Removal of spent fuel sheared powder for decommissioning of Main Plant

Nishino, Saki; Okada, Jumpei; Watanabe, Kazuki; Furuuchi, Yuta; Yokota, Satoru; Yada, Yuji; Kusaka, Shota; Morokado, Shiori; Nakamura, Yoshinobu

JAEA-Technology 2023-011, 39 Pages, 2023/06

JAEA-Technology-2023-011.pdf:2.51MB

Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) which shifted to decommissioning phase in 2014 had nuclear fuel materials such as the spent fuel sheared powder, the diluted plutonium solution and the uranium solution in a part of the reprocessing main equipment because TRP intended to resume reprocessing operations when it suspended the operations in 2007. Therefore, we have planned to remove these nuclear materials in sequence as Flush-out before beginning the decommissioning, and conducted removal of the spent fuel sheared powder as the first stage. The spent fuel sheared powder that had accumulated in the cell of the Main Plant (MP) as a result of the spent fuel shearing process was recovered from the cell floor, the shearing machine and the distributor between April 2016 and April 2017 as part of maintenance. Removing the recovered spent fuel sheared powder was conducted between June 2022 and September 2022. In this work, the recovered powder was dissolved in nitric acid at the dissolver in a small amount in order to remove it safely and early, and the dissolved solution was sent to the highly radioactive waste storage tanks without separating uranium and plutonium. Then, the dissolved solution transfer route was rinsed with nitric acid and water. Although about 15 years had passed since previous process operations, the removing work was successfully completed without any equipment failure because of the organization of a system that combines veterans experienced the operation with young workers, careful equipment inspections, and worker education and training. Removing this powder was conducted after revising the decommissioning project and obtaining approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority owing to operating a part of process equipment.

Prototype test of a portable thyroid dose monitoring system using gamma-ray spectrometers

Nishino, Sho; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Masa

Radiation Measurements, 134, p.106292_1 - 106292_5, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2020.106292

In the situation of a severe nuclear accident, radioiodine monitoring in thyroid should be performed for a large number of people immediately after accident. The portable thyroid dose monitoring system which can be used in a high dose rate condition is in development. In this presentation, the result of performance test using prototype model will be described.

A Study of a calibration technique for a newly developed thyroid monitor and its uncertainties due to body size for radioiodine measurements

Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Nishino, Sho; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Takahashi, Masa

Radiation Measurements, 133, p.106279_1 - 106279_6, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2020.106279

Uncertainty of the body size on the counting efficiency of a newly developed thyroid monitor was estimated by Monte Carlo simulations using several voxel phantoms. Overlying tissue thickness was a major impact factor on the counting efficiency. As a result, uncertainty related to the body size of the monitored subject was found to be 25%.

Corrigendum; Establishment of a low dose rate gamma ray calibration field for environmental radiation monitoring devices

Kowatari, Munehiko; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Nishino, Sho; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Oishi, Tetsuya; Kessler, P.*; Neumaier, S.*; Rttger, A.*

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 186(4), P. 538, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncz164

In the original version of this article an error occurred in Table 5. In section (b), the unit Sv h has been amended to nSv h. The corrected table appears below. The author apologises for this error.

Characteristics of commercially available CdZnTe detector as gamma-ray spectrometer under severe nuclear accident

Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Nishino, Sho; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Kowatari, Munehiko; Oishi, Tetsuya

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology (Internet), 6, p.134 - 138, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.15669/pnst.6.134

At the severe nuclear accidents like the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, various radionuclides will be dispersed into the environment and raise the dose rate. The - measurements of ray spectra and identifying radionuclides using the results are important for the radiological protection from both external and internal exposure. For this application a commercially available CdZnTe spectrometer (Kromek GR-1) was characterized at the calibration fields of FRS/JAEA. The angular dependence of the detection efficiency was studied and the efficiency was kept within 15 % degradation in 135 degree incident angle, which covers 85 % of all. The usable dose range was evaluated and the spectrometer could correctly measure the ray spectra below 200 Gy/h.

Assessment of equivalent dose of the lens of the eyes and the extremities to workers under nonhomogeneous exposure situation in nuclear and accelerator facilities by means of measurements using a phantom coupled with Monte Carlo simulation

Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Hagiwara, Masayuki*; Kowatari, Munehiko; Nishino, Sho; Sanami, Toshiya*; Iwase, Hiroshi*

Proceedings of 14th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA-14), Vol.3 (Internet), p.1188 - 1195, 2017/11

http://www.irpa.net/docs/IRPA14%20Proceedings%20Volume%203.pdf

The equivalent doses to the lens of the eye and extremities for radiation workers should be assessed properly to ensure that the dose limits are not exceeded. Recently, the following two issues has pressed demand on more appropriate evaluation of the equivalent doses of the lens of the eye and extremity. One is the new occupational dose limit for the lens of the eye the ICRP recommended. The other is growing demand on handling of highly activated materials in the maintenance works of an accelerator and contaminated materials during the decommissioning works of nuclear facility, which increases the potential exposure risk to the extremities to a wider variety of radio-nuclides. Since the points to be assessed for the exposures to the lens of the eye and the extremities are apart from the trunk, the homogeneity of the radiation fields would be significantly impact on the assessment of these equivalent doses. However, there has been no sufficient and available method to identify the nonhomogeneous situations systematically in terms of the eye lens or extremity monitoring. The goal of this study is to provide the framework to identify the nonhomogeneous exposure situations. In order to fulfil this purpose, newly proposed indices to represent the homogeneity were calculated by Monte Carlo simulation incorporated with mathematical phantom, verifying the benchmark measurements. Important parameters that significantly impact on these indices were also shown from the various trials of calculations of homogeneity indices.

Case studies of radiation dose assessment in emergency situation of nuclear facilities

Kawasaki, Masatsugu; Nakajima, Junya; Yoshida, Keisuke; Kato, Saori; Nishino, Sho; Nozaki, Teo; Nakagawa, Masahiro; Tsunoda, Junichi; Sugaya, Yuki; Hasegawa, Rie; et al.

JAEA-Data/Code 2017-004, 57 Pages, 2017/03

JAEA-Data-Code-2017-004.pdf:2.34MB

In emergency situation of nuclear facilities, we need to estimate the radiation dose due to radiation and radioactivity to grasp the influence range of the accident in the early stage. Therefore, we prepare the case studies of dose assessment for public exposure dose and personal exposure dose and contribute them to emergency procedures. This document covers about accidents of nuclear facilities in Nuclear Science Research Institute and past accident of nuclear power plant, and it can be used for inheritance of techniques of emergency dose assessment.

Annual report on the effluent control of low level liquid waste in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories FY2014

Watanabe, Hitoshi; Nakano, Masanao; Fujita, Hiroki; Kono, Takahiko; Inoue, Kazumi; Yoshii, Hideki*; Otani, Kazunori*; Hiyama, Yoshinori*; Kikuchi, Masaaki*; Sakauchi, Nobuyuki*; et al.

JAEA-Review 2015-030, 115 Pages, 2015/12

JAEA-Review-2015-030.pdf:25.28MB

Based on the regulations (the safety regulation of Tokai reprocessing plant, the safety regulation of nuclear fuel material usage facilities, the radiation safety rule, the regulation about prevention from radiation hazards due to radioisotopes, which are related with the nuclear regulatory acts, the local agreement concerning with safety and environment conservation around nuclear facilities, the water pollution control law, and bylaw of Ibaraki prefecture), the effluent control of liquid waste discharged from the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been performed. This report describes the effluent control results of the liquid waste in the fiscal year 2014. In this period, the concentrations and the quantities of the radioactivity in liquid waste discharged from the reprocessing plant, the plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, and the other nuclear fuel material usage facilities were much lower than the limits authorized by the above regulations.

Development of methods for removing the deposit in the combustion chamber of the water tube boiler

Kawasaki, Ichio; Ishiyama, Toru; Nishino, Shohei; Aoki, Masaru*

Boira Kenkyu, (391), p.8 - 14, 2015/06

no abstracts in English

Development of divertor simulation research in the GAMMA 10/PDX tandem mirror

Nakashima, Yosuke*; Sakamoto, Mizuki*; Yoshikawa, Masayuki*; Oki, Kensuke*; Takeda, Hisahito*; Ichimura, Kazuya*; Hosoi, Katsuhiro*; Hirata, Mafumi*; Ichimura, Makoto*; Ikezoe, Ryuya*; et al.

Proceedings of 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2014) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2014/10