Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2022

Kokubun, Yuji; Nakada, Akira; Seya, Natsumi; Koike, Yuko; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Yamada, Ryohei*; Uchiyama, Rei; Yamashita, Daichi; Nagai, Shinji; et al.

JAEA-Review 2023-046, 164 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-046.pdf:4.2MB

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories conducts environmental radiation monitoring around the reprocessing plant in accordance with the "Safety Regulations for Reprocessing Plant of JAEA, Part IV: Environmental Monitoring". This report summarizes the results of environmental radiation monitoring conducted during the period from April 2022 to March 2023 and the results of dose calculations for the surrounding public due to the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and ocean. In the results of the above environmental radiation monitoring, many items were affected by radioactive materials emitted from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (changed to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. on April 1, 2016), which occurred in March 2011. Also included as appendices are an overview of the environmental monitoring plan, an overview of measurement methods, measurement results and their changes over time, meteorological statistics results, radioactive waste release status, and an evaluation of the data which deviated of the normal range.

Magnetic hysteresis induction with nanocolumnar defects in magnetic insulators

Harii, Kazuya*; Umeda, Maki; Arisawa, Hiroki*; Hioki, Tomosato*; Sato, Nana; Okayasu, Satoru; Ieda, Junichi

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 92(7), p.073701_1 - 073701_4, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.92.073701

Temperature-variable apparatus for measuring Barnett field

Umeda, Maki; Chudo, Hiroyuki; Imai, Masaki; Sato, Nana; Saito, Eiji

Review of Scientific Instruments, 94(6), p.063906_1 - 063906_8, 2023/06

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0142318

Development plan for coupling technology between high temperature gas-cooled reactor HTTR and Hydrogen Production Facility, 2; Development plan for coupling equipment between HTTR and Hydrogen Production Facility

Mizuta, Naoki; Morita, Keisuke; Aoki, Takeshi; Okita, Shoichiro; Ishii, Katsunori; Kurahayashi, Kaoru; Yasuda, Takanori; Tanaka, Masato; Isaka, Kazuyoshi; Noguchi, Hiroki; et al.

Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2023/05

External exposure assessment in the Fukushima accident area for governmental policy planning in Japan, 2; Matters to be attended for assessments of external exposure

Yoshimura, Kazuya; Sanada, Yukihisa; Sato, Rina; Nakayama, Mariko*; Tsubokura, Masaharu*

Journal of Radiation Research (Internet), 64(2), p.203 - 209, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1093/jrr/rrac088

After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, individual exposure doses to residents have been assessed by many municipalities, governments and research institutes. Various methods including measurements with personal dosimeters and simulations have been used for this evaluation depending on purposes, but the information of assessments and methods has not been systematically organized. A comprehensive review of the knowledge and experiences of individual exposure doses assessments accumulated so far and understanding the characteristics of the assessment methods will be very useful for radiation protection and risk communication, following to governmental policy planning. We reviewed the efforts made by the Japanese government and research institutes to assess radiation doses to residents after the FDNPS accident in Part1. On the other hand, each method of assessing individual exposure doses includes uncertainties and points to be considered for the appropriate assessment. These knowledge and experiences are important for the assessment implementation and applying the assessment results to the governmental policy planning, and are summarized in Part2 of this article.

Individual exposure dose assessment of residents for lifting of evacuation orders (Contract research)

Sato, Rina; Sanada, Yukihisa; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Nakayama, Mariko*

JAEA-Review 2022-055, 42 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Review-2022-055.pdf:1.31MB

The evacuation order zones established after the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have been reorganized according to the decrease in ambient dose equivalent rates and the decontamination progress. It has been decided to decontaminate the difficult-to-return zones and lift the evacuation order depending on the evacuee's intention of returning to the areas over the course of the 2020s. In order to consider the future of individual exposure dose assessment for residents for lifting of the evacuation orders, the methods and characteristics of the assessment that have been conducted after the accident using personal dosimeter measurements and simulations were systematically reviewed. This report summarized the results of the review.

Present status of JAEA's R&D toward HTGR deployment

Shibata, Taiju; Nishihara, Tetsuo; Kubo, Shinji; Sato, Hiroyuki; Sakaba, Nariaki; Kunitomi, Kazuhiko

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 398, p.111964_1 - 111964_4, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111964

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been promoting the research and development (R&D) of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). R&D on reactor technologies is carried out by using High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). The HTTR was resumed without significant reinforcements in 2021. On January 2022, a safety demonstration test under the OECD/NEA LOFC project was carried out. JAEA is promoting R&D on a carbon-free hydrogen production by thermochemical water splitting Iodine-Sulfur process (IS process). JAEA conducts design study for various HTGR systems toward commercialization. A new test program about demonstration of hydrogen production by the HTTR was launched. Steam methane reforming hydrogen production system was selected for the first demonstration by 2030.

Design and actual performance of J-PARC 3 GeV rapid cycling synchrotron for high-intensity operation

Yamamoto, Kazami; Kinsho, Michikazu; Hayashi, Naoki; Saha, P. K.; Tamura, Fumihiko; Yamamoto, Masanobu; Tani, Norio; Takayanagi, Tomohiro; Kamiya, Junichiro; Shobuda, Yoshihiro; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(9), p.1174 - 1205, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2038301

In the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, the purpose of the 3 GeV rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) is to accelerate a 1 MW, high-intensity proton beam. To achieve beam operation at a repetition rate of 25 Hz at high intensities, the RCS was elaborately designed. After starting the RCS operation, we carefully verified the validity of its design and made certain improvements to establish a reliable operation at higher power as possible. Consequently, we demonstrated beam operation at a high power, namely, 1 MW. We then summarized the design, actual performance, and improvements of the RCS to achieve a 1 MW beam.

Novel Sr analysis of environmental samples by ion-laser interaction mass spectrometry

Honda, Maki; Martschini, M.*; Marchhart, O.*; Priller, A.*; Steier, P.*; Golser, R.*; Sato, Tetsuya; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Sakaguchi, Aya*

Analytical Methods, 14(28), p.2732 - 2738, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1039/D2AY00604A

The sensitive Sr analysis with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was developed for the advances of environmental radiology. One advantage of AMS is the ability to analyze various environmental samples with Sr/Sr atomic ratios of 10 in a simple chemical separation. Three different IAEA samples with known Sr concentrations (moss-soil, animal bone, Syrian soil: 1 g each) were analyzed to assess the validity of the chemical separation and the AMS measurement. The Sr measurements were conducted on the AMS system combined with the Ion Laser InterAction MasSpectrometry (ILIAMS) setup at the University of Vienna, which has excellent isobaric separation performance. The isobaric interference of Zr in the Sr AMS was first removed by chemical separation. The separation factor of Zr in two-step column chromatography with Sr resin and anion exchange resin was 10. The Zr remaining in the sample was removed by ILIAMS effectively. This simple chemical separation achieved a limit of detection 0.1 mBq in the Sr AMS, which is lower than typical -ray detection. The agreement between AMS measurements and nominal values for the Sr concentrations of IAEA samples indicated that the new highly-sensitive Sr analysis in the environmental samples with AMS is reliable even for high matrix samples of soil and bone.

Mesospheric ionization during substorm growth phase

Murase, Kiyoka*; Kataoka, Ryuho*; Nishiyama, Takanori*; Nishimura, Koji*; Hashimoto, Taishi*; Tanaka, Yoshimasa*; Kadokura, Akira*; Tomikawa, Yoshihiro*; Tsutsumi, Masaki*; Ogawa, Yasunobu*; et al.

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (Internet), 12, p.18_1 - 18_16, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2022012

We identified two energetic electron precipitation (EEP) events during the growth phase of moderate substorms and estimated the mesospheric ionization rate for an EEP event for which the most comprehensive dataset from ground-based and space-born instruments was available. The mesospheric ionization signature reached below 70 km altitude and continued for ~15 min until the substorm onset, as observed by the PANSY radar and imaging riometer at Syowa Station in the Antarctic region. We also used energetic electron flux observed by the Arase and POES 15 satellites as the input for the air-shower simulation code PHITS to quantitatively estimate the mesospheric ionization rate. Combining the cutting-edge observations and simulations, we shed new light on the space weather impact of the EEP events during geomagnetically quiet times, which is important to understand the possible link between the space environment and climate.