Development of fireproof sheet on glove box panels

Kawasaki, Kohei; Shinada, Kenta; Okamoto, Naritoshi; Kageyama, Tomio; Eda, Takashi; Okazaki, Hiro; Suzuki, Hiromichi; Yamamoto, Kazuya; Otabe, Jun

JAEA-Technology 2020-025, 80 Pages, 2021/03

JAEA-Technology-2020-025.pdf:3.72MB

Plutonium Fuel Production Facility was built in 1988 for the purpose of mainly producing MOX fuel of the prototype fast breeder reactor MONJU, and large glove boxes were installed for handling unsealed nuclear fuel material remotely. The panels of these glove boxes are made of acrylic, except for those installed after December 2013. For fires inside the glove box, automatic fire extinguishing systems using halides have been introduced since the beginning of construction, but for fires outside the glove box, there have been issues with direct measures for acrylic. Therefore, we have developed a fireproof sheet that mitigates the effect of fire outside the glove box on the panels as much as possible. As a result, fire-retardant sheets have been selected and attached to the glove box panels. We conducted a flammability test of the acrylic plate attached with these fireproof sheets and a usage environment influence test of fireproof sheets, and obtained good results. In addition, we set up a working group in the Plutonium Fuel Development Center in view of reducing external exposure during the work of attaching fireproof sheets, in which we discussed and examined the work procedure, and summarized it in the basic procedure manual.

Approaches to characterization of nuclear material for establishment of nuclear forensics

Okazaki, Hiro; Sumi, Mika; Sato, Mitsuhiro; Kayano, Masashi; Kageyama, Tomio; Martinez, P.*; Xu, N.*; Thomas, M.*; Porterfield, D.*; Colletti, L.*; et al.

Kaku Busshitsu Kanri Gakkai (INMM) Nihon Shibu Dai-35-Kai Nenji Taikai Rombunshu (Internet), 9 Pages, 2015/01

The quality control section of Plutonium Fuel Development Center (PFDC) in Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been analyzing isotopic compositions and content of plutonium and uranium as well as impurity and physics of nuclear materials in the process of MOX fuel fabrication for accountancy purpose as well as process control purposes. These analytical techniques are also effective for nuclear forensics to identify the source, history, and route of the material by determining a composition and chemical property of it. Therefore, PFDC cooperates with Los Alamos National Laboratory which has broad experience and established measurement skill for nuclear forensics, and evaluates the each method, procedure, and analytical data toward R&D of characterizing a nuclear fuel for forensics purposes. This paper describes the approaches to develop characterization techniques of nuclear fuel for nuclear forensic purpose at PFDC.

Report of 53rd INMM Annual Meeting in 2012, 5; MC&A: Outline of nuclear forensic session

Sumi, Mika; Okazaki, Hiro

Kaku Busshitsu Kanri Senta Nyusu, 41(12), p.5 - 6, 2012/12

https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40019433908

Outline of the presentations given at "Material Control and Accountability-Destructive analysis/Forensics" of 53rd INMM annual meeting held in July 2012 is reported. It includes presentation by NBL and ORNL on reference material characterization and preservation, two presentations by Plutonium Fuel Development Center of JAEA on ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation process and establishment of uncertainty evaluation method and others. Also, outline of annual meeting for intercomparison organized by NBL is also reported.

Quality control and uncertainty evaluation for accountancy analysis at PFDC-JAEA

Sumi, Mika; Okazaki, Hiro; Abe, Katsuo; Kageyama, Tomio; Nakazawa, Hiroaki

Proceedings of INMM 53rd Annual Meeting (CD-ROM), 9 Pages, 2012/07

PFDC has been developing various technologies for MOX fuel production, and Pu and U isotopic composition and content of these samples are analyzed at PFDC-lab. For the analysis of MOX fuel material including raw material powders, PFDC-lab is accredited as the testing laboratory of ISO/IEC 17025 scoped for (1) Pu and U isotopic composition measurement in the nuclear fuel materials by MS and (2) Pu and U content measurement in the nuclear fuel materials by IDMS. This accreditation was granted in March 2010. While preparing for accreditation, the PFDC-lab established the capability to estimate measurement uncertainty in accordance with the GUM Guide and developed calculation program combining GUM-Workbench and Excel. This paper presents details of our quality control system and measurement uncertainty evaluation systems.

Technical support from the IAEA for improvement of operator's analytical quality for Safeguards

Okazaki, Hiro; Sumi, Mika; Kayano, Masashi; Matsuyama, Kazutomi; Suzuki, Toru

no journal, , 

The Plutonium Fuel Development Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA-PFDC) received Japan's first plutonium in 1966 and commenced research to develop plutonium fuel as a key objective of the Japanese nuclear fuel cycle. Since then fundamental research with plutonium-bearing materials, and the development and fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuels, has been carried out. It is essential that the Operator's measurement quality be continually reviewed and improved for effective and efficient implementation of international Safeguards. In this context, and recognizing the excellent technical cooperation with IAEA measurement experts, JAEA-PFDC has continually worked to improve its measurement system. This paper will present examples of continual measurement improvement by JAEA-PFDC, and will show the benefit and effectiveness of technical support from IAEA towards this goal.

Effective use of inspection samples as intercomparison samples for the quality control in accountancy analysis

Okazaki, Hiro; Sumi, Mika; Kayano, Masashi; Matsuyama, Kazutomi; Suzuki, Toru; Kuhn, E.*

no journal, , 

For the effective and efficient implementation of international Safeguards, it is essential that the Operator's measurement system is maintained at a level of high quality and improved, as necessary. Besides the internal quality control, it is important to have elements of Quality Assurance (QA) in place, such as external intercomparison. However, there were no intercomparison programs with Plutonium samples available in Japan because of very few users and difficulties in the shipment of such samples from foreign laboratories. To cope with these difficult situations, intercomparison by using actual safeguards samples containing Plutonium and Uranium was started. Inspection samples are selected and prepared for shipment to the Safeguards laboratories together with other samples. Safeguards laboratories receive and analyze them as inspection samples as well as intercomparison without additional cost for analysis operation or sample transportation. The practicality and effective use of this DA intercomparison, which is operated since more than 20 years, will be explained.