Review of design data for safety assessment of Tokai reprocessing plant; Control of hydrogen gas produced by radiolysis of reprocessing solutions at Tokai reprocessing plant

Omori, Eiichi; not registered ; not registered; not registered ; Maki, Akira; Yamanouchi, Takamichi

Radioactive materials in aqueous solution at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant causes radiolytic generalion of several gases including hydrogen. Hydrogen accumulating in equipment can be an explosion hazard. In such plants, though the consideration in the design has been fundamentally made in order to remove the ignition source from the equipment, the hydrogen concentration in the equipment should not exceed the explosion threshold. It is, therefore, desired to keep the hydrogen concentration lower than the explosion threshold by diluting with the air introduced into equipment, from the viewpoint which previously prevents the explosion. This report describes the calculation of hydrogen generation, evaluation of hydrogen concentration under abnormal operation and consideration of possible improvement at Tokai Reprocessing Plant. The amount of hydrogen generation was calculated for each equipment from available data on radiolysis induced by radioactive materials. Taking into consideration for abnormal condition that is single failure of air supply and loss of power supply, the investigation was made on the method for controlling so that the hydrogen concentration may not exceed the explosion threshold. Possible means which can control the concentration of hydrogen gas under the explosion threshold have been also investigated. As the result, it was found that hydrogen concentration of most equipment was kept under the explosion threshold. It was also shown that improvement of the facility was necessary on the equipment in which the concentration of the hydrogen may exceed the explosion threshold. Proposals based on the above results are also given in this report. The above content has been described in "Examination of the hydrogen produced by the radiolysis" which is a part of "Review of Design Data for Safety Assessment of Tokai Reprocessing Plant" (JNC TN8410 99-002) published in February 1999. This report incorporates the detail evaluation so that operation ...