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Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Ishijima, Yasuhiro; Kondo, Keietsu; Fujimura, Yuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 575, p.154209_1 - 154209_19, 2023/03
Times Cited Count：5 Percentile：61.74(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)Previous studies had shown that in certain conditions, the rate of oxidation of zirconium (Zr) based alloy fuel cladding is higher in air-steam mixtures than in dry air. In severe accidents in the spent fuel pool and in other air ingress accidents in nuclear power plants, the cladding is likely to be oxidized in an air-steam mixture, which makes it crucial to have an in-depth understanding of the nature of oxidation and its kinetics in that environment. Oxidation tests were conducted at 800
C on Zircaloy-4 specimens in a mix of (air+steam) with various component ratios. Oxidation kinetics, details of the oxide layer, and hydrogen pick-up in the specimen were studied to investigate the mechanism of oxidation in each of these sets of conditions. Zirconium nitride precipitation in the oxide layer during the initial stages of the pre-breakaway oxidation stage and the widespread porous oxide growth on the cladding surface in the latter post-BA oxidation stage are related to the oxidation mechanism in the air-steam mixture. The differences in the mechanism of oxidation of the cladding in dry air and air-steam mixtures are discussed based on the experimental results.
Suzuki, Hiroaki*; Morita, Yoshihiro*; Naito, Masanori*; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki
Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 7(3), p.19-00450_1 - 19-00450_17, 2020/06
In this study, the SAMPSON code was modified to evaluate severe accidents in a spent fuel pool (SFP). Air oxidation models based on oxidation data obtained on the Zircaroy-4 cladding (ANL model) and the Zircaroy-2 cladding (JAEA model) were included in the modified SAMPSON code. Experiments done by Sandia National Laboratory using simulated fuel assemblies equivalent to those of an actual BWR plant were analyzed by the modified SAMPSON code to confirm the functions for analysis of the severe SFP accidents. The rapid fuel rod temperature rise due to the Zr air oxidation reaction could be reasonably evaluated by the SAMPSON analysis. The SFP accident analyses were conducted with different initial water levels which were no water, water level at bottom of active fuel, and water level at half of active fuel. The present analysis showed that the earliest temperature rise of the fuel rod surface occurred when there was no water in the SFP and natural circulation of air became possible.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Kanazawa, Toru*; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Tojo, Masayuki*
Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2019/05
Oxidation behaviour of Zr cladding in SFP accident condition was evaluated by using a thermobalance in this work, and the obtained data were applied to construct oxidation model for SFP accident condition. For the validation of the constructed oxidation model, oxidation tests using a long cladding tube 500mm in length were conducted in conditions simulating SFP accidents, such as flow rate of the atmosphere in spent fuel rack, temperature gradient along the axis of cladding, and heating-up history. Thickness of oxide layer formed on the surface of cladding samples was evaluated by cross sectional observation, and compared with calculation results obtained by using the oxidation model. The detail of experimental results and validation of the oxidation model will be discussed.
Tojo, Masayuki*; Kanazawa, Toru*; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Iwamoto, Tatsuya*; Kobayashi, Kensuke*; Goto, Daisuke*; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki
Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 13 Pages, 2019/05
In this study, fuel loading effects in BWR spent fuel rack accidents are widely investigated using three-dimensional analysis methods from both nuclear and thermal hydraulics viewpoints, including: (a) Decay heat of spent fuel after discharge, (b) The maximum temperature of spent fuel cladding in the spent fuel rack depending on heat transfer phenomena, and (c) Criticality of the spent fuel rack after collapsing of the fuel due to a severe accidents in the BWR spent fuel pool (SFP).
Nishimura, Satoshi*; Satake, Masaaki*; Nishi, Yoshihisa*; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki
Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2019/05
In this study, accident progression analyses in the SFP were performed to investigate cooling effects of the SFP spray and an alternate water injection in the loss-of-pool water accident with MAAP ver. 5.05 beta. Fuel cladding oxidation model which was created by JAEA based on their experimental data was selected and applied in the present calculations. In case of an assessment of SFP spray effects, decay heat, spray fraction going into the fuel assembly, spray droplet diameter, spray start time were selected as analytical parameters. When the SFP spray of 12.5 kg/s (200 GPM) starts 4 hours after the onset of the accident against the spent fuels with 4 months cooling and if the spray fraction going into the fuel assembly is greater than 30%, the maximum cladding temperature can be maintained under 727C (1000 K), resulting in avoiding the cladding failure.
Nishimura, Satoshi*; Satake, Masaaki*; Nishi, Yoshihisa*; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki
Proceedings of 11th Korea-Japan Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS-11) (Internet), 3 Pages, 2018/11
After the accident of Fukushima-unit 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Japanese utilities are newly requested by regulatory body to take prompt measures to enhance the safety of spent fuel pool. The most important objective of this new Japanese standards of regulation is keeping a water level in a Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) under any situations in order to prevent fuel failures due to increase of fuel temperature and to avoid the occurrence of re-criticality accidents. The utilities are considered to install several kinds of safety measures for SFP. For example, a spray injection and an alternate water injection to keep pool water level, and a spent fuel layout, such as 1 by 4, 1 by 8, checkerboard to enhance cooling of the spent fuel in SFP. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of spent fuel layout on SFP cooling with MAAP5.04.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Chihiro*; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Tojo, Masayuki*
Proceedings of 2017 Water Reactor Fuel Performance Meeting (WRFPM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 10 Pages, 2017/09
To cope with the hypothetical severe accident in spent fuel pools (SFPs), it is important to understand the high temperature oxidation behavior of the Zirconium claddings exposed in the air or in the atmosphere of air/steam mixture. In this study, oxidation tests on Zircaloy-2 (Zry2) and Zircaloy-4 (Zry4) short samples were conducted in the atmosphere of air - steam mixture, and mixing ratio was varied to evaluate its influence on the oxidation kinetics in the temperature range from 600 to 1100C. From 900 to 1000C for Zry2, and from 800 to 1000C for Zry4, oxidation rates appeared higher in air - steam mixture than in dry air or in steam without air. This tendency was appeared more evident in post-breakaway transition phase after fracture of dense oxide layer on the surface of specimens. These results suggest importance of the oxidation model development in consideration of the air - steam mixture environment for the SFP accident analysis.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Chihiro; Kondo, Keietsu; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Kanazawa, Toru*; Tojo, Masayuki*
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 488, p.22 - 32, 2017/05
Times Cited Count：3 Percentile：25.44(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)The authors previously conducted thermogravimetric analyses on zircaloy-2 in air. By using the thermogravimetric data, an oxidation model was constructed in this study so that it can be applied for the modeling of cladding degradation in spent fuel pool (SFP) severe accident condition. For its validation, oxidation tests of long cladding tube were conducted, and computational fluid dynamics analyses using the constructed oxidation model were proceeded to simulate the experiments. In the oxidation tests, high temperature thermal gradient along the cladding axis was applied and air flow rates in testing chamber were controlled to simulate hypothetical SFP accidents. The analytical outputs successfully reproduced the growth of oxide film and porous oxide layer on the claddings in oxidation tests, and validity of the oxidation model was proved. Influence of air flow rate for the oxidation behavior was thought negligible in the conditions investigated in this study.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Chihiro; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Tojo, Masayuki*
Zairyo To Kankyo, 66(5), p.180 - 187, 2017/05
In spent fuel pool (SFP) under loss-of-cooling or loss-of-coolant severe accident condition, the spent fuels will be exposed to air and heated by their own residual decay heat. Integrity of fuel cladding is crucial for SFP safety therefore study on cladding oxidation in air at high temperature is important. Zircaloy-2 (Zry2) and zircaloy-4 (Zry4) were applied for thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) in different temperatures and different air flow rates in this work. Oxidation rate increased with temperature. In range of air flow rate predicted in spent fuel lack during SFP accident, influence of flow rate was not clearly observed below 950C for Zry2 and below 1050C for Zry4. Over these temperature, oxidation rates appeared obviously higher in higher air flow rate, and this trend became clearer when temperature increased. Oxide layers were carefully examined after the oxidation tests and compared with the mass gain data in TGA to investigate detail of air oxidation process. The results revealed that mass gain data in the pre breakaway transition stage reflects growth of the dense oxide film on specimen surface, and in the post breakaway transition stage, it reflects growth of porous oxide layer beneath the breakaway cracking of the oxide film.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Chihiro; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Tojo, Masayuki*; Goto, Daisuke*
Fushoku Boshoku Kyokai Dai-62-Kai Zairyo To Kankyo Toronkai Koenshu (CD-ROM), p.23 - 24, 2015/11
In order to clarify the air oxidation behavior of the cladding at high temperatures for study on improvement of safety for accident conditions in spent fuel pool, the oxidation tests for both small specimens under constant temperature conditions and long specimens under loss of coolant simulated temperature conditions were carried out, and the knowledge for influence of both temperature gradient and preoxide film on oxidation behavior of the cladding were obtained in this study.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki
no journal, ,
Fuel cladding will be exposed to the air/steam mixture during lost of coolant or loss of coolability accident in spent fuel pool, and oxidized in high temperature. It was known that oxidation rate of Zr alloy cladding is higher in air than in steam, meanwhile the authors revealed that the oxidation rate in air/steam mixture is higher than which in dry air in some experimental conditions. Detail investigation results on this matter using zircaloy-4 cladding samples will be presented.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Onizawa, Takashi*; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Kanazawa, Toru*; Tojo, Masayuki*
no journal, ,
Cladding oxidation model construction and its validation is necessary for the upgrading of severe accidentcode which will be utilized for analysis of the spent fuel pool (SFP) accident. Cladding oxidation tests and analyses using the proposed oxidation model were coducted in the simulated SFP accident condition, and their results were compared. Modification of the oxidation model will be discussed in the lecture.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Chihiro; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Tojo, Masayuki*; Kanazawa, Toru*; Goto, Daisuke*
no journal, ,
In order to investigate the air oxidation behavior of cladding materials for study on improvement of safety in spent fuel pool loss of coolant accident condition, both isothermal oxidation tests by short length specimens and oxidation tests with temperature gradient by long length specimens were conducted and the knowledge on influence of temperature and air flow rate on cladding oxidation behavior was obtained in this study.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki
no journal, ,
no abstracts in English
Ioka, Ikuo; Kato, Hitoshi; Ogawa, Hiroaki; Yoshida, Hiroyuki
no journal, ,
When the function of cooling system for a spent fuel pool loses, the spent fuel pin put under vapor and air environment. Oxidization of the spent fuel pin is considered to be the severe conditions, which have axial temperature gradient including an air-water interface. The oxidation behavior of the zircaloy-2 with axial temperature gradient was investigated. The oxidation test was carried out at 600C among saturation water vapor. The axial temperature gradient was about 10C/mm. The amount of hydrogen gas was measured during the examination, and the oxide film was analyzed. The amount of hydrogen gas decreased to about 100 ppm after increasing rapidly in early stages of the examination. Although oxidization by a temperature gradient increased the amount of hydrogen a little, there is no remarkable difference in oxide-film thickness.
Ioka, Ikuo; Kato, Hitoshi; Ogawa, Hiroaki; Osaka, Masahiko
no journal, ,
When the function of cooling system for a spent fuel pool loses, the spent fuel pin put under vapor environment. The helium gas at the time of making and the FP gas are enclosed in the spent fuel pin. The spent fuel pin with internal pressure is oxidized during severe accident. The effect of internal pressure on oxidation behavior of Zircaloy-2 was investigated. The oxidation test was carried out at 600C in steam atmosphere. The length of Zircaloy-2 specimen is 500 mm, and heated zone is 200 mm. The amount of hydrogen gas was measured during the test, and the oxide film was analyzed. The amount of hydrogen gas decreased to about 70 ppm after increasing rapidly in early stages of the test. The thickness of oxide film decreased with increasing the internal pressure. It is confirmed that internal pressure affected in the oxidation behavior of Zircaloy-2 in this test condition.
Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Chihiro; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Nakashima, Kazuo*; Tojo, Masayuki*; Goto, Daisuke*
no journal, ,
To improve the severe accident codes for the analysis of spent fuel pool (SFP) accident with water level decrease, it is necessary to model the air oxidation behavior of the cladding based on experimental data. For the air oxidation modeling, it is necessary to understand the influence of temperature distribution along axial direction of the cladding in SFP accident condition. In addition, it is important to evaluate the influence of oxide film formed on surface of cladding during operation in nuclear power plant. In this study, bare specimens and pre-oxidized specimens of Japanese zircalloy-4 were investigated. Longer specimens of cladding were tested in air with temperature distribution along the axial direction of the cladding simulating the SFP accident condition. Shorter specimens were adopted for tests in thermogravimetry to obtain basic data. Experimental data were compared and the authors discussed on influence of the temperature distribution and oxide film for the air oxidation behavior.
Nishimura, Satoshi*; Satake, Masaaki*; Nishi, Yoshihisa*; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki
no journal, ,
After the accident in Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants in 2011, deployment of spray and substitutional water inlet systems for cooling the spent fuels are recommended as safety measures against spent fuel pool (SFP) accident. In this work, analyses on an hypothetical accident which occurred by simultaneous lost of cooling ability and leaking of cooling water in SFP were conducted by using the severe accident code MAAP. For the counter measure optimization, water inlet condition to avoid cladding rupture was investigated.
Ioka, Ikuo; Kato, Hitoshi; Ogawa, Hiroaki; Osaka, Masahiko
no journal, ,
When the function of cooling system for a spent fuel pool loses, the spent fuel pin put under vapor and air environment. Oxidization of the spent fuel pin is considered to be the severe conditions, which have axial temperature gradient including an air-water interface. The oxidation behavior of the Zircaloy-2 with axial temperature gradient was investigated. The oxidation test was carried out at 600 C in mixed steam-air atmosphere. The axial temperature gradient was about 100 C/cm. The amount of hydrogen gas was measured during the test, and the oxide film was analyzed. The amount of hydrogen gas decreased to about 100 ppm after increasing rapidly in early stages of the test. No remarkable difference in thickness of the oxide film was observed in this test condition. There was little influence in mixed steam-air atmosphere on oxidation of Zircaloy-2 with temperature gradient.
Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Nagatake, Taku; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Tojo, Masayuki*; Goto, Daisuke*; Nishimura, Satoshi*; Suzuki, Hiroaki*; Yamato, Masaaki*
no journal, ,
The objectives of this study is to enhance the analytical method and safety of spent fuel pool under severe accident conditions. In this presentation, we explain about general view of results of this project.
