Measurement and evaluation of hydrogen production from mixtures of seawater and zeolite in decontamination of radioactive water

Kumagai, Yuta; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Kimura, Atsushi*; Taguchi, Mitsumasa*; Nishihara, Kenji; Yamagishi, Isao; Ogawa, Toru

Insights Concerning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, Vol.4; Endeavors by Scientists, p.37 - 45, 2021/10

Zeolite adsorbents are to be used for decontamination of radioactive water in Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station. Evaluation of hydrogen production by water radiolysis during decontamination is important for safe operation. Thus hydrogen production from the mixture of zeolite adsorbents and seawater was studied because seawater was urgently used as a coolant for the fuels. The hydrogen yield from the mixture decreased at a high weight fraction of zeolites. However, the measured yield was higher than the yield expected from the direct radiolysis of seawater in the mixture, which would decrease proportional to the weight fraction of seawater. The result suggests that the radiation energy deposited to zeolites was involved in the hydrogen formation. From the results, the hydrogen production rate was evaluated to be 3.6 mL/h per ton of radioactive water before decontamination. After the process, it was evaluated to be 1.5 L/h per ton of waste adsorbents due to the high dose rate.

Quasifree neutron knockout reaction reveals a small -Orbital component in the Borromean nucleus B

Yang, Z. H.*; Kubota, Yuki*; Corsi, A.*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Sun, X.-X.*; Li, J. G.*; Kimura, Masaaki*; Michel, N.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Yuan, C. X.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 126(8), p.082501_1 - 082501_8, 2021/02

AA2020-0819.pdf:1.29MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.082501

A quasifree (,) experiment was performed to study the structure of the Borromean nucleus B, which had long been considered to have a neutron halo. By analyzing the momentum distributions and exclusive cross sections, we obtained the spectroscopic factors for and orbitals, and a surprisingly small percentage of 9(2)% was determined for . Our finding of such a small component and the halo features reported in prior experiments can be explained by the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum, revealing a definite but not dominant neutron halo in B. The present work gives the smallest - or -orbital component among known nuclei exhibiting halo features and implies that the dominant occupation of or orbitals is not a prerequisite for the occurrence of a neutron halo.

Electron-tracking Compton camera imaging of technetium-95m

Hatsukawa, Yuichi*; Hayakawa, Takehito*; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki*; Sato, Tetsuya; Asai, Masato; Toyoshima, Atsushi; Tanimori, Toru*; Sonoda, Shinya*; Kabuki, Shigeto*; et al.

PLOS ONE (Internet), 13(12), p.e0208909_1 - e0208909_12, 2018/12

AA2018-0639.pdf:2.39MB

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208909

Imaging of Tc radioisotope was conducted using an electron tracking-Compton camera (ETCC). Tc emits 204, 582, and 835 keV rays, and was produced in the Mo(p,n)Tc reaction with a Mo-enriched target. The recycling of the Mo-enriched molybdenum trioxide was investigated, and the recycled yield of Mo was achieved to be 70% - 90%. The images were obtained with each of the three rays. Results showed that the spatial resolution increases with increasing -ray energy, and suggested that the ETCC with high-energy -ray emitters such as Tc is useful for the medical imaging of deep tissue and organs in the human body.

Introduction and implementation of physical protection measures including trustworthiness program at Tokai Reprocessing Facilities

Nakamura, Hironobu; Kimura, Takashi; Yamazaki, Katsuyuki; Kitao, Takahiko; Tasaki, Takashi; Iida, Toru

Proceedings of International Conference on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities (Internet), 9 Pages, 2018/09

After the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, to develop effective security measures based on the lesson learned from such crisis and to meet the IAEA Nuclear Security Recommendations (INFCIRC/225/Rev.5), NRA in Japan made a partial amendment of the regulations concerning the reprocessing activity in 2012. The Tokai reprocessing facility implemented all of those security measures by the end of March 2014. Those new measures help us to keep high degree of security level and contributed to our planned operations to reduce the potential risk of the plant. On the other hand, the trustworthiness program was newly introduced in 2016, based on the trustworthiness policy determined by NRA. The implementing entity of the program is JAEA for the Tokai Reprocessing Facility and is required for both the persons afford unescorted access to Category I and II, CAS/SAS, and the persons afford access to the sensitive information. Those who are involved this program will be judged before engaging the work whether they might act as insider to cause or assist radiological sabotage or unauthorized removal of nuclear material, or leak sensitive information. The program is expected as a measure against insider at reprocessing facilities, and is expected to be enforced around the autumn of 2017. As well as the establishment of security measures, the promoting nuclear security culture for all employees was a big challenge. The Tokai reprocessing facility have introduced several security culture activities, such as case study education of security events done by a small group and putting up the security culture poster and so on. This paper presents introduction and implementation with effectiveness of security measures in the Tokai reprocessing facilities and the future security measures applied to the reprocessing facilities are discussed.

In-beam -ray spectroscopy of Mg via knockout reactions at intermediate energies

Momiyama, Satoru*; Doornenbal, P.*; Scheit, H.*; Takeuchi, Satoshi*; Niikura, Megumi*; Aoi, Nori*; Li, K.*; Matsushita, Masafumi*; Steppenbeck, D.*; Wang, H.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 96(3), p.034328_1 - 034328_8, 2017/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.96.034328

no abstracts in English

Model magnet development of D1 beam separation dipole for the HL-LHC upgrade

Nakamoto, Tatsushi*; Sugano, Michinaka*; Xu, Q.*; Kawamata, Hiroshi*; Enomoto, Shun*; Higashi, Norio*; Idesaki, Akira; Iio, Masami*; Ikemoto, Yukio*; Iwasaki, Ruri*; et al.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 25(3), p.4000505_1 - 4000505_5, 2015/06

https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2014.2361404

Recently, development of superconducting magnet system with high radiation resistance has been demanded for application in accelerator facilities such as CERN LHC. In order to realize superconducting magnet system with high radiation resistance, it is necessary to develop electrical insulator with high radiation resistance because the electrical insulator is made of organic materials whose radiation resistance is inferior to that of inorganic materials. We developed a glass fiber reinforced plastic with bismaleimide-triazine resin. The developed material showed excellent radiation resistance; the material evolved gases of 510 mol/g and maintained flexural strength of 640MPa (90% of initial value).

Internship using nuclear facilities in Oarai Research and Development Center

Takemoto, Noriyuki; Itagaki, Wataru; Kimura, Nobuaki; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Nakatsuka, Toru; Hori, Naohiko; Ooka, Makoto; Ito, Haruhiko

JAEA-Review 2013-063, 34 Pages, 2014/03

JAEA-Review-2013-063.pdf:8.46MB

Nuclear energy is important from a viewpoint of economy and energy security in Japan. However, the lack of nuclear engineers and scientists in future is concerned after the sever accident of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has occurred. Institute of National Colleges of Technology planned to carry out training programs for human resource development of nuclear energy field including on-site training in nuclear facilities. Oarai Research and Development Center in Japan Atomic Energy Agency cooperatively carried out an internship for nuclear disaster prevention and safety utilizing the nuclear facilities such as the JMTR. Thirty two students joined in total in the internship from FY 2011 to FY2013. In this paper, contents and results of the internship are reported.

Isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for determination of Sn content in spent nuclear fuel sample

Asai, Shiho; Toshimitsu, Masaaki; Hanzawa, Yukiko; Suzuki, Hideya; Shinohara, Nobuo; Inagawa, Jun; Okumura, Keisuke; Hotoku, Shinobu; Kimura, Takaumi; Suzuki, Kensuke*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 50(6), p.556 - 562, 2013/06

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2013.785276

The Sn content in a spent nuclear fuel solution was determined by ICP-MS for its inventory estimation in high-level radioactive waste. An irradiated UO fuel was used as a sample to evaluate the reliability of the methodology. Prior to the measurement, Sn was separated from Te, which causes major isobaric interference in the determination of Sn content, along with highly radioactive coexisting elements using an anion-exchange column. The absence of counts attributed to Te in the Sn-containing effluent indicates that Te was completely removed. After washing, Sn retained on the column was readily eluted with 1 M HNO. The isotope ratios of Sn were successfully determined and showed good agreement with those obtained through ORIGEN2 calculations. The results reported in this paper are the first experimental values of Sn content in the spent nuclear fuel solution originating in spent nuclear fuel irradiated at a nuclear power plant in Japan.

Surface speciation of Eu adsorbed on kaolinite by time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC)

Ishida, Keisuke*; Saito, Takumi*; Aoyagi, Noboru; Kimura, Takaumi; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Nagasaki, Shinya*; Tanaka, Satoru*

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 374(1), p.258 - 266, 2012/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2012.01.060

Measurement and evaluation of hydrogen production from mixtures of seawater and zeolite in decontamination of radioactive water

Kumagai, Yuta; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Kimura, Atsushi; Taguchi, Mitsumasa; Nishihara, Kenji; Yamagishi, Isao; Ogawa, Toru

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Wabun Rombunshi, 10(4), p.235 - 239, 2011/12

https://doi.org/10.3327/taesj.J11.021

Zeolite adsorbents are to be used for decontamination of radioactive water in Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station. Evaluation of hydrogen production by water radiolysis during decontamination is important for safe operation. Thus hydrogen production from the mixture of zeolite adsorbents and seawater was studied because seawater was urgently used as a coolant for the fuels. The hydrogen yield from the mixture decreased at a high weight fraction of zeolites. However, the measured yield was higher than the yield expected from the direct radiolysis of seawater in the mixture, which would decrease proportional to the weight fraction of seawater. The result suggests that the radiation energy deposited to zeolite is involved in the hydrogen formation. From the results, the hydrogen production rate was evaluated to be 3.6 mL/h per ton of radioactive water before decontamination. After the process, it was evaluated to be 1.5 L/h per ton of waste adsorbents due to the high dose rate.