Experimental investigation of density stratification behavior during outer surface cooling of a containment vessel with the CIGMA facility

Ishigaki, Masahiro; Abe, Satoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Yonomoto, Taisuke

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 367, p.110790_1 - 110790_15, 2020/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110790

no abstracts in English

Reliability improvements of corrosion-resistant equipment for thermochemical water splitting hydrogen production iodine-sulfur process

Kamiji, Yu; Noguchi, Hiroki; Takegami, Hiroaki; Tanaka, Nobuyuki; Iwatsuki, Jin; Kasahara, Seiji; Kubo, Shinji

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 361, p.110573_1 - 110573_6, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110573

JAEA has been conducting R&D on the thermochemical iodine-sulfur (IS) process for nuclear-powered hydrogen production. The IS process is one of the promising candidates of heat application of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. The glass-lined steel is one of the candidate materials which has both corrosion resistance and structural strength. This paper reveals technical matters to improve reliability of the glass-lined steel equipment. It found that the improved glass-lined steel showed soundness in the process environment from the results of stress analyses for the glass layer by FEM, tests for heat cycle, bending load and corrosion.

Computer code analysis of irradiation performance of axially heterogeneous mixed oxide fuel elements attaining high burnup in a fast reactor

Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Nemoto, Junichi*; Ishitani, Ikuo*; Ito, Masahiro*; Pelletier, M.*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 359, p.110448_1 - 110448_7, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110448

Coupled computer code analyses of irradiation performance of axially heterogeneous mixed oxide (MOX) fuel elements with high burnup in a fast reactor were conducted. Post-irradiation experiments revealed local concentration of Cs near the interfaces between MOX fuel and blanket columns including the internal blanket of the fuel elements as well as an increase in their cladding diameters. The analyses indicated that the local Cs concentration occurred as a result of Cs axial migration from the MOX fuels toward the blanket pellets near the interfaces. Swelling of the blanket pellets induced by the formation of low-density Cs-U-O compound was not sufficient to cause pellet-to-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI). The PCMI analyzed in the MOX fuel column regions was insignificant, and the cladding diameter increases were caused mainly by void swelling in cladding and irradiation creep due to fission gas pressure.

Development of strength evaluation method of ceramic reactor for iodine-sulfur process and hydrogen production test in Japan Atomic Energy Agency

Takegami, Hiroaki; Noguchi, Hiroki; Tanaka, Nobuyuki; Iwatsuki, Jin; Kamiji, Yu; Kasahara, Seiji; Imai, Yoshiyuki; Terada, Atsuhiko; Kubo, Shinji

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 360, p.110498_1 - 110498_6, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110498

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting R&D on the thermochemical iodine-sulfur (IS) process for nuclear-powered hydrogen production. The IS process is one of the promising candidates of heat application of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. JAEA fabricated main chemical reactors made of industrial structural materials and confirmed their integrity in practical corrosive environments in the IS process. Based on the results of these confirmation tests, JAEA have constructed a 100 NL/h-H-scale test facility made of industrial structural materials. In this report, we succeeded in extending the hydrogen production time from 8 hours to 31 hours by developing a stable hydrogen iodide solution transfer technology in a continuous hydrogen production test. In addition, using the fracture test data of the ceramic specimen, an equation for estimating the strength of the ceramic component was developed.

Study on dryout and rewetting during accidents including ATWS for the BWR at JAEA

Satou, Akira; Wada, Yuki; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Yonomoto, Taisuke

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 354, p.110164_1 - 110164_10, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110164

JAEA has conducted a series of experimental researches on the Post-boiling transition heat transfer, transient critical heat flux and rewetting for BWRs. Experimental data bases covering the anticipated operational conditions was developed; the significance of the precursor cooling was identified. This paper presents approaches of the present research focusing on the anticipated transient without scram, effects of the spacer and physical understanding of the phenomena for development of mechanistic model together with promising results obtained so far.

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.