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Heavy oil spills from stranded oil tankers are a global problem. The recovery of spilled oil must have a low environmental impact and must be capable of processing large quantities at high speeds. In this study, we investigated the application of magnetic separation for the recovery of spilled oil. Pickering emulsions were formed by heavy oil and magnetite, and recovery was carried out using a drum‐type permanent magnet. Pickering emulsions were successfully formed by stirring heavy oil A and magnetite, and magnetic separation experiments showed that up to 90% of the heavy oil A could be recovered. To recycle magnetite, a small amount of heavy oil was added to the recovered Pickering emulsions, and then a strong magnetic field of a superconducting bulk magnet was applied, which resulted in easy solid–liquid separation. The possibility of recycling magnetite after separation was also demonstrated. Finally, a small‐scale system using drum‐type permanent magnets was developed, and magnetic separation experiments were performed. The results showed that approximately 77% of the heavy oil A could be recovered. Particle trajectory simulations also demonstrated the recoverability of heavy oil at the sea surface. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fusion reactor design, neutron leaks intensively from blanket material through a gap. In this streaming phenomenon, backscattering cross section is known to be very crucial. In the present study, the author's team carried out a new experiment for benchmarking the large angle scattering cross section of tungsten using a DT neutron source of OKTAVIAN facility, Osaka University, Japan. Tungsten-containing material is under consideration as the radiation shield in a fusion reactor. The experimental geometry consists of a DT neutron source, two shadow bars, niobium foil, and a tungsten target. Four irradiations were performed at a neutron energy of 14 MeV using DT neutrons to extract only the contribution of large angle scattering cross section. By using two shadow bars, room return contribution was effectively suppressed. Consequently, only backscattering neutrons were measured by using a niobium foil. In the present benchmark study, obtained experimental data were compared with numerical calculations by MCNP6 using various nuclear data libraries, including JENDL-4.0, JENDL-5, JEFF-3.3, and ENDF/B-VIII.

In this paper, we described our mathematical model for radiation-induced life shortening in detail and applied the model to the experimental data on mice to investigate the effect of radiation on cancer-related life-shortening. Our mathematical model incorporates the following components: (i) occurrence of cancer, (ii) progression of cancer over time, and (iii) death from cancer. We evaluated the progression of cancer over time by analyzing the cancer incidence data and cumulative mortalities data obtained from mice experiments conducted at the Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES). We analyzed non-irradiated control and 20 mGy/day × 400 days irradiated groups. In the analysis, all malignant neoplasms were lumped together and referred to as 'cancer'. Our analysis showed that the reduction in lifespan (104 days in median) was the result of the early onset of cancer (68 days in median) and the shortening of the cancer progression period (48 days in median). We described in detail our mathematical model for radiation-induced life-shortening attributed to cancer. We analyzed the mice data obtained from the experiment conducted at the IES using our model. We decomposed radiation-induced life-shortening into the early onset of cancer and the shortening of the cancer progression period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, medical applications of radiation have been widely spread. However, exposure of medical staffs is sometimes not focused on because treatment of patients is the first priority. It is thus important to decrease exposure for them as much as possible. The purpose of this study is to develop a system which can measure energy spectrum and dose of gamma-rays at the same time in real time in medical application spots. As a result, the medical staff could be guided to aware the risk of radiation and finally the exposure dose to them could be suppressed substantially. We first decided to use a CsI(Tl) scintillator as the gamma-ray detection device. A Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC) was attached to the scintillator to detect gamma-ray signals. Pulse height spectra were measured with several standard gamma-ray sources. The detection efficiency and energy resolution were deduced from the measured results and the detection efficiency was compared with the calculation result by MCNP5. After evaluating the response function, the energy spectrum was derived with the spectrum type Bayesian estimation and the sequential Bayesian estimation procedure. From the result, it was confirmed that the sequential Bayesian estimation could be applied to real time measurement of gamma-ray energy spectrum and dose.

There are many benchmark experiments carried out so far with DT neutrons especially aiming at fusion reactor development. These integral experiments seemed vaguely to validate the nuclear data below 14 MeV. However, no precise studies exist now. The author’s group thus started to examine how well benchmark experiments with DT neutrons can play a benchmarking role for energies below 14 MeV. Recently, as a next phase, to generalize the above discussion, the energy range was expanded to the entire region. In this study, thought experiments with finer energy bins have thus been conducted to discuss how to generally estimate performance of benchmark experiments. As a result of thought experiments with a point detector, the sensitivity for a discrepancy appearing in the benchmark analysis is “equally” due not only to contribution directly conveyed to the deterctor, but also due to indirect contribution of neutrons (named (A)) making neutrons conveying the contribution, indirect controbution of neutrons (B) making the neutrons (A) and so on. From this concept, it would become clear from a sensitivity analysis in advance how well and which energy nuclear data could be benchmarked with a benchmark experiment.

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is known to be a new promising cancer therapy suppressing influence against normal cells. In Japan, Accelerator Based Neutron Sources (ABNS) are being developed for BNCT. For the spread of ABNS based BNCT, we should characterize the neutron field beforehand. For this purpose, we have been developing a low-energy neutron spectrometer based on 3He position sensitive proportional counter. In this study, a new intense epi-thermal neutron field was developed with a DT neutron source for verification of validity of the spectrometer. After the development, the neutron field characteristics were experimentally evaluated by using activation foils. As a result, we confirmed that an epi-thermal neutron field was successfully developed suppressing fast neutrons substantially. Thereafter, the neutron spectrometer was verified experimentally. In the verification, although a measured detection depth distribution agreed well with the calculated distribution by MCNP, the unfolded spectrum was significantly different from the calculated neutron spectrum due to contribution of the side neutron incidence. Therefore, we designed a new neutron collimator consisting of a polyethylene pre-collimator and boron carbide neutron absorber and confirmed numerically that it could suppress the side incident neutrons and shape the neutron flux to be like a pencil beam.