Characterization and storage of radioactive zeolite waste

Yamagishi, Isao; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Kato, Chiaki; Morita, Keisuke; Terada, Atsuhiko; Kamiji, Yu; Hino, Ryutaro; Sato, Hiroyuki; Nishihara, Kenji; Tsubata, Yasuhiro; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 51(7-8), p.1044 - 1053, 2014/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2014.924446

For safe storage of zeolite wastes generated by treatment of radioactive saline water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, properties of the Herschelite adsorbent were studied and its adsorption vessel was evaluated for hydrogen production and corrosion. Hydrogen production depends on its water level and dissolved species because hydrogen is oxidized by radicals in water. It is possible to evaluate hydrogen production rate in Herschelite submerged in seawater or pure water by taking into account of the depth effect of the water. The reference vessel of decay heat 504 W with or without residual pure water was evaluated for the hydrogen concentration by thermal hydraulic analysis using obtained fundamental properties. Maximum hydrogen concentration was below the lower explosive limit (4 %). The steady-state corrosion potential of a stainless steel 316L increased with absorbed dose rate but its increase was repressed by the presence of Herschelite. At 750 Gy/h and 60C which were values evaluated at the bottom of the vessel of 504 W, the localized corrosion of SUS316L contacted with Herschelite would not immediately occur under 20,000 ppm of Cl concentration.

Burning of MOX fuels in LWRs; Fuel history effects on thermal properties of hull and end piece wastes and the repository performance

Hirano, Fumio; Sato, Seichi*; Kozaki, Tamotsu*; Inagaki, Yaohiro*; Iwasaki, Tomohiko*; Oe, Toshiaki*; Kato, Kazuyuki*; Kitayama, Kazumi*; Nagasaki, Shinya*; Niibori, Yuichi*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 49(3), p.310 - 319, 2012/03

AA2011-0278.pdf:0.56MB

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2012.660021

The thermal impacts of hull and end piece wastes from the reprocessing of MOX spent fuels burned in LWRs on repository performance were investigated. The heat generation rates in MOX spent fuels and the resulting heat generation rates in hull and end piece wastes change depending on the fuel histories including the burn-up of UO spent fuels, the cooling period before reprocessing, the storage period of fresh MOX fuels. The heat generation rates of hull and end piece wastes from the reprocessing of MOX spent fuels with any of those histories are significantly larger than those from UO spent fuels with burn-ups of 45 GWd/THM. If a temperature below 80C is specified for cement-based materials used in waste packages after disposal, the allowable number of canisters containing compacted hull and end pieces in a package for 45 GWd-MOX needs to be limited to a value of 0.7 to 1.6, which is significantly lower than the value of 4.0 for 45 GWd-UO.

Effect of exchangeable cations on apparent diffusion of Ca ions in Na- and Ca-montmorillonite mixtures

Kozaki, Tamotsu*; Sawaguchi, Takuma; Fujishima, Atsushi; Sato, Seichi*

Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 35(6-8), p.254 - 258, 2010/00

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2010.04.006

Compacted Na-bentonite, of which the major mineral is montmorillonite, is a candidate buffer material for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. A potential alteration of the bentonite in a repository is the partial replacement of the exchangeable cations of Na with Ca. The Ca cations could be released from cementitious materials and diffuse into the buffer material in the repository. In this study, to evaluate the alteration that could reduce the performance of the bentonite buffer, the apparent diffusion coefficients of HTO and Ca ions were determined from non-steady, one-dimensional diffusion experiments using Na- and Ca-montmorillonite mixtures with different ionic equivalent fractions of Ca ions. The apparent diffusion coefficient of HTO at a dry density of 1.0 Mg m slightly increased with an increase in the ionic equivalent fraction of Ca ions. However, the apparent diffusion coefficient of Ca and the activation energy for diffusion at the same dry density were independent of the ionic equivalent fraction of Ca ions. These findings suggest that unlike HTO, which can be postulated to diffuse mainly in pore water, Ca ion diffusion could occur predominantly in interlayer spaces.

Uranium recovery in LWR reprocessing and plutonium/residual uranium conditioning in FBR reprocessing for the transition from LWR to FBR

Fukasawa, Tetsuo*; Yamashita, Junichi*; Hoshino, Kuniyoshi*; Sasahira, Akira*; Inoue, Tadashi*; Minato, Kazuo; Sato, Seichi*

Proceedings of 3rd International ATALANTE Conference (ATALANTE 2008) (CD-ROM), 7 Pages, 2008/05

In order to flexibly manage the transition period from LWR to FBR, the authors investigated the transition scenario and proposed the Flexible Fuel Cycle Initiative (FFCI). In FFCI, LWR spent fuel reprocessing only carries out the removal of about 90% uranium that will be purified and utilized in LWR after re-enrichment. The residual material (40% U, 15% Pu and 45% other nuclides) is transferred to temporary storage and/or FBR spent fuel reprocessing to recover Pu/U followed by FBR fresh fuel fabrication depending on the FBR introduction status. The FFCI has some merits compared with ordinary system that consists of full reprocessing facilities for both LWR and FBR spent fuels, that is smaller LWR reprocessing facility, spent LWR fuel reduction, storage and supply of high proliferation resistant and high Pu density material that can flexibly respond to FBR introduction rate changes. The Pu balance was calculated under several cases, which revealed that the FFCI could supply enough Pu to FBR in any cases.

Kinetic behavior of water as migration media in compacted montmorillonite using HO and applying electric potential gradient

Tanaka, Shingo*; Noda, Natsuko*; Higashihara, Tomohiro*; Sato, Seichi*; Kozaki, Tamotsu*; Sato, Haruo; Hatanaka, Koichiro

Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 33(Suppl.1), p.S163 - S168, 2008/00

In order to identify mass transport pathway in compacted bentonite, water transport behavior in compacted montmorillonite which is the major clay mineral constituent of the bentonite was studied. Back-to-back diffusion and electro-osmosis experiments for HO were carried out at montmorillonite densities of 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 Mg/m using HO as a tracer. Apparent diffusivities from the diffusion experiments and advection velosities and hydraulic dispersities from the electro-osmosis experiments were determined. The mass transport pathways were discussed by comparing with concentration profiles and peak positions of He, Na and Cl which were reported in the past. The hydraulic dispersities decreased in the order of He, HO, Cl and Na, and these differences were considered to be due to that transport pathway depended on species and hydraulic dispersity for each species also depended on transport pathway.

Lattice thermal expansions of (Dy,Zr)N solid solutions

Takano, Masahide; Tagami, Susumu; Minato, Kazuo; Kozaki, Tamotsu*; Sato, Seichi*

Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 439(1-2), p.215 - 220, 2007/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2006.04.077

ZrN is a possible candidate for the diluent material of the nitride fuel containing minor actinides. In the present study, the lattice thermal expansions of ZrN, DyN and (Dy,Zr)N solid solutions were measured by high temperature XRD, as the analogous fuel material. The average linear thermal expansion coefficients of these nitrides increased from 7.8610 to 9.5410 K with increasing Dy fraction. On the analogy with the results on the composition dependence of the thermal expansion coefficients, the preferable effect of ZrN as the diluent material is suggested.

Announced document collection of the 1st Information Exchange Meeting on Radioactive Waste Disposal Research Network (Joint research)

Nakayama, Shinichi; Nagasaki, Shinya*; Inagaki, Yaohiro*; Oe, Toshiaki*; Sasaki, Takayuki*; Sato, Seichi*; Sato, Tsutomu*; Tanaka, Satoru*; Tochiyama, Osamu*; Nagao, Seiya*; et al.

JAEA-Conf 2007-003, 120 Pages, 2007/03

JAEA-Conf-2007-003.pdf:53.18MB

The 1st information exchange meeting on Radioactive Waste Disposal Research Network was held in Nuclear Science Research Institute of Japan Atomic Energy Agency on August 4, 2006. Radioactive Waste Disposal Research Network was established by under Interorganization Atomic Energy Research Program of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and the objective is to bring both research infrastructures and human expertise in Japan to an adequate performance level, thereby contributing to the development of the fundamental research area in the field of radioactive waste disposal. This lecture material is a collection of research presentations and discussions during the information exchange meeting.

Effects of Repository Environment on Diffusion Behavior of Radionuclides in Buffer Materials

Kozaki, Tamotsu*; Sato, Seichi*

JNC TJ8400 2003-075, 34 Pages, 2004/03

JNC-TJ8400-2003-075.pdf:1.31MB

Compacted bentonite is considered as a candidate buffer material in the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. An important function of the compacted bentonite is to retard the transport of radionuclides from waste forms to the surrounding host rock after degradation of an overpack. Therefore, diffusion behavior of radionuclides in the compacted bentonite has been extensively studied by many researchers for the performance assessments of the geological disposal. However, diffusion mechanism of radionuclides in the bentonite cannot be fully understood, and most experimental data have been obtained at room temperature for the bentonite saturated with low salinity water, which would disagree often with real repository conditions. In this study, therefore, apparent diffusion coefficients were determined at various diffusion temperatures for chloride ions in Na-montmorillonite samples saturated with NaCl solution of high salinity. Activation energies for the apparent diffusion were also obtained from the temperature dependents of the diffusion coefficients at different salinity. As the salinity increased, the apparent diffusion coefficients of chloride ions in montmorillonite were found to increase slightly. On the other hand, the activation energies for the chloride diffusion were found to be almost constant (approximately 12 kJ mol) and less than that in free water (17.4 kJ mol). Effects of salinity on diffusion behavior of radionuclides in montmorillonite werediscussed from the viewpoints of microstructure of montmorillonite and distribution of ions in the montmorillonite. As a result, the diffusion behavior of sodium ions could be explained by the changes of the predominant diffusion process among pore water diffusion, surface diffusion, and interlayer diffusion that could be caused by the increase of salinity.

Characterization of Fe-montmorillonite; A Simulant of buffer materials accommodating overpack corrosion product

Kozai, Naofumi; Adachi, Yoshifusa*; Kawamura, Sachi*; Inada, Koichi*; Kozaki, Tamotsu*; Sato, Seichi*; Ohashi, Hiroshi*; Onuki, Toshihiko; Bamba, Tsunetaka

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 38(12), p.1141 - 1143, 2001/12

https://doi.org/10.3327/jnst.38.1141

This study briefly reports characteristics of Fe-montmorillonite. Fe-montmorillonite was used as a simulant of buffer material in which corrosion products of carbon steel overpack, Fe, were diffused. We have found that this clay retains Se(VI) for which natural montmorillonite, such as Na+-type and Ca-type, has little retentivity.

Observation of Microstructures of Compacted Bentonite by Microfocus X-Ray Computerized Tomography (Micro-CT)

Suzuki, Satoru; Sato, Seichi*; *; Kozai, Naofumi*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 38(8), p.697 - 699, 2001/00

https://doi.org/10.3327/jnst.38.697

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