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Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 133, p.830 - 836, 2019/11
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：100(Nuclear Science & Technology)A RCCS having passive safety features through radiation and natural convection was proposed. The RCCS design consists of two continuous closed regions: an ex-reactor pressure vessel region and a cooling region with a heat-transfer surface to ambient air. The RCCS uses a novel shape to remove efficiently the heat released from the RPV through as much radiation as possible. Employing air as the working fluid and ambient air as the ultimate heat sink, the RCCS design can strongly reduce the possibility of losing the working fluid and the heat sink for decay-heat-removal. Moreover, the authors started experiment research with using a scaled-down heat-removal test facility. Therefore, this study propose a comparative methodology between an actual RCCS and a scaled-down heat-removal test facility.
Ota, Hirokazu*; Ohgama, Kazuya; Yamano, Hidemasa
Proceedings of International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference / Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference (Global/Top Fuel 2019) (USB Flash Drive), p.30 - 39, 2019/09
Osawa, Hideaki; Hirose, Yukio*; Onuma, Susumu*; Otomo, Shoji*
Shakai Anzengaku Kenkyu, 9, p.145 - 160, 2019/03
We compared decision-making process on selection of management policy for high-level radioactive waste between Switzerland and UK by document review. The decision-making was performed extraction of options, establishment of comparative criteria, assessment and selection of options in turn. As comparative criteria, safety and intergenerational fairness etc. were considered to be important. The position of 'Deal with it now by waste disposal' emphasizing the responsibility of the present generation had a trade-off relation with that of 'Leave it until later by long-term storage' emphasizing the rights of future generations. The sense of values, recusing HLW repository as so-called troublesome facility against future and present generation, appeared to be mitigated through the consideration of trade-off relation described above. As a result, both countries have chosen waste disposal considering reversibility of decisions and retrievability of radioactive waste.
Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 122, p.201 - 206, 2018/12
Times Cited Count：1 Percentile：59.08(Nuclear Science & Technology)A RCCS having passive safety features through radiation and natural convection was proposed. The RCCS design consists of two continuous closed regions: an ex-reactor pressure vessel region and a cooling region with a heat-transfer surface to ambient air. The RCCS uses a novel shape to remove efficiently the heat released from the RPV through as much radiation as possible. Employing air as the working fluid and ambient air as the ultimate heat sink, the RCCS design can strongly reduce the possibility of losing the working fluid and the heat sink for decay-heat-removal. This study addresses an improvement of heat-removal capability using heat conduction on the RCCS. As a result, a heat flux removed by the RCCS could be doubled; therefore, it is possible to halve the height of the RCCS or increase the thermal reactor power.
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.
Hosomi, Seisuke*; Akashi, Tomoyasu*; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*; Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi
Proceedings of 11th Korea-Japan Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS-11) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2018/11
A new RCCS with passive safety features consists of two continuous closed regions. One is a region surrounding RPV. The other is a cooling region with heat transferred to the ambient air. The new RCCS needs no electrical or mechanical driving devices. We started experiment research with using a scaled-down test section. Three experimental cases under different emissivity conditions were performed. We used Monte Carlo method to evaluate the contribution of radiation to the total heat released from the heater. As a result, after the heater wall was painted black, the contribution of radiation to the total heat could be increased to about 60%. A high emissivity of RPV surface is very effective to remove more heat from the reactor. A high emissivity of the cooling part wall is also effective because it not only increases the radiation emitted to the ambient air, but also may increase the temperature difference among the walls and enhance the convection heat transfer in the RCCS.
Fukaya, Yuji; Kasahara, Seiji; Mizuta, Naoki; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Shibata, Taiju; Nishihara, Tetsuo
JAEA-Research 2018-004, 38 Pages, 2018/06
JAEA-Research-2018-004.pdf:1.81MB
The demand of HTGR to investigate its introduction scenario and heat balance of HTGR have been researched. First, previous studies of HTGR demand were researched. Next, heat balance of GTHTR300, a commercial scale HTGR design, and its characteristics were researched. By using this information, installation number of HTGR to suit for demand in Japan are evaluated. In addition, heat balance evaluation code was developed in this study.
Ogawa, Masuro
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 308, p.133 - 141, 2016/11
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：100(Nuclear Science & Technology)A new basic concept on safety; Not causing any serious catastrophe by any means and a new basic concept on radioactive waste; Not returning any waste that possibly affects the environment are proposed in the present study, aiming at nuclear power plants which everybody can accept, in consideration of the serious catastrophe that happened at Fukushima in 2011. In the present study, physical phenomena are used to continue confining, rather than confine. To continue confining is meant to apply natural correction to fulfill inherent safety function. Fission products must be detoxified to realize the new basic concept on radioactive waste, aiming at the final processing and disposal of radioactive wastes as same as that in the other wastes such as PCB. The New HTGR is proposed based on the new basic concepts. It is indicated that the New HTGR can response to social requirements for safety and environmental conservability against radioactive wastes, industrial requirements for economy, uranium resource sustainability and so on, and national requirements for non-proliferation and environmental protection against carbon dioxide.
Fukano, Yoshitaka
Proceedings of 11th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-11) (USB Flash Drive), 12 Pages, 2016/10
Probabilistic and deterministic safety assessments and experimental studies on local fault (LF) propagation in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) have been performed in many countries because LFs have been historically considered as one of the possible causes of severe accidents. Adventitious fuel pin failures have been considered to be the most dominant initiators of LFs in these probabilistic assessments because of its high frequency of occurrence during reactor operation and possibility of subsequent pin-to-pin failure propagation. The four possible mechanisms of fuel element failure propagation from adventitious fuel pin failure (FEFPA) were identified in the past study. All the mechanisms for FEFPA analysis including thermal, mechanical and chemical propagation were modeled into a safety assessment code which was applicable to arbitrary SFRs. Safety analyses on FEFPA of Japanese experimental fast reactor (JOYO), Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor (Monju), Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor with upgraded reactor core (Upgraded Monju) and Japan sodium-cooled fast reactor (JSFR) were performed using this methodology. Although analytical results were different owing to the different core designs in four SFRs, it was clarified in this study that FEFPA was highly unlikely in these SFRs. These results also suggest future possibility of long-term run-beyond-cladding-breach operation which would enhance the economic efficiency in SFRs.
Shirai, Nobutoshi; Miura, Yasushi; Tachibana, Ikuya; Omori, Satoru; Wake, Junichi; Fukuda, Kazuhito; Nakano, Takafumi; Nagasato, Yoshihiko
JAEA-Technology 2016-007, 951 Pages, 2016/07
JAEA-Technology-2016-007-01.pdf:11.93MBJAEA-Technology-2016-007-02.pdf:4.7MB
The periodic safety review of TRP is to confirm the safety activities and get effective additional measures the facility safety and its reliability. We implemented 4 items; for (1) evaluation of safety activity implementation, we confirmed we are adequately expanding its safety activities by the necessary documents and schemes. For (2) evaluation of status of safety activities reflecting the latest technical knowledges, we confirmed we reflect latest knowledges for improvement of safety and reliability. For (3) technical evaluation about aging degradation, we can keep the safety of the facilities important to safety and the sea discharge line, under assumption of the present maintenance, because of "focuses for aging degradation". For (4) planning measures about a 10-years-plan that the operator shall implement to keep the facility condition, by the technical evaluation, we found no additional safety plans into maintenance strategies.
Sato, Hiroyuki; Ohashi, Hirofumi; Nakagawa, Shigeaki
Proceedings of 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-24) (DVD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2016/06
This paper intends to propose a practical solution to protect HTGR from severe oxidation against air ingress accidents without reliance on subsystems. Firstly, a change is made to the center reflector structure to minimize temperature difference during the accident condition in order to reduce buoyancy-driven natural circulation in the reactor. Secondly, a modified structure of the upper reflector is suggested to prevent massive air ingress against a rupture in standpipes. As a preliminary study, a numerical analysis is performed for a typical prismatic-type HTGR to study the effectiveness of the proposed design concept using simplified lumped element models. The results showed that amount of air ingress into the reactor can be significantly reduced with practical changes to local structure in the reactor.
Nakamura, Makoto; Tobita, Kenji; Someya, Yoji; Uto, Hiroyasu; Sakamoto, Yoshiteru; Gulden, W.*
Nuclear Fusion, 55(12), p.123008_1 - 123008_7, 2015/12
Times Cited Count：4 Percentile：67.21(Physics, Fluids & Plasmas)Major in- and ex-vessel loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) of a water-cooled tokamak fusion DEMO reactor have been analysed. Analyses have identified responses of the DEMO systems to these accidents and pressure loads to confinement barriers for radioactive materials. The thermohydraulic analysis results suggests that the in- and ex-vessel LOCAs crucially threaten integrity of the primary and final confinement barriers, respectively. As for the in-vessel LOCA, it was found that the pressure in the vacuum vessel reaches its design value due to the LOCA even though a pressure suppression system is in service. As for the ex-vessel LOCA, the pressure load to the tokamak hall due to the double-ended break of the primary cooling pipe was found to be so large that integrity of the hall was crucially challenged. Mitigations of the loads to the confinement barriers are also discussed.
Iwai, Yasunori; Kubo, Hitoshi*; Oshima, Yusuke*; Noguchi, Hiroshi*; Edao, Yuki; Taniuchi, Junichi*
Fusion Science and Technology, 68(3), p.596 - 600, 2015/10
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：100(Nuclear Science & Technology)We have newly developed the hydrophobic platinum honeycomb catalysts applicable to tritium oxidation reactor since the honeycomb-shape catalyst can decrease the pressure drop. Two types of hydrophobic honeycomb catalyst have been test-manufactured. One is the hydrophobic platinum catalyst on a metal honeycomb. The other is the hydrophobic platinum catalyst on a ceramic honeycomb made of silicon carbide. The fine platinum particles around a few nanometers significantly improve the catalytic activity for the oxidation tritium at a tracer concentration. The hydrogen concentration in the gaseous feed slightly affects the overall reaction rate constant for hydrogen oxidation. Due to the competitive adsorption of hydrogen and water molecules on platinum surface, the overall reaction rate constant has the bottom value. The hydrogen concentration for the bottom value is 100 ppm under the dry feed gas. We have experimentally confirmed the activity of these honeycomb catalysts is as good as that of pellet-shape hydrophobic catalyst. The results support the hydrophobic honeycomb catalysts are applicable to tritium oxidation reactor.
Suyama, Kenya; Kashima, Takao
Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety (ICNC 2015) (DVD-ROM), p.273 - 282, 2015/09
In the technical development of the criticality safety control of the fuel debris of Fukushima accident in Japan, there have been a discussion on a possibility of adopting BUC with FP. The Expert Group on Burnup Credit Criticality Safety (EGBUC) under the Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) in OECD/NEA Nuclear Science Committee had carried out an international burnup calculation benchmark "Phase-IIIB" and "Phase-IIIC" for BWR fuel assemblies. In these benchmarks the difference of the calculation results of 
Gd among the participants obtained keen interests because it showed rather larger difference among the participants. Authors has been carried out additional analyses on the accumulation of the gadolinium isotopes in the used nuclear fuel during the burnup. Without cooling time, the assembly-averaged amount of Gd against the burnup value depends on the burnout property of gadolinium in the burnable poison rods. However, after few year cooling time, Gd increase drastically by the decay of Eu. In this case, the amount of gadolinium isotopes in the burnable poison rods has less importance. It means that the adopted parameters and data concerning the Eu generation have much more importance than the burnup treatment of the burnable poison rods for better prediction of Gd.
Iwai, Yasunori; Kubo, Hitoshi*; Oshima, Yusuke*
Isotope News, (736), p.12 - 17, 2015/08
We have successfully developed a new hydrophobic platinum catalyst for collecting tritium at nuclear fusion reactors. Catalysts used to collect tritium are called hydrophobic precious metal catalysts. In Japan, hydrophobic precious metal catalysts manufactured from polymers have been used for heavy water refinement.However, this catalyst has issues related to embrittlement to radiation and thermal stability. These technological issues needed to be solved to allow for its application to nuclear fusion reactors requiring further enrichment from highly-concentrated tritiated water. We developed a new method of manufacturing catalysts involving hydrophobic processing with an inorganic substance base. As a result, previous technological issues were able to be solved with the development of a catalyst that exhibited no performance degradation in response to radiation application of 530kGy, a standard for radiation resistance, and maintenance of thermal stability at over 600
C, which is much higher than the 70C temperature that is normally used. The catalyst created with this method was also confirmed to have achieved the world's highest exchange efficiency, equivalent to 1.3 times the previously most powerful efficiency. The application of this catalyst to the liquid phase catalytic exchange process is expected to overcome significant technological hurdles with regards to improving the reliability and efficiency of systems for collecting tritium from tritiated water.
Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Hu, R.*
Proceedings of 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-10) (USB Flash Drive), 12 Pages, 2014/12
continuous closed regions; one is an ex-reactor pressure vessel (RPV) region and another is a cooling region having heat transfer area to ambient air assumed at 40 (C). The RCCS uses novel shape so that the heat released from the RPV can be removed efficiently with radiation and natural convection. Employing the air as the working fluid and the ambient air as the ultimate heat sink, the new RCCS design greatly reduces the possibility of losing the heat sink for decay heat removal. Therefore, HTGRs and VHTRs adopting the new RCCS design can avoid core melting owing to overheating the fuels.
Nakamura, Makoto; Tobita, Kenji; Someya, Yoji; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Gulden, W.*; Sakamoto, Yoshiteru; Araki, Takao*; Watanabe, Kazuhito*; Matsumiya, Hisato*; Ishii, Kyoko*; et al.
Plasma and Fusion Research (Internet), 9, p.1405139_1 - 1405139_11, 2014/10
Key aspects of the safety study of a water-cooled fusion DEMO reactor is reported. Safety requirements, dose target, DEMO plant model and confinement strategy of the safety study are briefly introduced. The internal hazard of a water-cooled DEMO, i.e. radioactive inventories, stored energies that can mobilize these inventories and accident initiators and scenarios, are evaluated. It is pointed out that the enthalpy in the first wall/blanket cooling loops, the decay heat and the energy potentially released by the Be-steam chemical reaction are of special concern for the water-cooled DEMO. An ex-vessel loss-of-coolant of the first wall/blanket cooling loop is also quantitatively analyzed. The integrity of the building against the ex-VV LOCA is discussed.
Nakamura, Makoto; Ibano, Kenzo*; Tobita, Kenji; Someya, Yoji; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Gulden, W.*; Ogawa, Yuichi*
Proceedings of 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2014) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2014/10
Of late in Japan, a design study has been undertaken of a tokamak fusion DEMO with pressurized water coolant and solid pebble bed breeding blanket, but safety characteristics of this type of DEMO have not been well examined. In this paper, thermohydraulics analysis of in-vessel and ex-vessel loss-of-coolant accidents of a water-cooled tokamak DEMO is reported. Safety characteristics of water-cooled DEMO, particularly possible loads onto confinement barriers, are discussed based on the thermohydraulics analysis results. Measures to reduce such loads are also proposed.
Inoue, Nobuyuki*; Yoshino, Ryuji
Tokoton Yasashi Kakuyugo Enerugi No Hon, p.1 - 159, 2005/07
This book gives an outline on the Nuclear Fusion Energy in plain words. This book shows that the nuclear fusion is an ultimate energy source, a core of the nuclear fusion energy plant is a high temperature plasma, and the tokamak machine has opened up a road to realize the nuclear fusion reactor. Furthermore the development progress of ITER project with Japanese big contribution on it and several characteristics of the Nuclear Fusion Energy are explained in this book.
Department of HTTR Project
JAERI-Review 2005-010, 83 Pages, 2005/03
JAERI-Review-2005-010.pdf:5.18MB
The HTTR (High Teperature Engineering Test Reactor) with the thermal power of 30MW and the reactor outlet coolant temperature of 850/950C is the first high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) in Japan, which uses coated fuel particle, graphite for core components and helium gas for primary coolant. December 2001, the thermal power of 30MW and the reactor outlet coolant temperature of 850C was attained. JAERI received the certificate of pre-operation test, that is, the commissioning licence for the HTTR in March 2002. This report summarizes operation, tests, maintenance, radiation control, and construction of components and facilities for the HTTR as well as R&D on HTGRs for FY2003.
