Research and development of remote optical measurement technology for PCV gas-phase leakage location and leakage volume estimation (Contract research); FY2023 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Chiba University*

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2023. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). 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 FY2023, this report summarizes the research results of the "Research and development of remote optical measurement technology for PCV gas-phase leakage location and leakage volume estimation" conducted in FY2023. The present study aims to locate leakage points using a remote optical measurement system including Lidar, and to develop a visualization method for leakage at those points. The Lidar can be distance-resolved in the line-of-sight direction and can separate and observe signals from walls and pipes in the building and surrounding gas-phase molecules (nitrogen N, water vapor HO, etc.) and suspended particles (aerosols). In addition, flash Lidar, which combines a laser beam with a high-sensitivity imaging sensor, and high-sensitivity shearography, which uses interference of light waves, are used to image and visualize the leakage location and to estimate the amount of leakage. Through comparison of these methods, we will clarify the positional resolution in locating the leakage point and the lower detection limit of the leakage amount that can be visualized.