Improving the safety of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor "HTTR" based on Japan's new regulatory requirements

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Shimizu, Atsushi; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Tochio, Daisuke; Homma, Fumitaka; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Sekita, Kenji; Watanabe, Shuji; Furusawa, Takayuki; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 388, p.111642_1 - 111642_11, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2021.111642

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency adapted High-Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) to meet the new regulatory requirements that began in December 2013. The safety and seismic classifications of the existing structures, systems, and components were discussed to reflect insights regarding High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) that were acquired through various HTTR safety tests. Structures, systems, and components that are subject to protection have been defined, and countermeasures to manage internal and external hazards that affect safety functions have been strengthened. Additionally, measures are in place to control accidents that may cause large amounts of radioactive material to be released, as a beyond design based accident. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission rigorously and appropriately reviewed this approach for compliance with the new regulatory requirements. After nine amendments, the application to modify the HTTR's installation license that was submitted in November 2014 was approved in June 2020. This response shows that facilities can reasonably be designed to meet the enhanced regulatory requirements, if they reflect the characteristics of HTGRs. We believe that we have established a reference for future development of HTGR.

Comprehensive seismic evaluation of HTTR against the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake

Ono, Masato; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Shimazaki, Yosuke; Shimizu, Atsushi; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Kondo, Toshinari; Kojima, Keidai; Takada, Shoji; Sawa, Kazuhiro

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 4(2), p.020906_1 - 020906_8, 2018/04

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4039288

On March 11th, 2011, the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred. When the great earthquake occurred, the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) had been stopped under the periodic inspection and maintenance of equipment and instruments. A comprehensive integrity evaluation was carried out for the HTTR facility because the maximum seismic acceleration observed at the HTTR exceeded the maximum value of design basis earthquake. The concept of comprehensive integrity evaluation is divided into two parts. One is the "visual inspection of equipment and instruments". The other is the "seismic response analysis" for the building structure, equipment and instruments using the observed earthquake. All equipment and instruments related to operation were inspected in the basic inspection. The integrity of the facilities was confirmed by comparing the inspection results or the numerical results with their evaluation criteria. As the results of inspection of equipment and instruments associated with the seismic response analysis, it was judged that there was no problem for operation of the reactor, because there was no damage and performance deterioration. The integrity of HTTR was also supported by the several operations without reactor power in cold conditions of HTTR in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Additionally, the integrity of control rod guide blocks was also confirmed visually when three control rod guide blocks and six replaceable reflector blocks were taken out from reactor core in order to change neutron startup sources in 2015.

Development of operation and maintenance technology of HTTR (High Temperature engineering Test Reactor)

Shimizu, Atsushi; Kawamoto, Taiki; Tochio, Daisuke; Saito, Kenji; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Homma, Fumitaka; Furusawa, Takayuki; Saikusa, Akio; Shinozaki, Masayuki

Proceedings of 6th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2012) (USB Flash Drive), 8 Pages, 2012/10

To establish the technical basis of HTGR, the long term high temperature operation using HTTR was carried out during 50-day in 2010. It is necessary to demonstrate the stability of plant during long-term operation and the reliability of components and facilities special to HTGRs, in order to attain the stable supply of the high temperature heat to the planned hydrogen production system of HTTR. Test data obtained in the operation were evaluated for the technical issues which were extracted before the operation. As the results, stability and reliability of the components and facility special to HTGRs was demonstrated by evaluating the heat transfer performance of high temperature components, the helium gas leak tightness, the reliability of the dynamic components such as helium gas circulators, the performance of heat-up protection of radiation shielding. Through the operation, the technical basis for the operation and maintenance technology of HTGRs were established.

Developments of high power gyrotron and power modulation technique using the JT-60U ECRF system

Kobayashi, Takayuki; Terakado, Masayuki; Sato, Fumiaki; Yokokura, Kenji; Shimono, Mitsugu; Hasegawa, Koichi; Sawahata, Masayuki; Suzuki, Sadaaki; Hiranai, Shinichi; Igarashi, Koichi; et al.

Plasma and Fusion Research (Internet), 4, p.037_1 - 037_10, 2009/08

https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.4.037

Electron cyclotron (EC) heating and current drive (CD) are key tools to control fusion plasma especially for effective electron heating and for suppression of neoclassical tearing mode (NTM). Recently, developments of a high power gyrotron and a power modulation technique have been successfully achieved on JT-60U ECRF system in order to enhance the system performance. Stable gyrotron oscillation with oscillation power of 1.5 MW for 1 s was demonstrated in 2007, for the first time. Then temperature rise of cavity and collector has been investigated. It has been shown that the longer pulse operation with 1.5 MW by an improved 110 GHz gyrotron is possible. In addition, modulated ECCD in synchronized with NTM rotation has been performed with the oscillation power of 0.8 MW and the frequency around 5 kHz. The synchronizing system has worked very well and it has played an essential role in NTM suppression experiments on JT-60U.

Effect of Ta rich inclusions and microstructure change during precracking on bimodal fracture of reduced-activation ferritic/martensitic steels observed in transition range

Tanigawa, Hiroyasu; Sokolov, M. A.*; Sawahata, Atsushi*; Hashimoto, Naoyuki*; Ando, Masami; Shiba, Kiyoyuki; Enomoto, Masato*; Klueh, R. L.*

Journal of ASTM International (Internet), 6(5), 10 Pages, 2009/05

The master curve (MC) method works when the transition fracture toughness values follow the MC, and once the value is scaled properly, the MC is usually independent of the type of steel or the type of test specimen. This method is very much depending on the assumption that the fracture initiation points are homogeneously distributed and its initiation mechanism is independent on test temperature. The reduced-activation ferritic/martensitic steels (RAFs), such as F82H (Fe-8Cr-2W-0.2V-0.04Ta), has AlO Ta(V,Ti)O composite inclusions, or simple Ta(V)O inclusions, and shows inhomogeneous distribution, and it was revealed that that RAFs which contain Ta could initiate the facture in the different mechanism at lower temperature as the composite inclusions become fragile, and this should be considered when the toughness measured with small size toughness specimen which is usually tested at lower temperature.

Effects of electro-slag remelting on inclusion formation and impact property of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels

Sawahata, Atsushi; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu; Enomoto, Masato*

Nihon Kinzoku Gakkai-Shi, 72(3), p.176 - 180, 2008/03

https://doi.org/10.2320/jinstmet.72.176

no abstracts in English

Multiple prompt -ray analysis and construction of its beam line

Oshima, Masumi; Toh, Yosuke; Kimura, Atsushi; Ebihara, Mitsuru*; Oura, Yasuji*; Ito, Yasuo*; Sawahata, Hiroyuki*; Matsuo, Motoyuki*

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 271(2), p.317 - 321, 2007/02

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-007-0210-5

By combining neutron activation analysis with multiple -ray detection, we have proved better sensitivity and resolution for the trace element analysis than the ordinary single -ray detection method. We now try to apply the multiple -ray detection method to the prompt -ray analysis (PGA). We have established a new cold neutron beam line for PGA in Japan Research Reactor, JRR-3M, at Tokai establishment of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute(JAERI). It consists of a beam shutter, a beam attenuator, a -ray detector array, a sample changer, and a beam stopper. We construct a high-efficiency -ray detector array specially designed for this purpose. Its performance has been evaluated with the Monte Carlo simulation code, GEANT 4.5.0.

Report of investigation on malfunction of reserved shutdown system in HTTR

Hamamoto, Shimpei; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Shimizu, Atsushi; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Kondo, Makoto; Oyama, Sunao; Kawano, Shuichi; Kobayashi, Shoichi; Kawamoto, Taiki; Suzuki, Hisashi; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2006-030, 58 Pages, 2006/03

JAEA-Technology-2006-030.pdf:10.69MB

During normal operation of High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), the reactivity is controlled by the Control Rods (CRs) system which consists of 32 CRs (16 pairs) and 16 Control Rod Drive Mechanisms (CRDMs). The CR system is located in stand-pipes accompanied by the Reserved Shutdown System (RSS). In the unlikely event that the CRs fail to be inserted, the RSS is provided to insert BC/C pellets into the core. The RSS shall be designed so that the reactor should be held subcriticality from any operation condition by dropping in the pellets. The RSS consists of BC/C pellets, hoppers which contain the pellets, electric plug, driving mechanisms, guide tubes and so on. In accidents when the CRs cannot be inserted, an electric plug is pulled out by a motor and the absorber pellets fall into the core by gravity. A trouble, malfunction of one RSS out of sixteen, occurred during a series of the pre-start up checks of HTTR on February 21, 2005. We investigated the cause of the RSS trouble and took countermeasures to prevent the issue. As the result of investigation, the cause of the trouble was attributed to the following reason: In the motor inside, The Oil of grease of the multiplying gear flowed down from a gap of the oil seal which has been deformed and was mixed with abrasion powder of brake disk. Therefore the adhesive mixture prevented a motor from rotating.

High power operation at 1.5 MW using the JT-60 gyrotron

Kobayashi, Takayuki; Isayama, Akihiko; Sawahata, Masayuki; Terakado, Masayuki; Shimono, Mitsugu; Igarashi, Koichi; Hinata, Jun; Kajiwara, Ken; Kasugai, Atsushi; Sakamoto, Keishi; et al.

no journal, , 

High power gyrotron operation at an output power of 1.5 MW was carried out using the JT-60 gyrotron. Pulse length had been limited to 100 ms at an output power of well exceeding 1 MW. An oscillation at 1.5 MW with a pulse length of 1 s was demonstrated, for the first time, in 2007 by the JT-60 gyrotron. We evaluated the heat load on each component of the gyrotron and it was shown that the gyrotron could be operated at 1.5 MW with the pulse length of up to 3 s from the view point of the heat load. In 2009, we tried the operation at the output power of 1.5 MW aiming at the demonstration of the pulse length of 3 s or longer. An operation technique, by which an anode voltage was changed only at the beginning of the pulse, was developed and it resulted in obtaining relatively higher oscillation efficiency. The oscillation at 1.5 MW for 4 s was demonstrated for the first time.

Development of operation and maintenance technique with long term high temperature operation in HTTR, 2; Operation and maintenance of facilities and equipments unique for HTGRs

Shimizu, Atsushi; Kawamoto, Taiki; Tochio, Daisuke; Homma, Fumitaka; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Furusawa, Takayuki

no journal, , 

no abstracts in English