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.

Development and implementation of GloveBox Cleanout Assistance Tool (BCAT) to detect the presence of MOX by computational approach

Nakamura, Hironobu; Nakamichi, Hideo; Mukai, Yasunobu; Hosoma, Takashi; Kurita, Tsutomu; LaFleur, A. M.*

Proceedings of International Conference on Mathematics & Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science & Engineering (M&C 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 7 Pages, 2017/04

In order to maintain facility nuclear material accountancy (NMA) and safeguards properly, to understand where and how much holdup deposit in the process is presence is very important for the cleanout before PIT. JAEA and LANL developed a GloveBox Cleanout Assistance Tool (BCAT) to help cleanout (MOX powder recovering in a glovebox) for invisible holdup effectively by computational approach which is called distributed source-term approach (DSTA). The BCAT tool is a simple neutron measurement slab detectors and helps operator to find locations of holdup. To know the holdup location and the activity from the neutron measurements, the relation between BCAT measurements results at predetermined positions (57 positions) and source voxels (53 voxels) that we want to know the holdup activity was mathematically defined as a matrix by the MCNPX simulation. The model of MCNPX for entire process is very precisely established. We have implemented and experimentally proved that the BCAT tool can direct the operator to recoverable holdup that would otherwise be accounted for as MUF. Reducing facility MUF results in a direct improvement of the facility NMA. The BCAT enables the staff to significantly improve their knowledge of the locations of residual holdup in the process area. JAEA would like to use this application for dismantling of the glovebox with transparency in the future.

Conceptual proposal of new detection method for unauthorized removal from glovebox

Nakamura, Hironobu; Tanigawa, Masafumi; Mukai, Yasunobu; Nakamichi, Hideo; Umino, Yoshinori; Fujisaku, Sakae; Kimura, Takashi; Kurita, Tsutomu

Proceedings of INMM 56th Annual Meeting (Internet), 8 Pages, 2015/07

In the MOX handling facilities, many types and amount of nuclear materials (NM) that are relatively easy to access are used in a GB. In order to prevent unauthorized removal of NM from the GB by an insider, based on the Japanese regulation which was referred from INFCIRC/225 Rev.5, the 2 person rule are being introduced at the area where NM handling GB are installed. As an example of usage of the security counterplan for the detection of unauthorized removal of NM, a new proposal of detection concept for the unauthorized removal by operators were investigated with implementation of several experiments considering actual GB operation. In general, it is considered that normal concept is to use radiation monitor ( or neutron) to detect the event by checking the variation of monitoring data. However, it is thought that distinguish between authorized NM movement during operation and the unauthorized removal (sample bag-out from GB) is very difficult. To solve this subject, JAEA studied and proposes a new concept about negative pressure monitoring in the GB in addition to the radiation monitoring. It is thought that the hybrid monitoring concept between pressure and radiation provides the detection alarm for it with central alarm station (CAS) accurately and rapidly with high integrity, and helps to complement current 2 person rule.

Identified charged hadron production in collisions at = 200 and 62.4 GeV

Adare, A.*; Afanasiev, S.*; Aidala, C.*; Ajitanand, N. N.*; Akiba, Yasuyuki*; Al-Bataineh, H.*; Alexander, J.*; Aoki, Kazuya*; Aphecetche, L.*; Armendariz, R.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 83(6), p.064903_1 - 064903_29, 2011/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.83.064903

Transverse momentum distributions and yields for , and in collisions at = 200 and 62.4 GeV at midrapidity are measured by the PHENIX experiment at the RHIC. We present the inverse slope parameter, mean transverse momentum, and yield per unit rapidity at each energy, and compare them to other measurements at different collisions. We also present the scaling properties such as and scaling and discuss the mechanism of the particle production in collisions. The measured spectra are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations.

Conceptual design of the SlimCS fusion DEMO reactor

Tobita, Kenji; Nishio, Satoshi*; Enoeda, Mikio; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Hayashi, Takumi; Asakura, Nobuyuki; Uto, Hiroyasu; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu; Nishitani, Takeo; Isono, Takaaki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2010-019, 194 Pages, 2010/08

JAEA-Research-2010-019-01.pdf:48.47MB
JAEA-Research-2010-019-02.pdf:19.4MB

This report describes the results of the conceptual design study of the SlimCS fusion DEMO reactor aiming at demonstrating fusion power production in a plant scale and allowing to assess the economic prospects of a fusion power plant. The design study has focused on a compact and low aspect ratio tokamak reactor concept with a reduced-sized central solenoid, which is novel compared with previous tokamak reactor concept such as SSTR (Steady State Tokamak Reactor). The reactor has the main parameters of a major radius of 5.5 m, aspect ratio of 2.6, elongation of 2.0, normalized beta of 4.3, fusion out put of 2.95 GW and average neutron wall load of 3 MW/m. This report covers various aspects of design study including systemic design, physics design, torus configuration, blanket, superconducting magnet, maintenance and building, which were carried out increase the engineering feasibility of the concept.

SlimCS; Compact low aspect ratio DEMO reactor with reduced-size central solenoid

Tobita, Kenji; Nishio, Satoshi; Sato, Masayasu; Sakurai, Shinji; Hayashi, Takao; Shibama, Yusuke; Isono, Takaaki; Enoeda, Mikio; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Sato, Satoshi; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 47(8), p.892 - 899, 2007/08

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/47/8/022

The concept for a compact DEMO reactor named "SlimCS" is presented. Distinctive features of the concept is low aspect ratio ( = 2.6) and use of a reduced-size center solenoid (CS) which has a function of plasma shaping rather than poloidal flux supply. The reduced-size CS enables us to introduce a thin toroidal field (TF) coil system which contributes to reducing the weight and construction cost of the reactor. SlimCS is as compact as advanced commercial reactor designs such as ARIES-RS and produces 1 GWe in spite of moderate requirements for plasma parameters. Merits of low-, i.e. vertical stability for high elongation and high beta limit are responsible for such reasonable physics requirements.

Stability of double tearing mode in current hole configuration

Tsuda, Takashi; Kurita, Genichi; Fujita, Takaaki

Journal of the Korean Physical Society, 49, p.S83 - S86, 2006/12

The current density is expected to be negative in the central region of the tokamak when the amplitude of bootstrap current or off-axis current drive is large enough. However, a flat current profile with almost zero value has been observed in experiments even under the situation with negative one-turn voltage exists in the central region of plasma. Double tearing mode (DTM) can be unstable for the current profile with a "current hole" and some MHD activities are observed in JET before the formation of the current hole. On the contrary, no MHD activity is observed in the JT-60 experiment. Here, we study the condition of appearance of DTM and investigate the stability of DTM and the interaction between DTM (n=1 perturbation) and "Current Hole" with resistive RMHD simulations.

Observation of the bootstrap current reduction at magnetic island in a neoclassical tearing mode plasma

Oikawa, Toshihiro; Suzuki, Takahiro; Isayama, Akihiko; Hayashi, Nobuhiko; Fujita, Takaaki; Naito, Osamu; Tsuda, Takashi; Kurita, Genichi; JT-60 Team

Nuclear Fusion, 45(9), p.1101 - 1108, 2005/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/45/9/010

Evolution of the current density profile associated with magnetic island formation in a neoclassical tearing mode plasma was measured for the first time in JT-60U by. As the island grew, the current density profile turned flat at the radial region of the island, followed by an appearance of a hollow structure. As the island shrank, the deformed region became narrower, and it finally diminished after the disappearance of the island. In an MHD-quiescent plasma, on the other hand, no deformation was observed. The observed deformation in the current density profile associated with the tearing mode is reproduced in a time dependent transport simulation assuming reduction of the bootstrap current in the radial region of the island. Comparison of the measurement with a calculated steady-state solution also explains the temporal behaviors of the current density and safety factor profiles with reduction and recovery of the bootstrap current. From the experimental observation and simulations, we reach conclusion that the bootstrap current decreases within the island O-point.

Critical analyses with ferromagnetic and plasma rotation effects and wall geometry for a high steady state tokamak

Kurita, Genichi; Bialek, J.*; Tsuda, Takashi; Azumi, Masafumi; Ishida, Shinichi; Navratil, G. A.*; Sakurai, Shinji; Tamai, Hiroshi; Matsukawa, Makoto; Ozeki, Takahisa; et al.

IAEA-CN-116/FT/P7-7 (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2004/11

http://www.sunist.org/shared%20documents/FEC2004/datasets/FT_P7-7.html

The critical beta is shown to be decreased by ferromagnetic effect by about 8 % for m/m02, m and m0 denote the permeability of ferromagnetic wall and vacuum, respectively, for tokamak of aspect ratio 3. The existence of the stability window opened by both effects of the toroidal plasma rotation and the plasma dissipation, which was not observed for high aspect ratio tokamak, is found for tokamak of aspect ratio 3. The effect of ferromagnetism on them is also investigated. The critical beta analyses of NCT (National Centralized Tokamak) plasma using VALEN code are started with stabilizing plate and vacuum vessel geometry with finite resistivity, and the results for passive effect of stabilizing plate are obtained. The calculations including stabilizing effect of the vacuum-vessel and also active feedback control are also performed for present design of NCT plasma.

Advanced fusion technologies developed for JT-60 superconducting Tokamak

Sakasai, Akira; Ishida, Shinichi; Matsukawa, Makoto; Akino, Noboru; Ando, Toshinari*; Arai, Takashi; Ezato, Koichiro; Hamada, Kazuya; Ichige, Hisashi; Isono, Takaaki; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 44(2), p.329 - 334, 2004/02

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/44/2/015

no abstracts in English