Quantifying uncertainty induced by scattering angle distribution using maximum entropy method

Maruyama, Shuhei; Yamamoto, Akio*; Endo, Tomohiro*

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 205, p.110591_1 - 110591_13, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110591

High temperature nanoindentation of (U,Ce)O compounds

Frazer, D.*; Saleh, T. A.*; Matsumoto, Taku; Hirooka, Shun; Kato, Masato; McClellan, K.*; White, J. T.*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 423, p.113136_1 - 113136_7, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113136

Nanoindentation based techniques can be employed on minute volumes of material to measure mechanical properties, including Young's modulus, hardness, and creep stress exponents. In this study, (U,Ce)O solid solutions samples are used to develop elevated temperature nanoindentation and nanoindentation creep testing methods for use on mixed oxide fuels. Nanoindentation testing was performed on 3 separate (Ux-1,Cex)O compounds ranging from x equals 0.1 to 0.3 at up to 800 C: their Young's modulus, hardness, and creep stress exponents were evaluated. The Young's modulus decreases in the expected linear manner while the hardness decreases in the expected exponential manner. The nanoindentation creep experiments at 800 C give stress exponent values, n=4.7-6.9, that suggests dislocation motion as the deformation mechanism.

Study on the difference between BC powder and BC pellet regarding the eutectic reaction with stainless steel

Hong, Z.*; Ahmed, Z.*; Pellegrini, M.*; Yamano, Hidemasa; Erkan, N.*; Sharma, A. K.*; Okamoto, Koji*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 171, p.105160_1 - 105160_13, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105160

In this study, it is found that the eutectic reaction between BC powder and stainless steel (SS) is considerably more rapid than that between the BC pellet and SS. The derived reaction rate constant values for powder and pellet cases are consistently based on the reference values. Also, a composition analysis using SEM/EDS was conducted for the detailed microstructures of the powder and pellet samples. In the powder case, only one thick layer is found as the reaction layer consisting of (Fe, Cr)B precipitate, including BC powder. In the pellet case, two layers are found in the reaction layer.

Validation of the hybrid turbulence model in detailed thermal-hydraulic analysis code SPIRAL for fuel assembly using sodium experiments data of 37-pin bundles

Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Imai, Yasutomo*; Kikuchi, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

Nuclear Technology, 210(5), p.814 - 835, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2249707

In the study of safety enhancement on advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor, it is essential to clarify the thermal-hydraulics under various operation conditions in a fuel assembly (FA) with the wire-wrapped fuel pins to assess the structural integrity of the fuel pin. A finite element thermal-hydraulics analysis code named SPIRAL has been developed to analyze the detailed thermal-hydraulics phenomena in a FA. In this study, the numerical simulations of the 37-pin bundle sodium experiments at different Re number conditions, including a transitional condition between laminar and turbulent flows and turbulent flow conditions, were performed to validate the hybrid turbulence model equipped in SPIRAL. The temperature distributions predicted by SPIRAL was consistent with those measured in the experiments. Through the validation study, the applicability of the hybrid turbulence model in SPIRAL to thermal-hydraulic evaluation of sodium-cooled FA in the wide range of Re number was confirmed.

Proposal of a method of extracting design issues on maintenance for the rational design of next-generation reactors

Hashidate, Ryuta; Yada, Hiroki; Takaya, Shigeru; Enuma, Yasuhiro

Hozengaku, 23(1), p.103 - 111, 2024/04

In this paper, we propose a new method for extracting design issues on maintenance. Maintenance periods might be prolonged due to design issues. In the proposed method, maintenance preconditions are extracted by organizing the design information. A maintenance schedule is created by using extracted maintenance preconditions. If the created maintenance schedule doesn't achieve target periods, design issues could be extracted from the viewpoint of maintenance precondition. A simple example using Monju design information is presented to illustrate the proposed method.

Reduction of accident occurrence frequencies by taking safety measures for defense-in-depth level 4 in a sodium-cooled fast reactor

Nishino, Hiroyuki; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Naruto, Kenichi*; Gondai, Yoji; Yamamoto, Masaya

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 11(2), p.23-00409_1 - 23-00409_15, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.23-00409

The effectiveness evaluation of safety measures against severe accident is necessary for restart of experimental sodium-cooled fast reactor Joyo in Japan. These safety measures correspond to those in defense-in-depth (DiD) level 4. In the previous study, a level-1 probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) at power was performed to calculate frequencies of the accident sequences of failure of safety measures in DiD level 1 to 3, to identify dominant accident sequence groups, and to identify dominant accident sequence for selecting important accident sequences in each accident sequence group which are needed for implementing the effectiveness evaluation of safety measures in DiD level 4. Based on this, the present study implemented level-1 PRA at power to show quantitatively reduction of those occurrence frequency by the safety measure in the DiD level 4. As the result, the frequency of each accident sequence group decreased significantly, and total frequency of the accident sequence groups decreased to about 1E-6 /reactor-year which is about 1/1000 times the one estimated in the previous study. The protected loss of heat sink was the largest contributor in all the accident groups and a dominant accident sequence in each accident group was also identified in this study.

FBR metallic materials test manual (2023 revised edition)

Imagawa, Yuya; Toyota, Kodai; Onizawa, Takashi; Kato, Shoichi

JAEA-Testing 2023-004, 76 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Testing-2023-004.pdf:2.08MB

This manual describes the methods for conducting material tests in air, argon gas, and sodium, and for organizing the data obtained, as a part of the development of high-temperature structural design technology for fast reactors. This manual reflects the revision of test methods in Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) to the "FBR Metallic Materials Test Manual, PNC TN241 77-03" published in 1977 and the "FBR Metallic Materials Test Manual (Revised Edition), JNC TN9520 2001-001" published in 2001. Also, it was written with reference to the recommended room temperature / elevated temperature tensile test method by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) and the test standard for the elevated-temperature low-cycle fatigue test method by the Society of Materials Science, Japan (JSMS), which are the standard for material test methods in the domestic academic society.

Adsorption behavior of platinum-group metals and Co-existing metal ions from simulated high-level liquid waste using HONTA and Crea impregnated adsorbent

Osawa, Naoki*; Kim, S.-Y.*; Kubota, Masahiko*; Wu, H.*; Watanabe, So; Ito, Tatsuya; Nagaishi, Ryuji

Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 56(3), p.812 - 818, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2023.09.001

Development of failure mitigation technologies for improving resilience of nuclear structures, 5; Resilience improvements of fast reactors by failure mitigation for beyond design high temperature accidents

Futagami, Satoshi; Ando, Masanori; Yamano, Hidemasa

Transactions of the 27th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT 27) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2024/03

Analysis of fuel assemblies inclination due to upper core support plate deflection for reactivity evaluation

Yoshimura, Kazuo; Doda, Norihiro; Igawa, Kenichi*; Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Tanaka, Masaaki; Nemoto, Toshiyuki*

Transactions of the 27th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT 27) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2024/03

To investigate possibility of the insertion of the reactivity by the deflection of the upper core support plate, structural mechanics analyses of the domain consisting of the fuel assemblies and core support plates and evaluation of the reactivity due to the inclination of the fuel assemblies in EBR-II were carried out. As a result, it was indicated that the upper core support plate deflected downward larger at the low flowrate condition than that at the high flowrate condition and positive reactivity was inserted due to the inclination of the fuel assemblies at the low flowrate condition.