Differential pressure rise event for filters of HTTR primary helium gas circulators, 1; Investigation of differential pressure rise event

Nemoto, Takahiro; Arakawa, Ryoki; Kawakami, Satoru; Nagasumi, Satoru; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Watanabe, Masashi; Onishi, Takashi; Kawamoto, Taiki; Furusawa, Takayuki; Inoi, Hiroyuki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2023-005, 33 Pages, 2023/05

During shut down of the HTTR (High Temperature engineering Test Reactor) RS-14 cycle, an increasing trend of filter differential pressure for the helium gas circulator was observed. In order to investigate this phenomenon, the blower of the primary helium purification system was disassembled and inspected. As a result, it is clear that the silicon oil mist entered into the primary coolant due to the deterioration of the charcoal filter performance. The replacement and further investigation of the filter are planning to prevent the reoccurrence of the same phenomenon in the future.

Development of analytical approach of source term for accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste

Yoshida, Kazuo; Tamaki, Hitoshi; Hiyama, Mina*

JAEA-Research 2023-001, 26 Pages, 2023/05

JAEA-Research-2023-001.pdf:1.61MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (Ru) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. To resolve this issue, an analytical approach has been developed using computer simulation programs to assess the radioactive source term from those facilities. The proposed approach consists analyses with three computer programs. At first, the simulation of boiling behavior in the HLLW tank is conducted with SHAWED code. Next step, the thermal-hydraulic behavior in the facility building is simulated with MELCOR code based on the results at the first step simulation such as flowed out mixed steam flow rate, temperature and volatized Ru from the tank. The final analysis step is carried out for estimating amount of released radioactive materials with SCHERN computer code which simulates chemical behaviors of nitric acid, nitrogen oxide and Ru based on the condition also simulated MELCOR. Series of sample simulations of the accident at a hypothetical typical facility are presented with the data transfer between those codes in this report.

Comparison on safety features among HTGR's Reactor Cavity Cooling Systems (RCCSs)

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Funatani, Shumpei*

Proceedings of 2023 International Congress on Advanced in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2023) (Internet), 17 Pages, 2023/04

The objectives of this study are as follows: to understand the characteristics, degree of passive safety features for heat removal were compared for RCCSs based on atmospheric radiation and based on atmospheric natural circulation under the same conditions. Therefore, the authors concluded that the proposed RCCS based on atmospheric radiation has the advantage that the temperature of the RPV can be stably maintained against disturbances in the outside air (ambient air). Moreover, methodology to utilize all the heat emitted from the RPV surface for increasing the degree of waste-heat utilization was discussed.

Study on degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tokyo Institute of Technology*

JAEA-Review 2022-066, 91 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Review-2022-066.pdf:5.88MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Study on degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions" conducted in FY2021. In the project, radiochemists, nuclear chemists, nuclear physicists, material scientists, and environmental biologists are teamed to elucidate the mechanism of the degradation of fuel debris by combined effects of radiological, chemical, and biological functions. In fiscal year 2021, the members of the project team have conducted on the microbial degradation of the simulated fuel debris under -ray irradiation, complex formation of pentavalent uranium, construction of microchannel system to detect micro-particles and the simulated fuel debris, sorption of tetravalent elements

Development of adjusted nuclear data library for fast reactor application

Yokoyama, Kenji

EPJ Web of Conferences, 281, p.00004_1 - 00004_10, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328100004

In Japan, development of adjusted nuclear data library for fast rector application based on the cross-section adjustment method has been conducted since the early 1990s. The adjusted library is called the unified cross-section set. The first version was developed in 1991 and is called ADJ91. Recently, the integral experimental data were further expanded to improve the design prediction accuracy of the core loaded with minor actinoids and/or degraded Pu. Using the additional integral experimental data, development of ADJ2017 was started in 2017. In 2022, the latest unified cross-section set AJD2017R was developed based on JENDL-4.0 by using 619 integral experimental data. An overview of the latest version with a review of previous ones will be shown. On the other hand, JENDL-5 was released in 2021. In the development of JENDL-5, some of the integral experimental data used in ADJ2017R were explicitly utilized in the nuclear data evaluation. However, this is not reflected in the covariance data. This situation needs to be considered when developing a unified cross-section set based on JENDL-5. Preliminary adjustment calculation based on JENDL-5 is performed using C/E (calculation/experiment) values simply evaluated by a sensitivity analysis. The preliminary results will be also discussed.

Nuclear criticality benchmark analyses on TRIGA-type reactor systems by using continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP with JENDL-5

Yanagisawa, Hiroshi; Umeda, Miki; Motome, Yuiko; Murao, Hiroyuki

JAEA-Technology 2022-030, 80 Pages, 2023/02

JAEA-Technology-2022-030.pdf:2.57MB

Nuclear criticality benchmark analyses were carried out for TRIGA-type reactor systems in which uranium-zirconium hydride fuel rods are loaded by using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP with the evaluated nuclear data library JENDL-5. The analyses cover two sorts of benchmark data, the IEU-COMP-THERM-003 and IEU-COMP-THERM-013 in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook, and effective neutron multiplication factors, reactivity worths for control rods etc. were calculated by JENDL-5 in comparison with those by the previous version of JENDL. As the results, it was confirmed that the effective neutron multiplication factors obtained by JENDL-5 were 0.4 to 0.6% greater than those by JENDL-4.0, and that there were no significant differences in the calculated reactivity worths by between JENDL-5 and JENDL-4.0. Those results are considered to be helpful for the confirmation of calculation accuracy in the analyses on NSRR control rod worths, which are planned in the future.

Fluorination method for classification of the waste generated by fuel debris removal (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy*

JAEA-Review 2022-058, 191 Pages, 2023/02

JAEA-Review-2022-058.pdf:16.99MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "Fluorination method for classification of the waste generated by fuel debris removal" conducted from FY2019 to FY2021. Since the final year of this proposal was FY2021, the results for three fiscal years were summarized. The present study aims to develop a method for separating nuclear fuel material from waste by fluorination in order to contribute to the classification of waste generated by fuel debris removal at 1F. In order to comprehensively evaluate the fluorination behavior for the generated phase in various MCCI products, some simulated wastes were prepared by controlling redox conditions, and the fluorination experiment was carried out.

Insight on the mechanical properties of hierarchical porous calcium-silicate-hydrate pastes according to the Ca/Si molar ratio using synchrotron X-ray scattering and nanoindentation test

Im, S.*; Jee, H.*; Suh, H.*; Kanematsu, Manabu*; Morooka, Satoshi; Choe, H.*; Nishio, Yuhei*; Machida, Akihiko*; Kim, J.*; Lim, S.*; et al.

Construction and Building Materials, 365, p.130034_1 - 130034_18, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.130034

New approach to understanding the experimental Cs NMR chemical shift of clay minerals via machine learning and DFT-GIPAW calculations

Okubo, Takahiro*; Takei, Akihiro*; Tachi, Yukio; Fukatsu, Yuta; Deguchi, Kenzo*; Oki, Shinobu*; Shimizu, Tadashi*

Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 127(4), p.973 - 986, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.2c08880

The identification of adsorption sites of Cs on clay minerals has been studied in the fields of environmental chemistry. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments allow direct observations of the local structures of adsorbed Cs. The NMR parameters of Cs, derived from solid-state NMR experiments, are sensitive to the local neighboring structures of adsorbed Cs. However, determining the Cs positions from NMR data alone is difficult. This paper describes an approach for identifying the expected atomic positions of Cs adsorbed on clay minerals by combining machine learning (ML) with experimentally observed chemical shifts. A linear ridge regression model for ML is constructed from the smooth overlap of atomic positions descriptor and gauge-including projector augmented wave (GIPAW) ab initio data. The Cs chemical shifts can be instantaneously calculated from the Cs positions on any clay layers using ML. The inverse analysis from the ML model can derive the atomic positions from experimentally observed chemical shifts.

Development of the continuous monitoring of tritium water by mid-infrared laser spectroscopy (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; National Institutes of Natural Sciences*

JAEA-Review 2022-059, 34 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Review-2022-059.pdf:1.58MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2021, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of the continuous monitoring of tritium water by mid-infrared laser spectroscopy" conducted in FY2021. The present study aims to demonstrate the principle of short-time measurement of tritiated water at the "60 Bq/cc level" using a cavity ring-down measurement system with a mid-infrared laser. In order to achieve the above goal, (1) research on the cavity ring-down system and (2) evaluation of hydrogen isotope composition under environmental conditions and preparation of standard samples (subcontractor: Hirosaki University) were conducted this fiscal year. In (1), a mid-infrared cavity ring-down test was conducted. An optical bench (3 m 1.2 m) was set up in the laboratory, and a designed optical