Operation, maintenance and technical development of cryogenic hydrogen system at MLF (JFY20182022)

Aso, Tomokazu; Ariyoshi, Gen; Muto, Hideki*; Tanaka, Shigeto*

JAEA-Technology 2025-005, 51 Pages, 2025/10

JAEA-Technology-2025-005.pdf:2.47MB

The cryogenic hydrogen system of the J-PARC center is one of the most important pieces equipment, which is a refrigeration system for moderating (cooling) the high energy neutrons generated the spallation neutron source of the Material and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) that is used by many users from Japan and abroad. Since the first operation of the MLF for neutron use in 2008, the cryogenic hydrogen system has been continuously operated and maintained, and related technology development has been carried out. This report summarized these activities over the past five years.

Improvement of accumulator in cryogenic hydrogen system used for 1-MW pulsed spallation neutron source

Aso, Tomokazu; Tatsumoto, Hideki*; Otsu, Kiichi*; Kawakami, Yoshihiko*; Komori, Shinji*; Muto, Hideki*; Takada, Hiroshi

JAEA-Technology 2019-013, 77 Pages, 2019/09

JAEA-Technology-2019-013.pdf:5.59MB

At Materials and Life Science experimental Facility (MLF) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), a 1-MW pulsed spallation neutron source is equipped with a cryogenic hydrogen system which circulates liquid hydrogen (20 K and 1.5 MPa) to convert high energy neutrons generated at a mercury target to cold neutrons at three moderators with removing nuclear heat of 3.8 kW deposited there. The cryogenic system includes an accumulator with a bellows structure in order to absorb pressure fluctuations generated by the nuclear heat deposition in the system. Welded inner bellows of the first accumulator was failured during operation, forcing us to improve the accumulator to have sufficient pressure resistance and longer life-time. We have developed elemental technologies for manufacturing welded bellows of the accumulator by a thick plate with high pressure resistance, succeeding to find optimum welding conditions. We fabricated a prototype bellows block and carried out an endurance test by adding a pressure change of 2 MPa repeatedly. As a result, the prototype bellows was successfully in use exceeding the design life of 10,000 times. Since distortions given during welding and assembling affect functionality and lifetime of the bellows, we set the levelness of each element of the bellows as within 0.1. The improved accumulator has already been in operation for about 25,000 hours as of January 2019, resulting that the number of strokes reached to 16,000. In July 2018, we demonstrated that the accumulator could suppress the pressure fluctuation generated by the 932 kW beam injection as designed. As current operational beam power is 500 kW, the current cryogenic hydrogen system could be applicable for stable operation at higher power in the future.

Sample environment at the J-PARC MLF

Kawamura, Seiko; Oku, Takayuki; Watanabe, Masao; Takahashi, Ryuta; Munakata, Koji*; Takata, Shinichi; Sakaguchi, Yoshifumi*; Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Ouchi, Keiichi*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Journal of Neutron Research, 19(1-2), p.15 - 22, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.3233/JNR-170046

Sample environment (SE) team at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) in J-PARC has worked on development and operation of SE equipment and devices. All the members belong to one sub-team at least, such as Cryogenic and magnet, High temperature, High pressure, Soft matter and special environment including Pulse magnet, Hydrogen environment, Light irradiation and He spin filter. Cryostats, a magnet, furnaces, a VX-6-type Paris-Edinburgh press and a prototype of a Spin-Exchange Optical Pumping (SEOP) based He spin filter for polarized neutron beam experiments are in operation. Furthermore, a prototype of compact power supply for a pulsed magnet system is currently developed. In the J-PARC Research Building, several pieces of equipment for softmatter research such as a rheometer and a gas and vapor adsorption measurement instrument have been prepared.

Investigation and measures of abnormal events of helium refrigerator for cryogenic hydrogen system at J-PARC

Aso, Tomokazu; Teshigawara, Makoto; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Aoyagi, Katsuhiro*; Muto, Hideki*; Nomura, Kazutaka*; Takada, Hiroshi; Ikeda, Yujiro

JAEA-Technology 2017-021, 75 Pages, 2017/08

JAEA-Technology-2017-021.pdf:33.03MB

Liquid hydrogen is employed as a cold neutron moderator material at the spallation neutron source of Materials and Life science experimental Facility of Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). From January 2015, it became observable that the differential pressure between heat exchangers and an 80 K adsorber (ADS) in a helium refrigerator system increased with operating time. In November 2015, the differential pressure rise became more significant, leading to degrade the refrigerating performance in cooling liquid hydrogen. In order to investigate the cause of the abnormal differential pressure rise between the heat exchangers and the ADS, we carried out visual inspection inside the heat exchangers and analyzed the impurities contained in the helium gas. Unfortunately, we could not identify the impurities causing the performance degradation, but observed a trace of oil in the inlet piping of the heat exchanger. Based on investigations of the abnormal events occurred in the refrigerators with similar refrigerating capacity at other facilities, we took measures that cleaning the heat exchangers with Freon and replacing the ADS with new one. As a result, the differential pressure rise phenomenon was removed to recover the performance. We have detected oil from the Freon used for cleaning the heat exchangers and at a felt supporting charcoal packed in the ADS. In particular, oil was accumulated in membranous form onto the felt at the entrance side in the ADS. The amount of oil contained in the helium gas was about 10 ppb or so, less than the design value, in the helium refrigerator. However, the oil accumulated onto the felt in the ADS through long operating period may cause abnormal differential pressure rise, leading to the performance degradation of the helium refrigerator. Further study is needed to specify the cause more clearly.

Pressure and temperature fluctuation simulation of J-PARC cryogenic hydrogen system

Tatsumoto, Hideki; Otsu, Kiichi; Aso, Tomokazu; Kawakami, Yoshihiko

IOP Conference Series; Materials Science and Engineering, 101, p.012109_1 - 012109_8, 2015/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/101/1/012109

The J-PARC cryogenic hydrogen system provides supercritical cryogenic hydrogen to the moderators at a pressure of 1.5 MPa and temperature of 18 K and removes 3.8 kW of nuclear heat from the 1 MW proton beam operation. We prepared a heater for thermal compensation and an accumulator, with a bellows structure for volume control, to mitigate the pressure fluctuation caused by switching the proton beam on and off. In this study, a 1-D simulation code named DiSC-SH2 was developed to understand the propagation of pressure and temperature propagations through the hydrogen loop due to on and off switching of the proton beam. We confirmed that the simulated dynamic behaviors in the hydrogen loop for 300-kW and 500-kW proton beam operations agree well with the experimental data under the same conditions.

Sample environment at the MLF

Aso, Tomokazu; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro; Kawamura, Seiko

Hamon, 25(4), p.283 - 287, 2015/11

https://doi.org/10.5611/hamon.25.4_283

Operational characteristics of the J-PARC cryogenic hydrogen system for a spallation neutron source

Tatsumoto, Hideki; Otsu, Kiichi; Aso, Tomokazu; Kawakami, Yoshihiko; Teshigawara, Makoto

AIP Conference Proceedings 1573, p.66 - 73, 2014/01

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4860684

The J-PARC cryogenic hydrogen system provides supercritical hydrogen provides to three moderators. A heater for the thermal compensation and a cryogenic accumulator are prepared to mitigate a pressure fluctuation. A feed temperature should be lower than 20 K and its fluctuation should be within 0.25 K to provide cold pulsed neutron beams of a higher neutronic performance. An ortho-para hydrogen convertor is installed to maintain the para-hydrogen concentration of more than 99.0%. In this study, it is confirmed that para-hydrogen always exists in the equilibrium concentration during the cool-down process. Propagation characteristics of temperature fluctuation caused by sudden heater power variations were studied. An allowable temperature fluctuation caused by the heater control approach is determined to be 1.05 K. It is found that the heater control would be applicable for the 1-MW proton beam operation by extrapolating from the experimental data for on-beam commissioning.

Design of a compact type cryogenic accumulator to mitigate a pressure fluctuation caused by a sudden kW-order heat load

Tatsumoto, Hideki; Aso, Tomokazu; Otsu, Kiichi; Uehara, Toshiaki; Sakurayama, Hisashi; Kawakami, Yoshihiko; Kato, Takashi; Futakawa, Masatoshi

AIP Conference Proceedings 1434, p.368 - 375, 2012/06

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4706941

A cryogenic hydrogen system provides supercritical hydrogen to three moderators and removes a nuclear heating of 3.75 kW for a 1-MW proton beam power at the J-PARC. It was verified that the pressure fluctuation caused by the sudden heat load for a 120-kW proton beam operation was successfully mitigated by a control system that consisted of a heater and a cryogenic accumulator with a bellows. However, an internal leak was found at the bellows during a maintenance period, in February 2010. The cryogenic accumulator was too big to replace it easily and it took a long period. Therefore, a new compact type cryogenic accumulator has been designed to improve the replacement. And it has been installed six months later after the major failure. It has been confirmed through an on-beam commissioning that the performance satisfies the design requirements.

Influence of Great East Japan Earthquake on neutron target station in J-PARC

Sakai, Kenji; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Takada, Hiroshi; Sakamoto, Shinichi; Maekawa, Fujio; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Seki, Masakazu; Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; et al.

Proceedings of 20th Meeting of the International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources (ICANS-20) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2012/03

This report investigates behaviors and damages of each component in a neutron target station of the MLF at the J-PARC at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE). At the date of the GEJE, in the MLF, strong quakes were detected at several instruments, an external power supply were lost, all of the circulation systems were shut down automatically, and a hydrogen gas was released as planned. Leakage of activation liquids and gases did not occur. While, the quakes made gaps between shield blocks and ruptured external pipe lines for air and water by subsidence. But significant damages on the components of the target station were not found though a loss of compressed air supply affected lock systems with air cylinders and pneumatic operation values. These results substantiated a validity of safety design on the target station for emergency accidents.

Commissioning results on the cryogenic hydrogen system for moderators in JSNS

Aso, Tomokazu; Tatsumoto, Hideki; Otsu, Kiichi; Uehara, Toshiaki; Kawakami, Yoshihiko; Sakurayama, Hisashi; Futakawa, Masatoshi

Proceedings of 19th Meeting of the International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources (ICANS-19) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2010/07

In the J-PARC, the cryogenic hydrogen system for the 1MW pulsed spallation neutron source (JSNS) plays a role in supplying supercritical hydrogen at a temperature of 18 K and pressure of 1.5 MPa to three moderators in which spallation neutrons generated in a mercury target are slowed down to cold neutrons. Through the off-beam commissioning until April 2008, we confirmed that the specifications of the cryogenic system were satisfied as expected, and we could succeed in circulating supercritical hydrogen with the maximum flow rate of about 190 g/s. We have succeeded in generating first neutrons in the mercury target and providing moderated neutrons through the hydrogen moderators without any problems in May 2008. We also confirmed characteristics of the cryogenic hydrogen system with accepting the proton beam on the mercury target as on-beam commissioning.