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Yokomura, Ryota*; Goto, Masataka*; Yoshida, Takehito*; Warisawa, Shinichi*; Hanari, Toshihide; Kawabata, Kuniaki; Fukui, Rui*
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (Internet), 9(4), p.3275 - 3282, 2024/04
Times Cited Count:0To reduce errors in the remote control of robots during decommissioning, we developed a Rail DRAGON, which enables continuous observation of the work environment. The Rail DRAGON is constructed by assembling and pushing a long rail structure inside the primary containment vessel (PCV), and then repeatedly deploying several monitoring robots on the rails to enable constant observation in a high-radiation environment. In particular, we have developed the following components of Rail DRAGON: bendable rail modules, straight rail modules, a basement unit, and monitoring robots. Concretely, this research proposes and demonstrates a method to realize an ultralong articulated structure with high portability and workability. In addition, it proposes and verifies the feasibility of a method for deploying observation equipment that can be easily deployed and replaced, while considering disposal.
Tobita, Minoru*; Goto, Katsunori*; Omori, Takeshi*; Osone, Osamu*; Haraga, Tomoko; Aono, Ryuji; Konda, Miki; Tsuchida, Daiki; Mitsukai, Akina; Ishimori, Kenichiro
JAEA-Data/Code 2023-011, 32 Pages, 2023/11
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 the study of radioactivity concentration evaluation methods for radioactive wastes generated from nuclear research facilities, we collected and analyzed concrete samples generated from JRR-3, JRR-4 and JAERI Reprocessing Test Facility. In this report, we summarized the radioactivity concentrations of 23 radionuclides (H, C, Cl, Ca, Co, Ni, Sr, Nb, Ag, Cs, Ba, Eu, Eu, Ho, U, U, U, Pu, Pu, Pu, Am, Am, Cm) which were obtained from radiochemical analysis of the samples in fiscal years 2021-2022.
Ishibashi, Atsushi; Masui, Kenji; Goto, Yuichi; Yamamoto, Masahiko; Taguchi, Shigeo; Ishikawa, Satoshi*; Ishikawa, Tomoya*
Nihon Hozen Gakkai Dai-19-Kai Gakujutsu Koenkai Yoshishu, p.18 - 21, 2023/08
An inner-box typed hot cell for analysis of highly radioactive samples has been operated for about 40 years in Tokai Reprocessing Plant since its installation in 1980. During the operation of analytical hot cell, improvement and upgrades including auxiliary equipment have been performed, in addition to keep the equipment in proper condition through periodic inspections and maintenance. This paper describes about these efforts for analytical hot cell and its results.
Hasegawa, Kenta; Goto, Ichiro*; Miyazaki, Yasunori; Ambai, Hiromu; Watanabe, So; Watanabe, Masayuki; Sano, Yuichi; Takeuchi, Masayuki
Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2023/05
Kawasaki, Kohei; Ono, Takanori; Shibanuma, Kimikazu; Goto, Kenta; Aita, Takahiro; Okamoto, Naritoshi; Shinada, Kenta; Ichige, Hidekazu; Takase, Tatsuya; Osaka, Yuki; et al.
JAEA-Technology 2022-031, 91 Pages, 2023/02
The document for back-end policy opened to the public in 2018 by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereafter, JAEA) states the decommissioning of facilities of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories and JAEA have started gathering up nuclear fuel material of the facilities into Plutonium Fuel Production Facilities (hereafter, PFPF) in order to put it long-term, stable and safe storage. Because we planned to manufacture scrap assemblies almost same with Monju fuel assembly using unsealed plutonium-uranium mixed-oxide (hereafter, MOX) powder held in PFPF and transfer them to storage facilities as part of this "concentration" task of nuclear fuel material, we obtained permission to change the use of nuclear fuel material in response to the new regulatory Requirements in Japan for that. The amount of plutonium (which is neither sintered pellets nor in a lidded powder-transport container) that could be handled in the pellet-manufacturing process was limited to 50 kg Pu or less in order to decrease the facility risk in this manufacture. Therefore, we developed and installed the "MOX weighing and blending equipment" corresponding with small batch sizes that functioned in a starting process and the equipment would decrease handling amounts of plutonium on its downstream processes. The failure data based on our operation and maintenance experiences of MOX fuel production facilities was reflected in the design of the equipment to further improve reliability and maintainability in this development. The completed equipment started its operation using MOX powder in February 2022 and the design has been validated through this half-a-year operation. This report organizes the knowledge obtained through the development of the equipment, the evaluation of the design based on the half-a-year operation results and the issues in future equipment development.
Hayashi, Koichi*; Lederer, M.*; Fukumoto, Yohei*; Goto, Masashi*; Yamamoto, Yuta*; Happo, Naohisa*; Harada, Masahide; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Oikawa, Kenichi; Oyama, Kenji*; et al.
Applied Physics Letters, 120(13), p.132101_1 - 132101_6, 2022/03
Times Cited Count:0 Percentile:0(Physics, Applied)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
Times Cited Count:6 Percentile:49.29(Geosciences, Multidisciplinary)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.
Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Goto, Minoru; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Katayama, Kazunari*; Otsuka, Teppei*; Tobita, Kenji*
Proceedings of 2021 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2021) (USB Flash Drive), 5 Pages, 2021/10
Impurity concentrations of hydrogen and hydride in the coolant were investigated in detail for the HTTR, a block type high-temperature gas reactor owned by Japan. As a result, it was found that CH was 1/10 of H concentration, which was under the conventional detection limit. If the ratio of H to CH in the coolant is the same as the ratio of HT to CHT, the CHT has a larger dose conversion factor, and this compositional ratio is an important finding for the optimal dose evaluation. Further investigation of the origin of CH suggested that CH was produced as a result of a thermal equilibrium reaction rather than being released as an impurity from the core.
Takeda, Tetsuaki*; Inagaki, Yoshiyuki; Aihara, Jun; Aoki, Takeshi; Fujiwara, Yusuke; Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Ho, H. Q.; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Imai, Yoshiyuki; et al.
High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors; JSME Series in Thermal and Nuclear Power Generation, Vol.5, 464 Pages, 2021/02
As a general overview of the research and development of a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) in JAEA, this book describes the achievements by the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) on the designs, key component technologies such as fuel, reactor internals, high temperature components, etc., and operational experience such as rise-to-power tests, high temperature operation at 950C, safety demonstration tests, etc. In addition, based on the knowledge of the HTTR, the development of designs and component technologies such as high performance fuel, helium gas turbine and hydrogen production by IS process for commercial HTGRs are described. These results are very useful for the future development of HTGRs. This book is published as one of a series of technical books on fossil fuel and nuclear energy systems by the Power Energy Systems Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Ohashi, Hirofumi; Goto, Minoru; Ueta, Shohei; Sato, Hiroyuki; Fukaya, Yuji; Kasahara, Seiji; Sasaki, Koei; Mizuta, Naoki; Yan, X.; Aoki, Takeshi*
Proceedings of 9th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2018) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2018/10
Conceptual design study of an experimental HTGR is performed to upgrade the plant system from Japanese High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) to a commercial HTGR. Safety systems of HTTR are upgraded to demonstrate the commercial HTGR concept, such as a passive reactor cavity cooling system, a confinement, etc. An intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) is replaced by a steam generator (SG) for a process heat supply to demonstrate the technology for a commercial use. This paper describes the conceptual design study results of the plant system of the experimental HTGR.
Takada, Shusuke*; Okudaira, Takuya*; Goto, Fumiya*; Hirota, Katsuya*; Kimura, Atsushi; Kitaguchi, Masaaki*; Koga, Jun*; Nakao, Taro*; Sakai, Kenji; Shimizu, Hirohiko*; et al.
Journal of Instrumentation (Internet), 13(2), p.P02018_1 - P02018_21, 2018/02
Times Cited Count:6 Percentile:30.66(Instruments & Instrumentation)Tanaka, Taiki*; Narikiyo, Yoshihiro*; Morita, Kosuke*; Fujita, Kunihiro*; Kaji, Daiya*; Morimoto, Koji*; Yamaki, Sayaka*; Wakabayashi, Yasuo*; Tanaka, Kengo*; Takeyama, Mirei*; et al.
Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 87(1), p.014201_1 - 014201_9, 2018/01
Times Cited Count:18 Percentile:74.14(Physics, Multidisciplinary)Excitation functions of quasielastic scattering cross sections for the Ca + Pb, Ti + Pb, and Ca + Cm reactions were successfully measured by using the gas-filled recoil-ion separator GARIS. Fusion barrier distributions were extracted from these data, and compared with the coupled-channels calculations. It was found that the peak energies of the barrier distributions for the Ca + Pb and Ti + Pb systems coincide with those of the 2n evaporation channel cross sections for the systems, while that of the Ca + Cm is located slightly below the 4n evaporation ones. This results provide us helpful information to predict the optimum beam energy to synthesize superheavy nuclei.
Hirose, Kentaro; Nishio, Katsuhisa; Tanaka, Shoya*; Lguillon, R.*; Makii, Hiroyuki; Nishinaka, Ichiro*; Orlandi, R.; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Smallcombe, J.*; Vermeulen, M. J.; et al.
Physical Review Letters, 119(22), p.222501_1 - 222501_6, 2017/12
Times Cited Count:50 Percentile:91.17(Physics, Multidisciplinary)Fission-fragment mass distributions were measured for U, Np and Pu populated in the excitation-energy range from 10 to 60 MeV by multi-nucleon transfer channels in the reaction O + U at the JAEA tandem facility. Among them, the data for U and Np were observed for the first time. It was found that the mass distributions for all the studied nuclides maintain a double-humped shape up to the highest measured energy in contrast to expectations of predominantly symmetric fission due to the washing out of nuclear shell effects. From a comparison with the dynamical calculation based on the fluctuation-dissipation model, this behavior of the mass distributions was unambiguously attributed to the effect of multi-chance fission.
Iizuka, Riko*; Yagi, Takehiko*; Goto, Hirotada*; Okuchi, Takuo*; Hattori, Takanori; Sano, Asami
Hamon, 27(3), p.104 - 108, 2017/08
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the solar system and is considered to be one of the promising candidates of the light elements in the Earth's core. However, the amount of hydrogen dissolved in the core and its process are still unknown because hydrogen cannot be detected by X ray and easily escapes from iron at ambient conditions. In this study, we have conducted high-pressure and high-temperature in-situ neutron diffraction experiments on the iron-hydrous mineral system using PLANET in J-PARC. We observed that the water, which was dissociated from a hydrous mineral, reacted with iron to form both iron oxide and iron hydride at about 4 GPa. Iron hydride remained stable after further increase in temperature. This formation occurred at 1000K, where no materials melted. This suggests that hydrogen dissolved into iron before any other light elements dissolved in the very early stage of the Earth's evolution.
Hirose, Kentaro; Nishio, Katsuhisa; Makii, Hiroyuki; Nishinaka, Ichiro*; Ota, Shuya*; Nagayama, Tatsuro*; Tamura, Nobuyuki*; Goto, Shinichi*; Andreyev, A. N.; Vermeulen, M. J.; et al.
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 856, p.133 - 138, 2017/06
Times Cited Count:5 Percentile:44.07(Instruments & Instrumentation)Iizuka, Riko*; Yagi, Takehiko*; Goto, Hirotada*; Okuchi, Takuo*; Hattori, Takanori; Sano, Asami
Nature Communications (Internet), 8, p.14096_1 - 14096_7, 2017/01
Times Cited Count:44 Percentile:88.44(Multidisciplinary Sciences)Density of the Earth's core is lower than that of pure iron and the light element(s) in the core is a long-standing problem. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the solar system and thus one of the important candidates. However, the dissolution process of hydrogen into iron remained unclear. Here we carry out high-pressure and high-temperature in situ neutron diffraction experiments and clarify that when the mixture of iron and hydrous minerals are heated, iron is hydrogenized soon after the hydrous mineral is dehydrated. This implies that early in the Earth's evolution, as the accumulated primordial material became hotter, the dissolution of hydrogen into iron occurred before any other materials melted. This suggests that hydrogen is likely the first light element dissolved into iron during the Earth's evolution and it may affect the behaviour of the other light elements in the later processes.
Lguillon, R.; Nishio, Katsuhisa; Hirose, Kentaro; Makii, Hiroyuki; Nishinaka, Ichiro*; Orlandi, R.; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Smallcombe, J.*; Chiba, Satoshi*; Aritomo, Yoshihiro*; et al.
Physics Letters B, 761, p.125 - 130, 2016/10
Times Cited Count:41 Percentile:92.74(Astronomy & Astrophysics)Goto, Minoru; Demachi, Kazuyuki*; Ueta, Shohei; Nakano, Masaaki*; Honda, Masaki*; Tachibana, Yukio; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Aihara, Jun; Fukaya, Yuji; Tsuji, Nobumasa*; et al.
Proceedings of 21st International Conference & Exhibition; Nuclear Fuel Cycle for a Low-Carbon Future (GLOBAL 2015) (USB Flash Drive), p.507 - 513, 2015/09
A concept of a plutonium burner HTGR named as Clean Burn, which has a high nuclear proliferation resistance, had been proposed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency. In addition to the high nuclear proliferation resistance, in order to enhance the safety, we propose to introduce PuO-YSZ TRISO fuel with ZrC coating to the Clean Burn. In this study, we conduct fabrication tests aiming to establish the basic technologies for fabrication of PuO-YSZ TRISO fuel with ZrC coating. Additionally, we conduct a quantitative evaluation of the security for the safety, a design of the fuel and the reactor core, and a safety evaluation for the Clean Burn to confirm the feasibility. This study is conducted by The University of Tokyo, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., and Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd. It was started in FY2014 and will be completed in FY2017, and the first year of the implementation was on schedule.
Nishihara, Kenji; Yamagishi, Isao; Yasuda, Kenichiro; Ishimori, Kenichiro; Tanaka, Kiwamu; Kuno, Takehiko; Inada, Satoshi; Goto, Yuichi
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 52(3), p.301 - 307, 2015/03
Times Cited Count:17 Percentile:80.88(Nuclear Science & Technology)After the severe accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, large amounts of contaminated stagnant water have accumulated in turbine buildings and their surroundings. This rapid communication reports calculation of the radionuclide inventory in the core, collection of measured inventory in the stagnant water, and estimation of radionuclide release ratios from the core to the stagnant water. This evaluation is based on data obtained before June 3, 2011. The release ratios of tritium, iodine, and cesium were several tens of percent, whereas those of strontium and barium were smaller by one or two orders of magnitude. The release ratios in the Fukushima accident were equivalent to those in the TMI-2 accident.
Iizuka, Riko*; Komatsu, Kazuki*; Kagi, Hiroyuki*; Nagai, Takaya*; Sano, Asami; Hattori, Takanori; Goto, Hirotada*; Yagi, Takehiko*
Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 218, p.95 - 102, 2014/10
Times Cited Count:7 Percentile:33.69(Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear)In situ neutron diffraction measurements combined with the pulsed neutron source at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) were conducted on high-pressure polymorphs of deuterated portlandite (Ca(OD)) using a Paris-Edinburgh cell and a multi-anvil press. The atomic positions including hydrogen for the unquenchable high-pressure phase at room temperature (phase II') were first clarified. The bent hydrogen bonds under high pressure were consistent with results from Raman spectroscopy. The structure of the high-pressure and high-temperature phase (Phase II) was concordant with that observed previously by another group for a recovered sample. The observations elucidate the phase transition mechanism among the polymorphs, which involves the sliding of CaO polyhedral layers, position modulations of Ca atoms, and recombination of Ca-O bonds accompanied by the reorientation of hydrogen to form more stable hydrogen bonds.