Development of the technology for preventing radioactive particles' dispersion during the fuel debris retrieval (Contract research); FY2020 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

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

JAEA-Review 2022-010, 155 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Review-2022-010.pdf:9.78MB

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 FY2020. 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 FY2018, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of the technology for preventing radioactive particles' dispersion during the fuel debris retrieval" conducted from FY2018 to FY2021 (this contract was extended to FY2021). Since the final year of this proposal was FY2021, the results for four fiscal years were summarized. The present study aims to clarify the behavior of microparticles in gas and liquid phases in order to steadily confine radioactive microparticles during fuel debris retrieval in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, TEPCO. As measures to prevent dispersion of microparticles, (1) a method to suppress the dispersion with minimum amount of water utilizing water spray etc., and (2) a method to suppress the dispersion by solidifying fuel

Microparticles with diverse sizes and morphologies from mechanical and laser cutting of fuel debris simulants and geopolymer as a covering material

Zhou, Q.*; Saito, Takumi*; Suzuki, Seiya; Yano, Kimihiko; Suzuki, Shunichi*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(4), p.461 - 472, 2021/04

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1869623

Development of the technology for preventing radioactive particles' dispersion during the fuel debris retrieval (Contract research); FY2019 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

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

JAEA-Review 2020-043, 116 Pages, 2021/01

JAEA-Review-2020-043.pdf:7.74MB

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 FY2019. 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 FY2018, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of the technology for preventing radioactive particles' dispersion during the fuel debris retrieval" conducted in FY2019. In this study, a technique to effectively suppress the scattering of fine particles has been developed, and as a result of experiments, a method of spraying with water mist was found to be an effective and applicable method for improving aerosol removal efficiency and removal rate. As a method of solidifying fuel debris to suppress fine particle scattering during cutting, geopolymer was evaluated for its strength, thermal conductivity and cutting powder. In addition, flow status of geopolymer and the temperature distribution inside RPV covered by geopolymer were simulated.

Water distribution in Nafion thin films on hydrophilic and hydrophobic carbon substrates

Ito, Kanae; Harada, Masashi*; Yamada, Norifumi*; Kudo, Kenji*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Kanaya, Toshiji*

Langmuir, 36(43), p.12830 - 12837, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c01917

Development of technology to prevent scattering of radioactive materials in fuel debris retrieval (Contract research); FY2018 Center of World Intelligence Project for Nuclear Science/Technology and Human Resource Development

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

JAEA-Review 2019-037, 90 Pages, 2020/03

JAEA-Review-2019-037.pdf:7.0MB

JAEA/CLADS, had been conducting the Center of World Intelligence Project for Nuclear Science/Technology and Human Resource Development (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2018. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. 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 FY2018, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of Technology to Prevent Scattering of Radioactive Materials in Fuel Debris Retrieval". The objective of the present study is to clarify the behavior of microparticles in gas and liquid phases in order to steadily confine radioactive microparticles at the time of debris retrieval in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. In addition, as measures to prevent scattering, we will evaluate and develop methods by experiments and simulation as to; (1) a method to suppress the scattering with minimum amount of water utilizing water spray etc., and (2) a method to suppress the scattering by solidifying fuel debris.

3D X Ray micro-tomography as a tool to formulate metakaolin-based geopolymer-oil emulsions

Lambertin, D.*; Davy, C. A.*; Hauss, G.*; Planel, B.*; Marchand, B.*; Cantarel, V.

Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Innovation in Low-Carbon Cement and Concrete Technology (ILCCC 2019) (USB Flash Drive), 4 Pages, 2019/06

Composite materials made of geopolymer (GP) cement and organic liquids are useful to synthetize porosity-controlled media, for the management of radioactive organic liquid waste, or as phase change materials (PCM). Indeed, GP cements are able to integrate huge amounts of organic oils by direct emulsion in the fresh paste. The emulsion (GEOIL) remains stable during GP hardening. In this contribution, by using 3D X Ray micro Computed Tomography (micro CT) with a voxel size of 1 micron, we investigate the effect of formulation parameters (oil proportion, Si/Al molar ratio, surfactant) on the 3D oil droplet structure of GEOIL pastes. Samples are emulsified in the fresh state, and imaged in the hardened state. Porosity, oil droplet size distribution and mean distance between droplets are all determined quantitatively. It is observed that the presence of surfactant provides significantly smaller oil droplets. The increase in Si/Al ratio also decreases the oil droplet sizes, but to a lesser extent.

Geopolymers and their potential applications in the nuclear waste management field; A Bibliographical study

Cantarel, V.; Motooka, Takafumi; Yamagishi, Isao

JAEA-Review 2017-014, 36 Pages, 2017/06

JAEA-Review-2017-014.pdf:3.37MB

After a necessary decay time, the zeolites used for the water decontamination will eventually be conditioned for their long-term storage. Geopolymer is considered as a potential matrix to manage radioactive cesium and strontium containing waste. For such applications, a correct comprehension of the binder structure, its macroscopic properties, its interactions with the waste and the physico-chemical phenomena occurring in the waste form is needed to be able to judge of the soundness and viability of the material. Although the geopolymer is a young binder, a lot of research has been carried out over the last fifty years and our understanding of this matrix and its potential applications is progressing fast. This review aims at gathering the actual knowledge on geopolymer studies about geopolymer composites, geopolymer as a confinement matrix for nuclear wastes and geopolymer under irradiation. This information will finally provide guidance for the future studies and experiments.

Elucidation of the morphology of the hydrocarbon multi-block copolymer electrolyte membranes for proton exchange fuel cells

Zhao, Y.; Yoshida, Miru*; Oshima, Tatsuya*; Koizumi, Satoshi*; Rikukawa, Masahiro*; Szekely, N.*; Radulescu, A.*; Richter, D.*

Polymer, 86, p.157 - 167, 2016/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2016.01.061

Poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK)-based graft-type polymer electrolyte membranes having high crystallinity for high conducting and mechanical properties under various humidified conditions

Hamada, Takashi; Hasegawa, Shin; Fukasawa, Hideyuki*; Sawada, Shinichi; Koshikawa, Hiroshi; Miyashita, Atsumi; Maekawa, Yasunari

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 3(42), p.20983 - 20991, 2015/11

https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TA05567A

no abstracts in English

Comparison between Monte Carlo simulation and measurement with a 3D polymer gel dosimeter for dose distributions in biological samples

Furuta, Takuya; Maeyama, Takuya*; Ishikawa, Kenichi*; Fukunishi, Nobuhisa*; Fukasaku, Kazuaki*; Takagi, Shu*; Noda, Shigeho*; Himeno, Ryutaro*; Hayashi, Shinichiro*

Physics in Medicine & Biology, 60(16), p.6531 - 6546, 2015/08

https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-9155/60/16/6531

Low reproducibility of dose distribution in inhomogeneous regions such as soft matter near bones is known with the simple dose analysis currently adopted in treatment planning of particle cancer therapy. Therefore a treatment planning system based on Monte Carlo simulation having better accuracy is highly desired. In order to assess the simulation accuracy of a Monte Carlo simulation code in situations closely related to medical application, we performed a comparison of dose distribution in a biological sample obtained by experiment and that by simulation. In particular, we irradiate a carbon beam on a biological sample composed of fresh chicken meat and bones, with a PAGAT gel dosimeter placed behind it, and compare the complex dose distribution in the gel dosimeter created by the beam passing through the inhomogeneous sample. Monte Carlo simulation using PHITS code was conducted by reconstructing the biological sample from its computed tomography images. The simulation accurately reproduced the experimental distal edge structure of the dose distribution with an accuracy under about 2 mm.