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Kikuchi, Norihiro; Mori, Takero; Okajima, Satoshi; Tanaka, Masaaki; Miyazaki, Masashi
Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2023/05
JAEA is developing an evaluation system aided by artificial intelligence (AI) named ARKADIA (Advanced Reactor Knowledge- and AI-aided Design Integration Approach through the whole plant lifecycle). A sub-system of it, named ARKADIA-Design, is being developed to support the design optimization study for an advanced nuclear plant including a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). Authors are developing a design optimization process for the structure of the component in SFR. This paper describes the outline of a design optimization process, the brief introduction of evaluation methods for the process, and the result of the demonstration of the optimization process for a feasibility study. The development is being performed in a representative problem considering the thermal transient and seismic motion as a major issue in SFRs. Through the demonstration, it was confirmed that the optimization process under development may provide an optimal solution to the representative problem.
Takamizawa, Hisashi; Lu, K.; Katsuyama, Jinya; Masaki, Koichi*; Miyamoto, Yuhei*; Li, Y.
JAEA-Data/Code 2022-006, 221 Pages, 2023/02
As a part of the structural integrity assessment research for aging light water reactor (LWR) components, a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis code PASCAL (PFM Analysis of Structural Components in Aging LWR) has been developed in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The PASCAL code can evaluate failure probabilities and failure frequencies of core region in reactor pressure vessel (RPV) under transients by considering the uncertainties of influential parameters. The continuous development of the code aims to improve the reliability by introducing the analysis methodologies and functions base on the state-of-the-art knowledge in fracture mechanics and domestic data. In the first version of PASCAL, which was released in FY2000, the basic framework was developed for analyzing failure probabilities considering pressurized thermal shock events for RPVs in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). In PASCAL Ver. 2 released in FY 2006, analysis functions including the evaluation methods for embedded cracks and crack detection probability models for inspection were introduced. In PASCAL Ver. 3 released in FY 2010, functions considering weld-overlay cladding on the inner surface of RPV were introduced. In PASCAL Ver. 4 released in FY 2017, we improved several functions such as the stress intensity factor solutions, probabilistic fracture toughness evaluation models, and confidence level evaluation function by considering epistemic and aleatory uncertainties related to influential parameters. In addition, the probabilistic calculation method was also improved to speed up the failure probability calculations. To strengthen the practical applications of PFM methodology in Japan, PASCAL code has been improved since FY 2018 to enable PFM analyses of RPVs subjected to a broad range of transients corresponding to both PWRs and boiling water reactors, including pressurized thermal shock, low-temperature over pressure, and normal operational transients. In particular, the stress intensi
Nagase, Fumihisa
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 171, p.109052_1 - 109052_8, 2022/06
Times Cited Count:2 Percentile:50.96(Nuclear Science & Technology)The fracture threshold of the fuel decreases if the oxidized Zr alloy cladding is strongly constrained by the spacer grid during quenching in a loss-of-coolant accident. Therefore, the estimation of realistic levels of the axial constraint has been a subject of significant interest on fuel safety. In this study, a test assembly consisting of a PWR-type simulated fuel segment and a 33 grid piece was heated in steam, cooled, and quenched, and the axial constraint force on the fuel segment was measured. The constraint force of the Zircaloy grid gradually decreased with temperature. Once the Zircaloy grid was heated to 1060 K, the reduced constraint force had difficulty recovering, and thus the maximum constraint force during cooling and quenching was 10 N. The constraint force was clearly reduced at 1070 K during the tests with the Inconel grid. However, the reduced constraint force partially recovered during cooling. As a result, the maximum constraint force during cooling and quenching was 20 to 50 N for the Inconel grid. In conclusion, oxidation, ballooning, rupture, or eutectic formation would not generally cause an extremely strong constraint, as predicted by previous studies, at the grid position.
Uchibori, Akihiro; Yanagisawa, Hideki*; Takata, Takashi; Ohshima, Hiroyuki
Nihon Kikai Gakkai Rombunshu (Internet), 86(883), p.19-00353_1 - 19-00353_6, 2020/03
Evaluation of occurrence possibility of tube failure propagation under sodium-water reaction accident is an important issue. In this study, a numerical analysis method to predict occurrence of failure propagation by overheating rupture was constructed to expand application range of an existing computer code. Applicability of the method was constructed through the numerical analysis of the experiment on water vapor discharging in liquid sodium.
Kurata, Masaki; Barrachin, M.*; Haste, T.*; Steinbrueck, M.*
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 500, p.119 - 140, 2018/03
Times Cited Count:29 Percentile:66.35(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)Severe accidents occurred at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) required an immediate re-examination of fuel degradation phenomenology. The present paper reviews the updated knowledge on the phenomenology of the fuel degradation, focusing mainly on the BWR fuel assembly degradation at the macroscopic scale and that of the individual interactions at the meso-scale. Oxidation of boron carbide (BC) control rods potentially generate far larger amounts of heat and hydrogen under BWR accident conditions. All integral tests with BC control rods or control blades have shown early failure, liquefaction, relocation and oxidation of BC starting at temperatures around 1250C, well below the significant interaction temperatures of UO-Zry. These interactions or reactions potentially influence the progress of fuel degradation in the early phase. The steam-starved conditions, which are being discussed as a likely scenario at the FDNPS accident, highly influence the individual interactions and potentially lead the fuel degradation in non-prototypical directions. The detailed phenomenology of individual interactions and their influence on the transient and on the late phase of the severe accidents are also discussed.
Uchibori, Akihiro; Yanagisawa, Hideki*; Takata, Takashi; Kurihara, Akikazu; Hamada, Hirotsugu; Ohshima, Hiroyuki
JAEA-Research 2017-007, 61 Pages, 2017/07
For safety assessment of a steam generator of sodium-cooled fast reactors, it is necessary to evaluate the possibility of occurring tube failure propagation and of water leak rate under sodium-water reaction accident. In the previous studies, a computer code called LEAP-II calculating a wastage-type failure propagation and the water leak rate during long-time event progress was developed. In this study, a numerical method to evaluate the possibility of occurring overheating rupture was introduced into the LEAP-II code to expand application range of this code. The completed code is called LEAP-III. The test analysis on a tube bundle configuration demonstrated that the overheating rupture model could provide conservative prediction.
Umeda, Ryota; Kurihara, Akikazu; Shimoyama, Kazuhito
JAEA-Technology 2016-030, 50 Pages, 2016/12
In case of tube failure of a steam generator in sodium-cooled fast reactors, the reaction jet with high temperature and high velocity under highly alkaline environment is formed by cited exothermic reaction (sodium-water reaction). When the high temperature reaction jet covers the adjacent tubes, the material strength of tube decreases in the high temperature condition, and the adjacent tube may be swollen and failed by inner pressure (overheating tube rupture). For evaluation of the overheating tube rupture, tube failure is judged by comparison the hoop stress loaded by inner pressure with stress strength standard defined as creep strength depending on tube temperature. Thus, it is important to confirm the validation of this failure criterion based on the findings obtained in the simulated experiment of overheating tube rupture. In this report, for consideration on the validation of the failure criteria and elucidation on the failure mode and strength characteristics of failure, the authors carried out the rapid heating rupture experiment for the thin single and double-walled 9Cr steel tubes at high temperature up to 1500 K by using TRUST-2 rig in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Aihara, Jun; Goto, Minoru; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Ueta, Shohei; Sumita, Junya; Tachibana, Yukio
Proceedings of 8th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2016) (CD-ROM), p.814 - 822, 2016/11
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has started R&D for apply SiC/C mixed matrix to fuel element of high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) to improve oxidation resistance of fuel. Nuclear thermal design of HTGR with SiC/C mixed matrix fuel compacts was carried out as a part of above R&Ds. Nuclear thermal design was carried out based on a small sized HTGR for developing countries, HTR50S. Maximum enrichment of uranium is set to be 10 wt%, because coated fuel particles with 10 wt% uranium have been fabricated in Japan. Numbers of kinds of enrichment and burnable poisons (BPs) were set to be same as those of original HTR50S (3 and 2, respectively). We succeeded in nuclear thermal design of a small sized HTGR which performance was equivalent to original HTR50S, with SiC/C mixed matrix fuel compacts. Based on nuclear thermal design, intactness of coated fuel particles was evaluated to be kept on internal pressure during normal operation.
Amaya, Masaki; Udagawa, Yutaka; Narukawa, Takafumi; Mihara, Takeshi; Taniguchi, Yoshinori
Proceedings of Annual Topical Meeting on LWR Fuels with Enhanced Safety and Performance (TopFuel 2016) (USB Flash Drive), p.53 - 62, 2016/09
In order to evaluate adequacy of present safety criteria and safety margins in terms of advanced fuels and provide a database for future regulation on them, JAEA started an extensive research program called ALPS-II program, which has been sponsored by NRA, Japan. This program is primarily composed of tests simulating a RIA and a LOCA on the high-burnup advanced fuels irradiated in commercial PWR or BWR. Recently, the failure limits of the high-burnup advanced fuels under RIA conditions were investigated at NSRR, and post-test examinations on the fuel rods after the pulse irradiation tests are being performed. In terms of the simulated LOCA test, integral thermal shock tests and high temperature oxidation tests were carried out at RFEF, and the fracture limits, high temperature oxidation rate, etc. of the high-burnup advanced fuel cladding were investigated. This paper mainly describes some recent experimental results obtained in this program with respect to RIA and LOCA.
Morohashi, Yuko; Suzuki, Satoshi
JAEA-Technology 2014-045, 116 Pages, 2015/03
The failed fuel detection and location (FFDL) system collects the tagging gas that migrates into the reactor cover gas from a failed pin. The tagging gas is made of stable isotopes of Kr and Xe. The isotopic composition of the tagging gas can be made specific to each assembly. The assembly containing a failed fuel pin can be identified by analyzing the isotopic composition. The FFDL system is comprised of two tagging gas concentration devices. The concentration rate is designed to be higher than 200. Past examinations demonstrated that the concentration rate meets the requirement with a noble gas concentration of 1ppm. However, the actual noble gas concentration emitted from a failed fuel is assumed to be much lower. In the present study, the performance of FFDL system was investigated by measuring low concentration gas of the actual fuel failure level. As a result, the concentration rate was confirmed to be more than tens of thousands, which sufficiently satisfies the design demand.
Ito, Hiroto*; Onizawa, Kunio; Shibata, Katsuyuki*
JAERI-Data/Code 2005-007, 118 Pages, 2005/09
As a part of the aging and structual integrity research for LWR components, new PFM (Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics) codes PASCAL-SC and PASCAL-EQ have been developed. These codes evaluate the failure probability of an aged welded joint by Monte Carlo method. PASCAL-SC treats Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) in piping, while PASCAL-EQ takes fatigue crack growth by seismic load into account. The development of these codes has been aimed to improve the accuracy and reliability of analysis by introducing new analysis and methodologies and algorithms considering the recent development in the fracture machanics methodologies and computer performance. The crack growth by an irregular stress due to seismic load in detail is considered in these codes. They also involves recent stress intensity factors and fracture criteria. In addition, a user's friendly operation of a GUI (Graphical User Interface) which generates input data, supports calculations and plots results is introduced. This report provides the user's manual and theoretical background of these codes.
Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Fuketa, Toyoshi; Ozawa, Masaaki*; Nagase, Fumihisa
Proceedings of 2004 International Meeting on LWR Fuel Performance, p.544 - 550, 2004/09
Two pulse irradiation experiments simulating reactivity initiated accidents were performed on high burnup (60 GWd/t) PWR UO rods with advanced cladding alloys. Test OI-10 was performed on an MDA cladded rod with large-grain (25 m) fuel pellets with a peak fuel enthalpy condition of 435 J/g, and resulted in a peak residual hoop strain of 0.7%. On the other hand, Test OI-11 on a ZIRLO cladded rod with conventional pellets resulted in a fuel failure at a fuel enthalpy of 500 J/g due to the pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI). A long axial split was generated on the cladding over the active length. The fuel pellets were fragmented and dispersed into the coolant water. The fuel enthalpy at failure is higher than the PCMI failure criterion of 209 J/g at the corresponding burnup. The experimental results suggest that the rods with improved corrosion resistance have much safety margin against the PCMI failure compared to the conventional Zircaloy-4 rod.
Miyazaki Noriyuki*; Hagiwara Seiya*; Chino, Eiichi*; Maruyama, Yu*; Hashimoto, Kazuichiro*; Maeda, Akio*
JAERI-Research 2001-047, 35 Pages, 2001/10
no abstracts in English
Kitano, Koji*; Fuketa, Toyoshi; Uetsuka, Hiroshi
JAERI-Research 2001-041, 24 Pages, 2001/08
no abstracts in English
Kusagaya, Kazuyuki*; Nakamura, Takehiko; Yoshinaga, Makio; Okonogi, Kazunari*; Uetsuka, Hiroshi
JAERI-Research 2001-010, 44 Pages, 2001/03
no abstracts in English
Akie, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Takehiko
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 38(3-4), p.363 - 370, 2001/02
Times Cited Count:6 Percentile:44.06(Nuclear Science & Technology)no abstracts in English
Kuroda, Masatoshi*; Yamanaka, Shinsuke*; Nagase, Fumihisa; Uetsuka, Hiroshi
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 203(2-3), p.185 - 194, 2001/01
Times Cited Count:14 Percentile:68.91(Nuclear Science & Technology)no abstracts in English
Yamashita, Toshiyuki
Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai "Kodo Nenryo Gijutsu" Kenkyu Senmon Iinkai Hokokusho, p.467 - 474, 2001/00
no abstracts in English
Yamashita, Toshiyuki; Kuramoto, Kenichi; Akie, Hiroshi; Nakano, Yoshihiro; Nitani, Noriko; Nakamura, Takehiko; Kusagaya, Kazuyuki*; Omichi, Toshihiko*
Proceedings of Workshop on Advanced Reactors with Innovative Fuels (ARWIF 2001) (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2001/00
no abstracts in English
Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Fuketa, Toyoshi
JAERI-Tech 2000-067, 29 Pages, 2000/11
no abstracts in English