High-temperature creep properties of 9Cr-ODS tempered martensitic steel and quantitative correlation with its nanometer-scale structure

Otsuka, Satoshi; Shizukawa, Yuta; Tanno, Takashi; Imagawa, Yuya; Hashidate, Ryuta; Yano, Yasuhide; Onizawa, Takashi; Kaito, Takeji; Onuma, Masato*; Mitsuhara, Masatoshi*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(3), p.288 - 298, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2096147

JAEA has been developing 9Cr-oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) tempered martensitic steel(TMS) as a candidate material for the fuel cladding tubes of sodium-cooled fast reactors(SFRs). The reliable prediction of in-reactor creep-rupture strength is critical for implementing the 9Cr-ODS TMS cladding tube in the SFR. This study investigated the quantitative correlation between the creep properties of 9Cr-ODS TMS at 700 C and the dispersions of nanosized oxides by analyzing the creep data and the material's nanostructure. The possibility of deriving a formula for estimating the in-reactor creep properties of 9Cr-ODS TMSs based on an analysis of the nanostructure of neutron-irradiated 9Cr-ODS TMSs was also discussed. The creep properties of 9Cr-ODS TMS at 700 C closely correlated with the dispersion of nanosized oxide particles. The correlation between creep-rupture lives and nanosized oxide particle dispersion was determined using existing creep models. The elucidation of correlation between the stress exponent of secondary creep rate and the nanostructure is essential to enhance future modeling reliability and formulation.

Operando Br K-edge dispersive X-ray absorption fine structure analysis for Br/Br redox mediator for Li-Air batteries

Ito, Kimihiko*; Matsumura, Daiju; Song, C.*; Kubo, Yoshimi*

ACS Energy Letters (Internet), 7(6), p.2024 - 2028, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00912

Development of MIG2DF Version 2

Takai, Shizuka; Kimura, Hideo*; Uchikoshi, Emiko*; Munakata, Masahiro; Takeda, Seiji

JAEA-Data/Code 2020-007, 174 Pages, 2020/09

JAEA-Data-Code-2020-007.pdf:4.23MB

The MIG2DF computer code is a computer program that simulates groundwater flow and radionuclide transport in porous media for the safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal. The original version of MIG2DF was released in 1992. The original code employs a two-dimensional (vertical or horizontal cross-section, or an axisymmetric configuration) finite-element method to approximate the governing equations for density-dependent saturated-unsaturated groundwater flow and radionuclide transport. Meanwhile, for geological disposal of radioactive wastes, landscape evolution such as uplift and erosion needs to be assessed as a long-term geological and climate events, considering site conditions. In coastal areas, the impact to groundwater flow by change of salinity distribution to sea level change also needs to be considered. To deal with these events in the assessment, we have revised the original version of MIG2DF and developed the external program which enables MIG2DF to consider unsteady landscape evolution. In these developments, this report describes an upgrade of MIG2DF (Version 2) and presents the configuration, equations, methods, and verification. This reports also give the explanation external programs of MIG2DF: PASS-TRAC (the particle tracking code), PASS-PRE (the code for dataset preparation), and PASS-POST (the post-processing visualization system).

The meson with finite momentum in a dense medium

Kim, H.-J.*; Gubler, P.

Physics Letters B, 805, p.135412_1 - 135412_8, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135412

The dispersion relation of the meson in nuclear matter is studied in a QCD sum rule approach. In a dense medium, longitudinal and transverse modes of vector particles can have independently modified dispersion relations due to broken Lorentz invariance. Employing the full set of independent operators and corresponding Wilson coefficients up to operator dimension-6, the meson QCD sum rules are analyzed with changing densities and momenta. The non-trivial momentum dependence of the meson mass is found to have opposite signs for the longitudinal and transverse modes. Specifically, the mass is reduced by 5 MeV for the longitudinal mode, while its increase amounts to 7 MeV for the transverse mode, both at a momentum scale of 1 GeV. In an experiment which does not distinguish between longitudinal and transverse polarizations, this could in principle be seen as two separated peaks at large momenta.

Technical report on the development of finance and contract information system Ver.4

Kimura, Hideo; Hikasa, Naoki*; Kugenuma, Yuji*; Doi, Toshiharu*; Kikuchi, Yoshitaka*

JAEA-Technology 2019-004, 25 Pages, 2019/05

JAEA-Technology-2019-004.pdf:3.02MB

JAEA has developed the "Financial and contract information system" for effective and efficient accomplishment of the mission-critical tasks. Because the development of the next system was necessary with the end in the support time limit of the current system, we carried out the development of the next system in 2018. While the addition of the electronic approval function or the adoption of the latest package software largely performed a functional enhancement until now by applying distributed systems construction technique based on the separation procurement that we devised progressively, in development, we extremely realized procurement with the low cost.

Model calculation of Cr dissolution behavior of ODS ferritic steel in high-temperature flowing sodium environment

Otsuka, Satoshi; Tanno, Takashi; Oka, Hiroshi; Yano, Yasuhide; Kato, Shoichi; Furukawa, Tomohiro; Kaito, Takeji

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 505, p.44 - 53, 2018/07

AA2017-0603.pdf:1.7MB

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.03.054

A calculation model was constructed to systematically study the effects of environmental conditions (i.e. Cr concentration in sodium, test temperature, axial temperature gradient of fuel pin, and sodium flow velocity) on Cr dissolution behavior. Chromium dissolution was largely influenced by small changes in Cr concentration (i.e. chemical potential of Cr) in liquid sodium in the model calculation. Chromium concentration in sodium coolant, therefore, should be recognized as a critical parameter for the prediction and management of Cr dissolution behavior in the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) core. Because the fuel column length showed no impact on dissolution behavior in the model calculation, no significant downstream effects possibly take place in the SFR fuel cladding tube due to the much shorter length compared with sodium loops in the SFR plant and the large axial temperature gradient. The calculated profile of Cr concentration along the wall-thickness direction was consistent with that measured in BOR-60 irradiation test where Cr concentration in sodium bulk flow was set at 0.07 wt ppm in the calculation.

Oxide dispersion-strengthened/ferrite-martensite steels as core materials for Generation IV nuclear reactors

Ukai, Shigeharu*; Otsuka, Satoshi; Kaito, Takeji; de Carlan, Y.*; Ribis, J.*; Malaplate, J.*

Structural Materials for Generation IV Nuclear Reactors, p.357 - 414, 2017/00

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100906-2.00010-0

Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels are the most promising candidate materials for fuel cladding of generation IV nuclear reactors. The progress and current status for development of ODS/FM(ferrite-martensite) steels conducted mainly in Japan and France are overviewed. The chemical compositions of ODS/FM steels are listed. Fabrication routes of cladding tube are mentioned for ferrite-type ODS steels using recrystallized process and martensite-type one using - phase transformation. The optimized process is identical for both countries. Joining process between cladding and end-plug has been also developed by using the pressurized resistance upset welding method. The improvements brought by ODS/FM steels in high-temperature strength and irradiation resistance are verified.

Effect of experiments using Transmutation Physics Experimental Facility on the reduction of uncertainties in reactor physics parameters of an accelerator-driven system

Iwamoto, Hiroki; Nishihara, Kenji; Katano, Ryota*; Fukushima, Masahiro; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi

JAEA-Research 2014-033, 82 Pages, 2015/03

JAEA-Research-2014-033.pdf:6.53MB

The effect of experiments using Transmutation Physics Experimental Facility (TEF-P) is analysed from the viewpoint of the reduction of uncertainties in reactor physics parameters (criticality and coolant void reactivity) of an accelerator-driven system (ADS). The analysis is conducted by the nuclear-data adjustment method using JENDL-4.0 on the assumption that ve types of reactor physics experiments (a total of 44 experiments) are performed in TEF-P: (1) criticality experiment, (2) lead void reactivity experiment, (3) reaction rate ratio experiment, (4) sample reactivity experiment, and (5) fuel replacement reactivity experiment. As the result, 1.0% of uncertainty in criticality is found to be reduced to approximately 0.4%, and effective experiments for the reduction of uncertainty in criticality and coolant void reactivity are shown to be fuel replacement reactivity experiments and lead void reactivity experiments, respectively. Although these effects depend largely on the composition and amount of minor-actinide (MA) fuels, it is found that a combination of different types of experiments and database of existing experiments is effective in reducing the uncertainties.

Post-irradiation examination on particle dispersed rock-like oxide fuel

Shirasu, Noriko; Kuramoto, Kenichi*; Yamashita, Toshiyuki; Ichise, Kenichi; Ono, Katsuto; Nihei, Yasuo

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 352(1-3), p.365 - 371, 2006/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2006.03.002

To evaluate irradiation behavior of the ROX fuel, irradiation experiment was carried out using 20% enriched U instead of Pu. Three fuels were prepared; a single phase fuel of YSZ containing UO (U-YSZ), two particle-dispersed fuels of U-YSZ particle in spinel or corundum matrix. The U-YSZ particles were prepared by crashing presintered U-YSZ pellets and by sieving them. These fuels were irradiated in Japan Research Reactor No.3 for 13 cycles, about 300 days. Though many cracks were observed in the pellets by X-ray photographs, significant appearance changes were not observed for all fuel pins. Distribution of typical FPs was analyzed by the scanning over the fuel pin. Non-volatile nuclide remained in the fuel pellet. On the other hand, a part of Cs moved to the gaps between the pellets and to the insulators. Cs and Cs showed different distributions at the plenum. Fuel pellets were taken out from fuel pins without bonding. Spinel decomposition and subsequent restructuring were not observed probably due to low irradiation temperature.

Notch toughness evaluation of diffusion-bonded joint of alumina dispersion-strengthened copper to stainless steel

Nishi, Hiroshi

Fusion Engineering and Design, 81(1-7), p.269 - 274, 2006/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2005.07.011

Tensile strength of the diffusion bonded joint was as large as that of Alumina dispersion-strengthened copper (DS Cu), however, the Charpy absorbed energy of the joint was considerably lower than that of DS Cu. Instrumented Charpy impact test and slow-bend Charpy test of diffusion bonded joints were performed to clarify the degradation of Charpy absorbed energy. Elasto-plastic analyses were also carried out in order to study the deformation behavior of the tensile and V-notched specimens for joints. As the results, the fracture behaviors of the impact and slow-bend tests were almost the same. Elasto-plastic analyses showed that the maximum strain occurred at the DS Cu apart from the interface for tensile specimen, however, the strain concentrated at the DS Cu near the interface for the notched specimen. This strain concentration arose from the mechanical heterogeneity between stainless steel and DS Cu in the bonded zone and attributed to the degradation of the absorbed energy of the joints.