Note: An innovative method for 12C4+ suppression in 18O6+ beam production in an electron cyclotron resonance ion source.

It is a major and complex task to accelerate an ion which has the same charge to mass ratio with strong contaminant ions, such as 12C4+ in the 18O6+ beam. An innovative method has been developed to suppress the contaminant ions in the Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source by introducing Li vapor. The ion distribution inside the ECR zone was obtained by the optical analysis of ions inside the ECR ion source. The 12C4+ ions were suppressed as much as by a factor of 10, whereas the 18O6+ beam changed little with the use of this technique.

Depth profiles of radioactive cesium in soil using a scraper plate over a wide area surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan.

During the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident, radioactive cesium was released in the environment and deposited on the soils. Depth profiles of radioactive cesium in contaminated soils provide useful information not only for radiation protection and decontamination operations but also for geoscience and radioecology studies. Soil samples were collected using a scraper plate three times between December 2011 and December 2012 at 84 or 85 locations within a 100-km radius of the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP. In most of the obtained radioactive cesium depth profiles, it was possible to fit the concentration to a function of mass depth as either an exponential or hyperbolic secant function. By using those functions, following three parameters were estimated: (i) relaxation mass depth ß (g cm(-2)), (ii) effective relaxation mass depth ßeff (g cm(-2)), which is defined for a hyperbolic secant function as the relaxation mass depth of an equivalent exponential function giving the same air kerma rate at 1 m above the ground as the inventory, and (iii) 1/10 depth L1/10 (cm), at which the soil contains 90% of the inventory. The average ß value (wet weight) including ones by hyperbolic secant function in December 2012, was 1.29 times higher than that in December 2011. In fact, it was observed that depth profiles at some study sites deviated from the typical exponential distributions over time. These results indicate the gradual downward migration of radioactive cesium in the soils. The L1/10 values in December 2012 were summarized and presented on a map surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP, and the average value of L1/10 was 3.01 cm (n = 82) at this time. It was found that radioactive cesium remained within 5 cm of the ground surface at most study sites (71 sites). The sech function can also be used to estimate the downward migration rate V (kg m(-2) y(-1)). The V values in December 2012 (n = 25) were in good agreement with those found by a realistic approach using a diffusion and migration model. Almost all values ranged between 1.7 and 9.6 kg m(-2) y(-1) in this study.

Detailed deposition density maps constructed by large-scale soil sampling for gamma-ray emitting radioactive nuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.

Soil deposition density maps of gamma-ray emitting radioactive nuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident were constructed on the basis of results from large-scale soil sampling. In total 10,915 soil samples were collected at 2168 locations. Gamma rays emitted from the samples were measured by Ge detectors and analyzed using a reliable unified method. The determined radioactivity was corrected to that of June 14, 2011 by considering the intrinsic decay constant of each nuclide. Finally the deposition maps were created for (134)Cs, (137)Cs, (131)I, (129m)Te and (110m)Ag. The radioactivity ratio of (134)Cs-(137)Cs was almost constant at 0.91 regardless of the locations of soil sampling. The radioactivity ratios of (131)I and (129m)Te-(137)Cs were relatively high in the regions south of the Fukushima NPP site. Effective doses for 50 y after the accident were evaluated for external and inhalation exposures due to the observed radioactive nuclides. The radiation doses from radioactive cesium were found to be much higher than those from the other radioactive nuclides.

Plasma spectroscopy of metal ions for hyper-electron cyclotron resonance ion source.

In this research, the optical line spectra of metal ions from ECR plasma were observed using a grating monochromator with a photomultiplier. The light intensity of line spectrum from the ECR plasma had a strong correlation with ion beam intensity measured by a magnetic mass analyzer. This correlation is a significant information for the beam tuning process, because it allows to conduct the extraction of the desired metal ion species from the ECR plasma. Separation of ion species of the same charge to mass ratio with an electromagnetic mass analyzer is known to be an exceptionally complex process, but this research provides a new approach for its simplification. In this paper the grating monochromator method for metal ion beam tuning such as (40)Ca(12+), (56)Fe(15+), and (85)Rb(20+) of hyper-ECR ion source as an injector for RIKEN Azimuthal Varying Field cyclotron is described.

Note: 6Li III light intensity observation for 6Li3+ ion beam operation at Hyper-Electron Cyclotron Resonance ion source.

The light intensity of (6)Li III line spectrum at λ = 516.7 nm was observed during (6)Li(3+) beam tuning at the Hyper-Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source. Separation of ion species of the same charge to mass ratio with an electromagnetic mass analyzer is known to be an exceptionally complex process. However, (6)Li III line intensity observation conducted in this study gives new insights into its simplification of this process. The light intensity of (6)Li III line spectrum from the ECR plasma was found to have a strong correlation with the extracted (6)Li(3+) beam intensity from the RIKEN Azimuthal Varying Field cyclotron.

Grating monochromator for electron cyclotron resonance ion source operation.

Recently, we started to observe optical line spectra from an ECR plasma using a grating monochromator with a photomultiplier. The light intensity of line spectrum from the ECR plasma had a strong correlation with ion beam intensity measured by a magnetic mass analyzer. This correlation is a significant information for beam tuning because it allows the extraction of the desired ion species from the ECR plasma. Separation of ion species of the same charge to mass ratio with an electromagnetic mass analyzer is known to be an exceptionally complex process, but this research gives new insights into its simplification. In this paper, the grating monochromator method for beam tuning of a Hyper-ECR ion source as an injector for RIKEN azimuthal varying field (AVF) cyclotron is described.