Migration behavior of gaseous ruthenium tetroxide under boiling and drying accident condition in reprocessing plant

再処理工場の沸騰事故条件下におけるガス状四酸化ルテニウムの移行挙動

吉田 尚生  ; 大野 卓也 ; 天野 祐希 ; 阿部 仁 

Yoshida, Naoki; Ono, Takuya; Amano, Yuki; Abe, Hitoshi

再処理施設における高レベル濃縮廃液の蒸発乾固事故の際に、気体状ルテニウム化合物が環境中へ放出される可能性がある。この事故事象の安全評価に資するために、気体状ルテニウム化合物(四酸化ルテニウム)の移行挙動およびLeak Path Factorを実験的に評価した。施設内の移行経路を模擬したルテニウム気相部移行試験装置および事故時の気相組成を模擬した硝酸含有水蒸気を用いて試験を行った。対照実験として、乾燥空気および水蒸気条件を用いた試験を行った。結果として、ルテニウムは乾燥空気および水蒸気雰囲気下では移行経路に沈着した一方、硝酸含有水蒸気雰囲気下では沈着することなく移行経路を通過した。これらの結果は、気体状ルテニウムの移行挙動が気相条件の影響を受けることを示唆している。

In the boiling and drying accident of high-level liquid waste in the fuel reprocessing plant, behavior of ruthenium (Ru) has attracted much attention because Ru could form volatile compounds such as ruthenium tetroxide (RuO) and could be released into the environment. To contribute towards safety evaluation of this accident, the migration behavior and the leak path factor of the gaseous ruthenium compound has been experimentally measured in this study. The experiment was proceeded by using the Ruthenium Migration Evaluating Apparatus, which partially simulates the atmospheric condition (temperature, flow rate, and composition of water vapor and gaseous nitric acid mixture) of migration pathway in the accident. Experiments with dry air and water vapor were also performed as the control experiment to discuss the effect of nitric acid. As a result, the experiment with dry air and the experiment with water vapor demonstrated that the majority of the ruthenium deposited along the migration pathway. On the other hand, the experiment with the water vapor containing gaseous nitric acid demonstrated that almost all of the ruthenium passed through the migration pathway without deposition. These results suggested that the migration behavior of gaseous ruthenium will be affected by the gas-phase composition.