Development of dose evaluation method considering radionuclides migration on the surface of the site for confirmation of completion of decommissioning

Miwa, Kazuji; Namekawa, Masakazu*; Shimada, Taro; Takeda, Seiji

MRS Advances (Internet), 7(7-8), p.165 - 169, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1557/s43580-022-00212-7

We have developed evaluation method of radiocesium (RCs) migration by surface runoff and soil erosion in considering vertical distribution of RCs in initial contaminated soil and concentration of RCs in different particle size. RCs migration on ground surface during single year has been evaluated in virtual site contaminated uniformly by Cs-137. As a result, RCs has concentrated in the impoundment, and 0.18% of total inventory in the site migrated into the sea. These results suggest that surface migration of RCs effects increasing of external exposure at impoundment and internal exposure from ingestion of marine product.

Investigation and consideration on evaluation of radiation doses to residents in the case of a nuclear emergency

Hashimoto, Makoto; Kinase, Sakae; Munakata, Masahiro; Murayama, Takashi; Takahashi, Masa; Takada, Chie; Okamoto, Akiko; Hayakawa, Tsuyoshi; Sukegawa, Masato; Kume, Nobuhide*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2020-071, 53 Pages, 2021/03

JAEA-Review-2020-071.pdf:2.72MB

In the case of a nuclear accident or a radiological emergency, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), as a designated public corporation assigned in the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act and the Armed Attack Situation Response Law, undertakes technical supports to the national government and local governments. The JAEA is requested to support to evaluate radiation doses to residents in a nuclear emergency, which is specified in the Basic Disaster Management Plan and the Nuclear Emergency Response Manual. For the dose evaluation, however, its strategy, target, method, structure and so on have not been determined either specifically or in detail. This report describes the results of investigation and consideration discussed in the "Working Group for Radiation Dose Evaluation at a Nuclear Emergency" established within the Nuclear Emergency Assistance and Training Center to discuss technical supports for radiation dose evaluation to residents in the case of a nuclear emergency, and aims at contributing to specific and detailed discussion and activities in the future for the national government and local governments, also within the JAEA.

Proceedings of the 2019 Symposium on Nuclear Data; November 28-30, 2019, Kyushu University, Chikushi Campus, Fukuoka, Japan

Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Shigyo, Nobuhiro*; Kin, Tadahiro*; Iwamoto, Osamu

JAEA-Conf 2020-001, 236 Pages, 2020/12

JAEA-Conf-2020-001.pdf:13.75MB

The 2019 Symposium on Nuclear Data was held at Chikushi Campus Cooperation Building (C-Cube), Kyushu University, on November 28 to 30, 2019. The symposium was organized by the Nuclear Data Division of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) in cooperation with Sigma Investigative Advisory Committee of AESJ, Nuclear Science and Engineering Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Kyushu Branch of AESJ, and Center for Accelerator and Beam Applied Science of Kyushu University. In the symposium, there were one tutorial, "From the resonance theory to statistical model", and five sessions, "Study on Nuclear Data and related topics", "Reactor physics", "International Cooperation", "Nuclear Physics", and "High Energy Nuclear Data and their Application". In addition, recent research progress on experiments, nuclear theory, evaluation, benchmark and applications was presented in the poster session. Among 85 participants, all presentations and following discussions were very active and fruitful. This report consists of total 42 papers including 13 oral and 29 poster presentations.

External dose evaluation based on detailed air dose rate measurements in living environments

Sato, Tetsuro*; Ando, Masaki; Sato, Masako*; Saito, Kimiaki

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 210, p.105973_1 - 105973_7, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.05.005

A method was devised for estimation of external doses of Fukushima residents expected to return to their homes after evacuation orders are lifted. 211 residents expected to return to six towns and villages were surveyed in FY 2014, FY 2015, and FY2016. Interviewing returning residents about their expected life patterns after returning, air dose rate were measured along the reported personal trails representing their patterns of movement in daily life. Excluding 15 residents from whose homes we were unable to take air dose rate measurements, the maximum external effective dose and the average external effective dose were estimated respectively as 4.9 mSv/y and 0.86 mSv/y. Although the mean values and dispersion of external effective doses differ depending on the evacuation level, for 93.3% of all residents, the estimated external effective doses were less than 2 mSv/y. The average exposure dose at home accounts for 66.8% of the annual exposure dose.

Repeatability and reproducibility of measurements of low dissolved radiocesium concentrations in freshwater using different pre-concentration methods

Kurihara, Momo*; Yasutaka, Tetsuo*; Aono, Tatsuo*; Ashikawa, Nobuo*; Ebina, Hiroyuki*; Iijima, Takeshi*; Ishimaru, Kei*; Kanai, Ramon*; Karube, Jinichi*; Konnai, Yae*; et al.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 322(2), p.477 - 485, 2019/11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06696-2

We assessed the repeatability and reproducibility of methods for determining low dissolved radiocesium concentrations in freshwater in Fukushima. Twenty-one laboratories pre-concentrated three of 10 L samples by five different pre-concentration methods (prussian-blue-impregnated filter cartridges, coprecipitation with ammonium phosphomolybdate, evaporation, solid-phase extraction disks, and ion-exchange resin columns), and activity of radiocesium was measured. The z-scores for all of the Cs results were within 2, indicating that the methods were accurate. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) indicating the variability in the results from different laboratories were larger than the RSDs indicating the variability in the results from each separate laboratory.

Improvement of plant reliability based on combining of prediction and inspection of crack growth due to intergranular stress corrosion cracking

Uchida, Shunsuke; Chimi, Yasuhiro; Kasahara, Shigeki; Hanawa, Satoshi; Okada, Hidetoshi*; Naito, Masanori*; Kojima, Masayoshi*; Kikura, Hiroshige*; Lister, D. H.*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 341, p.112 - 123, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.10.021

Improvement of plant reliability based on reliability-centered-maintenance (RCM) is going to be undertaken in NPPs. RCM is supported by risk-based maintenance (RBM). The combination of prediction and inspection is one of the key issues to promote RBM. Early prediction of IGSCC occurrence and its propagation should be confirmed throughout the entire plant systems which should be accomplished by inspections at the target locations followed by timely application of suitable countermeasures. From the inspections, accumulated data will be applied to confirm the accuracy of the code, to tune some uncertainties of the key data for prediction, and then, to increase their accuracy. The synergetic effects of prediction and inspection on application of effective and suitable countermeasures are expected. In the paper, the procedures for the combination of prediction and inspection are introduced.

Confirmation tests for Warm Pre-stress (WPS) effect in reactor pressure vessel steel (Contract research)

Chimi, Yasuhiro; Iwata, Keiko; Tobita, Toru; Otsu, Takuyo; Takamizawa, Hisashi; Yoshimoto, Kentaro*; Murakami, Takeshi*; Hanawa, Satoshi; Nishiyama, Yutaka

JAEA-Research 2017-018, 122 Pages, 2018/03

JAEA-Research-2017-018.pdf:44.03MB

Warm pre-stress (WPS) effect is a phenomenon that after applying a load at a high temperature fracture does not occur in unloading during cooling, and then the fracture toughness in reloading at a lower temperature increases effectively. Engineering evaluation models to predict an apparent fracture toughness in reloading are established using experimental data with linear elasticity. However, there is a lack of data on the WPS effect for the effects of specimen size and surface crack in elastic-plastic regime. In this study, fracture toughness tests were performed after applying load-temperature histories which simulate pressurized thermal shock transients to confirm the WPS effect. The experimental results of an apparent fracture toughness tend to be lower than the predictive results using the engineering evaluation models in the case of a high degree of plastic deformation in preloading. Considering the plastic component of preloading can refine the engineering evaluation models.

CIELO collaboration summary results; International evaluations of neutron reactions on uranium, plutonium, iron, oxygen and hydrogen

Chadwick, M. B.*; Capote, R.*; Trkov, A.*; Herman, M. W.*; Brown, D. A.*; Hale, G. M.*; Kahler, A. C.*; Talou, P.*; Plompen, A. J.*; Schillebeeckx, P.*; et al.

Nuclear Data Sheets, 148, p.189 - 213, 2018/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2018.02.003

The CIELO collaboration has studied neutron cross sections on nuclides that significantly impact criticality in nuclear facilities - U, U, Pu, Fe, O and H - with the aim of improving the accuracy of the data and resolving previous discrepancies in our understanding. This multi-laboratory pilot project, coordinated via the OECD/NEA Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) Subgroup 40 with support also from the IAEA, has motivated experimental and theoretical work and led to suites of new evaluated libraries that accurately reflect measured data and also perform well in integral simulations of criticality. This report summarizes our results and outlines plans for the next phase of this collaboration.

RELAP5 uncertainty evaluation using ROSA/LSTF test data on PWR 17% cold leg intermediate-break LOCA with single-failure ECCS

Takeda, Takeshi; Otsu, Iwao

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 109, p.9 - 21, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2017.05.007

Development of the severe accident evaluation method on second coolant leakages from the PHTS in a loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor

Yamada, Fumiaki; Imaizumi, Yuya; Nishimura, Masahiro; Fukano, Yoshitaka; Arikawa, Mitsuhiro*

Proceedings of 25th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-25) (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2017/07

The loss-of-reactor-level (LORL) is one of the loss-of-heat-removal-system (LOHRS) of beyond-DBA (BDBA) severe accident. An evaluation method for the LORL which is caused by the coolant leakage in two positions of the primary heat transport system (PHTS) was developed for prototype JSFR which is loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor. The secondary leakage in cold standby which occurred in different loop from that of the first leakage in rated power operation can lead LORL by excessive declining of the sodium level. Therefore, the sodium level behavior in RV was studied in a representative accident sequence by considering the sodium pumping up into RV, siphon-breaking to stop pumping out from RV and maintain the sodium level, and calculation programs for the transient sodium level in RV. The representative sequence with lowest sodium level was selected by considering combinations of possible leakage positions. As a result of the evaluation considering the countermeasures above, it was revealed that the LOHRS can be prevented by maintaining the sodium level for the operation of decay heat removal system, even in the leakages in two positions of PHTS which corresponds to BDBA.