Arrangements for telephone consultation on radiation health effects in a nuclear emergency in Japan; Lessons learned from the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, 2011

Okuno, Hiroshi; Kawakami, Takeshi; Watanabe, Fumitaka; Horikoshi, Hidehiko*

Journal of Disaster Research, 18(8), p.911 - 917, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.20965/jdr.2023.p0911

In response to residents' concerns about the radiation health effects following the nuclear accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of the Tokyo Electric Power Company in March 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) established a telephone consultation system. Eight toll-free telephone lines were prepared, and employees with knowledge of radiation health effects were assigned for consultation. Approximately 35,000 consultations were conducted from March 17, 2011, to September 18, 2012. The results of the text mining analysis revealed that the greatest source of anxiety was the impact on children's health from radiation. The JAEA's system for telephone consultation was improved following this telephone consultation experience. The description of telephone hotlines in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guide, GSG-14, was discussed for further improvements of the JAEA's telephone consultation system.

A Safer preprocessing system for analyzing dissolved organic radiocarbon in seawater

Otosaka, Shigeyoshi*; Jeon, H.*; Hou, Y.*; Watanabe, Takahiro; Aze, Takahiro*; Miyairi, Yosuke*; Yokoyama, Yusuke*; Ogawa, Hiroshi*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 527, p.1 - 6, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2022.07.003

The measurement the radiocarbon of dissolved organic matter (DOC) in seawater can provide information about a timescale of the dynamics of dissolved organic matter as well as about its sources in the ocean. Due to the low DOC concentration in seawater, in spite of the development of accelerator mass spectrometry, a relatively large volume of seawater (1 L) is required for that analysis. In addition, complicated processing such as UV irradiation that emits high heat is required. In this study, we have developed a safer and easier method to analyze DOC in seawater than the conventional method. A particularly significant change was the adoption of a low-pressure mercury lamp in the decomposition system, which enabled direct decomposition of organic matter at lower temperatures. We also propose a method to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of this system by analyzing simulated seawater consists of a soluble reference material of organic matter and sodium chloride. This method is expected to be applied not only to carbon isotope ratio analysis but also to analysis of trace elements and isotopes of various dissolved organic substances.

Carrying-out of whole nuclear fuel materials in Plutonium Research Building No.1

Inagawa, Jun; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro; Otobe, Haruyoshi; Nakada, Masami; Takano, Masahide; Akie, Hiroshi; Shimizu, Osamu; Komuro, Michiyasu; Oura, Hirofumi*; Nagai, Isao*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2021-001, 144 Pages, 2021/08

JAEA-Technology-2021-001.pdf:12.98MB

Plutonium Research Building No.1 (Pu1) was qualified as a facility to decommission, and preparatory operations for decommission were worked by the research groups users and the facility managers of Pu1. The operation of transportation of whole nuclear materials in Pu1 to Back-end Cycle Key Element Research Facility (BECKY) completed at Dec. 2020. In the operation included evaluation of criticality safety for changing permission of the license for use nuclear fuel materials in BECKY, cask of the transportation, the registration request of the cask at the institute, the test transportation, formulation of plan for whole nuclear materials transportation, and the main transportation. This report circumstantially shows all of those process to help prospective decommission.

Beta decay of the axially asymmetric ground state of Re

Watanabe, Hiroshi*; Watanabe, Yutaka*; Hirayama, Yoshikazu*; Andreyev, A. N.; Hashimoto, Takashi*; Kondev, F. G.*; Lane, G. J.*; Litvinov, Yu. A.*; Liu, J. J.*; Miyatake, Hiroari*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 814, p.136088_1 - 136088_6, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136088

Study of the Li() reaction for the development of accelerator-based neutron sources

Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Sadamatsu, Hiroki*; Araki, Shohei*; Nakano, Keita*; Kawase, Shoichiro*; Kin, Tadahiro*; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Satoh, Daiki; Hagiwara, Masayuki*; Yashima, Hiroshi*; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 239, p.20012_1 - 20012_4, 2020/09

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202023920012

Accelerator-based neutron sources induced by deuteron beams are attractive for study of nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste as well as radiation damage for fusion reactor materials. In the present work, we have carried out a Double Differential cross section (DDX) measurement for Li at 200 MeV in the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University. A deuteron beam accelerated to 200 MeV was transported to the neutron experimental hall and focused on a thin Li target. Emitted neutrons from the target were detected by two different-size EJ301 liquid organic scintillators located at two distances of 7 m and 20 m, respectively. The neutron DDXs were measured at six angles from 0 to 25). The neutron detection efficiencies of the detectors were calculated by SCINFUL-QMD code. We will present the results of the present DDX measurement and compare them with theoretical model calculations with DEURACS and PHITS.

Spallation and fragmentation cross sections for 168 MeV/nucleon Xe ions on proton, deuteron, and carbon targets

Sun, X. H.*; Wang, H.*; Otsu, Hideaki*; Sakurai, Hiroyoshi*; Ahn, D. S.*; Aikawa, Masayuki*; Fukuda, Naoki*; Isobe, Tadaaki*; Kawakami, Shunsuke*; Koyama, Shumpei*; et al.

Physical Review C, 101(6), p.064623_1 - 064623_12, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.064623

The spallation and fragmentation reactions of Xe induced by proton, deuteron and carbon at 168 MeV/nucleon were studied at RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory via the inverse kinematics technique. The cross sections of the lighter products are larger in the carbon-induced reactions due to the higher total kinetic energy of carbon. The energy dependence was investigated by comparing the newly obtained data with previous results obtained at higher reaction energies. The experimental data were compared with the results of SPACS, EPAX, PHITS and DEURACS calculations. These data serve as benchmarks for the model calculations.

Enhancement of element production by incomplete fusion reaction with weakly bound deuteron

Wang, H.*; Otsu, Hideaki*; Chiga, Nobuyuki*; Kawase, Shoichiro*; Takeuchi, Satoshi*; Sumikama, Toshiyuki*; Koyama, Shumpei*; Sakurai, Hiroyoshi*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Nakayama, Shinsuke; et al.

Communications Physics (Internet), 2(1), p.78_1 - 78_6, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0165-1

Searching for effective pathways for the production of proton- and neutron-rich isotopes through an optimal combination of reaction mechanism and energy is one of the main driving forces behind experimental and theoretical nuclear reaction studies as well as for practical applications in nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste. We report on a study on incomplete fusion induced by deuteron, which contains one proton and one neutron with a weak binding energy and is easily broken up. This reaction study was achieved by measuring directly the cross sections for both proton and deuteron for Pd at 50 MeV/u via inverse kinematics technique. The results provide direct experimental evidence for the onset of a cross-section enhancement at high energy, indicating the potential of incomplete fusion induced by loosely-bound nuclei for creating proton-rich isotopes and nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste.

Cryogenic sample environments shared at the MLF, J-PARC

Kawamura, Seiko; Takahashi, Ryuta*; Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Nakamura, Masatoshi*; Ouchi, Keiichi*; Kira, Hiroshi*; Kambara, Wataru*; Aoyama, Kazuhiro*; Sakaguchi, Yoshifumi*; et al.

Journal of Neutron Research, 21(1-2), p.17 - 22, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.3233/JNR-190106

The Cryogenics and Magnets group in the Sample Environment team is responsible for operation of cryostats and magnets for user's experiments at the MLF in J-PARC. We have introduced a top-loading He cryostat, a bottom-loading He cryostat, a dilution refrigerator insert and a superconducting magnet. The frequency of use of them dramatically becomes higher in these two years, as the beam power and the number of proposal increase. To respond such situation, we have made efforts to enhance performance of these equipment as follows. The He cryostat originally involves an operation software for automatic initial cooling down to the base temperature and automatic re-charge of He. Recently we made an additional program for automatic temperature control with only the sorb heater. Last year, a new outer vacuum chamber of the magnet with an oscillating radial collimator (ORC) was fabricated. The data quality was drastically improved by introducing this ORC so that the magnet can be used even for the inelastic neutron scattering experiments.

New isomers in Pd and Pd; Competing proton and neutron excitations in neutron-rich palladium nuclides towards the shell closure

Watanabe, Hiroshi*; Wang, H. K.*; Lorusso, G.*; Nishimura, Shunji*; Xu, Z. Y.*; Sumikama, Toshiyuki*; Orlandi, R.; 47 of others*

Physics Letters B, 792, p.263 - 268, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.03.053

Progress of general control system for Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility at J-PARC

Sakai, Kenji; Oi, Motoki; Takada, Hiroshi; Kai, Tetsuya; Nakatani, Takeshi; Kobayashi, Yasuo*; Watanabe, Akihiko*

JAEA-Technology 2018-011, 57 Pages, 2019/01

JAEA-Technology-2018-011.pdf:4.98MB

For safely and efficiently operating a spallation neutron source and a muon target, a general control system (GCS) operates within Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF). GCS administers operation processes and interlocks of many instruments. It consists of several subsystems such as an integral control system (ICS), interlock systems (ILS), shared servers, network system, and timing distribution system (TDS). Although GCS is an independent system that controls the target stations, it works closely with the control systems of the accelerators and other facilities in J-PARC. Since the first beam injection, GCS has operated stably without any serious troubles after modification based on commissioning for operation and control. Then, significant improvements in GCS such as upgrade of ICS by changing its framework software and function enhancement of ILS were proceeded until 2015. In this way, many modifications have been proceeded in the entire GCS during a period of approximately ten years after start of beam operation. Under these situation, it is important to comprehend upgrade history and present status of GCS in order to decide its upgrade plan. This report summarizes outline, structure, roles and functions of GCS in 2017.