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Saito, Shigeru; Yamaguchi, Kazushi*; Yoshimoto, Hidemitsu*; Obayashi, Hironari; Sasa, Toshinobu
JAEA-Technology 2022-032, 51 Pages, 2023/03
JAEA-Technology-2022-032.pdf:4.51MB
In the Accelerator Driven System (ADS) being studied by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) for transmutation of long-lived radioactive waste, lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) is used as a spallation target and subcritical core coolant. A proton irradiation facility in J-PARC is considered to prepare a material irradiation database for ADS development. The proton irradiation facility is equipped with an LBE loop, which enables material irradiation tests in spallation environment under flowing LBE condition. The slow leakage of LBE is one of critical issue to use LBE safety. The slow leakage is caused by the biting slag and/or other materials at valve seal of drain valve. To solve this problem, JAEA examined the application of freeze-seal valve (FSV), which seal the piping by freezing LBE in specific position. Water-cooled and air-cooled freeze-seal valve test modules were fabricated, installed in the test section of the existing test stand for LBE technology development, and tested to confirm their operation and performance. As a result of the tests, it was confirmed that the water-cooled FSV test module worked well along to the design values. This report describes the outline and details of the test stand for LBE technology and each FSV test module, as well as the results of operation and performance verification tests.
Miyahara, Shinya*; Arita, Yuji*; Nakano, Keita; Maekawa, Fujio; Sasa, Toshinobu; Obayashi, Hironari; Takei, Hayanori
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 403, p.112147_1 - 112147_17, 2023/03
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)It is important to evaluate the inventories and the release and transport behavior of the spallation products (SPs) in the Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) coolant system of Accelerator Driven System (ADS) for the safety studies of the radiological hazard both in the cases of normal operation and accident. University of Fukui and JAEA have been developing the computer analysis code TRAIL (Transport of RAdionuclides In Liquid metal systems) which predicts the time dependent behavior of SPs within the LBE coolant system of ADS for the wide range of operational events. The source term of both radioactive and stable SPs in the LBE coolant is given as input and the radioactive decay chain model for the radioactive SPs is implemented in the code to evaluate the effect of precursors on the SPs mobility. This paper presents the recent advancement status of the code development and the validation results comparing with the distribution data of volatile SPs in MEGAPIE spallation target.
Pacio, J.*; Van Tichelen, K.*; Eckert, S.*; Wondrak, T.*; Di Piazza, I.*; Lorusso, P.*; Tarantino, M.*; Daubner, M.*; Litfin, K.*; Ariyoshi, Gen; et al.
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 399, p.112010_1 - 112010_15, 2022/12
Times Cited Count：5 Percentile：84.97(Nuclear Science & Technology)Heavy-liquid metals (HLMs), such as lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE), are proposed as primary coolants in accelerator driven systems and next-generation fast reactors. In Europe, the reference systems using HLMs are MYRRHA (LBE) and ALFRED (lead). This article presents an overview of recent experiences and ongoing activities on pool-type and loop-type HLM experiments. Pool tests include the measurement of forced- and natural-circulation flow patterns in several scenarios representative of nominal and decay heat removal conditions. Loop tests are focused on the evaluation of specific components, like mockups of the fuel assembly, control rod and heat exchangers. They involve the measurement of global variables, such as flow rate and pressure difference, and local quantities like temperature, velocity and vibrations. Advanced instrumentation, capable of sustaining high temperatures and corrosion, is necessary for accurate measurements, often in compact geometries. In addition to traditional techniques, other instrumentation based on optical fibers, ultrasonic and electromagnetic methods are discussed.
Ariyoshi, Gen; Obayashi, Hironari; Sasa, Toshinobu
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(9), p.1071 - 1088, 2022/09
Times Cited Count：1 Percentile：31.61(Nuclear Science & Technology)Electromagnetic induction method is one of the effective techniques for local velocity measurement in heavy liquid metals. Ricou and Vives' probe and Von Weissenfluh's probe are famous instrumentations using a permanent magnet. However, sensitivity and measurement volume of the probes show unexpected variation since demagnetization of the magnet is occurred by temperature increase up to the Curie temperature. In this study, electromagnetic probe incorporating a miniature electromagnet was newly developed to overcome such unexpected variation. The diameter and the length of the sensor was 6 mm and 155 mm, respectively. The sensitivity and the measurement volume of the probe were assessed by measurement of local velocity of flowing mercury in a square channel. To clarify the validity for the measured velocity profiles, numerical velocity profiles were calculated and compared with experiment. And the validity for the measured velocity profiles were confirmed by calculated result.
Obayashi, Hironari; Yamaki, Kenichi*; Yoshimoto, Hidemitsu*; Kita, Satoshi*; Wan, T.*; Sasa, Toshinobu
JAEA-Technology 2021-035, 66 Pages, 2022/03
JAEA-Technology-2021-035.pdf:4.26MB
Construction of Transmutation Experimental Facility (TEF) is under planning in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) program to promote R&Ds on realization of transmutation technology by an accelerator driven system (ADS). As a facility of TEF, ADS Target Test Facility (TEF-T) will provide a spallation target to study target technology and perform post irradiation examination (PIE) of candidate materials of ADS. In ADS, lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy is used as a spallation target material and a core coolant. As is well known, LBE has corrosive to structural materials hence each component of the target system should provide compatibility with LBE. In addition, instrumentations for LBE are restricted by the target operation condition such as high temperature and irradiation environment. The devices for LBE have been developed individually to achieve the LBE target system. "Integrated Multi-functional MOckup for TEF-T Real-scale TArget Loop, IMMORTAL" was fabricated as a mock-up test loop of the target for the purpose of the integration testing of individually developed devices. This report describes an overview of IMMORTAL and the design of the installed devices.
Saito, Shigeru; Wan, T.*; Okubo, Nariaki; Kita, Satoshi*; Obayashi, Hironari; Sasa, Toshinobu
JAEA-Technology 2021-034, 94 Pages, 2022/03
JAEA-Technology-2021-034.pdf:5.91MB
Lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) is a major candidate for a spallation target material and core coolant of an accelerator driven system (ADS) which has been developed in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to transmute high-level radioactive wastes. A proton irradiation facility to build a material irradiation database for future ADS development is under considering in the J-PARC. To realize both the ADS and the above-mentioned facility, there are many issues on operational safety of LBE to be solved. Especially, corrosion data for the major materials such as T91 (Modified 9Cr-1Mo steel) and SS316L at the temperature range between 400 and 550 
C under the conditions of flowing LBE with a controlled oxygen are not sufficient to design the ADS and the facility. JAEA developed a new large-scale corrosion test loop named "OLLOCHI (Oxygen-controlled LBE LOop for Corrosion tests in HIgh-temperature)" aiming to perform the compatibility tests between the LBE and the steels, as well as to develop the LBE operation technology. OLLOCHI has a function to automatically control the oxygen concentration in LBE. The maximum temperature at the regions of high-temperature and low-temperature of the OLLOCHI are 550 C and 450 C respectively to cover the ADS designed condition. As a result of 2,000 hours operation, it was demonstrated that the OLLOCHI showed the designed performance. In this report, outline of the OLLOCHI, details of the components, results of characteristic tests, and the future experimental plan are described.
Obayashi, Hironari; Yamaki, Kenichi*; Kita, Satoshi*; Ariyoshi, Gen; Sasa, Toshinobu
Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2022/03
JAEA developed a non-contact type flowmeter that two ultrasonic sensors were installed on outer surface of a cylindrical-shaped test section. The considerable issue of the realization was multiple reflection of emitted signal in the piping. Furthermore, wettability between LBE and inner surface of the test section was one of the important issue on the ultrasonic technique. To mitigate the multiple reflection, a critical angle as an incident angle not to produce a longitudinal wave on the solid / solid boundary was applied. And fine mirror-finished treatment was applied to the inner surface of the test section to ensure wettability. As a result of experiment at 350 degrees C, the observed correlation value between the non-contact type and the established plug type was 0.9986. Additionally, the developed non-contact type provided its sufficiently stable output during a long-term test more than 1,500 hours.
Ariyoshi, Gen; Obayashi, Hironari; Saito, Shigeru; Sasa, Toshinobu
Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/03
To clarify the flow characteristics of heavy liquid-metal (HLM) is important to achieve the construction of nuclear transmutation facility that utilizes HLM as a spallation target and coolant. At present, lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) spallation target plans to be installed in Japan proton accelerator research complex (J-PARC). LBE is also selected as one of the candidate media of a spallation target and a coolant for innovative nuclear systems such as accelerator-driven system (ADS) and LBE-cooled fast reactor, due to its adequate physical/chemical properties. The characteristics of LBE flowing inside the target are usually clarified with computational fluid dynamics analysis since the measurement techniques for the HLM flow are not well established, especially for high temperature region over 450C that is delivered from ADS's criteria. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop measurement method for flow characteristics in the high temperature LBE. A miniature electro-magnet is introduced to electro-magnetic probe to overcome the limitation caused by a curie temperature of permanent magnet. To evaluate performance of the new probe, experimental apparatus equipping annular rotating vessel were also manufactured. The new probe was applied to high temperature LBE up to 480C. As a result, proportional induced voltage to the rotation speed of LBE were clearly observed, where excitation currents of the miniature electro-magnet were 0.2 A or 1 A. In this paper, configuration and performance of the newly developed electro-magnet probe to the high temperature LBE will be presented.
Saito, Shigeru; Wan, T.*; Okubo, Nariaki; Obayashi, Hironari; Watanabe, Nao; Ohdaira, Naoya*; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Yamaki, Kenichi*; Kita, Satoshi*; Yoshimoto, Hidemitsu*; et al.
JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011041_1 - 011041_6, 2021/03
An Accelerator Driven System (ADS) for waste transmutation investigated in JAEA employs lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) as a neutron production target material and coolant. The neutrons are to be produced via the spallation with 1.5 GeV proton beam injection. As materials irradiation data are important for ADS development, JAEA plans to construct an irradiation facility with LBE neutron production target in J-PARC. There are many technical issues on LBE for practical use. In JAEA, various R&Ds are being carried out. Concerning corrosion study, conditioning operation and functional tests of OLLOCHI started. Oxygen concentration control technology has also developing. In the large scale LBE loop experiment, the operation for steady state and transient experiments was performed by using IMMORTAL. In the area of instrument, development of ultrasonic flow meter and freeze seal valve are progressing as a key technology for the LBE loop system. Investigation of behavior of impurities in LBE, which is important for design of the irradiation facility, started. In this paper, the status of the LBE studies and experimental plan will be presented.
Obayashi, Hironari; Yoshimoto, Hidemitsu*; Kita, Satoshi*; Yamaki, Kenichi*; Wan, T.*; Saito, Shigeru; Sasa, Toshinobu
JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011048_1 - 011048_6, 2021/03
Sasa, Toshinobu; Saito, Shigeru; Obayashi, Hironari; Ariyoshi, Gen
JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011051_1 - 011051_6, 2021/03
To realize Accelerator-driven system (ADS) for minor actinide transmutation, JAEA proposes to construct the Proton Irradiation Facility in J-PARC. The facility is planned to solve technical issues for safe application of Lead-bismuth Eutectic Alloy (LBE). The 250 kW LBE spallation target will be located in the facility to prepare material irradiation database by both proton and neutron irradiation in the temperature range for typical LBE-cooled ADS. Various studies for important technologies required to build the facilities are investigated such as oxygen concentration control, instruments development, remote handling techniques for target maintenance, and spallation target design. The large scale LBE loops for mock up the 250 kW LBE spallation target and material corrosion studies are also manufactured and applied to various experiments. The latest status of 250 kW LBE spallation target design works will be summarized.
Yamaki, Kenichi*; Kita, Satoshi*; Obayashi, Hironari; Ariyoshi, Gen; Saito, Shigeru; Sasa, Toshinobu
JAEA-Technology 2020-021, 26 Pages, 2021/02
JAEA-Technology-2020-021.pdf:2.34MB
As digitalization of measuring instruments, Programmable Logic Controller is mainly used for controlling large-scale devices, and many test devices are controlled in digital. Together with increase of the data storage capacity, it has become possible to record the measured values over the entire experimental period. By collecting the entire experimental data, it became easy to appropriately record the test environment during the corrosion test of materials and to analyze the changes and transients during continuous operation from various viewpoints. On the other hand, in a long-term test, the large number of measurement data were recorded, which requires long time for data processing and data extraction for analyses. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to organize the data collected by different data formats. To solve these problems, a processing tool were produced to extract and process the data efficiently from the sequencer installed in the lead-bismuth test device.
Saito, Shigeru; Okubo, Nariaki; Obayashi, Hironari; Wan, T.; Sugawara, Takanori; Sasa, Toshinobu; Maekawa, Fujio
JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 28, p.071003_1 - 071003_6, 2020/02
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) proposes transmutation of minor actinides (MA) by accelerator-driven systems (ADS). The ADS designed by JAEA is a system composed by LBE (Lead-Bismuth Eutectic) spallation target and a subcritical core. In the ADS, a beam window (BW) is exposed in complex field of heavy irradiation by proton/neutron and corrosion by flowing LBE. To develop ADS structural materials, it is of critical importance to investigate materials used in such environment. Thus, JAEA plans to construct a proton irradiation facility at the J-PARC to prepare an irradiation database for candidate ADS structural materials and to investigate irradiation effects in flowing LBE environment. In this paper, giving a whole scope of the JAEA ADS development, some results of experimental measurements and the specific program for planed R&D will be presented.
Watanabe, Nao; Obayashi, Hironari; Sugawara, Takanori; Sasa, Toshinobu; Nishihara, Kenji; Castelliti, D.*
Proceedings of 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-18) (USB Flash Drive), p.248 - 261, 2019/08
For the R&D for lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) cooled Accelerator Driven System (ADS), installation of experimental facility using LBE spallation target dedicated for ADS materials irradiation under flowing high temperature LBE environment is planned within the J-PARC project. JAEA has recently finalized the construction of "IMMORTAL", a demonstrative test loop representing a 1:1 model of the above LBE spallation target system. Such facility pursues several different objectives such as studies on the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the target, and validation of the LBE physical properties, the pressure drops and the heat transfer correlations. These results will be useful for design of the facility and LBE target/cooled ADS. In the frame of a bi-lateral collaboration between JAEA and SCK-CEN, a benchmark exercise on the experimental results from IMMORTAL has been carried out. The calculations have been performed with RELAP5-3D System Thermal-Hydraulic code. To assess and predict the thermal-hydraulic behavior of its primary loop, RELAP5-3D calculation models have been configured. The calculated results from these models represented that a valid contribution towards the validation of the LBE properties and empirical correlations present in RELAP5-3D code.
Obayashi, Hironari; Yamaki, Kenichi; Kita, Satoshi; Yoshimoto, Hidemitsu; Wan, T.; Saito, Shigeru; Sasa, Toshinobu
Proceedings of 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-18) (USB Flash Drive), p.262 - 274, 2019/08
Construction of an experimental facility using LBE spallation target is under planning in the framework of J-PARC project to understand the compatibility of candidate ADS structural materials under flowing high temperature LBE environment with proton / neutron irradiation. We constructed a mock-up test loop, IMMORTAL to verify the feasibility of a primary cooling system in the target system. Including the layout considering remote maintainability, the same design as the actual JAEA's LBE target is reflected in most devices of IMMORTAL such as an electromagnetic pump (EMP), a heat exchanger and instrumentations. During the integrated tests, the individually developed devices of LBE loop system worked without significant malfunction. Several experimental data to verify the safety analysis model for LBE loop system using RELAP5-3D was acquired by simulation experiment of transient events such as beam over power and decrease of forced cooling.
Sakai, Kenji; Obayashi, Hironari; Saito, Shigeru; Sasa, Toshinobu; Sugawara, Takanori; Watanabe, Akihiko*
JAEA-Technology 2019-009, 18 Pages, 2019/07
JAEA-Technology-2019-009.pdf:2.34MB
Construction of Transmutation Experimental Facility (TEF) is under planning in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) program to promote R&D on the transmutation technology with using accelerator driven systems (ADS). ADS Target Test Facility (TEF-T) in TEF will develop spallation target technology and study on target materials with irradiating high intensity proton beams on a lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) target. For safe and efficient beam operation, a general control system (GCS) will be constructed in TEF-T. GCS comprises several subsystems, such as a network system (LAN), an integral control system (ICS), an interlock system (ILS), and a timing distribution system (TDS) according to their roles. Especially, the ICS plays the important role that executes integral operations in the entire facility, acquires, stores and distributes operation data. We planned to develop a prototype of the ICS, to evaluate its concrete performances such as data transmission speeds, data storage capability, control functions, long-term stability of the system, and to utilize them for design of the actual ICS. This report mentions to product the prototype of ICS and to apply it to remote operations of instruments for developing LBE target technology.
Wan, T.; Naoe, Takashi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Obayashi, Hironari; Sasa, Toshinobu
Materials, 12(4), p.681_1 - 681_15, 2019/02
Times Cited Count：3 Percentile：17.96(Chemistry, Physical)Wan, T.; Obayashi, Hironari; Sasa, Toshinobu
Nuclear Technology, 205(1-2), p.188 - 199, 2019/01
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)Wan, T.; Obayashi, Hironari; Sasa, Toshinobu
Proceedings of 12th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-12) (USB Flash Drive), 14 Pages, 2018/10
Sugawara, Takanori; Eguchi, Yuta; Obayashi, Hironari; Iwamoto, Hiroki; Matsuda, Hiroki; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi
Proceedings of 26th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-26) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2018/07
A new beam window concept for accelerator-driven system (ADS) is investigated by changing the design condition. The most important factor for the beam window design is the proton beam current. The design condition will be mitigated if the proton beam current will be reduced. To reduce the proton beam current, a subcriticality adjustment rod (SAR) which was a B
C control rod was employed and neutronics calculations were performed by ADS3D code. The results of the neutronics calculation indicated that the proton beam current was reduced from 20mA to 13.5mA by the installation of SARs. Based on the mitigated calculation condition, the investigation of the beam window was performed by the couple analyses of the particle transport, the thermal hydraulics and the structural analysis. Through these coupled analyses, more feasible beam window concept which was the hemispherical shape, the outer diameter = 470mm, the thickness at the top = 3.5mm and factor of safety =9 was presented.
