Cosmic-ray muon radiography for reactor core observation

原子炉の炉心監視のための宇宙線ミューオンを用いたラジオグラフィ

高松 邦吉  ; 竹上 弘彰 ; 伊藤 主税   ; 鈴木 敬一*; 大沼 寛*; 日野 竜太郎; 奥村 忠彦*

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Takegami, Hiroaki; Ito, Chikara; Suzuki, Keiichi*; Onuma, Hiroshi*; Hino, Ryutaro; Okumura, Tadahiko*

福島第一原子力発電所の燃料デブリの状況把握に向けた炉内可視化の技術開発として、原子炉内可視化に宇宙線ミューオンの適用性を検証するため、原子力機構のHTTRを対象とした炉内可視化予備試験を実施した。その結果、原子炉圧力容器(RPV)および原子炉格納容器(CV)の外側から、同時計数法を用いた宇宙線ミューオン可視化技術により、炉心および炉内構造物を可視化できた。

In our study, we focused on a nondestructive inspection method by which cosmic-ray muons could be used to observe the internal reactor from outside the RPV and the CV. We conducted an observation test on the HTTR to evaluate the applicability of the method to the internal visualization of a reactor. We also analytically evaluated the resolution of existing muon telescopes to assess their suitability for the HTTR observation, and were able to detect the major structures of the HTTR based on the distribution of the surface densities calculated from the coincidences measured by the telescopes. Our findings suggested that existing muon telescopes could be used for muon observation of the internal reactor from outside the RPV and CV.