Experimental and modeling studies on the oxygen ingression behavior at the crevices of stainless steels in high-temperature water

Soma, Yasutaka; Komatsu, Atsushi; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Yamamoto, Masahiro*; Igarashi, Takahiro

Corrosion Science, 251, p.112897_1 - 112897_15, 2025/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2025.112897

Experimental and modeling studies of the oxygen ingression at the crevices of stainless steels were conducted in high-temperature water (288C). The limiting distance of oxygen ingression, , was defined as the point beyond which the primary surface oxide changed (hematite magnetite), regardless of crevice gap, oxygen concentration, and time. In situ measurements revealed increased electrical conductivity around the position indicating ion enrichment due to a differential oxygen concentration cell. increased with increasing crevice gap, oxygen concentration, and immersion time. Modeling study suggested that oxide layer growth reduced anodic dissolution and slowed oxygen consumption, allowing oxygen ingression with time.

Investigation of measurement accuracy of burnup reactivity of accelerator-driven system during normal operation

Katano, Ryota; Abe, Takumi; Cibert, H.*

JAEA-Research 2024-019, 22 Pages, 2025/05

An accelerator-driven system (ADS) dedicated to transmutation of minor actinides (MAs) is driven in subcritical states. It is important for establishment of the subcriticality control of ADS to predict the burnup reactivity. To validate the prediction accuracy, the burnup reactivity, especially at the first cycle, must be measured with sufficient accuracy. In this study, we focus on Current-To-Flux (CTF) method. We have simulated the burnup reactivity monitoring during the ADS normal operation with the CTF method by performing fixed-source-burnup calculations using a continuous energy Monte Carlo code SERPENT2 with some tallies that models in-core fission chambers and have estimated its measurement uncertainty. We have clarified that the 10% biases of measure burnup reactivities appear independently of the burnup duration and their detector position dependence is particularly small in the outer region of the system.

Estimation of microbial biomass based on water-extractable organic matter from air-dried soils from Japanese forests and pasture

Nagano, Hirohiko*; Kanda, Yuki*; Suzuki, Yuri*; Hiradate, Shuntaro*; Koarashi, Jun; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko; Guo, Z.*

Discover Soil (Internet), 2, p.27_1 - 27_9, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44378-025-00053-4

Computational analysis of the spatial distributions of low-energy electrons generated via water photolysis and photoinjection into electrodes in water

Kai, Takeshi; Toigawa, Tomohiro; Matsuya, Yusuke*; Hirata, Yuho; Tsuchida, Hidetsugu*; Yokoya, Akinari*

Journal of Chemical Physics, 162(15), p.154102_1 - 154102_11, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0252783

Scientific knowledge of low-energy electrons resulting from water radiolysis is required to estimate radiation DNA damage. However, since the analysis of water radiolysis is very complex, this study focuses on the experimental values of low-energy electrons related to simple water photolysis and those generated by photoirradiation of electrodes in water. Both experimental analyses involve the presence or absence of a Coulomb field in the parent ion. In this study, we analyzed these experimental values using a calculation code that combines Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods. As a result, it was shown that the code reproduced the experimental values even under different experimental conditions, and the code was validated. The calculation code will be a powerful tool for analyzing the interaction between low-energy electrons and DNA, and is expected to be applied to elucidate the formation mechanism of radiation DNA damage.

Evaluating sulfur-impurity removal and modern carbon contamination in different preparation methods for radiocarbon dating of soil samples by accelerator mass spectrometry

Koarashi, Jun; Takeuchi, Erina; Kokubu, Yoko; Atarashi-Andoh, Mariko

Radiocarbon, 67(2), p.307 - 317, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2024.137

Radiocarbon (C) dating of soil samples by accelerator mass spectrometry has been proven useful for studying carbon (C) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. There are, however, two main difficulties in sample preparation for this application: contamination of samples with modern C and inhibition of graphite formation due to sulfur (S)-containing impurities. Here we evaluated these effects from three different sample preparation methods, by conducting C measurements of C-dead sample and S-rich soil samples. The preparation methods were all successful in graphite formation and C measurement for soil samples with an organic S content 6.9%. The different methods showed different percent Modern Carbon (pMC) values ranging from 0.19% to 0.64% for C-dead sample. However, the three methods had little influence on the determination of C age for samples at least younger than 12,000 yr BP. The methods examined in the present study can be used for C dating with sufficient accuracy in the application to C cycle studies.

Conceptual study of J-PARC Proton Beam Irradiation Facility

Meigo, Shinichiro; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Sugihara, Kenta*; Hirano, Yukinori*; Tsutsumi, Kazuyoshi*; Saito, Shigeru; Maekawa, Fujio

JAEA-Technology 2024-026, 123 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Technology-2024-026.pdf:14.22MB

Based on the design of the ADS Target Test Facility (TEF-T) at the J-PARC Transmutation Experimental Facility, a conceptual study was conducted on the J-PARC proton beam irradiation facility. This research was carried out based on the recommendations of the Nuclear Transmutation Technology Evaluation Task Force of the MEXT. The recommendations state that it is desirable to consider facility specifications that can make the most of the benefits of using the existing J-PARC proton accelerator while also solving the engineering issues of the ADS. We considered facilities that could respond to a variety of needs while reducing the facilities that were not needed in the TEF-T design. In order to clarify these diverse needs, we investigated the usage status of representative accelerator facilities around the world. As a result, it became clear that the main purposes of these facilities were (1) Material irradiation, (2) Soft error testing of semiconductor devices using spallation neutrons, (3) Production of RI for medical use, and (4) Proton beam use, and we investigated the facilities necessary for these purposes. In considering the facility concept, we assumed a user community in 2022 and reflected user opinions in the facility design. This report summarizes the results of the conceptual study of the proton irradiation facility, various needs and responses to them, the roadmap for facility construction, and future issues.

Handbook of Advanced Nuclear Hydrogen Safety (2nd Edition); Development of hydrogen behavior integrated analysis system and application to actual PWR

Terada, Atsuhiko; Thwe Thwe, A.; Hino, Ryutaro*

JAEA-Review 2024-049, 400 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Review-2024-049.pdf:13.94MB

In the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident, safety measures against hydrogen in severe accident has been recognized as a serious technical problem in Japan. As one of efforts to form a common knowledge base between nuclear engineers and experts on combustion and explosion, we issued the "Handbook of Advanced Nuclear Hydrogen Safety (1st edition)" in 2017. For improvement of the rational advancement of hydrogen safety measures and further reliability of hydrogen safety evaluation, a CFD analysis is highly expected to produce more precisely and quantitative results. We have been developing an integrated CFD analysis code system which can analyze hydrogen diffusion, explosion-combustion and structural integrity at the severe accident especially for pressurized water reactors (PWRs). We organized the role of LP and the CFD analyses and their utilization examples of hydrogen safety validation. Based on these results, we made the "Handbook of Advanced Nuclear Hydrogen Safety (2nd volume)". The analysis results of real scale PWR described in 2nd volume are confirmed by cross-analysis models and existing data obtained through representative small, medium and large-scale tests.

Sensitive detection of nonfluorescent solutes in small amounts of dilute aqueous solutions through photothermally induced reflectivity modulation at glass/aqueous solution interfaces

Urashima, Shuhei; Kusaka, Ryoji

Analyst, 150(5), p.819 - 826, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/D4AN01247J

Evaluation of uranium-233 neutron capture cross section in keV region

Otsuka, Naohiko*; Tada, Kenichi; Cabellos, O.*; Iwamoto, Osamu

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 212, p.110977_1 - 110977_9, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110977

The uranium-233 neutron capture cross section between 3 keV and 1 MeV was evaluated considering the recent new alpha-value measurement performed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory LANCE facility. The obtained capture cross section is systematically lower than the capture cross section in the JENDL-5 library and the reduction is close to 50% around 20 keV. The newly evaluated cross section was validated against 166 criticality experiments chosen from the ICSBEP handbook by performing Monte Carlo neutron transport calculation with the JENDL-5 library, and slight reduction of the chi-square value was achieved by adoption of the newly evaluated capture cross section.

Mechanistic origin of grain size and oxygen interstitial effects on strain-induced martensitic transformation in Ti-12Mo alloy

Chong, Y.*; Tsuru, Tomohito; Mitsuhara, Masatoshi*; Guo, B.*; Gholizadeh, R.*; Inoue, Koji*; Godfrey, A.*; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Communications Materials (Internet), 6, p.50_1 - 50_11, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-00777-4

Strain-induced martensitic phase transformation (SIMT) critically affects the mechanical properties of metastable titanium alloys. In this study, the effects of grain size and oxygen content on SIMT in a Ti-12wt.%Mo alloy were systematically investigated. It is found that SIMT is promoted by a decrease in grain size and in oxygen content. The mechanistic origins of the anomalous grain size dependency and the acute oxygen content dependency of SIMT are discussed based on multi-scale microstructural characterization and state-of-the-art simulations. Grain refinement does not raise the energy barrier for SIMT but rather provides more nucleation sites for strain-induced martensite, thereby promoting SIMT in fine-grained Ti-12wt.%Mo alloy. In contrast, for the Ti-12wt.%Mo-0.3 wt.%O alloy, oxygen atoms substantially increase the energy barrier for SIMT, due to a change in the local configuration of oxygen atoms during the phase transformation. In addition, atomprobe tomography reveals for the first time that oxygen atoms segregate at phase boundaries, thereby further restricting the growth of martensite.