Fuel cycle scenarios and back-end technologies of HTGR in Japan

Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Shibata, Taiju

IAEA-TECDOC-2040, p.133 - 136, 2023/12

https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/TE-2040web.pdf

Japan has developed back-end technologies to establish a multi-recycling fuel cycle with fast breeder reactors (FBRs) to ensure energy resources. Even though the development of FBR has been retreated to one of fundamental research, the reprocessing technologies for uranium fuel and disposal technologies had been completed for Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuel cycle on the process. These technologies were inherited to utilities and are about to be practical. Now, Japan had been completed High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) a prototype and research reactor, a commercial High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) design Gas Turbine High Temperature Reactor 300 (GTHTR300) with related reprocessing technologies, and is planning domestic demonstration reactor project. In this context, a representative fuel cycle policy is reprocessing in Japan. However, Japan has investigated various fuel cycle scenarios to expand the usage of the commercial HTGR. Then, we would like to introduce the scenarios and development status of related technologies in the present study.

Assessment report on research and development activities in post-evaluation of third medium-/long-term plan and in pre-evaluation of the fourth medium-/long-term plan on "Research and Development on High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor and Related Heat Application Technology"

Shinohara, Masanori; Sumita, Junya; Shibata, Taiju; Hirata, Masaru

JAEA-Evaluation 2022-006, 198 Pages, 2022/11

JAEA-Evaluation-2022-006.pdf:23.34MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) received a post-evaluation of the third medium-/long-term plan (from FY2015 to FY2021) and pre-evaluation of the fourth medium-/long-term plan (from FY2022 to FY2028) from the "Evaluation Committee of Research Activities for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (hereinafter referred to as "HTGR") and Related Hydrogen Production Technology" (hereinafter referred to as "Evaluation Committee") which consists of specialists in the fields of evaluation subjects of HTGR and related heat application technologies. As a result, for the post-evaluation of the third medium-/ long-term plan, two of the ten technical committee members concluded a score of "S", seven members concluded "A" and one member concluded "B". The comprehensive evaluation concluded a score of "A". On the other hand, one of the two humanities and social sciences members concluded a score of "B", one members concluded "C". The comprehensive evaluation concluded a score of "B". For the pre-evaluation of the fourth medium-/long-term plan, although there were some items that several evaluation committee members rated as "needs improvement," the majority of the committee members judged the plan to be appropriate. This report describes the members of the Evaluation Committee, assessment items, assessment results and JAEA's measures following the assessment.

Present status of JAEA's R&D toward HTGR deployment

Shibata, Taiju; Nishihara, Tetsuo; Kubo, Shinji; Sato, Hiroyuki; Sakaba, Nariaki; Kunitomi, Kazuhiko

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 398, p.111964_1 - 111964_4, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111964

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been promoting the research and development (R&D) of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). R&D on reactor technologies is carried out by using High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). The HTTR was resumed without significant reinforcements in 2021. On January 2022, a safety demonstration test under the OECD/NEA LOFC project was carried out. JAEA is promoting R&D on a carbon-free hydrogen production by thermochemical water splitting Iodine-Sulfur process (IS process). JAEA conducts design study for various HTGR systems toward commercialization. A new test program about demonstration of hydrogen production by the HTTR was launched. Steam methane reforming hydrogen production system was selected for the first demonstration by 2030.

Assessment report on research and development activities in FY2020 activity and in prospective evaluation of third mid-to long-term plan "Research and development on high temperature gas-cooled reactor and related heat application technology"

Shinohara, Masanori; Sumita, Junya; Shibata, Taiju; Hirata, Masaru

JAEA-Evaluation 2022-001, 104 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Evaluation-2022-001.pdf:28.15MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency received the annual evaluation of FY2020, the research plan of FY2021 and the prospective evaluation of the third mid- to long-term plan (from FY2015 to FY2021) from the "Evaluation Committee of Research Activities for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (hereinafter referred to as "HTGR") and Related Hydrogen Production Technology" (hereinafter referred to as "Evaluation Committee") which consists of specialists in the fields of evaluation subjects of HTGR and related heat application technology. As a result, for the annual evaluation of FY2020, one of the ten technical committee members concluded a score of "S", eight members concluded "A" and one member concluded "B". The comprehensive evaluation was concluded a score of "A". On the other hand, two humanities and social sciences committee members concluded "B". For the prospective evaluation of the third mid- to long-term plan, one of the ten technical committee members concluded a score of "S", eight members concluded "A" and one member concluded "B". The comprehensive evaluation was concluded a score of "A". On the other hand, two humanities and social sciences committee members concluded "B". This report describes the members of the Evaluation Committee, assessment items, assessment results and JAEA's measures following the assessment.

Innovation for flexible use of nuclear power in JAEA

Kamide, Hideki; Shibata, Taiju

NREL/TP-6A50-77088 (Internet), p.35 - 38, 2020/09

Trend of high temperature gas-cooled reactor development in the world, international cooperation and strategy

Nishihara, Tetsuo; Shibata, Taiju; Inaba, Yoshitomo

Hozengaku, 18(1), p.30 - 34, 2019/04

We explain the current status of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) development in the world and international cooperation between Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and these countries. We introduce the concept of Japanese HTGR technology deployment by using international cooperation.

Investigation of irradiated properties of extended burnup TRISO fuel

Shaimerdenov, A.*; Gizatulin, S.*; Kenzhin, Y.*; Dyussambayev, D.*; Ueta, Shohei; Aihara, Jun; Shibata, Taiju

Proceedings of 9th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2018) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2018/10

The Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Republic of Kazakhstan (INP) conducts an irradiation test and post-irradiation examinations (PIEs) of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) fuel and materials to develop the extend burnup fuel up to 100 GWd/t-U collaboratively with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) under projects in a frame of the International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC). Cylindrical fuel compact specimens consisting of newly-designed TRISO (tri-structural isotropic) coated fuel particles and a matrix made of graphite material were manufactured in Japan. An irradiation test of the fuel specimens using a helium-gas swept capsule designed and constructed in the INP has been performed up to 100 GWd/t-U in the WWR-K research reactor by April 2015. In the next stage, PIEs with the irradiated fuel specimens have been started in February 2017 as a new ISTC project. Several PIE technologies by non-destructive and destructive techniques with irradiated fuel compacts were developed by the INP. This report presents the developed technologies and interim results of the PIE for high burning TRISO fuel.

Excellent feature of Japanese HTGR technologies

Nishihara, Tetsuo; Yan, X.; Tachibana, Yukio; Shibata, Taiju; Ohashi, Hirofumi; Kubo, Shinji; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Goto, Minoru; Ueta, Shohei; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2018-004, 182 Pages, 2018/07

JAEA-Technology-2018-004.pdf:18.14MB

Research and development on High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) in Japan started since late 1960s. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in cooperation with Japanese industries has researched and developed system design, fuel, graphite, metallic material, reactor engineering, high temperature components, high temperature irradiation and post irradiation test of fuel and graphite, high temperature heat application and so on. Construction of the first Japanese HTGR, High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR), started in 1990. HTTR achieved first criticality in 1998. After that, various test operations have been carried out to establish the Japanese HTGR technologies and to verify the inherent safety features of HTGR. This report presents several system design of HTGR, the world-highest-level Japanese HTGR technologies, JAEA's knowledge obtained from construction, operation and management of HTTR and heat application technologies for HTGR.

Research on demand of HTGR for investigation of introduction scenario and investigation on heat balance of HTGR

Fukaya, Yuji; Kasahara, Seiji; Mizuta, Naoki; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Shibata, Taiju; Nishihara, Tetsuo

JAEA-Research 2018-004, 38 Pages, 2018/06

JAEA-Research-2018-004.pdf:1.81MB

The demand of HTGR to investigate its introduction scenario and heat balance of HTGR have been researched. First, previous studies of HTGR demand were researched. Next, heat balance of GTHTR300, a commercial scale HTGR design, and its characteristics were researched. By using this information, installation number of HTGR to suit for demand in Japan are evaluated. In addition, heat balance evaluation code was developed in this study.

Applicability confirmation test of optimum decay heat evaluation method for HTGR with HTTR (Non-nuclear heating test); Validation of residual heat evaluation model

Honda, Yuki; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Yamazaki, Kazunori; Kobayashi, Shoichi; Aono, Tetsuya; Shibata, Taiju; Ishitsuka, Etsuo

JAEA-Technology 2017-013, 20 Pages, 2017/06

JAEA-Technology-2017-013.pdf:2.52MB

Decay heat is one of an important factor for a safety evaluation of depressurized loss-of-forced cooling accident, a representative high consequence accident, in high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). Traditionally, a conservative decay heat curve is used for safety analysis according to the regulatory standards. On the other hand, there is growing interest in obtaining test data related to decay heat for the use of uncertainty analysis. However, such data has not been obtained for prismatic-type HTGR. Therefore, we have launched a test program to obtain the decay heat data from the HTTR. As an initial step, an applicability confirmation test of decay heat evaluation method for HTGR was conducted in February 2017 without non-nuclear heating condition. This report introduces an estimation method for the decay heat based on test data using HTTR and shows the results of validation of the reactor residual heat evaluation method which will be used to obtain the decay heat data based on test data.