A Science-based mixed oxide property model for developing advanced oxide nuclear fuels

Kato, Masato; Oki, Takumi; Watanabe, Masashi; Hirooka, Shun; Vauchy, R.; Ozawa, Takayuki; Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Ikusawa, Yoshihisa; Nakamura, Hiroki; Machida, Masahiko

Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 107(5), p.2998 - 3011, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.19609

Present status of JAEA-Tokai tandem accelerator

Kutsukake, Kenichi; Matsuda, Makoto; Nakamura, Masahiko; Ishizaki, Nobuhiro; Kabumoto, Hiroshi; Otokawa, Yoshinori; Asozu, Takuhiro; Matsui, Yutaka; Nakagawa, Sohei; Abe, Shinichi

Proceedings of 20th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.1080 - 1084, 2023/11

https://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2023/proceedings/PDF/TFSP/TFSP08.pdf

no abstracts in English

Machine learning molecular dynamics simulations for evaluation of high-temperature properties of nuclear fuel materials

Kobayashi, Keita; Nakamura, Hiroki; Itakura, Mitsuhiro; Machida, Masahiko; Okumura, Masahiko

Materia, 62(3), p.175 - 181, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.2320/materia.62.175

no abstracts in English

Correlations for the specific heat capacity of (UPu)GdO derived from molecular dynamics

Galvin, C. O. T.*; Machida, Masahiko; Nakamura, Hiroki; Andersson, D. A.*; Cooper, M. W. D.*

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 572, p.154028_1 - 154028_8, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154028

UO is the primary conventional fuel used in most nuclear reactors with GdO commonly added as a burnable absorber to produce a more level power distribution in the reactor core at the beginning of operation. It can also be mixed with other actinide oxides to produce mixed oxide (MOx) fuel. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were used to predict the specific heat capacity of Gd-doped PuO, UO and (U,Pu)O MOx accommodating Gd substituted at cation sites via two charge compensation mechanisms - oxygen vacancy formation and the oxidation of U to U. The specific heat capacity values for PuO and UO are in good agreement with other studies showing a distinct peak at high temperatures - above 1800 K. As Gd is added, the peak height reduces for each composition considered. An analytical fit was applied to the data where Gd was fully charge compensated by either oxygen vacancies or U. The expression was then validated by predicting the specific heat capacity for three compositions of (UPu)GdO containing both oxygen vacancies and U, and compared to molecular dynamics data.

Materials science and fuel technologies of uranium and plutonium mixed oxide

Kato, Masato; Machida, Masahiko; Hirooka, Shun; Nakamichi, Shinya; Ikusawa, Yoshihisa; Nakamura, Hiroki; Kobayashi, Keita; Ozawa, Takayuki; Maeda, Koji; Sasaki, Shinji; et al.

Materials Science and Fuel Technologies of Uranium and Plutonium mixed Oxide, 171 Pages, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003298205

Innovative and advanced nuclear reactors using plutonium fuel has been developed in each country. In order to develop a new nuclear fuel, irradiation tests are indispensable, and it is necessary to demonstrate the performance and safety of nuclear fuels. If we can develop a technology that accurately simulates irradiation behavior as a technology that complements the irradiation test, the cost, time, and labor involved in nuclear fuel research and development will be greatly reduced. And safety and reliability can be significantly improved through simulation of nuclear fuel irradiation behavior. In order to evaluate the performance of nuclear fuel, it is necessary to know the physical and chemical properties of the fuel at high temperatures. And it is indispensable to develop a behavior model that describes various phenomena that occur during irradiation. In previous research and development, empirical methods with fitting parameters have been used in many parts of model development. However, empirical techniques can give very different results in areas where there is no data. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to construct a scientific descriptive model that can extrapolate the basic characteristics of fuel to the composition and temperature, and to develop an irradiation behavior analysis code to which the model is applied.

Defect equilibria and thermophysical properties of CeO based on experimental data and density functional theory calculation result

Watanabe, Masashi; Nakamura, Hiroki; Suzuki, Kiichi; Machida, Masahiko; Kato, Masato

Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 105(3), p.2248 - 2257, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.18249

Properties of CeO were evaluated by DFT simulation to determine band gap, Frenkel defect formation energy and defect migration energy. Band gap and Frenkel defect formation energy were used to analyze defect equilibria. Oxygen partial pressure dependence of defect equilibria was evaluated based on oxygen potential experimental data and DFT calculation, and a Brouwer diagram was derived. The defect formation energies, including Frenkel defect, electron-hole pair and so on, were determined and used to evaluate the properties, including oxygen diffusion coefficients, electrical conduction, heat capacity and thermal conductivity. Mechanisms of various properties were discussed for a deeper understanding based on defect chemistry, and the relationship among properties were systematically described.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

Machine learning potentials for tobermorite minerals

Kobayashi, Keita; Nakamura, Hiroki; Yamaguchi, Akiko; Itakura, Mitsuhiro; Machida, Masahiko; Okumura, Masahiko

Computational Materials Science, 188, p.110173_1 - 110173_14, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2020.110173

no abstracts in English

Present status of JAEA-Tokai tandem accelerator

Matsuda, Makoto; Ishizaki, Nobuhiro; Tayama, Hidekazu; Kabumoto, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Masahiko; Kutsukake, Kenichi; Otokawa, Yoshinori; Asozu, Takuhiro; Matsui, Yutaka; Abe, Shinichi; et al.

Proceedings of 17th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.948 - 952, 2020/09

https://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2020/proceedings/PDF/FRSP/FRSP02.pdf

no abstracts in English

First-principles calculation of mechanical properties of simulated debris ZrUO

Itakura, Mitsuhiro; Nakamura, Hiroki; Kitagaki, Toru; Hoshino, Takanori; Machida, Masahiko

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 56(9-10), p.915 - 921, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2019.1604271

To elucidate the mechanical properties of fuel debris inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, we use first-principles calculations to evaluate mechanical properties of cubic ZrUO, which is a main component of the fuel debris. We focus on the dependence of mechanical properties on the fraction x of zirconium, compare our results with recent experiment of simulated debris, in which dependences of elastic moduli and fracture toughness on the ZrO content showed deviation from a simple linear relation. We show that elastic moduli drop at around x=0.25 and increase again for larger values of x, as has been observed in experiments. The reason of the drop is a softening owing to disordered atomistic structures induced by the solute zirconium atoms. We also find that stress-strain curves for the x=0.125 case show marked hysteresis owing to the existence of many meta-stable states. We show that this hysteresis leads to slightly increased fracture toughness, but it is not enough to account for the significant increase of fracture toughness observed in experiments.