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Hasegawa, Toshinari; Nagasumi, Satoru; Nemoto, Takahiro; Nakajima, Kunihiro; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Fujiwara, Yusuke; Arakawa, Ryoki; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Kawamoto, Taiki
Proceedings of 2024 International Congress on Advanced in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2024) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2024/06
The filter element of the primary gas circulators (PGC) in High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) and its deposits were investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) observation and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis to find the cause of the increase of the filter differential pressure during the operation in 2021. SEM observation showed that the clumpy deposits and fibrous deposits smaller than the filtration pore size and the rod-shaped deposits larger than the pore size were present on the filter element. EDX analysis showed that the clumpy deposits and fibrous deposits could include silicone oil in the primary helium purification system (PHPS) gas circulators and that the rod-shaped deposits were thermal insulators inside of the co-axial double pipes in the primary cooling system. It is considered that silicone oil leaked from the PHPS gas circulators due to deterioration in the absorption performance of the activated charcoal filter. Next, it could be vaporized and reach PGC's filter element after passing through the reactor core. Since those deposits including silicone oil were present over the entire surface of the filter element, the filter differential pressure could be increased due to a reduction in the pore size and a rise in its flow resistance. The thermal insulator was unrelated to filter clogging because it was present mainly in the lower part of the filter element. Therefore, silicone oil could increase the filter differential pressure, and the graphite powder, which is the cause of the previous issue was unrelated.
Morita, Takami*; Niwa, Kentaro*; Fujimoto, Ken*; Kasai, Hiromi*; Yamada, Haruya*; Nishiuchi, Ko*; Sakamoto, Tatsuya*; Godo, Waichiro*; Taino, Seiya*; Hayashi, Yoshihiro*; et al.
Science of the Total Environment, 408(16), p.3443 - 3447, 2010/06
Times Cited Count:17 Percentile:37.12(Environmental Sciences)Iodine-131 (I) was detected in brown algae collected off the Japanese coast. The maximum measured specific activity of
I in brown algae was 0.37
0.010 Bq/kg-wet. Cesium-137 (
Cs) was also detected in all brown algal samples used in this study. There was no correlation between specific activities of
I and
Cs in these seaweeds. Low specific activity and minimal variability of
Cs in brown algae indicated that past nuclear weapon tests were the source of
Cs. Although nuclear power facilities are known to be pollution sources of
I, there was no relationship between the sites where
I was detected and the locations of nuclear power facilities. Most of the sites where
I was detected were near big cities with large populations. On the basis of the results, we suggest that the likely pollution source of
I, detected in brown seaweeds, is not nuclear power facilities, but nuclear medicine procedures.