Kinetic study on eutectic melting process between boron carbide and stainless steel in sodium-cooled fast reactor

Kikuchi, Shin; Sakamoto, Kan*; Takai, Toshihide; Yamano, Hidemasa

Nippon Kikai Gakkai 2020-Nendo Nenji Taikai Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 4 Pages, 2020/09

In a postulated severe accidental condition of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), eutectic melting between boron carbide (BC) as control rod element and stainless steel (SS) as control rod cladding or related structure may occur. Thus, behavior of BC-SS eutectic melting is one of the phenomena to evaluate the core disruptive accidents in SFR. In order to clarify the kinetic feature of BC-SS eutectic melting process in the interface, the thinning test for SS crucibles using the pellets of BC or SS with low BC concentration were performed to obtain the rate constant with dependence of BC concentration against SS. It was found that the rate constants of eutectic melting between SS and SS low BC concentration were smaller than that of BC-SS in the high temperature range. Besides, the rate constant of eutectic melting between SS and BC containing SS became small when decreasing the BC concentration against SS.

A Study on sodium-concrete reaction in presence of internal heating

Kawaguchi, Munemichi; Miyahara, Shinya*; Uno, Masayoshi*

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 6(2), p.021305_1 - 021305_9, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4045898

Sodium-concrete reaction (SCR) is one of the important phenomena during severe accidents in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) owing to the generation of large sources of hydrogen and aerosols in the containment vessel. In this study, SCR experiments with an internal heater were performed to investigate the chemical reaction beneath the internal heater (800C), which was used to simulate the obstacle and heating effect on SCR. Furthermore, the effects of the internal heater on the self-termination mechanism were discussed. The internal heater on the concrete hindered the transport of Na into the concrete. Therefore, Na could start to react with the concrete at the periphery of the internal heater, and the concrete ablation depth at the periphery was larger than under the internal heater. The high Na pool temperature of 800C increased largely the Na aerosol release rate, which was explained by Na evaporation and hydrogen bubbling, and formed the porous reaction product layer, whose porosity was 0.54-0.59 from the mass balance of Si and image analyzing EPMA mapping. They had good agreement with each other. The porous reaction products decreased the amount of Na transport into the reaction front. The Na concentration around the reaction front became about 30wt.% despite the position of the internal heater. It was found that the Na concentration condition was one of the dominant parameters for the self-termination of SCR, even in the presence of the internal heater.

Post-test material analysis of eutectic melting reaction of boron carbide and stainless steel

Yamano, Hidemasa; Takai, Toshihide; Furukawa, Tomohiro

Nippon Kikai Gakkai Rombunshu (Internet), 86(883), p.19-00360_1 - 19-00360_13, 2020/03

https://doi.org/10.1299/transjsme.19-00360

It is necessary to simulate a eutectic melting reaction and relocation behavior of boron carbide (BC) as a control rod material and stainless steel (SS) during a core disruptive accident in an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor designed in Japan because the BC-SS eutectic relocation behavior has a large uncertainty in the reactivity history based on a simple calculation. A physical model simulating the eutectic melting reaction and relocation was developed and implemented into a severe accident simulation code. The developed model must be validated by using test data. To validate the physical model, therefore, the visualization tests of SS-BC eutectic melting reaction was carried out by contacting SS melts of several kg with a BC pellet heated up to about 1500 C. The tests have shown the eutectic reaction visualization as well as freezing and relocation of the BC-SS eutectic in upper part of the solidified test piece due to the density separation. Post-test material analyses by using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope techniques have indicated that FeB appeared at the BC-SS contact interface and (Fe,Cr)B at the top surface of the test piece. Glow discharge optical emission spectrometry has been applied to quantitative analysis of boron concentration distributions. The boron concentration was high at the upper surface and near the original position of the BC pellet.

Zeolitic vanadomolybdates as high-performance cathode-active materials for sodium-ion batteries

Zhang, Z,*; Wang, H.*; Yoshikawa, Hirofumi*; Matsumura, Daiju; Hatao, Shuya*; Ishikawa, Satoshi*; Ueda, Wataru*

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12(5), p.6056 - 6063, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b19808

XAFS measurement of simulated waste glass samples (Joint research)

Nagai, Takayuki; Sasage, Kenichi; Okamoto, Yoshihiro; Shiwaku, Hideaki; Yamagishi, Hirona*; Ota, Toshiaki*; Inose, Takehiko*; Sato, Seiichi*; Hatakeyama, Kiyoshi*; Takahashi, Tomoe*; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-003, 94 Pages, 2019/09

JAEA-Research-2019-003.pdf:7.92MB

The local structures of glass-forming elements and waste elements would change by the chemical composition of waste glass including those elements. In this study, simulated waste glass samples were prepared from borosilicate glass frit including phosphorus (P) or vanadium (V), and we investigated local structures of boron, sodium, and waste elements in these P glass and V glass samples by using synchrotron XAFS measurements in soft and hard X ray region.

Study on eutectic melting behavior of control rod materials in core disruptive accidents of sodium-cooled fast reactors, 3; Effect of BC addition on thermophysical properties of austenitic stainless steel in a liquid state

Fukuyama, Hiroyuki*; Higashi, Hideo*; Yamano, Hidemasa

Proceedings of International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference / Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference (Global/Top Fuel 2019) (USB Flash Drive), p.853 - 857, 2019/09

Thermophysical properties of molten mixture of 316L stainless steel (SS316L) and control-rod material (BC) are necessary for the development of computer simulation codes that describe core degradation mechanisms during severe accidents in nuclear power plants involving sodium-cooled fast reactors. The effect of BC addition to SS316L on the solidus and liquidus temperatures were first measured by differential scanning calorimetry. An electromagnetic levitation technique performed in a static magnetic field was used to measure the density, surface tension, normal spectral emissivity, specific heat capacity, and thermal conductivity of molten SS316L and SS316L containing BC. The effects of BC addition to SS316L on the thermophysical properties were studied up to 10 mass%.

Establishment of guideline for credibility assessment of nuclear simulations in the Atomic Energy Society of Japan

Tanaka, Masaaki; Kudo, Yoshiro*; Nakada, Kotaro*; Koshizuka, Seiichi*

Proceedings of 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-18) (USB Flash Drive), p.1473 - 1484, 2019/08

Verification and validation (V&V) including uncertainty quantification on modeling and simulation activities has been very much focused on. Due to increase of requirement for standardization of the procedures on the V&V and prediction process to enhance the simulation credibility, "Guideline for Credibility Assessment of Nuclear Simulations (AESJ-SC-A008: 2015)" was published on July 2016 from the AESJ through ten-year discussion. The paper describes brief history of discussion in the AESJ to the publication and introductory explanation of the procedures in the five major elements and one scheme described in the Guideline. And also, a practical experience of the V&V activity according to the fundamental concept indicated in the Guideline is introduced.

Prototype fast breeder reactor Monju; Its history and achievements

Tsuruga Comprehensive Research and Development Center

JAEA-Technology 2019-007, 159 Pages, 2019/07

JAEA-Technology-2019-007.pdf:19.09MB
JAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution1.pdf:42.36MB
JAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution2.pdf:33.56MB
JAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution3.pdf:38.14MB
JAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution4.pdf:48.82MB
JAEA-Technology-2019-007-high-resolution5.pdf:37.61MB

This report summarizes the history and achievements of the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. The development of Monju started in 1968 as a prototype reactor following the experimental fast reactor Joyo. The development covers all the activity related to the fast reactor; plant design, mockup tests, construction, operation, and plant management. This report summarizes the history and achievements for 11 technical areas: history and principal achievements, design and construction, operation test, plant safety, core physics, fuel, plant system, sodium technology, materials and mechanical design, plant management, and trouble management.

Development of prototype reactor maintenance, 3; Application to valves of sodium-cooled reactor prototype

Chikazawa, Yoshitaka; Takaya, Shigeru; Tagawa, Akihiro; Kubo, Shigenobu

Proceedings of 2019 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2019) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2019/05

A maintenance management required to prototype nuclear power reactors has been developed. One of important mission of a prototype reactor is to develop maintenance program for commercial reactors step by step securing safety. Since operating experience at the early stage is limited, the maintenance program for the prototype reactor should be a progressive one. It has to be modified and improved frequently taking into account R&D insight and operation experiences. Additionally, the maintenance program has to consider features of the prototype reactor even at the early stage. To select maintenance grades on particular components/systems, risk informed and graded approaches are effective. And maintenance programs have to take into account degradation mechanism originally due to reactor features. In this paper, applications for maintenance program on sodium valves of prototype fast breeder reactor Monju are studied as an example of prototype sodium-cooled reactors (SFR).

Dry cleaning process test for fuel assembly of fast reactor plant system, 2; Laboratory scale test for fuel assembly and evaluation of the amount of residual sodium

Ide, Akihiro*; Kudo, Hideyuki*; Inuzuka, Taisuke*; Hara, Masahide*; Kato, Atsushi; Ishikawa, Nobuyuki; Otaka, Masahiko; Nagai, Keiichi; Saito, Junichi; Ara, Kuniaki

Proceedings of 2019 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2019) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2019/05

A next generation SFR in Japan has adopted an advanced dry cleaning system which consists of the following process of argon gas blowing to reduce the amount of metallic sodium, moist argon gas blowing to deactivate the residual sodium, and direct storage in the SFP without using storage containers. This three-step process increases economic competitiveness and reduces waste products. In this Research and Development work, the amount of residual sodium and performance of the dry cleaning process were investigated. This paper describes experimental and analytical work for all parts of a fuel assembly except for a fuel pin bundle.