Thermal conductivity measurement of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide doped with Nd/Sm as simulated fission products

Horii, Yuta; Hirooka, Shun; Uno, Hiroki*; Ogasawara, Masahiro*; Tamura, Tetsuya*; Yamada, Tadahisa*; Furusawa, Naoya*; Murakami, Tatsutoshi; Kato, Masato

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 588, p.154799_1 - 154799_20, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2023.154799

The thermal conductivities of near-stoichiometric (U,Pu,Am)O doped with NdO/SmO, which is major fission product (FP) generated by a uranium-plutonium mixed oxides (MOX) fuel irradiation, as simulated fission products are evaluated at 1073-1673 K. The thermal conductivities are calculated from the thermal diffusivities that are measured using the laser flash method. To evaluate the thermal conductivity from a homogeneity viewpoint of Nd/Sm cations in MOX, the specimens with different homogeneity of Nd/Sm are prepared using two kinds of powder made by ball-mill and fusion methods. A homogeneous Nd/Sm distribution decreases the thermal conductivity of MOX with increasing Nd/Sm content, whereas heterogeneous Nd/Sm has no influence. The effect of Nd/Sm on the thermal conductivity is studied using the classical phonon transport model (A+BT). The dependences of the coefficients A and B on the Nd/Sm content (C and C, respectively) are evaluated as: A(mK/W)=1.70 10 + 0.93C + 1.20C, B(m/W)=2.39 10.

Improvement in the elution performance of an N,N,N',N-tetraoctyl diglycolamide impregnated extraction chromatography adsorbent using neodymium via micro-particle-induced X-ray emission analysis

Takahatake, Yoko; Watanabe, So; Arai, Tsuyoshi*; Sato, Takahiro*; Shibata, Atsuhiro

Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 196, p.110783_1 - 110783_5, 2023/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110783

Actual stress analysis of small-bore butt-welded pipe by complementary use of synchrotron X-rays and neutrons

Suzuki, Kenji*; Miura, Yasufumi*; Shiro, Ayumi*; Toyokawa, Hidenori*; Saji, Choji*; Shobu, Takahisa; Morooka, Satoshi

Zairyo, 72(4), p.316 - 323, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.2472/jsms.72.316

Third international challenge to model the medium- to long-range transport of radioxenon to four Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations

Maurer, C.*; Galmarini, S.*; Solazzo, E.*; Kumierczyk-Michulec, J.*; Bar, J.*; Kalinowski, M.*; Schoeppner, M.*; Bourgouin, P.*; Crawford, A.*; Stein, A.*; et al.

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 255, p.106968_1 - 106968_27, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.106968

After performing multi-model exercises in 2015 and 2016, a comprehensive Xe-133 atmospheric transport modeling challenge was organized in 2019. For evaluation measured samples for the same time frame were gathered from four International Monitoring System stations located in Europe and North America with overall considerable influence of IRE and/or CNL emissions. As a lesion learnt from the 2nd ATM-Challenge participants were prompted to work with controlled and harmonized model set ups to make runs more comparable, but also to increase diversity. Effects of transport errors, not properly characterized remaining emitters and long IMS sampling times (12 to 24 hours) undoubtedly interfere with the effect of high-quality IRE and CNL stack data. An ensemble based on a few arbitrary submissions is good enough to forecast the Xe-133 background at the stations investigated. The effective ensemble size is below five.

Simulation of the self-propagating hydrogen-air premixed flame in a closed-vessel by an open-source CFD code

Thwe Thwe, A.; Terada, Atsuhiko; Hino, Ryutaro; Nagaishi, Ryuji; Kadowaki, Satoshi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(5), p.573 - 579, 2022/05

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2021.1990153

The simulations of the combustion of self-propagating hydrogen-air premixed flame are performed by an open-source CFD code. The flame propagation behavior, flame radius, temperature and pressure are analyzed by varying the initial laminar flame speed and grid size. When the initial laminar speed increases, the thermal expansion effects become strong which leads the increase of flame radius along with the increase of flame surface area, flame temperature and pressure. A new laminar flame speed model derived previously from the results of experiment is also introduced to the code and the obtained flame radii are compared with those from the experiments. The formation of cellular flame fronts is captured by simulation and the cell separation on the flame surface vividly appears when the gird resolution becomes sufficiently higher. The propagation behavior of cellular flame front and the flame radius obtained from the simulations have the reasonable agreement with the previous experiments.

Development of the multi-cubic -ray spectrometer and its performance under intense Cs and Co radiation fields

Kaburagi, Masaaki; Shimazoe, Kenji*; Kato, Masahiro*; Kurosawa, Tadahiro*; Kamada, Kei*; Kim, K. J.*; Yoshino, Masao*; Shoji, Yasuhiro*; Yoshikawa, Akira*; Takahashi, Hiroyuki*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1010, p.165544_1 - 165544_9, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2021.165544

The number of nuclear facilities being decommissioned has been increasing worldwide, in particular following the accident of the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011. In these nuclear facilities, proper management of radioactive materials is required. Then, A -ray spectrometer with four segmentations using small volume CeBr scintillators with a dimension of was developed. The four scintillators were coupled to a multi-anode photomultiplier tube specific to intense radiation fields. We performed the -ray exposure study under Cs and Co radiation fields. Under the Cs radiation field, the relative energy resolution at 1375 mSv/h was the relative energy resolution at 1375 mSv/h was 9.20.05%, 8.00.08%, 8.00.03%, and 9.00.04% for the four channels, respectively.

Fission gas release from irradiated mixed-oxide fuel pellet during simulated reactivity-initiated accident conditions; Results of BZ-3 and BZ-4 tests

Kakiuchi, Kazuo; Udagawa, Yutaka; Amaya, Masaki

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 155, p.108171_1 - 108171_11, 2021/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108171

Study of neutron-nuclear spin correlation term with a polarized Xe target

Sakai, Kenji; Oku, Takayuki; Okudaira, Takuya; Kai, Tetsuya; Harada, Masahide; Hiroi, Kosuke; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Kakurai, Kazuhisa*; Shimizu, Hirohiko*; Hirota, Katsuya*; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011116_1 - 011116_6, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011116

In neutron fundamental physics, study of correlation term of a neutron spin and a target nuclear spin is important because term interferes to parity non-conserving (PNC) and time reversal non-conserving terms. For this study, a xenon (Xe) is an interesting nucleus because it has been observed an enhancement of PNC effect around neutron resonance peaks, and polarizes up to by using a spin exchange optical pumping (SEOP) method. We would plan to develop a polarized Xe gas target with a compact in-situ SEOP system, and to study term by utilizing epithermal neutron beams supplied from a high intense pulsed spallation neutron source. As the first step, we attempted to measure neutron polarizing ability caused by term at a 9.6 eV s-wave resonance peak of Xe at BL10 in MLF, by detecting change of ratio between neutron transmissions with the polarized and unpolarized Xe target. After demonstrating that our apparatus could detect small change () of neutron transmissions caused by Doppler broadening effect, a signified value of has been obtained as preliminary results. For analyzing the obtained in detail, we are improving our nuclear magnetic resonance and electron paramagnetic resonance systems for evaluating Xe polarization independently of neutron beams.

Effects of pressure and heat loss on the unstable motion of cellular-flame fronts caused by intrinsic instability in hydrogen-air lean premixed flames

Kadowaki, Satoshi; Thwe Thwe, A.; Furuyama, Taisei*; Kawata, Kazumasa*; Katsumi, Toshiyuki; Kobayashi, Hideaki*

Journal of Thermal Science and Technology (Internet), 16(2), p.20-00491_1 - 20-00491_12, 2021/00

https://doi.org/10.1299/jtst.2021jtst0021

Effects of pressure and heat loss on the unstable motion of cellular-flame fronts in hydrogen-air lean premixed flames were numerically investigated. The reaction mechanism for hydrogen-oxygen combustion was modeled with seventeen reversible reactions of eight reactive species and a diluent. Two-dimensional unsteady reactive flow was treated, and the compressibility, viscosity, heat conduction, molecular diffusion and heat loss were taken into account. As the pressure became higher, the maximum growth rate increased and the unstable range widened. These were due mainly to the decrease of flame thickness. The burning velocity of a cellular flame normalized by that of a planar flame increased as the pressure became higher and the heat loss became larger. This indicated that the pressure and heat loss affected strongly the unstable motion of cellular-flame fronts. In addition, the fractal dimension became larger, which denoted that the flame shape became more complicated.

Registration and related activities of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency for the response and assistance network of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Togawa, Orihiko; Hayakawa, Tsuyoshi; Tanaka, Tadao; Yamamoto, Kazuya; Okuno, Hiroshi

JAEA-Review 2020-017, 36 Pages, 2020/09

JAEA-Review-2020-017.pdf:2.24MB

In 2010, the government of Japan joined the Response and Assistance Network (RANET) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in order to contribute to offering international assistance in the case of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency. At that occasion, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) was registered as the National Assistance Capability (NAC) having resources capable of the External Based Support (EBS) in the following seven areas: (1) aerial survey, (2) radiation monitoring, (3) environmental measurements, (4) assessment and advice, (5) internal dose assessment, (6) bioassay and (7) dose reconstruction. After the registration, three inquiries were directed to the JAEA about a possibility of its support. However, the JAEA's assistance has not eventually been realized. On the other hand, the JAEA participated almost every year in the international Convention Exercise (ConvEx) carried out by the IAEA in connection with RANET. This report describes an outline of the RANET and related activities of the JAEA for RANET registration and participation in the ConvEx.