Development of nondestructive elemental analysis system for Hayabusa2 samples using muonic X-rays

Osawa, Takahito; Nagasawa, Shunsaku*; Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Takahashi, Tadayuki*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Wada, Taiga*; Taniguchi, Akihiro*; Umegaki, Izumi*; Kubo, Kenya*; Terada, Kentaro*; et al.

ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (Internet), 7(4), p.699 - 711, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.2c00303

The concentrations of carbon and other major elements in asteroid samples provide very important information on the birth of life on the Earth and the solar-system evolution. Elemental analysis using muonic X-rays is one of the best analytical methods to determine the elemental composition of solid materials, and notably, is the only method to determine the concentration of light elements in bulk samples in a non-destructive manner. We developed a new analysis system using muonic X-rays to measure the concentrations of carbon and other major elements in precious and expectedly tiny samples recovered from the asteroid Ryugu by spacecraft Hayabusa2. Here we report the development process of the system in 4 stages and their system configurations, The analysis system is composed of a stainless-steel analysis chamber, an acrylic glove box for manipulating asteroid samples in a clean environment, and Ge semiconductor detectors arranged to surround the analysis chamber. The performance of the analysis system, including the background level, which is crucial for the measurement, was greatly improved from the first stage to the later ones. Our feasibility study showed that the latest model of our muonic X-ray analysis system is capable of determining the carbon concentration in Hayabusa2's sample model with an uncertainty of less than 10 percent in a 6-day measurement.

Effect of uniaxial tensile strain on binding energy of hydrogen atoms to vacancy-carbon-hydrogen complexes in -iron

Hirayama, Shintaro*; Sato, Koichi*; Kato, Daiji*; Iwakiri, Hirotomo*; Yamaguchi, Masatake; Watanabe, Yoshiyuki*; Nozawa, Takashi*

Nuclear Materials and Energy (Internet), 31, p.101179_1 - 101179_9, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2022.101179

no abstracts in English

Dynamical response of transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters to a pulsed charged-particle beam

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.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 31(5), p.2101704_1 - 2101704_4, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2021.3067793

A superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter is an ideal X-ray detector for experiments at accelerator facilities because of good energy resolution and high efficiency. To study the performance of the TES detector with a high-intensity pulsed charged-particle beam, we measured X-ray spectra with a pulsed muon beam at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan. We found substantial temporal shifts of the X-ray energy correlated with the arrival time of the pulsed muon beam, which was reasonably explained by pulse pileup due to the incidence of energetic particles from the initial pulsed beam.

Anomalous radioisotope production for ZnO using polyethylene by accelerator neutrons

Tsukada, Kazuaki; Nagai, Yasuki*; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Minato, Futoshi; Kawabata, Masako*; Hatsukawa, Yuichi*; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki*; Watanabe, Satoshi*; Saeki, Hideya*; Motoishi, Shoji*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 89(3), p.034201_1 - 034201_7, 2020/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.89.034201

We found anomalously large yields of Ga, Ga, Zn and Cu by neutron irradiation on a ZnO sample in a polyethylene shield. Neutron beams are generated from the Be() reaction for 50 MeV deuterons. The yields obtained were more than 20 times larger than those in the unshielded sample. On the other hand, the yields of Ga, Ga, Zn and Cu from a metallic Zn sample and the yields of Cu, Ni and Zn from the ZnO and Zn samples were almost insensitive to the shield conditions. This finding would provide us a unique capability of accelerator neutrons to simultaneously produce a large amount of several radioisotopes, including proton induced reaction products, by using a single sample. The experimental data were compared with the yields estimated by using the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System and the result was discussed.

Measurement and estimation of the Mo production yield by Mo()Mo

Minato, Futoshi; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Sato, Nozomi*; Watanabe, Satoshi*; Saeki, Hideya*; Kawabata, Masako*; Hashimoto, Shintaro; Nagai, Yasuki*

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 86(11), p.114803_1 - 114803_6, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.86.114803

We have measured the yield of Mo, the mother nuclide of Tc used in nuclear diagnostic procedure. Mo was produced by Mo(,)Mo using neutrons with thermal energy up to about 40 MeV, provided by C(,). The Mo yield agrees with an estimated yield with the use of the latest data of C(,) and the evaluated cross section given in the JENDL. Based on this, a new calculation was carried out to produce Mo to seek for a good economical condition. Various conditions such as the MoO sample mass, the distance between the carbon target and the sample, the radius of the deuteron beam, and the neutron irradiation time were considered. The calculated Mo yield indicates that about 30% of the Mo demand in Japan can be fulfilled with a single accelerator. The elusion of Tc from the Mo twice per day would meet about 50% of the Mo demand.

Numerical study on modeling of liquid film flow under countercurrent flow limitation in volume of fluid method

Watanabe, Taro*; Takata, Takashi; Yamaguchi, Akira*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 313, p.447 - 457, 2017/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2016.12.038

Countercurrent flow limitation (CCFL) in a heat transfer tube at a steam generator (SG) of pressurized water reactor (PWR) is one of the important issues on the core cooling under a loss of coolant accident(LOCA). In order to improve the prediction accuracy of the CCFL characteristics in numerical simulations using the volume of fluid (VOF) method with less computational cost, a thin liquid film flow in a countercurrent flow is modeled independently and is coupled with the VOF method. Then, we have carried out numerical simulations of a countercurrent flow in a vertical tube so as to investigate the CCFL characteristics and compare them with the previous experimental results. As a result, it has been concluded that the effect of liquid film entrainment by upward gas flux will cause the difference in the experiments.

Recent progress of radiation physicochemical process (first part)

Kai, Takeshi; Yokoya, Akinari; Fujii, Kentaro; Watanabe, Ritsuko

Hoshasen Kagaku (Internet), (101), p.3 - 11, 2016/04

Behavior analysis of low energy electrons in liquid water provides the fundamentals for successive radiation chemistry, and it makes analysis of DNA damage implication involved in the electrons possible. We have progressed theoretical studies for radiation physicochemical process of liquid water to clear the role of low-energy secondary electrons damage to DNA. The process has included many unknown factors for the DNA damage so far. Based on the results, we implied a newly formation process of unrepair DNA damage produced by the secondary electrons assumed that it was ejected from DNA by impact of a high energy electron. We report our outcomes separately in three manuscripts entitled "Recent progress of radiation physicochemical process (first, second, third parts)" to journal of radiation chemistry. In this first part, we outline recent status of studies for the DNA damage and the radiation physicochemical process, we also show calculation method of electron impact cross sections involved strongly in electron deceleration in liquid water in the topics of our outcomes. From the calculated results, we also report our prediction, which are different from previous one, for electron thermalization.

Thermal equilibrium and prehydration processes of electrons injected into liquid water calculated by dynamic Monte Carlo method

Kai, Takeshi; Yokoya, Akinari; Ukai, Masatoshi*; Fujii, Kentaro; Watanabe, Ritsuko

Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 115, p.1 - 5, 2015/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2015.05.021

Role of secondary electrons on DNA damage have not been understood sufficiently because there still exists a lack of study for thermalization process of an electron in liquid phase. We calculated thermalization lengths and spatial distributions of an electron in liquid water using cross sections for rotation and phonon excitations in a liquid phase. Obtained thermalization lengths are in good agreement with experimental results reported by literatures. Thermalization time was also estimated from time evolution of spatial distributions of the incident electron to be hundreds femtoseconds. From these results, we predict that thermalization and pre-hydration of electron might progress simultaneously. These electrons possibly cause damage in biological molecules in a cell. Particularly severe types of DNA damage consisting of proximately located multiple lesions are potentially induced by reaction of DNA with the thermalized electrons by dissociative electron transfer.

Dynamics of low-energy electrons in liquid water with consideration of Coulomb interaction with positively charged water molecules induced by electron collision

Kai, Takeshi; Yokoya, Akinari; Ukai, Masatoshi*; Fujii, Kentaro; Higuchi, Mariko; Watanabe, Ritsuko

Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 102, p.16 - 22, 2014/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2014.04.017

no abstracts in English

In-beam fissio study at JAEA for heavy element synthesis

Nishio, Katsuhisa; Ikezoe, Hiroshi; Hofmann, S.*; Ackermann, D.*; Aritomo, Yoshihiro*; Comas, V. F.*; Dllmann, Ch. E.*; Heinz, S.*; Heredia, J. A.*; Heberger, F. P.*; et al.

AIP Conference Proceedings 1524, p.68 - 72, 2013/04

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4801679