Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2020

Nakada, Akira; Nakano, Masanao; Kanai, Katsuta; Seya, Natsumi; Nishimura, Shusaku; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Futagawa, Kazuo; Yamada, Ryohei; Uchiyama, Rei; et al.

JAEA-Review 2021-062, 163 Pages, 2022/02

JAEA-Review-2021-062.pdf:2.87MB

Environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant has been performed by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, based on "Safety Regulations for the Reprocessing Plant of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Chapter IV - Environmental Monitoring". This annual report presents the results of the environmental monitoring and the dose estimation to the hypothetical inhabitant due to the radioactivity discharged from the plant to the atmosphere and the sea during April 2020 to March 2021. In this report, some data include the influence of the accidental release from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (the trade name was changed to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. on April 1, 2016) in March 2011. Appendices present comprehensive information, such as monitoring programs, monitoring methods, monitoring results and their trends, meteorological data and discharged radioactive wastes. In addition, the data which were influenced by the accidental release and exceeded the normal range of fluctuation in the monitoring, were evaluated.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

The Surface composition of asteroid 162173 Ryugu from Hayabusa2 near-infrared spectroscopy

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Arai, Takehiko*; Nakauchi, Yusuke*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Science, 364(6437), p.272 - 275, 2019/04

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav7432

The near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, the target of Hayabusa2 sample return mission, is believed to be a primitive carbonaceous object. The Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on Hayabusa2 acquired reflectance spectra of Ryugu's surface to provide direct measurements of the surface composition and geological context for the returned samples. A weak, narrow absorption feature centered at 2.72 micron was detected across the entire observed surface, indicating that hydroxyl (OH)-bearing minerals are ubiquitous there. The intensity of the OH feature and low albedo are similar to thermally- and/or shock-metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. There are few variations in the OH-band position, consistent with Ryugu being a compositionally homogeneous rubble-pile object generated from impact fragments of an undifferentiated aqueously altered parent body.

Decontamination of radioactive concrete waste and reuse of aggregate using pulsed power technology

Sakamoto, Hiroyuki*; Akagi, Yosuke*; Yamada, Kazuo*; Tachi, Yukio; Fukuda, Daisuke*; Ishimatsu, Koichi*; Matsuda, Mikiya*; Saito, Nozomi*; Uemura, Jitsuya*; Namihira, Takao*; et al.

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Wabun Rombunshi, 17(2), p.57 - 66, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.3327/taesj.J16.037

Concrete debris contaminated with radioactive cesium and other nuclides have been generated from the accident in the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and there will be generated due to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the future. Although conventional decontamination techniques are effective for flat concrete surfaces such as floors and walls, it is not clear what techniques to apply for decontaminating radioactive concrete debris. In this study, focusing on a pulsed power discharge technique, fundamental experimental works were carried out. Decontamination of concrete by applying the aggregate recycling technique using the pulsed power discharge technique was evaluated by measuring radioactivity of aggregate and sludge separated from the contaminated concrete. The results suggest that the separation into aggregate and sludge of the contaminated concrete debris could achieve decontamination and volume reduction of the radioactive concrete debris.

Evaluation of performance for IBARAKI biological crystal diffractometer iBIX with new detectors

Kusaka, Katsuhiro*; Hosoya, Takaaki*; Yamada, Taro*; Tomoyori, Katsuaki; Ohara, Takashi; Katagiri, Masaki*; Kurihara, Kazuo; Tanaka, Ichiro*; Niimura, Nobuo*

Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 20(6), p.994 - 998, 2013/11

https://doi.org/10.1107/S0909049513021845

The IBARAKI biological crystal diffractometer, iBIX, is a high-performance time-of-flight neutron single-crystal diffractometer for elucidating mainly the hydrogen, protonation and hydration structures of biological macromolecules in various life processes. Since the end of 2008, iBIX has been available to user's experiments supported by Ibaraki University. Since August 2012, an upgrade of the 14-existing detectors has begun and 16 new detectors have been installed for iBIX. The total measurement efficiency of the present diffractometer has been impoved by one order of magnitude from the previous one with the increasing of accelerator power. In December 2012, commissioning of the new detectors was successful, and collection of the diffraction dataset of ribonucrease A as a standard protein was attempted in order to estimate the performance of the upgraded iBIX in comparison with previous results. The resolution of diffraction data, equivalence among intensities of symmetry-related reflections and reliability of the refined structure have been improved dramatically. iBIX is expected to be one of the highest-performance neutron single-crystal diffractometers for biological macromolecules in the world.

Report of the Special Symposium on the Transport and Diffusion of Contaminants from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant; Present status and future directions

Kondo, Hiroaki*; Yamada, Tetsuji*; Chino, Masamichi; Iwasaki, Toshiki*; Katata, Genki; Maki, Takashi*; Saito, Kazuo*; Terada, Hiroaki; Tsuruta, Haruo*

Tenki, 60(9), p.723 - 729, 2013/09

AA2013-0745.pdf:0.51MB

http://www.metsoc.jp/tenki/pdf/2013/2013_09_0017.pdf

no abstracts in English

Neutron and X-ray crystallographic analysis of protease I at pD 8.0; Protonation states and hydration structure in the free-form

Onishi, Yuki*; Yamada, Taro*; Kurihara, Kazuo; Tanaka, Ichiro*; Sakiyama, Fumio*; Masaki, Takeharu*; Niimura, Nobuo*

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta; Proteins and Proteomics, 1834(8), p.1642 - 1647, 2013/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbapap.2013.05.012

The structure of the free-form of protease I (API) at pD 8.0 was refined by simultaneous use of single crystal X-ray and neutron diffraction data sets to investigate the protonation states of key catalytic residues of the serine protease. Occupancy refinement of the catalytic triad in the active site of API free-form showed that ca. 30% of the imidazole ring of H57 and ca. 70% of the hydroxyl group of S194 were deuterated. This observation indicates that a major fraction of S194 is protonated in the absence of a substrate. The protonation state of the catalytic triad in API was compared with the bovine -trypsin-BPTI complex. The comparison led to the hypothesis that close contact of a substrate with S194 could lower the acidity of its hydroxyl group, thereby allowing H57 to extract the hydrogen from the hydroxyl group of S194. H210, which is a residue specific to API, does not form a hydrogen bond with the catalytic triad residue D113. Instead, H210 forms a hydrogen bond network with S176, H177 and a water molecule. The close proximity of the bulky, hydrophobic residue W169 may protect this hydrogen bond network, and this protection may stabilize the function of API over a wide pH range.

Structure of morpholinium tribromoplumbate CHONHPbBr studied using single-crystal neutron diffraction

Kawasaki, Takuro; Takahashi, Miwako*; Ohara, Takashi*; Tanaka, Ichiro*; Kusaka, Katsuhiro*; Hosoya, Takaaki*; Yamada, Taro*; Kurihara, Kazuo

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 81(9), p.094602_1 - 094602_6, 2012/09

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.81.094602

X-ray and neutron protein crystallographic analysis of the trypsin-BPTI complex

Kawamura, Kenji*; Yamada, Taro*; Kurihara, Kazuo; Tamada, Taro; Kuroki, Ryota; Tanaka, Ichiro*; Takahashi, Haruyuki*; Niimura, Nobuo*

Acta Crystallographica Section D, 67(2), p.140 - 148, 2011/02

https://doi.org/10.1107/S0907444910053382

A Neutron crystallographic analysis of phosphate-free ribonuclease A at 1.7 resolution

Yagi, Daichi*; Yamada, Taro*; Kurihara, Kazuo; Onishi, Yuki*; Yamashita, Masahiro*; Tamada, Taro; Tanaka, Ichiro*; Kuroki, Ryota; Niimura, Nobuo*

Acta Crystallographica Section D, 65(9), p.892 - 899, 2009/09

https://doi.org/10.1107/S0907444909018885

A neutron crystallographic analysis of phosphate-free bovine pancreatic RNase A has been carried out at 1.7 resolution using the BIX-4 single-crystal diffractometer at the JRR-3 reactor of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The high resolution structural model allowed us to determine that His12 acts mainly as a general base in the catalytic process of RNase A. Numerous other distinctive structural features such as the hydrogen positions of methyl groups, hydroxyl groups, prolines, asparagines and glutamines were also determined at 1.7 resolution. The protonation and deprotonation states of all of the charged amino-acid residues allowed us to provide a definitive description of the hydrogen-bonding network around the active site and the H atoms of the key His48 residue. Differences in hydrogen-bond strengths for the -helices and -sheets were inferred from determination of the hydrogen-bond lengths and the H/D-exchange ratios of the backbone amide H atoms. The correlation between the B factors and hydrogen-bond lengths of the hydration water molecules was also determined.