Comparative methodology between actual RCCS and downscaled heat-removal test facility

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 133, p.830 - 836, 2019/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2019.07.025

A RCCS having passive safety features through radiation and natural convection was proposed. The RCCS design consists of two continuous closed regions: an ex-reactor pressure vessel region and a cooling region with a heat-transfer surface to ambient air. The RCCS uses a novel shape to remove efficiently the heat released from the RPV through as much radiation as possible. Employing air as the working fluid and ambient air as the ultimate heat sink, the RCCS design can strongly reduce the possibility of losing the working fluid and the heat sink for decay-heat-removal. Moreover, the authors started experiment research with using a scaled-down heat-removal test facility. Therefore, this study propose a comparative methodology between an actual RCCS and a scaled-down heat-removal test facility.

Austenite-based stainless steel irradiation behavior of the precipitate and void swelling

Inoue, Toshihiko; Sekio, Yoshihiro; Watanabe, Hideo*

Materia, 58(2), P. 92, 2019/02

https://doi.org/10.2320/materia.58.92

For the evaluation of irradiated segregation behavior, Austenite-based stainless steel for the fast reactor, during irradiation was evaluated by utilizing TIARA facility (Irradiate temperature: 600 C, Dose: 100 dpa) was observed by analytical electron microscope (JEM-ARM20FC). As a result of observation, the large-size void is observed in irradiation area, and MX segregation (containing Niobium) is not observed. In un-irradiation area the MX segregation is observed. And it is observed conspicuously that Nickel is segregation on the void surface. By the latest high-performance TEM utilization, these phenomenon are able to visualize. It is expected for the clarification of the irradiation damage and mechanism of void swelling, by the analyzing these phenomenon utilization with the latest high-performance TEM utilization.

Improvement of heat-removal capability using heat conduction on a novel reactor cavity cooling system (RCCS) design with passive safety features through radiation and natural convection

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 122, p.201 - 206, 2018/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2018.08.047

A RCCS having passive safety features through radiation and natural convection was proposed. The RCCS design consists of two continuous closed regions: an ex-reactor pressure vessel region and a cooling region with a heat-transfer surface to ambient air. The RCCS uses a novel shape to remove efficiently the heat released from the RPV through as much radiation as possible. Employing air as the working fluid and ambient air as the ultimate heat sink, the RCCS design can strongly reduce the possibility of losing the working fluid and the heat sink for decay-heat-removal. This study addresses an improvement of heat-removal capability using heat conduction on the RCCS. As a result, a heat flux removed by the RCCS could be doubled; therefore, it is possible to halve the height of the RCCS or increase the thermal reactor power.

Experimental study on heat removal performance of a new Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS)

Hosomi, Seisuke*; Akashi, Tomoyasu*; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*; Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi

Proceedings of 11th Korea-Japan Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS-11) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2018/11

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 started experiment research with using a scaled-down test section. Three experimental cases under different emissivity conditions were performed. We used Monte Carlo method to evaluate the contribution of radiation to the total heat released from the heater. As a result, after the heater wall was painted black, the contribution of radiation to the total heat could be increased to about 60%. A high emissivity of RPV surface is very effective to remove more heat from the reactor. A high emissivity of the cooling part wall is also effective because it not only increases the radiation emitted to the ambient air, but also may increase the temperature difference among the walls and enhance the convection heat transfer in the RCCS.

Quark model estimate of hidden-charm pentaquark resonances

Hiyama, Emiko; Hosaka, Atsushi; Oka, Makoto; Richard, J.-M.*

Physical Review C, 98(4), p.045208_1 - 045208_8, 2018/10

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.98.045208

A quark model, which reproduces the ground-state mesons and baryons, i.e., the threshold energies, is applied to the configurations, where is a light quark and the charmed quark. In the calculation, several open channels are explicitly included such as , , , etc. To distinguish genuine resonances and estimate their width, we employ Gaussian Expansion Method supplemented by the real scalingmethod (stabilization). No resonance is found at the energies of the and pentaquarks. On the other hand, there is a sharp resonant state at 4690 MeV with state and another one at 4920 MeV with state, which have a compact structure.

Numerical simulation on self-leveling behavior of mixed particle beds using multi-fluid model coupled with DEM

Phan, L. H. S.*; Ohara, Yohei*; Kawata, Ryo*; Liu, X.*; Liu, W.*; Morita, Koji*; Guo, L.*; Kamiyama, Kenji; Tagami, Hirotaka

Proceedings of 12th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-12) (USB Flash Drive), 12 Pages, 2018/10

Self-leveling behavior of core fuel debris beds is one of the key phenomena for the safety assessment of core disruptive accidents (CDAs) in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The SIMMER code has been developed for CDA analysis of SFRs, and the code has been successfully applied to numerical simulations for key thermal-hydraulic phenomena involved in CDAs as well as reactor safety assessment. However, in SIMMER's fluid-dynamics model, it is always difficult to represent the strong interactions between solid particles as well as the discrete particle characteristics. To solve this problem, a new method has been developed by combining the multi-fluid model of the SIMMER code with the discrete element method (DEM) for the solid phase to reasonably simulate the particle behaviors as well as the fluid-particle interactions in multi-phase flows. In this study, in order to validate the multi-fluid model of the SIMMER code coupled with DEM, numerical simulations were performed on a series of self-leveling experiments using a gas injection method in cylindrical particle beds. The effects of friction coefficient on the simulation results were investigated by sensitivity analysis. Though more extensive validations are needed, the reasonable agreement between simulation results and corresponding experimental data preliminarily demonstrates the potential ability of the present method in simulating the self-leveling behaviors of debris bed. It is expected that the SIMMER code coupled with DEM is a prospective computational tool for analysis of safety issues related to solid particle debris bed in SFRs.

X-ray absorption near edge structure and first-principles spectral investigations of cationic disorder in MgAlO induced by swift heavy ions

Yoshioka, Satoru*; Tsuruta, Konosuke*; Yamamoto, Tomokazu*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Matsumura, Sho*; Ishikawa, Norito; Kobayashi, Eiichi*

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20(7), p.4962 - 4969, 2018/02

https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CP07591J

Cationic disorder in the MgAlO spinel induced by swift heavy ions was investigated using the X-ray absorption near edge structure. With changes in the irradiation fluences of 200 MeV Xe ions, the Mg K-edge and Al K-edge spectra were synchronously changed. The calculated spectra based on density function theory indicate that the change in the experimental spectra was due to cationic disorder between Mg in tetrahedral sites and Al in octahedral sites. These results suggest a high inversion degree to an extent that the completely random configuration is achieved in MgAlO induced by the high density electronic excitation under swift heavy ion irradiation.

Turbulent transport reduction induced by transition on radial electric field shear and curvature through amplitude and cross-phase in torus plasma

Kobayashi, Tatsuya*; Ito, Kimitaka*; Ido, Takeshi*; Kamiya, Kensaku*; Ito, Sanae*; Miura, Yukitoshi; Nagashima, Yoshihiko*; Fujisawa, Akihide*; Inagaki, Shigeru*; Ida, Katsumi*

Scientific Reports (Internet), 7(1), p.14971_1 - 14971_8, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14821-y

Numerical simulation of solid-particle sedimentation behavior using a multi-fluid model coupled with DEM

Kawata, Ryo*; Ohara, Yohei*; Sheikh, Md. A. R.*; Liu, X.*; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Morita, Koji*; Guo, L.*; Kamiyama, Kenji; Suzuki, Toru

Proceedings of 17th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-17) (USB Flash Drive), 14 Pages, 2017/09

Systematic measurement of double-differential neutron production cross sections for deuteron-induced reactions at an incident energy of 102 MeV

Araki, Shohei*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Kitajima, Mizuki*; Sadamatsu, Hiroki*; Nakano, Keita*; Kin, Tadahiro*; Iwamoto, Yosuke; Satoh, Daiki; Hagiwara, Masayuki*; Yashima, Hiroshi*; et al.

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 842, p.62 - 70, 2017/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2016.10.043

Recently, deuteron incident reaction is expected to be used as a neutron source for study of radiation damage in fusion materials, boron neutron capture therapy, and so on. However, experimental data to validate the model is very few. In this work, double-differential neutron production cross sections (DDXs) for deuteron-induced reactions on Li, Be, C, Al, Cu, and Nb at 102 MeV were measured at forward angles 25 by means of a time of flight (TOF) method with NE213 liquid organic scintillators at the Research Center of Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University. The experimental DDXs and energy-integrated cross sections were compared with TENDL-2015 data and PHITS calculation. The PHITS calculation showed better agreement with the experimental results than TENDL-2015 for all target nuclei, although the shape of the broad peak around 50 MeV was not satisfactorily reproduced by the PHITS calculation.