Deep learning approach for an interface structure analysis with a large statistical noise in neutron reflectometry

Aoki, Hiroyuki; Liu, Y.*; Yamashita, Takashi*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 11(1), p.22711_1 - 22711_9, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02085-6

Effect of solute carbon on the characteristic hardening of steel at high temperature

Koga, Norimitsu*; Umezawa, Osamu*; Yamamoto, Masayuki*; Yamamoto, Takashi*; Yamashita, Takayuki; Morooka, Satoshi; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 52(3), p.897 - 901, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-020-06113-4

GPU-acceleration of locally mesh allocated two phase flow solver for nuclear reactors

Onodera, Naoyuki; Idomura, Yasuhiro; Ali, Y.*; Yamashita, Susumu; Shimokawabe, Takashi*; Aoki, Takayuki*

Proceedings of Joint International Conference on Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications + Monte Carlo 2020 (SNA + MC 2020), p.210 - 215, 2020/10

This paper presents a GPU-based Poisson solver on a block-based adaptive mesh refinement (block-AMR) framework. The block-AMR method is essential for GPU computation and efficient description of the nuclear reactor. In this paper, we successfully implement a conjugate gradient method with a state-of-the-art multi-grid preconditioner (MG-CG) on the block-AMR framework. GPU kernel performance was measured on the GPU-based supercomputer TSUBAME3.0. The bandwidth of a vector-vector sum, a matrix-vector product, and a dot product in the CG kernel gave good performance at about 60% of the peak performance. In the MG kernel, the smoothers in a three-stage V-cycle MG method are implemented using a mixed precision RB-SOR method, which also gave good performance. For a large-scale Poisson problem with cells, the developed MG-CG method reduced the number of iterations to less than 30% and achieved 2.5 speedup compared with the original preconditioned CG method.

Technical basis of accident tolerant fuel updated under a Japanese R&D project

Yamashita, Shinichiro; Nagase, Fumihisa; Kurata, Masaki; Nozawa, Takashi; Watanabe, Seiichi*; Kirimura, Kazuki*; Kakiuchi, Kazuo*; Kondo, Takao*; Sakamoto, Kan*; Kusagaya, Kazuyuki*; et al.

Proceedings of 2017 Water Reactor Fuel Performance Meeting (WRFPM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 10 Pages, 2017/09

In Japan, the research and development (R&D) project on accident tolerant fuel and other components (ATFs) of light water reactors (LWRs) has been initiated in 2015 for establishing technical basis of ATFs. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has coordinated and carried out this ATF R&D project in cooperation with power plant providers, fuel venders and universities for making the best use of the experiences, knowledges in commercial uses of zirconium-base alloys (Zircaloy) in LWRs. ATF candidate materials under consideration in the project are FeCrAl steel strengthened by dispersion of fine oxide particles(FeCrAl-ODS) and silicon carbide (SiC) composite, and are expecting to endure severe accident conditions in the reactor core for a longer period of time than the Zircaloy while maintaining or improving fuel performance during normal operations. In this paper, the progresses of the R&D project are reported.

The Welded joint strength reduction factors of modified 9Cr-1Mo Steel for the advanced loop-type sodium cooled fast reactor

Yamashita, Takuya; Wakai, Takashi; Onizawa, Takashi; Sato, Kenichiro*; Yamamoto, Kenji*

Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, 138(6), p.061407_1 - 061407_6, 2016/12

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4034017

Chemical composition of artificial seawater after leaching tests of irradiated fuel

Tanaka, Kosuke; Suto, Mitsuo; Onishi, Takashi; Akutsu, Yoko; Yoshitake, Tsunemitsu; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Sekioka, Ken*; Ishigamori, Toshio*; Obayashi, Hiroshi; Koyama, Shinichi

JAEA-Research 2013-036, 31 Pages, 2013/12

JAEA-Research-2013-036.pdf:3.31MB

In the accident of Fukushima Daiichi NPPs, the water ingress was performed in order to decrease the reactor temperature. At that time, sea water was temporarily used as a coolant and the water contacted with nuclear fuel directly. It can be supposed that fission products (FP) were easily migrated from the fuel to sea water in this situation and that affect the water quality. The knowledge of leaching behavior, therefore, is necessary for evaluating the integrity of reactor component materials such as steels for pressure containment vessel and for reactor vessel. In order to obtain the fundamental knowledge for leaching behavior of FP in the hot sea water, the leaching tests of irradiated fuel were performed and the leachates were subjected to chemical analysis. It is found that he leaching rate of each nuclides obtained in this study were similar to that of the leaching results simulating the underground water.

Evaluation of irradiation behavior on oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steel claddings irradiated in Joyo/CMIR-6

Yano, Yasuhide; Otsuka, Satoshi; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Ogawa, Ryuichiro; Sekine, Manabu; Endo, Toshiaki; Yamagata, Ichiro; Sekio, Yoshihiro; Tanno, Takashi; Uwaba, Tomoyuki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2013-030, 57 Pages, 2013/11

JAEA-Research-2013-030.pdf:48.2MB

It is necessary to develop the fast reactor core materials, which can achieve high-burnup operation improving safety and economical performance. Ferritic steels are expected to be good candidate core materials to achieve this objective because of their excellent void swelling resistance. Therefore, oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steel and 11Cr-ferritic/martensitic steel (PNC-FMS) have been respectively developed for cladding and wrapper tube materials in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. In this study, the effects of fast neutron irradiation on mechanical properties and microstructure of 9Cr-and 12Cr-ODS steel claddings for fast reactor were investigated. Specimens were irradiated in the experimental fast reactor Joyo using the CMIR-6 at temperatures between 420 and 835C to fast neutron doses ranging from 16 to 33 dpa. The post-irradiation ring tensile tests were carried out at irradiation temperatures.

Irradiation performance of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steel claddings for fast reactor fuels

Kaito, Takeji; Otsuka, Satoshi; Yano, Yasuhide; Tanno, Takashi; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Ogawa, Ryuichiro; Tanaka, Kenya

Proceedings of International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles; Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR-13) (USB Flash Drive), 11 Pages, 2013/03

The oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steel claddings developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency were irradiated in Joyo and BOR-60 in order to confirm their irradiation performance and thus judge their applicability to high burnup and high temperature fast reactor fuels. In Joyo, material irradiation tests up to 33 dpa were carried out at in the temperature range of 693 - 1108 K. The irradiation data were obtained concerning mainly mechanical properties and of microstructure stability. In BOR-60, fuel pin irradiation tests were conducted up to burnup of 11.9 at% and neutron dose of 51 dpa. The irradiation data were obtained concerning fuel-cladding chemical interaction, dimensional stability under irradiation and so on. These results showed the superior irradiation performance of the ODS ferritic steel claddings and their application possibility as fast reactor fuels. This paper describes the evaluation of the obtained irradiation data of ODS ferritic steel claddings.

Role of residual transition-metal atoms in oxygen reduction reaction in cobalt phthalocyanine-based carbon cathode catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Kobayashi, Masaki*; Niwa, Hideharu*; Harada, Yoshihisa*; Horiba, Koji*; Oshima, Masaharu*; Ofuchi, Hironori*; Terakura, Kiyoyuki*; Ikeda, Takashi; Koshigoe, Yuka*; Ozaki, Junichi*; et al.

Journal of Power Sources, 196(20), p.8346 - 8351, 2011/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2011.06.062

The electronic structure of Co atoms in CoPc-based carbon catalysts, which were prepared by pyrolyzing a mixture of CoPc and phenol resin polymer up to 1000C, has been investigated using XAFS analysis and HXPES. The Co K XAFS spectra show that most of the Co atoms are in the metallic state and small quantities of oxidized Co components are present in the samples even after acid washing to remove Co atoms. Based on the difference in probing depth between XAFS and HXPES, it was found that after acid washing, the surface region with the aggregated Co clusters is primarily composed of metallic Co. Since the electrochemical properties remain almost unchanged even after the acid washing process, the residual metallic and oxidized Co atoms themselves will hardly contribute to the ORR activity of the CoPc-based carbon cathode catalysts, implying that the active sites of the CoPc-based catalysts primarily consist of light elements such as C and N.

X-ray photoemission spectroscopy analysis of N-containing carbon-based cathode catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Niwa, Hideharu*; Kobayashi, Masaki*; Horiba, Koji*; Harada, Yoshihisa*; Oshima, Masaharu*; Terakura, Kiyoyuki*; Ikeda, Takashi; Koshigoe, Yuka*; Ozaki, Junichi*; Miyata, Seizo*; et al.

Journal of Power Sources, 196(3), p.1006 - 1011, 2011/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.08.054

We report on the electronic structure of three different types of N-containing carbon-based cathode catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells observed by hard X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. C 1s spectra show the importance of carbon network formation for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. Samples having high oxygen reduction reaction activity in terms of oxygen reduction potential contain high concentration of graphite-like nitrogen. Based on a quantitative analysis of our results, the oxygen reduction reaction activity of the carbon-based cathode catalysts will be improved by increasing concentration of graphite-like nitrogen in a developed carbon network.