Application of control software framework to sample environment equipment in J-PARC MLF

Hasemi, Hiroyuki; Takahashi, Ryuta*; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Kawamura, Seiko; Komine, Ryota

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 41, p.011003_1 - 011003_5, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.41.011003

Atmospheric ionizations by solar X-rays, solar protons, and radiation belt electrons in September 2017 space weather event

Murase, Kiyoka*; Kataoka, Ryuho*; Nishiyama, Takanori*; Sato, Kaoru*; Tsutsumi, Masaki*; Tanaka, Yoshimasa*; Ogawa, Yasunobu*; Sato, Tatsuhiko

Space Weather, 21(12), p.e2023SW003651_1 - e2023SW003651_11, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023SW003651

Comprehensive understandings of their global impact on the atmosphere require whole pictures of spatio-temporal distributions of the ionization due to them. We estimate the altitude profiles of the ionization rate during the space weather event occurred in September 2017 by using the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) with input of the particle fluxes obtained by satellites. The estimates are then compared with measurements of the ionization altitude, ionization intensity, and electron density by the radars in the polar region such as the PANSY radar at Syowa Station and the EISCAT in Tromso, Norway. We conclude that the PHITS simulation results reproduce those ionizations measured by ground-based instruments with inputs of observed ionization sources by satellites within a factor of 2.

Decommissioning of uranium handling facility for development of nuclear fuel manufacturing equipment

Kageyama, Tomio; Denuma, Akio; Koizumi, Jin*; Odakura, Manabu*; Haginoya, Masahiro*; Isaka, Shinichi*; Kadowaki, Hiroyuki*; Kobayashi, Shingo*; Morimoto, Taisei*; Kato, Yoshiaki*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2022-033, 130 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Technology-2022-033.pdf:9.87MB

Uranium handling facility for development of nuclear fuel manufacturing equipment (Mockup room) was constructed in 1972. The Mockup room has a weak seismic resistance and is deteriorating with age. Also, the original purpose with this facility have been achieved and there are no new development plans using this facility. Therefore, interior equipment installed in this facility had been dismantled and removed since March 2019. After that, the Mockup room was inspected for contamination, and then controlled area in the Mockup room was cancelled on March 29th 2022. A total of 6,549 workers (not including security witnesses) were required for this work. The amount of non-radioactive waste generated by this work was 31,300 kg. The amount of radioactive waste generated by this work was 3,734 kg of combustible waste (103 drums), 4,393 kg of flame resistance waste (61 drums), 37,790 kg of non-combustible waste (124 drums, 19 containers). This report describes about the dismantling and removing the interior equipment in the Mockup room, the amount of waste generated by this work, and procedure for cancellation the controlled area in the facility.

Optimization of mercury flow with microbubbles in the target-vessel design by means of machine learning

Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Tsuzuki, Takayuki*; Murai, Tetsuro*

JAEA-Technology 2022-023, 128 Pages, 2022/11

JAEA-Technology-2022-023.pdf:9.0MB

In a mercury target of the J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex), pulsed proton beams repeatedly bombard the flowing mercury which is confined in a stainless-steel vessel (target vessel). Cavitation damage caused by the propagation of the pressure waves is a factor of the life of the target vessel. As a measure to reduce damages, we developed a bubbler to inject the gas microbubbles into the flowing mercury, which can reduce the pressure waves. To operate the mercury target vessel stably with the 1 MW high-intensity proton beams, further reduction of the damage is required. The bubbler setting position should be closer to the beam window to increase the bubble population, which could enhance the reduction effect on the pressure waves and damage. However, the space at the beam window of the target vessel is restricted. The bubbler design and setting position as well as the vane design for the mercury flowing pattern are optimized by means of a machine learning technique to get more suitable bubble distribution, increasing in bubble population and optimizing bubble size nearby the beam window of the target vessel. The results of CFD analyses performed with 1000 cases were used for machine learning. Since the flow rate of mercury affects the temperature of the target vessel, this was used for the constraint condition. As a result, we found a design of mercury target vessel that can increase the bubble population by ca. 20% higher than the current design.

In-operando lithium-ion transport tracking in an all-solid-state battery

Kobayashi, Takane*; Onishi, Tsuyoshi*; Osawa, Takahito; Pratt, A.*; Tear, S.*; Shimoda, Susumu*; Baba, Hidetada*; Laitinen, M.*; Sajavaara, T.*

Small, 18(46), p.2204455_1 - 2204455_9, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202204455

An all-solid-state battery is a secondary battery that is charged and discharged by the transport of lithium ions between positive and negative electrodes. To fully realize the significant benefits of this battery technology, for example, higher energy densities, faster charging times, safer operation, it will be essential to understand how lithium ions are transported and distributed in the battery during operation. However, as the third lightest element, methods for quantitatively analyzing lithium during operation of an all-solid-state device are limited such that real time tracking of lithium transport has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we report that the transport of lithium ions in an all-solid-state half-cell was quantitatively tracked in near real time by utilizing a thermal neutron-induced nuclear reaction, utilizing lithium-6 as a tracer, and utilizing a high-intensity thermal neutron source. Furthermore, it is also mentioned that the migration mechanism and migration region of lithium ions in the solid electrolyte used could be determined by tracking the transport of lithium ions. From these results, it can be said that the development of all-solid-state batteries has entered a phase where further advances could be carried out while understanding the transport of lithium ions in the batteries. As a result, the research and development of all-solid-state batteries would be further accelerated.

Mechanisms of action of radon therapy on cytokine levels in normal mice and rheumatoid arthritis mouse model

Kataoka, Takahiro*; Naoe, Shota*; Murakami, Kaito*; Yukimine, Ryohei*; Fujimoto, Yuki*; Kanzaki, Norie; Sakoda, Akihiro; Mitsunobu, Fumihiro*; Yamaoka, Kiyonori*

Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition, 70(2), p.154 - 159, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.3164/jcbn.21-91

PSTEP: Project for solar-terrestrial environment prediction

Kusano, Kanya*; Ichimoto, Kiyoshi*; Ishii, Mamoru*; Miyoshi, Yoshizumi*; Yoden, Shigeo*; Akiyoshi, Hideharu*; Asai, Ayumi*; Ebihara, Yusuke*; Fujiwara, Hitoshi*; Goto, Tadanori*; et al.

Earth, Planets and Space (Internet), 73(1), p.159_1 - 159_29, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-021-01486-1

The PSTEP is a nationwide research collaboration in Japan and was conducted from April 2015 to March 2020, supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. It has made a significant progress in space weather research and operational forecasts, publishing over 500 refereed journal papers and organizing four international symposiums, various workshops and seminars, and summer school for graduate students at Rikubetsu in 2017. This paper is a summary report of the PSTEP and describes the major research achievements it produced.

Deexcitation dynamics of muonic atoms revealed by high-precision spectroscopy of electronic X rays

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I. H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(5), p.053001_1 - 053001_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.053001

We observed electronic X rays emitted from muonic iron atoms using a superconducting transition-edge-type sensor microcalorimeter. The energy resolution of 5.2 eV in FWHM allowed us to observe the asymmetric broad profile of the electronic characteristic and X rays together with the hypersatellite X rays around 6 keV. This signature reflects the time-dependent screening of the nuclear charge by the negative muon and the -shell electrons, accompanied by electron side-feeding. Assisted by a simulation, this data clearly reveals the electronic - and -shell hole production and their temporal evolution during the muon cascade process.

Treatment of waste oil with steam reforming system 2018

Sakashita, Koichi; Ishii, Naoyuki; Kijima, Jun; Aoyagi, Yoshitaka; Hagiwara, Masayoshi; Fukushima, Mineo

JAEA-Testing 2020-003, 20 Pages, 2020/07

JAEA-Testing-2020-003.pdf:1.52MB

Steam reforming method has been developed for the treatment of organic wastes which are not suitable materials (halogenated oil) for the incineration. This method consists of the gasification process in which organics are vaporized and decomposed with superheated steam and the oxidation process in which vaporized organics are decomposed by oxidizing reaction with heated air. In the gasification process, nonvolatile radionuclides are separated from vaporized waste. Therefore it can be expected that treatment of liquid waste generated from an off-gas treatment system and maintenance operation of the off-gas treatment system become easy to perform. 1,500L of waste oil contaminated with halogen, solvent and uranium was treated using the demonstration scale steam reforming system to examine the performance of the system in 2018. Results obtained this study were as follows; (1) The temperature in the steam reforming system was controlled under the self-regulation temperature. (2) The concentration of CO and NO in the off-gas were controlled less than 100 ppm and 250 ppm respectively. (3) The gasification ratio of waste oil was more than 99%. (4) Concentration of fluorine oil in waste oil is needed to be less than 20wt% to perform stable continuance treatment.

Conceptual study on parasitic low-energy RI beam production with in-flight separator BigRIPS and the first stopping examination for high-energy RI beams in the parasitic gas cell

Sonoda, Tetsu*; Katayama, Ichiro*; Wada, Michiharu*; Iimura, Hideki; Sonnenschein, V.*; Iimura, Shun*; Takamine, Aiko*; Rosenbusch, M.*; Kojima, Takao*; Ahn, D. S.*; et al.

Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Internet), 2019(11), p.113D02_1 - 113D02_12, 2019/11

AA2019-0315.pdf:1.37MB

https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptz120

An in-flight separator, BigRIPS, at RIBF in RIKEN provides each experiment with specific nuclides separated from many nuclides produced by projectile fragmentation or in-flight fission. In this process, nuclides other than separated ones are discarded on the slits in BigRIPS, although they include many nuclides interested from the view point of nuclear structure. In order to extract these nuclides for parasitic experiments, we are developing a method using laser ion-source (PALIS). A test experiment with Se beam from RIBF has been performed by using a gas cell set in BigRIPS. Unstable nuclides around Se were stopped in the gas cell in accordance with a calculation using LISE code. The stopping efficiency has been estimated to be about 30%. As a next step, we will establish the technique for extracting reaction products from the gas cell.