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.

Current status of decommissioning and waste management at the Ningyo-Toge Environmental Engineering Center

Ohashi, Yusuke; Shimaike, Masamitsu; Matsumoto, Takashi; Takahashi, Nobuo; Yokoyama, Kaoru; Morimoto, Yasuyuki

Nuclear Technology, 209(5), p.777 - 786, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2145136

At the Ningyo-Toge Center, technical development related to uranium refining conversion and enrichment has been completed, and decommissioning of these facilities has begun. The error between the quantity of dismantled materials estimated from the facility design drawings and the actual quantity of dismantled materials was minimal when averaging over the entire Uranium Refining and Conversion Plant and Uranium Enrichment Engineering Facility, which results indicated that the preliminary estimate of the quantity of dismantled materials for decommissioning was reasonable. Most of the dismantled materials, which have no contamination history and are properly managed were able to be carried out to recyclers as non-radioactive waste (NR). In addition, the possibility of evaluating the uranium concentration of clearance level in dismantled objects was confirmed through gamma-ray measurement tests using mock-up waste.

Laser-driven neutron generation realizing single-shot resonance spectroscopy

Yogo, Akifumi*; Lan, Z.*; Arikawa, Yasunobu*; Abe, Yuki*; Mirfayzi, S. R.*; Wei, T.*; Mori, Takato*; Golovin, D.*; Hayakawa, Takehito*; Iwata, Natsumi*; et al.

Physical Review X, 13(1), p.011011_1 - 011011_12, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.011011

Reactor physics experiment in a graphite moderation system for HTGR, 3

Fukaya, Yuji; Okita, Shoichiro; Kanda, Shun*; Goto, Masaki*; Nakajima, Kunihiro*; Sakon, Atsushi*; Sano, Tadafumi*; Hashimoto, Kengo*; Takahashi, Yoshiyuki*; Unesaki, Hironobu*

KURNS Progress Report 2021, P. 101, 2022/07

https://www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/PUB/report/PR/ProgRep2021/ProgRep2021.html

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) started the Research and Development (R&D) to improve nuclear prediction techniques for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) in 2018. The objectives are to intro-duce the generalized bias factor method to avoid full mock-up experiment for the first commercial HTGR and to improve neutron instrumentation system by virtue of the particular characteristics due to a graphite moderation system. For this end, we composed B7/4"G2/8"p8EU(3)+3/8"p38EU in the B-rack of Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA) in 2021.

Separation/removal of steel surface coating film by laser cleaning

Yamane, Ikumi; Takahashi, Nobuo; Sawayama, Kengo; Nishiwaki, Hiroki; Matsumoto, Takashi; Ogawa, Jumpei; Nomura, Mitsuo; Arima, Tatsumi*

JAEA-Technology 2021-038, 18 Pages, 2022/02

JAEA-Technology-2021-038.pdf:1.61MB

We have dismantled uranium enrichment facilities in Ningyo-toge Environmental Engineering Center since their operation finished in 2001, and the total amount of metallic wastes is estimated to be about 130 thousand tons. Eighty percent of them can be disposed as nonradioactive waste (NR), but there are some steel parts possibly uranium-contaminated. We need removing painted surface of such steels and radiologically surveying to dispose them as NRs. Though painted surfaces have been conventionally removed through hand working with grinders, this manual work requires installation of green house, protective clothing, and full-face mask, in order to prevent dispersion and inhalation of airborne dusts. We desire further developments of surface cleaning techniques to reduce time, cost, workload, and secondary waste generation caused by excessive grinding. Therefore, in this study, we focused on the laser cleaning technology used for the separation and removal of paint films at construction sites. In order to improve the coating separation and removal technology for NR objects, we evaluated the coating separation and removal performance of NR steel surface by laser cleaning system, observed the coating scattering behavior by high-speed camera and investigated the coating recovery method, evaluated the laser separation and removal performance of steel surface powder, and thermodynamically evaluated the uranium compounds on steel surface. We additionally evaluated the feasibility of laser cleaning techniques in our works basing on these results, and discussed future work plans for further developments of laser cleaning techniques.

Demonstration of a neutron resonance transmission analysis system using a laser-driven neutron source

Hironaka, Kota; Ito, Fumiaki*; Lee, J.; Koizumi, Mitsuo; Takahashi, Tone; Suzuki, Satoshi*; Yogo, Akifumi*; Arikawa, Yasunobu*; Abe, Yuki*

Dai-42-Kai Nihon Kaku Busshitsu Kanri Gakkai Nenji Taikai Kaigi Rombunshu (Internet), 4 Pages, 2021/11

Neutron resonance transmission analysis (NRTA) is a method for non-destructive measurement of nuclear material by using a time-of-flight (TOF) technique with a pulsed neutron source. For NRTA system to carry out the short-distance TOF measurements with high resolutions, a short-pulsed neutron source is required. Laser-driven neutron sources (LDNSs) is very suitable as such a neutron source because of its short pulse width. Moreover, the compactness of the laser system is also expected due to the remarkable development of laser technology in recent years. In the present study, we have developed a technology for applying LDNS to the NRTA system and conducted the demonstration experiment using the LFEX laser at Osaka University to investigate the feasibility of the system. In this experiment, we successfully observed the neutron resonance peaks of indium and silver samples.

Rapid analysis of Sr in cattle bone and tooth samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Koarai, Kazuma; Matsueda, Makoto; Aoki, Jo; Yanagisawa, Kayo*; Terashima, Motoki; Fujiwara, Kenso; Kino, Yasushi*; Oka, Toshitaka; Takahashi, Atsushi*; Suzuki, Toshihiko*; et al.

Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 36(8), p.1678 - 1682, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1JA00086A

Rapid analysis of Sr in bone and tooth samples of cattle were achieved by an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) coupled with mass shift and solid phase extraction techniques. Limit of detection (LOD) in the ICP-MS measurement of 0.1 g samples was lower than that of the radioactivity measurement. Analytical time of the ICP-MS method was reduced from 20 days to 11 hours, compared with the radiometric method. Therefore, the ICP-MS method can be rapid and useful procedure of Sr in small bone and tooth samples derived from terrestrial animals.

Radioactivity and radionuclides in deciduous teeth formed before the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

Takahashi, Atsushi*; Chiba, Mirei*; Tanahara, Akira*; Aida, Jun*; Shimizu, Yoshinaka*; Suzuki, Toshihiko*; Murakami, Shinobu*; Koarai, Kazuma; Ono, Takumi*; Oka, Toshitaka; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 11(1), p.10355_1 - 10355_11, 2021/05

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89910-0

Upgrade of the 3-MeV linac for testing of accelerator components at J-PARC

Kondo, Yasuhiro; Hirano, Koichiro; Ito, Takashi; Kikuzawa, Nobuhiro; Kitamura, Ryo; Morishita, Takatoshi; Oguri, Hidetomo; Okoshi, Kiyonori; Shinozaki, Shinichi; Shinto, Katsuhiro; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 1350, p.012077_1 - 012077_7, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012077

We have upgraded a 3-MeV linac at J-PARC. The ion source is same as the J-PARC linac's, and the old 30-mA RFQ is replaced by a spare 50-mA RFQ, therefore, the beam energy is 3 MeV and the nominal beam current is 50 mA. The main purpose of this system is to test the spare RFQ, but also used for testing of various components required in order to keep the stable operation of the J-PARC accelerator. The accelerator has been already commissioned, and measurement programs have been started. In this paper, present status of this 3-MeV linac is presented.

Anomaly of structural relaxation in complex liquid metal of bismuth; Dynamic correlation function of coherent quasi-elastic neutron scattering

Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Tahara, Shuta*; Maruyama, Kenji*; Hanashima, Takayasu*; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Kiyanagi, Ryoji; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Chiba, Kaori*; et al.

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 551, p.291 - 296, 2018/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2017.12.037

There are elemental liquid metals with complex structures far from the hard sphere (HS) packing model. Liquid Bi has an asymmetric first peak in the structure factors S(Q). The pair distribution function g(r) exhibits strange distance ratio of 1:2 between the first and the second peaks. Since a HS model with two kinds of radius produces asymmetry of the main peak in S(Q), existence of short-lived covalent bonds was discussed. Contrarily, modulation of the atomic distribution by the Friedel oscillations of shielding electrons around metallic ions was discussed. To examine its bonding nature from viewpoints of dynamic correlation functions, we have measured neutron quasielastic scattering of liquid Bi by using cold disk chopper spectrometer installed at MLF of J-PARC. The van Hove function revealed that the shoulder structure located at a longer side of the first peak in g(r) exhibits a longer relaxation time than the main structures such as the first and second peaks.