Modeling terminal velocity and aspect ratio of a single bubble in distorted-particle and cap bubble regimes for pool scrubbing simulation

Okagaki, Yuria; Hibiki, Takashi*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 194, p.106267_1 - 106267_23, 2026/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2026.106267

Non-condensable gas accumulation and distribution due to condensation in the CIGMA Facility; Implications for Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 (1F3)

Hamdani, A.; Soma, Shu; Abe, Satoshi; Shibamoto, Yasuteru

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 185, p.105771_1 - 105771_13, 2025/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2025.105771

Free outflow from the end of a horizontal circular pipe related to flow from the PWR cold leg to the downcomer

Satou, Akira; Hibiki, Takashi*; Ikeda, Ryo; Shibamoto, Yasuteru

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 180, p.105593_1 - 105593_11, 2025/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105593

During a loss-of-coolant accident in a pressurized water reactor (PWR), there is a risk that pressurized thermal shock (PTS) may occur on the internal wall of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) due to the flow of emergency core cooling (ECC) water injected into the cold leg that flows into the downcomer. PTS is caused by the rapid cooling of the downcomer wall by the ECC water and is strongly influenced by the temperature of the ECC water, the collision position and velocity of the water jet on the wall, the velocity of the liquid film on the wall, the thickness of the liquid film, and the spread of the downward flow. Therefore, the flow of ECC water discharging from the cold leg to the downcomer may strongly impact PTS events. To help understand this flow phenomenon, we reviewed studies on free outflow from a circular pipe. Experimental findings on the classification of flow conditions, transition conditions between flow conditions, end depth ratio, free surface profile of flow in the circular pipe, and shape of the nappe flowing out from the pipe have been obtained in a form that is almost consistent with each other. In contrast, when considering the flow from the cold leg to the downcomer, it is necessary to deal with the flow field in a specific situation, such as the flow into a narrow gap rather than a free space, the existence of rounded corners at the outlet of the circular pipe, and the influence of steam flow flowing from the core to the cold leg. However, few previous studies consider these factors, so we summarized them as knowledge that needs to be accumulated in the future.

Development of advanced AI-based segmentation and prediction method for air entrainment in plunging water jets

Zhou, W.*; Miwa, Shuichiro*; Yamashita, Susumu; Okamoto, Koji*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 177, p.105441_1 - 105441_17, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105441

Understanding air entrainment phenomena induced by plunging water jets is critical in the fields of nuclear and hydraulic engineering. Air entrainment is one of the key safety design parameters for nuclear systems. However, most existing studies rely on empirical correlations or curve-fitting models to estimate bubble penetration depth, and no agreed-upon calculation principle exists for varying jet conditions. To address these limitations, this research developed two advanced AI approaches: an improved YOLOv5 for segmenting air entrainment and the NSGA-III-BPNN method for predicting penetration depth. The improved YOLOv5 enables real-time segmentation and extraction of air entrainment motion and dynamics under diverse conditions, demonstrating high scalability and robustness. The penetration depth estimated using the improved YOLOv5 shows greater accuracy compared to conventional empirical correlations and is more efficient than traditional image post-processing techniques for classifying shape regimes based on dynamic air entrainment patterns. To overcome the limitations of object segmentation, which typically relies on video or image data, the NSGA-III-BPNN method predicts maximum penetration depths with greater accuracy than YOLOv5, offering a more effective prediction model for air entrainment penetration depth. By leveraging advanced AI techniques, the research not only provides valuable segmentation data for refining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling but also paves the way for significant advancements in both nuclear and hydraulic engineering.

Ultrasound-assisted removal of contaminants on stainless steel surfaces using nitrogen ultrafine bubble water

Nakahara, Masaumi; Watanabe, So; Kimura, Shuya; Sasaki, Misa*; Inagaki, Hiromitsu*; Moriguchi, Tetsuji*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 172, p.105195_1 - 105195_8, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105195

A novel removal technique with ultrafine bubbles has been proposed for decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The performance of removal technology with ultrafine bubbles was evaluated in the removal experiments with non-radioactive materials, simulated contaminants precipitated Co oxides. To investigate the influence of difference in the chemical forms, the decontamination experiments were carried out with the fuel pin end plugs contaminated radioactive materials in a hot cell.

Simulation of a jet flow rectified by a grating-type structure using immersed boundary methods

Hirose, Yoshiyasu; Abe, Satoshi; Ishigaki, Masahiro*; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Hibiki, Takashi*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 169, p.105085_1 - 105085_13, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105085

Inverse estimation scheme of radioactive source distributions inside building rooms based on monitoring air dose rates using LASSO; Theory and demonstration

Shi, W.*; Machida, Masahiko; Yamada, Susumu; Yoshida, Toru*; Hasegawa, Yukihiro*; Okamoto, Koji*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 162, p.104792_1 - 104792_19, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2023.104792

Predicting radioactive source distributions inside reactor building rooms based on monitoring air dose rates is one of the most essential steps towards decommissioning of nuclear power plants. However, the attempt is rather a difficult task, because it can be generally mapped onto mathematically ill-posed problem. Then, in order to successfully perform the inverse estimations on radioactive source distributions even in such ill-posed conditions, we suggest that a machine learning method, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) minimizing the loss function, is a promising scheme. For the purpose of its feasibility demonstrations in real building rooms, we employ PHITS code to make LASSO input as the above matrix C connecting the radioactive source vector P defined on surface meshes of structural materials with the air dose rate vector Q measured at internal positions inside the rooms. We develop a mathematical criterion on the number of monitoring points to correctly predict source distributions based on the theory of Candes and Tao. Then, we confirm that LASSO actually shows extremely high possibility for source distribution reconstructions as far as the number of detection points satisfies our criterion. Moreover, we verify that radioactive hot spots can be truly reconstructed in an experiment setup. At last, we examine an influence factor like detector-source distance to enhance the predicting possibility in the inverse estimation. From the above demonstrations, we propose that LASSO scheme is a quite useful way to explore hot spots as seen in damaged nuclear power plants like Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants.

Liquid decontamination using acidic electrolyzed water for various uranium-contaminated steel surfaces in dismantled centrifuge

Sakasegawa, Hideo; Nomura, Mitsuo; Sawayama, Kengo; Nakayama, Takuya; Yaita, Yumi*; Yonekawa, Hitoshi*; Kobayashi, Noboru*; Arima, Tatsumi*; Hiyama, Toshiaki*; Murata, Eiichi*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 153, p.104396_1 - 104396_9, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104396

When dismantling centrifuges in uranium-enrichment facilities, decontamination techniques must be developed to remove uranium-contaminated surfaces of dismantled parts selectively. Dismantled uranium-contaminated parts can be disposed of as nonradioactive wastes or recycled after decontamination appropriate for clearance. previously, we developed a liquid decontamination technique using acidic electrolyzed water to remove uranium-contaminated surfaces. However, further developments are still needed for its actual application. Dismantled parts have various uranium-contaminated surface features due to varied operational conditions, inhomogeneous decontamination using iodine heptafluoride gas, and changes in long-term storage conditions after dismantling. Here, we performed liquid decontamination on specimens with varying uranium-contaminated surfaces cut from a centrifuge made of low-carbon steel. From the results, the liquid decontamination can effectively remove the uranium-contaminated surfaces, and radioactive concentrations fell below the target value within twenty minutes. Although the required time should also depend on dismantled parts' sizes and shapes in their actual application, we demonstrated that it could be an effective decontamination technique for uranium-contaminated steels of dismantled centrifuges.

Weierstrass function methodology for uncertainty analysis of random media criticality with spectrum range control

Ueki, Taro

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 144, p.104099_1 - 104099_7, 2022/02

AA2021-0677.pdf:0.99MB

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.104099

Randomized Weierstrass function (RWF) has been under development for evaluating the uncertainty of random media criticality due to the material mixture under disorder. In this work, the modelling capability of RWF is refined so that the spectrum range can be controlled by specifying its lower and upper ends of the frequency domain variable. As a result, it becomes possible to make fair criticality comparison among replicas of random media under inverse power law power spectra. Technically, the infinite sum of trigonometric terms in RWF is extended to cover the arbitrarily low frequency domain and then truncated to finite terms for the sole purpose of spectrum range control. This means that the refinement is free of the convergence issue towards a fractal characteristic of Weierstrass function and thus termed Incomplete Randomized Weierstrass function (IRWF). As a demonstration, a three-dimensional version of IRWF is applied to the mixture of three fuels with different burnups in a water-moderated environment. Monte Carlo criticality calculations are carried out to evaluate the uncertainty of neutron effective multiplication factor due to the indeterminacy of the fuel mixture formation.

Interaction between caesium iodide particles and gaseous boric acid in a flowing system through a thermal gradient tube (1030 K-450 K) and analysis with ASTEC/SOPHAEROS

Goullo, M.*; Hokkinen, M.*; Suzuki, Eriko; Horiguchi, Naoki; Barrachin, M.*; Cousin, F.*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 138, p.103818_1 - 103818_10, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.103818

The present work aimed to study the transport of caesium iodide particles through a Thermal Gradient Tube (TGT) from 1023 K to 453 K. Retention inside the tube was evaluated for laminar flowrates composed of argon and steam. Higher retention of particles was highlighted for the experiments using higher steam content and lower flowrate. The second phase of the experiment aimed at identifying the possible revaporization or/and resuspension processes after the deposition. Three atmosphere compositions (Ar/HO, Ar/H and Ar/Air) were investigated. The particles removed from what was deposited on the surface walls during the sampling phase exhibited a similar GMD in Ar/HO and Ar/H and a bigger diameter in Ar/Air. The experimental results were then analysed with the SOPHAEROS module of the ASTEC code. Overall, the results obtained during the first phase were in agreement with the measured experimental results and during second phase led to no resuspension process.