Investigations on distribution of radioactive substances owing to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident in the fiscal year 2022 (Contract research)

Group for Fukushima Mapping Project

JAEA-Technology 2023-024, 176 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Technology-2023-024.pdf:22.16MB

This report presents results of the investigations on the distribution-mapping project of radioactive substances owing to TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) conducted in FY2022. Car-borne surveys, a measurement using survey meters, a walk survey and an unmanned helicopter survey were carried out to obtain air dose rate data to create their distribution maps, and temporal changes of the air dose rates were analyzed. Surveys on depth profile of radiocesium and in-situ measurements as for radiocesium deposition were performed. Based on these measurement results, effective half-lives of the temporal changes in the air dose rates and the deposition were evaluated. Score maps to classify the importance of the measurement points were created, and the factors causing changes in the score when monitoring data from multiple years were used were discussed. The range of fluctuation of past tritium concentration data in seawater was determined, and the causes of the fluctuation were discussed. Monitoring data in coastal area performed in 2022 owing to the comprehensive radiation monitoring plan was summarized, and temporal changes in cesium-137 were analyzed. Using the Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach, we obtained maps that integrated air dose rate distribution data acquired through surveys such as car-borne and walk surveys with respect to the region within 80 km from the FDNPS and Fukushima Prefecture. The measurement results for FY2022 were published on the "Database for Radioactive Substance Monitoring Data", and measurement data were stored as CSV format. Radiation monitoring and analysis of environmental samples owing to the comprehensive radiation monitoring plan were carried out.

Development of a radiation tolerant laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system using a single crystal micro-chip laser for remote elemental analysis

Tamura, Koji; Nakanishi, Ryuzo; Oba, Hironori; Karino, Takahiro; Shibata, Takuya; Taira, Takunori*; Wakaida, Ikuo

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 8 Pages, 2024/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2298485

Evaluation of thermal expansion reactivity feedback effect in water-moderated fuel-particle-dispersion system

Fukuda, Kodai

Proceedings of 4th Reactor Physics Asia Conference (RPHA2023) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2023/10

Brief evaluations were performed using the N-F model to quantitatively clarify the effect of thermal expansion on the consequences of criticality accidents in the water-moderated fuel-particle-dispersion system. The analysis clarified that ignoring thermal expansion can lead to underestimation or overestimation of the consequences by several tens of percent. It is concluded that evaluators can ignore the thermal expansion when they evaluate the consequences of the prompt supercritical transient in water-moderated solid fuel-dispersion systems, such as fuel debris systems. Only the Doppler effect can be considered when the fuel-temperature-feedback coefficient is prepared. However, depending on the required accuracy, the evaluators should take care of the error caused by ignoring thermal expansion.

Spontaneous topological Hall effect induced by non-coplanar antiferromagnetic order in intercalated van der Waals materials

Takagi, Hirotaka*; Takagi, Rina*; Minami, Susumu*; Nomoto, Takuya*; Oishi, Kazuki*; Suzuki, Michito*; Yanagi, Yuki*; Hirayama, Motoaki*; Khanh, N.*; Karube, Kosuke*; et al.

Nature Physics, 19(7), p.961 - 968, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02017-3

Study on degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2022-066, 91 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Review-2022-066.pdf:5.88MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Study on degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions" conducted in FY2021. In the project, radiochemists, nuclear chemists, nuclear physicists, material scientists, and environmental biologists are teamed to elucidate the mechanism of the degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions. In fiscal year 2021, the members of the project team have conducted on the microbial degradation of the simulated fuel debris under -ray irradiation, complex formation of pentavalent uranium, construction of microchannel system to detect micro-particles and the simulated fuel debris, sorption of tetravalent elements ...

A Colossal barocaloric effect induced by the creation of a high-pressure phase

Jiang, X.*; Hattori, Takanori; Xu, X.*; Li, M.*; Yu, C.*; Yu, D.*; Mole, R.*; Yano, Shinichiro*; Chen, J.*; He, L.*; et al.

Materials Horizons, 10(3), p.977 - 982, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/d2mh00905f

As a promising environment-friendly alternative to current vapor-compression refrigeration, solid-state refrigeration based on the barocaloric effect has been attracting world wide attention. Generally, both phases in which a barocaloric effect occurs are present at ambient pressure. Here, instead, we demonstrate that KPF exhibits a colossal barocaloric effect due to the creation of a high-pressure rhombohedral phase. The phase diagram is constructed based on pressure-dependent calorimetric, Raman scattering, and neutron diffraction measurements. The present study is expected to provide an alternative routine to colossal barocaloric effects through the creation of a high-pressure phase.

Investigations on distribution of radioactive substances owing to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident in the fiscal year 2021 (Contract research)

Group for Fukushima Mapping Project

JAEA-Technology 2022-026, 152 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Technology-2022-026.pdf:20.14MB

This report presents results of the investigations on the distribution-mapping project of radioactive substances owing to TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) conducted in FY2021. Car-borne surveys, a flat ground measurement using survey meters, a walk survey and an unmanned helicopter survey were carried out to obtain air dose rate data to create air dose rate distribution maps, and temporal changes of the air dose rates were analyzed. Surveys on depth profile of radiocesium and in-situ measurements as for radiocesium deposition were performed. Based on these measurement results, effective half-lives of the temporal changes in the air dose rates and the deposition were evaluated. Score maps to classify the importance of the measurement points were created for Fukushima Prefecture and the 80 km zone from the FDNPS, and the factors causing changes in the score when monitoring data from multiple years were used were discussed. Monitoring data in coastal area performed owing to the comprehensive radiation monitoring plan until 2020 was summarized, and temporal changes in cesium-137 were analyzed. Using the Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach, we obtained maps that integrated the air dose rate distribution data obtained in this project with respect to the region within 80 km from the FDNPS and Fukushima Prefecture. The measurement results for FY2021 were published on the "Expansion Site of Distribution Map of Radiation Dose", and measurement data were stored as CSV format. Radiation monitoring and analysis of environmental samples owing to the comprehensive radiation monitoring plan were carried out.

Cation interdiffusion in uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuels; Where are we now?

Vauchy, R.; Hirooka, Shun; Matsumoto, Taku; Kato, Masato

Frontiers in Nuclear Engineering (Internet), 1, p.1060218_1 - 1060218_18, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnuen.2022.1060218

Sensitivity coefficient evaluation of an accelerator-driven system using ROM-Lasso method

Katano, Ryota; Yamamoto, Akio*; Endo, Tomohiro*

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 196(10), p.1194 - 1208, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2067447

In this study, we propose the ROM-Lasso method that enables efficient evaluation of sensitivity coefficients of neutronics parameters to cross-sections. In the proposed method, a vector of sensitivity coefficients is expanded by subspace bases, so-called Active Subspace (AS) based on the idea of Reduced Order Modeling (ROM). Then, the expansion coefficients are evaluated by the Lasso linear regression between cross-sections and neutronics parameters obtained by the random sampling. The proposed method can be applied in the case where the adjoint method is difficult to be applied since the proposed method uses only forward calculations. In addition, AS is an effective subspace that can expand the vector of sensitivity coefficients with the lower number of dimension. Thus, the number of unknows is reduced from the original number of input parameters and the calculation cost is dramatically improved compared to the Lasso regression without AS. In this paper, we conducted ADS burnup calculations as a verification. We have shown how AS bases are obtained and the applicability of the proposed method.

Study on degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions (Contract research); FY2020 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2022-005, 93 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Review-2022-005.pdf:6.95MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2020. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Study on degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions" conducted in FY2020. In the project, radiochemists, nuclear chemists, nuclear physicists, material scientists, and environmental biologists are teamed to elucidate the mechanism of the degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions. In fiscal year 2020, the members of the project team have conducted on the degradation of He ions irradiated simulated fuel debris, complex formation of tetravalent elements, uranium (VI) detection in microchannel, sorption of trivalent elements by iron bearing materials, and microbial degradation by model microorganisms …