Characterization of bremsstrahlung and -rays of fuel debris

Matsumura, Taichi; Okumura, Keisuke; Fujita, Manabu*; Sakamoto, Masahiro; Terashima, Kenichi; Riyana, E. S.

Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 199, p.110298_1 - 110298_8, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2022.110298

Research and examination of seismic safety evaluation and function maintenance for important equipment in nuclear facilities

Furuya, Osamu*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Muta, Hitoshi*; Otori, Yasuki*; Itoi, Tatsuya*; Okamura, Shigeki*; Minagawa, Keisuke*; Nakamura, Izumi*; Fujimoto, Shigeru*; Otani, Akihito*; et al.

Proceedings of ASME 2021 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2021) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2021/07

Since the Fukushima accident, with the higher safety requirements of nuclear facilities in Japan, suppliers, manufacturers and academic societies have been actively considering the reconstruction of the safety of nuclear facilities from various perspectives. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has formulated new regulatory standards and is in operation. The new regulatory standards are based on defense in depth, and have significantly raised the levels of natural hazards and have requested to strengthen the countermeasures from the perspective of preventing the simultaneous loss of safety functions due to common factors. Facilities for dealing with specific serious accidents are required to have robustness to ensure functions against earthquakes that exceed the design standards to a certain extent. In addition, since the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and the safety margin evaluation are performed to include the range beyond the design assumption in the safety improvement evaluation, it is very important to extent the special knowledge in the strength of important equipment for seismic safety. This paper summarizes the research and examination results of specialized knowledge on the concept of maintaining the functions of important seismic facilities and the damage index to be considered by severe earthquakes. In the other paper, the study on reliability of seismic capacity analysis for important equipment in nuclear facilities will be reported.

Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2017

Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Mizutani, Tomoko; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Kono, Takahiko; Hosomi, Kenji; Hokama, Tomonori; Nishimura, Tomohiro; Matsubara, Natsumi; et al.

JAEA-Review 2018-025, 171 Pages, 2019/02

JAEA-Review-2018-025.pdf:3.81MB

Environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant has been performed by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, based on "Safety Regulations for the Reprocessing Plant of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Chapter IV - Environmental Monitoring". This annual report presents the results of the environmental monitoring and the dose estimation to the hypothetical inhabitant due to the radioactivity discharged from the plant to the atmosphere and the sea during April 2016 to March 2017. In this report, some data include the influence of the accidental release from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. in March 2011. Appendices present comprehensive information, such as monitoring programs, monitoring methods, monitoring results and their trends, meteorological data and discharged radioactive wastes. In addition, the data which were influenced by the accidental release and were exceeded the normal range of fluctuation in the monitoring, were evaluated.

Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2015

Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Mizutani, Tomoko; Hosomi, Kenji; Nagaoka, Mika; Hokama, Tomonori; Yokoyama, Hiroya; Nishimura, Tomohiro; Matsubara, Natsumi; Maehara, Yushi; et al.

JAEA-Review 2016-035, 179 Pages, 2017/03

JAEA-Review-2016-035.pdf:4.2MB

Environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant has been performed by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, based on "Safety Regulations for the Reprocessing Plant of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Chapter IV - Environmental Monitoring". This annual report presents the results of the environmental monitoring and the dose estimation to the hypothetical inhabitant due to the radioactivity discharged from the plant to the atmosphere and the sea during April 2015 to March 2016. In this report, some data include the influence of the accidental release from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. in March 2011. Appendices present comprehensive information, such as monitoring programs, monitoring methods, monitoring results and their trends, meteorological data and discharged radioactive wastes. In addition, the data which were influenced by the accidental release and were exceeded the normal range of fluctuation in the monitoring, were evaluated.

Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2014

Watanabe, Hitoshi; Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Takeyasu, Masanori; Mizutani, Tomoko; Isozaki, Tokuju*; Nagaoka, Mika; Hokama, Tomonori; Yokoyama, Hiroya; Nishimura, Tomohiro; et al.

JAEA-Review 2015-034, 175 Pages, 2016/03

JAEA-Review-2015-034.pdf:8.13MB

Environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant has been performed by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, based on "Safety Regulations for the Reprocessing Plant of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Chapter IV - Environmental Monitoring". This annual report presents the results of the environmental monitoring and the dose estimation to the hypothetical inhabitant due to the radioactivity discharged from the plant to the atmosphere and the sea during April 2014 to March 2015. In this report, some data include the influence of the accidental release from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co. in March 2011.

A Study on the strength properties of the rock mass based on triaxial tests conducted at the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory

Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Ishii, Eiichi; Kondo, Keiji*; Tsusaka, Kimikazu*; Fujita, Tomoo

JAEA-Research 2015-001, 46 Pages, 2015/03

JAEA-Research-2015-001.pdf:4.92MB
JAEA-Research-2015-001-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:67.95MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting R&D activities at the off-site URL at Horonobe, Hokkaido, Japan in order to enhance reliability of technology related to deep geological disposal of HLW in sedimentary rocks. In this report, strength properties (cohesion and frictional angle) of rock masses in the Koetoi and Wakkanai formations are investigated on the basis of triaxial tests conducted in the Horonobe URL considering the relative depths to the formation. Strength properties investigated in this report are compared with the properties obtained in the designing phase. The cohesion in the Koetoi Formation increased with increasing depth. On the other hand, in the transition zone of the Wakkanai Formation, the cohesion increased significantly in the shallow Wakkanai formation (transition zone). Below the transition zone, the cohesion does not significantly depend on the depth. Thus the strength properties between two formations were found to be different. Comparing the cohesions and frictional angles determined from triaxial tests with the values determined in the designing phase, there was no agreement between these values in almost all the depth. Thus it is essential to determine cohesion and frictional angle considering the relative depths to the formation for detailed understanding of strength properties of rock mass.

The Effect of stacking fault energy on interactions between an edge dislocation and a spherical void by molecular dynamics simulations

Asari, Keisuke*; Hetland, O. S.*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Itakura, Mitsuhiro; Okita, Taira*

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 442(1), p.360 - 364, 2013/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2013.05.076

Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted using a set of six interatomic potentials for FCC metals that differed only in stacking fault energy (SFE), to clarify the effect of SFE on interactions between a dissociated edge dislocation and a void. There are two different types of interaction mechanism: separate depinning of the individual partial dislocations and almost simultaneous depinning of the combined partial dislocations. The interaction mechanism depends on both the SFE and void size, and changes the absolute value of the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) and its dependence on the SFE. In the separate depinning case, the CRSS is relatively low and is almost independent of the SFE, while in the simultaneous case, the CRSS is increases with SFE. The void size for which the change in interaction mechanism occurs increases with decreasing SFE.

Analytical study on seismic response of isolated structure considering nonlinear properties of rubber bearing

Minagawa, Keisuke*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Yamaguchi, Akira*; Takata, Takashi*; Kurisaka, Kenichi

Nihon Kikai Gakkai Rombunshu, C, 79(804), p.2684 - 2693, 2013/08

https://doi.org/10.1299/kikaic.79.2684

Development of level-1 PSA method for sodium-cooled fast reactor

Kurisaka, Kenichi; Sakai, Takaaki; Yamano, Hidemasa; Nishino, Hiroyuki; Fujita, Satoshi*; Minagawa, Keisuke*; Yamaguchi, Akira*; Takata, Takashi*

Proceedings of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Topical Conference; In light of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident (PSAM 2013) (USB Flash Drive), 10 Pages, 2013/04

This study includes a level-1 PSA related to internal events and a seismic event as a representative external event for Japan sodium-cooled fast reactors with passive safety features and a seismic isolation system. For the internal events, it is necessary to evaluate the passive safety features, of which reliability depends on uncertainties of related physical phenomena. In order to consider the reliability of the passive natural circulation, accident sequences leading to core damage result from natural circulation failure were developed, and the annual frequency of the accident sequences was evaluated for the PSA method study. In respects of seismic event, we developed response analysis method considering the coupling effect of horizontal and vertical shaking on the horizontal seismic isolation characteristics, and developed a fragility evaluation model including the effect of seismic non-linearly for the seismic isolation system.

Development of level-1 PSA method applicable to Japan sodium-cooled fast reactor, 1; Research plan and internal event evaluation related to reactor shutdown failure

Kurisaka, Kenichi; Sakai, Takaaki; Yamano, Hidemasa; Fujita, Satoshi*; Minagawa, Keisuke*; Yamaguchi, Akira*; Takata, Takashi*

Transactions of 21st International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT-21) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2011/11

This paper describes a study to develop the level-1 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) method that is applicable to the Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR). This study has been started since August 2010 and aims to provide a new evaluation method of (1) passive safety architectures related to internal events and (2) an advanced seismic isolation system related to a seismic event as a representative external event in Japan. However, after the nuclear accident at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11 2011, the research-period was shortened from four to two years by political reason, and only a limited scope of the research subject will be performed in the two years. Regarding the internal events evaluation, a quantitative analysis on the frequency of the core damage caused by reactor shutdown failure was conducted. A failure in passive reactor shutdown was taken into account in the event tree model. The failure rate of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) specific components was evaluated based on the operating experience in existing SFRs by applying the Hierarchical Bayesian Method, which can consider a plant-to-plant variability. By conducting an uncertainty analysis, it was found that the assumption about the correlation of the probability parameters between the main and backup reactor shutdown systems is sensitive to the mean value of the frequency of the core damage caused by reactor shutdown failure.