Verification of analytical model of MELCOR code for accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste

Yoshida, Kazuo; Hiyama, Mina*; Tamaki, Hitoshi

JAEA-Research 2025-003, 24 Pages, 2025/06

JAEA-Research-2025-003.pdf:2.06MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (RuO) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. RuO is expected to be absorbed chemically into water dissolving nitrous acid. Condensation of mixed vapor plays an important role for Ru transporting behavior in the facility building. The thermal-hydraulic behavior in the facility building is simulated with MELCOR code. The latent heat, which is a governing factor for vapor condensing behavior, has almost same value for nitric acid and water at the temperature range under 120 centigrade. Considering this thermal characteristic, it is assumed that the amount of nitric acid is substituted with mole-equivalent water in MELCOR simulation. Compensating modeling induced deviation by this assumption have been assembled with control function features of MELCOR. The comparison results have been described conducted between original simulation and modified simulation with compensating model in this report. It has been revealed that the total amount of pool water in the facility was as same as both simulations.

DECOVALEX-2023: An International collaboration for advancing the understanding and modeling of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geological systems

Birkholzer, J. T.*; Graupner, B. J.*; Harrington, J.*; Jayne, R.*; Kolditz, O.*; Kuhlman, K. L.*; LaForce, T.*; Leone, R. C.*; Mariner, P. E.*; McDermott, C.*; et al.

Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment, 42, p.100685_1 - 100685_17, 2025/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2025.100685

A Review on the effect of iron on bentonite stability

Wilson, J.*; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Tachi, Yukio; Kawama, Daisuke*

Applied Clay Science, 275, p.107862_1 - 107862_15, 2025/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2025.107862

High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLW) repositories include iron or steel-based containers/overpack and bentonite buffers. Over the last 25 years or so, research efforts have attempted to elucidate the nature of iron-bentonite interactions, especially the potential for the deleterious alteration of the swelling clay component (smectite), to iron-rich layer silicates, some of which lack the capacity for intracrystalline swelling. This could result in a reduction or loss in swelling pressure in the bentonite buffer which is designed to protect waste containers from shear forces and also acts to restrict water and solute transport, as part of an engineered barrier system. Most data on iron-bentonite interactions come from experimental and geochemical modelling studies, as natural analogue data are lacking. The data suggests that there is the potential for the development of an iron-rich bentonite alteration zone with smectite (generally present as the aluminous montmorillonite type) undergoing alteration to iron-rich solids, including layer silicates and steel corrosion products such as green rust or magnetite. The evidence available is complex, arguably incomplete, with many potential complex couplings. Many uncertainties remain despite efforts taken over the last 25 years, but plausible scenarios for iron-bentonite interactions have been identified and possible implications for buffer properties have been suggested.

Achievements and status of the STRAD project for radioactive liquid waste management

Arai, Yoichi; Watanabe, So; Nakahara, Masaumi; Funakoshi, Tomomasa; Hoshino, Takanori; Takahatake, Yoko; Sakamoto, Atsushi; Aihara, Haruka; Hasegawa, Kenta; Yoshida, Toshiki; et al.

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology (Internet), 7, p.168 - 174, 2025/05

https://doi.org/10.15669/pnst.7.168

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting a project named "Systematic Treatment of RAdioactive liquid waste for Decommissioning (STRAD)" project since 2018 for fundamental and practical studies for treating radioactive liquid wastes with complicated compositions. Fundamental studies have been conducted using genuine liquid wastes accumulated in a hot laboratory of the JAEA called the Chemical Processing Facility (CPF), and treatment procedures for all liquid wastes in CPF were successfully designed on the results obtained. As the next phase of the project, new fundamental and practical studies on primarily organic liquid wastes accumulated in different facilities of JAEA are in progress. This paper reviews the representative achievements of the STRAD project and introduces an overview of ongoing studies.

Update of fire receiver panel (The Waste Safety Testing Facility)

Hatakeyama, Yuichi; Hirai, Koki; Ikegami, Yuta*; Sano, Naruto; Tomita, Takeshi; Usami, Koji; Tagami, Susumu

JAEA-Technology 2024-020, 33 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Technology-2024-020.pdf:2.21MB

The Waste Safety Testing Facility (WASTEF) is a facility that began operation in December 1982 with the aim of conducting safety testing research on the long-term storage and subsequent geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste generated by the reprocessing of spent fuel. This facility is composed of five concrete cells, one lead cell, six glove boxes, and seven hoods, and is a large-scale facility capable of using nuclear fuel materials including uranium and plutonium, as well as radioisotopes such as neptunium and americium. The facility is equipped with an automatic fire alarm system for the entire building in accordance with the Fire Service Act and regulations on technical standards for facilities used. This is an important aspect of safety management, and it is required that the equipment be sufficiently sound and reliable. However, after more than 30 years of use since its installation, the fire receiving panel, one of the components of the automatic fire alarm system, has deteriorated significantly. Furthermore, many of the parts used have been discontinued and are no longer available, making it difficult to procure them, making it difficult to maintain the equipment's performance. Therefore, in order to ensure the safe and stable operation of WASTEF, the fire receiving panel was updated. This report summarizes the update of the fire receiving panel among the automatic fire alarm equipment that was implemented in FY2022.

Reduction and phase transformation of Ce-doped zirconolites

Hayashizaki, Kohei; Hirooka, Shun; Yamada, Tadahisa*; Sunaoshi, Takeo*; Murakami, Tatsutoshi; Saito, Kosuke

Ceramics (Internet), 8(1), p.24_1 - 24_12, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.3390/ceramics8010024

Evolution of radionuclide transport and retardation processes in uplifting granitic rocks, Part 2; Modelling coupled processes in uplift scenarios

Metcalfe, R.*; Benbow, S. J.*; Kawama, Daisuke*; Tachi, Yukio

Science of the Total Environment, 958, p.177690_1 - 177690_17, 2025/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177690

Uplifting fractured granitic rocks occur in substantial areas of countries such as Japan. A repository site would be selected in such an area only if it is possible to make a safety case, accounting for the changing conditions during uplift. The safety case must include robust arguments that chemical processes in the rocks around the repository will contribute sufficiently to minimise radiological doses to biosphere receptors. To provide confidence in the safety arguments, numerical models need to be sufficiently realistic, but also parameterised conservatively (pessimistically). However, model development is challenging because uplift involves many complex couplings between groundwater flow, chemical reactions between water and rock, and changing rock properties. The couplings would affect radionuclide mobilisation and retardation, by influencing diffusive radionuclide fluxes between groundwater flowing in fractures and effectively immobile porewater in the rock matrix and radionuclide partitioning between water and solid phases, via: (i) mineral precipitation/dissolution; (ii) mineral alteration; and (iii) sorption/desorption. It is difficult to represent all this complexity in numerical models while showing that they are parameterised conservatively. Here we present a modelling approach, illustrated by simulation cases for some exemplar radioelements, to identify realistically conservative process conceptualisations and model parameterisations.

Evolution of radionuclide transport and retardation processes in uplifting granitic rocks, Part 1; Key processes, conceptual models and scenario

Metcalfe, R.*; Tachi, Yukio; Sasao, Eiji; Kawama, Daisuke*

Science of the Total Environment, 957, p.177375_1 - 177375_17, 2024/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177375

A safety case for an underground radioactive waste repository must show that groundwater will not in future transport radionuclides from the repository to the near-surface environment (the biosphere) in harmful quantities. Safety cases are developed step-wise throughout a programme to site and develop a repository. At early stages, before a site is selected, safety cases are generic and based on simplified safety assessment models of the disposal system that have conservative parameter values. Later, when site-specific conditions are known, more realistic models are needed for the long-term geo-environmental evolution and their impacts on radionuclide migration/retention. Uplift is one such environmental change, which may be particularly important in countries near active tectonic plate boundaries, such as Japan. Here we review the state of knowledge about how the properties of fractured granitic rocks evolve during uplift, based on studies in Japan. Hence, we present conceptual models and a generic scenario for mass transport and retardation processes in uplifting granitic rocks as a basis for realistic numerical models to underpin safety assessment.

Study on water stopping, repair and stabilization of lower PCV by geopolymer, etc. (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

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

JAEA-Review 2024-021, 126 Pages, 2024/11

JAEA-Review-2024-021.pdf:6.51MB

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 FY2021, this report summarizes the research results of the "Study on water stopping, repair and stabilization of lower PCV by geopolymer, etc" conducted in FY2022. The present study aims to propose a construction method to stop jet deflectors by improved geopolymer and ultra-heavy muddy water, and to repair the lower part of the dry well. In addition, in order to increase the options for on-site construction in unknown situations such as deposition conditions, we will examine a wide range of construction outside the pedestal, and evaluate the feasibility of the construction method by the latest thermal flow simulation method.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Investigation program for the fiscal year 2024

Nakayama, Masashi

JAEA-Review 2024-033, 64 Pages, 2024/09

JAEA-Review-2024-033.pdf:5.15MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency to enhance the reliability of relevant technologies for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste through investigating the deep geological environment within the host sedimentary rocks at Horonobe Town in Hokkaido, north Japan. In the fiscal year 2024, we continue R&D on "Study on near-field system performance in geological environment", "Demonstration of repository design options", and "Understanding of buffering behaviour of sedimentary rocks to natural perturbations". These are identified as key R&D challenges to be tackled in the Horonobe underground research plan for the fiscal year 2020 onwards. In the "Study on near-field system performance in geological environment", we continue to obtain data from the full-scale engineered barrier system performance experiment, and work on the specifics of the full-scale engineered barrier system dismantling experiment. We summarise the solute transport experiments for the excavation damaged zone and the effects of organic matter, micro-organisms and colloids, and develop the assessment methodology. We summarise the evaluation methodology using the deep Wakkanai Formation as a case study for block-scale solute transport experiments. As for "Demonstration of repository design options", we summarise the results of investigations and experiments on changes in the geological environment after tunnel excavation and closure, and summarise the applicability and technical challenges of the closure technology for boreholes excavated from tunnels. The systematic integration of technologies towards EBS emplacement, including the organisation of investigation and evaluation methods and analysis, will be promoted. Experiments to confirm the performance of the engineered barrier system under critical conditions, such as high temperatures (100C), continue the in-situ tests started in 2023.