Development of plutonium fuel facility decommissioning technology to accelerate glovebox dismantling and reduce air-fed suits based operations

Yoshida, Masato; Iguchi, Satoshi; Hirano, Hiroshi*; Kitamura, Akihiro

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 431, p.113691_1 - 113691_16, 2025/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113691

The Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility is currently in the decommissioning phase, with glovebox dismantling operations ongoing since 2010. During conventional glovebox dismantling operations, the glovebox to be dismantled is enclosed within plastic tents to contain contamination. The glovebox is then dismantled by workers wearing air-fed suits with thermal or mechanical cutting tools, which typically generate dross or sparks in the form of radioactive aerosols during cutting. Despite the longevity and meticulous organization of this manual method, the workload remains considerable, while the allowable working time is limited. In addition, the potential for inhalation exposure to plutonium is elevated in the event of an accident given the contamination of the work area. To overcome disadvantages associated with conventional glovebox dismantling methods, new methods are currently being developed. The primary objective is to reduce the reliance on operation based on air-fed suits and enhance worker safety by introducing remote equipment and a new floor-reinforcing panel. Another objective is to suppress waste generation by reusing all equipment on multiple occasions which is achieved by developing a containment system that have a large open port with a pallet for the storage and reuse of equipment for successive operations. Furthermore, a glove operation compartment is designed and tested for the manual handling of dismantled materials as an additional strategy to reduce work based on air-fed suits and mitigate secondary waste generation.

Current numbers of qubits and their uses

Ichikawa, Tsubasa*; Hakoshima, Hideaki*; Inui, Koji*; Ito, Kosuke*; Matsuda, Ryo*; Mitarai, Kosuke*; Miyamoto, Koichi*; Mizukami, Wataru*; Mizuta, Kaoru*; Mori, Toshio*; et al.

Nature Reviews Physics (Internet), 6(6), p.345 - 347, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-024-00725-0

Experiences in dismantlement of gloveboxes for wet recovery and other use that are contaminated with nuclear fuel materials

Kitamura, Akihiro; Hirano, Hiroshi*; Yoshida, Masato; Takeuchi, Kentaro

Hoken Butsuri (Internet), 58(2), p.76 - 90, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.5453/jhps.58.76

The alpha contaminated gloveboxes have been dismantled for over 20 years in Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility. The so called wet recovery equipment gloveboxes, which recover plutonium and uranium from scrap fuel by dissolving and extracting processes, were chosen as the priority gloveboxes to be dismantled. These gloveboxes and other gloveboxes in the same room were size reduced and removed up until 2022. Also, non-radioactive ancillary facility and non-radioactive giant glovebox were removed from 2007 to 2010 for ease of glovebox dismantling activities that follows and for making waste storage spaces. Several incidents were occurred and recidivism prevention measures were implemented on each occasion. In this report, glovebox dismantling activities we conducted in the past 20 years are reviewed and lessons we have learned are summarized.

Report on participation in the 6th Asian and Oceanic Congress on Radiation Protection

Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Manabe, Kentaro; Ochi, Kotaro; Kono, Takahiko; Sasaki, Michiya*; Yoshida, Hiroko*

Hoken Butsuri (Internet), 58(2), p.105 - 111, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.5453/jhps.58.105

This article gives the report on participation in the 6th Asian and Oceanic Congress on Radiation Protection (AOCRP6), which was held in Mumbai, India on between February 7th and 11th, 2023.

Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library version 5; JENDL-5

Iwamoto, Osamu; Iwamoto, Nobuyuki; Kunieda, Satoshi; Minato, Futoshi; Nakayama, Shinsuke; Abe, Yutaka*; Tsubakihara, Kosuke*; Okumura, Shin*; Ishizuka, Chikako*; Yoshida, Tadashi*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(1), p.1 - 60, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2141903

Development of JAEA advanced multi-physics analysis platform for nuclear systems

Kamiya, Tomohiro; Ono, Ayako; Tada, Kenichi; Akie, Hiroshi; Nagaya, Yasunobu; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Kawanishi, Tomohiro

Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 29) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE29-91828

JAEA started to develop the advanced reactor analysis code JAMPAN (JAEA advanced multi-physics analysis platform for nuclear systems). The current version of JAMPAN handles the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP and the detailed thermal-hydraulics analysis code for multiphase and multicomponent JUPITER. JAMPAN is designed to consider the extensibility and it does not depend on the analysis codes. All calculations in JAMAPAN are not directly connected. JAMPAN has data containers, and all input and output data of each analysis code are set in these data containers. JAMPAN will easily exchange the calculation codes and add the other calculations, e.g., structure calculation and irradiation calculation since the input and the output format of each code has no impact on the other calculation codes. The 4 by 4 pin-cell geometry was used as the demonstration calculation of JAMPAN and the physically reasonable calculation results were obtained.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

Spallation and fragmentation cross sections for 168 MeV/nucleon Xe ions on proton, deuteron, and carbon targets

Sun, X. H.*; Wang, H.*; Otsu, Hideaki*; Sakurai, Hiroyoshi*; Ahn, D. S.*; Aikawa, Masayuki*; Fukuda, Naoki*; Isobe, Tadaaki*; Kawakami, Shunsuke*; Koyama, Shumpei*; et al.

Physical Review C, 101(6), p.064623_1 - 064623_12, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.064623

The spallation and fragmentation reactions of Xe induced by proton, deuteron and carbon at 168 MeV/nucleon were studied at RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory via the inverse kinematics technique. The cross sections of the lighter products are larger in the carbon-induced reactions due to the higher total kinetic energy of carbon. The energy dependence was investigated by comparing the newly obtained data with previous results obtained at higher reaction energies. The experimental data were compared with the results of SPACS, EPAX, PHITS and DEURACS calculations. These data serve as benchmarks for the model calculations.

How different is the core of F from O ?

Tang, T. L.*; Uesaka, Tomohiro*; Kawase, Shoichiro; Beaumel, D.*; Dozono, Masanori*; Fujii, Toshihiko*; Fukuda, Naoki*; Fukunaga, Taku*; Galindo-Uribarri, A.*; Hwang, S. H.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 124(21), p.212502_1 - 212502_6, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.212502

The structure of a neutron-rich F nucleus is investigated by a quasifree () knockout reaction. The sum of spectroscopic factors of orbital is found to be 1.0 0.3. The result shows that the O core of F nucleus significantly differs from a free O nucleus, and the core consists of 35% O, and 65% excited O. The result shows that the O core of F nucleus significantly differs from a free O nucleus. The result may infer that the addition of the proton considerably changes the neutron structure in F from that in O, which could be a possible mechanism responsible for the oxygen dripline anomaly.

Measurement of defect-induced electrical resistivity change of tungsten wire at cryogenic temperature using high-energy proton irradiation

Iwamoto, Yosuke; Yoshida, Makoto*; Matsuda, Hiroki; Meigo, Shinichiro; Satoh, Daiki; Yashima, Hiroshi*; Yabuuchi, Atsushi*; Kinomura, Atsushi*; Shima, Tatsushi*

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 28, p.061003_1 - 061003_5, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.28.061003

To predict the lifetime of target materials in high-energy radiation environments at spallation neutron sources, radiation transport codes such as PHITS are used to calculate the displacements per atom (DPA) value. In this work, to validate calculated DPA values of tungsten, we implemented 0.25-mm-diameter wire sample of tungsten in a proton irradiation device with a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler and measured the defect-induced electrical resistivity changes related to the displacement cross section using 389-MeV protons at 10 K. In comparison with experimental data under 1.1 and 1.9 GeV proton irradiation, we found that damage rate of tungsten increases with proton energy due to increase the number of secondary particle s produced by nuclear reactions.