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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.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Research 2023-001, 26 Pages, 2023/05
JAEA-Research-2023-001.pdf:1.61MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive 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 the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. To resolve this issue, an analytical approach has been developed using computer simulation programs to assess the radioactive source term from those facilities. The proposed approach consists analyses with three computer programs. At first, the simulation of boiling behavior in the HLLW tank is conducted with SHAWED code. Next step, the thermal-hydraulic behavior in the facility building is simulated with MELCOR code based on the results at the first step simulation such as flowed out mixed steam flow rate, temperature and volatilized Ru from the tank. The final analysis step is carried out for estimating amount of released radioactive materials with SCHERN computer code which simulates chemical behaviors of nitric acid, nitrogen oxide and Ru based on the condition also simulated MELCOR. Series of sample simulations of the accident at a hypothetical typical facility are presented with the data transfer between those codes in this report.
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 radio
ctive 
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.
Yamaguchi, Akinori*; Yokotsuka, Muneyuki*; Furuta, Masayo*; Kubota, Kazuo*; Fujine, Sachio*; Mori, Kenji*; Yoshida, Naoki; Amano, Yuki; Abe, Hitoshi
Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Wabun Rombunshi (Internet), 21(4), p.173 - 182, 2022/09
Risk information obtained from probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of measures against severe accidents in nuclear facilities. The PRA methods used for reprocessing facilities are considered immature compared to those for nuclear power plants, and to make the methods mature, reducing the uncertainty of accident scenarios becomes crucial. In this paper, we summarized the results of literature survey on the event progression of evaporation to dryness caused by boiling of high-level liquid waste (HLLW) which is a severe accident in reprocessing facilities and migration behavior of associated radioactive materials. Since one of the important characteristics of Ru is its tendency to form volatile compounds over the course of the event progression, the migration behavior of Ru is categorized into four stages based on temperature. Although no Ru has been released in the waste in the high temperature region, other volatile elements such as Cs could be released. Sufficient experimental data, however, have not been obtained yet. It is, therefore, necessary to further clarify the migration behavior of radioactive materials that predominantly depends on temperature in this region.
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.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*
JAEA-Research 2021-005, 25 Pages, 2021/08
JAEA-Research-2021-005.pdf:2.91MB
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. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. To resolve this issue, an empirical correlation equation of Ru mass transfer coefficient across the vapor-liquid surface, which can be useful for quantitative simulation of Ru mitigating behavior, has been obtained from data analyses of small-scale experiments conducted to clarify gaseous Ru migrating behavior under steam-condensing condition. A simulation study has been also carried out with a hypothetical typical facility building successfully to demonstrate the feasibility of quantitative estimation of amount of Ru migrating in the facility using the obtained correlation equation implemented in SCHERN computer code which simulates chemical behaviors of nitrogen oxide based on the condition also simulated thermal-hydraulic computer code.
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.
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.
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.
Yoshida, Kazuo
JAEA-Research 2016-012, 24 Pages, 2016/08
JAEA-Research-2016-012.pdf:3.04MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste is postulated as one of the severe accidents. In this case, Ru volatilization increases in liquid waste temperature over 120 centigrade at later boiling and dry out phases. It has been observed at the experiments with actual and synthetic liquid waste that some amount of Ru volatilizes and transfers into condensed nitric acid solution at those phases. The nitric acid and water vapor from waste tank condenses at compartments of actual facilities building. The volatilized Ru could transfer into condensed liquid. It is key issues for quantifying the amount of transferred Ru through the facility building to simulate these thermodynamic and chemical behaviors. An analytical model has been proposed in this report based on the condensation mechanisms of nitric acid and water in vapor-liquid equilibria. It has been also carried out to review the thermodynamic properties of nitric acid solution.
Yoshida, Kazuo
JAEA-Research 2016-004, 15 Pages, 2016/06
JAEA-Research-2016-004.pdf:2.22MB
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, some amount of fission products (FPs) will be transferred to the vapor phase in the tank, and could be released to the environment. Two mitigative accident measures have been proposed by the licensee. One of them is injecting cold water to waste tanks to prevent dryness and another is leading generated vapor through temporary duct to huge spaces in the facility to condense to liquid. Thermal-hydraulics and aerosol transport behaviors in compartments of a typical facility building have been analyzed based on the scenario with these accident measures. The effects of measures are discussed form a view point of the reduction of radioactive material release to environment.
Yoshida, Kazuo; Ishikawa, Jun; Abe, Hitoshi
Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Wabun Rombunshi, 14(4), p.213 - 226, 2015/12
An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high level liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents to occur caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, some amount of fission products (FPs) will be transferred to the vapor phase in the tank, and could be released to the environment. Therefore, the quantitative estimation of transport and release behavior of FPs is one of the key issues in the assessment of the accident consequence. To resolve this issue, a systematic analysis method with computer codes has been developed based on the phenomenological behavior in boiling accident of HLLW. A simulation study demonstrated that the behaviors of liquid waste temperature and entrainment of mists were in good agreement with the experimental results during early boiling phase
Ohno, Shuji*; Miyahara, Shinya*; Kurata, Yuji
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 42(7), p.593 - 599, 2005/07
no abstracts in English
O+
U reactionNishio, Katsuhisa; Ikezoe, Hiroshi; Nagame, Yuichiro; Asai, Masato; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Mitsuoka, Shinichi; Tsuruta, Kaoru; Sato, Kenichiro; Lin, C. J.; Osawa, Takaaki*
Physical Review Letters, 93(16), p.162701_1 - 162701_4, 2004/10
Times Cited Count：81 Percentile：89.97(Physics, Multidisciplinary)The fission fragment angular distributions for reactions using actinide targets such as O+U show anomalously large anisotropy than the prediction of the transition state model. To interprete this phenomenon, the orientation dependent quasi-fission model was proposed. As the U has prolate deformation, the interaction of O with the U in the sub-barrier region is restricted to the tip collisions. Hinde et al. interpreted that the anomalously large angular anisotropy is due to the quasi-fission, that is the complete fusion is not achieved in the sub-barrier region. The presence (or absence) of the complete fision is found by measuring the evaporation residue cross sections. We measured the evaporation residue cross sections for O+U by using the O beams supplied by the JAERI-tandem accelerator. As a result, complete fusion was observed in the sub-barrier region and no significant fusion hindrace was observed.
Sakai, Seiji; Naramoto, Hiroshi; Xu, Y.; Priyanto, T. H.; Lavrentiev, V.; Narumi, Kazumasa
Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol.788, p.L11.49.1 - L11.49.6, 2004/00
Mixture films between cobalt and C
(CoxC, x = 0.5-700) were prepared by co-evaporation technique under UHV conditions. The composition-dependent features of dilatation and downshift of Raman peak suggest that the mixtures are composed of cobalt particles and a C-based phase in which certain number of cobalt atoms are coordinated with C molecules. It is deduced that the equilibrated number of cobalt atoms in the C-based phase is 4 atoms per C molecule and in which an electron transfer occurs from a cobalt atom to a C molecule. The evaluation of their temperature dependences reveals that: (1) The mixtures with x 
4 are thermally activated-type, and their conductive nature can be attributed to the C-based phase. Further (2) the mixtures between 4 
x 60 are also thermally activated, however, the electron hopping process between the isolated cobalt particles is supposed to be operative (variable-range-hopping). And (3) in the mixtures with x 
60 which corresponds to a percolation threshold for cobalt particles, the system changes into metallic conduction.
Ohno, Shuji*; Miyahara, Shinya*; Kurata, Yuji
Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-12) (CD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2004/00
no abstracts in English
Takano, Masahide; Ito, Akinori; Akabori, Mitsuo; Minato, Kazuo; Numata, Masami
Proceedings of GLOBAL2003 Atoms for Prosperity; Updating Eisenhower's Global Vision for Nuclear Energy (CD-ROM), p.2285 - 2291, 2003/00
Stability of AmN and (Am,Zr)N was studied comparatively from the viewpoints of the hydrolytic and evaporative behavior. AmN powder reacted with moisture to form hydroxide Am(OH)
, while the solid solution (Am
Zr
)N remained stable as long as 1000 hours. Stabilization effect of ZrN was found to depend significantly on its mole fraction from the experiments on (Dy,Zr)N. In the oxidation experiments on (Dy,Zr)N by TG-DTA technique, rapid weight gain by the oxidation occurred above 700 K. Effect of ZrN on the stability against oxygen was slight. Nitrogen release by the evaporation of AmN and (AmZr)N in He gas flow was measured by gas chromatography. Evaporation rate constants of AmN were obtained at 1623-1733 K. Although the evaporation rate constant of AmN in the solid solution were lower than those of the pure AmN, the selective evaporation of AmN from the solid slution were recognized, which resulted in a decrease in the Am mole fraction.
Yamazawa, Hiromi
Environmental Modelling & Software, 16(8), p.739 - 751, 2001/12
no abstracts in English
Furihata, Shiori*; Niita, Koji*; Meigo, Shinichiro; Ikeda, Yujiro; Maekawa, Fujio
JAERI-Data/Code 2001-015, 90 Pages, 2001/03
JAERI-Data-Code-2001-015.pdf:3.75MB
no abstracts in English
Noguchi, Hiroshi; Fukutani, Satoshi*; Yokoyama, Sumi; Kinouchi, Nobuyuki
KURRI-KR-61, p.18 - 25, 2000/00
no abstracts in English
