Molecular dynamics analysis of reactor graphite for preparing thermal neutron scattering law

沖田 将一朗; 後藤 実

Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/10

The recently released JENDL-5 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 have adopted porosity-dependent thermal neutron scattering law (TSL) data for reactor graphite, and they improve neutronic calculation accuracy of criticality for graphite-moderated cores. Currently, we can only handle neutronic calculations for three graphite porosities of 0%, 10%, and 30%. The uncertainties associated with the difference between the porosity of actual reactor graphite (20%) and the porosity remains. Toward the future update of JENDL-5, we are planning to preparing new TSL data of reactor graphite. As a first step, it is essential to evalute phonon density state distribution of reactor graphite. In this study, in order to evalute it, molecular dynamic (MD) analysis is performed for three MD models: ideal crystalline graphite (Ideal model), 20%-porous reactor graphite with monoatomic random pore (Monoatomic random model), and 20%-porous reactor graphite with atomic cluster random pore (Cluster random model). The ideal crystalline graphite is modeled without any pores for reference. The 20%-porous reactor graphite with monoatomic random pore is modeled by randomly removing atoms from the ideal crystalline graphite. The 20%-porous reactor graphite with cluster random pore is modeled by randomly removing atomic clusters of approximately 2 nm in diameter from the ideal crystalline graphite. Their interatomic interactions are on the basis of Reactive Empirical Bond Order (REBO) potential. Velocity autocorrelation functions and phonon density of states distributions are calculated for these models. For validation, specific heat for each model is evaluated, and they are compred with experimental values.

General-purpose nuclear data library JENDL-5 and to the next

岩本 修; 岩本 信之; 国枝 賢; 湊 太志; 中山 梓介; 木村 敦; 中村 詔司; 遠藤 駿典; 長家 康展; 多田 健一; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 284, p.14001_1 - 14001_7, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328414001

Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library version 5 (JENDL-5) was released in 2021. JENDL-5 is intended to extend its generality from JENDL-4.0 by covering a wide variety of nuclear data for applications not only to nuclear design and decommissioning, but also to radiation-related fields. Overview of JENDL-5 and a future plan for the next of JENDL-5 are presented. JENDL-5 includes up-to-date neutron reaction cross sections incorporating other various types of data such as newly evaluated nuclear decay, fission yield, and thermal neutron scattering law. The neutron induced reaction cross sections especially on minor actinides in the resonance regions are improved by the experimental data measured at ANNRI. The extensive benchmark analyses on neutron nuclear data were made and the performance of JENDL-5 was confirmed by benchmark tests of ICSBEP and IRPhEP as well as fast reactors, radiation shielding calculations, and so on. So far, several JENDL special-purpose files have been developed for various applications. The data cover neutron, charged particles, and photon induced reactions. As the neutron induced reaction files, two special purpose files of JENDL/AD-2017 and JENDL/ImPACT-2018 were released to meet needs of nuclear backend applications including activation evaluation for nuclear facilities and nuclear transmutations of high-level radioactive wastes of long-lived fission products, respectively. Furthermore, the photon, proton and deuteron data were released as JENDL/PD-2016.1, JENDL-4.0/HE and JENDL/DEU-2020, respectively, for accelerator applications. With updating the data, they were incorporated in JENDL-5 as sub-libraries for facilitation of usability of JENDL. As the next step of JENDL-5, provision of the proper and sufficient covariance will be a major challenge, where cross correlations across different reactions or data-types may play a significant role in connection with data assimilation for various applications.

Development plan for coupling technology between high temperature gas-cooled reactor HTTR and hydrogen production facility, 1; Overview of the HTTR heat application test plan to establish high safety coupling technology

野本 恭信; 水田 直紀; 守田 圭介; 青木 健; 沖田 将一朗; 石井 克典; 倉林 薫; 安田 貴則; 田中 真人; 井坂 和義; et al.

Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2023/05

JAEA initiated an HTTR heat application test plan to develop for coupling technology between HTGR and hydrogen production facility. The principal objective of this test plan is to establish the high safety coupling technology for coupling a hydrogen production facility to HTGR through the demonstration of a hydrogen production by the proven technology of methane steam reforming method utilizing the HTTR as a high temperature heat source. The other objective is to develop for coupling equipment such as a high temperature isolation valve, a helium gas circulator and a high temperature insulation pipe. This paper describes the overview of an HTTR heat application test plan such as a draft test schedule and test targets for the demonstration of a hydrogen production. This paper also presents basic specifications of an HTTR heat application test facility such as the HTTR modification strategy, overall system configuration and heat and mass balance at rated test operation for the demonstration of a hydrogen production. Furthermore, the operation plan during the normal start-up and shut-down processes is proposed.

JENDL-5 benchmarking for fission reactor applications

多田 健一; 長家 康展; 谷中 裕; 横山 賢治; 沖田 将一朗; 大泉 昭人; 福島 昌宏; 中山 梓介

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 21 Pages, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2197439

日本の新しい評価済み核データライブラリJENDL-5が2021年12月に公開された。本論文は、核分裂炉に対するベンチマーク計算によりJENDL-5の妥当性を実証するものである。ベンチマーク計算は連続エネルギーモンテカルロコードMVP、MCNP及び決定論コードMARBLEを用いて実施された。ベンチマーク計算結果より、核分裂炉に対するJENDL-5の計算精度が、以前のJENDL-4.0に比べて改善されていることが分かった。

Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library version 5; JENDL-5

岩本 修; 岩本 信之; 国枝 賢; 湊 太志; 中山 梓介; 安部 豊*; 椿原 康介*; 奥村 森*; 石塚 知香子*; 吉田 正*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(1), p.1 - 60, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2141903

The fifth version of Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library, JENDL-5, was developed. JENDL-5 aimed to meet a variety of needs not only from nuclear reactors but also from other applications such as accelerators. Most of the JENDL special purpose files published so far were integrated into JENDL-5 with revisions. JENDL-5 consists of 11 sublibraries: (1) Neutron, (2) Thermal scattering law, (3) Fission product yield, (4) Decay data, (5) Proton, (6) Deuteron, (7) Alpha-particle, (8) Photonuclear, (9) Photo-atomic, (10) Electro-atomic, and (11) Atomic relaxation. The neutron reaction data for a large number of nuclei in JENDL-4.0 were updated ranging from light to heavy ones, including major and minor actinides which affect nuclear reactor calculations. In addition, the number of nuclei of neutron reaction data stored in JENDL-5 was largely increased; the neutron data covered not only all of naturally existing nuclei but also their neighbor ones with half-lives longer than 1 day. JENDL-5 included the originally evaluated data of thermal scattering law and fission product yield for the first time. Light charged-particle and photon induced reaction data were also included for the first time as the JENDL general purpose file.

HTTR-熱利用試験専門委員会資料集

青木 健; 清水 厚志; 飯垣 和彦; 沖田 将一朗; 長谷川 武史; 水田 直紀; 佐藤 博之; 坂場 成昭

JAEA-Review 2022-016, 193 Pages, 2022/08

JAEA-Review-2022-016.pdf:42.06MB

日本原子力研究開発機構では、高温ガス炉による大量かつ安価なカーボンフリー水素製造技術の実用化を目指し、世界最高の原子炉出口冷却材温度950Cを記録した高温工学試験研究炉(HTTR)を用いて水素製造を行うHTTR-熱利用試験を計画している。HTTR-熱利用試験では、原子力規制委員会からの設置許可取得を通じて、高温ガス炉と水素製造施設の接続に関し、高い安全性を実現する安全設計を確立することが求められている。しかしながら、これまでに原子炉に水素製造施設を接続した例は世界にまだなく、我が国唯一の高温ガス炉であるHTTRを含め、既存の原子力施設を対象とした安全設計ではこのようなシステムを想定していない。そこで、高温ガス炉研究開発センターの下に設置した「HTTR-熱利用試験専門委員会」では、原子力規制委員会による新規制基準への適合性審査に合格したHTTR安全設計をベースに、施設の変更や水素製造施設の接続に伴い安全設計上新たに考慮すべき事象に対する対策を考慮し、HTTR-熱利用試験施設の安全設計案の検討を行った。本稿は、HTTR-熱利用試験専門委員会の技術報告資料や委員コメントとその回答、議事録を取りまとめた。

Reactor physics experiment in a graphite moderation system for HTGR, 3

深谷 裕司; 沖田 将一朗; 神田 峻*; 後藤 正樹*; 中嶋 國弘*; 左近 敦士*; 佐野 忠史*; 橋本 憲吾*; 高橋 佳之*; 宇根崎 博信*

KURNS Progress Report 2021, P. 101, 2022/07

https://www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/PUB/report/PR/ProgRep2021/ProgRep2021.html

日本原子力研究開発機構では、2018年から高温ガス炉の核的予測技術向上に係る研究開発を開始した。その目的は、商用炉初号基のためのフルスケールモックアップ実験を回避するために一般化バイアス因子法を導入することと黒鉛減速特性を生かした中性子計装システムの改良である。このために、B7/4"G2/8"p8EU(3)+3/8"p38EU炉心をKUCAのB架台に2021年に構築した。

Preliminary experiment in a graphite-moderated core to avoid full mock-up experiment for the future first commercial HTGR

沖田 将一朗; 深谷 裕司; 左近 敦士*; 佐野 忠史*; 高橋 佳之*; 宇根崎 博信*

Proceedings of International Conference on Physics of Reactors 2022 (PHYSOR 2022) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2022/05

As a commercial reactor require high economic efficiency, the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) would be a more attractive proposition if a full mock-up experiment for the first commercial HTGR could be avoided in the future. In this paper, preliminary experiments were conducted in order to obtain basic core characteristics data, such as the criticality, necessary to demonstrate the applicability of a generalized bias factor method to neutronic design of HTGR. The graphite-moderated core with only highly enriched uranium fuels in the B-rack of Kyoto University Criticality Assembly (KUCA) was configured as a reference core. The C/E-1 values (Calculation/Experiment -1 values) for the keff values at the three critical states and the thermal neutron spectra with the major nuclear data libraries, such as JENDL-4.0, JEFF-3.2, ENDF/B-VII.1, and ENDF/B-VIII.0, were calculated for the core. The result shows that the keff values are overestimated for JEFF-3.2, ENDF/B-VII.1, and ENDF/B-VIII.0 by 0.14% - 0.18%, while they are underestimated for JENDL-4.0 by 0.07% - 0.09%. The calculation result with JENDL-4.0 shows a slightly better agreement with this experiment than the others. In addition, the thermal neutron spectrum calculated with ENDF/B-VIII.0 is softer than the others. The Thermal Scattering Law (TSL) data of graphite stored in ENDF/B-VIII.0 suggests that the thermal neutron spectrum become softer than that of traditional TSL data stored in the others. The core characteristics of the reference core, which are necessary for future studies, were obtained.

A Pseudo-material method for graphite with arbitrary porosities in Monte Carlo criticality calculations

沖田 将一朗; 長家 康展; 深谷 裕司

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(9), p.992 - 998, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2021.1899997

The latest ENDF/B-VIII library adapted new porosity-dependent cross-section data of graphite. However, the porosity of the actual graphite does not necessarily correspond to the porosity given in the data. We have proposed a method to perform neutronic calculations at the desired porosity on the basis of the pseudo-material method. We have performed calculation benchmarks to confirm the applicability of this method for the porosity-dependent cross-sections of graphite. We have also compared the values calculated by the pseudo-material method with the experimental values for the VHTRC. In addition, we have investigated the temperature dependance of the calculation values obtained by this method. From these results, we have concluded that this method allows us to perform the neutronic calculations in which we can reflect detailed information on the porosity of graphite.

京大加速器中性子源(KUANS)のためのリエントラントホールを有する減速材の設計

沖田 将一朗; 田崎 誠司*; 安部 豊*

日本原子力学会和文論文誌, 19(3), p.178 - 184, 2020/09

https://doi.org/10.3327/taesj.J19.028

京都大学加速器中性子源(KUANS)は、現在国内で稼働している小型加速器中性子源の一つであり、分光器や検出器の開発に活用されている。さらにKUANSは、比較的低い中性子発生強度のため、減速材設計に関する実験研究に適した施設でもある。KUANSのビーム強度の増加を図るため、リエントラントホールを有する減速材の核設計を実施し、KUANSを利用して設計の妥当性を確認する実験を行った。PHITSを用いた計算によって、リエントラントホールを有するポリエチレン減速材の核設計を実施し、その減速材から得られるビーム強度を実験的に測定したところ、これまで使われていた直方体形状の減速材を用いた場合の1.9倍のビーム強度が得られた。さらに直方体形状の減速材から得られるビームに対する波長毎のビーム強度比は、波長の長い中性子ほど増加し、最大で3倍程度になった。興味深いことに、減速材にリエントラントホールを設けることにより、長い波長の中性子ほどより効率的に減速材の中から取り出されることがわかった。