Evaluation of stability of precipitates under irradiation in 316FR steel used as fast reactor structural material

Toyota, Kodai; Onizawa, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi*

Research & Development in Material Science (Internet), 21(5), p.2632 - 2637, 2025/06

Dismantlement activities of contaminated glovebox and tunnel with new sealed enclosure methods

Nagai, Yuya; Kimura, Yasuhisa; Hirano, Hiroshi*; Kitamura, Akihiro

Hoken Butsuri (Internet), 59(4), p.168 - 181, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.5453/jhps.59.168

We have dismantled one glovebox that stood very near at the wall of a controlled room and a part of one transfer tunnel that penetrated walls of control rooms. We have developed new containment boundaries because conventional tent enclosure cannot be applied to these objects. In this report, we present the features of new containment boundaries and dismantlement procedures we have developed and the details of the dismantlement activities we have implemented.

France-Japan collaboration on severe accident studies in sodium-cooled fast reactors, 2; Methodologies and calculations of severe accident phases

Sogabe, Joji; Ishida, Shinya; Tagami, Hirotaka; Okano, Yasushi; Kamiyama, Kenji; Onoda, Yuichi; Matsuba, Kenichi; Yamano, Hidemasa; Kubo, Shigenobu; Kubota, Ryuzaburo*; et al.

Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Fuel Cycle (GLOBAL2024) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2024/10

In the frame of France-Japan collaboration, the calculational methodologies were defined and assessed, and the phenomenology and the severe accident consequences were investigated in a pool-type sodium-cooled fast reactor.

Development of zeolite column adsorption dynamics simulation code (ZAC)

Yamagishi, Isao; Hato, Shinji*; Nishihara, Kenji; Tsubata, Yasuhiro; Sagawa, Yusuke*

JAEA-Data/Code 2024-002, 63 Pages, 2024/07

JAEA-Data-Code-2024-002.pdf:2.91MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2024-002-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:9.42MB

Adsorption columns filled with zeolite are used to treat contaminated water containing radioactive cesium generated by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. As the contaminated water treatment progresses, the radioactive cesium in the adsorption column becomes highly concentrated, and the adsorption column becomes a high radiation source. To evaluate the radiation effects such as decay heat and radiolytic hydrogen production in the adsorption column, the concentration of radioactive cesium in the adsorption column is necessary, but since it is difficult to evaluate the concentration by measurement, it is estimated by simulation. In this research, a zeolite column adsorption dynamics simulation (Zeolite Adsorption Column: ZAC) code was developed to calculate the concentration of radioactive materials such as radioactive cesium in a zeolite filled adsorption column when they are injected into the column. The code was validated through comparison of calculation results with existing codes and experimental results of small column tests. This report presents the details of the model, the handling of the code, and the validity of the results for the developed code.

Mass measurements of neutron-rich nuclei constrain element abundances

Xian, W.*; Ito, Yuta; 30 of others*

Physical Review C, 109(3), p.035804_1 - 035804_10, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.109.035804

Feasibility of using BeO rods as secondary neutron sources in the long-life fuel cycle high-temperature gas-cooled reactor

Ho, H. Q.; Ishii, Toshiaki; Nagasumi, Satoru; Ono, Masato; Shimazaki, Yosuke; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Goto, Minoru; Simanullang, I. L.*; Fujimoto, Nozomu*; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 417, p.112795_1 - 112795_6, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112795

Effect of preparation conditions and storage time on characteristic and rheological properties of carbonate slurries

Kato, Tomoaki; Yamagishi, Isao

JAEA-Technology 2023-018, 53 Pages, 2023/11

JAEA-Technology-2023-018.pdf:2.6MB

In the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, radioactive carbonate slurry waste was generated using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) pretreatment and temporarily stored in a high integrity container (HIC). In 2015, overflow of supernatant from HIC estimate as bubble retention in the carbonate slurry was discovered, increasing the need for a safety assessment of the carbonate slurry stored the HIC (HIC slurry). In this study, a carbonate slurry (simulated slurry) was prepared according to the Mg/Ca mass ratio in the ALPS inlet water of the HIC slurry which overflew the HIC. The effects of reaction time during the pretreatment process, suspended solids concentration (SS concentration), and settling time on the particle composition, morphology and rheological properties of the slurry were investigated. Evaluating the effect of reaction time and concentration process on chemical properties in slurry production, the effect of the reaction time was not confirmed in the simulated slurry that had undergone the concentration process, and slurry prepared at SS concentration of 150 g/L was composed of formless particles have a particle diameter of 0.4 m or less. We also investigate the effect of SS concentration on sedimentability, decrease in SS concentration by dilution with processing solution contributed to an increase in the initial slurry settling velocity. Furthermore, two different flow characteristics were observed depending on the settling time, suggesting that the slurry at the initial settling time has non-Bingham flow properties, whereas it changes to Bingham flow properties as the settling time becomes longer. In addition, yield stress was increased with settling time, and this yield stress was found to be exponentially proportional to the density of the slurry. These results provide knowledge to estimate the current state of HIC slurry and are expected to contribute to the safety assessment.

Evaluation of insertion property of control rod of JRR-3 at earthquake by time history response analysis method

Kawamura, Sho; Kikuchi, Masanobu; Hosoya, Toshiaki

JAEA-Technology 2021-041, 103 Pages, 2023/02

JAEA-Technology-2021-041.pdf:8.7MB

In response to new regulatory standard for research and test reactor which is enforced December 2013, JRR-3 got license in November 2018 by formulate new design basis ground motion. After that we evaluated for insertion property of control rod using that new design basis ground motion, and that evaluation results were accepted as approval of the design and construction method by Nuclear Regulation Authority. Now, we re-evaluated to insertion property of control rod about neutron absorber and follower fuel element by time history response analysis method. In this report, it shows that new results have sufficiency of margin compared with the past results that are accepted as approval of the design and construction method.

Semi-autonomous remote-control technology of an articulated mobile robot to recover from stuck states (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; The University of Electro-Communications*

JAEA-Review 2022-029, 37 Pages, 2022/11

JAEA-Review-2022-029.pdf:1.89MB

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 "Semiautonomous remote-control technology of an articulated mobile robot to recover from stuck states" conducted from FY2019 to FY2021. Since the final year of this proposal was FY2021, the results for three fiscal years were summarized. The purpose of this work is to establish a recovery method of an articulated mobile robot from stuck states. In this work, a control method of the robot to recover from stuck states by using redundancy of the system is proposed. In addition, we develop two interfaces. One is a display interface as an operator can understand the situation of the robot and surrounding terrain, and the other is a control interface to provide a target motion using the proposed control method.

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.