Development of simulation program; SHAWED for analysis of accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste in tank

Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*

JAEA-Research 2022-011, 37 Pages, 2022/12

JAEA-Research-2022-011.pdf:2.88MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents at a fuel reprocessing plant. Two major mechanisms are expected for fission products (FPs) transfer from liquid to vapor phase. One is non-volatiles FPs transfer in the form of mists to the vapor phase in the tank, the other is volatilization of such as Ruthenium. These FPs transferred to the vapor phase in the tank could be released with water and nitric-acid mixed steam and NO gas flow to the environment. NO is generated from denitration of nitrate fission products during dry out phase. These phenomena occurred in this accident originate from the liquid waste boiling in the tank. It is essential for the risk assessment of this accident to simulate thermo-hydraulic and chemical behaviors in the waste tank quantitatively with a versatile computer program. The SHAWED (imulation of igh-level radioctive aste vaporation and ryness) has been developed to realize these requirements. In this report, detailed description of major analytical models is explained based on the features of this accident, and some simulation examples are also described for the use in an actual risk assessment.

Analysis of risk reduction effect of supposed steam condenser implementation as accident measure for accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste

Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*

JAEA-Research 2021-013, 20 Pages, 2022/01

JAEA-Research-2021-013.pdf:2.35MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into atmosphere. An idea has been proposed to implement a steam condenser as an accident countermeasure. This measure is expected to prevent nitric acid steam diffusing in facility building and to increase gaseous Ru trapping ratio into condensed water. A simulation study has been carried out with a hypothetical typical facility building to analyze the efficiency of steam condenser. In this study, SCHERN computer code simulates chemical behaviors of Ru in nitrogen oxide, nitric acid and water mixed vapor based on the conditions obtained from simulation with thermal-hydraulic computer code MELCOR. The effectiveness of steam condenser has been analyzed quantitively in preventing mixed vapor diffusion and gaseous Ru trapping effect. Some issues to be solved in analytical model has been also clarified in this study.

SCHERN-V2: Technical guide of computer program for chemical behavior in accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste in Fuel Reprocessing Facilities

Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*

JAEA-Data/Code 2021-008, 35 Pages, 2021/08

JAEA-Data-Code-2021-008.pdf:3.68MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into atmosphere. In addition to this, nitrogen oxides (NO) are also released formed by the thermal decomposition of metal nitrates of fission products (FP) in HLLW. It has been observed experimentally that NOx affects to the migration behavior of Ru at the anticipated atmosphere condition in cells and/or compartments of the facility building. Chemical reactions of NO with water and nitric acid are also recognized as the complex phenomena to undergo simultaneously in the vapor and liquid phases. The analysis program, SCHERN has been under developed to simulate chemical behavior including Ru coupled with the thermo-hydraulic condition in the flow paths in the facility building. This technical guide for SCHERN-V2 presents the overview of covered accident, analytical models including newly developed models, differential equations for numerical solution, and user instructions.

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.

Safety and risk assessment of Nuclear Fuel Facilities; Graded approach based on the risk level

Yoshida, Kazuo

Enerugi Rebyu, 40(4), p.19 - 20, 2020/03

The probabilistic Risk Assessment has been recognized to have important role for the safety enhancement of nuclear facilities in Japan. Efforts of developing methodologies and basic data for risk assessment are undertaken actively for NFFs (Nuclear Fuel Facilities) in Japan. The standard for risk assessment for NFFs is consist of simplified assessment detailed one based on the concept of Graded Approach depending on the risk levels of their facilities. Risk-informed application is useful for activities of enhancing safety measures by the licensee rather than in regulatory decision making because of lower risk level of NFFs. The risk assessment has been also required in the periodic safety self-review by the licensees. The correct understanding of significance of risk assessment for safety management of facilities is essential for the risk-informed application. It is key event to apply the risk assessment in the safety self-review and new regulatory inspection system.

SCHERN: Analysis program for chemical behavior of nitrogen oxide in accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste in Fuel Reprocessing Facilities

Hiyama, Mina*; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Yoshida, Kazuo

JAEA-Data/Code 2019-006, 17 Pages, 2019/07

JAEA-Data-Code-2019-006.pdf:1.84MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into atmosphere. In addition to this, nitrogen oxides (NOx) are also released formed by the thermal decomposition of metal nitrates of fission products (FP) in HLLW. It has been observed experimentally that NOx affects strongly to the transport behavior of Ru at the anticipated atmosphere condition in cells and/or compartments of the facility building. Chemical reactions of NOx with water and nitric acid are also recognized as the complex phenomena to undergo simultaneously in the vapor and liquid phases. An analysis program has been developed to simulate chemical reaction coupled with the thermo-hydraulic condition in the flow paths in the facility building.

New precise measurements of muonium hyperfine structure at J-PARC MUSE

Strasser, P.*; Abe, Mitsushi*; Aoki, Masaharu*; Choi, S.*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Higashi, Yoshitaka*; Higuchi, Takashi*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Ikedo, Yutaka*; Ishida, Katsuhiko*; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 198, p.00003_1 - 00003_8, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201919800003

Development of correlation of gaseous ruthenium transfer rate to condensed water in accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste in Fuel Reprocessing Facilities

Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Yoshida, Naoki; Amano, Yuki; Abe, Hitoshi

JAEA-Research 2017-015, 18 Pages, 2018/01

JAEA-Research-2017-015.pdf:3.08MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste is postulated as one of the severe accidents at a fuel reprocessing facility. It was observed at the experiments that a large amount of ruthenium (Ru) is volatilized and transfer to the vapor phase in the tank. The nitric acid and water mixed vapor released from the tank is condensed. Volatilized Ru is expected to transfer into the condensed water at the compartments in the building. Quantitative estimation of the amount of Ru transferred condensed water is key issues to evaluate the reduction the amount of Ru through leak path in the facility building. This report presents that a correlation has been developed for Ru transfer rate to condensed water with vapor condensing rate based on the experimental results and additional thermal-hydraulic simulation of the experiments. Applicability of the correlation has been also demonstrated with the accident simulation of typical facilities in full-scale.

High-beta section of a muon linac for the measurement of the muon g-2/EDM at J-PARC

Kondo, Yasuhiro; Hasegawa, Kazuo; Otani, Masashi*; Mibe, Tsutomu*; Yoshida, Mitsuhiro*; Kitamura, Ryo*

Proceedings of 14th Annual Meeting of Particle Accelerator Society of Japan (Internet), p.398 - 400, 2017/12

A muon linac development for a new muon g-2 experiment is now going on at J-PARC. Muons from the muon beam line (H-line) at the J-PARC MLF are once stopped in an silica aerojel target and room temperature muoniums are evaporated from the aerogel. They are dissociated with laser (ultra slow muons), then accelerated up to 212 MeV using a linear accelerator. For the accelerating structure from 40 MeV, disk-loaded traveling-wave structure is applicable because the particle beta is more than 0.7. The structure itself is similar to that for electron linacs, however, the cell length should be harmonic to the increase of the particle velocity. In this paper, the beam dynamics design of this muon linac using the disk-loaded structure is described.

Current status of research for the accident of evaporation to dryness caused by boiling of reprocessed high level radioactive liquid waste

Tamaki, Hitoshi; Yoshida, Kazuo; Abe, Hitoshi; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Maruyama, Yu

Proceedings of Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2017 (ASRAM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 9 Pages, 2017/11

An accident of evaporation to dryness caused by boiling of high level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at the fuel reprocessing plant. This accident can be divided into early boiling stage, late boiling stage and dry-out stage by characteristics of accident evolution. It is important to estimate the amount of fission product (FP) transport between the liquid and gas phases, and the amount of FP deposition on the walls in each stage in order to estimate the release amount of FP to the environment. Various research activities have been carried out for this issue. This paper reviews these activities and presents the recent activities at JAEA for development of simulation code for this type of accident.