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The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident also contaminates lakes in Japan. Especially in closed lakes, there is a problem of prolonged low-level \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$^{137}$$\end{document}137Cs contamination because the activity concentration of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$^{137}$$\end{document}137Cs declines sharply immediately after the accident, but then begins to decrease slowly. In this paper, we derived a long-term prediction formula based on the fractional diffusion model (FDM) for the temporal variation in \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$^{137}$$\end{document}137Cs activity concentrations of the water in Lake Onuma on Mt. Akagi, one of the closed lakes, and of pond smelt (Hypomesus nipponensis), a typical fish species inhabiting in the lake. The formula reproduced well the measured \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$^{137}$$\end{document}137Cs activity concentration of the lake water and pond smelt for 5.4 years after the accident. Next, we performed long-term prediction for 10,000 days using this formula and compared it with the prediction results of the two-component decay function model (TDM), which is the most common model. The results suggest that the FDM prediction will lead to a longer period of contamination with low-level \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$^{137}$$\end{document}137Cs than the TDM prediction.

A large amount of radiocesium was released from the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company. The determination of dissolved and particulate radiocesium concentrations in water is important, which can be used as basic information for understanding the long-term radiocesium dynamics in the environment and the transfer of radiocesium to crops. Conventional quantitative methods include the evaporative concentration to the dryness method and the AMP method. These methods need to concentrate about 20–200 L of water due to the low concentration of the dissolved radiocesium. After the accident, several new methods, such as the Prussian blue filter cartridge method and the solid-phase disk method, have been developed and put to practical use. In this study, we carried out an accuracy evaluation test to assess five methods (i.e., the evaporative concentration to dryness method, the AMP method, the Prussian blue filter cartridge method, the solid-phase disk method, and the ion-change resin method) using 3 types of water samples containing 0.01-1.0 Bq L−1 of dissolved radiocesium. Our results showed that the z-scores of over 80 % of the measured data were within ±2 and their CVs in the range of 8-13 %, indicating good reproducibility of these methods.

本研究は、資源エネルギー庁の次世代再処理ガラス固化技術基盤研究事業の実施項目「高レベル廃液ガラス固化の高度化」として、バナジウム(V)含有模擬廃棄物ガラスを対象に、放射光XAFS測定によりガラス原料に内包された廃棄物成分元素の局所構造を評価した。本研究で得られた成果を、以下に列挙する。(1)バナジウム(V)は、組成に関係なく比較的安定な4配位構造と考えられ、ガラス原料フリットではVがガラス相に存在する可能性が高い。(2)亜鉛(Zn), セリウム(Ce), ネオジム(Nd), ジルコニウム(Zr), モリブデン(Mo)はガラス相に存在し、Ce原子価はガラス組成によって3価と4価の割合に差が認められた。(3)ルテニウム(Ru)はガラス相からRuO$_{2}$として析出し、ロジウム(Rh)は金属と酸化物が混在し、パラジウム(Pd)は金属として析出する。(4)高温XAFS測定を行ったZrとMoの結果、ガラス溶融状態におけるZr, Moの局所構造の秩序が低下する傾向を確認した。(5)ガラス溶融炉温度1200$^{\circ}$Cの条件で、模擬廃棄物ガラスの高温XAFS測定を行い、今後、試料セルの形状等の最適化を図ることで、良質な局所構造データ取得が期待できる。, The local structure of waste elements in simulated waste glasses including V was estimated by using synchrotron XAFS measurement in this study. The results are as follows. (1) V has a high possibility which exists in the glass phase in the case of frit, and V can regard both samples as stable 4 coordination structure. (2) Zn, Ce, Nd, Zr, and Mo exist in the glass phase, and the difference is admitted by the percentage of Ce(III) and Ce(IV) by the composition. (3) Ru is separated from the glass phase as RuO$_{2}$ crystalline, both of metal and oxide exist in Rh, and Pd is separated out as metal. (4) It was confirmed that the regularity of the local structure of Zr and Mo in the molten glasses retreats as a result of the XAFS measurement at high temperature. (5) The XAFS measurement of molten glasses were performed at 1200$^{\circ}$C, so it would be possible to acquire excellent data by improving the shapes of the sample cell.

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Uranium and thorium in high purity Nb_2O_5 were determined by neutron activation analysis followed by radiochemical separation(RNAA). A separation procedure combined with anion exchange, solvent extraction with TBP and coprecipitation with LaF_3 was developed and proved to have quantitative yields for the activation products of ^Np and ^Pa. The decontamination factors of major impurities were determined. The detection limit for both elements was less than several ppts when a high flux reactor such as JMTR was available for activation. The method is useful to the other composition materials containing niobium as a matrix element.

Hydraulic power rabbit in the Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR) was used for highly sensitive neutron activation analysis of thorium in silica and aluminum. The thermal neutron flux of JMTR is higher than 1x10^n/cm^2/sec. A number of radioactive isotopes were made from impurities of high purity aluminum and silica irradiated in JMTR. ^Ta, which was produced from ^Ta by (2n, γ) reaction, was observed and made the determination of thorium difficult. The objective activation products ^Pa for the determination of thorium was isolated from majority of interfering radioactivity by a method combined with anion exchange and LaF_3 coprecipitation. It was found that the detection limit of thorium was less than 2x10^g. The method is useful to the analysis for thorium in high purity aluminum and silica that might be used to make very large scale integrated circuit.