Application of USV to marine monitoring after Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident and its applicability as a nuclear disaster prevention tool

Sanada, Yukihisa; Misono, Toshiharu; Shiribiki, Takehiko*

Kaiyo Riko Gakkai-Shi, 27(2), p.37 - 44, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.14928/amstec.27.2_37

This paper summarizes the general situation of marine monitoring conducted after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, the experience of development and operation of USVs, and the possibility of applying unmanned vessels as a tool for nuclear disaster prevention in the future. 0.01 Bq/L or less for seawater and 10 Bq/L or less for seabed soil. Operational tests of three USVs have been continuously conducted for use in such environmental radiation monitoring. Development of these UAVs is underway with a view to utilizing them for seawater sampling, direct measurement of the seafloor soil surface layer, and seafloor soil sampling, depending on their performance. It is necessary to promote the development of USVs for future nuclear power plant accidents.

Effects of radioactive cesium from suspended matter and fallout on agricultural products

Nihei, Naoto*; Yoshimura, Kazuya

Agricultural Implications of Fukushima Nuclear Accident (IV), p.33 - 40, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9361-9_4

Dependency of the source term estimation method for radionuclides released into the atmosphere on the available environmental monitoring data and its applicability to real-time source term estimation

Terada, Hiroaki; Nagai, Haruyasu; Kadowaki, Masanao; Tsuzuki, Katsunori

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(8), p.980 - 1001, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2162139

It is essential to establish a method for reconstructing the source term and spatiotemporal distribution of radionuclides released into the atmosphere due to a nuclear accident for emergency countermeasures. We examined the dependency of a source term estimation method based on Bayesian inference using atmospheric dispersion simulation and environmental monitoring data on the availability of various monitoring data. Additionally, we examined the applicability of this method to a real-time estimation conducted immediately after an accident. A sensitivity analysis of the estimated source term during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident for combinations of various monitoring data indicated that using monitoring data with a high temporal and spatial resolution and the concurrent use of air concentration and surface deposition data is effective for accurate estimation. A real-time source term estimation experiment assuming the situation of monitoring data acquisition during the FDNPS accident revealed that this method could provide the necessary source term for grasping the overview of surface contamination in the early phase and evaluating the approximate accident scale. If the immediate online acquisition of monitoring data and regular operation of an atmospheric dispersion simulation are established, this method can provide the source term in near-real time.

Development of a numerical simulation method for air cooling of fuel debris by JUPITER

Yamashita, Susumu; Uesawa, Shinichiro; Ono, Ayako; Yoshida, Hiroyuki

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 10(4), p.22-00485_1 - 22-00485_25, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.22-00485

A detailed evaluation for air cooling of fuel debris in actual reactors will be essential in fuel debris retrieval under dry conditions. To understand the heat transfer in and around fuel debris, which is assumed as a porous medium in the primary containment vessel (PCV) mechanistically, we newly applied the porous medium model to the multiphase and multicomponent computational fluid dynamics code named JUPITER (JAEA Utility Program for Interdisciplinary Thermal-hydraulics Engineering and Research). We applied the Darcy-Brinkman model as for the porous medium model. This model has high compatibility with JUPITER because it can treat both a pure fluid and a porous medium phase simultaneously in the same manner as the one-fluid model in multiphase flow simulation. We addressed the case of natural convection with a high-velocity flow standing out nonlinear effects by implementing the Forchheimer model, including the term of the square of the velocity as a nonlinear effect to the momentum transport equation of JUPITER. We performed some simple verification and validation simulations, such as the natural convection simulation in a square cavity and the natural convective heat transfer experiment with the porous medium, to confirm the validity of the implemented model. We confirmed that the result of JUPITER agreed well with these simulations and experiments. In addition, as an application of the updated JUPITER, we performed the preliminary simulation of air cooling of fuel debris in the condition of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station unit 2 including the actual core materials. As a result, JUPITER calculated the temperature and velocity field stably in and around the fuel debris inside the PCV. Therefore, JUPITER has the potential to estimate the detailed and accurate thermal-hydraulics behaviors of fuel debris.

Thirty-year prediction of Cs supply from rivers to coastal waters off Fukushima considering human activities

Ikenoue, Tsubasa; Shimadera, Hikari*; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Kondo, Akira*

Water (Internet), 15(15), p.2734_1 - 2734_18, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.3390/w15152734

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident caused an accumulation of Cs in coastal sediment. The Cs supply from rivers to the ocean can affect the long-term fate of Cs in coastal sediment. Since the Fukushima coastal river basins include large decontaminated and evacuation order areas, considering the decontamination work and resumption of agriculture is important for predicting the Cs supply. We conducted a 30-year prediction of the Cs supply from the Fukushima coastal rivers to the ocean using a distributed radiocesium prediction model, considering the effects of human activities. In river basins with decontaminated and evacuation order areas, human activities reduced the total Cs outflow from agricultural lands, urban lands, and forest areas to the rivers and the Cs supply to the ocean by 5.0% and 6.0%, respectively. These results indicated that human activities slightly impacted the Cs outflow and supply. The Cs supply from rivers impacted by the accident to the coastal sediment was estimated to correspond to 11-36% of the total Cs in the coastal sediment in the early phase of the accident. Therefore, the Cs supply from rivers to the ocean is important for the long-term behavior of Cs in coastal sediment.

Interaction of millisecond kW-class laser pulses with metals and metal oxides; Fundamentals of processing

Daido, Hiroyuki*; Yamada, Tomonori

ILT-APR-34; ILT 2023 Nempo (Internet), p.1 - 5, 2023/07

The decommissioning of Fukushima and the contribution to reconstruction have become national issues. The authors participated in the "Analysis of fine particles generated by laser processing and development of nuclide identification method" (represented by Professor Shuichi Hasegawa of the University of Tokyo), which was adopted as one of the JAEA's publicly solicited projects for this purpose, from FY 2018 to FY 2021 as a subcontractor, The authors conducted research on the observation, evaluation and analysis of the interaction between lasers and various laser-irradiated targets. This report outlines the results of the research in which the authors took part. In the experiments, laser irradiation was carried out on test specimens set up in an irradiation chamber, and shadowgraphs were taken using a high-speed camera and a He-Ne laser. As an example of the experimental results, shadowgraphs of metal (stainless steel) and metal oxide (zirconia), irradiation traces after laser irradiation, and the relationship between laser irradiation power and jet mass are shown, and the interaction between the laser and the metal or metal oxide is discussed. The results will not only contribute to the decommissioning technology of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, but also to laser processing technology and laser interaction research.

Establishing an evaluation method for the aging phenomenon by physical force in fuel debris

Suzuki, Seiya; Arai, Yoichi; Okamura, Nobuo; Watanabe, Masayuki

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(7), p.839 - 848, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2159559

The fuel debris, consisting of nuclear fuel materials and reactor structural materials, generated in the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant can become deteriorated like rocks under the changes of environmental temperature. Although the fuel debris have been cooled by water for 10 years, they are affected by seasonal and/or day-and-night temperature changes. Therefore, in evaluating the aging behavior of the fuel debris, it is essential to consider the changes in environmental temperature. Assuming that the fuel debris are deteriorated, radioactive substances that have recently undergone micronization could be eluted into the cooling water, and such condition may affect defueling methods. We focused on the effect of repeated changes in environmental temperature on the occurrence of cracks, and an accelerated test using simulated fuel debris was carried out. The length of the crack increases with increasing number of heat cycle; therefore, the fuel debris become brittle by stress caused by thermal expansion and contraction. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the mechanical deterioration of the fuel debris is similar to that of rocks or minerals, and it became possible to predict changes in the length of the crack in the simulated fuel debris and environmental model.

Simulation study on H behavior in the Fukushima coastal region; Comparison of influences of discharges from the Fukushima Daiichi and rivers

Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Yamada, Susumu; Machida, Masahiko; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Misono, Toshiharu; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Iijima, Kazuki

Marine Pollution Bulletin, 192, p.115054_1 - 115054_10, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115054

Image selection method from image sequence to improve computational efficiency of 3D reconstruction; Application of robust threshold based on multimodal test to images

Hanari, Toshihide; Kawabata, Kuniaki; Nakamura, Keita*

Proceedings of 22nd World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC 2023) (Internet) , p.11597 - 11602, 2023/07

This paper describes the image selection method by multimodal detection for improving the computational efficiency of three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction based on images in a time-series. To decrease the calculation time of the 3D reconstruction, an adequate selection from the images is required. For this reason, we introduced multimodal detection by a statistical test on the image selection process, and then applied it to soundness evaluation of the displacements based on the optical flow between images acquired by a camera. The results suggest that suitable images can be extracted from the images in a time-series for decreasing the calculation time of the 3D reconstruction. Therefore, the suitable images selected by the proposed method contributed to efficiently performing the 3D reconstruction.

In-situ alpha aerosol monitoring in harsh environments

Tsubota, Yoichi

Isotope News, (787), p.28 - 31, 2023/06

In the fuel debris retrieval process during the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F), radioactive particulates are generated in the primary containment vessel (PCV). Particulates containing nuclides (-aerosols), which have a particularly large internal exposure effect, are important to be monitored in addition to confinement measures in the PCV. The research group of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) summarized the four requirements for measuring -aerosols in the harsh environment of the 1F-PCV as follows: "reliable operation in a high humidity environment", "measurement of -aerosols without using filter paper", "measurement of high concentration of -aerosols", and "selective measurement of -aerosols". The IAAM was developed as an instrument that satisfies these four criteria. The IAAM was developed as an "in-situ" -aerosol measurement device that combines air heating, a flat-type flow path, direct measurement of -aerosol, usage of multi-channel photomultiplier tube, and an optimized scintillator thickness. Performance verification tests have demonstrated that the IAAM can be used for real-time measurement of -aerosol concentration in air, and that it can measure more than 30 times of -aerosol concentration expected in the 1F-PCV. In the future, we will continue to verify the measurement of -aerosol concentration at various sites and aim to apply the system to such sites.