Petrography and geochronology of the Kuki granite, Kitakami mountains, northeastern Japan; Shallow crustal intrusion and emplacement processes of granitic magma

Suzuki, Satoshi*; Yuguchi, Takashi*; Ishiguro, Keito*; Endo, Kyoka*; Kato, Asuka*; Yokoyama, Kosuke*; Ogita, Yasuhiro; Yokoyama, Tatsunori; Sakata, Shuhei*; Ono, Takeshi*; et al.

Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences (Internet), 119(1), p.230807_1 - 230807_18, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.2465/jmps.230807

Understanding the crustal evolutionary dynamics of island arc-trench systems requires a thorough evaluation of magma chamber processes, and especially of shallow crustal granitic magma intrusion and emplacement processes. To address this, we studied the petrography and geochronology of the Kuki granite, Kitakami Mountains, northeast Japan, as an example of a non-adakitic granite at the magmatic flare-up stage. Granitic borehole samples reflect vertical variation within a magma chamber. Whole-rock chemical composition and mode data reveal a vertical transition from felsic to mafic composition with increasing depth, potentially due to gravitational fractionation of crystals in the magma chamber. The pressure and temperature history of the Kuki granite indicates no change in the magma depth with cooling from 800 to 730C, and geobarometric calculations indicate the emplacement of magma at a depth of approximately10 km. Simultaneous determination of the zircon U Pb age, Ti concentration, and Th/U yields 1) the time temperature history of granitic magma before its solidification, and 2) the correlation between temperature and Th/U in the magma. The magma chamber cooled from ca. 900 to 700C at approximately 125 Ma. The change in Th/U with temperature indicates greater fractional crystallization in the magma chamber at temperatures above 800C than below 800C. Samples from different depth exhibit common tendencies in terms of the relationship between Th/U and temperature, indicating the same system of fractional crystallization throughout the cooling magma chamber.

Nuclear criticality benchmark analyses on TRIGA-type reactor systems by using continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP with JENDL-5

Yanagisawa, Hiroshi; Umeda, Miki; Motome, Yuiko; Murao, Hiroyuki

JAEA-Technology 2022-030, 80 Pages, 2023/02

JAEA-Technology-2022-030.pdf:2.57MB
JAEA-Technology-2022-030(errata).pdf:0.11MB

Nuclear criticality benchmark analyses were carried out for TRIGA-type reactor systems in which uranium-zirconium hydride fuel rods are loaded by using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP with the evaluated nuclear data library JENDL-5. The analyses cover two sorts of benchmark data, the IEU-COMP-THERM-003 and IEU-COMP-THERM-013 in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook, and effective neutron multiplication factors, reactivity worths for control rods etc. were calculated by JENDL-5 in comparison with those by the previous version of JENDL. As the results, it was confirmed that the effective neutron multiplication factors obtained by JENDL-5 were 0.4 to 0.6% greater than those by JENDL-4.0, and that there were no significant differences in the calculated reactivity worths by between JENDL-5 and JENDL-4.0. Those results are considered to be helpful for the confirmation of calculation accuracy in the analyses on NSRR control rod worths, which are planned in the future.

Engineering formulation of the irradiation growth behavior of zirconium-based alloys for light water reactors

Kakiuchi, Kazuo; Amaya, Masaki; Udagawa, Yutaka

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 573, p.154110_1 - 154110_7, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154110

Dissolution and precipitation behaviors of zircon under the atmospheric environment

Kitagaki, Toru; Yoshida, Kenta*; Liu, P.*; Shobu, Takahisa

npj Materials Degradation (Internet), 6(1), p.13_1 - 13_8, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-021-00214-0

U-Pb ages of zircons from metamorphic rocks in the upper sequence of the Hidaka metamorphic belt, Hokkaido, Japan; Identification of two metamorphic events and implications for regional tectonics

Takahashi, Hiroshi*; Mikoshiba, Masumi*; Shimura, Toshiaki*; Nagata, Mitsuhiro; Iwano, Hideki*; Danhara, Toru*; Hirata, Takafumi*

Island Arc, 30(1), p.e12393_1 - e12393_15, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1111/iar.12393

The Hidaka metamorphic belt is an excellent example of island-arc-type crust, and in this belt the metamorphic grade increases westwards from unmetamorphosed sediment up to the granulite facies. The metamorphic age of the belt had previously been considered to be ca. 55 Ma. However, zircons from the granulites in the lower sequence have given U-Pb ages of ca. 21-19 Ma and a preliminary report on zircons from pelitic gneiss in the upper sequence gave a U-Pb age of ca. 40 Ma. In this paper we provide new U-Pb ages for zircons from the pelitic gneisses in the upper sequence in order to assess the metamorphic age and also the maximum depositional age of the sedimentary protolith. The weighted mean Pb/U ages and 2 sigma errors for zircons from biotite gneiss in the central area of the belt are 39.6 0.9 Ma for metamorphic overgrowth rims and 53.1 0.9 Ma for the youngest inherited detrital cores. The ages of zircons from cordierite-biotite gneiss in the southern area are 35.9 0.7 Ma for overgrowth rims and 46.5 2.8 Ma for the youngest detrital cores. These results indicate that the metamorphism of the upper sequence took place at ca. 40-36 Ma, and that the sedimentary protolith was deposited after ca. 53-47 Ma. These metamorphic ages are consistent with the reported ages of ca. 37-36 Ma plutonic rocks in the upper sequence, but contrast with the ca. 21-19 Ma ages of metamorphic and plutonic rocks in the lower sequence. Therefore, we conclude, that the upper and lower metamorphic sequences developed independently but became coupled before ca. 19 Ma as a result of dextral reverse tectonic movements, as indicated by the intrusion of ca. 19-18 Ma magmas, possibly generated in the lower sequence, into the upper sequence.

Advanced concepts in TRISO fuel

Minato, Kazuo; Ogawa, Toru

Comprehensive Nuclear Materials, 2nd Edition, Vol.5, p.334 - 360, 2020/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803581-8.11688-1

TRISO coated particle fuel has been developed for the high temperature gas-cooled reactors, which consists of microspherical fuel kernel and coating layers of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide. To improve the high temperature stability, the resistance to the chemical attack by fission products and the retention of fission products of the TRISO coated particle fuels, several types of advanced fuels were proposed and tested. Coated particle fuels for fast reactors were also proposed and tested. In this paper, fuel designs, fabrications, characterization techniques and fuel performance of these advanced coated particle fuels are systematically described. This is the updated version of the paper having the same title in Comprehensive Nuclear Materials published in 2012.

Study on plutonium burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor in Japan; Introduction scenario, reactor safety and fabrication tests of the 3S-TRISO fuel

Ueta, Shohei; Mizuta, Naoki; Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Tachibana, Yukio; Honda, Masaki*; Saiki, Yohei*; Takahashi, Masashi*; Ohira, Koichi*; Nakano, Masaaki*; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 357, p.110419_1 - 110419_10, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110419

The concept of a plutonium (Pu) burner HTGR is proposed to incarnate highly-effective Pu utilization by its inherent safety features. The security and safety fuel (3S-TRISO fuel) employs the coated fuel particle with a fuel kernel made of plutonium dioxide (PuO) and yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as an inert matrix. This paper presents feasibility study of Pu burner HTGR and R&D on the 3S-TRISO fuel.

Update of JAEA-TDB; Update of thermodynamic data for zirconium and those for isosaccahrinate, tentative selection of thermodynamic data for ternary M-UO-CO system and integration with JAEA's thermodynamic database for geochemical calculations

Kitamura, Akira

JAEA-Data/Code 2018-018, 103 Pages, 2019/03

JAEA-Data-Code-2018-018.pdf:5.66MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2018-018-appendix1(DVD-ROM).zip:0.14MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2018-018-appendix2(DVD-ROM).zip:0.15MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2018-018-appendix3(DVD-ROM).zip:0.19MB

The latest available thermodynamic data were critically reviewed and the selected values were included into the JAEA-TDB for performance assessment of geological disposal of high-level radioactive and TRU wastes. This critical review specifically addressed thermodynamic data for (1) a zirconium-hydroxide system through comparison of thermodynamic data selected by the Nuclear Energy Agency within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/NEA), (2) complexation of metal ions with isosaccharinic acid based on the latest review papers. Furthermore, the author performed (3) tentative selection of thermodynamic data on ternary complexes among alkaline-earth metal, uranyl and carbonate ions, and (4) integration with the latest version of JAEA's thermodynamic database for geochemical calculations. The internal consistency of the selected data was checked by the author. Text files of the updated and integrated thermodynamic database have been prepared for geochemical calculation programs of PHREEQC and Geochemist's Workbench.

Development of security and safety fuel for Pu-burner HTGR; Test and characterization for ZrC coating

Ueta, Shohei; Aihara, Jun; Goto, Minoru; Tachibana, Yukio; Okamoto, Koji*

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 5(5), p.18-00084_1 - 18-00084_9, 2018/10

https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.18-00084

To develop the security and safety fuel (3S-TRISO fuel) for Pu-burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), R&D on zirconium carbide (ZrC) directly coated on yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) has been started in the Japanese fiscal year 2015. As results of the direct coating test of ZrC on the dummy YSZ particle, ZrC layers with 18 - 21 microns of thicknesses have been obtained with 0.1 kg of particle loading weight. No deterioration of YSZ exposed by source gases of ZrC bromide process was observed by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM).

A Thermodynamic model for ZrO(am) solubility at 25C in the Ca-Na-H-Cl-OH-HO system; A Critical review

Rai, D.*; Kitamura, Akira; Altmaier, M.*; Rosso, K. M.*; Sasaki, Takayuki*; Kobayashi, Taishi*

Journal of Solution Chemistry, 47(5), p.855 - 891, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10953-018-0766-4

We have critically reviewed experimental data for Zr hydrolysis constant values for formation of several mononuclear and polynuclear species and a solubility product value for ZrO(am). We have determined new/revised values for the formation constants of Zr(OH), Zr(OH)(aq), Zr(OH), Zr(OH) and CaZr(OH), and the solubility product for ZrO(am) after the critical review.