Heat transfer characteristics of downward saturated boiling flow in vertical round pipes

Wada, Yuki; Shibamoto, Yasuteru; Hibiki, Takashi*

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 239, p.126598_1 - 126598_18, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2024.126598

Federated learning of creep rupture time and high temperature tensile strength prediction models

Sakurai, Junya*; Torigata, Keisuke*; Matsunaga, Manabu*; Takanashi, Naoto*; Hibino, Shinya*; Kizu, Kenichi*; Morita, Akira*; Inomoto, Masahiro*; Shimohata, Nobuaki*; Toyota, Kodai; et al.

Tetsu To Hagane, 111(5), p.246 - 262, 2025/04

https://doi.org/10.2355/tetsutohagane.TETSU-2024-124

Uncertainty quantification of Np, Am, and Am reaction rates in highly enriched uranium fuel cores at Kyoto University Critical Assembly

Pyeon, C. H.*; Oizumi, Akito; Katano, Ryota; Fukushima, Masahiro

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 199(3), p.429 - 444, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2380624

Experimental analyses of neptunium-237 (Np), americium-241 (Am), and Am fission and Np capture reaction rates are conducted by the Serpent 2 code together with ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JENDL-5, using experimental data at neutron spectra of thermal and intermediate regions obtained in the solid-moderated and solid-reflected cores with highly-enriched uranium fuel at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly. Also, uncertainty quantification of fission and capture reaction rate ratios of test samples of Np, Am and Am with reference samples of uranium-235 (U) and gold-197 (Au) are evaluated by the MARBLE code system. In terms of fission reaction rate ratios of Np/U, Am/U and Am/U, a comparison between experiments and Serpent 2 calculations shows an accuracy about 5, 15 and 10%, respectively, together with ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JENDL-5. For capture reaction rate ratios of Np/Au, Serpent 2 calculations reveal a fairly good accuracy at the thermal neutron spectrum. The total uncertainties of Np/U, Am/U and Am/U fission reaction rate ratios by MARBLE with the covariance data of ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JENDL-5 are found to be about 4% at most in all cores, except for about 8% of Am/U with ENDF/B-VIII.0 at the intermediate neutron spectrum.

Effect of grain refinement on transgranular stress corrosion cracking in SUS304L under boiling water reactor conditions

Hirota, Noriaki; Nakano, Hiroko; Takeda, Ryoma; Ide, Hiroshi; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Kobayashi, Yoshinao*

Zairyo No Kagaku To Kogaku, 61(6), p.248 - 252, 2024/12

A comparative analysis of the 0.2 % yield stress in SUS304L stainless steel revealed that lower strain rates and higher temperatures significantly reduce yield stress. Grain refinement from 68.6 m to 0.59 m minimally impacted the rate of yield stress reduction at slower strain rates. However, finer grains showed a decrease in yield stress at reactor operating temperature compared to room temperature. In slow strain rate tests under conditions promoting intragranular stress corrosion cracking (SCC), SUS304L with grain sizes of 28.4 m or smaller exhibited similar fracture strains comparable to those at reactor operating temperatures, whereas coarse-grained SUS304L showed reduced fracture strain. Microstructural analysis showed that in smaller grains, over 87 % of the fracture surface was ductile. In particular, SUS304L with 0.59 m grains exhibited a higher presence of {111} / 3 boundaries, which decreased with grain growth. These results indicate that grain refinement will suppress intragranular SCC by slowing corrosion progression through increased {111} / 3 boundaries.

Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2024-019, 102 Pages, 2024/09

JAEA-Review-2024-019.pdf:4.4MB

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 "Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis" conducted from FY2020 to FY2022. The present study aims to corrosion, which is considered to be an important factor in the aging degradation of confinement functions (PCV, negative pressure maintenance system, etc.) during the fuel debris removal process. If the chemical species (especially HO) generated by radiolysis become locally concentrated in the areas where short-range - and -radiation emitting nuclides come into contact, the corrosion of steels may be greatly accelerated in those areas.

Analysis of ex-vessel debris coolability of boiling water reactors

Matsumoto, Toshinori; Hibiki, Takashi*; Maruyama, Yu

International Journal of Energy Research, 2024(1), p.9748588_1 - 9748588_18, 2024/08

https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/9748588

To evaluate the effectiveness of the wet cavity strategy, the authors developed a stochastic evaluation method that considers the uncertainties of the molten material conditions ejected from reactor pressure vessels. The first step was uncertainty analysis using the MELCOR code to obtain the melt condition. Five uncertain parameters related to the core degradation process were chosen. The input parameter sets were generated using Latin hypercube sampling. The second step was analyzing of the melt-behavior using the JASMINE code. The probabilistic distribution of parameters for the JASMINE analyses was determined from the MELCOR analysis results. The initial water depth was set to 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 m. The debris height was compared with the criterion to judge its coolability. Consequently, the success probability of debris cooling was obtained through a sequence of calculations. The feasibility and technical difficulties in the MELCOR-JASMINE combined analysis were also discussed.

A Segmented Total Energy Detector (sTED) optimized for (n,) cross-section measurements at n_TOF EAR2

Alcayne, V.*; Kimura, Atsushi; 134 of others*

Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 217, p.111525_1 - 111525_11, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2024.111525

Dynamic deformation properties of medium-Mn multi-phase steels containing retained austenite

Okitsu, Takayuki*; Hojo, Tomohiko*; Morooka, Satoshi; Miyamoto, Goro*

Tetsu To Hagane, 110(3), p.260 - 267, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.2355/tetsutohagane.TETSU-2023-065

Combustion properties of glove-box panel resins under fire accidents

Tashiro, Shinsuke; Uchiyama, Gunzo; Ono, Takuya; Amano, Yuki; Yoshida, Ryoichiro; Watanabe, Koji*; Abe, Hitoshi; Yamane, Yuichi

Nuclear Technology, 10 Pages, 2024/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2329832

Contributing to the confinement safety evaluation of glove-box (GB) connected with high efficiency particle air (HEPA) filters for radioactive materials under fire accidents, combustion tests of a flammable polymer, Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and a flame retardant polymer, Polycarbonate (PC), as typical GB panel resins have been conducted with an engineering-scale combustion apparatus. The combustion properties such as the mass loss rate (MLR) and the heat release rate (HRR) of PMMA and PC were investigated in the combustion tests. In the tests with the same shapes, it was found the followings; MLRs and HRRs of PMMA were larger than those of PC under the same supply flow rate into the combustion cell (Fv); MLRs and HRRs of PMMA and PC were constant under different Fv. Moreover, in the tests of PMMA with different cross section areas (S), MLRs and HRRs were found to be proportional to S. Using these results, the relationships of MLR and HRR to S of PMMA and PC were deduced.

Estimation of continuous distribution of iterated fission probability using an artificial neural network with Monte Carlo-based training data

Tuya, D.; Nagaya, Yasunobu

Journal of Nuclear Engineering (Internet), 4(4), p.691 - 710, 2023/11

https://doi.org/10.3390/jne4040043

The Monte Carlo method is used to accurately estimate various quantities such as k-eigenvalue and integral neutron flux. However, when a distribution of a quantity is desired, the Monte Carlo method does not typically provide continuous distribution. Recently, the functional expansion tally and kernel density estimation methods have been developed to provide continuous distribution. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate a continuous distribution of a quantity using artificial neural network (ANN) model with Monte Carlo-based training data. As a proof of concept, a continuous distribution of iterated fission probability (IFP) is estimated by ANN models in two systems. The IFP distributions by the ANN models were compared with the Monte Carlo-based data and the adjoint angular neutron fluxes by the PARTISN code. The comparisons showed varying degrees of agreement or discrepancy; however, it was observed that the ANN models learned the general trend of the IFP distributions.