Impact assessment for internal flooding in HTTR (High temperature engineering test reactor)

Tochio, Daisuke; Nagasumi, Satoru; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ono, Masato; Kobayashi, Shoichi; Uesaka, Takahiro; Watanabe, Shuji; Saito, Kenji

JAEA-Technology 2021-014, 80 Pages, 2021/09

JAEA-Technology-2021-014.pdf:5.87MB

In response to the new regulatory standards established in response to the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, measures and impact assessments related to internal flooding at HTTR were carried out. In assessing the impact, considering the characteristics of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, flooding due to assumed damage to piping and equipment, flooding due to water discharge from the system installed to prevent the spread of fire, and flooding due to damage to piping and equipment due to an earthquake. The effects of submersion, flooding, and flooding due to steam were evaluated for each of them. The impact of the overflow of liquids containing radioactive materials outside the radiation-controlled area was also evaluated. As a result, it was confirmed that flooding generated at HTTR does not affect the safety function of the reactor facility by taking measures.

Controlled growth of boron-doped epitaxial graphene by thermal decomposition of a BC thin film

Norimatsu, Wataru*; Matsuda, Keita*; Terasawa, Tomoo; Takata, Nao*; Masumori, Atsushi*; Ito, Keita*; Oda, Koji*; Ito, Takahiro*; Endo, Akira*; Funahashi, Ryoji*; et al.

Nanotechnology, 31(14), p.145711_1 - 145711_7, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ab62cf

We show that boron-doped epitaxial graphene can be successfully grown by thermal decomposition of a boron carbide thin film, which can also be epitaxially grown on a silicon carbide substrate. The interfaces of BC on SiC and graphene on BC had a fixed orientation relation, having a local stable structure with no dangling bonds. The first carbon layer on BC acts as a buffer layer, and the overlaying carbon layers are graphene. Graphene on BC was highly boron doped, and the hole concentration could be controlled over a wide range of 210 to 210 cm. Highly boron-doped graphene exhibited a spin-glass behavior, which suggests the presence of local antiferromagnetic ordering in the spin-frustration system. Thermal decomposition of carbides holds the promise of being a technique to obtain a new class of wafer-scale functional epitaxial graphene for various applications.

Status of study of long-term assessment of transport of radioactive contaminants in the environment of Fukushima (FY2018)

Nagao, Fumiya; Niizato, Tadafumi; Sasaki, Yoshito; Ito, Satomi; Watanabe, Takayoshi; Dohi, Terumi; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Hagiwara, Hiroki; Funaki, Hironori; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-002, 235 Pages, 2019/08

JAEA-Research-2019-002.pdf:21.04MB

The accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (hereinafter referred to 1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sanriku offshore earthquake, of 9.0 magnitude and the accompanying tsunami. As a result, large amount of radioactive materials was released into the environment. Under these circumstances, JAEA has been conducting Long-term Environmental Dynamics Research concerning radioactive materials released in environment, especially migration behavior of radioactive cesium since November 2012. This report is a summary of the research results that have been obtained in environmental dynamics research conducted by JAEA in Fukushima Prefecture.

Measurement and analysis of in-vessel component activation and gamma dose rate distribution in Joyo, 2

Yamamoto, Takahiro; Ito, Chikara; Maeda, Shigetaka; Ito, Hideaki; Sekine, Takashi

JAEA-Technology 2017-036, 41 Pages, 2018/02

JAEA-Technology-2017-036.pdf:7.86MB

In the experimental fast reactor Joyo, the damaged upper core structure (UCS) was retrieved into the cask in May 2014 The dose rate on UCS surface was quite high due to the activation for over 30 years operation. In order to attain the optimum safety design, manufacture and operation of equipment for UCS replacement, the method to evaluate UCS surface dose rate was developed on the basis of C/E obtained by the in-vessel dose rate measurement in Joyo. In order to verify the evaluation method, the axial gamma-ray distribution measurement on the surface of the cask, which contained UCS, was conducted using a plastic scintillating optical fiber (PSF) detector. This paper describes the comparison results between calculation and measurement as follows. (1) The measured axial gamma-ray distribution on the cask surface had a peak on proper location with considering the cask shielding structure and agree well with the calculated distribution. (2) The C/E of axial gamma-ray distribution on the cask surface was ranged from 1.1 to 1.7. It was confirmed that the calculation for UCS replacement equipment design had a margin conservatively. Then, the results showed that the developed evaluation method for UCS replacement equipment design was sufficiently reliable.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Synthesis of Phase II (Construction Phase) investigations to a depth of 350m

Sato, Toshinori; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Ishii, Eiichi; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Hayano, Akira; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Fujita, Tomo*; Tanai, Kenji; Nakayama, Masashi; Takeda, Masaki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2016-025, 313 Pages, 2017/03

JAEA-Research-2016-025.pdf:45.1MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to enhance the reliability of relevant disposal technologies through investigations of the deep geological environment within the host sedimentary formations at Horonobe, northern Hokkaido. This report summarizes the results of the Phase II investigations carried out from April 2005 to June 2014 to a depth of 350m. Integration of work from different disciplines into a "geosynthesis" ensures that the Phase II goals have been successfully achieved and identifies key issues that need to made to be addressed in the Phase II investigations Efforts are made to summarize as many lessons learnt from the Phase II investigations and other technical achievements as possible to form a "knowledge base" that will reinforce the technical basis for both implementation and the formulation of safety regulations.

Beam commissioning of the linac for iBNCT

Naito, Fujio*; Anami, Shozo*; Ikegami, Kiyoshi*; Uota, Masahiko*; Ouchi, Toshikatsu*; Onishi, Takahiro*; Oba, Toshiyuki*; Obina, Takashi*; Kawamura, Masato*; Kumada, Hiroaki*; et al.

Proceedings of 13th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.1244 - 1246, 2016/11

http://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2016/proceedings/PDF/TUP1/TUP118.pdf

The proton linac installed in the Ibaraki Neutron Medical Research Center is used for production of the intense neutron flux for the Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). The linac consists of the 3-MeV RFQ and the 8-MeV DTL. Design average beam current is 10mA. Target is made of Beryllium. First neutron production from the Beryllium target was observed at the end of 2015 with the low intensity beam as a demonstration. After the observation of neutron production, a lot of improvement s was carried out in order to increase the proton beam intensity for the real beam commissioning. The beam commissioning has been started on May 2016. The status of the commissioning is summarized in this report.

Development of active control technology for impurities in coolant helium using High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR)

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nemoto, Takahiro; Sekita, Kenji; Saito, Kenji

JAEA-Technology 2015-048, 62 Pages, 2016/03

JAEA-Technology-2015-048.pdf:2.58MB

The decarburization may take place depending on the chemical impurity composition in helium gas used as the primary coolant in High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors, and will significantly reduce the strength of the alloy. The ability to remove impurities by a helium purification system was designed according to the predicted generation rate of impurities so as to make the coolant become the carburizing atmosphere. It has been confirmed that the coolant becomes the carburizing atmosphere during the operation period of the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). However, it is necessary to consider changes of generation rates of impurities since lifetime of commercial reactor is longer than the life of the HTTR. To avoid the influence of the change of generation rate, the control of removal efficiency of impurity in the helium purification system was considered in this study. To reform the decarburizing into the carburizing atmosphere, it is effective to increase the H and CO concentration in the coolant helium. By controlling the efficiency of the Cooper Oxide Trap (CuOT), it is possible to increase the H and CO concentrations. Therefore, an experiment was carried out by injecting the gas mixture of H and CO into the existing purification system of HTTR to investigate the dependencies of temperature and impurity concentration on the removal efficiency of CuOT. The experimental results are described as the following, (1) By adjusting the temperature of helium at the CuOT within a range from 110C to 50C, it is possible to reduce the removal efficiency of H sufficiently. (2) Temperature change of helium gas in the CuOT is sufficiently reduced by the cooler located at the downstream of the CuOT, which does not affect the primary cooling system of HTTR. As the results, the applicability of removal efficiency control of CuOT was verified to improve the decarburizing atmosphere for the actual HTGR system.

Replacement of upper core structure in experimental fast reactor Joyo, 1; Existing damaged upper core structure jack-up test

Ito, Hiromichi; Suzuki, Nobuhiro; Kobayashi, Tetsuhiko; Kawahara, Hirotaka; Nagai, Akinori; Sakao, Ryuta*; Murata, Chotaro*; Tanaka, Junya*; Matsusaka, Yasunori*; Tatsuno, Takahiro*

Proceedings of 2015 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2015) (CD-ROM), p.1058 - 1067, 2015/05

In the experimental fast reactor Joyo (Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR)), it was confirmed that the top of the irradiation test sub-assembly had bent onto the in-vessel storage rack as an obstacle and had damaged the upper core structure (UCS). There is a risk of deformation of the UCS and guide sleeve (GS) caused by interference between them unless inclination is controlled precisely. To mitigate the risk, special jack-up equipment for applying three-point suspension was developed. The existing damaged UCS (ed-UCS) jack-up test using the jack-up equipment was conducted on May 7, 2014. As a result of this test, it was confirmed that the ed-UCS could be successfully jacked-up to 1000 mm without consequent overload. The experience and knowledge gained in the ed-UCS jack-up test provides valuable insights and prospects not only for UCS replacement but also for further improving and verifying repair techniques in SFRs.

Development of timing system for RF ion source & RFQ III test stand

Sawabe, Yuki; Ito, Yuichi; Kawase, Masato; Fukuta, Shimpei; Suzuki, Takahiro*; Kikuzawa, Nobuhiro; Ouchi, Nobuo

Proceedings of 11th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.748 - 751, 2014/10

http://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2014/proceedings/PDF/SAP0/SAP090.pdf

no abstracts in English

Organic solvent-free water-developable sugar resist material derived from biomass in green lithography

Takei, Satoshi*; Oshima, Akihiro*; Ichikawa, Takumi*; Sekiguchi, Atsushi*; Kashiwakura, Miki*; Kozawa, Takahiro*; Tagawa, Seiichi*; Oyama, Tomoko; Ito, Shoji*; Miyasaka, Hiroshi*

Microelectronic Engineering, 122, p.70 - 76, 2014/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2014.02.026

Biomass-derived branched sugar resist material was developed for environmentally-friendly electron beam lithography (EBL). The developed resist enables organic solvent-free water-developable process. The resist performance was evaluated using 75 keV EBL system. Lines of 50-200 nm were fabricated with high sensitivity of 7 C/cm. The resist is developable in pure water at 23 C for 60 s, and it has acceptable CF etch selectivity.