Development of a hybrid method for evaluating the long-term structural soundness of nuclear reactor buildings using response monitoring and damage imaging technologies (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2023-048, 151 Pages, 2024/05

JAEA-Review-2023-048.pdf:8.48MB

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 "Development of a hybrid method for evaluating the long-term structural soundness of nuclear reactor buildings using response monitoring and damage imaging technologies" conducted in FY2022. The present study aims to develop an evaluation method necessary to obtain a perspective on the long term structural soundness of accident-damaged reactor buildings, where accessibility to work sites is extremely limited due to high radiation dose rate and high contamination. In FY2022, the second year of the three-year plan, some tests and other activities on the following research items were conducted following FY2021, based on the specific research methods and research directions clarified in FY2021.

First demonstration of a single-end readout position-sensitive optical fiber radiation sensor inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station based on wavelength-resolving analysis

Terasaka, Yuta; Sato, Yuki; Uritani, Akira*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1062, p.169227_1 - 169227_6, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2024.169227

On the velocity and frequency of disturbance waves in vertical annular flow with different surface tension and gas-liquid density ratio

Zhang, H.*; Umehara, Yutaro*; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Mori, Shoji*

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 211, p.124253_1 - 124253_13, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2023.124253

Development of a hybrid method for evaluating the long-term structural soundness of nuclear reactor buildings using response monitoring and damage imaging technologies (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2022-071, 123 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Review-2022-071.pdf:6.07MB

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 FY2021. 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 "Development of a hybrid method for evaluating the long-term structural soundness of nuclear reactor buildings using response monitoring and damage imaging technologies" conducted in FY2021. The present study aims to develop an evaluation method necessary to obtain a perspective on the long-term structural soundness of accident-damaged reactor buildings, where accessibility to work sites is extremely limited due to high radiation dose rate and high contamination. In FY2021, the first year of the three-year plan, the following research items were undertaken by clarifying specific research methods, setting research directions, making necessary preparations, and conducting some tests and other activities.

Challenge to advancement of debris composition and direct isotope measurement by microwave-enhanced LIBS (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; i-Lab*

JAEA-Review 2022-042, 67 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Review-2022-042.pdf:7.42MB

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 FY2021. 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 "Challenge to advancement of debris composition and direct isotope measurement by microwave-enhanced LIBS" conducted in FY2021. The present study aims to increase the emission intensity of LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) by superimposing MW (microwave) and apply it to uranium isotope measurement. In FY2021, after confirming that there was no problem in terms of specifications including noise leakage by downsizing the semiconductor MW oscillator and evaluating it as a single unit, the possibility of uranium isotope measurement was examined by applying it to the LIBS experiment. In addition, the optimized design of the MW antenna was carried out. By applying them, we confirmed the actual performance, …

An Attempt to estimate the migration pathway of slab-derived fluid using shear wave splitting analysis

Hiratsuka, Shinya; Asamori, Koichi; Saiga, Atsushi

JAEA-Research 2022-002, 38 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Research-2022-002.pdf:4.49MB

Deep groundwater originates from dehydration of Pacific and Philippine Sea slab subducting beneath Japanese islands, which has characteristics of high temperature and is rich in carbonate species. In this respect, it is very important for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste to estimate reservoir and migration pathway of deep groundwater. The region where cracks are densely distributed can be regarded as the migration pathway of slab-derived fluid. It is highly probable that the region has strong anisotropy. Shear wave propagating through anisotropic media splits into two mutually orthogonally polarized waves due to shear wave polarization anisotropy. In this report, we applied shear wave splitting analysis to Hongu area of Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture and estimated the spatial distribution of leading shear wave polarization direction (LSPD) and arrival time difference between leading and lagging shear waves (dt). Based on comparison with helium isotope ratio of ground water and bubbling gas samples and two-dimensional resistivity structure estimated by previous study, we attempt to estimate migration pathway of slab-derived fluid in Hongu area of Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture. The main results are summarized as follows. When helium isotope ratio of groundwater and bubbling gas samples is high, dt value tends to be large. Shear wave propagating through high and low resistivity anomaly zone show small and large dt values, respectively. Previous study suggested that slab-derived fluid migrates from deeper part of western side of Hongu area and wells out in Yunomine and Kawayu hot springs. This is consistent with spatial distribution of dt values estimated by this study.

Development of the high-power spallation neutron target of J-PARC

Haga, Katsuhiro; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Futakawa, Masatoshi

Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 13 Pages, 2022/03

The cross-flow type target was developed as the basic design of mercury target in J-PARC, and the design has been improved to realize the MW-class pulsed spallation neutron source. When the high-power and short-pulsed proton beam is injected into the mercury target, pressure waves are generated in mercury by rapid heat generation. The pressure waves induce the cavitation damages on the target vessel. Two countermeasures were adopted, namely, the injection of microbubbles into mercury and the double walled structure at the beam window. The bubble generator was installed in the target vessel to absorb the volume inflation of mercury and mitigate the pressure waves. Also, the double walled target vessel was designed to suppress the cavitation damage by the large velocity gradient of rapid mercury flow in the narrow channel of double wall. Finally, we could attain 1 MW beam operation with the duration time of 36.5 hours in 2020, and achieved the long term stable operation with 740 kW from April in 2021. This report shows the technical development of the high-power mercury target vessel in view of thermal hydraulics to attain 1 MW operation.

Measurement methods for the radioactive source distribution inside reactor buildings using a one-dimensional optical fiber radiation sensor (Contract research); FY2020 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Nagoya University*

JAEA-Review 2021-033, 55 Pages, 2021/12

JAEA-Review-2021-033.pdf:2.9MB

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 FY2020. 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 "Measurement methods for the radioactive source distribution inside reactor buildings using a one-dimensional optical fiber radiation sensor" conducted in FY2020. We are developing a one-dimensional optical fiber radiation sensor that can estimate the radioactive source distribution "along lines" instead of "at points". To improve the conventional time-of-flight optical fiber radiation sensor for the application under high dose rate environment, basic evaluation tests were conducted using various optical fibers with different diameters and materials.

Energy-dependent angular distribution of individual rays in the La()La reaction

Okudaira, Takuya*; Endo, Shunsuke; Fujioka, Hiroyuki*; Hirota, Katsuya*; Ishizaki, Kohei*; Kimura, Atsushi; Kitaguchi, Masaaki*; Koga, Jun*; Niinomi, Yudai*; Sakai, Kenji; et al.

Physical Review C, 104(1), p.014601_1 - 014601_6, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.104.014601

Effect of gas microbubble injection and narrow channel structure on cavitation damage in mercury target vessel

Naoe, Takashi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Wakui, Takashi; Wakai, Eiichi; Haga, Katsuhiro; Takada, Hiroshi

Materials Science Forum, 1024, p.111 - 120, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.1024.111

The mercury target vessel for the at the J-PARC neutron source is severely damaged by the cavitation caused by proton beam-induced pressure waves in mercury. To mitigate the cavitation damage, we adopted a double-walled structure with a narrow channel for the mercury at the beam window of the vessel. In addition, gas microbubbles were injected into the mercury to suppress the pressure waves. The front end of the vessel was cut out to inspect the effect of the damage mitigation technologies on the interior surface. The results showed that the double-walled target facing the mercury with gas microbubbles operating at 1812 MWh for an average power of 434 kW had equivalent damage to the single-walled target without microbubbles operating 1048 MWh for average power of 181 kW. The erosion depth due to cavitation in the narrow channel was clearly smaller than it was on the wall facing the bubbling mercury