Introduction to Neutron Radiography Facilities at the Japan Research Reactor-3

Kurita, Keisuke; Iikura, Hiroshi; Tsuchikawa, Yusuke; Kai, Tetsuya; Shinohara, Takenao; Odaira, Naoya*; Ito, Daisuke*; Saito, Yasushi*; Matsubayashi, Masahito

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 2605, p.012005_1 - 012005_6, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2605/1/012005

The Japan Research Ractor-3 (JRR-3) is operation resumed on February 26, 2021, and the shared use was also restarted in July, 2021. With the resumption of JRR-3 operation, two imaging facilities called TNRF and CNRF have also resumed their utilization. In this presentation, we report the details of these two neutron facilities.

Development of tracer particles for thermal hydraulic experiment by neutron imaging

Saito, Yasushi*; Ito, Daisuke*; Odaira, Naoya*; Kurita, Keisuke; Iikura, Hiroshi

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 2605, p.012028_1 - 012028_6, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2605/1/012028

To observe flow velocity distributions by Neutron Imaging, suitable tracer is necessary. The requirements are its density, its visibility, and its wettability (if applied to liquid metal). Gold cadmium tracers have been developed for the Pb-Bi two-phase flow, however, the visibility have not been verified depending on the particle size and the measurement system. As the candidates of tracer particles, Ag, Cd, Au-Cd, and Ag-Cd have been tested by varying its compositions and its diameters. Results show enough visibility if the particles size is larger than 1mm. In addition, Cd tracer particles were applied to the fluidized bed, where the bed materials are metallic particle made of stainless steel, with 1mm diameter. The diameter of Cd trace is about 1.5 mm. From the neutron imaging, the visibility of the tracers is enough to measure the velocity distributions in the fluidized bed.

Visualization of gas-liquid interfacial behavior in a narrow channel using high-speed neutron imaging

Ito, Daisuke*; Odaira, Naoya*; Ito, Kei*; Saito, Yasushi*; Kurita, Keisuke; Iikura, Hiroshi

Konsoryu, 37(1), p.73 - 78, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.3811/jjmf.2023.007

Gas-liquid two-phase flow is a very complicated flow phenomenon that involves the interaction between gas and liquid phases. Recently, an accurate simulation technique of two-phase flow has been developed. However, the validation of the simulated results is insufficient due to less experimental data. It is especially difficult to measure interfacial behavior with significant spatiotemporal fluctuation. To understand such phenomena, measurement methods with high spatial and temporal resolutions are required. Neutron imaging is a powerful tool for two-phase flow visualization. In this study, two-phase flow in the narrow rectangular channel was visualized by high-speed neutron imaging.

Frost formation on automobile heat exchanger

Kuroda, Rikuto*; Matsumoto, Ryosuke*; Oda, Yutaka*; Fukai, Ao*; Kida, Kenta*; Iikura, Hiroshi; Kurita, Keisuke

2022-Nendo Nihon Reito Kucho Gakkai Nenji Taikai Koen Rombunshu, 6 Pages, 2022/09

Frost formation causes the thermal resistance for the heat transfer performance on the heat exchanger. In this study, the frost distribution on the heat exchanger used in the automobile air conditioning system was evaluated by neutron radiography imaging. At the initial stage of the frost formation, the frost formed in the upstream side of the heat exchanger. The frost deposited in the downstream region of the heat exchanger as time proceeds.

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.

Autoradiography system with phosphor powder (ZnS:Ag) for imaging radioisotope dynamics in a living plant

Kurita, Keisuke; Sakai, Takuro; Suzui, Nobuo*; Yin, Y.-G.*; Sugita, Ryohei*; Kobayashi, Natsuko*; Tanoi, Keitaro*; Kawachi, Naoki*

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 60(11), p.116501_1 - 116501_4, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.35848/1347-4065/ac2b50

Radioisotope tracer imaging is useful for studying plant physiological phenomena. In this study, we developed an autoradiography system with phosphor powder (ZnS:Ag), "Live-autoradiography", for imaging radioisotope dynamics in a living plant. This system visualizes the element migration and accumulation in intact plants continuously under a light environment. An imaging test was performed on point sources of Cs, with a radioactivity of 10-100 kBq of being observed; this indicates satisfactory system linearity between the image intensity and the radioactivity of Cs. Moreover, dynamics imaging of Cs was performed on an intact soybean plant for four days. The serial images indicated Cs accumulation in the node, vein, and growing point of the plant. The developed system can be used for studying plant physiological phenomena and can be employed for quantitative measurement of radionuclides.

Application of OpenPET as 3-D imaging device of carbon distribution in fruit

Kurita, Keisuke; Miyoshi, Yuta*; Nagao, Yuto*; Yamaguchi, Mitsutaka*; Suzui, Nobuo*; Yin, Y.-G.*; Ishii, Satomi*; Kawachi, Naoki*; Hidaka, Kota*; Yoshida, Eiji*; et al.

QST-M-29; QST Takasaki Annual Report 2019, P. 106, 2021/03

https://repo.qst.go.jp/records/82107

Measurements of intensity of produced light in water during irradiations of electron beams with energies above and below the Cerenkov-light threshold

Yamamoto, Seiichi*; Nagao, Yuto*; Kurita, Keisuke; Yamaguchi, Mitsutaka*; Kawachi, Naoki*

Journal of Instrumentation (Internet), 16(1), p.P01007_1 - P01007_9, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/16/01/P01007

Luminescence of water during irradiation with particles having energies below the Cerenkov-light threshold was recently found for various types of radiations. However, the relation between the intensities of Cerenkov light and of the luminescence of water at the beam energy below the Cherenkov threshold is not well known. To clarify this point, we measured the produced light irradiating a water sample with electron beams having maximum energies above and below the Cerenkov-light threshold.

Non-invasive imaging of radiocesium dynamics in a living animal using a positron-emitting Cs tracer

Suzui, Nobuo*; Shibata, Takuya; Yin, Y.-G.*; Funaki, Yoshihito*; Kurita, Keisuke; Hoshina, Hiroyuki*; Yamaguchi, Mitsutaka*; Fujimaki, Shu*; Seko, Noriaki*; Watabe, Hiroshi*; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 10, p.16155_1 - 16155_9, 2020/10

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73351-2

Transient ionization of the mesosphere during auroral breakup; Arase satellite and ground-based conjugate observations at Syowa Station

Kataoka, Ryuho*; Nishiyama, Takanori*; Tanaka, Yoshimasa*; Kadokura, Akira*; Uchida, Herbert Akihito*; Ebihara, Yusuke*; Ejiri, Mitsumu*; Tomikawa, Yoshihiro*; Tsutsumi, Masaki*; Sato, Kaoru*; et al.

Earth, Planets and Space (Internet), 71(1), p.9_1 - 9_10, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-019-0989-7

Transient ionization of the mesosphere was detected at around 65 km altitude during the isolated auroral expansion occurred at 2221-2226 UT on June 30, 2017. A general-purpose Monte Carlo particle transport code PHITS suggested that significant ionization is possible in the middle atmosphere due to auroral X-rays from the auroral electrons of 10 keV.