Development of gas entrainment evaluation model based on distribution of pressure along vortex center line; Application to a gas entrainment experiment with traveling vortices in an open water channel flow?

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki; Imai, Yasutomo*; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Sakai, Takaaki*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 432, p.113785_1 - 113785_16, 2025/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113785

Establishing an evaluation method for the gas entrainment (GE) of argon cover gas due to surface vortices is required in terms of safety design of sodium-cooled fast reactors. To modify the evaluation model in an in-house evaluation tool for GE, StreamViewer, a modified evaluation model on the pressure distribution along the vortex center line (PVL model) was proposed to identify the vortex center lines by connecting continuous vortex center points from the suction port to the surface and evaluate gas core length based on the balance between the hydrostatic pressure and the pressure decrease distribution along the vortex center line. PVL model was applied the three-dimensional numerical analysis results for the experiments where a plate induced unsteady traveling vortices in the open channel flow. Consequently, the GE evaluation using StreamViewer with PVL model could reproduce the relation between the inlet flow velocity and the gas core length in the unsteady vortex flow experiments.

Data report of ROSA/LSTF experiment SB-PV-03; 0.2% pressure vessel bottom break LOCA with SG depressurization and gas inflow

Takeda, Takeshi

JAEA-Data/Code 2024-014, 76 Pages, 2024/12

JAEA-Data-Code-2024-014.pdf:4.0MB

An experiment denoted as SB-PV-03 was conducted on November 19, 2002 using the Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF) in the Rig of Safety Assessment-V (ROSA-V) Program. The ROSA/LSTF experiment SB-PV-03 simulated a 0.2% pressure vessel bottom small-break loss-of-coolant accident in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The test assumptions included total failure of high pressure injection system of emergency core cooling system (ECCS) and noncondensable gas (nitrogen gas) inflow to the primary system from accumulator (ACC) tanks of ECCS. Secondary-side depressurization of both steam generators (SGs) as an accident management (AM) action to achieve the depressurization rate of 55 K/h in the primary system was initiated 10 min after the generation of a safety injection signal, and continued afterwards. Auxiliary feedwater injection into the secondary-side of both SGs was started for 30 min with some delay after the onset of the AM action. The AM action was effective on the primary depressurization until the ACC tanks began to discharge nitrogen gas into the primary system. The core liquid level recovered in oscillative manner because of intermittent coolant injection from the ACC system into both cold legs. Therefore, the core liquid level remained at a small drop. The pressure difference between the primary and SG secondary sides became larger after nitrogen gas ingress. Core uncovery occurred by core boil-off during reflux condensation in the SG U-tubes under nitrogen gas influx. When the maximum cladding surface temperature of simulated fuel rods exceeded the pre-determined value of 908 K, the core power was automatically reduced to protect the LSTF core. After the automatic core power reduction, coolant injection from low pressure injection (LPI) system of ECCS into both cold legs led to the whole core quench. After the continuous core cooling was confirmed through the actuation of the LPI system, the experiment was terminated.

Report of summer holiday practical training on 2023

Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Nagasumi, Satoru; Hasegawa, Toshinari; Kawai, Hiromi*; Wakisaka, Shinji*; Nagase, Sota*; Nakamura, Kento*; Yaguchi, Hiroki*; Ishii, Toshiaki; Nakano, Yumi*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2024-008, 23 Pages, 2024/07

JAEA-Technology-2024-008.pdf:1.69MB

Five people from three universities participated in the 2023 summer holiday practical training with the theme of "Technical development on HTTR". The participants practiced the analysis of HTTR core, the analysis of behavior on loss of forced cooling test, the analysis of Iodine deposition behavior in primary cooling system and the feasibility study of energy storage system for HTGRs. In the questionnaire after this training, there were impressions such as that it was useful as a work experience and some students found it useful for their own research. These impressions suggest that this training was generally evaluated as good.

High-temperature test for BGaN semiconductor neutron detectors

Okita, Shoichiro; Sakurai, Tatsuhiro*; Ezaki, Iwao*; Takagi, Katsuyuki*; Nakano, Takayuki*; Hino, Masahiro*

KURNS Progress Report 2023, P. 97, 2024/07

Numerical study of initiating phase of core disruptive accident in small sodium-cooled fast reactors with negative void reactivity

Ishida, Shinya; Fukano, Yoshitaka; Tobita, Yoshiharu; Okano, Yasushi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 61(5), p.582 - 594, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2243949

Reactor physics experiment on a graphite-moderated core to construct integral experiment database for HTGR

Okita, Shoichiro; Fukaya, Yuji; Sakon, Atsushi*; Sano, Tadafumi*; Takahashi, Yoshiyuki*; Unesaki, Hironobu*

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 197(8), p.2251 - 2257, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2087836

Radio-tellurium released into the environment during the complete oxidation of fuel cladding, containment venting and reactor building failure of the Fukushima accident

Hidaka, Akihide; Kawashima, Shigeto*; Kajino, Mizuo*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(7), p.743 - 758, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2142311

An accurate estimation of radionuclides released during the Fukushima accident is essential. Therefore, authors investigated Te release using the Unit emission-regression estimation method, in which the deposition distribution is weighted based on the hourly deposition obtained from mesoscale meteorological model calculations assuming Unit emissions. The previous study focused on confirming the applicability of this method. Subsequent examination revealed that if any part of the time when a release have occurred is missing from the estimated release period, the entire source term calculation will be distorted. Therefore, this study performed the recalculation by extending the estimation period to cover all major releases. Consequently, unspecified release events were clarified, and their correspondence to in-core events was confirmed. The Te release caused by Zr cladding complete oxidation can explain the regional dependence of the Te/Cs ratio in the soil contamination map.

Investigation of the core neutronics analysis conditions for evaluation of burn-up nuclear characteristics of the next-generation fast reactors

Takino, Kazuo; Oki, Shigeo

JAEA-Data/Code 2023-003, 26 Pages, 2023/05

JAEA-Data-Code-2023-003.pdf:1.66MB

Since next-generation fast reactors aim to achieve a higher core discharge burn-up than conventional reactors do, core neutronics design methods must be refined. Therefore, a suitable analysis condition is required for the analysis of burn-up nuclear characteristics to accomplish sufficient estimation accuracy while maintaining a low computational cost. We investigated the effect of the analysis conditions on the accuracy of estimation of the burn-up nuclear characteristics of next-generation fast reactors in terms of neutron energy groups, neutron transport theory, and spatial mesh. This study treated the following burn-up nuclear characteristics: criticality, burn-up reactivity, control rod worth, breeding ratio, assembly-wise power distribution, maximum linear heat rate, sodium void reactivity, and Doppler coefficient for the equilibrium operation cycle. As a result, it was found that the following conditions were the most suitable: 18-energy-group structure, 6 spatial meshes per assembly with diffusion approximation. Additionally, these conditions should apply to correction factors for energy group structure, spatial mesh and transport effects.

Improvement of JASMINE code for ex-vessel molten core coolability in BWR

Matsumoto, Toshinori; Kawabe, Ryuhei*; Iwasawa, Yuzuru; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Maruyama, Yu

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 178, p.109348_1 - 109348_13, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109348

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency extended the applicability of their fuel-coolant interaction analysis code JASMINE to simulate the relevant phenomena of molten core in a severe accident. In order to evaluate the total coolability, it is necessary to know the mass fraction of particle, agglomerated and cake debris and the final geometry at the cavity bottom. An agglomeration model that considers the fusion of hot particles on the cavity floor was implemented in the JASMINE code. Another improvement is introduction of the melt spreading model based on the shallow water equation with consideration of crust formation at the melt surface. For optimization of adjusting parameters, we referred data from the agglomeration experiment DEFOR-A and the under-water spreading experiment PULiMS conducted by KTH in Sweden. The JASMINE analyses reproduced the most of the experimental results well with the common parameter set, suggesting that the primary phenomena are appropriately modelled.

Analysis on cooling behavior for simulated molten core material impinging to a horizontal plate in a sodium pool

Matsushita, Hatsuki*; Kobayashi, Ren*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Kato, Shinya; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji

Proceedings of 13th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-13) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2022/09

During core disruptive accidents in sodium-cooled fast reactors, the molten core material flows through flow channels, such as the control rod guide tubes, into the core inlet plenum under the core region. The molten core material can be cooled and solidified while impinging on a horizontal plate of the inlet plenum in a sodium coolant. However, the solidification and cooling behaviors of molten core materials impinged on a horizontal structure have not been sufficiently studied thus far. Notably, this is an important phenomenon that needs to be elucidated from the perspective of improving the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors. Accordingly, a series of experiments on discharging a simulated molten core material (alumina: AlO) into a sodium coolant on a horizontal structure was conducted at the experimental facility of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In this study, analyses on the sodium experiments using SIMMER-III as the fast reactor safety evaluation code were performed. The analysis methods were validated by comparing the results and experiment data. In addition, the cooling and solidification behaviors during jet impingement were evaluated. The results indicated that the molten core material exhibited fragmentation owing to the impingement on the horizontal plate and was, therefore, scattered toward the periphery. Furthermore, the simulated molten core material was evaluated to be cooled by sodium and subsequently solidified.