Development of technology to simultaneously measure viscosity and surface tension of molten materials in reactor core (Contract research); FY2018 Center of World Intelligence Project for Nuclear Science/Technology and Human Resource Development

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Osaka University*

CLADS, JAEA, had been conducting the Center of World Intelligence Project for Nuclear Science/Technology and Human Resource Development (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2018. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2018, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of Technology to Simultaneously Measure Viscosity and Surface Tension of Molten Materials in Reactor Core". Since (U,Zr)O and boride, molten materials in reactor core, exist at extremely high temperature, chemical reactions between the vessel and these molten materials are unavoidable. Therefore, it is difficult to measure the thermophysical property of these materials. In the present study, droplets are produced by heating and melting the samples levitated by a gas levitation method, then the droplets are collided with a substrate. From the instant behavior of the collision, a new technology to simultaneously derive the viscosity and surface tension will be developed.