Experiment of incineration for Trans-Uranic (TRU) wastes containing chlorides

Yamashita, Kiyoto; Yokoyama, Aya*; Takagai, Yoshitaka*; Maki, Shota; Yokosuka, Kazuhiro; Fukui, Masahiro; Iemura, Keisuke

JAEA-Technology 2022-020, 106 Pages, 2022/10

JAEA-Technology-2022-020.pdf:4.77MB

Radioactive solid wastes generated by Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station disaster may contain high levels of salt from the tsunami and seawater deliberately released into the area. It is assumed that polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products may be used for decommissioning work and for containment of radioactive wastes in the future. Among the method of handling them, incineration is one method that needs to be investigated as it is good method for reduction and stabilization of wastes. But in order to dispose of Trans-Uranic (TRU) solid waste containing chlorides, it is necessary to select the structure and materials of the facility based on the information such as the movement of nuclides and chlorides in the waste gas treating system and the corrosion of equipment due to chlorides. Therefore, we decided to get various data necessary to design a study of the incineration facilities. And we decided to examine the transfer behavior of chlorides to the waste gas treatment system, the corrosion-resistance of materials in the incineration facilities, and the distribution survey of plutonium in them obtained using the Plutonium-contaminated Waste Treatment Facility (PWTF), Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, which is a unique incinerating facility in Japan. This report describes the transfer behavior of chlorides in the waste gas treatment system, the evaluation of corrosion-resistance materials and the distribution survey of plutonium in the incineration facilities obtained by these tests using the Plutonium-contaminated Waste Treatment Facility, Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories.

Improved performance of wide bandwidth neutron-spin polarizer due to ferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling

Maruyama, Ryuji; Yamazaki, Dai; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Akutsu, Kazuhiro*; Hanashima, Takayasu*; Miyata, Noboru*; Soyama, Kazuhiko; Bigault, T.*; Saerbeck, T.*; Courtois, P.*

Journal of Applied Physics, 130(8), p.083904_1 - 083904_10, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0062072

Annual report on the environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant FY2019

Nakano, Masanao; Fujii, Tomoko; Nemoto, Masashi; Tobita, Keiji; Seya, Natsumi; Nishimura, Shusaku; Hosomi, Kenji; Nagaoka, Mika; Yokoyama, Hiroya; Matsubara, Natsumi; et al.

JAEA-Review 2020-069, 163 Pages, 2021/02

JAEA-Review-2020-069.pdf:4.78MB

Environmental radiation monitoring around the Tokai Reprocessing Plant has been performed by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, based on "Safety Regulations for the Reprocessing Plant of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Chapter IV - Environmental Monitoring". This annual report presents the results of the environmental monitoring and the dose estimation to the hypothetical inhabitant due to the radioactivity discharged from the plant to the atmosphere and the sea during April 2019 to March 2020. In this report, some data include the influence of the accidental release from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (the trade name was changed to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. on April 1, 2016) in March 2011. Appendices present comprehensive information, such as monitoring programs, monitoring methods, monitoring results and their trends, meteorological data and discharged radioactive wastes. In addition, the data which were influenced by the accidental release and exceeded the normal range of fluctuation in the monitoring, were evaluated.

Background issues encountered by cold-neutron chopper spectrometer AMATERAS

Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Wakai, Daisuke*; Aoyama, Kazuhiro*; Iwahashi, Takaaki*; Kambara, Wataru*

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 564, p.45 - 53, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2019.02.015

Details of the background, that is, unwanted signals accumulated by the data acquisition system of neutron instruments, observed by the cold-neutron chopper spectrometer AMATERAS installed at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility at J-PARC are reported. In the design phase of AMATERAS, we carefully considered the achievement of high signal-to-noise ratio, and possible countermeasures were implemented. Actually, recent scientific outputs from AMATERAS indicates that the spectrometer is one of excellent neutron instruments with low background. In spite of that, in nine years of AMATERAS operation, we have encountered unwanted signals due to various reasons, including gamma-rays emitted at materials on or near the beam line including the sample itself, scattered neutrons from the beam line devices, air scattering, electronic noise in data acquisition system, cosmic rays, T0 burst, and other unknown sources. In this report, we discuss the background observed by AMATERAS, especially in the conditions of without samples, comprehensively. The possible sources of these signals and the countermeasures considered against the above sources are discussed, which may be helpful to those who are engaged in other existing or planned neutron-scattering instruments.

Study on use of superconducting magnet and first inelastic neutron scattering experiment under magnetic field at 4SEASONS spectrometer

Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Kira, Hiroshi*; Kaneko, Koji; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Kamazawa, Kazuya*; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Iida, Kazuki*; Murai, Naoki; et al.

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 556, p.26 - 30, 2019/03

BB2018-0570.pdf:2.17MB

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2018.11.065

Recent issues encountered by AMATERAS; A Cold-neutron disk-chopper spectrometer

Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Kofu, Maiko; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Kambara, Wataru*; Aoyama, Kazuhiro*; Wakai, Daisuke*; Harada, Masahide; et al.

Journal of Physics; Conference Series, 1021(1), p.012031_1 - 012031_5, 2018/06

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1021/1/012031

Safety evaluation of self actuated shutdown system for Gen-IV SFR

Saito, Hiroyuki*; Yamada, Yumi*; Oyama, Kazuhiro*; Matsunaga, Shoko*; Yamano, Hidemasa; Kubo, Shigenobu

Proceedings of 2017 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2017) (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2017/04

A self-actuated shutdown system (SASS) is a passive device, which can detach a control rod for reactor shutdown in response to excessive increase in coolant temperature. Since a detachment temperature, which triggers release of a control rod, and a response time are identified as important parameters for validity analyses, this study focused on investigation of the response time and the detachment temperature, and safety analysis to see feasibility of the SASS in low power. For this purpose, design modifications were made to shorten the response time and three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic analysis in a low power operation was carried out in order to confirm the response time. The resulting detachment temperature level is lower than previous studies, leading to improved safety parameters. Based on improved parameters, a safety analysis to see feasibility of the SASS in low power was carried out. From this safety evaluation, it was confirmed that core damage can be prevented by the SASS with flow collector in the case of LOF type ATWS event.

Oscillating radial collimators for the chopper spectrometers at MLF in J-PARC

Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kambara, Wataru; Aoyama, Kazuhiro; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Kikuchi, Tatsuya; Inamura, Yasuhiro; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 8, p.036011_1 - 036011_6, 2015/09

The needs for inelastic neutron scattering experiments under the special sample environment such as strong magnetic field and high temperature are recently increasing. However, the unwanted scatterings originating from these devices affect the detection of weak inelastic signals. In order to overcome this problem we have developed an oscillating radial collimator specialized for the chopper spectrometer at Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) in J-PARC. In this study, we will report the performances of newly-developed oscillating radial collimators both for 4SEASONS and AMATERAS.

Water experiments on thermal striping in reactor vessel of Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor; Countermeasures for significant temperature fluctuation generation

Kobayashi, Jun; Ezure, Toshiki; Kamide, Hideki; Oyama, Kazuhiro*; Watanabe, Osamu*

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2015/05

A column type upper internal structure (UIS) is installed in the upper plenum of reactor vessel in JSFR. High cycle thermal fatigue may occur at the bottom plate (CIP) of the UIS where the hot sodium from the fuel subassembly can mix with the cold sodium from the control rod channel and the blanket fuel subassembly. We have been conducted a water experiment using a reactor upper plenum model to grasp the thermal-hydraulic phenomena around control rod (CR) channels, and to obtain countermeasures for significant temperature fluctuation on the CIP. The experimental apparatus has 1/3 scale and 60 sector model of the reactor upper plenum. By the experiment, characteristics of fluid temperature fluctuation between the handling head of the assemblies and the CIP are measured and countermeasure for the significant temperature fluctuation generation will be discussed on the influence of the distance from the handling head outlet to the lower surface of the CIP.

Factors controlling the spatiotemporal variation of Cs in seabed sediment off the Fukushima coast; Implications from numerical simulations

Misumi, Kazuhiro*; Tsumune, Daisuke*; Tsubono, Takaki*; Tateda, Yutaka*; Aoyama, Michio*; Kobayashi, Takuya; Hirose, Katsumi*

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 136, p.218 - 228, 2014/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.06.004

Major controls on spatiotemporal variations of Cs activity in seabed sediments derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident during the first year after the accident were investigated by using numerical simulations. The model successfully reproduced major features of the observed spatiotemporal variations of Cs activity in sediments. The spatial pattern of Cs in sediments, which mainly reflected the history of Cs activity in the bottom water overlying the sediment and the sediment particle size distribution, became established during the first several months after the accident. Taking Cs activities in sediments in the coastal area and in the vicinity of the power plant into account, increased the simulated total inventory of Cs in sediments off the Fukushima coast to a value on the order of 10 Bq.