Study on water stopping, repair and stabilization of lower PCV by geopolymer, etc. (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; The University of Tokyo*

JAEA-Review 2024-021, 126 Pages, 2024/11

JAEA-Review-2024-021.pdf:6.51MB

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 FY2022. 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 "Study on water stopping, repair and stabilization of lower PCV by geopolymer, etc" conducted in FY2022. The present study aims to propose a construction method to stop jet deflectors by improved geopolymer and ultra-heavy muddy water, and to repair the lower part of the dry well. In addition, in order to increase the options for on-site construction in unknown situations such as deposition conditions, we will examine a wide range of construction outside the pedestal, and evaluate the feasibility of the construction method by the latest thermal flow simulation method.

Droplet evaporation characteristics on high-temperature porous surfaces for cooling fuel debris

Yuki, Kohei*; Horiguchi, Naoki; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Yuki, Kazuhisa*

Proceedings of 31st International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE31) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE31-135281

Fuel debris in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station is cooled under immersion condition. However, in the event of an unexpected decrease in water level, coolant contacts high-temperature fuel debris having porous structure. In this event, although fuel debris needs to be cooled rapidly, thermal behavior at liquid-solid contact, such as capillary phenomenon, remains unclear. In this paper, as basic research, we evaluate droplet evaporation characteristics after contact with metal porous media with small pores less than 1 mm. In experiment, to obtain life time curve of a droplet, bronze or stainless steel porous media having 1, 40, or 100 m pore diameter are utilized. Experimental results show that Leidenfrost phenomenon is suppressed on the porous surfaces because generated vapor can be discharged from the pores. Further, for bronze porous media, capillary phenomenon is observed as the temperature of the porous media increase because of generation of oxide film having fine structure. On the other hand, due to low wettability of stainless steel porous media, capillary phenomenon does not occur, and the droplet was not sucked and spread into pore. This indicates that rapid cooling by the capillary phenomenon can not be expected if fuel debris has the same characteristics as the stainless steel porous media.

An Introduction to spent nuclear fuel decay heat for light water reactors; A Review from the NEA WPNCS

Rochman, D.*; Minato, Futoshi; Watanabe, Tomoaki; 52 of others*

EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies (Internet), 10, p.9_1 - 9_83, 2024/10

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2024010

Initial verification of Cyclus and NMB fuel cycle simulators

Bachmann, A. M.*; Richards, S.*; Feng, B.*; Nishihara, Kenji; Abe, Takumi

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

This work demonstrates the value of code verification as an initial step in utilizing fuel cycle simulation. Cyclus and NMB are open-source fuel cycle simulators that provide computational modeling of nuclear fuel cycle alternatives and were chosen by Argonne National Laboratory and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), respectively, for a multi-year collaboration on fuel cycle benchmarks. Both are relatively new and can be improved after conducting a rigorous code-to-code comparison. Initial verification of these simulators was performed using a set of hypothetical scenarios for once-through and multi-recycle fuel cycles. The results of this work identify how differences in scenario definitions and the modeling methodologies of the two simulators lead to differences in results in material inventories, mass flows, and other important metrics for fuel cycle assessments.

Investigation of effects of nano interfacial phenomena on dissolution aggregation of alpha nanoparticles by using micro nano technologies (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

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

JAEA-Review 2024-022, 59 Pages, 2024/09

JAEA-Review-2024-022.pdf:4.27MB

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 FY2022. 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 FY2022, this report summarizes the research results of the "Investigation of effects of nano interfacial phenomena on dissolution aggregation of alpha nanoparticles by using micro nano technologies" conducted in FY2022. To ensure the safety of retrieval and storage management of nuclear fuel debris generated by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident, understanding of dissolution-denaturation behavior of the fuel debris alpha particles is one of the most crucial issues. This research aims to create novel microfluidic real-time measurement device for elucidating dissolution, aggregation, and denaturation processes of metal oxide nanoparticles under various solution environments, and clarify their nano-size and interfacial effects.

Experiences from the cutting of metallic blocks from simulant Fukushima Daiichi fuel debris

Journeau, C.*; Molina, D.*; Brackx, E.*; Berlemont, R.*; Tsubota, Yoichi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 61(9), p.1239 - 1247, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2024.2310580

CEA has manufactured a series of Fukushima Daiichi fuel debris simulants, either with depleted uranium oxide or with hafnium oxide as a surrogate of UO. In ex-vessel compositions resulting from an interaction between corium and concrete, the oxidic phase density becomes lighter than that of the metallic phase, which segregates at the bottom. Three of these metallic phases have been mechanically cut at CEA Cadarache with handsaw and with core boring tool in FUJISAN facility. It appeared that two of these metallic blocks were extremely hard to cut (one from a fabrication with uranium oxide, the other from a simulant block) while the last one was more easily cut. The similarities and differences in metallographic analyses (SEM-EDS and XRD) of these three metal blocks will be presented and discussed. This experience provides useful learnings in view of the cutting and retrieval of fuel debris from Fukushima Daiichi

Fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

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

JAEA-Review 2024-013, 48 Pages, 2024/07

JAEA-Review-2024-013.pdf:1.99MB

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 FY2022. 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 "Fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method" conducted in FY2022. The purpose of research was to improve the fuel debris criticality analysis technology using non-contact measurement method by the development of the fuel debris criticality characteristics measurement system and the multi-region integral kinetic analysis code. It was performed by Tokyo Institute of Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Nagaoka University of Technology as the second year of three years research project.

Challenge to advancement of debris composition and direct isotope measurement by microwave-enhanced LIBS (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; i-Lab*

JAEA-Review 2023-029, 77 Pages, 2024/05

JAEA-Review-2023-029.pdf:3.98MB

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 FY2022. 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 FY2020, this report summarizes the research results of the "Challenge to advancement of debris composition and direct isotope measurement by microwave-enhanced LIBS" conducted from FY2020 to FY2022. The present study aims to increase the emission intensity of LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) by superimposing MW (microwave) and apply it to uranium isotope measurement. In FY2022, we improved the cooling method and reduce unnecessary functions in of the semiconductor microwave oscillator, and apply the optimized conditions obtained from simulations to the LIBS experiment for the microwave antenna gave better results.

Development of extremely small amount analysis technology for fuel debris analysis (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2023-025, 117 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-025.pdf:7.29MB

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 FY2022. 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 "Development of extremely small amount analysis technology for fuel debris analysis" conducted in FY2022. Understanding the properties of fuel debris is necessary for handling, criticality control, storage control, etc. A key technique is the chemical analysis of actinide nuclides. We develop sample pretreatment technology and separation / analysis process required for chemical analysis. The purpose of this study is to streamline future planned fuel debris analysis. To promote 1F decommissioning, we will train human resources through on-the-job training.

Progress status and future issues of development of analysis and estimation technology for fuel debris characterization, 5; Progress status of development of Non-Destructive assay technologies for sorting and segregation of fuel debris and others

Kamada, Masaki*; Yoshida, Takuma*; Sugita, Tsukasa*; Okumura, Keisuke

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO, 66(2), p.83 - 86, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.3327/jaesjb.66.2_83

no abstracts in English