Study on criticality safety control of fuel debris for validation of methodology applied to the safety regulation

Suyama, Kenya; Ueki, Taro; Gunji, Satoshi; Watanabe, Tomoaki; Araki, Shohei; Fukuda, Kodai; Yamane, Yuichi; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Nagaya, Yasunobu; Kikuchi, Takeo; et al.

Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2023/10

To remove and store safely the fuel debris generated by the severe accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011 is one of the most important and challenging topics for decommissioning of the damaged reactors in Fukushima. To validate the adopted method for the evaluation of criticality safety control of the fuel debris through comparison with the experimental data obtained by the criticality experiments, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) of Japan funds a research and development project which was entrusted to the Nuclear Safety Research Center (NSRC) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) from 2014. In this project, JAEA has been conducting such activities as i) comprehensive computation of the criticality characteristics of the fuel debris and making database (criticality map of the fuel debris), ii) development of new continuous energy Monte Carlo code, iii) evaluation of criticality accident and iv) modification of the critical assembly STACY for the experiments for validation of criticality safety control methodology. After the last ICNC2019, the project has the substantial progress in the modification of STACY which will start officially operation from May 2024 and the development of the Monte Carlo Code "Solomon" suitable for the criticality calculation for materials having spatially random distribution complies with the power spectrum. We present the whole picture of this research and development project and status of each technical topics in the session.

Structure of nitride layer formed on titanium alloy surface by N-gas exposure at high temperatures

Takeda, Yusuke; Iida, Kiyoshi*; Sato, Shinji*; Matsuo, Tadatoshi*; Nagashima, Yasuyuki*; Okubo, Nariaki; Kondo, Keietsu; Hirade, Tetsuya

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 25, p.011023_1 - 011023_3, 2019/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.25.011023

In this study, we prepared samples under two different conditions, (1) 810C, for 600 min, and (2) 850C, for 720 min. A depth-profile analysis of the surfaces of the samples is conducted through Doppler broadening (DB) measurements of positron annihilation rays using a slow positron beam. It was indicated that many of positrons annihilated in defects near the surface. According to the TEM image, there are nano-crystal grains near the surface and then positrons can diffuse in the grains and annihilate in defects at the grain boundaries. Furthermore, DB measurements indicated that there is a depth dependence on the chemical composition where positrons annihilate. EDS spectroscopy measurements also indicated that there is a depth dependence of impurities such as Vanadium. These results indicated change of the chemical composition at the grain boundaries.

Criticality characteristics of MCCI products possibly produced in reactors of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

Tonoike, Kotaro; Okubo, Kiyoshi; Takada, Tomoyuki*

Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC 2015) (DVD-ROM), p.292 - 300, 2015/09

The damaged Unit 1-3 reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station may contain fuel debris of a significant amount that is in a form of molten-core-concrete-interaction (MCCI) product with porous structure. Such low density MCCI product including fissile material is a great concern for its criticality control, especially under submerged condition, due to its fairly good neutron moderation. This report shows computation results of basic criticality characteristics of the MCCI product, which will facilitate criticality risk assessments during decommissioning of the reactors. The results imply that water bound in concrete may raise the risk from the viewpoints of possibility of criticality events and of effectiveness of mitigation measures such as neutron poison injection into coolant water.

Mach-Zehnder polymer waveguides fabricated using proton beam writing

Miura, Kenta*; Sato, Takahiro; Ishii, Yasuyuki; Koka, Masashi; Kiryu, Hiromu*; Ozawa, Yusuke*; Takano, Katsuyoshi*; Okubo, Takeru; Yamazaki, Akiyoshi; Kada, Wataru; et al.

JAEA-Review 2012-046, JAEA Takasaki Annual Report 2011, P. 126, 2013/01

https://doi.org/10.11484/jaea-review-2012-046

Infinite multiplication factor of low-enriched UO-concrete system

Izawa, Kazuhiko; Uchida, Yuriko; Okubo, Kiyoshi; Totsuka, Masayoshi; Sono, Hiroki; Tonoike, Kotaro

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 49(11), p.1043 - 1047, 2012/11

AA2012-0375.pdf:0.63MB

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2012.730893

Possibility of criticality of fuel debris in a form of UO-concrete mixture is evaluated by calculating infinite multiplication factor () for a study of criticality control on the fuel debris generated through the molten core concrete interaction (MCCI) in a severe accident of a light water reactor (LWR). The infinite multiplication factor can be greater than unity, which means that handling of the mixture is subject to criticality control. This paper shows that concrete have efficient slowing-down capability of neutron and points out the necessity of further investigations on the criticality of low-enriched UO-concrete system for actual handling of fuel debris.

Improvement of spatial resolution of PIXE-CT using ML-EM algorithm in TIARA

Sato, Takahiro; Koka, Masashi; Kada, Wataru; Yokoyama, Akihito; Okubo, Takeru; Yamazaki, Akiyoshi; Ishii, Yasuyuki; Kamiya, Tomihiro

JAEA-Review 2011-043, JAEA Takasaki Annual Report 2010, P. 83, 2012/01

https://doi.org/10.11484/jaea-review-2011-043

Fabrication of polymer optical waveguides for the 1.5-m band using focused proton beam

Miura, Kenta*; Machida, Yuki*; Uehara, Masato*; Kiryu, Hiromu*; Ozawa, Yusuke*; Sasaki, Tomoyuki*; Hanaizumi, Osamu*; Sato, Takahiro; Ishii, Yasuyuki; Koka, Masashi; et al.

Key Engineering Materials, 497, p.147 - 150, 2012/00

https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.497.147

Study on reactivity effect of fission products for introducing burnup credit into the criticality safety evaluation of spent nuclear fuel

Okubo, Kiyoshi*; Suyama, Kenya; Uchiyama, Gunzo

Proceedings of International Conference on Toward and Over the Fukushima Daiichi Accident (GLOBAL 2011) (CD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2011/12

The amount of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stored at the nuclear reactor sites is increasing continuously in Japan. To correspond to such a situation, it is considered to take into account the decrease in the reactivity of SNF according to the burnup for the criticality safety control of SNF. This idea is called as burnup credit. If the negative reactivity effect of the fission product nuclides accumulated during the burnup is adopted into the burnup credit which considers only uranium and plutonium, the amount of fuel assembly that can be treated in the same facility is increased. This study reveals the reactivity effect of fission products has almost linear correlation with the increase of burnup SNF for both solution and heterogeneous systems. The negative reactivity effect of the selected fission product is equal to the increase of the burnup of approximately 20-25% for the solution system and 30-35% for the heterogeneous system respectively. It also implies that the estimation error of burnup value of 20% could be acceptable if we take the burnup credit adopting only uranium and plutonium isotopes, considering the fission products as the safety margin.

SWAT3.1; The Integrated burnup code system driving continuous energy Monte Carlo codes MVP and MCNP

Suyama, Kenya; Mochizuki, Hiroki*; Takada, Tomoyuki*; Ryufuku, Susumu*; Okuno, Hiroshi; Murazaki, Minoru; Okubo, Kiyoshi

JAEA-Data/Code 2009-002, 124 Pages, 2009/05

JAEA-Data-Code-2009-002.pdf:14.09MB

Integrated burnup calculation code system SWAT is a system that combines neutronics calculation code SRAC widely used in Japan and point burnup calculation code ORIGEN2. It has been used to evaluate the composition of the uranium, plutonium, minor actinide and the fission products in the spent nuclear fuel. Because of the ability to treat the arbitrary fuel geometry and no requirement of generating the effective cross section data, there is a great advantage to introduce continuous energy Monte Carlo Code into the burnup calculation code. Based on this idea, the integrated burnup calculation code system SWAT3.1 was developed by combining the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP and MCNP and ORIGEN2. This report describes the outline, input data instruction and several example of the calculation.

Evaluation method of thermal deformation for Fast Spectrum Light Water Reactor (FLWR)

Ishijima, Yasuhiro; Ioka, Ikuo; Kiuchi, Kiyoshi; Kaneko, Tetsuji*; Okubo, Tsutomu; Yamamoto, Masahiro

Atsuryoku Gijutsu, 47(1), p.12 - 17, 2009/01

http://joi.jlc.jst.go.jp/JST.Journalarchive/hpi1972/14.12

We investigate one of these innovative water reactors; Fast Spectrum Light Water Reactor (FLWR). It has unique construction for the reactor core but the fuel cladding material will be exposed in high internal pressure and axial load and complex temperature distribution. Therefore, we conducted a specially designed fatigue-creep test that were simulated several parameters (thermal distribution, temperature variation, internal pressure variation and binding stress) to evaluate an applicability of fuel cladding material for FLWR. Zircalloy-2, which is common cladding material, was used for the test. Test result was confirmed to compare the deformation value between tested and calculated. The result showed the evaluation method could be controlled several parameters simultaneously and the deformation value after the test coincided to the calculated value. This method is sufficient to evaluate thermal deformation characteristics for FLWR.