Research on engineering technology in the full-scale demonstration of EBS and operation technology for HLW disposal; Research report in 2013 (Joint research)

Fujita, Tomoo; Tanai, Kenji; Nakayama, Masashi; Sawada, Sumiyuki*; Asano, Hidekazu*; Saito, Masahiko*; Yoshino, Osamu*; Kobayashi, Masato*

JAEA-Research 2014-031, 44 Pages, 2015/03

JAEA-Research-2014-031.pdf:16.11MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Radioactive Waste Management Funding and Research Center (RWMC) concluded the letter of cooperation agreement on the research and development of radioactive waste disposal in April, 2005, and have been carrying out the collaboration work based on the agreement. JAEA have been carrying out the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project which is intended for a sedimentary rock in the Horonobe town, Hokkaido, since 2001. In the project, geoscientific research and research and development on geological disposal technology are being promoted. Meanwhile, the government (the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) has been promoting construction of equipments for the full-scale demonstration of engineered barrier system (EBS) and operation technology for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal since 2008, to enhance public's understanding to the geological disposal of HLW, e.g. using underground facility. RWMC received an order of the project in fiscal year 2012 (2011/2012) continuing since fiscal year 2008 (2008/2009). Since topics in this project are included in the Horonobe URL Project, JAEA carried out this project as collaboration work continuing since fiscal year 2008. This report summarizes the results of engineering technology carried out in this collaboration work in fiscal year 2013. In fiscal year 2013, emplacement tests using buffer material block for the vertical emplacement concept were carried out and visualization tests for water penetration in buffer material were carried out.

Research on engineering technology in the full-scale demonstration of EBS and operation technology for HLW disposal; Research report in 2011 (Joint research)

Nakatsuka, Noboru; Sato, Haruo; Tanai, Kenji; Sugita, Yutaka; Nakayama, Masashi; Sawada, Sumiyuki*; Niinuma, Hiroaki*; Asano, Hidekazu*; Saito, Masahiko*; Yoshino, Osamu*; et al.

JAEA-Research 2013-027, 34 Pages, 2013/11

JAEA-Research-2013-027.pdf:5.84MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Radioactive Waste Management Funding and Research Center (RWMC) concluded the letter of cooperation agreement on the research and development of radioactive waste disposal in April, 2005, and have been carrying out the collaboration work based on the agreement. JAEA have been carrying out the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project which is intended for a sedimentary rock in the Horonobe town, Hokkaido, since 2001. In the project, geoscientific research and research and development on geological disposal technology are being promoted. Meanwhile, the government (the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) has been promoting construction of equipments for the full-scale demonstration of engineered barrier system and operation technology for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal since 2008, to enhance public's understanding to the geological disposal of HLW, e.g. using underground facility. RWMC received an order of the project in fiscal year 2010 (2010/2011) continuing since fiscal year 2008 (2008/2009). Since topics in this project are included in the Horonobe URL Project, JAEA carried out this project as collaboration work continuing in fiscal year 2008. This report summarizes the results of engineering technology carried out in this collaboration work in fiscal year 2011. In fiscal year 2011, part of the equipments for emplacement of buffer material was produced and visualization test for water penetration in buffer material were carried out.

Identified charged hadron production in collisions at = 200 and 62.4 GeV

Adare, A.*; Afanasiev, S.*; Aidala, C.*; Ajitanand, N. N.*; Akiba, Yasuyuki*; Al-Bataineh, H.*; Alexander, J.*; Aoki, Kazuya*; Aphecetche, L.*; Armendariz, R.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 83(6), p.064903_1 - 064903_29, 2011/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.83.064903

Transverse momentum distributions and yields for , and in collisions at = 200 and 62.4 GeV at midrapidity are measured by the PHENIX experiment at the RHIC. We present the inverse slope parameter, mean transverse momentum, and yield per unit rapidity at each energy, and compare them to other measurements at different collisions. We also present the scaling properties such as and scaling and discuss the mechanism of the particle production in collisions. The measured spectra are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Synthesis of phase I investigation 2001 - 2005, Volume "Geological disposal research"

Fujita, Tomoo; Taniguchi, Naoki; Matsui, Hiroya; Tanai, Kenji; Maekawa, Keisuke; Sawada, Atsushi; Makino, Hitoshi; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Yoshikawa, Hideki; Shibata, Masahiro; et al.

JAEA-Research 2011-001, 193 Pages, 2011/03

JAEA-Research-2011-001.pdf:5.23MB

This report summarizes the progress of research and development on geological disposal during the surface-based investigation phase (2001-2005) in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory project, of which aims are to apply the design methods of geological disposal and mass transport analysis to actual geological conditions obtained from the surface-based investigations in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory project as an example of actual geological environment.

Study on flow and mass transport through fractured sedimentary rocks, 3

Shimo, Michito*; Kumamoto, So*; Ito, Akira*; Karasaki, Kenji*; Sawada, Atsushi; Oda, Yoshihiro; Sato, Hisashi

JAEA-Research 2009-060, 70 Pages, 2010/03

JAEA-Research-2009-060.pdf:14.26MB

It is important for safety assessment of HLW geological disposal to evaluate groundwater flow and mass transport in deep underground appropriately. Though it is considered that the mass transport in sedimentary rock occurs in pores between grains mainly, fractures of sedimentary rock can be main paths. In this study the following three tasks were carried out: (1) laboratory hydraulic and tracer experiments using the rock cores of Wakkanai formation, (2) a study on the tracer test and sampling technique for the larger scale, (3) a study on the reduction technique of uncertainty of the hydrogeological models using data from surface-based investigation. On the block scale tracer test technique, the sampling technique using wire saw and tracer test technique using block samples were suggested. As for the reduction technique of uncertainty of the hydrogeological model, availability of the information other than pressure data, such as the temperature and salinity and all, were presented.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory project research and development plan in Phase 2; H20-21

Iwatsuki, Teruki; Sato, Haruo; Tanai, Kenji; Inagaki, Manabu; Sawada, Atsushi; Niinuma, Hiroaki; Ishii, Eiichi; Maekawa, Keisuke; Tomura, Goji; Sanada, Hiroyuki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2009-002, 156 Pages, 2009/05

JAEA-Research-2009-002.pdf:12.86MB

The research and development plan for geological investigation, engineering technology and safety assessment during the drilling of a shaft down to intermediate depth are summarized according to the Midterm Plan till 2009 Fiscal year of JAEA. This report describes subject, current status and programme in the "Phase 2: Construction phase" (investigations during construction of the underground facilities). Furthermore regarding R&D plan in next Midterm Plan of JAEA, preliminary ideas are summarized.

Evaluation of uncertainties originating from the different modeling approaches applied to analyze regional groundwater flow in the Tono area of Japan

Ijiri, Yuji*; Saegusa, Hiromitsu; Sawada, Atsushi; Ono, Makoto*; Watanabe, Kunio*; Karasaki, Kenji*; Doughty, C.*; Shimo, Michito*; Fumimura, Kenichi*

Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 103(3-4), p.168 - 181, 2009/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2008.10.010

Qualitative evaluation of the effects of uncertainties originating from scenario development, conceptual models, and parameter values is an important subject in the area of safety assessment for high-level nuclear waste disposal. In this study, regional-scale groundwater flow analyses for the Tono area, Japan were conducted using three continuous models which were designed to handle heterogeneous porous media. We evaluated the simulation results to quantitatively analyze uncertainties originating from conceptual models. We found that uncertainties originating from conceptual models (1) greatly depend on boundary conditions and hydrological structures to be modeled, which are assigned by modelers, and (2) are larger than uncertainties originating from the variance in realizations of the Monte Carlo method in stochastic modeling.

Study on flow and mass transport through fractured sedimentary rocks (Contract research)

Shimo, Michito*; Kumamoto, So*; Karasaki, Kenji*; Sawada, Atsushi; Maekawa, Keisuke; Sato, Hisashi

JAEA-Research 2008-029, 95 Pages, 2008/03

JAEA-Research-2008-029.pdf:4.51MB

It is important for safety assessment of HLW geological disposal to evaluate groundwater flow and mass transport in deep underground accurately. The objective of this study is to expand the data of flow and mass transport properties in fractured sedimentary rocks, and to estimate these properties in larger scale rocks, such as in situ test scale, using the results of the laboratory tests and the borehole investigations. This study was carried out under the following three tasks: (1) laboratory hydraulic and tracer experiments using the rock specimens of Koetoi formation obtained at underground research facility under construction in the Horonobe area, (2) a numerical study on the influence that a difference of the groundwater flow velocity in the fractures gives a mass transport in the fractured sedimentary rocks, (3) a numerical study on the contributing factors to groundwater flow such as effect of low permeability layers.

Basic approach to solute transport analysis utilizing information from surface-based investigations at two generic underground research laboratories

Maekawa, Keisuke; Sawada, Atsushi; Ota, Kunio; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kunimaru, Takanori; Funaki, Hironori; Hama, Katsuhiro; Takeuchi, Shinji; Amano, Kenji; Saegusa, Hiromitsu; et al.

JAEA-Review 2007-011, 8 Pages, 2007/03

JAEA-Review-2007-011.pdf:0.66MB

In the current programme for research and development on the technical aspects of geological disposal, it is of significance to establish techniques for evaluating solute transport with a direct link to surface-based investigations through the processes of data interpretation, modelling and parameter designation within the immediate five years following the H17 Project. This report presents a basic approach to promoting multidisciplinary research activities involving field investigations and relevant solute transport analysis.

Configuration of hydraulic effective porosity based on borehole investigation in fractured rock

Sawada, Atsushi; Takeuchi, Shinji; Saegusa, Hiromitsu; Amano, Kenji

Dai-36-Kai Gamban Rikigaku Ni Kansuru Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu, p.273 - 278, 2007/01

http://library.jsce.or.jp/jsce/open/00019/2007/36-0273.pdf

The groundwater flow velocity in void space of rock mass is one of the important parameters for evaluating mass transport in deep underground, especially on the safety assessment of high-level radioactive waste disposal. In general, the groundwater velocity in void space of rock mass is calculated by darcy velocity devided by the effective porosity. For estimating the effective porosity, the groundwater flowing void space should be evaluated. This paper describes configuration of the hydraulic effective porosity of fractured rock, and the study of estimating the hydraulic effective porosity by using borehole investigation data drilled from the surface.