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Narukawa, Takafumi*; Takata, Takashi*; Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Maruyama, Yu; Takada, Tsuyoshi
Journal of Nuclear Engineering (Internet), 6(4), p.49_1 - 49_14, 2025/12
vapor-liquid transfer model in the chemical behavior analysis code SCHERN for accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid wasteYoshida, Kazuo; Hiyama, Mina*; Tamaki, Hitoshi
JAEA-Research 2025-011, 25 Pages, 2025/11
JAEA-Research-2025-011.pdf:2.15MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (RuO) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. RuO is expected to be absorbed chemically into water dissolving nitrous acid (HNO
). This behavior has been experimentally confirmed and plays an important role in the migration of Ru in the facility. A new model has been proposed as a chemical and physical absorption model based on the experimental results of the migration of RuO into nitric acid-water mixtures. In this study, to improve the analytical performance of SCHERN, these new analytical models have been incorporated and attempted to analyze the behavior of RuO in each phase. As a result, it has been observed a tendency that HNO in the liquid phase increases rapidly during the late boiling phase, when RuO release increases rapidly, and confirmed that this HNO concentration change significantly affects the subsequent migration behavior of RuO. These results indicate that it is essential to improve the analytical accuracy of the chemical behavior of HNO in each phase.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Hiyama, Mina*; Tamaki, Hitoshi
JAEA-Research 2025-003, 24 Pages, 2025/06
JAEA-Research-2025-003.pdf:2.06MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (RuO) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. RuO is expected to be absorbed chemically into water dissolving nitrous acid. Condensation of mixed vapor plays an important role for Ru transporting behavior in the facility building. The thermal-hydraulic behavior in the facility building is simulated with MELCOR code. The latent heat, which is a governing factor for vapor condensing behavior, has almost same value for nitric acid and water at the temperature range under 120 centigrade. Considering this thermal characteristic, it is assumed that the amount of nitric acid is substituted with mole-equivalent water in MELCOR simulation. Compensating modeling induced deviation by this assumption have been assembled with control function features of MELCOR. The comparison results have been described conducted between original simulation and modified simulation with compensating model in this report. It has been revealed that the total amount of pool water in the facility was as same as both simulations.
Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Maruyama, Yu; Takada, Tsuyoshi; Narukawa, Takafumi*; Takata, Takashi*
Journal of Nuclear Engineering (Internet), 6(3), p.21_1 - 21_18, 2025/06
Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Maruyama, Yu
Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO
, 66(11), p.565 - 569, 2024/11
no abstracts in English
Narukawa, Takafumi*; Takata, Takashi*; Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Maruyama, Yu; Takada, Tsuyoshi
Proceedings of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management & Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management (PSAM17 & ASRAM2024) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2024/10
Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Maruyama, Yu; Takada, Tsuyoshi; Narukawa, Takafumi*; Takata, Takashi*
Proceedings of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management & Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management (PSAM17 & ASRAM2024) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2024/10
Yoshida, Kazuo; Hiyama, Mina*; Tamaki, Hitoshi
JAEA-Research 2024-007, 24 Pages, 2024/08
JAEA-Research-2024-007.pdf:2.1MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. It has been observed experimentally that volatility of RuO is suppressed by HNO generated by HNO
radiolysis. The analysis of chemical reactions of NO
including HNO and HNO in the waste tank is essential to simulate of these phenomena. To resolve this issue, an analytical approach has been attempted to couple dynamically two computer codes SHAWED and SCHERN. The simulation of boiling behavior in the tank is conducted with SHAWED. SCHERN simulates chemical behaviors of HNO, HNO and NO in the tank. A programmatic coupling algorithm and a trial simulation of the accident are presented in this report.
Kubo, Kotaro; Zheng, X.; Tanaka, Yoichi; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Jang, S.*; Takata, Takashi*; Yamaguchi, Akira*
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O; Journal of Risk and Reliability, 237(5), p.947 - 957, 2023/10
Times Cited Count：5 Percentile：47.54(Engineering, Multidisciplinary)Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is a method used to assess the risks associated with large and complex systems. However, the timing at which nuclear power plant structures, systems, and components are damaged is difficult to estimate if the risk of an external event is evaluated using conventional PRA based on event trees and fault trees. A methodology coupling thermal-hydraulic analysis with external event simulations using Risk Assessment with Plant Interactive Dynamics (RAPID) is therefore proposed to overcome this limitation. A flood propagation model based on Bernoulli's theorem was applied to represent internal flooding in the turbine building of the pressurized water reactor. Uncertainties were also taken into account, including the flow rate of the floodwater source and the failure criteria for the mitigation systems. The simulated recovery actions included the operator isolating the floodwater source and using a drainage pump; these actions were modeled using several simplifications. Overall, the results indicate that combining isolation and drainage can reduce the conditional core damage probability upon the occurrence of flooding by approximately 90%.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Research 2023-001, 26 Pages, 2023/05
JAEA-Research-2023-001.pdf:1.61MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. To resolve this issue, an analytical approach has been developed using computer simulation programs to assess the radioactive source term from those facilities. The proposed approach consists analyses with three computer programs. At first, the simulation of boiling behavior in the HLLW tank is conducted with SHAWED code. Next step, the thermal-hydraulic behavior in the facility building is simulated with MELCOR code based on the results at the first step simulation such as flowed out mixed steam flow rate, temperature and volatilized Ru from the tank. The final analysis step is carried out for estimating amount of released radioactive materials with SCHERN computer code which simulates chemical behaviors of nitric acid, nitrogen oxide and Ru based on the condition also simulated MELCOR. Series of sample simulations of the accident at a hypothetical typical facility are presented with the data transfer between those codes in this report.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Research 2022-011, 37 Pages, 2022/12
JAEA-Research-2022-011.pdf:2.88MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents at a fuel reprocessing plant. Two major mechanisms are expected for fission products (FPs) transfer from liquid to vapor phase. One is non-volatiles FPs transfer in the form of mists to the vapor phase in the tank, the other is volatilization of such as Ruthenium. These FPs transferred to the vapor phase in the tank could be released with water and nitric-acid mixed steam and NO gas flow to the environment. NO is generated from denitration of nitrate fission products during dry out phase. These phenomena occurred in this accident originate from the liquid waste boiling in the tank. It is essential for the risk assessment of this accident to simulate thermo-hydraulic and chemical behaviors in the waste tank quantitatively with a versatile computer program. The SHAWED (
imulation of 
igh-level radio
ctive 
aste 
vaporation and 
ryness) has been developed to realize these requirements. In this report, detailed description of major analytical models is explained based on the features of this accident, and some simulation examples are also described for the use in an actual risk assessment.
Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Takahara, Shogo; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Maruyama, Yu
Proceedings of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (PSAM16) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/09
Zheng, X.; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Maruyama, Yu
Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 223, p.108503_1 - 108503_12, 2022/07
Times Cited Count：24 Percentile：83.12(Engineering, Industrial)Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Research 2021-013, 20 Pages, 2022/01
JAEA-Research-2021-013.pdf:2.35MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into atmosphere. An idea has been proposed to implement a steam condenser as an accident countermeasure. This measure is expected to prevent nitric acid steam diffusing in facility building and to increase gaseous Ru trapping ratio into condensed water. A simulation study has been carried out with a hypothetical typical facility building to analyze the efficiency of steam condenser. In this study, SCHERN computer code simulates chemical behaviors of Ru in nitrogen oxide, nitric acid and water mixed vapor based on the conditions obtained from simulation with thermal-hydraulic computer code MELCOR. The effectiveness of steam condenser has been analyzed quantitively in preventing mixed vapor diffusion and gaseous Ru trapping effect. Some issues to be solved in analytical model has been also clarified in this study.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Research 2021-005, 25 Pages, 2021/08
JAEA-Research-2021-005.pdf:2.91MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. To resolve this issue, an empirical correlation equation of Ru mass transfer coefficient across the vapor-liquid surface, which can be useful for quantitative simulation of Ru mitigating behavior, has been obtained from data analyses of small-scale experiments conducted to clarify gaseous Ru migrating behavior under steam-condensing condition. A simulation study has been also carried out with a hypothetical typical facility building successfully to demonstrate the feasibility of quantitative estimation of amount of Ru migrating in the facility using the obtained correlation equation implemented in SCHERN computer code which simulates chemical behaviors of nitrogen oxide based on the condition also simulated thermal-hydraulic computer code.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Data/Code 2021-008, 35 Pages, 2021/08
JAEA-Data-Code-2021-008.pdf:3.68MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into atmosphere. In addition to this, nitrogen oxides (NO
) are also released formed by the thermal decomposition of metal nitrates of fission products (FP) in HLLW. It has been observed experimentally that NOx affects to the migration behavior of Ru at the anticipated atmosphere condition in cells and/or compartments of the facility building. Chemical reactions of NO with water and nitric acid are also recognized as the complex phenomena to undergo simultaneously in the vapor and liquid phases. The analysis program, SCHERN has been under developed to simulate chemical behavior including Ru coupled with the thermo-hydraulic condition in the flow paths in the facility building. This technical guide for SCHERN-V2 presents the overview of covered accident, analytical models including newly developed models, differential equations for numerical solution, and user instructions.
Lind, T.*; Pellegrini, M.*; Herranz, L. E.*; Sonnenkalb, M.*; Nishi, Yoshihisa*; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Cousin, F.*; Fernandez Moguel, L.*; Andrews, N.*; Sevon, T.*
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 376, p.111138_1 - 111138_12, 2021/05
Times Cited Count：20 Percentile：90.35(Nuclear Science & Technology)This is the third part of the three part paper describing the accidents at the FDNPS as analyzed in the Phase 2 of the OECD/NEA project "Benchmark Study of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant" (BSAF). In this paper, we describe the accident progression in unit 3. In the BSAF project, eight organizations from five countries analyzed severe accident scenarios for Unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi site using different severe accident codes. The present paper for Unit 3 describes the findings of the comparison of the participants' results against each other and against plant data, the evaluation of the accident progression and the final status inside the reactors. Special focus is on the status of the reactor pressure vessel, melt release and fission product release and transport. Unit 3 specific aspects, e.g., the complicated accident progression following repeated containment venting actuations and attempts at coolant injection at the time of the major core degradation, are highlighted and points of consensus as well as remaining uncertainties and data needs will be summarized. FP transport is analyzed, and the calculation results are compared with dose rate measurements in the containment. The release of I-131 and Cs-137 to the environment is compared with analysis conducted by using WSPEEDI code.
Herranz, L. E.*; Pellegrini, M.*; Lind, T.*; Sonnenkalb, M.*; Godin-Jacqmin, L.*; L
pez, C.*; Dolganov, K.*; Cousin, F.*; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Kim, T. W.*; et al.
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 369, p.110849_1 - 110849_7, 2020/12
Times Cited Count：27 Percentile：93.08(Nuclear Science & Technology)Phase 2 of the OECD/NEA Project "Benchmark Study of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (BSAF)" was established in mid-2015. The objectives have been similar to Phase 1 of the project but with an extended analysis period of 3 weeks, a major focus on FP behaviour and releases to the environment and the comparison to various data and results of backwards calculations of the source term. Nine organizations of six countries submitted results of their calculated severe accident scenarios for Unit 1 at the 1F site using different severe accident codes. This paper describes the findings of the comparison of the participants results for Unit1 against each other and against plant data, the evaluation of the accident progression and the final status inside the reactors. Special focus is on RPV status, melt release and FP behaviour and release. Unit specific aspects will be highlighted and points of consensus as well as remaining uncertainties and data needs will be summarised.
Sonnenkalb, M.*; Pellegrini, M.*; Herranz, L. E.*; Lind, T.*; Morreale, A. C.*; Kanda, Kenichi*; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Kim, S. I.*; Cousin, F.*; Fernandez Moguel, L.*; et al.
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 369, p.110840_1 - 110840_10, 2020/12
Times Cited Count：30 Percentile：94.37(Nuclear Science & Technology)This is the second paper in a series of 3 in which results of severe accident analyses for Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi are presented, gained in Phase 2 of the OECD/NEA project "Benchmark Study of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (BSAF)". Nine organizations of six countries submitted results of their calculated severe accident scenarios for Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi using different severe accident codes. The present paper describes the findings of the comparison of the participants' results for Unit 2 against each other and against plant data, the evaluation of the accident progression and the final status inside the reactors. Special focus is on reactor pressure vessel status, melt release and fission product behavior and release. Unit 2 specific aspects will be highlighted and points of consensus as well as remaining uncertainties and data needs will be summarized.
Kubo, Kotaro; Zheng, X.; Tanaka, Yoichi; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Jang, S.*; Takata, Takashi*; Yamaguchi, Akira*
Proceedings of 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference (ESREL 2020 and PSAM-15) (Internet), p.2279 - 2286, 2020/11
Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is one of the methods used to assess the risks associated with large and complex systems. When the risk of an external event is evaluated using conventional PRA, a particular limitation is the difficulty in considering the timing at which nuclear power plant structures, systems, and components fail. To overcome this limitation, we coupled thermal-hydraulic and external-event simulations using Risk Assessment with Plant Interactive Dynamics (RAPID). Internal flooding was chosen as the representative external event, and a pressurized water reactor plant model was used. Equations based on Bernoulli's theorem were applied to flooding propagation in the turbine building. In the analysis, uncertainties were taken into account, including the flow rate of the flood water source and the failure criteria for the mitigation systems. In terms of recovery action, isolation of the flood water source by the operator and drainage using a pump were modeled based on several assumptions. The results indicate that the isolation action became more effective when combined with drainage.
