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Hirooka, Shun; Nakamichi, Shinya; Matsumoto, Taku; Tsuchimochi, Ryota; Murakami, Tatsutoshi
Frontiers in Nuclear Engineering (Internet), 2, p.1119567_1 - 1119567_7, 2023/03
Storage of plutonium (Pu)-containing materials requires extremely strict attention in terms of physical safety and material accounting. Despite the emphasized importance of storage management, only a few reports are available in the public, e.g., experience in PuO
storage in the UK and safety standards in the storage of Pu-containing materials in the US. Japan also stores more U-Pu mixed oxide (MOX) mostly in powder form. Adopting an appropriate storage management is necessary depending on the characteristics of MOX items such as raw powder obtained by reprocessing of spent Light Water Reactor fuels, research and development on the remains of fuel fabrication, which can contain organic materials, and dry-recycled powder during fuel fabrication. Stagnation in fuel fabrications and experience in degradation of MOX containers during extended period of storage have led to the review of the storage method in the Plutonium Fuel Development Center in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The present work discusses the various nuclear materials, storage methods, experience in degradation of containers that occur during storage, and strategies for future long-term storage.
Kawaguchi, Munemichi
Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125(22), p.11813 - 11819, 2021/06
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0(Chemistry, Physical)Isothermal and constant heating thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) measurements have been performed for pre- and post-fired sodium hydride (NaH) in the temperature range of 500-700 K, respectively. Temperature dependence of NaH thermal decomposition rates obtained by the isothermal TGs showed an inflection point at around 620 K, which was caused by two kinds of hydrogen states (rapid diffusing and immobile hydrogen). In the FTIR spectra for the NaH and sodium (Na), the specific signals were observed at around 873.4, 1010.4, 1049.5 and 1125.7 cm
, and the integrated values of FTIR signals for post-fired NaH at below 550K and at above 698 K were comparable to those for pre-fired NaH and Na, respectively. Those for post-fired NaH at 602-667 K were the intermediate values of the pre-fired NaH and Na, which denoted that the Na-Na bonds haven't grown sufficiently and the hydrogen coexisted in metallic Na. In order to predict the practical kinetics of NaH thermal decomposition reaction, we suggested the simple kinetics model which assumed two kinds of rapidly diffusing and immobile hydrogen states. The simulation results revealed the inflection point in temperature dependence of the thermal decomposition rates accordingly because the transition from immobile hydrogen to rapid diffusing hydrogen crosses over at around 620 K.
Task Force on Research Strategy for Debris of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
JAEA-Review 2020-055, 171 Pages, 2020/12
JAEA-Review-2020-055.pdf:5.66MB
Design, planning and control of debris-related processes, namely retrieval, storage management, processing and disposal of the debris, are required for the safe and steady decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F). Status inside primary containment vessel of 1F must be known by the PCV investigation and fuel debris sample analysis. Continuous updating and improvement of the process design are important through ascertainment of the cause of the accident. The roadmap for the 1F decommissioning have shown the milestone of commencement of trial retrieval of fuels debris within 2021, which indicates the analysis of fuel debris sample begin in earnest. This report recommends required debris analysis in relation with issues for the retrieval, storage management, processing and disposal, and ascertainment of the cause of the 1F accident. Practical analysis plan is expected to be prepared based on this report.
Sakai, Kenji; Oi, Motoki; Teshigawara, Makoto; Naoe, Takashi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Watanabe, Akihiko*
Journal of Neutron Research, 22(2-3), p.337 - 343, 2020/10
For operating a spallation neutron source and a muon target safely and efficiently, a general control system (GCS) operates within Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF). GCS administers operation and interlock processes of many instruments under various operation status. Since the first beam injection in 2008, it has operated stably without any serious troubles for more than ten years. GCS has a data storage server storing operational data on status around target stations. It has functioned well to detect and investigate unusual situations by checking data in this server. For continuing stable operation of MLF in future, however, introduction of abnormality sign determination system (ASDS) will be necessary for picking up potential abnormalities of target stations caused by radiation damages, time-related deterioration and so on. It will judge abnormalities from slight state transitions of target stations based on analysis with various operational data throughout proton beams, target stations, and secondary beams during long-term operations. This report mentions present status of GCS, conceptual design of ASDS, and installation of an integral data storage server which can deal with various data for ASDS integrally.
Task Force on Writing Textbook of Nuclear Fuel Materials
JAEA-Review 2020-007, 165 Pages, 2020/07
JAEA-Review-2020-007.pdf:6.63MB
The present textbook was written by Task Force on Writing Textbook of Nuclear Fuel Materials at the Nuclear Science Research Institute in order to improve technological abilities of engineers and researchers who handle nuclear fuel materials. The taskforce consists of young and middle class engineers each having certification for chief engineer of nuclear fuel. The present textbook mainly deals with uranium and plutonium, and shows their nuclear properties, physical and chemical properties, and radiation effects on materials and human body. It also presents basic matters for safety handling of nuclear fuel materials, such as handling of nuclear fuel materials with hood and glovebox, important points in storage and transportation of nuclear fuel materials, radioactive waste management, radiation safety management, and emergency management. Furthermore, incident cases at domestic and foreign nuclear fuel materials facilities are compiled to learn from the past.
Task Force on Research Strategy for Debris of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
JAEA-Review 2020-004, 140 Pages, 2020/05
JAEA-Review-2020-004.pdf:4.22MB
Design, planning and control of debris-related processes, namely retrieval, storage management, processing and disposal of the debris, are required for the safe and steady decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F). Status inside primary containment vessel of 1F must be known by the PCV investigation and fuel debris sample analysis. Continuous updating and improvement of the process design are important through ascertainment of the cause of the accident. The roadmap for the 1F decommissioning have shown the milestone of commencement of trial retrieval of fuels debris within 2021, which indicates the analysis of fuel debris sample begin in earnest. This report recommends required debris analysis in relation with issues for the retrieval, storage management, processing and disposal, and ascertainment of the cause of the 1F accident. Practical analysis plan is expected to be prepared based on this report.
Marufuji, Takato; Sato, Takumi; Ito, Hideaki; Suzuki, Hisashi; Fujishima, Tadatsune; Nakano, Tomoyuki
JAEA-Technology 2019-006, 22 Pages, 2019/05
JAEA-Technology-2019-006.pdf:2.84MB
Radioactive contamination incident occurred at Plutonium Fuel Research Facility (PFRF) in Oarai Research and Development Institute, Japan Atomic Energy Agency on June 6, 2017. During inspection work of storage container containing nuclear fuel materials, the PVC bag packaging in the storage container ruptured when a worker opened the lid in the hood, and a part of contents was spattered over the room. The cause of the increase of internal pressure of the storage container was gas generation by alpha radiolysis of the epoxy resin mixed with nuclear fuel materials. Opening inspection of about 70 similar containers stored in PFRF has been planned to confirm the condition of the contents and to stabilize the stored materials containing organic compounds. For safe and reliable open inspection of the storage containers with high internal pressure in the glove box, it is necessary to develop a pressure-resistant chamber in which the storage containers are opened and the contents are inspected under gastight condition. This report summarizes the concerns and countermeasures of the chamber design and the design results of the chamber.
Restoration Activity Team for the PFRF Contamination Incident
JAEA-Review 2019-001, 58 Pages, 2019/03
JAEA-Review-2019-001.pdf:10.74MB
The contamination accident occurred in a laboratory room (Room No.108) of Plutonium Fuel Research Facility (PFRF) in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Oarai Research and Development Institute on June 6, 2017. The polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bags burst just after the lid of one storage container was opened during the inspection of storage containers for U and Pu in the ventilation hood. At that time, part of nuclear materials in the storage container were scattered all over the room. Five workers in the room were subjected to plutonium contamination, which resulted in internal exposure. In order to restore the Room No.108 of PFRF, the Restoration Activity Team organized in JAEA carried out the decontamination work after the investigation of the contamination level in the room. The team decontaminated the surface of walls, ceiling, gloveboxes and other experimental instruments. Depending on the contamination distribution and installation state of the instruments, suitable decontamination methods were selected. In addition to the manual wiping using wet clothes, the exfoliation method using a strippable paint was applied for constricted areas. As a result, the loose alpha-contamination level fell below the detection limit throughout the room. On the other hand, the fixed contamination was covered with plastic sheets after the decontamination by a strippable paint. We hope that the restoration activity described in this report will provide useful information for the management of decommissioning facilities, especially for facilities treating alpha-radioactive materials such as plutonium.
Yamano, Hidemasa; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Nishino, Hiroyuki; Okano, Yasushi; Naruto, Kenichi*
Proceedings of 12th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-12) (USB Flash Drive), 15 Pages, 2018/10
Spent fuels are transferred from a reactor core to a spent fuel pool through an external vessel storage tank (EVST) filled with sodium in sodium-cooled fast reactors in Japan. This paper describes identification of dominant accident sequences leading to fuel failure, which was achieved through probabilistic risk assessment for the EVST designed for a next sodium-cooled fast reactor plant system in Japan to improve the EVST design. The safety strategy for the EVST involves whole core refueling (early transfer of all core fuel assemblies into the EVST) assuming a severe situation that results in sodium level reduction leading finally to the top of the reactor core fuel assemblies in a long time. This study introduces the success criteria mitigation along the decay heat decrease over time. Based on the design information, this study has carried out identification of initiating events, event and fault tree analyses, a probability analysis for human error, and quantification of accident sequences. The fuel damage frequency of the EVST was evaluated to be approx. 10
/year. The dominant accident sequence resulted from the static failure and human error for the switching from the stand-by to operation mode in the three stand-by cooling circuits after loss of one circuit for refueling heat removal operation as an initiating phase.
Yamano, Hidemasa; Naruto, Kenichi*; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Nishino, Hiroyuki; Okano, Yasushi
Proceedings of 26th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-26) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2018/07
Spent fuels are transferred from a reactor core to a spent fuel pool through an external vessel storage tank (EVST) filled with sodium in sodium-cooled fast reactors in Japan. This paper describes identification of dominant accident sequences leading to fuel failure by conducting probabilistic risk assessment for EVST designed for a next sodium-cooled fast reactor plant system in Japan to improve the EVST design. Based on the design information, this study has carried out identification of initiating events, event and fault tree analyses, human error probability analysis, and quantification of accident sequences. Fuel damage frequency of the EVST was evaluated approx. 10
/year in this paper. By considering the secondary sodium freezing, the fuel damage frequency was twice increased. The dominant accident sequence resulted from the common cause failure of the damper opening and/or the human error for the switching from the stand-by to the operation mode in the three stand-by cooling circuits. The importance analyses have indicated high risk contributions.
Sano, Yuichi; Ashida, Takashi
JAEA-Review 2017-021, 180 Pages, 2017/11
JAEA-Review-2017-021.pdf:86.98MB
Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS) is responsible to promote international cooperation in the R&D activities on the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and to develop the necessary human resources. CLADS held the Research Conference on Cementitious Composites in Decommissioning and Waste Management (RCWM2017) on 20th and 21st June, 2017. This report compiles the abstracts and the presentation materials in the above conference.
Yamano, Hidemasa; Naruto, Kenichi*; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Nishino, Hiroyuki; Okano, Yasushi
Proceedings of Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2017 (ASRAM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 3 Pages, 2017/11
Spent fuels are transferred from a reactor core to a spent fuel pool through an external vessel storage tank (EVST) filled with sodium in sodium-cooled fast reactors in Japan (JSFR). The objective of this study is to identify dominant accident sequences leading to fuel failure by conducting PRA for EVST. The EVST heat removal system in JSFR consists of four independent loops with for primary and secondary ones. Based on the JSFR design information, this study has identified initiating events, event and /fault tree analyses, human reliability analysis, and quantification of accident sequences. Fuel damage frequency of the EVST was evaluated approx. 10 /year in this paper. The main contributor of the fuel damage frequency is the loss of heat removal function of the cooling system. The dominant initiating event was the loss of one circuit of normal heat removal operation.
Motooka, Takafumi; Yamagishi, Isao
JAEA-Review 2017-004, 157 Pages, 2017/03
JAEA-Review-2017-004.pdf:48.18MB
Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS) is responsible to promote international cooperation in the R&D activities on the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and to develop the necessary human resources. CLADS held the Research Conference on Post-accident Waste Management Safety (RCWM2016) was held on November 7th, 2016 and the Technical Seminar on Safety Research for Radioactive Waste Storage was held on November 8th, 2016. This report compiles the abstracts and the presentation materials in the above conference and seminar.
Abe, Hiroshi; Tokuhira, Shinnosuke*; Uchida, Hirohisa*; Oshima, Takeshi
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 365(Part A), p.214 - 217, 2015/12
no abstracts in English
Mimura, Ryuji; Muraguchi, Yoshinori; Nakashio, Nobuyuki; Nemoto, Koichi; Shiraishi, Kunio
Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 5 Pages, 2015/05
The JAERI's Reprocessing Test Facility (JRTF) was the first engineering-scale reprocessing facility constructed in Japan. The JRTF was operated from 1968 to 1969 to reprocess spent fuels from the Japan Research Reactor No.3 (JRR-3). As a result of the operation (total 3 runs) by PUREX process, 200 g of highly purified plutonium (Pu) were extracted. In this operation, about 70 m
of liquid waste was generated and part of this waste, which including Pu, with relatively high radioactivity, was stored in six large tanks. After shutdown of the facility, the JRTF decommissioning program was started in 1990 to develop decommissioning technologies and to obtain experiences and data on dismantling of fuel cycle facilities. Liquid waste in the tanks was treated from 1982 to 1998. Dismantling of tanks started in 2002. The tanks were installed in narrow concrete cells and inside of the cell was high dose area. Dismantling method for the tank is important factor to decide manpower and time for dismantlement. In this paper, in-situ dismantling of the liquid waste storage tank and its preparation work are discussed.
Tachibana, Mitsuo; Kishimoto, Katsumi; Shiraishi, Kunio
International Nuclear Safety Journal (Internet), 3(4), p.16 - 24, 2014/11
Three research reactors were permanently shut down in the Nuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) as of October 2014. Safe storage or one-piece removal method was applied to decommissioning of these research reactors depending on decommissioning cost and utilization of facilities and so on. Various kinds of data and experiences were obtained through decommissioning of these research reactors. This report shows data and experiences on the research reactors decommissioning in the NSRI of the JAEA.
(R=Ca, Sr)-based storage phosphors for neutron detectionSakasai, Kaoru; Katagiri, Masaki; Matsubayashi, Masahito; Nakamura, Tatsuya; Kondo, Yasuhiro*
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 52(5), p.1856 - 1859, 2005/10
Times Cited Count：9 Percentile：54.04(Engineering, Electrical & Electronic)Storage characteristics of RBPO(R=Ca, Sr) based phosphors have been investigated for neutron detection. To increase the photostimulated luminescence (PSL) yields of CaBPO:Ce
and SrBPO:Ce phosphors, fluorine atoms were introduced and the molar ratio of the fluorine atoms was optimized for the PSL yields. In addition, the authors found that the PSL yields of SrBPO:Eu
phosphors were significantly increased by adding LiB
O
, though introducing fluorine and brome atoms in the phosphor was not effective for the PSL yields. These phosphors will be usable as new neutron storage phosphors with low 
-ray sensitivity because they consist of light materials.
Higuchi, Hidekazu; Momma, Toshiyuki; Nakashio, Nobuyuki; Kozawa, Kazushige; Tohei, Toshio; Sudo, Tomoyuki; Mitsuda, Motoyuki; Kurosawa, Shigenobu; Hemmi, Ko; Ishikawa, Joji; et al.
Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Energy System for Future Generation and Global Sustainability (GLOBAL 2005) (CD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2005/10
The JAERI constructed the Advanced Volume Reduction Facilities(AVRF). The AVRF consists of the Waste Size Reduction and Storage Facilities(WSRSF) and the Waste Volume Reduction Facilities(WVRF). By operating the AVRF, it will be able to produce waste packages for final disposal and to reduce the amount of the low level solid wastes. Cutting installations for large wastes such as tanks in the WSRSF have been operating since June 1999. The wastes treated so far amount to 600 m and the volume reduction ratio is around 1/3. The waste volume reduction is carried out by a high-compaction process or melting processes in the WVRF. The metal wastes from research reactors are treated by the high-compaction process. The other wastes are treated by the melting processes that enable to estimate radioactivity levels easily by homogenization and get chemical and physical stability. The WVRF have been operating with non-radioactive wastes since February 2003 for the training and the homogeneity investigation in the melting processes. The operation with radioactive wastes will start in FY2005.
Shiina, Yasuaki; Inagaki, Terumi*
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 48(2), p.373 - 383, 2005/01
Times Cited Count：36 Percentile：75.03(Thermodynamics)Improvement of thermal conductivity of phase change medium would be one of the effective techniques to reduce phase change time in latent heat storage technology. Thermal conductivity would be improved by saturating phase change materials (PCM) in porous metals. Efficiency of effective thermal conductivity on melting time is studied by analyzing melting characteristics of a heat storage circular capsule where porous metal saturated by PCM is inserted. Results show that considerable reduction in melting time was obtained, especially for low conductivity PCMs and for high heat transfer coefficient. Trial estimation of optimum porosity was presented under the conditions of keeping high latent heat capacity and high reduction rate of melting time. Optimum porosity decreases with increase in heat transfer coefficient.
Sakaba, Nariaki; Furusawa, Takayuki; Kawamoto, Taiki; Ishii, Yoshiki; Ota, Yukimaru
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 233(1-3), p.147 - 154, 2004/10
Times Cited Count：10 Percentile：56.65(Nuclear Science & Technology)The HTTR mainly consists of the core components, reactor pressure vessel, cooling systems, instrumentation and control systems, and containment structures. The design of remaining utility systems is described in this paper. They are: auxiliary helium systems which include the helium purification system, the helium sampling system, and the helium storage and supply system; fuel handling and storage system. The helium purification systems are installed in the primary and secondary helium cooling systems in order to reduce the quantity of chemical impurities. The helium sampling systems monitor the concentration of impurities. The helium storage and supply systems keep the steady pressure of the helium system during the normal operation. The fuel handling and storage system is utilised to handle the new and spent fuels safely and reliably.
