First images of fuel debris fallout particles from Fukushima Daiichi

A joint UK-Japan team has used innovative visualisation techniques to analyse forensic materials in order to understand the sequence of events of the Fukushima nuclear accident. In April 2017, the joint team comprising the University of Bristol, Diamond Light Source (Diamond) and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) undertook the first experiment of its kind to be performed at Diamond. A small radioactive particle (450 μm x 280 μm x 250 μm) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2011 underwent a comprehensive and independent analysis of its internal structure and 3D elemental distribution, to establish the source of the material and the potential environmental risks associated with it. Diamond Light Source is the UK's synchrotron science facility. Shaped like a huge ring, it works like a giant microscope, harnessing the power of electrons to produce bright light that scientists can use to study anything from fossils to jet engines to viruses and vaccines. Diamond speeds up electrons to near light speeds, producing a light 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, which is then directed off into 33 laboratories known as 'beamlines'. The research, using Diamond's unique combined capabilities of its I13 and I18 beamlines, sheds light on a unique combination of imaging and fluorescence measurements developed at Diamond.