Improving the safety of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor "HTTR" based on Japan's new regulatory requirements

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Shimizu, Atsushi; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Tochio, Daisuke; Homma, Fumitaka; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Sekita, Kenji; Watanabe, Shuji; Furusawa, Takayuki; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 388, p.111642_1 - 111642_11, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2021.111642

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency adapted High-Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) to meet the new regulatory requirements that began in December 2013. The safety and seismic classifications of the existing structures, systems, and components were discussed to reflect insights regarding High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) that were acquired through various HTTR safety tests. Structures, systems, and components that are subject to protection have been defined, and countermeasures to manage internal and external hazards that affect safety functions have been strengthened. Additionally, measures are in place to control accidents that may cause large amounts of radioactive material to be released, as a beyond design based accident. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rigorously and appropriately reviewed this approach for compliance with the new regulatory requirements. After nine amendments, the application to modify the HTTR's installation license that was submitted in November 2014 was approved in June 2020. This response shows that facilities can reasonably be designed to meet the enhanced regulatory requirements, if they reflect the characteristics of HTGRs. We believe that we have established a reference for future development of HTGR.

Characterisation of structural similarities of precipitates in Mg-Zn and Al-Zn-Mg alloys systems

Bendo, A.*; Maeda, Tomoyoshi*; Matsuda, Kenji*; Lervik, A.*; Holmestad, R.*; Marioara, C. D.*; Nishimura, Katsuhiko*; Nunomura, Norio*; Toda, Hiroyuki*; Yamaguchi, Masatake; et al.

Philosophical Magazine, 99(21), p.2619 - 2635, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2019.1637032

Investigation of absorption characteristics for thermal-load fluctuation using HTTR

Tochio, Daisuke; Honda, Yuki; Sato, Hiroyuki; Sekita, Kenji; Homma, Fumitaka; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Takada, Shoji; Nakagawa, Shigeaki

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 54(1), p.13 - 21, 2017/01

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2016.1201441

GTHTR300C is designed and developed in JAEA. The reactor system is required to continue a stable and safety operation as well as a stable power supply in the case that thermal-load is fluctuated by the occurrence of abnormal event in the heat utilization system. Then, it is necessary to demonstrate that the thermal-load fluctuation should be absorbed by the reactor system so as to continue the stable and safety operation could be continued. The thermal-load fluctuation absorption tests without nuclear heating were planned and conducted in JAEA to clarify the absorption characteristic of thermal-load fluctuation mainly by the reactor and by the IHX. As the result it was revealed that the reactor has the larger absorption capacity of thermal-load fluctuation than expected one, and the IHX can be contributed to the absorption of the thermal-load fluctuation generated in the heat utilization system in the reactor system. It was confirmed from there result that the reactor and the IHX has effective absorption capacity of the thermal-load fluctuation generated in the heat utilization system. Moreover it was confirmed that the safety estimation code based on RELAP5/MOD3 can represents the thermal-load fluctuation absorption behavior conservatively.

Operation and maintenance experience from the HTTR database

Shimizu, Atsushi; Furusawa, Takayuki; Homma, Fumitaka; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Umeda, Masayuki; Kondo, Masaaki; Isozaki, Minoru; Fujimoto, Nozomu; Iyoku, Tatsuo

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 51(11-12), p.1444 - 1451, 2014/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2014.946568

JAEA has kept up a data-base system of operation and maintenance experiences of the HTTR. The objective of this system is to share the information obtained operation and maintenance experiences and to make use of lessons learned and knowledge into a design, construction and operation managements of the future HTGR. More than one thousand records have been registered into the system between 1997 and 2012. This paper describes the status of the data-base system, and provides suggestions for improvement from four experiences: (1) performance degradation of helium compressors; (2) malfunction of reserved shutdown system in reactivity control system; (3) maintenance experiences of emergency gas turbine generators; and (4) experiences of the Great East Japan Earthquake. These experiences are extracted from the system as important lessons learned to be expected to apply for design, construction and operation managements of future HTGR.

Integrity check of emergency generator for the HTTR after the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake

Homma, Fumitaka; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Watanabe, Shuji; Fukutani, Koji*

JAEA-Technology 2013-034, 57 Pages, 2013/12

JAEA-Technology-2013-034.pdf:11.01MB

Emergency generator of HTTR started in the blackout occurred just after an Tohoku Pacific Ocean Earthquake on March 11, 2011 with an intensity of 5 upper on the Japanese seven stage seismic scale and its duration time was long. In addition, we suffer from multiple severe aftershocks just after the start of emergency generators. Emergency generator of HTTR was able to supply output electric power sufficiently and stably to required loads. We carried on integrity check of the emergency generator for the HTTR after the earthquake. In particular, we put emphasis on finding faults caused by thee earthquake shaking. As a result, we found that the erosion in a combustion liner, and the condition of erosion was very strange and rare. Therefore, we carried out investigations of causes of erosion, and change of specifications for combustion liner to prevent erosion. This measure improve the reliability for the further Large-Scale earthquake.

Anisotropic spin fluctuations in the heavy fermion systems; Case studies of CePdAl and NpPdAl

Sakai, Hironori; Chudo, Hiroyuki; Tokunaga, Yo; Kambe, Shinsaku; Haga, Yoshinori; Ronning, F.*; Bauer, E. D.*; Thompson, J. D.*; Homma, Yoshiya*; Aoki, Dai*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 81(Suppl.B), p.SB003_1 - SB003_6, 2012/12

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJS.81SB.SB003

In the so-called 115 family members with chemical formulae of CeIn (=Co, Rh, Ir) and Ga (=U, Np, Pu), our analysis of the Knight shift and spin-lattice relaxation rates suggests that larger XY-type anisotropy in the antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in the normal states would favor -wave superconductivity with higher . In order to examine this working hypothesis, the anisotropy ratios of antiferromagnetic fluctuations are derived from our NMR results for the superconductor NpPdAl and antiferromagnet CePdAl, which are tetragonal compounds with a 115-related structure. CePdAl shows Ising-type anisotropy, which is the same anisotropy as in the ordered state. On the other hand, NpPdAl shows XY-type anisotropy just above .

Np nuclear relaxation rate in heavy fermion superconductor NpPd Al

Chudo, Hiroyuki; Tokunaga, Yo; Kambe, Shinsaku; Sakai, Hironori; Haga, Yoshinori; Matsuda, Tatsuma; Onuki, Yoshichika; Yasuoka, Hiroshi; Aoki, Dai*; Homma, Yoshiya*; et al.

Physical Review B, 84(9), p.094402_1 - 094402_5, 2011/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.094402

Manipulation and electron-oscillation-measurement of laser accelerated electron beams

Kotaki, Hideyuki; Hayashi, Yukio; Kawase, Keigo; Mori, Michiaki; Kando, Masaki; Homma, Takayuki; Koga, J. K.; Daido, Hiroyuki; Bulanov, S. V.

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 53(1), p.014009_1 - 014009_7, 2011/01

https://doi.org/10.1088/0741-3335/53/1/014009

La substitution effect and hyperfine-enhanced Pr nuclear spin dynamics in PrPb; La NMR study in PrLaPb

Tokunaga, Yo; Sakai, Hironori; Chudo, Hiroyuki; Kambe, Shinsaku; Yasuoka, Hiroshi; Suzuki, Hiroyuki*; Walstedt, R. E.*; Homma, Yoshiya*; Aoki, Dai*; Shiokawa, Yoshinobu*

Physical Review B, 82(10), p.104401_1 - 104401_6, 2010/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.104401

La NMR studies have been performed on PrPb substituted with 3% La. The temperature dependence of the local magnetic susceptibility around La ions has been extracted from the La Knight shift. These data show that the non-magnetic crystalline-electric-field (CEF) ground state (GS) is preserved even at the nearest neighboring Pr ions, although their CEF level scheme is slightly modified due to the La substitution. On the other hand, the temperature dependence of the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate is found to be well reproduced by assuming the same CEF level scheme over a wide temperature range. However, shows a strong upturn below 10 K, which is not expected from the non-magnetic CEF GS. We show that the low temperature anomaly can be quantitatively understood in terms of a cross-relaxation process between Pr and La nuclear spins.

NMR evidence for the 8.5 K phase transition in americium dioxide

Tokunaga, Yo; Nishi, Tsuyoshi; Kambe, Shinsaku; Nakada, Masami; Ito, Akinori; Homma, Yoshiya*; Sakai, Hironori; Chudo, Hiroyuki

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 79(5), p.053705_1 - 053705_4, 2010/05

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.79.053705

We report here the first NMR study of americium dioxide (AmO). More than 30 years ago, a phase transition was suggested to occur in this compound at 8.5 K based on magnetic susceptibility data, while no evidence had been obtained from microscopic measurements. We have prepared a powder sample of AmO containing 90 at.% O and have performed O NMR at temperatures ranging from 1.5 K to 200 K. After a sudden drop of the O NMR signal intensity below 8.5 K, at 1.5 K we have observed an extremely broad spectrum covering a range of 14 kOe in applied field. These data provide the first microscopic evidence for a phase transition as a bulk property in this system. In addition, the O NMR spectrum has been found to split into two peaks in the paramagnetic state, an effect which has not been reported for actinide dioxides studied up to now. We suggest that the splitting is induced by self-radiation damage from the alpha decay of Am.