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Nishihara, Kenji
JAEA-Conf 2022-001, p.63 - 67, 2022/11
This tutorial contains a role of accelerator-driven system (ADS) in the nuclear fuel cycle and necessity of nuclear data to realize the ADS. After an overview of Japanese nuclear fuel cycle and government direction, geological disposal concept of high-level waste (HLW) will be described. By partitioning problematic elements from the HLW and transmuting, utilizing or storing them, geological disposal can be changed. ADS plays a role of transmuting minor actinide (MA) separated from HLW to fission product (FP), which are less radio-toxic than MA. The principle of ADS will be introduced with technological issues, and finally utilization of nuclear data for R&D on ADS will be introduced.
Sato, Rika*; Nishi, Tsuyoshi*; Ota, Hiromichi*; Hayashi, Hirokazu; Sugawara, Takanori; Nishihara, Kenji
Dai-43-Kai Nihon Netsu Bussei Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu (CD-ROM), 3 Pages, 2022/10
no abstracts in English
Yee-Rendon, B.; Meigo, Shinichiro; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Tamura, Jun; Nakano, Keita; Maekawa, Fujio; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Sugawara, Takanori; Nishihara, Kenji
Journal of Instrumentation (Internet), 17(10), p.P10005_1 - P10005_21, 2022/10
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0(Instruments & Instrumentation)To reduce the hazard of minor actinides in nuclear waste, JAEA proposed an accelerator-driven subcritical system (JAEA-ADS). The JAEA-ADS drives a subcritical reactor 800-MWth by 30-MW proton linac delivering the beam to the spallation neutron target inside the reactor. The beam transport to the target (BTT) is required for high-beam power stability and low peak density to ensure the integrity of the beam window. Additionally, the design should have compatible with the reactor design for the maintenance and replacement of the fuel and the beam window. A robust-compact BTT design was developed through massive multiparticle simulations. The beam optics was optimized to guarantee beam window feasibility requirements by providing a low peak density of less than 0.3 
A/mm
. Beam stability was evaluated and improved by simultaneously applying the linac's input beam and element errors. The input beam errors to the reactor were based on the beam degradation obtained by implementing fast fault compensation in the linac. Those results show that the BTT fulfills the requirements for JAEA-ADS.
Nakano, Keita; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Nishihara, Kenji; Meigo, Shinichiro; Sugawara, Takanori; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Takeshita, Hayato*; Maekawa, Fujio
JAEA-Research 2021-018, 41 Pages, 2022/03
JAEA-Research-2021-018.pdf:2.93MB
Neutronic analysis of beam window of the Accelerator-Driven System (ADS) proposed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducted using PHITS and DCHAIN-PHITS codes. We investigate gas production of hydrogen and helium isotopes in the beam window, displacement per atom of beam window material, and heat generation in the beam window. In addition, distributions of produced nuclides, heat density, and activity are derived. It was found that at the maximum 12500 appm H production, 1800 appm He production, and damage of 62.1 DPA occurred in the beam window by the ADS operation. On the other hand, the maximum heat generation in the beam window was 374 W/cm
. In the analysis of LBE, 
Bi and 
Po were found to be the dominant nuclides in decay heat and radioactivity. Furthermore, the heat generation in the LBE by the proton beam was maximum around 5 cm downstream of the beam window, which was 945 W/cm.
Katano, Ryota; Nishihara, Kenji; Kondo, Yasuhiro; Meigo, Shinichiro
JAEA-Research 2021-016, 16 Pages, 2022/03
JAEA-Research-2021-016.pdf:1.65MB
It has to be confirmed that the accelerator-driven system (ADS), which is dedicated to transmuting minor actinides, is subcritical in any state by measurements. In the previous research, we have proposed a procedure in which the core safely and efficiently approaches the target subcriticality before the operation. In this procedure, the reference value of the subcriticality at the initial state is measured by the area ratio method capable of the absolute value measurement. The area ratio method uses a pulsed neutron source. However, specific and practical parameters of the accelerator for the area ratio method have not been determined. In this study, we determined the accelerator parameters with the consideration of the uncertainties derived by the dead-time of the detector and the statistical error of the count ratio. In addition, we estimate the coating amount of the sample nuclide in the assumption of the use of the fission chambers.
Okamura, Tomohiro*; Nishihara, Kenji; Katano, Ryota; Oizumi, Akito; Nakase, Masahiko*; Asano, Hidekazu*; Takeshita, Kenji*
JAEA-Data/Code 2021-016, 43 Pages, 2022/03
JAEA-Data-Code-2021-016.pdf:3.06MB
The quantitative prediction and analysis of the future nuclear energy utilization scenarios are required in order to establish the advanced nuclear fuel cycle. However, the nuclear fuel cycle consists of various processes from front- to back-end, and it is difficult to analyze the scenarios due to the complexity of modeling and the variety of scenarios. Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Tokyo Institute of Technology have jointly developed the NMB code as a tool for integrated analysis of mass balance from natural uranium needs to radionuclide migration of geological disposal. This user manual describes how to create a database and scenario input for the NMB version 4.0.
Sugawara, Takanori; Watanabe, Nao; Ono, Ayako; Nishihara, Kenji; Ichihara, Kyoko*; Hanzawa, Kohei*
Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/03
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has investigated an accelerator-driven system (ADS) to transmute minor actinides (MAs) included in high level wastes discharged from nuclear power plants. The ADS is a lead-bismuth cooled tank-type reactor with 800 MW thermal power. It is supposed that the ADS is safer than conventional critical reactors because it is operated in a subcritical state. The previous study performed the transient analyses for the typical ADS accidents such as unprotected loss of flow or beam overpower. It was shown that all calculation cases except loss of heat sink (LOHS) satisfied the no-damage criteria. To avoid the damage by LOHS, the ADS equips Direct Reactor Auxiliary Cooling System (DRACS) to remove the decay heat. The most important points of a DRACS operation are its reliability and to ensure the flowrate in a natural circulation state. This study aims to perform the CFD analysis of the natural circulation to clarify the flowrate in the ADS reactor vessel.
Iwamoto, Hiroki; Meigo, Shinichiro; Nakano, Keita; Yee-Rendon, B.; Katano, Ryota; Sugawara, Takanori; Nishihara, Kenji; Sasa, Toshinobu; Maekawa, Fujio
JAEA-Research 2021-012, 58 Pages, 2022/01
JAEA-Research-2021-012.pdf:7.23MB
A radiation shielding analysis was performed for the structure located above the spallation target of an accelerator-driven system (ADS), assuming one cycle of an 800 MW thermal and 30 MW beam power operation. In this analysis, the Monte Carlo particle transport code PHITS and the activation analysis code DCHAIN-PHITS were used. The structures to be analyzed are a beam duct above the target, a beam transport room located above the ADS reactor vessel, beam transport equipment, and the room ceiling. For each structure, the radiation doses and radioactivities during and after the operation were estimated. Furthermore, the shielding structure of the ceiling was determined. As a result, it was found that the radiation dose at the site boundary would be sufficiently lower than the legal limit by applying the determined shielding structure. Moreover, under the condition of this study, it was shown that the effective dose rate around the beam transport equipment positioned above the target after the operation exceeded 10 mSv/h, and that the maintenance and replacement of the equipment in the room would require remote handling.
Okamura, Tomohiro*; Katano, Ryota; Oizumi, Akito; Nishihara, Kenji; Nakase, Masahiko*; Asano, Hidekazu*; Takeshita, Kenji*
EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies (Internet), 7, p.19_1 - 19_13, 2021/11
Nuclear Material Balance code version 4.0 (NMB4.0) has been developed through collaborative R&D between Tokyo Institute of Technology and JAEA. Conventional nuclear fuel cycle simulation codes mainly analyze actinides and are specialized for front-end mass balance analysis. However, quantitative back-end simulation has recently become necessary for considering R&D strategies and sustainable nuclear energy utilization. Therefore, NMB4.0 was developed to realize the integrated nuclear fuel cycle simulation from front- to back-end. There are three technical features in NMB4.0: 179 nuclides are tracked, more than any other code, throughout the nuclear fuel cycle; the Okamura explicit method is implemented, which contributes to reducing the numerical cost while maintaining the accuracy of depletion calculations on nuclides with a shorter half-life; and flexibility of back-end simulation is achieved. The main objective of this paper is to show the newly developed functions, made for integrated back-end simulation, and verify NMB4.0 through a benchmark study to show the computational performance.
Sugawara, Takanori; Moriguchi, Daisuke*; Ban, Yasutoshi; Tsubata, Yasuhiro; Takano, Masahide; Nishihara, Kenji
JAEA-Research 2021-008, 63 Pages, 2021/10
JAEA-Research-2021-008.pdf:4.43MB
This study aims to perform the neutronics calculations for accelerator-driven system (ADS) with a new fuel composition based on the SELECT process developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency because the previous studies had used the ideal MA (minor actinide) fuel composition without uranium and rare earth elements. Through the neutronics calculations, it is shown that two calculation cases, with/without neptunium, satisfy the design criteria. Although the new fuel composition includes uranium and rare earth elements, the ADS core with the new fuel composition is feasible and consistent with the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) cycle. Based on the new fuel composition, the heat removal during fuel powder storage and fuel assembly assembling is evaluated. For the fuel powder storage, it is found that a cylindrical tube container with a length of 500 [mm] and a diameter of 11 - 21 [mm] should be stored under water. For the fuel assembly assembling, CFD analysis indicates that the cladding tube temperature would satisfy the criterion if the inlet velocity of air is larger than 0.5 [m/s]. Through these studies, the new fuel composition which is consistent with the P&T cycle is obtained and the heat removal with the latest conditions is investigated. It is also shown that the new fuel composition can be practically handled with respect to heat generation, which is one of the most difficult points in handling MA fuel.
Kumagai, Yuta; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Kimura, Atsushi*; Taguchi, Mitsumasa*; Nishihara, Kenji; Yamagishi, Isao; Ogawa, Toru
Insights Concerning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, Vol.4; Endeavors by Scientists, p.37 - 45, 2021/10
Zeolite adsorbents are to be used for decontamination of radioactive water in Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station. Evaluation of hydrogen production by water radiolysis during decontamination is important for safe operation. Thus hydrogen production from the mixture of zeolite adsorbents and seawater was studied because seawater was urgently used as a coolant for the fuels. The hydrogen yield from the mixture decreased at a high weight fraction of zeolites. However, the measured yield was higher than the yield expected from the direct radiolysis of seawater in the mixture, which would decrease proportional to the weight fraction of seawater. The result suggests that the radiation energy deposited to zeolites was involved in the hydrogen formation. From the results, the hydrogen production rate was evaluated to be 3.6 mL/h per ton of radioactive water before decontamination. After the process, it was evaluated to be 1.5 L/h per ton of waste adsorbents due to the high dose rate.
Watanabe, Nao; Sugawara, Takanori; Okubo, Nariaki; Nishihara, Kenji
JAEA-Technology 2020-026, 59 Pages, 2021/03
JAEA-Technology-2020-026.pdf:3.95MB
As a part of partitioning and transmutation technology development to reduce the burden of radioactive disposal, an investigation of Accelerator-Driven System (ADS) has been performed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency. A beam window, which is an inherent structure of the ADS, is planned to be made from T91 steel and its shape is a thin hemisphere shell. However, it had never been tried to manufacture it out of T91 steel. In this investigation, we tried to manufacture miniature beam windows by cutting T91 steel, and to discuss the process, manufacturing accuracy and geometry measurement methods. As a result, considering a real scale ADS beam window, a figure error between designing and machining ones is estimated to be about 5%. Its effect would be very small to the structural strength.
Okamura, Tomohiro*; Oizumi, Akito; Nishihara, Kenji; Nakase, Masahiko*; Takeshita, Kenji*
JAEA-Data/Code 2020-023, 32 Pages, 2021/03
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-023.pdf:1.67MB
Nuclear Material Balance code (NMB code) have been developed in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The NMB code will be updated with the function of mass balance analysis at the backend process such as reprocessing, vitrification and geological disposal. In order to perform its analysis with high accuracy, it is necessary to expand the number of FP nuclides calculated in the NMB code. In this study, depletion calculation by ORIGEN code was performed under 3 different burn-up conditions such as spent uranium fuel from light water reactor, and nuclides were selected from 5 evaluation indexes such as mass and heat generation. In addition, the FP nuclides required to configure a simple burnup chain with the same calculation accuracy as ORIGEN in the NMB code was selected. As the result, two lists with different number of nuclides, such as "Detailed list" and a "Simplified list", were created.
Okamura, Tomohiro*; Oizumi, Akito; Nishihara, Kenji; Nakase, Masahiko*; Takeshita, Kenji*
Bulletin of the Laboratory for Advanced Nuclear Energy, 5, P. 31, 2021/02
The Takeshita Laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology has started to develop a Nuclear Material Balance code (NMB code) in collaboration with Japan Atomic Energy Agency. This report summarized the results of the joint research conducted in 2019.
Nishihara, Kenji
JAEA-Data/Code 2020-005, 48 Pages, 2020/07
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-005.pdf:2.95MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-005-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:3.62MB
In order to discuss the technological development and human resource development necessary for the future nuclear fuel cycle, various quantitative analyzes were conducted assuming a wide range of future nuclear power generation scenarios. In the evaluation of quantities, the future power generation of LWR and fast reactor, the amount of spent fuel reprocessing, etc. were assumed, and the amount of uranium demand, the accumulation of spent fuel, plutonium, vitrified waste etc. were estimated.
Kunieda, Satoshi; Furutachi, Naoya; Minato, Futoshi; Iwamoto, Nobuyuki; Iwamoto, Osamu; Nakayama, Shinsuke; Ebata, Shuichiro*; Yoshida, Toru*; Nishihara, Kenji; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; et al.
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 56(12), p.1073 - 1091, 2019/12
Times Cited Count：5 Percentile：58.93(Nuclear Science & Technology)A new nuclear data library, JENDL/ImPACT-2018, is developed for an innovative study on the transmutation of long-lived fission products. Nuclear reaction cross- sections are newly evaluated for incident neutrons and protons up to 200 MeV for 163 nuclides including long-lived nuclei such as 
Se, 
Zr, 
Pd and 
Cs. Our challenge is an evaluation of cross-sections for a number of unstable nuclei over a wide energy range where the experimental data are very scarce. We estimated cross- sections based on a nuclear model code CCONE that incorporates an advanced knowledge on the nuclear structure theory and a model-parameterization based on a new experimental cross-sections measured by the inverse kinematics. Through comparisons with available experimental data on the stable isotopes, it is found that the present data give predictions of cross-sections better than those in the existing libraries.
Watanabe, Nao; Obayashi, Hironari; Sugawara, Takanori; Sasa, Toshinobu; Nishihara, Kenji; Castelliti, D.*
Proceedings of 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-18) (USB Flash Drive), p.248 - 261, 2019/08
For the R&D for lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) cooled Accelerator Driven System (ADS), installation of experimental facility using LBE spallation target dedicated for ADS materials irradiation under flowing high temperature LBE environment is planned within the J-PARC project. JAEA has recently finalized the construction of "IMMORTAL", a demonstrative test loop representing a 1:1 model of the above LBE spallation target system. Such facility pursues several different objectives such as studies on the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the target, and validation of the LBE physical properties, the pressure drops and the heat transfer correlations. These results will be useful for design of the facility and LBE target/cooled ADS. In the frame of a bi-lateral collaboration between JAEA and SCK-CEN, a benchmark exercise on the experimental results from IMMORTAL has been carried out. The calculations have been performed with RELAP5-3D System Thermal-Hydraulic code. To assess and predict the thermal-hydraulic behavior of its primary loop, RELAP5-3D calculation models have been configured. The calculated results from these models represented that a valid contribution towards the validation of the LBE properties and empirical correlations present in RELAP5-3D code.
Sugawara, Takanori; Ban, Yasutoshi; Katano, Ryota; Tateno, Haruka; Nishihara, Kenji
Proceedings of International Conference on the Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors 2019 (Internet), 9 Pages, 2019/06
The JAEA has proposed the double-strata strategy which will introduce a dedicated minor actinide (MA) transmutation cycle using an accelerator-driven system (ADS). In the previous study, the ideal fuel condition was supposed in the neutronics design of the ADS. For example, impurities such as rare earth (RE) nuclides which would accompany with MA, were not assumed. However, these nuclides would accompany with the ADS fuel and the capture reaction of these nuclides deteriorates the neutron economy of the ADS core. This study investigates a new fuel composition based on the SELECT (Solvent Extraction from Liquid-waste using Extractants of CHON-type for Transmutation) process proposed by JAEA. By performing the neutronics calculation of the ADS with the new fuel composition, a feasibility of the new fuel composition will be investigated.
Nishihara, Kenji
ImPACT Fujita Puroguramu Kokai Seika Hokokukai "Kaku Henkan Niyoru Koreberu Hoshasei Haikibutsu No Ohaba Na Teigen, Shigenka" Seika Hokokusho, Shiryoshu, p.28 - 31, 2019/03
In this project, long-lived fission products (LLFP) contained in conventional high-level radioactive wastes are separated and their life is reduced, and elements that can be used as resources are separated. By shortening the life of LLFP, it has been shown that it may be possible to dispose in intermediate depth of several tens of meters, meeting safety requirements, instead of geological disposal. In addition, for reassuring recycling of usable elements, possible exposure pathways were evaluated to estimate the safe concentration level of radioactivity.
Nishihara, Kenji
ImPACT Fujita Puroguramu Kokai Seika Hokokukai "Kaku Henkan Niyoru Koreberu Hoshasei Haikibutsu No Ohaba Na Teigen, Shigenka" Seika Hokokusho, Shiryoshu, p.130 - 133, 2019/03
High level radioactive waste contains elements with various characteristics. It is possible to reduce the load on the disposal site by separating them according to those characteristics and appropriately dealing with them. In this project, we are working to shorten the life span of long-lived fission products (LLFP). When this technology is realized, high-level radioactive wastes will become new radioactive wastes with low radioactivity. As a result of investigation of disposal concept of new radioactive waste, it turned out that intermediate-depth disposal currently considered for low level radioactive waste may be suitable. Intermediate-depth disposal is a method of small-scale disposal in shallow locations as compared to geological disposal for conventional high-level radioactive waste. We conducted a safety assessment when this disposal is applied to new radioactive wastes, and found that it is possible to safely dispose of for the four LLFPs addressed by this project.
