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Journal Articles

Feasibility study on tritium recoil barrier for neutron reflectors of research and test reactors

Kenzhina, I.*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Ho, H. Q.; Sakamoto, Naoki*; Okumura, Keisuke; Takemoto, Noriyuki; Chikhray, Y.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 164, p.112181_1 - 112181_5, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2020.112181

Tritium release into the primary coolant during operation of the JMTR (Japan Materials Testing Reactor) and the JRR-3M (Japan Research Reactor-3M) had been studied. It is found that the recoil release by $^{6}$ Li(n $_{t}$ ,) $^{3}$ H reaction, which comes from a chain reaction of beryllium neutron reflectors, is dominant. To prevent tritium recoil release, the surface area of beryllium neutron reflectors needs to be minimum in the core design and/or be shielded with other material. In this paper, as the feasibility study of the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors, various materials such as Al, Ti, V, Ni, and Zr were evaluated from the viewpoint of the thickness of barriers, activities after long-term operations, and effects on the reactivities. From the results of evaluations, Al would be a suitable candidate as the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors.

Journal Articles

Evaluation of tritium release into primary coolant for research and testing reactors

Kenzhina, I.*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Okumura, Keisuke; Ho, H. Q.; Takemoto, Noriyuki; Chikhray, Y.*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(1), p.1 - 8, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1791760

Times Cited Count：2 Percentile：14.22(Nuclear Science & Technology)

The sources and mechanisms for the tritium release into the primary coolant in the JMTR and the JRR-3M containing beryllium reflectors are evaluated. It is found that the recoil release from chain reaction of $^{9}$ Be is dominant and its calculation results agree well with trends derived from the measured variation of tritium concentration in the primary coolant. It also indicates that the simple calculation method used in this study for the tritium recoil release from the beryllium reflectors can be utilized for an estimation of the tritium release into the primary coolant for a research and testing reactors containing beryllium reflectors.

Journal Articles

Feasibility study of tritium recoil barrier for neutron reflectors

Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Sakamoto, Naoki*

Physical Sciences and Technology, 6(2), p.60 - 63, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.26577/phst-2019-2-p8

Tritium release into the primary coolant of the research and test reactors during operation had been studied, and it is found that the recoil release from chain reaction of $^{9}$ Be is dominant. To reduce tritium concentration of the primary coolant, feasibility study of the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors was carried out, and the tritium recoils of various materials were calculated by PHITS. From these calculation results, it is clear that the thickness of tritium recoil barrier depends on the material and 2040 m is required for three orders reduction.

JAEA Reports

Calculations of Tritium Recoil Release from Li and U Impurities in Neutron Reflectors (Joint research)

Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Kenzhina, I.*; Okumura, Keisuke; Ho, H. Q.; Takemoto, Noriyuki; Chikhray, Y.*

JAEA-Technology 2018-010, 33 Pages, 2018/11

JAEA-Technology-2018-010.pdf:2.58MB

As a part of study on the mechanism of tritium release to the primary coolant in research and testing reactors, tritium recoil release rate from Li and U impurities in the neutron reflector made by beryllium, aluminum and graphite were calculated by PHITS code. On the other hand, the tritium production from Li and U impurities in beryllium neutron reflectors for JMTR and JRR-3M were calculated by MCNP6 and ORIGEN2 code. By using both results, the amount of recoiled tritium from beryllium neutron reflectors were estimated. It is clear that the amount of recoiled tritium from Li and U impurities in beryllium neutron reflectors are negligible, and 2 and 5 orders smaller than that from beryllium itself, respectively.

JAEA Reports

Calculation by PHITS code for recoil tritium release rate from beryllium under neutron irradiation (Joint research)

Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Kenzhina, I. E.*; Okumura, Keisuke; Takemoto, Noriyuki; Chikhray, Y.*

JAEA-Technology 2016-022, 35 Pages, 2016/10

JAEA-Technology-2016-022.pdf:3.73MB

As a part of study on the mechanism of tritium release to the primary coolant in research and testing reactors, the calculation methods by PHITS code is studied to evaluate the recoil tritium release rate from beryllium core components. Calculations using neutron and triton sources were compared, and it is clear that the tritium release rates in both cases show similar values. However, the calculation speed for the triton source cases is two orders faster than that for the neutron source case. It is also clear that the calculation up to history number per unit volume of 210 $^{4}$ (cm $^{-3}$ ) is necessary to determine the recoil tritium release rate of two effective digits precision. Furthermore, the relationship between the beryllium shape and recoil tritium release rate using the triton sources was studied. Recoil tritium release rate showed linear relation to the surface area per volume of beryllium, and the recoil tritium release rate showed about half of the conventional equation value.