ALTEMIS: Using integrated hydrology and reactive transport modeling to support resilience at the Savannah River Site

Xu, Z.*; Litzinger, A.*; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Arora, B.*; Hazenberg, P.*; Wang, L.*; Gonzalez Raymat, H.*; Fabricatore, E.*; Wainwright, Haruko*; Eddy-Dilek, C.*

Proceedings of Waste Management Symposia 2024 (WM2024) (Internet), 14 Pages, 2024/03

Thermochronology of hydrothermal alteration zones in the Kii Peninsula, southwest Japan; An Attempt for detecting the thermal anomalies and implications to the regional exhumation history

Sueoka, Shigeru; Iwano, Hideki*; Danhara, Toru*; Niwa, Masakazu; Kanno, Mizuho; Kohn, B. P.*; Kawamura, Makoto; Yokoyama, Tatsunori; Kagami, Saya; Ogita, Yasuhiro; et al.

Earth, Planets and Space (Internet), 75(1), p.177_1 - 177_24, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-023-01921-5

Fluid-inclusion and thermochronometric analyses have been applied to hydrothermal alteration zones and their host rocks outcropping in the Hongu area of the Kii Peninsula, southwestern Japan in an attempt to detect thermal anomalies related to hydrothermal events and quantify the thermal effects on the host rocks. Hydrothermal events at ca 150 deg. C and ca 200 deg. C were identified by fluid-inclusion microthermometry of quartz veins in the alteration zones. For the host rocks and alteration zones, in the youngest population zircon yielded U-Pb dates ranging between ca 74.7-59.2 Ma, fission-track dates of ca 27.2-16.6 Ma, and (U-Th)/He single-grain dates of ca 23.6-8.7 Ma. Apatite yielded pooled fission-track ages of ca 14.9-9.0 Ma. The zircon U-Pb dates constrain the maximum depositional ages of the sedimentary samples. However, the fission-track and (U-Th)/He dates show no clear trend as a function of distance from the alteration zones. Hence, no thermal anomaly was detected in the surrounding host rocks based on the thermochronometric data patterns. The fission-track and (U-Th)/He dates are rather thought to record regional thermal and exhumation histories rather than a direct thermal imprint of fluid flow, probably because the duration of such activity was too short or because fluid flow occurred before regional cooling events and were later thermally overprinted. Apatite fission-track ages of ca 10 Ma may reflect regional mountain uplift and exhumation related to the obduction of the SW Japan lithospheric sliver onto the Shikoku Basin, or the rapid subduction of the Philippine Sea slab associated with the clockwise rotation of the Southwest Japan Arc.

Extraction of Mo hot atoms made by a neutron capture method from -MoO to water

Quach, N. M.*; Ngo, M. C.*; Yang, Y.*; Nguyen, T. B.*; Nguyen, V. T.*; Fujita, Yoshitaka; Do, T. M. D.*; Nakayama, Tadachika*; Suzuki, Tatsuya*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 332(10), p.4057 - 4064, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09125-7

Technetium-99m (Tc) is the most widely used medical radioisotope in the world and is produced from molybdenum-99 (Mo). Production of Mo via the neutron capture method draws attention as an alternative to fission-derived Mo due to non-proliferation issues, but the specific radioactivity of Mo is extremely low. In this work, a porous -MoO wire was prepared as an irradiation target in order to improve the specific activity by extracting Mo. Porous -MoO wire is synthesized from Mo metal wire by a two-step heating procedure. The hot atom effect of Mo was confirmed by activity and isotope measurements of the porous -MoO wire after neutron irradiation and the water used for extraction. In term of the extraction effectiveness, the effectiveness of Mo extraction in the porous -MoO wire was comparable to that of commercial -MoO powder.

Chemical interaction between Sr vapor species and nuclear reactor core structure

Mohamad, A. B.; Nakajima, Kunihisa; Miwa, Shuhei; Osaka, Masahiko

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(3), p.215 - 222, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2092227

Core and safety design for France-Japan common concept on sodium-cooled fast reactor

Takano, Kazuya; Oki, Shigeo; Ozawa, Takayuki; Yamano, Hidemasa; Kubo, Shigenobu; Ogura, Masashi*; Yamada, Yumi*; Koyama, Kazuya*; Kurita, Koichi*; Costes, L.*; et al.

EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies (Internet), 8, p.35_1 - 35_9, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2022040

The France and Japan teams have carried out collaborative works to have common technical views regarding a sodium-cooled fast reactor concept. Japan has studied the feasibility of an enhanced high burnup low-void effect (CFV) core and fuel using oxide dispersion-strengthened steel cladding in ASTRID 600. Regarding passive shutdown capabilities, Japan team has performed a preliminary numerical analysis for ASTRID 600 using a complementary safety device, called a self-actuated shutdown system (SASS), one of the safety approaches of Japan. The mitigation measures of ASTRID 600 against a severe accident, such as a core catcher, molten corium discharge assembly, and the sodium void reactivity features of the CFV core, are promising to achieve in-vessel retention for both countries. The common design concept based on ASTRID 600 is feasible to demonstrate the SFR core and safety technologies for both countries.

Third international challenge to model the medium- to long-range transport of radioxenon to four Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations

Maurer, C.*; Galmarini, S.*; Solazzo, E.*; Kumierczyk-Michulec, J.*; Bar, J.*; Kalinowski, M.*; Schoeppner, M.*; Bourgouin, P.*; Crawford, A.*; Stein, A.*; et al.

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 255, p.106968_1 - 106968_27, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.106968

After performing multi-model exercises in 2015 and 2016, a comprehensive Xe-133 atmospheric transport modeling challenge was organized in 2019. For evaluation measured samples for the same time frame were gathered from four International Monitoring System stations located in Europe and North America with overall considerable influence of IRE and/or CNL emissions. As a lesion learnt from the 2nd ATM-Challenge participants were prompted to work with controlled and harmonized model set ups to make runs more comparable, but also to increase diversity. Effects of transport errors, not properly characterized remaining emitters and long IMS sampling times (12 to 24 hours) undoubtedly interfere with the effect of high-quality IRE and CNL stack data. An ensemble based on a few arbitrary submissions is good enough to forecast the Xe-133 background at the stations investigated. The effective ensemble size is below five.

On the adsorption and reactivity of element 114, flerovium

Yakushev, A.*; Lens, L.*; Dllmann, Ch. E.*; Khuyagbaatar, J.*; Jger, E.*; Krier, J.*; Runke, J.*; Albers, H. M.*; Asai, Masato; Block, M.*; et al.

Frontiers in Chemistry (Internet), 10, p.976635_1 - 976635_11, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.976635

Flerovium (Fl, element 114) is the heaviest element chemically studied so far. The first chemical experiment on Fl suggested that Fl is a noble-gas-like element, while the second studies suggested that Fl has a volatile-metal-like character. To obtain more reliable conclusion, we performed further experimental studies on Fl adsorption behavior on Si oxide and gold surfaces. The present results suggest that Fl is highly volatile and less reactive than the volatile metal, Hg, but has higher reactivity than the noble gas, Rn.

Fine structure in the decay of the 8 isomer in U

Zhang, M. M.*; Tian, Y. L.*; Wang, Y. S.*; Zhang, Z. Y.*; Gan, Z. G.*; Yang, H. B.*; Huang, M. H.*; Ma, L.*; Yang, C. L.*; Wang, J. G.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 106(2), p.024305_1 - 024305_6, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024305

Applicability of equivalent linear three-dimensional FEM analysis of reactor buildings to the seismic response of a soil-structure interaction system

Ichihara, Yoshitaka*; Nakamura, Naohiro*; Nabeshima, Kunihiko*; Choi, B.; Nishida, Akemi

Transactions of the 26th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT-26) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/07

The objective of this study is to evaluate the applicability of the equivalent linear analysis method for reinforced concrete, which uses frequency-independent complex damping with a small computational load, to the seismic design of reactor building of the nuclear power plant. To achieve this, the three-dimensional finite element analyses of the soil-structure interaction system focusing on the nonlinear and equivalent linear seismic behavior under an ideal soil condition were performed for Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant Unit 7 reactor building. From these results, the equivalent linear analysis method showed a generally good correspondence with the nonlinear analysis method, and the effectiveness of the method was confirmed.

Basic study on seismic respnse of soil-structure interaction system using equivalent linear three-dimensional FEM analysis of reactor building

Ichihara, Yoshitaka*; Nakamura, Naohiro*; Nabeshima, Kunihiko*; Choi, B.; Nishida, Akemi

Kozo Kogaku Rombunshu, B, 68B, p.271 - 283, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.3130/aijjse.68B.0_271

This paper aims to evaluate the applicability of the equivalent linear analysis method for reinforced concrete, which uses frequency-independent hysteretic damping, to the seismic design of reactor building of the nuclear power plant. To achieve this, we performed three-dimensional FEM analyses of the soil-structure interaction system, focusing on the nonlinear and equivalent linear seismic behavior of a reactor building under an ideal soil condition. From these results, the method of equivalent analysis showed generally good correspondence with the method of the nonlinear analysis, confirming the effectiveness. Moreover, the method tended to lower the structural stiffness compared to the nonlinear analysis model. Therefore, in the evaluation of the maximum shear strain, we consider that the results were more likely to be higher than the results of nonlinear analysis.