Summaries of research and development activities by using supercomputer system of JAEA in FY2022 (April 1, 2022 - March 31, 2023)

HPC Technology Promotion Office

JAEA-Review 2023-018, 159 Pages, 2023/12

JAEA-Review-2023-018.pdf:13.62MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) conducts research and development (R&D) in various fields related to nuclear power as a comprehensive institution of nuclear energy R&Ds, and utilizes computational science and technology in many activities. Over the past 10 years or so, the publication of papers utilizing computational science and technology at JAEA has accounted for about 20 percent of the total publications each fiscal year. The supercomputer system of JAEA has become an important infrastructure to support computational science and technology. In FY2022, the system was used for R&D of light water reactors, high-temperature gas reactors, and fast reactors to contribute to carbon neutrality as a priority issue, as well as for JAEA's major projects such as Various R&D related to nuclear science and technology, R&D related to the response to the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Development of technology for treatment and disposal of high-level radioactive waste, Support of nuclear safety regulation and nuclear disaster prevention, and safety research for this purpose. This report presents a great number of R&D results accomplished by using the system in FY2022, as well as user support, operational records and overviews of the system, and so on.

Fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2022-043, 52 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Review-2022-043.pdf:3.48MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2021, this report summarizes the research results of the "Fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method" conducted in FY2021. The purpose of research was to improve the fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method by the development of the fuel debris criticality characteristics measurement system and the multi-region integral kinetic analysis code. It was performed by Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) as the first year of four years research project. For the criticality characteristic measurement systems to be developed by the Japanese and Russian sides, …

Numerical reproduction of the seasonal variation in dissolved uranium in Lake Biwa

Saito, Tatsuo; Yamazawa, Hiromi*; Mochizuki, Akihito

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 255, p.107035_1 - 107035_14, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.107035

The seasonal variation of dissolved U (DU) in Lake Biwa was reproduced by the following model and parameter research. The introduced models are the water-DU mass balance, and the ion exchange between UO and H on the lakeshore soil. The optimized parameters were the CEC of the lakeshore, TU as the sum of DU and AU (soil adsorbed U), kads and kdes as the first order reaction rate coefficients during rapid soil adsorption and desorption of U, respectively. Tabulated by the chemical equilibria constituting DU and analyzed the contribution of each chemical species, it is shown that the seasonal variation of DU is caused by the seasonal variation of pH. A correction to the ion-exchange equilibrium to shift to first order rate reaction only when the daily AU ratio increased above kads or decreased below kdes, improved the reproducibility of DU measurements and reproduced the delay of the DU peak from the pH peak.

Assessment report of research on development activities in FY 2021 Activity; "Computational Science and Technology Research" (Result and in-advance evaluation)

Center for Computational Science & e-Systems

JAEA-Evaluation 2022-003, 61 Pages, 2022/11

JAEA-Evaluation-2022-003.pdf:1.42MB
JAEA-Evaluation-2022-003-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:6.16MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereinafter referred to as "JAEA") consults an assessment committee, "Evaluation Committee of Research Activities for Computational Science and Technology Research" (hereinafter referred to as "Committee") for result and in-advance evaluation of "Computational Science and Technology Research", in accordance with "General Guideline for the Evaluation of Government Research and Development (R&D) Activities" by Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, "Guideline for Evaluation of R&D in Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology" and "Regulation on Conduct for Evaluation of R&D Activities" by the JAEA. In response to the JAEA's request, the Committee assessed the research program of the Center for Computational Science and e-Systems (hereinafter referred to as "CCSE"). The Committee evaluated the management and research activities of the CCSE based on explanatory documents prepared by the CCSE, and oral presentations with questions-and answers.

Summaries of research and development activities by using supercomputer system of JAEA in FY2020 (April 1, 2020 - March 31, 2021)

HPC Technology Promotion Office

JAEA-Review 2021-022, 187 Pages, 2022/01

JAEA-Review-2021-022.pdf:10.11MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) conducts research and development (R&D) in various fields related to nuclear power as a comprehensive institution of nuclear energy R&Ds, and utilizes computational science and technology in many activities. As shown in the fact that about 20 percent of papers published by JAEA are concerned with R&D using computational science, the supercomputer system of JAEA has become an important infrastructure to support computational science and technology. In FY2020, the system was used for R&D aiming to restore Fukushima (environmental recovery and nuclear installation decommissioning) as a priority issue, as well as for JAEA's major projects such as research and development of fast reactor cycle technology, research for safety improvement in the field of nuclear energy, and basic nuclear science and engineering research. This report presents a great number of R&D results accomplished by using the system in FY2020, as well as user support, operational records and overviews of the system, and so on.

Review of research on Advanced Computational Science in FY2020

Center for Computational Science & e-Systems

JAEA-Evaluation 2021-001, 66 Pages, 2021/11

JAEA-Evaluation-2021-001.pdf:1.66MB

Research on advanced computational science for nuclear applications, based on "the plan to achieve the mid- and long-term goal of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency", has been performed by Center for Computational Science & e-Systems (CCSE), Japan Atomic Energy Agency. CCSE established a committee consisting of external experts and authorities which does research evaluation and advice for the assistance of the future research and development. This report summarizes the results of the R&D performed by CCSE in FY2020 (April 1st, 2020 - March 31st, 2021), the results expected at the end of the 3rd mid and long-term goal period, and the evaluation by the committee on them.

Improvement of critical safety technology in fuel debris retrieval (Contract research); FY2019 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2020-041, 30 Pages, 2020/12

JAEA-Review-2020-041.pdf:1.9MB

JAEA/CLADS had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project in FY2019. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Improvement of Critical Safety Technology in Fuel Debris Retrieval" conducted in FY2019.

A Model intercomparison of atmospheric Cs concentrations from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, phase III; Simulation with an identical source term and meteorological field at 1-km resolution

Sato, Yosuke*; Sekiyama, Tsuyoshi*; Fang, S.*; Kajino, Mizuo*; Qurel, A.*; Qulo, D.*; Kondo, Hiroaki*; Terada, Hiroaki; Kadowaki, Masanao; Takigawa, Masayuki*; et al.

Atmospheric Environment; X (Internet), 7, p.100086_1 - 100086_12, 2020/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeaoa.2020.100086

The third model intercomparison project for investigating the atmospheric behavior of Cs emitted during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident (FDNPP-MIP) was conducted. A finer horizontal grid spacing (1 km) was used than in the previous FDNPP-MIP. Nine of the models used in the previous FDNPP-MIP were also used, and all models used identical source terms and meteorological fields. Our analyses indicated that most of the observed high atmospheric Cs concentrations were well simulated, and the good performance of some models improved the performance of the multi-model ensemble. The analyses also confirmed that the use of a finer grid resolution resulted in the meteorological field near FDNPP being better reproduced. The good representation of the wind field resulted in the reasonable simulation of the narrow distribution of high deposition amount to the northwest of FDNPP and the reduction of the overestimation over the area to the south of FDNPP. In contrast, the performance of the models in simulating plumes observed over the Nakadori area, the northern part of Gunma, and the Tokyo metropolitan area was slightly worse.

Numerical simulation of liquid jet behavior in shallow pool by interface tracking method

Suzuki, Takayuki*; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Horiguchi, Naoki; Yamamura, Sota*; Abe, Yutaka*

Proceedings of 2020 International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 2020) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2020/08

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE2020-16213

Preliminary analysis of sodium experimental apparatus PLANDTL-2 for development of evaluation method for thermal-hydraulics in reactor vessel of sodium fast reactor under decay heat removal system operation condition

Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Hamase, Erina; Ezure, Toshiki

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 7(3), p.19-00546_1 - 19-00546_11, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.19-00546

Fully natural circulation decay heat removal systems (DHRSs) are to be adopted for sodium fast reactors, which is a passive safety feature without any electrical pumps. It is required to grasp the thermal-hydraulic phenomena in the reactor vessel and evaluate the coolability of the core under the natural circulation not only for the normal operating condition but also for severe accident conditions. In this paper, the numerical results of the preliminary analysis for the sodium experimental condition with the PLANDTL-2 are discussed to establish an appropriate numerical models for the reactor core including the gap region among the subassemblies and the DHX. From these preliminary analyses, the characteristics of the thermal-hydraulics behavior in the PLANDTL-2 to be focused are extracted.