Establishment and test operation of irradiation facility for LWR water environment simulation tests

Sayato, Natsuki; Otsuka, Kaoru; Fuyushima, Takumi; Endo, Yasuichi; Otsuka, Noriaki; Kitagishi, Shigeru; Tobita, Masahiro*; Isozaki, Futoshi*; Matsumoto, Satoshi*; Takemoto, Noriyuki

JAEA-Technology 2024-016, 247 Pages, 2025/02

JAEA-Technology-2024-016.pdf:28.43MB

Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR, 50MW) was selected as a project to be subsidized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the "Establishment of an International Research and Development Center through Advanced Utilization of the World's Most Advanced Research Reactor". As part of this project, JMTR has installed "LWR Water Environment Simulation Tests" since 2010. This facility can control temperature, pressure, and water quality (dissolved oxygen, dissolved hydrogen, etc.) to simulate the water environment of light water reactors (BWR and PWR) and perform neutron irradiation of in-core structural materials, etc. In addition, this facility is also designed for PWR conditions. Chemical injection system for adding boron and lithium was added to the facility for PWR conditions. After the equipment was installed, test operation was carried out to confirm the performance of the facility. This report summarizes the establishment and test operation of LWR Water Environment Simulation Tests after the establishment.

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.

Recent status of the cryogenic sample environment at the MLF, J-PARC

Ishikado, Motoyuki*; Takahashi, Ryuta*; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Nakamura, Masatoshi*; Ishimaru, Sora*; Yamauchi, Sara*; Kawamura, Seiko; Kira, Hiroshi*; Sakaguchi, Yoshifumi*; Watanabe, Masao; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 41, p.011010_1 - 011010_7, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.41.011010

Environmental performance data in "2021 Environmental Report"

Facilities Preservation Management Section, Safety Administration Department

JAEA-Review 2023-035, 218 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-035.pdf:8.47MB

In September 2022, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) published the 2021 Environmental Report concerning the activities of FY 2021 under "Act on the Promotion of Business Activities with Environmental Consideration by Specified Corporations, etc., by Facilitating Access to Environmental Information, and Other Measures". This report has been edited to show detailed environmental performance data in FY 2021 as the base of the 2021 Environmental Report. This report would not only ensure traceability of the data in order to enhance the reliability of the environmental report, but also make useful measures for promoting activities of environmental considerations in JAEA.

A Study on the effects of photogrammetry by the camera angle of view using computer simulation

Nakamura, Keita; Hanari, Toshihide; Matsumoto, Taku; Kawabata, Kuniaki; Yashiro, Hiroshi*

Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, 36(1), p.115 - 124, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2024.p0115

Multi-aspect characterization of low-temperature tempering behaviors in high-carbon martensite

Zhang, Y.*; Marusawa, Kenji*; Kudo, Kohei*; Morooka, Satoshi; Harjo, S.; Miyamoto, Goro*; Furuhara, Tadashi*

ISIJ International, 64(2), p.245 - 256, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.2355/isijinternational.ISIJINT-2023-251

Dependency of the source term estimation method for radionuclides released into the atmosphere on the available environmental monitoring data and its applicability to real-time source term estimation

Terada, Hiroaki; Nagai, Haruyasu; Kadowaki, Masanao; Tsuzuki, Katsunori

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(8), p.980 - 1001, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2162139

It is essential to establish a method for reconstructing the source term and spatiotemporal distribution of radionuclides released into the atmosphere due to a nuclear accident for emergency countermeasures. We examined the dependency of a source term estimation method based on Bayesian inference using atmospheric dispersion simulation and environmental monitoring data on the availability of various monitoring data. Additionally, we examined the applicability of this method to a real-time estimation conducted immediately after an accident. A sensitivity analysis of the estimated source term during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident for combinations of various monitoring data indicated that using monitoring data with a high temporal and spatial resolution and the concurrent use of air concentration and surface deposition data is effective for accurate estimation. A real-time source term estimation experiment assuming the situation of monitoring data acquisition during the FDNPS accident revealed that this method could provide the necessary source term for grasping the overview of surface contamination in the early phase and evaluating the approximate accident scale. If the immediate online acquisition of monitoring data and regular operation of an atmospheric dispersion simulation are established, this method can provide the source term in near-real time.

Some considerations on the dependence to numerical schemes of Lagrangian radionuclide transport models for the aquatic environment

Periez, R.*; Brovchenko, I.*; Jung, K. T.*; Kim, K. O.*; Liptak, L.*; Little, A.*; Kobayashi, Takuya; Maderich, V.*; Min, B. I.*; Suh, K. S.*

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 261, p.107138_1 - 107138_8, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2023.107138

Lagrangian models present several advantages over Eulerian models to simulate the transport of radionuclides in the aquatic environment in emergency situations. A radionuclide release is simulated as a number of particles whose trajectories are calculated along time and thus these models do not require a spatial discretization. In this paper we investigate the dependence of a Lagrangian model output with the grid spacing which is used to calculate concentrations from the final distribution of particles, with the number of particles in the simulation and with the interpolation schemes which are required because of the discrete nature of the water circulation data used to feed the model.

Safe, efficient cementation of challenging radioactive wastes using alkali activated materials with high-flowability and high-anion retention capacity (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Hokkaido University*

JAEA-Review 2022-050, 116 Pages, 2023/01

JAEA-Review-2022-050.pdf:11.41MB

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 (1F), 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 "Safe, efficient cementation of challenging radioactive wastes using alkali activated materials with high-flowability and high-anion retention capacity" conducted from FY2019 to FY2021. Since the final year of this proposal was FY2021, the results for three fiscal years were summarized. The present study aims to explore alkali activated materials with high anionic nuclide retention and flowability and their recipes for safe storage and disposal of iron flocculant from the water treatment facility at 1F, and to propose a design of a solidification device that is feasible as an actual plant. In order to achieve these objectives, the following five items were carried out in this study.