Conceptual design study of a high performance commercial HTGR for early introduction

Fukaya, Yuji; Mizuta, Naoki; Goto, Minoru; Ohashi, Hirofumi; Yan, X. L.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 361, p.110577_1 - 110577_6, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110577

Conceptual design study of a commercial High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) for early introduction has been performed based on the cumulated experience in design, construction, and operation of the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) and design of the commercial Gas Turbine High Temperature Reactor 300 (GTHTR300). The power output is 165 MWt and the inlet and outlet coolant temperatures are 325C and 750C, respectively, to provide steam for industrial utilization. However, given a requirement for the reactor pressure vessel to be smaller even that of the 30 MWt HTTR, several challenging technical problems have to be dealt with to arrive in a high performance core design that provides extended fuel burnup, prolonged refueling period, improved fuel refueling scheme, improved fuel element and so on from the HTTR.

Leaching behavior of prototypical Corium samples; A Step to understand the interactions between the fuel debris and water at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors

Nakayoshi, Akira; Jegou, C.*; De Windt, L.*; Perrin, S.*; Washiya, Tadahiro

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 360, p.110522_1 - 110522_18, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110522

Research and development for safety and licensing of HTGR cogeneration system

Sato, Hiroyuki; Aoki, Takeshi; Ohashi, Hirofumi; Yan, X. L.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 360, p.110493_1 - 110493_8, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110493

JAEA has been conducting research and development with a central focus on the utilization of HTTR, the first HTGR in Japan, towards the realization of industrial use of nuclear heat. On the basis of licensing experience through the HTTR construction, JAEA initiated an activity to establish an international safety standard for licensing of commercial HTGR cogeneration systems fully taking into account safety features of HTGRs. We have developed a roadmap towards licensing of commercial HTGR cogeneration systems. A test plan using the HTTR to support the establishment of safety standards and safety analysis methods are also presented. In addition, we confirmed that a vessel cooling system, a passive air-cooled decay heat removal system, satisfies the safety requirement.

Study on plutonium burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor in Japan; Introduction scenario, reactor safety and fabrication tests of the 3S-TRISO fuel

Ueta, Shohei; Mizuta, Naoki; Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Tachibana, Yukio; Honda, Masaki*; Saiki, Yohei*; Takahashi, Masashi*; Ohira, Koichi*; Nakano, Masaaki*; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 357, p.110419_1 - 110419_10, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110419

The concept of a plutonium (Pu) burner HTGR is proposed to incarnate highly-effective Pu utilization by its inherent safety features. The security and safety fuel (3S-TRISO fuel) employs the coated fuel particle with a fuel kernel made of plutonium dioxide (PuO) and yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as an inert matrix. This paper presents feasibility study of Pu burner HTGR and R&D on the 3S-TRISO fuel.

Conceptual design of direct Tc production facility at the high temperature engineering test reactor

Ho, H. Q.; Ishida, Hiroki*; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ishii, Toshiaki; Fujimoto, Nozomu*; Takaki, Naoyuki*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 352, p.110174_1 - 110174_7, 2019/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110174

Evaluation of local damage to reinforced concrete panels subjected to oblique impact by soft missile

Nishida, Akemi; Kang, Z.; Nagai, Minoru*; Tsubota, Haruji; Li, Y.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 350, p.116 - 127, 2019/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.04.024

Many empirical formulas have been proposed for evaluating local damage to reinforced concrete structures caused by impacts of rigid missiles. Most of these formulas have been derived based on tests involving impact normal to target structures. Thus far, few tests with oblique impact onto target structures have been carried out. As a final goal of this research, we aim to propose a new formula for evaluating the local damage caused by oblique impact based on previous experimental and simulation results. In this study, we perform simulation analyses for evaluating the local damage to reinforced concrete panels subjected to oblique impacts with various angle by soft missiles under various impact velocities using a simulation method that was validated using the results of previous impact experiments. In this paper, the investigated results and obtained knowledges from them are shown.

Study of an HTGR and renewable energy hybrid system for grid stability

Sato, Hiroyuki; Yan, X. L.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 343, p.178 - 186, 2019/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.01.010

A hybrid system combining HTGR and renewable energy is investigated to compensate intermittent renewable energy power generation. A new proposal of using the inventory and bypass control devices already built in the gas turbine, is found to be effective to compensate hourly to daily variation of renewable energy. The reactor thermal power remains at constant full power while the heat output is increased or decreased subject to the need of reactor power generation. On the other hand, the massive heat capacity in the graphite core is shown to be sufficient to compensate renewable energy on a time scale of seconds to minutes and up to about 20% of the rated power output of the nuclear plant. Similarly, no additional control devices are required to perform this control operation. These findings demonstrate the technical and economic potential of the HTGR system to maintain the stability of a grid being incorporated with significant portfolios of renewable energy power generation.

Estimation of porosity and void fraction profiles in a packed bed of spheres using X-ray radiography

Ito, Daisuke*; Ito, Kei*; Saito, Yasushi*; Aoyagi, Mitsuhiro; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 334, p.90 - 95, 2018/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.05.003

Two-phase flow through porous media must be well understood to develop a severe accident analysis code not only for light water reactor but also sodium-cooled fast reactor. When a core disruptive accident occurs in sodium-cooled fast reactor, the fuel inside the core become melted and interacts with the coolant. As a result, gas-liquid two-phase flow will be formed in the debris bed, which may have porous nature depending on the cooling process. In such condition, the local porosity and its distribution are very important to characterize two-phase flow field in the porous media. In this study, X-ray radiography was applied to measure the local porosity in the packed bed of spheres. The radial profiles were estimated from the chordal profiles measured by the X-ray method and compared with the previous porosity model. In addition, the void fraction radial profiles were also obtained in air-water two-phase flow.

Conceptual design study of beam window for accelerator-driven system with subcriticality adjustment rod

Sugawara, Takanori; Eguchi, Yuta; Obayashi, Hironari; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 331, p.11 - 23, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.02.011

This study aims to perform the coupled analysis for the feasible beam window concept. To mitigate the design condition, namely to reduce the necessary proton beam current, subcriticality adjustment rod (SAR) was installed to the ADS core. The burnup analysis was performed for the ADS core with SAR and the results indicated that the maximum proton beam current during the burnup cycle was reduced from 20 to 13.5 mA. Based on the burnup analysis result, the coupled analysis; particle transport, thermal hydraulics and structural analyses, was performed. As the final result, the most robust beam window design; the hemisphere shape, the outer radius = 235 mm, the thickness at the top of the beam window = 3.5 mm and the factor of safety for the buckling = 9.0, was presented. The buckling pressure was 2.2 times larger than the previous one and more feasible beam window concept was presented through this study.

Coupled computer code study on irradiation performance of a fast reactor mixed oxide fuel element with an emphasis on the fission product cesium behavior

Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Nemoto, Junichi*; Ishitani, Ikuo*; Ito, Masahiro*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 331, p.186 - 193, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.03.005

A computer code for the analysis of the overall irradiation performance of a fast reactor mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel element was coupled with a specialized code for the analysis of fission product cesium behaviors in a MOX fuel element. The coupled code system allowed for the analysis of the radial and axial Cs migrations, the generation of Cs chemical compounds and fuel swelling due to Cs-fuel-reactions in association with the thermal and mechanical behaviors of the fuel element. The coupled code analysis was applied to the irradiation performance of a fast reactor MOX fuel element attaining high burnup for discussion on the axial distribution of Cs, fuel-to-cladding mechanical interaction owing to the Cs-fuel-reactions by comparing the calculated results with post irradiation examinations.