction chromatography, and (3) Evaluation of separation technique: process simulation. For topic (1), we summarized the information on characteristic of DOODA extractant. For topic (2), we summarized the information on structures of Ln-complexes, solvent extraction and chromatography. For topic (3), we summarized the information on conditions of mixer-settler and evaluation of each fraction separated.

Research and development activities for cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

Sasaki, Toshiki; Kaminishi, Shuji*; Miyamoto, Yasuaki; Funasaka, Hideyuki

Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol.1518, p.257 - 268, 2013/10

BB2012-2567.pdf:1.85MB

https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2013.51

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident and restoration works have produced significant volume of radioactive waste. The waste has very different characteristics from usual radioactive waste produced in nuclear power stations and it requires extensive research and development for management of the waste. R&D works such as radionuclide analysis of the waste, hydrogen generation/diffusion analysis of a storage vessel, corrosion evaluation of storage vessels, etc. have been performed for characterization and safe storage of the waste. The detailed R&D plan for processing and disposal waste will be established by the end of FY2012.

Mutual separation of Am/Cm/Ln by the use of novel-triamide, NTAamide and water-soluble diglycolamide

Sasaki, Yuji; Tsubata, Yasuhiro; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro; Sugo, Yumi; Shirasu, Noriko; Morita, Yasuji

Proceedings of International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference; Nuclear Energy at a Crossroads (GLOBAL 2013) (CD-ROM), p.1079 - 1082, 2013/09

Mutual separation of Am, Cm and lanthanides (Ln) is important to develop the partitioning process of high-level radioactive liquid waste, because the application to their different disposal methods are advantageous. Namely, Am is studied for transmutation due to the reduction of long half-life radionuclides, Cm should be kept in interim storage in order to reduce the calorific value, and Ln should be present in the vitrified radioactive waste toward the geological disposal. However, this mutual separation method is difficult to establish because they have very similar chemical behavior, same oxidation state (III) and similar ionic radii. The development of their mutual separation is termed as the challenging study. In order to obtain the satisfactory results, the property of extractant requires the differentiation of actinide (An) from Ln, high preferability to different ionic radii between Am and Cm, and high extractability to hard acids. Therefore, the extractant have to include both N atom, whose soft donor has high selectivity between An and Ln, and O atoms for the strong extractability to An. The new extractant, NTAamide (N,N,N',N',N'',N''-hexaoctyl-nitrirotriacetamide) is a triamide having N donor at the center of backbone, then NTAamide has hybrid performance of complexation to metals by soft N and three hard amidic O atoms. It is clear that NTAamide can extract trivalent An at diluted HNO with small D(Ln), the separation of An from Ln can be carried out at that condition. The SF of Am/Cm by NTAamide is approximate 1.8, which is not so high to separate each other. The combination of NTAamide of extractant and TEDGA (N,N,N',N'-tetraethyl-diglycolamide) as a masking agent in the aqueous phase shows very high SF(Am/Cm) of maximal 6.5. It is obvious that NTAamide is a promising extractant to achieve the mutual separation among Am/Cm/Ln.

Novel soft-hard donor ligand, NTAamide, for mutual separation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides

Sasaki, Yuji; Tsubata, Yasuhiro; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro; Morita, Yasuji

Chemistry Letters, 42(1), p.91 - 92, 2013/01

https://doi.org/10.1246/cl.2013.91

The new N-donor extractant, NTAamide, is synthesized and tested for extraction and separation of Am-Cm-Ln. It was found that the high separation factors for An-Ln can be seen at 0.1-0.2M HNO, which suggest the de-protonation to N donor is important to show the high SF between An and Ln. From the present work, the stable N-donor extractant having high SF of An-Ln from nitric acid to n-dodecane can be obtained. The highest separation factor, 6.5, of Am-Cm for the condition of 0.5M NTAamide (C8) in n-dodecane and 10 mM TEDGA in 0.2M HNO as one of the highest SF values is found. NTAamide is the promising extractants for partitioning process of Am-Cm-Ln.