Study on chemical form of tritium in coolant helium of high temperature gas-cooled reactor with tritium production device

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Goto, Minoru; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Katayama, Kazunari*; Otsuka, Teppei*; Tobita, Kenji*

Proceedings of 2021 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2021) (USB Flash Drive), 5 Pages, 2021/10

Impurity concentrations of hydrogen and hydride in the coolant were investigated in detail for the HTTR, a block type high-temperature gas reactor owned by Japan. As a result, it was found that CH was 1/10 of H concentration, which was under the conventional detection limit. If the ratio of H to CH in the coolant is the same as the ratio of HT to CHT, the CHT has a larger dose conversion factor, and this compositional ratio is an important finding for the optimal dose evaluation. Further investigation of the origin of CH suggested that CH was produced as a result of a thermal equilibrium reaction rather than being released as an impurity from the core.

Evaluation of tritium confinement performance of alumina and zirconium for tritium production in a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor for fusion reactors

Katayama, Kazunari*; Ushida, Hiroki*; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Fukada, Satoshi*; Goto, Minoru; Nakagawa, Shigeaki

Fusion Science and Technology, 68(3), p.662 - 668, 2015/10

https://doi.org/10.13182/FST14-968

Tritium production utilizing nuclear reactions by neutron and lithium in a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor is attractive for development of a fusion reactor. From viewpoints of tritium safety and production efficiency, tritium confinement technique is an important issue. It is known that alumina has high resistance for gas permeation. In this study, hydrogen permeation experiments in commercial alumina tubes were conducted and hydrogen permeability, diffusivity and solubility was evaluated. By using obtained data, tritium permeation behavior from an AlO-coated Li-compound particle was simulated. Additionally, by using literature data for hydrogen behavior in zirconium, an effect of Zr incorporation into an AlO coating on tritium permeation was discussed. It was indicated that the majority of produced tritium was released through the AlO coating above 500C. However, it is expected that total tritium leak is suppressed to below 0.67% of total tritium produced at 500C by incorporating Zr fine particles into the inside of AlO coating.

Application of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor to produce tritium for fusion reactors

Nakaya, Hiroyuki*; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Katayama, Kazunari*; Goto, Minoru; Nakagawa, Shigeaki

Proceedings of 2015 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2015) (CD-ROM), p.398 - 402, 2015/05

The performance of tritium production for fusion reactor using High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) is studied. An influence of Li concentration on tritium production performance using HTGR is estimated. Li compound is loaded in the reactor core using Li rod consisting cylindrical Li compound in cladding tube. A Gas Turbine High-Temperature Reactor of 300 MWe nominal capacity (GTHTR300) with 600 MW thermal output power is assumed as HTGR. An amount of tritium production is estimated by burn-up calculations using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo transport code MVP-BURN. The amount of tritium outflow is estimated from equilibrium solution for the tritium diffusion equation in the cladding tube. Even if 6Li is enriched, the GTHTR300 can produce 500 g of tritium over 180-day operation without increasing the amount of required Li. The amount of tritium outflow is decreased by 20-50%.

Overview of plasma-material interaction experiments on EAST employing MAPES

Ding, F.*; Luo, G.-N.*; Pitts, R.*; Litnovsky, A.*; Gong, X.*; Ding, R.*; Mao, H.*; Zhou, H.*; Wampler, W. R.*; Stangeby, P. C.*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 455(1-3), p.710 - 716, 2014/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.09.017

Concentration profiles of tritium penetrated into concrete

Takata, Hiroki*; Furuichi, Kazuya*; Nishikawa, Masabumi*; Fukada, Satoshi*; Katayama, Kazunari*; Takeishi, Toshiharu*; Kobayashi, Kazuhiro; Hayashi, Takumi; Namba, Haruyuki*

Fusion Science and Technology, 54(1), p.223 - 226, 2008/07

https://doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1800

Concentration profiles of tritium penetrated into cement paste, mortar and concrete were measured by using samples with a shape of column. Tritium penetrated until a location of about 5 cm from the exposed surface after 6 months' exposure. The amount of tritium penetrated into mortar and concrete were less than 70% and half that into cement paste.

Release behavior of hydrogen isotopes from JT-60U graphite tiles

Katayama, Kazunari*; Takeishi, Toshiharu*; Nagase, Hiroyasu*; Manabe, Yusuke*; Nishikawa, Masabumi*; Miya, Naoyuki; Masaki, Kei

Fusion Science and Technology, 48(1), p.561 - 564, 2005/07

https://doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A987

no abstracts in English

Tritium release behavior from the graphite tiles used at the dome unit of the W-shaped divertor region in JT-60U

Katayama, Kazunari*; Takeishi, Toshiharu*; Manabe, Yusuke*; Nagase, Hiroyasu*; Nishikawa, Masabumi*; Miya, Naoyuki

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 340(1), p.83 - 92, 2005/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2004.11.005

no abstracts in English

Study on tritium production with high-temperature gas-cooled reactor for fusion reactors, 2; Process and plant safety

Goto, Minoru; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Nakaya, Hiroyuki*; Katayama, Kazunari*

no journal, , 

The tritium fuel production system using a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor is proposed for initial fusion reactors. In this study, the feasibility assessment of the system was performed from the view point of engineering and safety.

Evaluation of nuclear characteristics of lithium loaded HTGR for tritium production for fusion reactors

Goto, Minoru; Okumura, Keisuke; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Matsuura, Hideaki*; Nakaya, Hiroyuki*; Katayama, Kazunari*

no journal, , 

A feasibility study of a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) for tritium production using Li(n,)T reaction for fusion reactors has been conducted. In this study, the burn-up chain was modified to treat Li(n,a)T reaction directory in neutronics calculations, and then the feasibility study was performed from the view point of nuclear characteristics using SRAC code system, which has experience in neutronics analysis of HTGRs.

Study on management of tritiated water for a fusion DEMO reactor

Watanabe, Kazuhito; Nakamura, Makoto; Someya, Yoji; Masui, Akihiro; Katayama, Kazunari*; Hayashi, Takumi; Yanagihara, Satoshi*; Konishi, Satoshi*; Yokomine, Takehiko*; Torikai, Yuji*; et al.

no journal, , 

In the DEMO design, the blanket primary cooling system involves high temperature pressurized water (~300C). This means the temperature of blanket structural material is higher than that of ITER. This increases tritium permeation ratio from the fusion plasma and blanket breeder to the primary cooling water. Therefore, we need to consider installation of a water detritiation system. In this study, we estimate the demand of water detritiation system from the view point of the amount of tritium permeated to primary cooling water that assumed conservatively. We also organize the issues for management of tritiated water from the other point of view based on the characteristic of the fusion DEMO reactor. The result shows that the existing facilities can be adopted to the DEMO if we can control the tritium ratio of primary cooling water as same as that of CANDU reactor.