Evaluation of incident mitigation systems in Tokai reprocessing plant

Omori, Eiichi; Sudo, Toshiyuki ; not registered; Kosaka, Ichiro; not registered ; not registered ; not registered

Through the investigation of the cause of the fire and explosion incident at Bituminization Demonstration Facility of JNC Tokai Works, the lesson learned is that the safety assessment is necessary even for the licensed facilities by recent knowledge. The safety assessment has been conducted for the facilities in Tokai Reprocessing Plant by recent knowledge and operational experience. This report describes the evaluation results of the incident mitigation systems and the hypothetical accidents. In the evaluation of the incident mitigation system, supposed incidents were solvent fire, rapid reaction of hydrazine decomposition, leakage of radioactive material and loss of power supply. The evaluation was focused on the integrity of the filters in case of the fire and the rapid leaction, the availability of the recovery system in case of the radioactive leakage, and so on. As a result of evaluation, several improvements were pointed out to be necessary for the prevention of incident magnification. In the evaluation of the hypothetical accidents, criticality at a dissolver and fire at solvent extraction mixer-settlers were hypothesized. It was confirmed that the Tokai Reprocessing Plant is still distant enough from the population.