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Fukuda, Kodai; Yamane, Yuichi
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
This study presents the results of multiphysics analysis, which investigates the change of reactivity caused by the motion of fluids, of Windscale Works criticality accident. The purpose of this study is to confirm previously reported trends of emulsion formation and increase in reactivity by the multi-physics analysis which takes the motion of fluids into account. Continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP3 was used to calculate reactivity based on the material distribution obtained by CFD calculation using OpenFOAM. An interface program in python was developed to transfer data from OpenFOAM to MVP3. The change of reactivity caused by the motion of solutions was calculated without considering the generation of heat by fissions in a system that simulated the transfer vessel at Windscale Works. As a result, trends of emulsion formation and increase in reactivity were confirmed. The influence of the resolution of the calculation system on the results was also discussed.
Ueki, Taro
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
A Monte Carlo Solver Solomon has been under development as an object-oriented code written in the C++14 standards. It consists of regular capabilities of criticality safety analysis and a special capability of random media criticality. In the latter capability, Solomon is equipped with a class for the random media modeled by the incomplete randomized Weierstrass function (IRWF). By this modeling, the uncertainty of random media criticality can be evaluated by executing criticality calculations over many IRWF-replicas. However, it is impossible to know beforehand how many IRWF-replicas should be computed. To deal with this issue, a bounded amplification (BA) technique has been newly equipped in Solomon. Applying BA to IRWF, it is possible to reduce the number of IRWF-replicas by more than 95% in terms of the upper limit estimation of neutron effective multiplication factor. Solomon is also equipped with a voxel-overlay (VO). This functionality is shown to be valuable for evaluating the resonance self-shielding effect.
Okita, Shoichiro; Goto, Minoru
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/10
Suyama, Kenya; Ueki, Taro; Gunji, Satoshi; Watanabe, Tomoaki; Araki, Shohei; Fukuda, Kodai; Yamane, Yuichi; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Nagaya, Yasunobu; Kikuchi, Takeo; et al.
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2023/10
To remove and store safely the fuel debris generated by the severe accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011 is one of the most important and challenging topics for decommissioning of the damaged reactors in Fukushima. To validate the adopted method for the evaluation of criticality safety control of the fuel debris through comparison with the experimental data obtained by the criticality experiments, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) of Japan funds a research and development project which was entrusted to the Nuclear Safety Research Center (NSRC) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) from 2014. In this project, JAEA has been conducting such activities as i) comprehensive computation of the criticality characteristics of the fuel debris and making database (criticality map of the fuel debris), ii) development of new continuous energy Monte Carlo code, iii) evaluation of criticality accident and iv) modification of the critical assembly STACY for the experiments for validation of criticality safety control methodology. After the last ICNC2019, the project has the substantial progress in the modification of STACY which will start officially operation from May 2024 and the development of the Monte Carlo Code "Solomon" suitable for the criticality calculation for materials having spatially random distribution complies with the power spectrum. We present the whole picture of this research and development project and status of each technical topics in the session.
Okuno, Hiroshi; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/10
The criticality accident that resulted in the evacuation of residents occurred on September 30, 1999, at JCO's nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. This paper presents the outline, technical issues and background of the accident and the situations that followed. The review of this accident was one of the hot issues in the last ICNC2003 organized in Tokai-mura. At the this turn of ICNC in Japan, we would like to revisit the accident to reaffirm and share the idea that the response and preparedness should be strengthened to protect people and the environment from nuclear disasters. The accident occurred in a factory of JCO during the informal and unusual process of preparing a uranium nitrate solution of medium-enriched (18.8 weight% U) uranium from U
O
using the precipitation tank of 45 cm in diameter, which exceeded the critical diameter (ca. 23 cm) of an infinite cylinder with a full thick water reflector. A 2.2-cm-thick water "jacket" surrounded and enclosed the tank, and the jacket was connected to the cooling tower beside the factory. The jacket not only functioned as the neutron reflector but also prevented the evaporation of the solution, and then the criticality continued for about 20 hours. Because JCO's plant had not anticipated the criticality accident, the response to the accident was confusing. During the accident, the JAERI and JNC, both the predecessors of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), acted to terminate the criticality and reduce the residents' exposure to radiation. After the accident, the JAERI and the National Institute of Radiological Sciences provided the telephone consultation at the village office of Tokai-mura. The JNC did the same things at the prefectural building of Ibaraki to advise the residents. The presentation may include issues of applying the Slide rule, identifying a nuclear criticality accident to occur, and responding to the emergency.
Tada, Kenichi
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/10
The number of energy grids of the thermal neutron scattering law data has a large impact on the data size of a cross section file of continuous energy Monte Carlo calculation codes. The optimization of the number of energy grids is an effective way to reduce the data size. This study developed the linearization method of the thermal neutron scattering cross section to optimize the number of energy grids and the linearization function was implemented in the nuclear data processing code FRENDY. The linearization process which is used in the resonance reconstruction and the Doppler broadening was adopted. The criticality benchmarks which use ZrH as the moderator were calculated to estimate the impact of the difference of the energy grids on neutronics calculations. The calculation results indicate that the linearization of the thermal neutron scattering cross section improves the prediction accuracy of neutronics calculations.
Watanabe, Tomoaki; Tada, Kenichi; Endo, Tomohiro*; Yamamoto, Akio*
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/10
The latest Japanese nuclear data library, JENDL-5, was released in December 2021. In JENDL-5, nuclear reaction cross sections for Gd-155 and Gd-157 were modified in addition to many heavy nuclides such as U-235. Fission yields and decay data, which are essential to characterize burnup fuels, were completely revised. This study investigated the effects of the nuclear data revisions from JENDL-4.0 to JENDL-5 on the neutronic characteristics of burnup fuels to validate JENDL-5. Burnup calculations of the 9x9 STEP-3 BWR fuel assembly based on the OECD/NEA Phase III-C benchmark were performed using JENDL-4.0 and JENDL-5. As a result, the k for JENDL-5 was smaller than that of JENDL-4.0 throughout the burnup, with a large difference of about 600 pcm at 12 GWd/t, around the peak of the k
. Above 20 GWd/t, the difference in k
increases with increasing burnup value, reaching nearly 600 pcm at 50 GWd/t. In addition, this study investigates which nuclear data contribute significantly to the difference in k
by performing burnup calculations with replacing nuclear data of individual nuclides from JENDL-4.0 to JENDL-5.
Miura, Takatomo; Kudo, Atsunari; Koyama, Daisuke; Obu, Tomoyuki; Samoto, Hirotaka
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/10
Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) had reprocessed 1,140 tons of spent fuel discharged from commercial reactors (BWR, PWR) and Advanced Thermal Reactor "Fugen" from 1977 to 2007. TRP had entered decommissioning stage in 2018. In order to reduce the risk of High Active Liquid Waste (HALW) held at the facility, the vitrification of HALW is given top priority. HALW generated from reprocessing of spent fuel contains not only fission products (FPs) but also trace amounts of uranium (U) and plutonium (Pu) within the liquid and insoluble residues (sludge). Under normal conditions, concentrations of U and Pu in HALW are very low so that it can not reach criticality. Since FPs with high neutron absorption effect coexists in HALW, even if the cooling function is lost due to serious accident and HALW evaporates to dryness, it is considered that criticality would not been reached. In order to confirm this estimation quantitatively, criticality safety evaluations were carried out for the increase of U and Pu concentrations by evaporation of HALW to the point of dryness. In this evaluation, infinite multiplication factors were calculated for each of solution system and sludge system of HALW with respect to the concentration change through evaporation to dryness. It is confirmed it could not reach criticality. The abundance ratios of U, Pu and FPs were set conservatively based on analytical data and ORIGEN calculation results. Multiplation factors for two-layer infinite slab model of solution and sludge systems of HALW were also calculated, and it was confirmed it could not reached criticality. In conclusion, the result was gaind that there could be no criticality even in the process through evaporation to dryness of HALW in TRP.
Oizumi, Akito
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/10
Research and development of the transuranium fuel cycle with accelerator-drive systems (ADSs) transmuting minor actinides (MAs) separated from commercial cycles has been continuously conducted by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to reduce the high-level radioactive waste contained in the spent fuel discharged from nuclear power plants. To transmute MA with high efficiency, the ADS fuel contains a large amount of MA. The criticality safety design of facilities within the ADS cycle must rely on calculated values using the nuclear data library because there are no experimental or measured values for the critical mass of many MAs. Thus, it is crucial to figure out the impact of updating the evaluated nuclear data library on the critical mass calculation. This study compared the differences in the calculated critical masses of a bare metal sphere (BCMs) for each actinide isotope between two version of Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library, JENDL-5 (released in December 2021) and JENDL-4.0 as a basic assessment. The study found that the differences in BCMs between JENDL-5 and JENDL-4.0 were less than 1% for U,
U,
Np, and
Pu, which have the integral experimental data for metallic spheres registered in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP). On the other hands, the difference in BCMs between two nuclear data libraries was found to be almost 7-40% for nuclides such as
Am,
Am,
Cm, and
Cm, which have relatively limited or no integral experimental data registered in ICSBEP and International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments (IRPhEP). Furthermore, as a result of analyzing the nuclear data that influenced the difference in BCM, for example in the case of
Cm, it was clarified that the update of fission reaction and prompt
gave a significant contribution.
Yanagisawa, Hiroshi; Umeda, Miki; Motome, Yuiko; Murao, Hiroyuki
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/10
The benchmark analyses on the TRIGA reactor of the IEU-COMP-THERM-013 (ICT-013) in the ICSBEP handbook using the MVP version 3 code were carried out with the Japanese, US and European nuclear data libraries, including JENDL-5. The analyses on effective neutron multiplication factors (k's) were also performed for another TRIGA reactor defined in the ICT-003 as well as the ICT-013. As a result, it is confirmed that the calculated k
's vary in the range of 0.8% with the libraries. The results also suggest that there might be unknown bias in the ICT-013 for the calculated k
's. For the analyses on the control rod worths of the ICT-013, it is confirmed that differences in the worths among the libraries become smaller than those in k
's. Most of the errors involved in k
's are considered to be cancelled in the calculation of the worths since the worths are obtained by subtraction of the reciprocals of two sorts of k
's. The differences in the worths by between the benchmark and alternative methods defined in the ICT-013 were tried to be examined from the aspect of the differences in horizontal flux distributions by between those methods. It is confirmed that the differences in the worths for two shim control rods, which are fully withdrawn at a delayed critical state, are well understood by that attempt, but on the other hand the differences are not sufficiently explained for a regulating control rod, which is partially inserted to attain delayed criticality.
Gunji, Satoshi; Yoshikawa, Tomoki; Araki, Shohei; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/10
Since the compositions and properties of the fuel debris are uncertain, critical experiments are required to validate calculation codes and nuclear data used for the safety evaluation. For this purpose, JAEA has been modifying a critical assembly called "STACY". The first criticality of the new STACY is scheduled for spring 2024. This paper reports the consideration results of the core configurations of the new STACY at the first criticality. We prepared two sets of gird plates with different neutron moderation conditions (their intervals are 1.50 cm and 1.27 cm). However, there is a limitation on the number of available UO fuel rods. In addition, we would like to set the critical water heights for the first criticality at around 95 cm. This is to avoid the reactive effect of the aluminum alloy middle grid plates (Approx. 98 cm high). The core configurations for the first criticality satisfying these conditions were constructed by computational analysis. A square core configuration with the 1.50 cm grid plate that is close to the optimum moderation condition needs 261 fuel rods to reach criticality. As to the 1.27 cm grid plate, we considered two core configurations with 1.80 cm intervals by using a checkerboard arrangement. One of them has two regions core configuration with 1.27 and 1.80 cm intervals, and the other has only 1.80 cm intervals. They need 341 and 201 fuel rods for the criticality, respectively. This paper shows these three core configurations and their calculation models.
Gunji, Satoshi; Araki, Shohei; Arakaki, Yu; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
JAEA has been modifying a critical assembly called STACY from a solution system to a light-water moderated heterogeneous system to validate computation results of criticality characteristics of fuel debris generated in the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. To experimentally simulate the composition and characteristics of fuel debris, we will prepare several grid plates which make particular neutron moderation conditions and a number of rod-shaped concrete and stainless-steel materials. Experiments to evaluate fuel debris's criticality characteristics are scheduled using these devices and materials. This series of STACY experiments are planned to measure the reactivity of fuel debris-simulated samples, measure the critical mass of core configurations containing structural materials such as concrete and stainless steels, and the change in critical mass when their arrangement becomes non-uniform. Furthermore, two divided cores experiments are scheduled that statically simulate fuel debris falling, and also scheduled that subcriticality measurement experiments with partially different neutron moderation conditions. The experimental plans have been considered taking into account some experimental constraints. This paper shows the schedule of these experiments, as well as the computation results of the optimized core configurations and expected results for each experiment.
Gunji, Satoshi; Araki, Shohei; Watanabe, Tomoaki; Fernex, F.*; Leclaire, N.*; Bardelay, A.*; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
Institut de radioprotection et de sret
nucl
aire (IRSN) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have a long-standing partnership in the field of criticality safety. In this collaboration, IRSN and JAEA are planning a joint experiment using the new STACY critical assembly, modified by JAEA. In order to compare the codes (MVP3, MORET6, etc.) and nuclear data (JENDL and JEFF) used by both institutes in the planning of the STACY experiment, benchmark calculations of the Apparatus B and TCA, which are critical assemblies once owned by both institutes, benchmarks from the ICSBEP handbook and the computational model of the new STACY were performed. Including the new STACY calculation model, the calculations include several different neutron moderation conditions and critical water heights. There were slight systematic differences in the calculation results, which may have originated from the processing and/or format of the nuclear data libraries. However, it was found that the calculated results, including the new codes and the new nuclear data, are in good agreement with the experimental values. Therefore, there are no issues to use them for the design of experiments for the new STACY. Furthermore, the impact of the new TSL data included in JENDL-5 on the effective multiplication factor was investigated. Experimental validation for them will be completed by critical experiments of the new STACY by both institutes.
Araki, Shohei; Gunji, Satoshi; Arakaki, Yu; Yoshikawa, Tomoki; Murakami, Takahiko; Kobayashi, Fuyumi; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/10
New experiments simulating fuel debris in the new criticality assembly, STACY, are designed to contribute to the validation of criticality calculations for criticality control of the fuel debris in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. In the new STACY experiment, a two-region core consisting of a driver region and a test region was investigated in order to configure a debris-simulated core with under-moderation condition (lattice pitch 1.27-cm) having the constraint of available fuel rod number. The test region with a 1.27-cm lattice pitch is surrounded by the driver region, in which fuel rods are arranged in a checkerboard pattern on a 1.27-cm lattice plate, with a 1.80-cm lattice pitch. Neutron spectra and sensitivity were calculated by using MCNP6 and ENDF/B-VII. The core which has a 1717 test region with 373 fuel rods is the largest two-region core under the constraint. It was found that the core which has a 17
17 test region can simulate the neutron spectra of under-moderation condition in a 13
13 region inside the test region with the root-mean square percentage error of less than 5%. It was also confirmed that the sensitivity of
Si and
Ca (n,
) reactions when the concrete simulant, was loaded could be simulated.
Sono, Hiroki; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Yoritsune, Tsutomu; Suyama, Kenya; Tonoike, Kotaro
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2023/10
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has constructed and operated nine critical assemblies. Of these nine facilities as of 2023, four have already been dismantled, four are under decommissioning, and only STACY is active but under temporally shutdown. STACY is scheduled to restart in 2024 after core modification from a "critical assembly using uranium nitrate solution fuel" to a "general-purpose critical assembly using uranium fuel rods and light-water moderator." The immediate objective of new STACY is to acquire criticality data for fuel debris removal from the damaged reactors in Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. After the critical experiment program regarding fuel debris, the new STACY is expected to be used for various R&D on next-generation power reactors and others. In addition, the new STACY will serve as an educational and training reactor. These activities are useful not only for Japan but also for international collaborative research and joint use.
Shimada, Kazuya; Ishizuka, Chikako*; Chiba, Satoshi*
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2023/10
TKE (total kinetic energy), one of the nuclear data, is the kinetic energy of fission fragments, and influences not only the energy obtained in nuclear fission, but also the criticality safety assessment. Exploring the underlying factors influencing TKE is vital for fundamental research and utilization of nuclear energy. Instinctively, it is expected that as the energy of incident neutrons on the target nucleus increases, thus leading to a corresponding increase in TKE. However, experimental evidence suggests that TKE decreases as the excitation energy increases. In this study, we investigate this phenomenon. The four-dimensional Langevin model captures the overall shape of the nuclear fission fragment as Brownian motion until the nuclear fission. Using this model, we calculated the excitation energy dependence of TKE. Our investigation reveals that the decreasing trend in TKE can be attributed to the deformation of the heavy fission fragments.
Kobayashi, Fuyumi; Fukaya, Hiroyuki; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Kida, Takashi; Sono, Hiroki; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2023/10
In the criticality experiment in the new STACY, pseudo fuel debris samples are used to acquire data for validation of the system used for 1F debris criticality safety assessment. The pseudo fuel debris is a pellet with a diameter of 8 mm and a height of 10 mm containing uranium oxide and structural materials (iron, silicon, zirconium, etc.). The pellets are made by mixing, pressing and sintering uranium dioxide powder and structural materials powder. The UO powder uses the same composition of uranium as the STACY driver fuel rods, in order to reduce the errors in fuel composition. The pseudo fuel debris fabrication devices and analysis equipment are installed at the BECKY in order to evaluate the critical properties of fuel debris with high accuracy in dimension and analysis. This equipment is located in the same laboratory and can quickly respond to experimental needs such as preparation of the pseudo fuel debris and analysis before and after irradiation.
Kawaguchi, Maho*; Shiba, Shigeki*; Iwahashi, Daiki*; Okawa, Tsuyoshi*; Gunji, Satoshi; Izawa, Kazuhiko; Suyama, Kenya
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC2023) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/10
The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has been working on an experimental approach for evaluating the criticality of fuel debris produced by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNP) accident since 2014, collaborating with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). As part of the approach, JAEA has modified the STAtic experiment Critical facilitY (STACY) for critical experiments to evaluate characteriscs of pseudo-fuel debris. As the preliminary analyses, we verified critical characteristics with major nuclear data libraries for the proposed core configuration patterns. The three-dimensional continuous-energy Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code, SERPENT-V2.2.0 was used with the latest JENDL, JENDL-5. As a result, larger multiplication factors of JENDL-5 across the modified STACY core configuration patterns were evaluated in comparison to the other libraries. And, H scattering and
U fission sensitivity coefficients of JENDL-5 were different from those of the other libraries. Comparing among analyses with those libraries, the updated S(
,
) of JENDL-5 might affect the result of critical characteristics in the critical analyses for the modified STACY core configuration.