Research Activities 1991–2016

RIKEN Accel. Prog. Rep. 50 (2017)

Recent activities of the User Liaison and Industrial Cooperation
H. Sakai,∗1,∗2 K. Yoneda,∗2 A. Yoshida,∗2 and Y. Watanabe∗2,∗3The essential mission of the User Liaison and Industrial Cooperation (ULIC) Group is to maximize theresearch activities of RIBF by attracting users in various ﬁelds with wide scopes. The ULIC Group consists of two teams plus one sub-team. The User Support Team provides various types of support to visiting
RIBF users. For this purpose, the User Oﬃce was setup in 2010. The Industrial Cooperation Team supports potential users in industries who use the heavyion beams for application purposes or for acceleratorrelated technologies other than basic research. Feebased distribution of various radioisotopes producedby the AVF cyclotron is also one of the important missions. The produced radioisotopes are distributed toresearchers in Japan for a charge through the Japan
Radioisotope Association. The Public-relations andOutreach Sub-team supports various outreach activities of Nishina Center.

Fig. 1. Photograph of present ULIC members in the Cyclopedia hall.

User Liaison Teamportant task of the RIBF User Liaison Team. In 2010,
the RIBF Independent User program started, whichallowed a new style of participation for RIBF users
in RIBF experiments. Before this program started,
all users had to belong to a laboratory or a researchgroup in RIKEN, and thus, the research outcome belonged, in principle, to RIKEN, rather than the users’
institutes. But the RIBF Independent User programchanged this situation; once a user becomes an RIBF
Independent User, he/she can oﬃcially claim that theresearch outcome belongs to the home institute. However, support from the facility is limited for such users;
e.g., no ﬁnancial support is provided for stay. Thanks
to this program, international collaborative researches
at RIBF have been promoted signiﬁcantly.
The RIBF Users Oﬃce (Fig. 1) was established toprovide services and information required for RIBF Independent Users to take part in RIBF experiments. Allprocedures, such as registration as an RIBF Independent User, reservation of on-campus accommodation,issuance of a radiation badge, and initial lectures for
an individual as a radiation worker and as a facilityuser, can be completed at the RIBF Users Oﬃce. At
the end of the ﬁscal year 2016, 330 RIBF users, including 251 from foreign institutes, were registered as
RIBF Independent Users. Now, more than half of theRIBF experiment participants are RIBF IndependentUsers.
Other than the functions stated above, the RIBF
User Liaison Team supports the RIBF operation in
many aspects, such as support for the RIBF Users
Group, arrangements for the RIBF ULIC Symposia

The RIBF User Liaison Team was established in2006, immediately before the ﬁrst physics experimentwith the new RIBF facility was conducted in 2007. Inorder to facilitate and promote eﬃcient and fruitful useof the RIBF, the RIBF User Liaison Team takes chargeof many important activities that play key roles in thefacility operation. One of the important tasks is toorganize international Program Advisory Committee(PAC) meetings, PAC for nuclear physics (NP-PAC)
and for material and life science (ML-PAC), to review
experimental proposals submitted by RIBF users. Theﬁrst NP-PAC meeting was held in February 2007, and32 proposals requesting 550 days of facility use were reviewed there. In the 10 years since then, 17 NP-PAC
meetings were held, and 339 proposals requesting 3408
days of beam time were reviewed in total. These numbers clearly show the outstanding demand and importance of the facility in the science community.
Another important task is to manage the RIBF
beam-time operation. Beam-time schedule planning,announcement to users and contact from users, schedule change, cancellation, collecting experiment completion reports, and so on are handled by the RIBF User
Liaison Team. The Machine Time Committee Meetings are organized regularly every month, and all theimportant decisions and reports regarding beam-time
operation are made there.
Providing support to the RIBF users is also an im∗1
∗2
∗3

Director of User Liaison and Industrial Cooperation Group(2010–present)
RIKEN Nishina Center
Radiation Laboratory

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RIKEN Accel. Prog. Rep. 50 (2017)

Research Activities 1991–2016

lic machine part while controlling its depth, one candistinguish the wear-loss rate of both interacting partsat the same time. Another method is the Gamma-ray
Inspection of Rotating Object (GIRO), which intends
to evaluate the wear-loss in a running machine with
the imaging of gamma-ray source distribution.1) Thisis based on the same principle as the medical PET systems but is simpler and less expensive. Both methods
led to patent applications.

and mini-Workshops, user orientation at the beginningof each ﬁscal year, regular summer school for international students, and facility tours of visitors. TheRIBF User Liaison Team has always strived to provide support to users so that good research activities
can be conducted together, and this objective will remain unchanged in the future.
Industrial Cooperation TeamThe industrial cooperation team handles two feebased non-academic activities: the utilization ofheavy-ion beams by the industry and distribution ofradioisotopes. The utilization of the ion beams wasstarted in November 2009 when a new project, “Promotion of applications of high-energy heavy ions andRI beams,” was approved as a grant-in-aid programof MEXT “Sharing Advanced Facilities for Common
Use Program.” In this project, RIKEN Nishina Center (RNC) opened a part of the RIBF facility to users
including private companies. The users were to pay
a beam-time fee and exclusively possess the results
and intellectual properties obtained through the useof RIBF. New users with proposals intended to makenovel industrial use of ion beams were able to apply
for trial use with a reduced fee. A program advisorycommittee, industrial PAC (In-PAC), was newly set
up in December 2009 to review the proposals in termsof their feasibility, possibility of contribution to thegeneral society, and advantage of using the RIBF overother facilities. The MEXT program was terminatedin 2010, but RNC continued this facility-sharing program. Thus far, the In-PAC has met six times andapproved twelve proposals, four of which were trial
proposals and others were fee-based utilization. They
include accelerator mass spectroscopy, wear diagnostics of machine parts with implanted RI-tracer nuclei,and irradiation test of space-use semi-conductors. The
team also handles fee-based distribution of radioisotopes in collaboration with the Japan Radioisotope
Association (JRIA). According to a Material Transfer
Agreement (MTA) between JRIA and RIKEN, JRIA
mediates the transaction of the RIs and distributes
them for a ﬁxed fee to users. The project was started inOctober 2007 with Zn-65 and Cd-109. Y-88 was addedin February 2009 and Sr-85 in April 2015. These RIs
are produced by the RI Applications Team with protonand deuteron beams from the AVF cyclotron. The accumulated number of shipments and radioactivity upto March 2017 are listed in Table 1.
The team also develops technologies related to theutilization of RI beams. Under a collaboration with theUniversity of Tokyo and private companies, we havedeveloped a new method for real-time wear diagnostics of industrial materials using RI beams as tracers.
As we can provide two intense RI beams of Be-7 andNa-22 and implant them near the surface of a metal-Public-relations and Outreach Sub-team
This sub-team was established in 2010, to promote
the publicity of RNC.
The RNC website, which introduces the organization and its research activities, was renewed in 2010 tothe present form (http://www.nishina.riken.jp).
This website also plays an important role in providing
information to researchers who visit RNC to conduct
his/her own research.
Various brochures introducing the organization andthe studies performed at RNC have been produced.
The brochures named “Your body is made of starscraps” explaining element synthesis in the universeand “Introduction of RIBF Facility” in a cartoon stylefor children are among them.
During the past 7 years, 23 conference/symposium
posters connected with RNC were prepared on the request of organizers. For general purpose, a special
poster featuring the nuclear chart has been preparedfor distribution. In commemoration of the discoveryof nihonium, brochures and posters dedicated to theceremony were made. A 3D video to explain (RIBF’s)
accelerators and the research at RIBF won the Category Excellence Award at the 2012 Science and Technology Video Festival. Many of these can be seen on
RNC website.
In April 2012, the permanent exhibition hall (RIBFCyclopedia) located at the entrance hall of the RIBF
building was set up. Explanatory illustrations on nuclear science, research at RIBF, RIBF history, a 3D
nuclear chart built with LEGO blocks, and a 1/6-size
GARIS model (GARIS: key apparatus for the synthesis of nihonium) are displayed to help understanding through visual means. To show an actual size ofthe Superconductive Ring Cyclotron (ﬂagship accelerator), a part of the SRC magnet and liquid He vessel are drawn on the carpet of ﬂoor and on the wall,respectively. An enlarged photograph of Dr. Yoshio

Table 1. The accumulated number of shipments and radioactivity for fee-based distribution up to March 2017.
NuclideShipments
Activity (MBq)

S-64

Zn-65
90496.2

Cd-10933
204.15

Y-88
65.03

Sr-85
11

Research Activities 1991–2016

RIKEN Accel. Prog. Rep. 50 (2017)

Fig. 2. RIKEN Nishina Center booth in Science Agora2013. In front is a 3D nuclear chart built with LEGOblocks.

Nishina sitting on his second cyclotron (60-inch), taken
in 1939, is also printed on the wall.
A laboratory tour for visitors guided by a researcher
is organized. Typically, it takes about 40 min. The
number of tours per year is about 150, and the numberof visitors is about 2000.
In 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016, the sub-team
opened an exhibition booth of RNC to introduce thelatest research activities on the occasion of the “Science Agora” organized by Japan Science and Technology Agency. It attracted nearly 1000 visitors and received the Science Agora Award in 2012 and 2013. Figure 2 is a snapshot taken at the booth in Science Agora2013.
From time to time, the sub-team is invited to participate in scientiﬁc events by MEXT, Wako city, and Nissan global foundation. One attraction targeting children is the hands-on work of assembling “Iron-beads”
to create a nuclear chart or a shape of nihonium. Notethat most of above products, such as websites, materials, and events, are designed and/or created by Mr.
Narumasa Miyauchi, a member of the sub-team.
Last but not the least, some of the above activities
were carried out in collaboration with the Public Relations Oﬃce of RIKEN.
Reference1) T. Kambara, A. Yoshida, H. Takeichi, Nucl. Instrum.
Methods Phys. Res. A 797, 1 (2015).

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