Young Researcher: Assistant Professor Kanako TODA

Assistant Professor　Nuclear Professional School｜Saito Laboratory

Biography

My research focuses on the byproducts of economic activity — radioactive waste and industrial byproducts — and on how we can either contain them safely or turn them into usable resources. My work has three pillars.

The first is the development of solidification materials that retain radionuclides more effectively than cement, together with the characterization of their fundamental properties. The second is applied geochemical research aimed at using unutilized non-metallic resources, such as steel slag and dredged soils, as construction materials. The third concerns the removed soils from Fukushima: proposing and evaluating solidification technologies, and analyzing the costs of reuse and final disposal scenarios — work that forms the basis for assessing social acceptance.
The slag and dredged soil work continues from my doctoral research, and at first glance it may look like a different field altogether. But in asking why a material develops the performance we need, the first and second pillars are addressing the same question. With radioactive waste, for instance, laboratory experiments can only tell us about a few years of behavior, while the performance we must assure spans decades or longer. As an example, if we can understand how radionuclide migration paths form and what governs their structure, we can ground long-term predictions in science and propose better-performing materials. With slag and dredged soils the time scale is quite different, but understanding how strength develops in a construction material translates directly into wider use in the field. That short distance between fundamental science and practical application is, to me, what makes this field interesting.

By working to clarify what is still unknown, I hope to contribute scientific grounding to decisions that must account for very long time scales.

From my student days to the present, I have been given countless opportunities to learn and to take on new challenges. I hope to keep working so that I, too, can offer my students research topics that are both engaging and exciting.

My hobby these days is sharing my son’s hobbies. The Anpanman Train — the Limited Express Shiokaze — was really exciting!

Saito Laboratory: https://webpark1860.sakura.ne.jp
Kanako Toda: https://kanakotoda.github.io

  *Affiliations and titles are as of the time of the interview.