Conceptual design of pilot ADS

Nishihara, Kenji; Fukushima, Masahiro; Abe, Takumi; Katano, Ryota; Yee-Rendon, B.; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Sugawara, Takanori; Obayashi, Hironari; Saito, Shigeru

JAEA-Research 2025-013, 125 Pages, 2026/03

JAEA-Research-2025-013.pdf:4.68MB

A conceptual design for a pilot Accelerator Driven subcritical System (ADS) was developed as a precursor to a commercial ADS aimed at partitioning and transmutation of minor actinides. The output of the pilot ADS was set at 200 MW. Based on safety assessment results, the design incorporates deep subcriticality and safety rods. Core design, accelerator design, target design, and in-vessel equipment design were performed, clarifying the specific concept.

Demonstration of the inherent safety feature of HTGRs through the loss-of-forced-cooling test in the HTTR

Nagasumi, Satoru; Hasegawa, Toshinari; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Kubo, Shinji; Shimazaki, Yosuke; Nakajima, Kunihiro; Sakurai, Yosuke; Shinohara, Masanori; Saito, Kenji; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 446(Part A), p.114542_1 - 114542_14, 2026/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2025.114542

To demonstrate HTGR's safety features, a loss-of-forced-cooling (LOFC) test was conducted using the HTTR. In this test, the forced cooling in the reactor core was intentionally lost by shutting down all helium gas circulators (HGCs) without reactor scram. During steady-state operation at 100% reactor power (30 MW), after the LOFC, the reactor power spontaneously decreased. This power reduction occurred due to the negative reactivity feedback effect triggered by an increase in core temperature. The power stabilized at a lower value of 1.2% after re-criticality. Additionally, the measured radioactivity concentration in the primary coolant remained nearly unchanged during this LOFC operation and during an immediately subsequent HTTR operation. This indicates no failure of the coated particle fuel, even after the increase in core temperature associated with the LOFC event. These results provide experimental evidence of the safety features of HTGRs.

Achievement of safety demonstration tests using HTTR; Loss of forced cooling test at 100% reactor power (30 MW)

Nagasumi, Satoru; Hasegawa, Toshinari; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Kubo, Shinji; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Shinohara, Masanori; Saikusa, Akio; Nojiri, Naoki; Saito, Kenji; Furusawa, Takayuki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2025-005, 23 Pages, 2025/07

JAEA-Research-2025-005.pdf:2.68MB

A safety demonstration test under abnormal operating conditions using the HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor) was conducted to demonstrate safety features of the HTGRs (High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors). Under a simulation of a control rod shutdown failure, all primary helium gas circulators were intentionally stopped during a steady-state operation at 100% reactor thermal power (30 MW), temporal changes of the reactor power and temperatures around the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) were obtained after the complete loss of forced heat removal from the reactor core. After the event (primary coolant flow stopped), the reactor power quickly decreased due to the negative reactivity feedback associated with the core temperature rise, and then the reactor power spontaneously shifted to a stable state of low power (about 1.2%) even after a recriticality. Heat dissipation from RPV surface to a surrounding vessel cooling system (water-cooled panels) ensured the amount of heat removal required to maintain the reactor temperature constant in the low power state. In this way, the transition from the event occurrence to the stable and safety state, i.e., inherent safety features of HTGRs, were demonstrated in the case of core forced cooling loss without active shutdown operations.

Differential pressure rise event for filters of HTTR primary helium gas circulators, 2; Investigation of filter deposits and recurrence prevention measures

Nemoto, Takahiro; Fujiwara, Yusuke; Arakawa, Ryoki; Choyama, Yuya; Nagasumi, Satoru; Hasegawa, Toshinari; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Watanabe, Masashi; Onishi, Takashi; Kawamoto, Taiki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2024-003, 17 Pages, 2024/06

JAEA-Technology-2024-003.pdf:1.91MB

In order to investigate the cause of the increase in differential pressure in the primary helium circulator filter that occurred during the RS-14 cycle, a clogged filter was investigated. As a result of the investigation, deposits caused by silicone oil were confirmed on the surface of the filter element. These results revealed that the cause of filter clogging was silicone oil mixed into the primary system due to performance deterioration of the charcoal filter in the gas circulator of primary helium purification system. As a measure to prevent the recurrence of this event, in addition to the conventional management based on operating hours for replacing of charcoal filter in the gas circulator of primary helium purification system, we have established a new replacement plan for every three years.

Impact of the ground-state 4 symmetry for anisotropic hybridization in the heavy-fermion superconductor CeNiGe

Fujiwara, Hidenori*; Nakatani, Yasuhiro*; Aratani, Hidekazu*; Kanai-Nakata, Yuina*; Yamagami, Kohei*; Hamamoto, Satoru*; Kiss, Takayuki*; Yamasaki, Atsushi*; Higashiya, Atsushi*; Imada, Shin*; et al.

Physical Review B, 108(16), p.165121_1 - 165121_10, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.165121

Intruder configurations in Ne at the transition into the island of inversion; Detailed structure study of Ne

Wang, H.*; Yasuda, Masahiro*; Kondo, Yosuke*; Nakamura, Takashi*; Tostevin, J. A.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Otsuka, Takaharu*; Poves, A.*; Shimizu, Noritaka*; Yoshida, Kazuki; et al.

Physics Letters B, 843, p.138038_1 - 138038_9, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138038

Detailed -ray spectroscopy of the exotic neon isotope Ne has been performed using the one-neutron removal reaction from Ne. Based on an analysis of parallel momentum distributions, a level scheme with spin-parity assignments has been constructed for Ne and the negative-parity states are identified for the first time. The measured partial cross sections and momentum distributions reveal a significant intruder p-wave strength providing evidence of the breakdown of the N = 20 and N = 28 shell gaps. Only a weak, possible f-wave strength was observed to bound final states. Large-scale shell-model calculations with different effective interactions do not reproduce the large p-wave and small f-wave strength observed experimentally, indicating an ongoing challenge for a complete theoretical description of the transition into the island of inversion along the Ne isotopic chain.

Differential pressure rise event for filters of HTTR primary helium gas circulators, 1; Investigation of differential pressure rise event

Nemoto, Takahiro; Arakawa, Ryoki; Kawakami, Satoru; Nagasumi, Satoru; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Watanabe, Masashi; Onishi, Takashi; Kawamoto, Taiki; Furusawa, Takayuki; Inoi, Hiroyuki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2023-005, 33 Pages, 2023/05

JAEA-Technology-2023-005.pdf:5.25MB

During shut down of the HTTR (High Temperature engineering Test Reactor) RS-14 cycle, an increasing trend of filter differential pressure for the helium gas circulator was observed. In order to investigate this phenomenon, the blower of the primary helium purification system was disassembled and inspected. As a result, it is clear that the silicon oil mist entered into the primary coolant due to the deterioration of the charcoal filter performance. The replacement and further investigation of the filter are planning to prevent the reoccurrence of the same phenomenon in the future.

Measurements of pressure drop and void fraction of air-water two-phase flow in a sphere-packed bed

Yamamoto, Seishiro*; Odaira, Naoya*; Ito, Daisuke*; Ito, Kei*; Saito, Yasushi*; Imaizumi, Yuya; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji

Proceedings of 12th Japan-Korea Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS12) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2022/10

The Muon linac project at J-PARC

Kondo, Yasuhiro; Kitamura, Ryo; Fuwa, Yasuhiro; Morishita, Takatoshi; Moriya, Katsuhiro; Takayanagi, Tomohiro; Otani, Masashi*; Cicek, E.*; Ego, Hiroyasu*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; et al.

Proceedings of 31st International Linear Accelerator Conference (LINAC 2022) (Internet), p.636 - 641, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-LINAC2022-WE1AA05

The muon linac project for the precise measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments, which is currently one of the hottest issues of the elementary particle physics, is in progress at J-PARC. The muons from the J-PARC muon facility are once cooled to room temperature, then accelerated up to 212 MeV with a normalized emittance of 1.5 mm mrad and a momentum spread of 0.1%. Four types of accelerating structures are adopted to obtain the efficient acceleration with a wide beta range from 0.01 to 0.94. The project is moving into the construction phase. We already demonstrated the re-acceleration scheme of the decelerated muons using a 324-MHz RFQ in 2017. The high-power test of the 324-MHz Interdigital H-mode (IH) DTL using a prototype cavity was performed in 2021. The fabrication of the first module of 14 modules of the 1296-MHz Disk and Washer (DAW) CCL will be done to confirm the production process. Moreover, the final design of the travelling wave accelerating structure for the high beta region is also proceeding. In this paper, the recent progress toward the realization of the world first muon linac will be presented.

Design and beam dynamics study of disk-loaded structure for muon LINAC

Sumi, Kazumichi*; Iijima, Toru*; Inami, Kenji*; Sue, Yuki*; Yotsuzuka, Mai*; Ego, Hiroyasu*; Otani, Masashi*; Saito, Naohito*; Mibe, Tsutomu*; Yoshida, Mitsuhiro*; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, p.012038_1 - 012038_6, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2420/1/012038

The disk-loaded structures (DLS) in the muon LINAC are under development for the J-PARC muon g-2/EDM experiment. Four DLSs with an accelerating gradient of 20 MV/m take charge of muon acceleration from 40 MeV to 212 MeV, which corresponds to 70% to 94% of the speed of light. The quasi-constant gradient type TM01-2/3 mode DLSs with gradually varying disk spacing was designed and it was confirmed that the cumulative phase slip due to the mismatch between muon and phase velocity can be suppressed to less than 2 degrees at the frequency of 2592 MHz. In addition, the optimum synchronous phase and the lattice were investigated to satisfy the requirements of the total emittance less than 1.5 mm mrad and the momentum spread less than 0.1% in RMS.