First freezing experiments with a molten mixture of boron carbide and stainless steel in core disruptive accidents of sodium-cooled fast reactors

Emura, Yuki; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kikuchi, Shin; Yamano, Hidemasa

Proceedings of 13th Korea-Japan Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS13) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2024/11

Numerical simulation of accidents involving core damage with integrative severe accident analysis code, SPECTRA

Ishida, Shinya; Uchibori, Akihiro; Okano, Yasushi

Dai-28-Kai Doryoku, Enerugi Gijutsu Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 4 Pages, 2024/06

no abstracts in English

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.

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.

Boundary condition free homogenization and evaluation of its performance in fast reactor core analysis

Maruyama, Shuhei

Proceedings of International Conference on Physics of Reactors 2022 (PHYSOR 2022) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/05

This paper proposes a new homogenization method, "Boundary Condition Free Homogenization (BCFH)". The traditional homogenization method separates the core calculation and the cell (assembly) calculation by assuming a specific boundary condition or a peripheral region in the cell calculation. Nevertheless, there are ambiguities and approximation in these assumptions, and they can also cause a decline in accuracy. BCFH aims to avoid these problems and improve the accuracy in the cell calculation such as homogenization. We imposed the conditions that the physical quantities in the cell related to the reaction rate preservation is preserved for any incoming partial current, during the homogenization. That is, the response matrices of cell average (or total) flux and outgoing partial current, to be the same form between heterogeneous and homogeneous system. As a result, homogenized parameters, such as cross-sections, superhomgenization factors, and discontinuity factors, are no longer dependent on a specific boundary condition. The new homogenized parameters obtained in this way are extended from the conventional vector form to the matrix form in BCFH. To investigate the performance of BCFH, numerical tests are done for the simplified models which originates in 750MW-class sodium-cooled fast reactor with MOX fuel core in Japan. It is found that BCFH is particularly effective in evaluating control rod reactivity worth and reaction rate distribution, compared to the traditional method. We conclude that the BCFH can be a promising homogenization concept for core neutronic analysis.

A 3D particle-based analysis of molten pool-to-structural wall heat transfer in a simulated fuel subassembly

Zhang, T.*; Morita, Koji*; Liu, X.*; Liu, W.*; Kamiyama, Kenji

Extended abstracts of the 2nd Asian Conference on Thermal Sciences (Internet), 2 Pages, 2021/10

For the Japanese sodium cooled fast reactor, a fuel subassembly with an inner duct structure (FAIDUS) was designed to avoid the re-criticality by preventing the large-scale pool formation. In the present study, using the finite volume particle method, the EAGLE ID1 test which was an in-pile test performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of FAIDUS was numerically simulated and the thermal-hydraulic mechanisms underlying the heat transfer process were analyzed.

Validation of analysis models on relocation behavior of molten core materials in sodium-cooled fast reactors based on the melt discharge experiment

Igarashi, Kai*; Onuki, Ryoji*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Kato, Shinya; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji

Proceedings of 2020 International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 2020) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2020/08

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE2020-16440

Particle-based simulation of heat transfer behavior in EAGLE ID1 in-pile test

Morita, Koji*; Ogawa, Ryusei*; Tokioka, Hiromi*; Liu, X.*; Liu, W.*; Kamiyama, Kenji

Proceedings of 12th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-12) (USB Flash Drive), 11 Pages, 2018/10

The EAGLE in-pile ID1 test has been performed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency to demonstrate early fuel discharge from a fuel subassembly with an inner duct structure, which is named FAIDUS. It was deduced that early duct wall failure observed in the test was initiated by high heat flux from the molten pool of fuel and steel mixture. The posttest analyses suggest that molten pool-to-duct wall heat transfer might be enhanced effectively by the molten steel with large thermal conductivity in the pool without the presence of fuel crust on the duct wall. In this study, mechanisms of heat transfer from the molten pool to the duct wall was analyzed using a fully Lagrangian approach based on the finite volume particle method for multi-component, multi-phase flows. A series of pin disruption, molten pool formation and duct wall failure behaviors was simulated to investigate mixing and separation behavior of molten steel and fuel in the pool, and their effect on molten pool-to-duct wall heat transfer. The present 2D particle-based simulations demonstrated that large thermal load beyond 10 MW/m on the duct wall was caused by effective heat transfer due to direct contact of liquid fuel with nuclear heat to the duct wall.

Core seismic experiment and analysis of full scale single model for fast reactor

Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Kitamura, Seiji; Iwasaki, Akihisa*; Matsubara, Shinichiro*; Okamura, Shigeki*

Proceedings of 2017 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2017) (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2017/07

To design fast reactor (FR) components, seismic response must be evaluated in order to ensure structural integrity. Therefore, a sophisticated analysis method has to be developed to study the seismic response of FR core. The fast reactors are made of several hundred core assemblies in hexagonal arrangement. When a big earthquake occurs, large horizontal displacement and impact force of each core assembly may cause a trouble for control rod insertability and core assembly intensity. Therefore, a seismic analysis method of fast reactor core considering horizontal nonlinear behavior, such as impact, fluid-structure interaction, etc. is needed. Validation of the core assembly vibration analysis code in three dimension (REVIAN-3D) was conducted by a full scale experiment. In this validation, the vertical behavior (raising displacement) and horizontal behavior (Impact force, horizontal response) of the analysis result agreed very well with the experiments.

Experimental investigation on characteristics of mixed particle debris in sedimentation and bed formation behavior

Sheikh, M. A. R.*; Son, E.*; Kamiyama, Motoki*; Morioka, Toru*; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Morita, Koji*; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji; Suzuki, Toru

Proceedings of 11th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-11) (USB Flash Drive), 12 Pages, 2016/10

This paper reports an experimental evaluation on debris bed formation characteristics in core-disruptive accidents cogitating the heterogeneous mixture of particles. In the present study, to appraise the characteristics, a series of experiments was accomplished by gravity driven discharge of solid binary mixtures of particles as simulant debris from a nozzle into a quiescent water pool in isothermal condition at room temperature. Currently, two types of spherical particles, namely Alumina and stainless steel with different diameter are employed to study the effect of key experimental parameters on bed mound shape. In experimental investigation both convex and concave mound shapes were perceived based on the effect of particle size and nozzle diameter. The present outcomes could be useful to validate numerical models and simulation codes of particulate debris sedimentation.