Development of analysis methods for SFR severe accidents in JAEA and assessment of applicability to safety analysis

Tobita, Yoshiharu; Tagami, Hirotaka; Ishida, Shinya; Onoda, Yuichi; Sogabe, Joji; Okano, Yasushi

IAEA-TECDOC-2079, p.72 - 84, 2025/00

https://doi.org/10.61092/iaea.xpz1-gu7q

Since the fast reactor core is not in the maximum reactivity configuration, a hypothetical core disruptive accident could lead to the prompt criticality due to a change in the core material configuration, and the resulting energy generation has been one of the issues in fast reactor safety, and therefore appropriate measures are needed to mitigate and contain the effect of energy generated in the accident. In order to assess the effectiveness of these mitigative measures, a set of computer codes to analyze the event progressions and energy generation behavior in the ATWS of fast reactors have been developed, maintained, and improved under international collaboration in JAEA. Since the important physical phenomena, which govern the event progression, vary along with the progression of the accident, the whole accident process is divided into several phases in the analysis of accident, and dedicated analysis methods for each phase are provided to analyze the event progression in each phase. The organization and overview of these analysis methods are described in this paper. As a representative example of the validation approaches in applying these analysis methods to the reactor safety assessment in licensing procedure in Japan, the validation studies to confirm the applicability to reactor analysis of the SIMMER code for analyzing core material movement and reactor power, which is important to analyze the energy generation in the accident, are presented in the paper. The validation studies of the SIMMER code confirmed the applicability of SIMMER to the reactor analysis, while the critical phenomena that the effect of their uncertainty in the reactor analysis should be checked were also recognized.

Development of numerical evaluation method for heat transportation with sodium mist in the cover gas region of sodium-cooled fast reactor

Hayakawa, Satoshi*; Hagiwara, Hiroyuki*; Imamura, Akira*; Onoda, Yuichi; Tanaka, Masaaki; Nakamura, Hironori*

Proceedings of 13th Korea-Japan Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS13) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2024/11

In a sodium-cooled fast reactor, a cover gas region filled with argon gas is located above the sodium pool in the main vessel to prevent the hot sodium from contacting the structures. This region involves heat transportation by natural convection of the cover gas, radiation among liquid surface and structures, and sodium phase change between mist and vapor. In this study, the numerical evaluation method has been developed with a commercial CFD code, Fluent, incorporating the sodium mist transport and growth models, and the radiation scattering model. Simulations of a laboratory scale test with a cylindrical cover gas region was carried out for the validation of the method and showed that the temperature distribution and sodium mist concentration in the cover gas region are in good agreements with the test results. A simulation of a pool-type sodium cooled fast reactor has also conducted and the basic aspect of physical phenomena taking place in the cover gas region were evaluated.

France-Japan collaboration on severe accident studies in sodium-cooled fast reactors, 2; Methodologies and calculations of severe accident phases

Sogabe, Joji; Ishida, Shinya; Tagami, Hirotaka; Okano, Yasushi; Kamiyama, Kenji; Onoda, Yuichi; Matsuba, Kenichi; Yamano, Hidemasa; Kubo, Shigenobu; Kubota, Ryuzaburo*; et al.

Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Fuel Cycle (GLOBAL2024) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2024/10

In the frame of France-Japan collaboration, the calculational methodologies were defined and assessed, and the phenomenology and the severe accident consequences were investigated in a pool-type sodium-cooled fast reactor.

Effectiveness evaluation methodology of the measures for improving resilience of nuclear structures at ultra-high temperature

Onoda, Yuichi; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Yamano, Hidemasa

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

The objective of this study is to develop an effectiveness evaluation methodology of the measures for improving resilience of nuclear structures at ultra-high temperature by using the failure mitigation technology. At the beginning, to identify the accident sequences having the potential to improve resilience, the characteristics of a next-generation loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) in Japan has been investigated by analyzing the event tree of level-1 and level-2 probabilistic risk assessment. As a result, event sequences of loss of heat removal systems (LOHRS) are identified. The effectiveness of the measures for improving resilience is evaluated by quantifying the reduction rate of core damage frequency before and after the introduction of the measures for improving resilience for all the accident sequences leading to LOHRS. To examine applicability of the developed methodology, a trial evaluation has conducted for a next-generation loop-type SFR in Japan. Through the applicability examined, the method for the effectiveness evaluation was developed successfully. The refinement of the conditional success probability of the measures for improving resilience is the future work.

Evaluation of detectability of pump/diagrid link rupture in pool-type sodium-cooled fast reactor

Onoda, Yuichi; Uchita, Masato*; Tokizaki, Minako*; Okazaki, Hitoshi*

Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 29) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE29-91688

The safety analyses were carried out to confirm the sufficiency of the function of the plant protection system against the pump/diagrid link rupture. The target plant is a pool-type SFR of about 600 MWe class equipped with an axially homogeneous core currently under development in Japan. In the pool-type SFR, the primary system piping connects primary pump and the high-pressure sodium plenum located at the inlet of fuel sub-assemblies and called "pump/diagrid link". Because this piping is submerged in the reactor vessel, it is difficult to detect small scale sodium leakage in this piping, and thus a certain large pipe break like guillotine should be assumed and evaluated as a design basis event. In order to confirm the detectability of pump/diagrid link rupture by safety protection system signals, a series of analyses of the guillotine break for a pump/diagrid link were carried out. Sensitivity study had also been performed to consider the uncertainty of the reactivity coefficient in the analyses. The sufficiency of the function of the plant protection system against the pump/diagrid link rupture was confirmed by the analysis results that at least two signals are transmitted for the detection of the event, which is the development target of the plant protection system in pool-type SFR.

Modelling and simulation of the source term for a sodium cooled fast reactor under hypothetical severe accident conditions; Final report of a coordinated research project

Arokiaswamy, J. A.*; Batra, C.*; Chang, J. E.*; Garcia, M.*; Herranz, L. E.*; Klimonov, I. A.*; Kriventsev, V.*; Li, S.*; Liegeard, C.*; Mahanes, J.*; et al.

IAEA-TECDOC-2006, 380 Pages, 2022/00

https://www.iaea.org/publications/15086/modelling-and-simulation-of-the-source-term-for-a-sodium-cooled-fast-reactor-under-hypothetical-severe-accident-conditions

The IAEA coordinated research project on "Radioactive Release from the Prototype Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor under Severe Accident Conditions" was devoted to realistic numerical simulation of fission products and fuel particles inventory inside the reference sodium cooled fast reactor volumes under severe accident conditions at different time scales. The scope of analysis was divided into three parts, defined as three work packages (WPs): (1) in-vessel source term estimation; (2) primary system/containment system interface source term estimation; and, (3) in-containment phenomenology analysis. Comparison of the results obtained in WP-1 indicates that the release fractions of noble gases and cesium radionuclides, and fractions of radionuclides released to the cover gas are in a good agreement. In the analysis using a common pressure history in WP-2, the results were in good agreement indicating that the accuracy of the analysis method of each institution is almost the same. The standalone case, which uses a set of pre-defined release fractions, was defined for WP-3 which enables to decouple this part of analysis from previous WPs. There is broad consensus among the predicted results by all the participants in WP-3.

Development of effectiveness evaluations technology of the measures for improving resilience of nuclear structures against excessive earthquake

Nishino, Hiroyuki; Onoda, Yuichi; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Yamano, Hidemasa

Proceedings of Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2021 (ASRAM 2021) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2021/10

The objective of this study is to develop an effectiveness evaluations technology of the measures for improving resilience of nuclear structures against excessive earthquake by introducing the fracture control concept. After analyzing event tree in previous studies of PRA against earthquake, this study identified sequences of protected loss of heat sink and loss of reactor level induced from excessive earthquake as accident sequences in which improving resilience of nuclear structures become effective. This study focused on important components for safety (e.g., reactor vessel, air coolers, pipes of primary loops in decay heat removal systems, etc.) to be used as countermeasures for improving the resilience. Core damage frequency is selected as an index in evaluating effectiveness of the measures for improving the resilience. Seismic safety margin of the components is assumed to be enlarged when the measures for improving the resilience with the fracture control concept are implemented. Through the trial calculation, reduction effect of the core damage frequency was quantified. The result showed that the measures for improving the resilience are significantly effective for decreasing the core damage frequency in excessive earthquake twice higher than a design basis ground motion. The general concept for the effectiveness evaluations technology was formulated.

Electron-tracking Compton camera imaging of technetium-95m

Hatsukawa, Yuichi*; Hayakawa, Takehito*; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki*; Sato, Tetsuya; Asai, Masato; Toyoshima, Atsushi; Tanimori, Toru*; Sonoda, Shinya*; Kabuki, Shigeto*; et al.

PLOS ONE (Internet), 13(12), p.e0208909_1 - e0208909_12, 2018/12

AA2018-0639.pdf:2.39MB

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208909

Imaging of Tc radioisotope was conducted using an electron tracking-Compton camera (ETCC). Tc emits 204, 582, and 835 keV rays, and was produced in the Mo(p,n)Tc reaction with a Mo-enriched target. The recycling of the Mo-enriched molybdenum trioxide was investigated, and the recycled yield of Mo was achieved to be 70% - 90%. The images were obtained with each of the three rays. Results showed that the spatial resolution increases with increasing -ray energy, and suggested that the ETCC with high-energy -ray emitters such as Tc is useful for the medical imaging of deep tissue and organs in the human body.

Fundamental safety strategy against severe accidents on prototype sodium-cooled fast reactor

Onoda, Yuichi; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Sakai, Takaaki

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 53(11), p.1774 - 1786, 2016/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2016.1159532

Production of Tc for Compton camera imaging

Hatsukawa, Yuichi; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Sato, Tetsuya; Asai, Masato; Toyoshima, Atsushi; Nagai, Yasuki; Tanimori, Toru*; Sonoda, Shinya*; Kabuki, Shigeto*; et al.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 303(2), p.1283 - 1285, 2015/02

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3508-0

Technetium-99m (Tc) is used in radioactive medical diagonostic tests, for example as a radioactive tracer that medical equipment can detect in the human body. It is well suited to the role because it emits readily detectable 141 keV rays, and its half-life is 6.01 hours (meaning that about 94% of it decays to technetium-99 in 24 hours). There are at least 31 commonly used radiopharmaceuticals based on technetium-99m for imaging and functional studies of the brain, myocardium, thyroid, lungs, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, skeleton, blood, and tumors. Recent years, with the develop-ment of the Compton camera which can realize high position resolution, technetium isotopes emitting high energy -rays are required. In this study, technetium-95m which emits some rays around 800 keV was produced by the Mo(p,n)Tc reaction.