Development of analytical techniques for isotopic composition determination of uranium particles in environmental sample for safeguards with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Tomita, Ryohei; Tomita, Jumpei; Suzuki, Daisuke; Yasuda, Kenichiro; Miyamoto, Yutaka

Hosha Kagaku, (48), p.1 - 15, 2023/09

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is the method to detect secondary ions produced by the sputtering of primary ions. SIMS is one of effective method to measure isotopic composition of particles containing nuclear material in environmental sample for safeguards. We are a group member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s network of analytical laboratories and have developed analytical techniques using SIMS and other mass spectrometers for nuclear safeguards. We will introduce the principle of SIMS and analytical techniques developed by our group to measure isotopic composition of uranium particles which having a particle diameter of micron order in environmental sample for safeguards.

In-operando measurement of internal temperature and stress in lithium-ion batteries

Hirano, Tatsumi*; Maeda, Takehiro*; Murata, Tetsuyuki*; Yamaki, Takahiro*; Matsubara, Eiichiro*; Shobu, Takahisa; Shiro, Ayumi*; Yasuda, Ryo*; Takamatsu, Daiko*

SPring-8/SACLA Riyo Kenkyu Seikashu (Internet), 11(1), p.49 - 57, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.18957/rr.11.1.49

Preparation of the particles containing isotope reference uranium for the determination of the low abundant U isotope ratios

Tomita, Jumpei; Tomita, Ryohei; Suzuki, Daisuke; Yasuda, Kenichiro; Miyamoto, Yutaka

KEK Proceedings 2022-2, p.154 - 158, 2022/11

Precise determination of minor U isotopes (U and U) of particles from the safeguard environmental samples is powerful method for detecting the undeclared nuclear activities. In this study, preparation method of U particle was examined to utilize for the minor U isotope determination. The porous silica particles were used as the particle matrix and lutetium was mixed to the impregnation solution as U impregnation indicator for the particle picking. The result of the Scanning Electron Microscope indicated that the contacting the solution with Si particles overnight gently could produce the impregnated particles effectively rather than the mixing them with PFA stick.

Design for detecting recycling muon after muon-catalyzed fusion reaction in solid hydrogen isotope target

Okutsu, Kenichi*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Kino, Yasushi*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 170, p.112712_1 - 112712_4, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112712

A muonic molecule which consists of two hydrogen isotope nuclei (deuteron (d) or tritium (t)) and a muon decays immediately via nuclear fusion and the muon will be released as a recycling muon, and start to find another hydrogen isotope nucleus. The reaction cycle continues until the muon ends up its lifetime of 2.2 s. Since the muon does not participate in the nuclear reaction, the reaction is so called a muon catalyzed fusion (CF). The recycling muon has a particular kinetic energy (KE) of the muon molecular orbital when the nuclear reaction occurs. Since the KE is based on the unified atom limit where distance between two nuclei is zero. A precise few-body calculation estimating KE distribution (KED) is also in progress, which could be compared with the experimental results. In the present work, we observed recycling muons after CF reaction.

Time evolution calculation of muon catalysed fusion; Emission of recycling muons from a two-layer hydrogen film

Yamashita, Takuma*; Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 169, p.112580_1 - 112580_5, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112580

A muon () having 207 times larger mass of electron and the same charge as the electron has been known to catalyze a nuclear fusion between deuteron (d) and triton (t). These two nuclei are bound by and form a muonic hydrogen molecular ion, dt. Due to the short inter-nuclear distance of dt, the nuclear fusion, d +t + n + 17.6 MeV, occurs inside the molecule. This reaction is called muon catalyzed fusion (CF). Recently, the interest on CF is renewed from the viewpoint of applications, such as a source of high-resolution muon beam and mono-energetic neutron beam. In this work, we report a time evolution calculation of CF in a two-layered hydrogen isotope target.

Effects of residual stress on hydrogen embrittlement of a stretch-formed tempered martensitic steel sheet

Nishimura, Hayato*; Hojo, Tomohiko*; Ajita, Saya*; Shibayama, Yuki*; Koyama, Motomichi*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Shiro, Ayumi*; Yasuda, Ryo*; Shobu, Takahisa; Akiyama, Eiji*

ISIJ International, 61(4), p.1170 - 1178, 2021/04

https://doi.org/10.2355/isijinternational.ISIJINT-2020-492

Effects of residual stress and plastic strain on hydrogen embrittlement of a stretch-formed TRIP-aided martensitic steel sheet

Hojo, Tomohiko*; Akiyama, Eiji*; Saito, Hiroyuki*; Shiro, Ayumi*; Yasuda, Ryo*; Shobu, Takahisa; Kinugasa, Junichiro*; Yuse, Fumio*

Corrosion Science, 177, p.108957_1 - 108957_9, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2020.108957

Hydrogen assisted cracking on hemispherically-stretch-formed specimens of transformation induced plasticity-aided martensitic steel was investigated. Hydrogen charging induced cracking around the foot of the impression formed on the steel sheet, and the cracks propagated along the radial direction toward the hillside and the plains. Distributions of stress, plastic strain and volume fraction of retained austenite were analyzed employing the energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction method utilizing the synchrotron X-ray radiation at SPring-8. It was notable that the crack initiation took place in the region where the measured tensile stress was the highest. Influences of plastic strain and resulted martensitic transformation were also suggested.

Electronic effects of nitrogen atoms of supports on Pt-Ni rhombic dodecahedral nanoframes for oxygen reduction

Kato, Masaru*; Nakahoshiba, Ryota*; Ogura, Kazuya*; Tokuda, Shoichi*; Yasuda, Satoshi; Higashi, Kotaro*; Uruga, Tomoya*; Uemura, Yohei*; Yagi, Ichizo*

ACS Applied Energy Materials (Internet), 3(7), p.6768 - 6774, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.0c00903

To understand electronic effects of nitrogen-doped and polymer-coated carbon supports on the catalytic activity of Pt-based nanostructured catalysts, we prepared PtNi nanoframes (NFs) supported on polybenzimidazole (PBI)-coated and uncoated carbon nanotubes for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and then compared their catalytic activities and electronic properties with those of NFs immobilized on nitrogen-doped and undoped carbon supports. Although both PBI-coating and nitrogen-doping approaches improved the catalytic activity of NFs, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that nitrogen doping showed electronic effects on NFs, whereas PBI-coating showed almost no impact on the electronic state of NFs but stabilized Pt(OH) species under electrochemical conditions. Our studies demonstrate that difference in microscopic environments of nitrogen atoms at the catalyst/support interface is highly sensitive to the electronic effects of supports on Pt-based electrocatalysts.

Development of a bunch-width monitor for low-intensity muon beam below a few MeV

Sue, Yuki*; Yotsuzuka, Mai*; Futatsukawa, Kenta*; Hasegawa, Kazuo; Iijima, Toru*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Inami, Kenji*; Ishida, Katsuhiko*; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; Kitamura, Ryo; et al.

Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (Internet), 23(2), p.022804_1 - 022804_7, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.23.022804

A destructive monitor to measure the longitudinal bunch width of a low-energy and low-intensity muon beam was developed. This bunch-width monitor (BWM) employed microchannel plates to detect a single muon with high time resolution. In addition, constant-fraction discriminators were adopted to suppress the time-walk effect. The time resolution was measured to be 65 ps in rms using a picosecond-pulsed laser. This resolution satisfied the requirements of the muon linac of the J-PARC E34 experiment. We measured the bunch width of negative-muonium ions accelerated with a radio-frequency quadrupole using the BWM. The bunch width was successfully measured to be 54 11 ns, which is consistent with the simulation.

Negative muonium ion production with a C12A7 electride film

Otani, Masashi*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Futatsukawa, Kenta*; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; Matoba, Shiro*; Mibe, Tsutomu*; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Shimomura, Koichiro*; Yamazaki, Takayuki*; Hasegawa, Kazuo; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 1350, p.012067_1 - 012067_6, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012067

Negative muonium atom (ee, Mu) has unique features stimulating potential interesting for several scientific fields. Since its discovery in late 1980's in vacuum, it has been discussed that the production efficiency would be improved using a low-work function material. C12A7 was a well-known insulator as a constituent of alumina cement, but was recently confirmed to exhibit electric conductivity by electron doping. The C12A7 electride has relatively low-work function (2.9 eV). In this paper, the negative muonium production measurement with several materials including a C12A7 electride film will be presented. Measured production rate of the Mu were 10/s for all the Al, electride, and SUS target. Significant enhancement on electride target was not observed, thus it is presumed that the surface condition should be more carefully treated. There was no material dependence of the Mu averaged energy: it was 0.20.1keV.