Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2022

Kokubun, Yuji; Nakada, Akira; Seya, Natsumi; Nagaoka, Mika; Koike, Yuko; Kubota, Tomohiro; Hirao, Moe; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2023-052, 118 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-052.pdf:3.67MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and by law of Ibaraki Prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2022. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Structural changes of polystyrene particles in subcritical and supercritical water revealed by in situ small-angle neutron scattering

Shibata, Motoki*; Nakanishi, Yohei*; Abe, Jun*; Arima, Hiroshi*; Iwase, Hiroki*; Shibayama, Mitsuhiro*; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Kumada, Takayuki; Takata, Shinichi; Yamamoto, Katsuhiro*; et al.

Polymer Journal, 55(11), p.1165 - 1170, 2023/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-023-00817-1

Physical property investigation of gloves for glove boxes in nuclear fuel reprocessing plants; Physical properties of used gloves and estimation of its life-time

Yamamoto, Masahiko; Nishida, Naoki; Kobayashi, Daisuke; Nemoto, Ryo*; Hayashi, Hiroyuki*; Kitao, Takahiko; Kuno, Takehiko

JAEA-Technology 2023-004, 30 Pages, 2023/06

JAEA-Technology-2023-004.pdf:1.94MB

Glove-box gloves, that are used for handling nuclear fuel materials at the Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, have an expiration date by internal rules. All gloves are replaced at a maximum of every 4-year. However, degrees of glove deterioration varies depending on its usage environment such as frequency, chemicals, and radiation dose. Therefore, physical properties such as tensile strength, elongation, hardness of gloves are measured and technical evaluation method for the glove life-time is established. It was found that gloves without any defects in its appearance have enough physical properties and satisfies the acceptance criteria values of new gloves. Thus, it was considered that the expired gloves could be used for total of 8-year, by adding 4-year of new glove life-time. In addition, the results of extrapolation by plotting the glove's physical properties versus the used years showed that the physical properties at 8-year is on the safer side than the reported physical properties of broken glove. Also, the data are not significantly different from the physical properties of the long-term storage glove (8 and 23 years). Based on these results, life-time of gloves at TRP is set to be 8-year. The frequency of glove inspections are not changed, and if any defects is found, the glove is promptly replaced. Thus, the risk related to glove usage is not increased. The cost of purchasing gloves, labor for glove replacement, and the amount of generated waste can be reduced by approximately 40%, respectively, resulting in more efficient and rationalized glove management.

Neutron reflectivity study on the nanostructure of PMMA chains near substrate interfaces based on contrast variation accompanied with small molecule sorption

Shimokita, Keisuke*; Yamamoto, Katsuhiro*; Miyata, Noboru*; Nakanishi, Yohei*; Shibata, Motoki*; Takenaka, Mikihito*; Yamada, Norifumi*; Seto, Hideki*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Miyazaki, Tsukasa*

Soft Matter, 19(11), p.2082 - 2089, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SM01482C

Incoherent neutron scattering and Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy on protein and hydration water

Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Yamamoto, Naoki*

Life (Internet), 13(2), p.318_1 - 318_15, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.3390/life13020318

Incoherent neutron scattering and terahertz spectroscopy have approximately the same energy range of measurement. Since both techniques are used to study the dynamics of proteins and hydrated water, it is important to review the advantages and disadvantages of both techniques and the relevant literature. To the best of our knowledge, there is no review of both methods, and we believe that this review is of high value.

Nonlinear magnon polaritons

Lee, O.*; Yamamoto, Kei; Umeda, Maki; Zollitsch, C. W.*; Elyasi, M.*; Kikkawa, Takashi*; Saito, Eiji; Bauer, G. E. W.*; Kurebayashi, Hidekazu*

Physical Review Letters, 130(4), p.046703_1 - 046703_6, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.046703

Neutron reflectivity study on the suppression of interfacial water accumulation between a polypropylene thin film and Si substrate using a silane-coupling agent

Shimokita, Keisuke*; Yamamoto, Katsuhiro*; Miyata, Noboru*; Arima-Osonoi, Hiroshi*; Nakanishi, Yohei*; Takenaka, Mikihito*; Shibata, Motoki*; Yamada, Norifumi*; Seto, Hideki*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; et al.

Langmuir, 38(41), p.12457 - 12465, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c01599

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.

Investigation of physical properties of glove for glove-box and estimation of its life-time

Kobayashi, Daisuke; Yamamoto, Masahiko; Nishida, Naoki; Miyoshi, Ryuta; Nemoto, Ryo*; Hayashi, Hiroyuki*; Kato, Keisuke; Nishino, Saki; Kuno, Takehiko; Kitao, Takahiko; et al.

Nihon Hozen Gakkai Dai-18-Kai Gakujutsu Koenkai Yoshishu, p.237 - 240, 2022/07

All gloves attached to glove-box in Tokai Reprocessing Plant have a fixed expiration date and have to be replaced every 4-year. However, degrees of glove deterioration are different depending on its usage environment (frequency, chemicals, radiation, etc.), because of rubber products. Therefore, physical properties such as tensile strength, elongation, hardness of gloves are measured, and the life-time of gloves are estimated. As a result, gloves without any defects in its appearance have enough physical property for acceptance criteria of new glove. The extrapolated physical property of glove is sufficiently larger than the reported values of damaged glove. No deterioration in physical properties of gloves, that are periodically replaced without any defects in its appearance, is observed and the usable life-time of the glove is estimated to be 8 years.

Angular distribution of rays from the -wave resonance of Sn

Koga, Jun*; Takada, Shusuke*; Endo, Shunsuke; Fujioka, Hiroyuki*; Hirota, Katsuya*; Ishizaki, Kohei*; Kimura, Atsushi; Kitaguchi, Masaaki*; Niinomi, Yudai*; Okudaira, Takuya*; et al.

Physical Review C, 105(5), p.054615_1 - 054615_5, 2022/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.105.054615

no abstracts in English