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Toyota, Kodai; Onizawa, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi*
Research & Development in Material Science (Internet), 21(5), p.2632 - 2637, 2025/06
Ohno, Shuji; Maeda, Seiichiro; Wakai, Takashi; Ueda, Masashi; Kamide, Hideki
Nihon Kikai Gakkai-Shi, 127(1267), p.29 - 32, 2024/06
This paper introduces outlines, current status and topics of sodium-cooled fast reactor research and development performed in JAEA.
Wakai, Eiichi; Noto, Hiroyuki*; Shibayama, Tamaki*; Furuya, Kazuyuki*; Ando, Masami*; Kamada, Takaharu*; Ishida, Taku*; Makimura, Shunsuke*
Materials Characterization, 211, p.113881_1 - 113881_10, 2024/05
The microstructures and mechanical properties of bcc iron-based high entropy alloy (HEA) Fe-20Mn-15Cr-10V-10Al-2.5C (in at%) without Co and Ni elements have been investigated for applications in fields such as accelerator-target system, nuclear reactors and magnetic motors in aircraft and automobiles. This alloy was normalized at 1150
C for 2 hr and then water quenched, and it was heated at 800C for 10 min and then water quenched. The alloy had a bcc-phase and vanadium carbides with 2-3 
m arranging along grain boundaries, and the Vickers hardness was 520 Hv, harder than pure tungsten. Magnetic domain structure was observed in phase differential contrast method in scanning transmission electron microscope, and the micro-size magnetic domains in grain and sub micro size ones were formed near surface, and it is attractive to the magnetic motor field application. Element distribution in nano scale (20 nm) was observed in matrix, and the presence of crystal lattice disorder in the atomic level region was seen. Very high performance for radiation resistance was confirmed with no irradiation hardening at 300 and 500 C to 1 dpa. It can be speculated that this is due to irradiation-induced nanoscale concentration changes and strain relaxation in the HEA. These properties are very attractive in application of several fields.
Wakai, Eiichi; Noto, Hiroyuki*; Shibayama, Tamaki*; Furuya, Kazuyuki*; Wakui, Takashi; Ando, Masami*; Makimura, Shunsuke*; Ishida, Taku*
Science Talks (Internet), 8, p.100278_1 - 100278_4, 2023/12
High entropy alloys tend to combine high strength with good ductility due to their inherent properties. This material is considered as a promising new material not only for higher-performance future general industrial applications, but also for increasing the durability and range of application of radiation-affected equipment in nuclear and radiation environments, and has been rapidly gaining attention in recent years. In this study, two types of high-entropy alloys (Fe-Mn-V-Cr-Al-C and Fe-Si-W-Cr-V) composed of low-radioactive elements (without Ni and Co) were prepared and their basic properties were evaluated for application as new functional materials to be used under radiation in high-energy accelerator target system components, nuclear reactors, fusion reactors, etc. and their basic properties were evaluated. The two materials under development in this study have unique properties in the following respects. The former is expected to be developed as a basic research for high-power motor materials as a new structural material and magnetic properties sharing the features of high strength and low radiation. On the other hand, the latter is expected to be applied as a new functional material in new engineering fields by mixing tungsten, which has the highest melting point among metallic elements, with vanadium, which has a considerably higher melting point, to raise the melting point of the alloy and to design an alloy with high strength.
Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Futakawa, Masatoshi
Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 13 Pages, 2022/03
The cross-flow type target was developed as the basic design of mercury target in J-PARC, and the design has been improved to realize the MW-class pulsed spallation neutron source. When the high-power and short-pulsed proton beam is injected into the mercury target, pressure waves are generated in mercury by rapid heat generation. The pressure waves induce the cavitation damages on the target vessel. Two countermeasures were adopted, namely, the injection of microbubbles into mercury and the double walled structure at the beam window. The bubble generator was installed in the target vessel to absorb the volume inflation of mercury and mitigate the pressure waves. Also, the double walled target vessel was designed to suppress the cavitation damage by the large velocity gradient of rapid mercury flow in the narrow channel of double wall. Finally, we could attain 1 MW beam operation with the duration time of 36.5 hours in 2020, and achieved the long term stable operation with 740 kW from April in 2021. This report shows the technical development of the high-power mercury target vessel in view of thermal hydraulics to attain 1 MW operation.
Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; Hanano, Kohei*; Haga, Katsuhiro; Shimada, Tsubasa*; Kanomata, Kenichi*
Materials Science Forum, 1024, p.145 - 150, 2021/03
To realize a high beam power operation at the J-PARC, a mercury target vessel covered with water shroud was developed. In the first step, to realize an operation at 500 kW, the basic structure of the initial design was followed and the connection method between the mercury vessel and the water shroud was changed. Additionally, the operation at a beam power of 500 kW was realized in approximately eight months. In the second step, to realize the operation at 1 MW, the new structure in which only rear ends of vessels were connected was investigated. Cooling of the mercury vessel is used to reduce thermal stress and thick vessels of the water shroud are used to increase stiffness for the internal pressure; therefore, it was adopted. The stress in each vessel was lower than the allowable stress based on the pressure vessel code criteria prescribed in the Japan Industrial Standard, and confirmation was obtained that the operation with a beam power of 1 MW could be conducted.
Naoe, Takashi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi
Materials Science Forum, 1024, p.111 - 120, 2021/03
The mercury target vessel for the at the J-PARC neutron source is severely damaged by the cavitation caused by proton beam-induced pressure waves in mercury. To mitigate the cavitation damage, we adopted a double-walled structure with a narrow channel for the mercury at the beam window of the vessel. In addition, gas microbubbles were injected into the mercury to suppress the pressure waves. The front end of the vessel was cut out to inspect the effect of the damage mitigation technologies on the interior surface. The results showed that the double-walled target facing the mercury with gas microbubbles operating at 1812 MWh for an average power of 434 kW had equivalent damage to the single-walled target without microbubbles operating 1048 MWh for average power of 181 kW. The erosion depth due to cavitation in the narrow channel was clearly smaller than it was on the wall facing the bubbling mercury
Naoe, Takashi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi
JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 28, p.081004_1 - 081004_6, 2020/02
The beam window of the mercury target vessel in J-PARC is severely damaged by the cavitation. The cavitation damage is a crucial factor to limit lifetime of the target because it increases with the beam power. Therefore, mitigating cavitation damage is an important issue to operate the target stably for long time at 1 MW. At J-PARC, to mitigate the cavitation damage: gas microbubbles are injected into mercury for suppressing pressure waves, and double-walled structure with a narrow channel of 2 mm in width to form high-speed mercury flow (
4m/s) has been adopted. After operation, the beam window was cut to inspect the effect of the cavitation damage mitigation on inner wall. We optimized cutting conditions through the cold cutting tests, succeeding in cutting the target No.2 (without damage mitigation technologies) smoothly in 2017, and target No.8 with damage mitigation technologies. In the workshop, progress of cavitation damage observation for the target vessel will be presented.
Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; Hanano, Kohei; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi; Shimada, Tsubasa*; Kanomata, Kenichi*
JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 28, p.081002_1 - 081002_6, 2020/02
A mercury target vessel of J-PRAC is designed with a triple-walled structure consisting of the mercury vessel and a double-walled water shroud with internal and external vessels. During the beam operation at 500 kW in 2015, small water leakages from a water shroud of the mercury target vessel occurred twice. Design, fabrication and inspection processes were improved based on the lessons learned from the target failures. The total length of welding lines at the front of the mercury target vessel decreases drastically to approximately 55% by adopting monolithic structure cut out from a block of stainless steel by the wire-electrical discharge machining. Thorough testing of welds by radiographic testing and ultrasonic testing was conducted. The fabrication of the mercury target vessel #8 was finished on September 2017 and the beam operation using it started. Stable beam operation at 500 kW has been achieved and it could experience the maximum beam power of 1 MW during a beam test.
Wakui, Takashi; Ishii, Hideaki*; Naoe, Takashi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Haga, Katsuhiro; Wakai, Eiichi; Takada, Hiroshi; Futakawa, Masatoshi
Materials Transactions, 60(6), p.1026 - 1033, 2019/06
Times Cited Count：3 Percentile：13.57(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)The mercury target has large size as 1.3
1.32.5 m
. In view of reducing the amount of wastes, we studied the structure so that the fore part could be separated. The flange is required to have high seal performance less than 110
Pa m/s. Invar with low thermal expansion is a candidate. Due to its low stiffness, however, the flange may deform when it is fastened by bolts. Practically invar is reinforced with stainless steel where all interface between them has to be bonded completely with the HIP bonding. In this study, we made specimens at four temperatures and conducted tensile tests. The specimen bonded at 973 K had little diffusion layer, and so fractured at the interface. The tensile strength reduced with increasing the temperature, and the reduced amount was about 10% at 1473 K. The analyzed residual stresses near the interface increased by 50% at maximum. Then, we concluded that the optimum temperature was 1173 K.
Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Naoe, Takashi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi; Shintaku, Yohei*; Li, T.*; Kanomata, Kenichi*
Choompa Techno, 30(5), p.16 - 20, 2018/10
A mercury target vessel has been used for the spallation neutron source at J-PARC. It has a complicated multi-layered structure composed of a mercury target and a surrounding double-walled water shroud, which is assembled with thin plates (minimum thickness of 3 mm) by welding. Thus, welding inspection during the manufacturing process is important. We investigated the applicability of new ultrasonic inspections using specimens (thickness of 3 mm) with defects to improve the accuracy of welding inspection for the mercury target vessel. Immersion ultrasonic testing using a probe (frequency of 50 MHz) could detect a spherical defect with a diameter of 0.2 mm. The size was smaller than target value of 0.4 mm. The length of unwelded region estimated using the phased array ultrasonic testing corresponded with the actual length (0.8 - 1.5 mm).
Naoe, Takashi; Wakui, Takashi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakai, Eiichi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi
Advanced Experimental Mechanics, 3, p.123 - 128, 2018/08
A mercury target vessel, composed of SUS316L, is used for the pulsed neutron source and is assembled via TIG welding. While in operation, the target vessel suffers ca. 10
loading cycles with a high strain rate of ca. 50 s
because of the proton-beam-induced pressure waves in mercury. The gigacycle fatigue strength for solution annealed SUS316L stainless steels and its welded specimens were investigated through ultrasonic fatigue tests. The experimental results showed that an obvious fatigue limit was not observed at fewer than 10 cycles for the base metal. In the case of no weld defects observed via penetration tests, the fatigue strength of the removed-weld-bead specimen, in which the weld lines were arranged at the center of the specimen, appeared to be slightly higher than that of the base metal. By contrast, as-welded specimens with the weld bead intact showed apparent degradation of the fatigue strength owing to the stress concentration around the weld toe.
Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Naoe, Takashi; Shintaku, Yohei*; Li, T.*; Murakami, Kazuya*; Kanomata, Kenichi*; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi; et al.
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 506, p.3 - 11, 2018/08
Times Cited Count：4 Percentile：31.84(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)The mercury target vessel is designed as multi-walled structure with thin wall (min. 3 mm), and assembled by welding. In order to estimate the structural integrity of the vessel, it is important to measure the defects in welding accurately. For nondestructive tests of the welding, radiographic testing is applicable but it is difficult to detect for some defect shapes. Therefore it is effective to do ultrasonic testing together with it. Because ultrasonic methods prescribed in JIS inspect on the plate with more than 6 mm in thickness, these methods couldn't be applied as the inspection on the vessel with thin walls. In order to develop effective method, we carried out measurements using some testing method on samples with small defect whose size is specified. In the case of the latest phased array method, measured value agreed with actual size. It was found that this method was applicable to detect defects in the thin-walled structure for which accurate inspection was difficult so far.
Kondo, Hiroo; Kanemura, Takuji*; Furukawa, Tomohiro; Hirakawa, Yasushi; Wakai, Eiichi; Knaster, J.*
Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 3(4), p.041005_1 - 041005_11, 2017/10
A liquid-Li free-surface stream flowing at 15 m/s under a high vacuum of 10
Pa is to serve as a beam target (Li target) for the planned International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) or other intense fusion neutron sources. This study focuses on cavitation-like acoustic noise which was detected in a conduit downstream from the Li target. This noise was measured by using acoustic-emission (AE) sensors that were installed at several locations of the conduit via acoustic wave guides. As a result, we found that cavitation occurred only in a narrow area where the Li target impinged on the downstream conduit.
Kondo, Hiroo; Kanemura, Takuji*; Furukawa, Tomohiro; Hirakawa, Yasushi; Wakai, Eiichi; Knaster, J.*
Nuclear Fusion, 57(6), p.066008_1 - 066008_10, 2017/07
Times Cited Count：20 Percentile：69.16(Physics, Fluids & Plasmas)A liquid-Li free-surface stream flowing at 15 m/s under a high vacuum of 10 Pa is to serve as a beam target (Li target) for the planned International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) or other intense fusion neutron sources. We determined that the stability of the Li target remained unchanged despite using it for an extended period of 1,561 h. This finding is regarded as a significant step toward the realization of the IFMIF and the potential use of relevant neutron sources such as A-FNS and DONES.
Knaster, J.*; Garin, P.*; Matsumoto, Hiroshi*; Okumura, Yoshikazu*; Sugimoto, Masayoshi*; Arbeiter, F.*; Cara, P.*; Chel, S.*; Facco, A.*; Favuzza, P.*; et al.
Nuclear Fusion, 57(10), p.102016_1 - 102016_25, 2017/06
Wakai, Eiichi; Kanemura, Takuji; Kondo, Hiroo; Hirakawa, Yasushi; Ito, Yuzuru*; Higashi, Takuma*; Suzuki, Akihiro*; Fukada, Satoshi*; Yagi, Juro*; Tsuji, Yoshiyuki*; et al.
Nuclear Materials and Energy (Internet), 9, p.278 - 285, 2016/12
The EVEDA (Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activity) lithium test loop with the world's highest flow rate was constructed and has been operated mainly at 250C. It succeeded in generating a 100 mm wide and 25 mm thick free-surface lithium flow along a concave back plate steadily at a high-speed of 15 m/s at 250C for 1,300 h under the Broader Approach Activities. A new wave height measuring method (laser-probe method) was developed for measurements of the 3D geometry of the liquid Li target surface. Using the device, the stability of the Li flow (the thickness variation of 
1 mm or less) required for the actual liquid Li target of the IFMIF was satisfied and the feasibility of the long-term stable liquid Li flow was verified. The results of the other engineering validation tests such as lithium purification tests and the engineering design of lithium facility have also been evaluated and summarized.
Wakai, Eiichi; Watanabe, Kazuyoshi*; Ito, Yuzuru*; Suzuki, Akihiro*; Terai, Takayuki*; Yagi, Juro*; Kondo, Hiroo; Kanemura, Takuji; Furukawa, Tomohiro; Hirakawa, Yasushi; et al.
Plasma and Fusion Research (Internet), 11, p.2405112_1 - 2405112_4, 2016/11
Kanemura, Takuji; Kondo, Hiroo; Sugiura, Hirokazu*; Yoshihashi, Sachiko*; Hoashi, Eiji*; Muroga, Takeo*; Furukawa, Tomohiro; Hirakawa, Yasushi; Wakai, Eiichi; Horiike, Hiroshi*
Plasma and Fusion Research (Internet), 11, p.1405117_1 - 1405117_13, 2016/10
In this paper, free-surface characteristics of liquid Li wall jets studied for the Li target of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) are comprehensively reviewed. In the development of the IFMIF Li target, scientific understanding of free-surface wave characteristics and development of diagnostic tools for measuring those characteristics were critical issues. Other liquid metal applications in the fusion engineering, such as a liquid first wall or a liquid diverter, have common issues as well. At present, the authors have developed diagnostic tools to measure all the wave characteristics and average jet thickness, and have shown applicable probability distributions to those wave parameters as well as statistical characteristic values of them, leading to the validation of the stable IFMIF Li target. Our research outcomes can be applied to not only the IFMIF Li target, but also innovative liquid metal diverter or first wall concepts.
Kitazawa, Sin-iti*; Wakai, Eiichi; Aoto, Kazumi
Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 127, p.264 - 268, 2016/10
Times Cited Count：4 Percentile：32.14(Chemistry, Physical)The effects of annealing and double ion irradiation on nuclear structural materials were investigated using a novel, non-destructive, non-contact diagnostic method. A laser-induced and laser-detected surface acoustic wave (SAW) was adopted as a diagnostic system. The SAWs propagation velocity and the SAWs vibration velocity along the normal direction of the surface were measured to investigate mechanical properties of the substrates. Change of the shear modulus was detected in the annealed substrates. Non-linear effect on amplitude of the excited SAW was observed on the double ion irradiated materials. The potential of the SAW diagnostic system for assessing nuclear structural materials was demonstrated.
