Interaction between caesium iodide particles and gaseous boric acid in a flowing system through a thermal gradient tube (1030 K-450 K) and analysis with ASTEC/SOPHAEROS

Goullo, M.*; Hokkinen, M.*; Suzuki, Eriko; Horiguchi, Naoki; Barrachin, M.*; Cousin, F.*

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 138, p.103818_1 - 103818_10, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.103818

The present work aimed to study the transport of caesium iodide particles through a Thermal Gradient Tube (TGT) from 1023 K to 453 K. Retention inside the tube was evaluated for laminar flowrates composed of argon and steam. Higher retention of particles was highlighted for the experiments using higher steam content and lower flowrate. The second phase of the experiment aimed at identifying the possible revaporization or/and resuspension processes after the deposition. Three atmosphere compositions (Ar/HO, Ar/H and Ar/Air) were investigated. The particles removed from what was deposited on the surface walls during the sampling phase exhibited a similar GMD in Ar/HO and Ar/H and a bigger diameter in Ar/Air. The experimental results were then analysed with the SOPHAEROS module of the ASTEC code. Overall, the results obtained during the first phase were in agreement with the measured experimental results and during second phase led to no resuspension process.

Ocean current data obtained by Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler across the Tsugaru Strait (Joint research)

Kawamura, Hideyuki; Hirose, Naoki*; Nakayama, Tomoharu*; Ito, Toshimichi

JAEA-Data/Code 2021-004, 34 Pages, 2021/05

JAEA-Data-Code-2021-004.pdf:3.72MB

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency measured the ocean current across the Tsugaru Strait using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler attached on a ferryboat from October 1999 to January 2008. The characteristics of the ocean current in the Tsugaru Strait must be understood for predicting oceanic dispersion of radioactive materials released from nuclear facilities around the strait. Furthermore, it is critical to elucidate the mechanism of the Tsugaru Warm Current from an oceanography viewpoint. The dataset obtained in this investigation consists of daily ocean current data files that record the components of the current speed in the east-west and north-south directions from the surface layer to the bottom layer. The dataset stores 2,211 daily ocean current data files, despite some data periods missing from October 1999 to January 2008. In this study, information on the dataset is described for users to analyze the dataset properly for their purposes. Section 1 provides the background and purpose of the ocean current measurement, Section 2 explains the methodology of measurement using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, and Section 3 explains the record format of the daily ocean current data files and data acquisition rate and presents analysis results. Finally, Section 4 concludes this study.

The Study of oxidative stress status in the organs exposed to low dose/low dose-rate radiation (Contract research); FY2019 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2020-048, 49 Pages, 2021/01

JAEA-Review-2020-048.pdf:4.38MB

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 FY2019, this report summarizes the research results of the "The study of oxidative stress status in the organs exposed to low dose/low dose-rate radiation". This study investigates the biological effects of low dose/low dose-rate radiation exposure, which is of great social interest, on the oxidative stress status of individual organs and will contribute to the collection of scientific data in a dose range to be required. An interdisciplinary collaborative study discussed the correlation between radiation dose and the biological effect by analyzing the samples of wild Japanese macaques exposed to radiation due to the accident of Fukushima nuclear power station and of animal experiments.

Experimental study on transport behavior of cesium iodide in the reactor coolant system under LWR severe accident conditions

Miyahara, Naoya; Miwa, Shuhei; Goullo, M.*; Imoto, Jumpei; Horiguchi, Naoki; Sato, Isamu*; Osaka, Masahiko

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 57(12), p.1287 - 1296, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1782281

In order to clarify the cesium iodide (CsI) transport behavior with a focus on the mechanisms of gaseous iodine formation in the reactor coolant system of LWR under a severe accident condition, a reproductive experiment of CsI transport behavior was conducted using a facility equipped with a thermal gradient tube. Various analyses on deposits and airborne materials during transportation could elucidate two mechanisms for the gaseous iodine formation. One was the gaseous phase chemical reaction in Cs-I-O-H system at relatively high-temperature region, which led to gaseous iodine transport to the lower temperature region without any further changes in gas species due to the kinetics limitation effects. The other one was the chemical reactions related to condensed phase of CsI, namely those of CsI deposits on walls with surface of stainless steel to form CsCrO compound and CsI aerosol particles with steam, which were newly found in this study.

Basis for handling of nuclear fuel materials (Second edition)

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.

Development of neutron transport calculation codes for 3-D hexagonal geometry, 2; Improvement and enhancement of the MINISTRI code

Sugino, Kazuteru; Takino, Kazuo

JAEA-Data/Code 2019-011, 110 Pages, 2020/01

JAEA-Data-Code-2019-011.pdf:3.37MB

A deterministic discrete ordinates method (SN method) transport calculation code for three-dimensional hexagonal geometry has been developed as the MINISTRI code (Ver. 7.0). MINISTRI is based on the triangle-mesh finite difference method, which can perform neutron transport calculations with high accuracy for cores of fast power reactors and assemblies of the Russian BFS critical facility. The present study has derived a proper scheme for remarkably improving the convergence of MINISTRI by investigating the issue of previous MINISTRI (Ver. 1.1), which sometimes plays a poor convergence performance in calculations for large-scale power reactor cores. The verification test of improved MINISTRI has been carried out for various cores by setting the reference result as the multi-group Monte-Carlo calculation with the same cross-sections as used in MINISTRI. As a result, it is found that the agreements are within 0.1% for eigenvalues and within 0.7% for power distributions. Thus, the satisfying accuracy of MINISTRI has been confirmed. In order to reduce the calculation time, the initial diffusion calculation scheme and the parallel processing have been implemented. As a result, the calculation time is reduced to the approximately one tenth compared with previous MINISTRI. Furthermore, adoption of the treatment of the anisotropic cell streaming effect, preparation of the perturbation calculation tool, implementation of the function for specification of the triangle-mesh-wise material and merging of the hexagonal-mesh calculation code MINIHEX have been carried out. Thus, the versatility of MINISTRI has been enhanced.

Dosimetric dependence of ocular structures on eye size and shape for external radiation fields of electrons, photons, and neutrons

Furuta, Takuya; El Basha, D.*; Iyer, S. S. R.*; Correa Alfonso, C. M.*; Bolch, W. E.*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 39(3), p.825 - 837, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ab2bcb

Despite large variation of human eye, only one computational eye model has been adopted in almost all the radiation transport simulation studies. We thus adopted a new scalable and deformable eye model and studied the radiation exposure by electrons, photons, and neutrons in the standard radiation fields such as AP, PA, RLAT, ROT, by using Monte Carlo radiation transport code PHITS. We computed the radiation exposure for 5 eye models (standard, large, small, myopic, hyperopic) and analyzed influence of absorbed dose in ocular structures on eye size and shape. Dose distribution of electrons is conformal and therefore the absorbed doses in ocular structures depend on the depth location of each ocular structure. We thus found a significant variation of the absorbed doses for each ocular structure for electron exposure due to change of the depth location affected by eye size and shape. On the other hand only small variation was observed for photons and neutrons exposures because of less conformal dose distribution of those particles.

Estimation method of systematic uncertainties in Monte Carlo particle transport simulation based on analysis of variance

Hashimoto, Shintaro; Sato, Tatsuhiko

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 56(4), p.345 - 354, 2019/04

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2019.1585989

Particle transport simulations based on the Monte Carlo method have been applied to shielding calculations. Estimation of not only statistical uncertainty related to the number of trials but also systematic one induced by unclear physical quantities is required to confirm the reliability of calculated results. In this study, we applied a method based on analysis of variance to shielding calculations. We proposed random- and three-condition methods. The first one determines randomly the value of the unclear quantity, while the second one uses only three values: the default value, upper and lower limits. The systematic uncertainty can be estimated adequately by the random-condition method, though it needs the large computational cost. The three-condition method can provide almost the same estimate as the random-condition method when the effect of the variation is monotonic. We found criterion to confirm convergence of the systematic uncertainty as the number of trials increases.

Neutron transport

Tamura, Itaru

Hamon, 28(4), p.204 - 207, 2018/11

A Neutron guide is one of the devices to transport neutron beam for long distance without sacrificing much neutrons; therefore, it can supply neutrons to many experimental instruments distributed in a large experimental hall. Also, by using a curved guide, only the neutrons in a required energy range can be transported, and rays and fast neutrons can be effectively eliminated, therefore the signal to background ratio is improved. In addition, a neutron beam can be branched by applying curved guides. Neutron guides are also used to control the divergence angle and intensity of the neutron beam supplied to the neutron instrument.

A Scalable and deformable stylized model of the adult human eye for radiation dose assessment

El Basha, D.*; Furuta, Takuya; Iyer, S. S. R.*; Bolch, W. E.*

Physics in Medicine & Biology, 63(10), p.105017_1 - 105017_13, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/aab955

With recent changes in the recommended annual limit on eye lens exposures to ionizing radiation by International Commission on Radiological Protection, there is considerable interest in predictive computational dosimetry models of the human eye and its various ocular structures. Several computational eye models to date have been constructed for this purpose but they are typically constructed of nominal size and of a roughly spherical shape associated with the emmetropic eye. We therefore constructed a geometric eye model that is both scalable (allowing for changes in eye size) and deformable (allowing for changes in eye shape), and that is suitable for use in radiation transport studies of ocular exposures and radiation treatments of eye disease. As an example, electron and photon anterior-posterior radiation transport with the constructed eye model was conducted and analyzed resultant energy-dependent dose profiles. Due to anterior-posterior irradiation, the energy dose response was shifted to higher energy for a larger-size eye or an axially deformed eye in prolate shape because the structures were located in deeper depth compared to the normal eye.