Development of reacting jet evaluation model based on engineering approaches with particle method for improvement of LEAP-III code

Kosaka, Wataru; Uchibori, Akihiro; Takata, Takashi; Yanagisawa, Hideki*; Watanabe, Akira*; Jang, S.*

Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2022/03

For the safety assessment of a steam generator (SG) in a sodium-cooled fast reactor, the analysis code LEAP-III can evaluate the water leak rate during the long-term event progress including the tube failure propagation triggered by an occurrence of a small water leak in a failed heat transfer tube in SG. The LEAP-III has the advantage in completing the calculation with low computational cost since it consists of semi-empirical formulae and one-dimensional equations of conservation. However, an evaluation model of temperature distribution by the reacting jet provides wider high temperature region than the experimental data. As a result, LEAP-III shows excessive conservativeness in some case. A Lagrangian particle method code based on engineering approaches has been developed in order to improve this model to get more realistic temperature distribution. In this method, the jet behavior and chemical reaction are simulated using Newton's equation of motion with several engineering approximations instead of solving multi-dimension multiphase thermal hydraulic equations with sodium-water reaction. In this study, interparticle interaction force model was added, and also the chemical reaction and gas-liquid heat transfer evaluation models were improved. We conducted a test analysis, and compared the results by this particle method with the ones by SERAPHIM, that is a mechanistic analysis code for multi-dimensional multiphase flow considering compressibility and sodium-water reaction. Through this test analysis, it confirmed that this particle method has the basic capability to get a realistic temperature distribution with low computational cost, and also to predict tube failure occurrence by coupled with LEAP-III.

An Experimental study on natural circulation decay heat removal system for a loop type fast reactor

Ono, Ayako; Kamide, Hideki; Kobayashi, Jun; Doda, Norihiro; Watanabe, Osamu*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 53(9), p.1385 - 1396, 2016/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2015.1121844

Decay heat removal by natural circulation is a significant passive safety measure of a fast reactor against station blackout. The decay heat removal system (DHRS) of the loop type sodium fast reactor being designed in Japan comprises a direct reactor auxiliary cooling system and primary reactor auxiliary cooling system (PRACS). The thermal hydraulic phenomena in the plant under natural circulation conditions need to be understood for establishing a reliable natural circulation driven DHRS. In this study, sodium experiments were conducted using a plant dynamic test loop to understand the thermal-hydraulic phenomena considering natural circulation in the plant. The experiments simulating the scram transient confirmed that PRACS started up smoothly under natural circulation, and the simulated core was stably cooled after the scram. Moreover, the experiments varying the pressure loss coefficients of the loop as the experimental parameters showed robustness of the PRACS.

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2014

Watanabe, Hitoshi; Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Kono, Takahiko; Inoue, Kazumi; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; Kikuchi, Masaaki*; Sakauchi, Nobuyuki*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2015-030, 115 Pages, 2015/12

JAEA-Review-2015-030.pdf:25.28MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai reprocessing plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and bylaw of Ibaraki prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2014. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Water experiments on thermal striping in reactor vessel of Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor; Countermeasures for significant temperature fluctuation generation

Kobayashi, Jun; Ezure, Toshiki; Kamide, Hideki; Oyama, Kazuhiro*; Watanabe, Osamu*

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2015/05

A column type upper internal structure (UIS) is installed in the upper plenum of reactor vessel in JSFR. High cycle thermal fatigue may occur at the bottom plate (CIP) of the UIS where the hot sodium from the fuel subassembly can mix with the cold sodium from the control rod channel and the blanket fuel subassembly. We have been conducted a water experiment using a reactor upper plenum model to grasp the thermal-hydraulic phenomena around control rod (CR) channels, and to obtain countermeasures for significant temperature fluctuation on the CIP. The experimental apparatus has 1/3 scale and 60 sector model of the reactor upper plenum. By the experiment, characteristics of fluid temperature fluctuation between the handling head of the assemblies and the CIP are measured and countermeasure for the significant temperature fluctuation generation will be discussed on the influence of the distance from the handling head outlet to the lower surface of the CIP.

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2013

Watanabe, Hitoshi; Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Kono, Takahiko; Inoue, Kazumi; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; Goto, Ichiro*; Kibe, Satoshi*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2014-040, 115 Pages, 2015/01

JAEA-Review-2014-040.pdf:4.26MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai reprocessing plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and bylaw of Ibaraki prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2013. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2012

Sumiya, Shuichi; Watanabe, Hitoshi; Miyagawa, Naoto; Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Kono, Takahiko; Inoue, Kazumi; Yoshii, Hideki; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2013-041, 115 Pages, 2014/01

JAEA-Review-2013-041.pdf:19.01MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai reprocessing plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, and the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and bylaw of Ibaraki prefecture), this report describes the effluent control results of liquid waste discharged from the JAEA's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories in the fiscal year 2012, from 1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other facilities were much lower than the authorized limits of the above regulations.

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2011

Sumiya, Shuichi; Watanabe, Hitoshi; Miyagawa, Naoto; Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Kono, Takahiko; Hiyama, Yoshinori; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Goto, Ichiro*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2013-005, 116 Pages, 2013/05

JAEA-Review-2013-005.pdf:9.69MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai reprocessing plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, and the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and byelaw of Ibaraki prefecture), this report describes the effluent control results of liquid waste discharged from the JAEA's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories in the fiscal year 2011, from 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other facilities were much lower than the authorized limits of the above regulations.

Sodium experiment on fully natural circulation systems for decay heat removal in Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor

Ono, Ayako; Kobayashi, Jun; Kamide, Hideki; Watanabe, Osamu*

Proceedings of 8th Japan-Korea Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS-8) (USB Flash Drive), 10 Pages, 2012/12

Fully natural circulation system is adopted in a decay heat removal system (DHRS) of Japan Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor. The DHRS of JSFR consists of one unit of DRACS and two units of PRACS. In this study, the sodium experiments were conducted using a sodium test loop PLANDTL in order to investigate the effect of operation mode on transient behavior of thermal hydraulic in PRACS loop. The experimental results revealed the effect of increasing heat removal capacity of PRACS and the forced flow operation in PRACS loop on the thermal transient and natural circulation behavior in PRACS loop.

Influence of Great East Japan Earthquake on neutron source station in J-PARC

Sakai, Kenji; Sakamoto, Shinichi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Seki, Masakazu; Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; Naoe, Takashi; Kasugai, Yoshimi; Tatsumoto, Hideki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2011-039, 121 Pages, 2012/03

JAEA-Technology-2011-039.pdf:10.87MB

This report investigates the behavior, damage and restoration of a neutron source station of the MLF at the Great East Japan Earthquake and verified the safety design for emergency accidents in the neutron source station. In the MLF, after an occurrence of the Earthquake, strong quakes were detected at the instruments, the external power supply was lost, all of the circulators shut down automatically, and the hydrogen gas was released. The leakages of mercury, hydrogen and radio-activation gases did not occur. While, the quakes made gaps between the shield blocks and ruptured external pipe lines by subsidence around the building. But significant damages to the components were not found though the pressure drop of compressed air lines influenced on a target trolley lock system and so on. These results substantiated the validity of the safety design for emergency accidents in the source station, and suggested several points of improvement.

Development of PIRT for fast reactor under natural circulation decay heat removal operations

Doda, Norihiro; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Kamide, Hideki; Watanabe, Osamu*

Nihon Kikai Gakkai Rombunshu, B, 78(787), p.465 - 467, 2012/03

https://doi.org/10.1299/kikaib.78.465

In the design study for Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR), fully natural circulation system is adopted as the decay heat removal system. We have been developing a new evaluation method of core hot spot in transition from rated operation to natural circulation decay heat removal conditions. Since the method is currently based on conservative assumptions and data, there is room for further rationalization of the safety margin which can be achieved by conducting best estimate analyses with confidence and with quantified uncertainty of results. This paper describes a development of PIRT (Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table) for JSFR under natural circulation decay heat removal operations and the sensitivity analyses of the uncertainties in the event of loss of external power as the first step to improve the evaluation method.