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Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 164, p.108617_1 - 108617_6, 2021/12
A reasonable source term of a hypothetical criticality accident for fuel fabrication facility with solution system has been proposed. The public exposure must not exceed the limitation of 5 mSv during an accident. Then, we proposed the reasonable source term of the first burst peak due to the hydrogen gas generation by radiation decomposition of water. With the criticality control system composed of the Criticality Accident Alarm System (CAAS) and soluble neutron absorber, safety is ensured by the reduced fission number. We confirmed the effect by environmental impact assessment during a criticality accident by using site condition of a fuel fabrication facility in Tokai-mura, Japan. As a result, the public exposure is reduced at a site boundary from 68 mSv to 0.6 mSv under the current regulatory guideline.
Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 162, p.108512_1 - 108512_10, 2021/11
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.02(Nuclear Science & Technology)The objectives of this study are as follows: to understand the characteristics, degree of passive safety features for heat removal were compared for RCCSs based on atmospheric radiation and based on atmospheric natural circulation under the same conditions. Next, simulations on accidental conditions, such as increasing average heat-transfer coefficient via natural convection due to natural disasters, were performed with STAR-CCM+, and methodology to control the amount of heat removal was discussed. As a result, a new RCCS based on atmospheric radiation is recommended because of the excellent degree of passive safety features/conditions, and the amount of heat removal by heat transfer surfaces which can be controlled. Finally, methodology to determine structural thickness of scaled-down heat removal test facilities for reproducing natural convection and radiation was developed, and experimental methods by using pressurized and decompressed chambers was also proposed.
Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Mitsui, Wataru*; Yamamoto, Yudai*; Nakagawa, Kyoichi*; Ho, H. Q.; Ishii, Toshiaki; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nagasumi, Satoru; Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Kenzhina, I.*; et al.
JAEA-Technology 2021-016, 16 Pages, 2021/09
JAEA-Technology-2021-016.pdf:1.8MB
As a summer holiday practical training 2020, the feasibility study for nuclear design of a nuclear battery using HTTR core was carried out, and the downsizing of reactor core were studied by the MVP-BURN. As a result, it is clear that a 1.6 m radius reactor core, containing 54 (18
3 layers) fuel blocks with 20% enrichment of 
U, and BeO neutron reflector, could operate continuously for 30 years with thermal power of 5 MW. Number of fuel blocks of this compact core is 36% of the HTTR core. As a next step, the further downsizing of core by changing materials of the fuel block will be studied.
Ikeda, Reiji*; Ho, H. Q.; Nagasumi, Satoru; Ishii, Toshiaki; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nakano, Yumi*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Fujimoto, Nozomu*
JAEA-Technology 2021-015, 32 Pages, 2021/09
JAEA-Technology-2021-015.pdf:2.74MB
Burnup calculation of the HTTR considering temperature distribution and detailed burning regions was carried out using MVP-BURN code. The results show that the difference in k
, as well as the difference in average density of some main isotopes, is insignificant between the cases of uniform temperature and detailed temperature distribution. However, the difference in local density is noticeable, being 6% and 8% for U and 
Pu, respectively, and even 30% for the burnable poison 
B. Regarding the division of burning regions to more detail, the change of k is also small of 0.6%
k/k or less. The small burning region gives a detailed distribution of isotopes such as U, Pu, and B. As a result, the effect of graphite reflector and the burnup behavior could be evaluated more clearly compared with the previous study.
Tochio, Daisuke; Nagasumi, Satoru; Inoi, Hiroyuki; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ono, Masato; Kobayashi, Shoichi; Uesaka, Takahiro; Watanabe, Shuji; Saito, Kenji
JAEA-Technology 2021-014, 80 Pages, 2021/09
JAEA-Technology-2021-014.pdf:5.87MB
In response to the new regulatory standards established in response to the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, measures and impact assessments related to internal flooding at HTTR were carried out. In assessing the impact, considering the characteristics of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, flooding due to assumed damage to piping and equipment, flooding due to water discharge from the system installed to prevent the spread of fire, and flooding due to damage to piping and equipment due to an earthquake. The effects of submersion, flooding, and flooding due to steam were evaluated for each of them. The impact of the overflow of liquids containing radioactive materials outside the radiation-controlled area was also evaluated. As a result, it was confirmed that flooding generated at HTTR does not affect the safety function of the reactor facility by taking measures.
Fujimoto, Nozomu*; Tada, Kenichi; Ho, H. Q.; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nagasumi, Satoru; Ishitsuka, Etsuo
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 158, p.108270_1 - 108270_8, 2021/08
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.02(Nuclear Science & Technology)Myagmarjav, O.; Shibata, Ai*; Tanaka, Nobuyuki; Noguchi, Hiroki; Kubo, Shinji; Nomura, Mikihiro*; Takegami, Hiroaki
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(56), p.28435 - 28449, 2021/08
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Chemistry, Physical)Ueta, Shohei; Sasaki, Koei; Arita, Yuji*
Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO
, 63(8), p.615 - 620, 2021/08
no abstracts in English
Fujimoto, Nozomu*; Fukuda, Kodai*; Honda, Yuki*; Tochio, Daisuke; Ho, H. Q.; Nagasumi, Satoru; Ishii, Toshiaki; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nakano, Yumi*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo
JAEA-Technology 2021-008, 23 Pages, 2021/06
JAEA-Technology-2021-008.pdf:2.62MB
The effect of mesh division around the burnable poison rod on the burnup calculation of the HTTR core was investigated using the SRAC code system. As a result, the mesh division inside the burnable poison rod does not have a large effect on the burnup calculation, and the effective multiplication factor is closer to the measured value than the conventional calculation by dividing the graphite region around the burnable poison rod into a mesh. It became clear that the mesh division of the graphite region around the burnable poison rod is important for more appropriately evaluating the burnup behavior of the HTTR core..
Tanaka, Nobuyuki; Sawada, Shinichi*; Yamaki, Tetsuya*; Kodaira, Takahide*; Kimura, Takehiro*; Nomura, Mikihiro*
Chemical Engineering Science, 237, p.116575_1 - 116575_11, 2021/06
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0(Engineering, Chemical)We have been developing the ion exchange membranes by a radiation grafted polymerization method to improve HI concentration performance for Electro-electrodialysis (EED) in the thermochemical water-splitting hydrogen production iodine-sulfur process. In this work, the crosslinking structures were introduced to the ion exchange membranes. The proton conductivity (
), transport number (t
), and water permeation factor (
) of these crosslinked ion exchange membranes were measured and the effect of crosslinks to these performance indexes were investigated. The introduction of crosslinks was found to improve the selectivity of H
and water transport (increase of t and decrease of ), although the somewhat decreased. The EED model that we established to discuss the permeation mechanism of EED system was used to theoretically analyze the effect of crosslink on the performance indexes. Based on this analysis of measurement results, the introduction of the crosslink was found to little affect the absorbed amount of HIx solution and H diffusion coefficient in the tested membranes, whereas it could lead to decrease I
diffusion coefficient. The results of and t could reflect these effects. In addition, we found the fact that crosslink can inhibit the swelling due to the absorption of the HIx solution. As a result, the value decreased owing to the introduction of crosslink.
Ho, H. Q.; Fujimoto, Nozomu*; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nagasumi, Satoru; Goto, Minoru; Ishitsuka, Etsuo
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 377, p.111161_1 - 111161_9, 2021/06
Times Cited Count：1 Percentile：83.53(Nuclear Science & Technology)Atkinson, S.*; Aoki, Takeshi; Litskevich, D.*; Merk, B.*; Yan, X.
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 134, p.103689_1 - 103689_10, 2021/04
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.02(Nuclear Science & Technology)This article evaluates the safety features of the designed 10 MWth U-Battery concept with respect to a control rod withdrawal and a depressurised loss of coolant accident. This article provides the evaluation methodology for both transients, using a one-dimensional heat transfer model involving point reactor kinetic model to simulate reactor feedback in the control rod withdrawal. Overall, this work has shown that during the control rod withdrawal the fuel temperature rises by 110 K and at this point the excess reactivity is compensated by the negative temperature coefficient of the fuel. During the depressurised loss of coolant accident, the maximum fuel temperature reached 1455 K after 60 hours. This concludes that during both transients the temperatures maintained well below the maximum fuel operating temperature.
Kenzhina, I.*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Ho, H. Q.; Sakamoto, Naoki*; Okumura, Keisuke; Takemoto, Noriyuki; Chikhray, Y.*
Fusion Engineering and Design, 164, p.112181_1 - 112181_5, 2021/03
Tritium release into the primary coolant during operation of the JMTR (Japan Materials Testing Reactor) and the JRR-3M (Japan Research Reactor-3M) had been studied. It is found that the recoil release by 
Li(n
,
)
H reaction, which comes from a chain reaction of beryllium neutron reflectors, is dominant. To prevent tritium recoil release, the surface area of beryllium neutron reflectors needs to be minimum in the core design and/or be shielded with other material. In this paper, as the feasibility study of the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors, various materials such as Al, Ti, V, Ni, and Zr were evaluated from the viewpoint of the thickness of barriers, activities after long-term operations, and effects on the reactivities. From the results of evaluations, Al would be a suitable candidate as the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors.
Hirota, Noriaki; Takeda, Kiyoko*; Tachibana, Yukio; Masaki, Yasuhiro*
Zairyo To Kankyo, 70(3), p.68 - 76, 2021/03
Corrosion resistance of stainless steels and Ni-based alloys were evaluated in a sulfuric acid decomposition gas at high temperature. The evaluation were carried out in an environment simulated in the sulfuric acid decomposition reaction vessel for thermochemical hydrogen production process (IS process). Their corrosion films were also analyzed for better understanding of the corrosion behavior. As a result, after 100 hour corrosion test, Ni-based alloy containing 2.4% Si showed good corrosion resistance. Ferritic stainless steel containing 3% Al (3Al-Ferrite) showed better corrosion resistance. Its corrosion rate was lower than that of SiC (0.1mm/year), which is a candidate material for the sulfuric acid decomposition reaction vessel. On the other hand, Ni-based alloy pre-filmed with Al
O
is prepared as the relative corrosion film of 3Al-Ferrite. Its corrosion rate was significantly higher than that of 3Al-Ferrite. As the result of EPMA analysis of these oxide films, Ni-based alloy containing 2.4% Si formed Si oxide film which had some cracks after the long term corrosion test. Therefore S penetrated into grain boundaries of the matrix through the oxide film. 3Al-Ferrite formed a thin and uniform AlO film, and the penetration of S into the grain boundaries was not observed. AlO pre-film of Ni-based alloy also showed S penetration in the matrix because the AlO pre-film had many small defects originally. The corrosion oxide film of 3Al-Ferrite consisted of only -AlO, while the AlO pre-film consist of -AlO and 
-AlO. Those results suggest that the better corrosion resistance of 3Al-Ferrite is due to the uniform formation of dense -AlO film at the early stage of the corrosion.
Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 151, p.107867_1 - 107867_11, 2021/02
Times Cited Count：1 Percentile：83.53(Nuclear Science & Technology)A new RCCS with passive safety features consists of two continuous closed regions. One is a region surrounding RPV. The other is a cooling region with heat transferred to the ambient air. The new RCCS needs no electrical or mechanical driving devices. We compared the RCCS using atmospheric radiation with that using atmospheric natural circulation in terms of passive safety features and control methods for heat removal. The magnitude relationship for passive safety features is heat conduction 
radiation natural convection. Therefore, the magnitude for passive safety features of the former RCCS can be higher than that of the latter RCCS. In controlling the heat removal, the former RCCS changes the heat transfer area only. On the other hand, the latter RCCS needs to change the chimney effect. It is necessary to change the air resistance in the duct. Therefore, the former RCCS can control the heat removal more easily than the latter RCCS.
Fukaya, Yuji; Ueta, Shohei; Goto, Minoru; Ohashi, Hirofumi
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 151, p.107937_1 - 107937_9, 2021/02
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.02(Nuclear Science & Technology)Feasibility study on Burnable Poison (BP) credit concept to High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) fuel fabrication has been performed. By mixing BP into fuel material in the first place of fuel fabrication, criticality safety is ensured in the all fuel fabrication process even with high enrichment fuel such as 14 wt% used in commercial HTGR. However, the poison effect also prevents the criticality even in the HTGR core, and it may shorten cycle length and achievable burn-up of the core. Therefore, the effect is evaluated by whole core burn-up calculation. As a BP, boron, gadolinium, erbium, and hafnium are investigated. As a result, it is found that boron and gadolinium suit this concept and the 14 wt% fuel can be fabricated in the plant fabricating 9.9 wt% High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) fuel. With the boron and gadolinium, the commercial HTGR fuel can be fabricated with the safety measure as same as Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuel facility to treat the fuel with the enrichment up to 5 wt%. Especially, gadolinium is significantly suitable to this concept due to the dependency to spectrum, and more enhanced safety measure is feasible as well.
Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Nakajima, Kunihiro*; Takahashi, Kazuki*; Sakon, Atsushi*; Sano, Tadafumi*; Hashimoto, Kengo*
EPJ Web of Conferences, 247, p.09017_1 - 09017_8, 2021/02
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) started the Research and Development (R&D) to improve nuclear prediction techniques for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs). The objectives are to introduce a generalized bias factor method to avoid full mock-up experiment for the first commercial HTGR and to introduce reactor noise analysis to High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) experiment to observe subcriticality. To achieve the objectives, the reactor core of graphite-moderation system named B7/4"G2/8"p8EUNU+3/8"p38EU(1) was newly composed in the B-rack of Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA). The core is composed of the fuel assembly, driver fuel assembly, graphite reflector, and polyethylene reflector. The fuel assembly is composed of enriched uranium plate, natural uranium plate and graphite plates to realize the average fuel enrichment of HTTR and it's spectrum. However, driver fuel assembly is necessary to achieve the criticality with the small-sized core. The core plays a role of the reference core of the bias factor method, and the reactor noise was measured to develop the noise analysis scheme. In this study, the overview of the criticality experiments is reported. The reactor configuration with graphite moderation system is rare case in the KUCA experiments, and this experiment is expected to contribute not only for an HTGR development but also for other types of a reactor in the graphite moderation system such as a molten salt reactor development.
Sakon, Atsushi*; Nakajima, Kunihiro*; Takahashi, Kazuki*; Hohara, Shinya*; Sano, Tadafumi*; Fukaya, Yuji; Hashimoto, Kengo*
EPJ Web of Conferences, 247, p.09009_1 - 09009_8, 2021/02
In graphite-reflected thermal reactors, even a detector placed far from fuel region may detect a certain degree of the correlation amplitude. This is because mean free path of neutrons in graphite is longer than that in water or polyethylene. The objective of this study is experimentally to confirm a high flexibility of neutron detector placement in graphite reflector for reactor noise analysis. The present reactor noise analysis was carried out in a graphite-moderated and -reflected thermal core in Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA). BF proportional neutron counters (1" dia.) were placed in graphite reflector region, where the counters were separated by about 35cm and 30cm -thick graphite from the core, respectively. At a critical state and subcritical states, time-sequence signal data from these counters were acquired and analyzed by a fast Fourier transform (FFT) analyzer, to obtain power spectral density in frequency domain. The auto-power spectral density obtained from the counters far from the core contained a significant degree of correlated component. A least-squares fit of a familiar formula to the auto-power spectral density data was made to determine the prompt-neutron decay constant. The decay constant was 63.3
14.5 [1/s] in critical state. The decay constant determined from the cross-power spectral density and coherence function data between the two counters also had a consistent value. It is confirmed that reactor noise analysis is possible using a detector placed at about 35cm far from the core, as we expected.
Takeda, Tetsuaki*; Inagaki, Yoshiyuki; Aihara, Jun; Aoki, Takeshi; Fujiwara, Yusuke; Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Ho, H. Q.; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Imai, Yoshiyuki; et al.
High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors; JSME Series in Thermal and Nuclear Power Generation, Vol.5, 464 Pages, 2021/02
As a general overview of the research and development of a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) in JAEA, this book describes the achievements by the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) on the designs, key component technologies such as fuel, reactor internals, high temperature components, etc., and operational experience such as rise-to-power tests, high temperature operation at 950
C, safety demonstration tests, etc. In addition, based on the knowledge of the HTTR, the development of designs and component technologies such as high performance fuel, helium gas turbine and hydrogen production by IS process for commercial HTGRs are described. These results are very useful for the future development of HTGRs. This book is published as one of a series of technical books on fossil fuel and nuclear energy systems by the Power Energy Systems Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Aihara, Jun; Ueta, Shohei; Honda, Masaki*; Mizuta, Naoki; Goto, Minoru; Tachibana, Yukio; Okamoto, Koji*
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(1), p.107 - 116, 2021/01
Times Cited Count：0 Percentile：0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)The concept of a Pu-burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) has been proposed for purpose of more safely reducing amount of recovered Pu. This concept employs coated fuel particles (CFPs) with ZrC coated PuO-YSZ kernel and with tristructural (TRISO) coating for very high Pu burn-up and high nuclear proliferation resistance. In this report, we investigate the microstructure of the region that includes the surface of an as-fabricated CeO-YSZ kernel simulating PuO-YSZ kernel. We found both Zr-rich grains and Ce-rich grains to be densely distributed in that region including surface of CeO-YSZ kernel. On the other hand, it has been reported that there was a porous region near surface of the CeO-YSZ kernel of Batch I. This finding confirms that Ce-rich grains near surface of CeO-YSZ kernels coated with ZrC layers have been corroded during the deposition of the ZrC layer, whereas the Zr-rich grains were hardly affected.
