Update of fire receiver panel (The Waste Safety Testing Facility)

Hatakeyama, Yuichi; Hirai, Koki; Ikegami, Yuta*; Sano, Naruto; Tomita, Takeshi; Usami, Koji; Tagami, Susumu

JAEA-Technology 2024-020, 33 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Technology-2024-020.pdf:2.21MB

The Waste Safety Testing Facility (WASTEF) is a facility that began operation in December 1982 with the aim of conducting safety testing research on the long-term storage and subsequent geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste generated by the reprocessing of spent fuel. This facility is composed of five concrete cells, one lead cell, six glove boxes, and seven hoods, and is a large-scale facility capable of using nuclear fuel materials including uranium and plutonium, as well as radioisotopes such as neptunium and americium. The facility is equipped with an automatic fire alarm system for the entire building in accordance with the Fire Service Act and regulations on technical standards for facilities used. This is an important aspect of safety management, and it is required that the equipment be sufficiently sound and reliable. However, after more than 30 years of use since its installation, the fire receiving panel, one of the components of the automatic fire alarm system, has deteriorated significantly. Furthermore, many of the parts used have been discontinued and are no longer available, making it difficult to procure them, making it difficult to maintain the equipment's performance. Therefore, in order to ensure the safe and stable operation of WASTEF, the fire receiving panel was updated. This report summarizes the update of the fire receiving panel among the automatic fire alarm equipment that was implemented in FY2022.

Utilization of gamma ray irradiation at the WASTEF Facility

Sano, Naruto; Yamashita, Naoki; Watanabe, Masaya; Tsukada, Manabu*; Hoshino, Kazutoyo*; Hirai, Koki; Ikegami, Yuta*; Tashiro, Shinsuke; Yoshida, Ryoichiro; Hatakeyama, Yuichi; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2023-029, 36 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Technology-2023-029.pdf:2.47MB

At the Waste Safety Testing Facility (WASTEF), the gamma ray irradiation device "Gamma Cell 220" was relocated from the 4th Research Building of the Nuclear Science Research Institute in FY2019, and the use of gamma ray irradiation has begun. Initially, Fuel Cycle Safety Research Group, Fuel Cycle Safety Research Division, Nuclear Safety Research Center, Sector of Nuclear Safety Research and Emergency Preparedness, the owner of this device, conducted the tests as the main user, but since 2022, other users, including those outside the organization, have started using it. The gamma ray irradiation device "Gamma Cell 220" is manufactured by Nordion International Inc. in Canada. Since it was purchased in 1989, the built-in Co radiation source has been updated once, and safety research related to nuclear fuel cycles, etc. It is still used for this purpose to this day. This report summarizes the equipment overview of the gamma ray irradiation device "Gamma Cell 220", its permits and licenses at WASTEF, usage status, maintenance and inspection, and future prospects.

A Remote continuous air monitoring system for measuring airborne alpha contamination

Morishita, Yuki; Usami, Hiroshi; Furuta, Yoshihiro; Aoki, Katsunori; Tsurudome, Koji; Hoshi, Katsuya; Torii, Tatsuo

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 189(2), p.172 - 181, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncaa028

We developed a remote continuous air monitoring (RCAM) system. The RCAM system consisted of a personal air monitor and a robot. The personal air monitor (poCAMon, SARAD, Germany) had a 400 mm ion-injected silicon detector and a membrane air filter with 25 mm-diameter. The personal air monitor provides the alpha energy spectra for any measurement time interval. Demonstration measurements were taken underground at the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) and at a poorly ventilated concrete building. The RCAM system was remotely operated and successfully measured the Rn progeny even though the relative humidity (RH) was almost 100%. In the measured alpha spectra, the peaks of Po (6.0 MeV alpha) and Po (7.7 MeV alpha) were clearly identified. Our developed monitor is promising for alpha dust monitoring in a high gamma-ray environment or contaminated areas where a worker cannot safely physically enter.

Consideration on fatigue crack growth thresholds under negative stress ratio

Hasegawa, Kunio; Usami, Saburo*; Lacroix, V.*

Proceedings of 2019 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2019) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2019/07

Fatigue crack growth thresholds are provided by several fitness-for-service (FFS) codes. When evaluating cracked components subjected to cyclic loading, maximum stress intensity factor and/or minimum stress intensity factor are required. However, the definitions of the thresholds under negative stress ratio are not clearly written. In addition, the thresholds are given by constant values under negative . This paper shows that the maximum stress intensity factor converted by the thresholds obtained by experimental data are not constant values under negative . The thresholds for the FFS codes are less conservative. The definition of the thresholds under negative ratio are discussed.

Radiation imaging using a compact Compton camera inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station building

Sato, Yuki; Tanifuji, Yuta; Terasaka, Yuta; Usami, Hiroshi; Kaburagi, Masaaki; Kawabata, Kuniaki; Utsugi, Wataru*; Kikuchi, Hiroyuki*; Takahira, Shiro*; Torii, Tatsuo

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 55(9), p.965 - 970, 2018/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2018.1473171

Irradiation induced reactivity in Monju zero power operation

Takano, Kazuya; Maruyama, Shuhei; Hazama, Taira; Usami, Shin

Proceedings of Reactor Physics Paving the Way Towards More Efficient Systems (PHYSOR 2018) (USB Flash Drive), p.1725 - 1735, 2018/04

Irradiation dependence of the core excess reactivity was investigated for the Monju system startup tests at zero-power carried out in 2010. The excess reactivity basically decreases with the decay of Pu in zero-power operation. However, the excess reactivity little changed in the two month period of the startup tests, which suggests a positive reactivity insertion during the period. The investigated irradiation dependence shows that the positive reactivity increases with reactor operation and mostly saturates by the fission-dose attained during the Monju zero-power operation in a month (10 fissions/cm). The saturated positive reactivity is equivalent to approximately 47% of the initially accumulated self-irradiation damage recovery assuming the defects were recovered by the fission-fragment irradiation in the reactor operation.

Nuclide partitioning and transmutation technology; Transmutation using fast reactor

Yanagisawa, Tsutomu*; Usami, Shin; Maeda, Seiichiro

Genshiryoku Nenkan 2018, p.90 - 95, 2017/10

no abstracts in English

A Scrutinized analysis on the power reactivity loss measurement in Monju

Taninaka, Hiroshi; Kishimoto, Yasufumi; Mori, Tetsuya; Usami, Shin

Proceedings of International Conference on the Physics of Reactors; Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century (PHYSOR 2016) (USB Flash Drive), p.2610 - 2621, 2016/05

Reactivity loss due to power ascension (power reactivity loss or power coefficient of reactivity) is thus an important design parameter for determining the number of CRs and plutonium content or inventory in the SFR core design, along with the burnup reactivity loss. Measurements on these reactivity losses were therefore performed during the system startup tests in the Japanese prototype SFR Monju in 1995 and analyses have been carried out for several times. The most recent analysis on the power coefficient measurement in Monju was presented by Takano (Takano, et al., 2008). The following latest findings, which have not been taken into account in the past analyses, are available at present and may affect the existing results: (a) in-core temperature distribution effect, (b) crystalline binding effect, (c) logarithmic averaging of the fuel temperature, (d) localized fuel thermal elongation effect, (e) updated Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library, JENDL-4.0, and (f) refined corrections on the measured value. The influences of refining the calculational models and measured value corrections were therefore quantitatively identified in this study by considering all of these new findings. As a result, it was revealed that the analysis overestimates the experiment by 8.1% for the total uncertainty of 5.9%. Therefore, an additional effect, that is the core bowing effect, was considered in the calculation, and the discrepancy was reduced to 2.9%. The possibility of a significant contribution from the core bowing or deformation effect was thus suggested.

Progress of the high current Prototype Accelerator for IFMIF/EVEDA

Okumura, Yoshikazu; Ayala, J.-M.*; Bolzon, B.*; Cara, P.*; Chauvin, N.*; Chel, S.*; Gex, D.*; Gobin, R.*; Harrault, F.*; Heidinger, R.*; et al.

Proceedings of 12th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.203 - 205, 2015/09

http://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2015/proceedings/PDF/FROL/FROL08.pdf

Under the framework of Broader Approach (BA) agreement between Japan and Euratom, IFMIF/EVEDA project was launched in 2007 to validate the key technologies to realize IFMIF. The most crucial technology to realize IFMIF is two set of linear accelerator each producing 125mA/CW deuterium ion beams up to 40MeV. The prototype accelerator, whose target is 125mA/CW deuterium ion beam acceleration up to 9MeV, is being developed in International Fusion Research Energy Center (IFERC) in Rokkasho, Japan. The injector developed in CEA Saclay was delivered in Rokkasho in 2014, and is under commissioning. Up to now, 100keV/120mA/CW hydrogen ion beams and 100keV/90mA/CW duty deuterium ion beams are successfully produced with a low beam emittance of 0.21 .mm.mrad (rms, normalized). Delivery of RFQ components will start in 2015, followed by the installation of RF power supplies in 2015.

Development status of data acquisition system for IFMIF/EVEDA accelerator

Usami, Hiroki; Takahashi, Hiroki; Komukai, Satoshi*

Proceedings of 12th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.760 - 763, 2015/09

http://www.pasj.jp/web_publish/pasj2015/proceedings/PDF/WEP1/WEP101.pdf

EU and JAEA are advancing development of Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) control system jointly, but JAEA keeps developing central control system (CCS) mainly. Data transfer during an equipment control system of CCS and EU is performed through EPICS. JAEA is using PostgreSQL as 1 of development elements in CCS and is advancing development of the system to record the whole EPICS data of LIPAc (the data acquisition system). On the other hand, a data acquisition is performed using BEAUTY (Best Ever Archive Toolset, yet) in an element test of equipment at Europe. Therefore "1 client refers to collected data by more than one server machine" with "compatibility securement of data with BEAUTY" in case of development of the data acquisition system of CCS, and, it's necessary to consider "To do a data acquisition and backup work at the same time". For the moment, former 2 are in progress. And a demonstration of the data acquisition system is being performed simultaneously with commissioning in injector. The data acquisition system is collecting data of injector other ones, and the data reference by a monitor with CSS (Control System Studio) is also possible. We will report on the current state of the development of the data acquisition system by making reference to a result of the test by injector commissioning.