Decommissioning state of Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility; Dismantling the glove box W-9 and equipment interior, and a part of tunnel F1

Nagai, Yuya; Shuji, Yoshiyuki; Kawasaki, Takeshi; Aita, Takahiro; Kimura, Yasuhisa; Nemoto, Yasunori*; Onuma, Takeshi*; Tomiyama, Noboru*; Hirano, Koji*; Usui, Yasuhiro*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2022-039, 117 Pages, 2023/06

JAEA-Technology-2022-039.pdf:11.96MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) manages wide range of nuclear facilities. Many of these facilities are required to be performed adjustment with the aging and complement with the new regulatory standards and the earthquake resistant, since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. It is therefore desirable to promote decommissioning of facilities that have reached the end of their productive life in order to reduce risk and maintenance costs. However, the progress of facility decommissioning require large amount of money and radioactive waste storage space. In order to address these issues, JAEA has formulated a "The Medium/Long-Term Management Plan of JAEA Facilities" with three pillars: (1) consolidation and prioritization of facilities, (2) assurance of facility safety, and (3) back-end countermeasures. In this plan, Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility has been selected as primary decommissioned facility, and dismantling of equipment in the facilities have been underway. In this report, size reduction activities of the glove box W-9 and a part of tunnel F-1, which was connected to W-9, are presented, and the obtained findings are highlighted. The glovebox W-9 had oxidation & reduction furnace, and pellet crushing machine as equipment interior. The duration of activity took six years from February 2014 to February 2020, including suspended period of 4 years due to the enhanced authorization approval process.

Role of advection in atmospheric ammonia; A Case study at a Japanese lake basin influenced by agricultural ammonia sources

Kubota, Tomohiro; Kuroda, Hisao*; Watanabe, Mirai*; Takahashi, Akiko*; Nakazato, Ryoji*; Tarui, Mika*; Matsumoto, Shunichi*; Nakagawa, Keita*; Numata, Yasuko*; Ouchi, Takao*; et al.

Atmospheric Environment, 243, p.117856_1 - 117856_9, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117856

The dry and wet depositions of atmospheric ammonia (NH) is one of the important pathways of nitrogen loads to aquatic ecosystems. Crop and livestock agriculture, one of the largest emitters of NH in Asian countries, are known to cause high spatial and seasonal variation of NH and influence the surrounding lake basin areas via its dry and wet deposition. However, the spatial characteristics of the NH concentration in basin scale are not completely understood for regulation in NH emission. Here we aim to clarify dominant factors of spatial and seasonal variations of the NH concentration in a eutrophic lake basin surrounded by agricultural areas in Japan. Passive sampling over various land use categories in the basin was conducted at 36 sites in total from October 2018 to January 2020. Interestingly, the observed NH concentration near the livestock houses were higher in winter than summer, which was inconsistent with knowledge of seasonal changes of current NH emission inventory based on temperature-driven volatilization process. Comparing monthly NH concentrations with various meteorological factors, we suggested the importance of seasonal advection of NH from high emission sources to which has been rarely paid attention by the previous past studies. As for this, should be considered for lake ecosystem management since deposition of NH is known to be closely related to the ecological processes such as phytoplankton blooming.

Interlaboratory comparison of positron annihilation lifetime measurements

Ito, Kenji*; Oka, Toshitaka*; Kobayashi, Yoshinori*; Shirai, Yasuharu*; Wada, Kenichiro*; Matsumoto, Masataka*; Fujinami, Masanori*; Hirade, Tetsuya; Honda, Yoshihide*; Hosomi, Hiroyuki*; et al.

Materials Science Forum, 607, p.248 - 250, 2009/00

So far no standard procedure for the positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) technique has been established. A lack of the standards has led to difficulty in ensuring the equivalency and reliability of data from different laboratories. As a first, we conducted an interlaboratory comparison of PAL measurements for metal, polymer and silica glass with agreed procedures for data recording and analysis. The PAL data recorded at different laboratories were analyzed with a single lifetime component for the metal sample and with three components for the others, respectively. Based on the results of the reported positron and ortho-positronium lifetimes, the possible sources of the uncertainties in the PAL measurements are discussed. To reduce the effect of scattered rays, a lead shield was placed between the detectors. The uncertainty was significantly decreased, signifying that placing lead shields between the detectors effectively reduced the false signals due to the scattered rays.

Status of assessment tools on the performance guarantee contents of buffer material

Tanai, Kenji; Jintoku, Takashi*; Kikuchi, Hirohito*; Nishimura, Mayuka; Matsumoto, Kazuhiro*; Aoyanagi, Shigeo; Yui, Mikazu

JAEA-Research 2006-035, 32 Pages, 2006/06

JAEA-Research-2006-035.pdf:3.46MB

In order to contribute to the safety standards and guidelines which a regulator decides, state-of the art assessment method is investigated and summarized in the table about performance guarantee contents of buffer material related to the mechanical support and protection of the overpack and rock matrix, and the retardation of radionuclide. In addition, examples of the assessment tool are described. In this report, summary of (1) basic properties of bentonite, including swelling properties, mechanical properties and hydraulic properties, (2) long-term behavior of bentonite, including creep deformation, penetration into host rock, erosion and alteration, (3) gas permeability, (4) colloid filtration and (5) mechanical stability of the near-field is described. Check points, assessment methods (based on the data obtained from the experimental results, the estimation value obtained from empirical equations and database, and the modeling calculations) and latest results of these R&D programs were also summarized.

Study on release and transport of aerial radioactive materials in reprocessing plant, 6; Cold test (Part 3) Effect of FP concentration in mocked HLLW to ARF

Tashiro, Shinsuke; Matsumoto, Tetsuya; Kataoka, Osamu; Amano, Yuki; Abe, Hitoshi; Yamane, Yuichi; Yoshida, Kazuo; Ishikawa, Jun; Uchiyama, Gunzo; Ueda, Yoshinori*; et al.

no journal, , 

The release behavior of radioactive materials from high-level radioactive liquid wastes (HLW) from reprocessing plants under an accidents of boiling to dryness of HLW condition has been studied. The influences of FP concentration in the simulated HLW on the release ratio of FP from the waste were measured in the laboratory-scaled experiments using non-radioactive simulated HLW which was prepared by dissolving 27 FP elements into nitric acid and adjusted to 2 M acidity. The simulated HLW was heated up to 300C under the constant air ventilation condition. The accumulated release ratios of FP elements from samples were determined using ICP-MS analysis. It was found that the accumulated release ratio of Ru was decreased with the increase of the initial Ru concentration in the simulated HLW. However, those of Cs and Nd were not influenced by the initial concentrations of them.

Study on release and transport of aerial radioactive materials in reprocessing plant, 4; Cold test (Part 1) ARF test using mocked fuel reprocessing liquid waste

Tashiro, Shinsuke; Matsumoto, Tetsuya; Kataoka, Osamu; Amano, Yuki; Abe, Hitoshi; Yamane, Yuichi; Yoshida, Kazuo; Ishikawa, Jun; Uchiyama, Gunzo; Ueda, Yoshinori*; et al.

no journal, , 

Measurements on the release ratios of aerial radioactive materials from mocked fuel reprocessing liquid waste under its boiling to dryness process were performed using labo-scaled experiments. Test sample, dissolved 27 elements into nitric acid and arranged to 2M acidity, was heated up to 300 C under the constant air ventilation. Steam, gaseous and airborne materials were collected or absorbed at the condenser, the air filter and the washing bottles. The accumulated release ratios of mocked FP elements from samples were determined using ICP-MS. From the accumulated release ratios determined from the condensed samples, the major release of Cs and Ru could be involved the release of mist and gaseous RuO, respectively. Besides, accumulated release ratios of Ru was about 10 to 1000 times higher than Cs, differed from the literature using fuel reprocessing liquid waste. Its differences could be influenced the nitrous acid, which was reduced the generation of RuO.

Interlaboratry comparison of psotitron annihilation lifetime measurement

Ito, Kenji*; Oka, Toshitaka*; Kobayashi, Yoshinori*; Shirai, Yasuharu*; Wada, Kenichiro*; Matsumoto, Masataka*; Fujinami, Masanori*; Hirade, Tetsuya; Honda, Yoshihide*; Hosomi, Hiroyuki*; et al.

no journal, , 

So far no standard procedure for the positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) technique has been established. A lack of the standards has led to difficulty in ensuring equivalency and reliability of data from different laboratories. Recently, as a first step toward the standardization of the PAL technique, we conducted an interlaboratory comparison of PAL measurements for fused silica, polycarbonate and metal with agreed procedures for data recording and analysis. Based on the results of the reported lifetimes, possible sources of the uncertainties in the PAL measurements is probably caused by the backscattered -rays by other detectors. We succeeded to show that inserting shields between detectors can reduce the uncertainty.