Training using JMTR and related facilities in FY2021 and FY2022

Nakano, Hiroko; Fujinami, Kyoko; Yamaura, Takayuki; Kawakami, Jun; Hanakawa, Hiroki

JAEA-Review 2023-036, 33 Pages, 2024/03

JAEA-Review-2023-036.pdf:2.47MB

A practical training course using the JMTR (Japan Materials Testing Reactor) and other research infrastructures was held from November 29 to December 2 in 2021 for Asian young researchers and engineers. This course was adopted as International Youth Exchange Program in Science (SAKURA SCIENCE Exchange Program) which is the project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and this course aims to enlarge the number of high-level nuclear researchers/engineers in Asian countries which are planning to introduce a nuclear power plant, and to promote the use of facilities in future. In this year, from the viewpoint of preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection, it was decided to hold the event online. 53 young researchers and engineers joined the course from 6 countries. In FY2022, training programs with invitations were held due to the easing of restrictions on entry into Japan from overseas. 7 young researchers and engineers from4 Asian countries participated in the training from February 1 to 10, 2023.The common curriculum in the training course of FY2021 and FY2022 included lectures on nuclear energy, irradiation testing, safety management, JMTR decommissioning plan, etc. In the online session, conducted in FY2021, information exchange on the energy situation in each country was conducted. On-site training conducted in FY2022, included practical training on operation using simulations, environmental monitoring, etc. and facility tours of the JMTR, etc. Many participants could join the online training course, they created a diversity of expertise and made lively discussions during the information exchange. On-site training, while limited in number of participants, provided a good opportunity for personnel exchange through practical training and face-face communication. It is desirable to hold on-site training as long as circumstances permit. This report summarizes the training conducted in FY2021 and FY2022.

High-temperature creep properties of 9Cr-ODS tempered martensitic steel and quantitative correlation with its nanometer-scale structure

Otsuka, Satoshi; Shizukawa, Yuta; Tanno, Takashi; Imagawa, Yuya; Hashidate, Ryuta; Yano, Yasuhide; Onizawa, Takashi; Kaito, Takeji; Onuma, Masato*; Mitsuhara, Masatoshi*; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(3), p.288 - 298, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2096147

JAEA has been developing 9Cr-oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) tempered martensitic steel(TMS) as a candidate material for the fuel cladding tubes of sodium-cooled fast reactors(SFRs). The reliable prediction of in-reactor creep-rupture strength is critical for implementing the 9Cr-ODS TMS cladding tube in the SFR. This study investigated the quantitative correlation between the creep properties of 9Cr-ODS TMS at 700 C and the dispersions of nanosized oxides by analyzing the creep data and the material's nanostructure. The possibility of deriving a formula for estimating the in-reactor creep properties of 9Cr-ODS TMSs based on an analysis of the nanostructure of neutron-irradiated 9Cr-ODS TMSs was also discussed. The creep properties of 9Cr-ODS TMS at 700 C closely correlated with the dispersion of nanosized oxide particles. The correlation between creep-rupture lives and nanosized oxide particle dispersion was determined using existing creep models. The elucidation of correlation between the stress exponent of secondary creep rate and the nanostructure is essential to enhance future modeling reliability and formulation.

Tensile properties of modified 316 stainless steel (PNC316) after neutron irradiation over 100 dpa

Yano, Yasuhide; Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Tanno, Takashi; Yoshitake, Tsunemitsu; Otsuka, Satoshi; Kaito, Takeji

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 9 Pages, 2023/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2243943

The effects of fast neutron irradiation on tensile properties of modified 316 stainless steel (PNC316) claddings and wrappers for fast reactors were investigated. PNC316 claddings and wrappers were irradiated in the experimental fast reactor Joyo at irradiation temperatures between 400 and 735 C to fast neutron doses ranging from 21 to 125 dpa. The post-irradiation tensile tests were carried out at room and irradiation temperatures. Elongations of PNC316 measured by the tensile tests were maintained at an engineering level, although the material incurred significant irradiation hardening and softening. The maximum swelling of PNC316 wrappers was about 2.5 vol.% at irradiation temperature between 400 and 500C up to 110 dpa. Japanese 20% cold-worked austenitic steels, PNC316 and 15Cr-20Ni, had sufficient ductility and work-hardenability even after above 10 vol.% swelling, while they had very weak plastic instabilities.

Development of ARKADIA-Design for design optimization support; Application of coupling method using multi-level simulation technique for plant thermal-hydraulics analysis

Doda, Norihiro; Yoshimura, Kazuo; Hamase, Erina; Yokoyama, Kenji; Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Tanaka, Masaaki

Proceedings of Technical Meeting on State-of-the-art Thermal Hydraulics of Fast Reactors (Internet), 3 Pages, 2022/09

ARKADIA-Design is being developed to support the optimization of sodium-cooled fast reactors in the conceptual design stage. Design optimization requires various types of numerical analysis: 1-D plant dynamics analysis for efficient evaluation of various design options and multi-dimensional analysis for a detailed evaluation of local phenomena, including multi-physics. For those analyses, ARKADIA-Design performs whole plant analyses based on the multi-level simulation (MLS) technique in which the analysis codes are coupled to simulate the phenomena in an intended degree of resolution. This paper describes an outline of the coupling analysis methods in the MLS of the ARKADIA-Design and the numerical simulations of the experimental fast breeder reactor EBR-II tests by the coupled analysis.

Step-by-step challenge of debris characterization for the decommissioning of Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS)

Kurata, Masaki; Okuzumi, Naoaki*; Nakayoshi, Akira; Ikeuchi, Hirotomo; Koyama, Shinichi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(7), p.807 - 834, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2040393

Immediately after the 1F-accident, various attempts have been made to evaluate the fuel debris characteristics toward the decommissioning of 1F. The present review outlines those attempts. In the years immediately following the 1F-accident, the knowledge obtained from the 1F-site (especially from the damaged reactors of Units 1, 2 and 3) was extremely limited. The approximate location of fuel debris was investigated by muon tomography, and its characteristics were roughly estimated based on the past findings such as the results of the Three Mile Island-II accident investigation in the United States, which gave us information of prototypical accident scenarios and debris characteristics for pressurized water reactor accident. After that, various internal investigation robots were developed, and from 2017, investigation of the inside of the reactor containment vessel was started using these robots. Consequently, these three units were found to have core damage status and debris distribution that were rather different from what had been expected based on the typical accident scenario of a pressurized water reactor. In parallel, a small amount of U-bearing particle was recovered from the smear samples of these robots. The analysis of these particles is ongoing to get information relevant to fuel debrsi body. Furthermore, international collaboration is ongoing mainly under OECD/NEA, including accident analysis and debris characterization. From now on, one need to further understand 1F-accident scenario and progress debris characterization based on these 1F-site information.

Impact of nitridation on the reliability of 4H-SiC(110) MOS devices

Nakanuma, Takato*; Kobayashi, Takuma*; Hosoi, Takuji*; Sometani, Mitsuru*; Okamoto, Mitsuo*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Shimura, Takayoshi*; Watanabe, Heiji*

Applied Physics Express, 15(4), p.041002_1 - 041002_4, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.35848/1882-0786/ac5ace

The leakage current and flat-band voltage (VFB) instability of NO-nitrided SiC (110) (a-face) MOS devices were systematically investigated. Although NO nitridation is effective in improving the interface properties, we found that it reduces the onset field of Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) current by about 1 MVcm, leading to pronounced leakage current. Synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the nitridation reduces the conduction band offset at the SiO/SiC interface, corroborating the above finding. Furthermore, systematical positive and negative bias stress tests clearly indicated the VFB instability of nitrided a-face MOS devices against electron and hole injection.

Estimation of creep behavior of thick rubber bearings from 47 years observation in an actual building

Masaki, Nobuo*; Kato, Koji*; Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Miyagawa, Takayuki*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Okamura, Shigeki*

Nihon Kenchiku Gakkai Gijutsu Hokokushu, 28(68), p.81 - 84, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.3130/aijt.28.81

no abstracts in English

Effects of thermal aging on the mechanical properties of FeCrAl-ODS alloy claddings

Yano, Yasuhide; Tanno, Takashi; Otsuka, Satoshi; Kaito, Takeji; Ukai, Shigeharu*

Materials Transactions, 62(8), p.1239 - 1246, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.2320/matertrans.MT-M2021057

The FeCrAl-ODS alloy claddings were manufactured and Vickers hardness, ring tensile tests and TEM observations of these claddings were performed to investigate the effects of thermal aging at 450 C for 5,000 and 15,000 h. The age-hardening of all FeCrAl-ODS alloy cladding was found. In addition, the significant increase in tensile strength was accompanied by much larger loss of ductility. It was suggested that this age-hardening behavior was attributed to the (Ti, Al)-enriched phase (' phase) and the ' phase precipitates (content of Al is 7 wt%). In comparison with FeCrAl-ODS alloys with almost same chemical compositions, there was significant age-hardening in both alloys. However, the extrusion bar with no-recrystallized structures was keeping good ductility. It was suggested that this different behavior of reduction ductility was attributed to the effects of grain boundaries, dislocation densities and specimen preparation direction.

Development of technique for acquiring fracture void structure data for a single fracture and acquisition of hydraulic/mass transport properties in a fracture

Sato, Hisashi*; Sawada, Atsushi; Takayama, Yusuke

JAEA-Research 2020-012, 37 Pages, 2020/11

JAEA-Research-2020-012.pdf:2.66MB
JAEA-Research-2020-012-appendix(DVD-ROM).zip:468.23MB

In the safety assessment of the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste, it is important to fully understand the permeability and mass transport properties of actual fractures when setting parameters for permeability and mass transport properties of fractures. Permeability and mass transport properties of a fracture are affected by the void structure of the fracture. Therefore, it is necessary not only to conduct a hydraulic test but also to evaluate hydraulic properties based on the void structure of the fracture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a technique to acquire a three-dimensional void structure of a fracture from fracture surface shape data, and to obtain a dataset of three- dimensional void structure data and hydraulic data of the fracture. Specifically, we made a transparent replica sample of fracture and measure the fracture surface shape data in the exact coordinates. The three-dimensional void structure data was constituted from fracture surface shape data in the same coordinates. In addition, we conducted a permeability test and tracer test for the same sample to obtain a permeability and mass transport properties of the fracture. To assess the validity of the acquired data, we compared it with the apertures evaluated based on different methods. As a result, the average aperture from the fracture void structure was almost same as the average aperture acquired by different methods, from the above that the test result was validated.

Gas barrier properties of chemical vapor-deposited graphene to oxygen imparted with sub-electronvolt kinetic energy

Ogawa, Shuichi*; Yamaguchi, Hisato*; Holby, E. F.*; Yamada, Takatoshi*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka; Takakuwa, Yuji*

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (Internet), 11(21), p.9159 - 9164, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02112

Atomically thin layers of graphene have been proposed to protect surfaces through the direct blocking of corrosion reactants such as oxygen with low added weight. The long term efficacy of such an approach, however, is unclear due to the long-term desired protection of decades and the presence of defects in as-synthesized materials. Here, we demonstrate catalytic permeation of oxygen molecules through previously-described impermeable graphene by imparting sub-eV kinetic energy to molecules. These molecules represent a small fraction of a thermal distribution thus this exposure serves as an accelerated stress test for understanding decades-long exposures. The permeation rate of the energized molecules increased 2 orders of magnitude compared to their non-energized counterpart. Graphene maintained its relative impermeability to non-energized oxygen molecules even after the permeation of energized molecules indicating that the process is non-destructive and a fundamental property of the exposed material.