Aerosol characterization during heating and mechanical cutting of simulated uranium containing debris; The URASOL project in the framework of Fukushima Daiichi fuel debris removal

Porcheron, E.*; Leblois, Y.*; Journeau, C.*; Delacroix, J.*; Molina, D.*; Suteau, C.*; Berlemont, R.*; Bouland, A.*; Lallot, Y.*; Roulet, D.*; et al.

Proceedings of International Topical Workshop on Fukushima Decommissioning Research (FDR2022) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2022/10

One of the important challenges for the decommissioning of the damaged reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F) is the fuel debris retrieval. The URASOL project, which is undertaken by a French consortium consisting of ONET Technologies, CEA, and IRSN for JAEA/CLADS, is dedicated to acquiring basic scientific data on the generation and characteristics of radioactive aerosols from the thermal or mechanical processing of fuel debris simulant. Heating process undertaken in the VITAE facility simulates some representative conditions of thermal cutting by LASER. For mechanical cutting, the core boring technique is implemented in the FUJISAN facility. Fuel debris simulants have been developed for inactive and active trials. The aerosols are characterized in terms of mass concentration, real time number concentration, mass size distribution, morphology, and chemical properties. The chemical characterization aims at identifying potential radioactive particles released and the associated size distribution, both of which are important information for assessing possible safety and radioprotection measures during the fuel debris retrieval operations at 1F.

French-Japanese experimental collaboration on fuel-coolant interactions in sodium-cooled fast reactors

Johnson, M.*; Delacroix, J.*; Journeau, C.*; Brayer, C.*; Clavier, R.*; Montazel, A.*; Pluyette, E.*; Matsuba, Kenichi; Emura, Yuki; Kamiyama, Kenji

Proceedings of International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles; Sustainable Clean Energy for the Future (FR22) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2022/04

Fuel-coolant interactions in the event of molten fuel discharge to the lower plenum of a sodium cooled fast reactor is under investigation as part of a French-Japanese experimental collaboration on severe accidents. The MELT facility enables the X-ray visualisation of the quenching of molten core material jets in sodium at kilogram-scale. The SERUA facility, currently under preparation, is presented for the investigation of boiling heat transfer at elevated melt-coolant interface temperatures. In this article, the status of the collaboration using these facilities is presented.

Laser beam direct energy deposition of graded austenitic-to-martensitic steel junctions compared to dissimilar electron beam welding

Villaret, F.*; Boulnat, X.*; Aubry, P.*; Yano, Yasuhide; Otsuka, Satoshi; Fabregue, D.*; de Carlan, Y.*

Materials Science & Engineering A, 824, p.141794_1 - 141794_10, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2021.141794

Online measurement of the atmosphere around geopolymers under gamma irradiation

Cantarel, V.; Lambertin, D.*; Labed, V.*; Yamagishi, Isao

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(1), p.62 - 71, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1801531

The gas production of wasteforms is a major safety concern for encapsulating active nuclear wastes. For geopolymers and cements, the H produced by radiolytic processes is a key factor because of the large amount of water present in their porous structure. Herein, the gas composition evolution around geopolymers was monitored on line under Co gamma irradiation. Transient evolution of the hydrogen production yield was measured for samples with different formulations. The rate of its evolution and the final values are consistent with the presence of a chemical reaction of the pseudo-first order consuming hydrogen in the samples. The results show this phenomenon can significantly reduce the hydrogen source term of geopolymer wasteform provided their diffusion constant remains low. Lower hydrogen production rates and faster kinetics were observed with geopolymers formulations in which pore water pH was higher. Besides hydrogen production, a steady oxygen consumption was observed for all geopolymers samples. The oxygen consumption rates are proportional to the diffusion constants estimated in the modelization of hydrogen recombination by a pseudo first order reaction.

Benchmarks of depletion and decay heat calculation between MENDEL and MARBLE

Yokoyama, Kenji; Lahaye, S.*

Proceedings of Joint International Conference on Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications + Monte Carlo 2020 (SNA + MC 2020), p.109 - 116, 2020/10

CEA/DEN/DM2S/SERMA and JAEA/NSEC are working on benchmarks for burnup, isotopic concentrations and decay heat calculations in the collaboration framework between both organisms. Both actors of this benchmark are independently developing their own simulation code systems for computing quantities of interest in nuclear fuel cycle domain: MENDEL in CEA and MARBLE in JAEA. The purpose of the benchmark is to verify each system by comparing both calculation results on specific applications. MENDEL uses a several solvers for the resolution of Bateman equation. Runge-Kutta method or Chebyshev Rational Approximation method (CRAM) are used for irradiation computations. An analytical solver can also be used for decay calculations. MARBLE can use Krylov subspace method or CRAM method. As the first phase of the benchmark, we compared the calculated results of decay heat and isotropic concentrations following by a Pu-239 fast fission pulse. We applied nuclear data from three libraries: (1) JEFF-3.1.1, (2) JENDL/DDF-2015 + JENDL/FPY-2011, and (3) ENDF/B-VII.1. Nuclear data and burnup chain were generated from these libraries independently on each system. We confirmed that the results for both systems were in very good agreement with each other. Numerical results were also compared to experimental data. As the second phase of the benchmark, we are proceeding with a burnup calculation benchmark of MENDEL and MARBLE using the nuclear data and burnup chain provided by ORLIBJ33, which is a set of cross-section data based on JENDL-3.3 for ORIGEN-2 code system. We will also compare with calculation results by the ORIGEN-2 code with ORLIBJ33. Since the series of ORLIB, that is, ORLIBJ32, ORLIBJ33, and ORLIBJ40, have been widely used especially in Japan for many years, the comparison with ORLIB is effective for confirming the performance of MENDEL and MARBLE.

Leaching behavior of prototypical Corium samples; A Step to understand the interactions between the fuel debris and water at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors

Nakayoshi, Akira; Jegou, C.*; De Windt, L.*; Perrin, S.*; Washiya, Tadahiro

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 360, p.110522_1 - 110522_18, 2020/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110522

Routing study of above core structure with mock-up experiment for ASTRID

Takano, Kazuya; Sakamoto, Yoshihiko; Morohoshi, Kyoichi*; Okazaki, Hitoshi*; Gima, Hiromichi*; Teramae, Takuma*; Ikarimoto, Iwao*; Botte, F.*; Dirat, J.-F.*; Dechelette, F.*

Proceedings of 2019 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2019) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2019/05

ASTRID has the objective to integrate innovative options in order to prepare the 4th generation reactors. In ASTRID, large number of tubes are installed above each fuel subassembly to monitor the core. These instrumentations such as thermocouples (TC) and Failed Fuel Detection and Location (FFDL) systems are integrated into Above Core Structure (ACS) with various sizes tubes. In the present study, the routing study for TC tubes and FFDL tubes was performed with 3D modeling and mock-up experiment of the ACS designed for ASTRID with 1500 MW thermal power in order to clarify the integration process and secure the design hypotheses. Although some problems on fabricability were found in the mock-up experiment, the possible solutions were proposed. The present study gives manufacturing feedback to design team and will contribute to increase the knowledge for ACS design and fabricability.

Turbulent generation of poloidal asymmetries of the electric potential in a tokamak

Donnel, P.*; Garbet, X.*; Sarazin, Y.*; Asahi, Yuichi; Wilczynski, F.*; Caschera, E.*; Dif-Pradalier, G.*; Ghendrih, P.*; Gillot, C.*

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 61(1), p.014003_1 - 014003_11, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/aae4fe

Poloidal asymmetries of the plasma flow are known to play a role in neoclassical transport. According to conventional neoclassical theory, the level of poloidal asymmetry of the electric potential is expected to be very small. In the present work, a general framework for the generation of axisymmetric structures of potential by turbulence is presented. Zonal flows, geodesic acoustic modes and convective cells are described by a single model. This is done by solving the gyrokinetic equation coupled to the quasi-neutrality equation. This calculation provides a predictive calculation of the frequency spectrum of flows given a specified forcing due to turbulence. It also shows that the dominant mechanism comes from zonal flow compression at intermediate frequencies, while ballooning of the turbulence Reynolds stress appears to be the main drive at low frequency.

CIELO collaboration summary results; International evaluations of neutron reactions on uranium, plutonium, iron, oxygen and hydrogen

Chadwick, M. B.*; Capote, R.*; Trkov, A.*; Herman, M. W.*; Brown, D. A.*; Hale, G. M.*; Kahler, A. C.*; Talou, P.*; Plompen, A. J.*; Schillebeeckx, P.*; et al.

Nuclear Data Sheets, 148, p.189 - 213, 2018/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2018.02.003

The CIELO collaboration has studied neutron cross sections on nuclides that significantly impact criticality in nuclear facilities - U, U, Pu, Fe, O and H - with the aim of improving the accuracy of the data and resolving previous discrepancies in our understanding. This multi-laboratory pilot project, coordinated via the OECD/NEA Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) Subgroup 40 with support also from the IAEA, has motivated experimental and theoretical work and led to suites of new evaluated libraries that accurately reflect measured data and also perform well in integral simulations of criticality. This report summarizes our results and outlines plans for the next phase of this collaboration.

Study on the distribution of boron in the in-vessel fuel debris in conditions close to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 2

Ikeuchi, Hirotomo; Piluso, P.*; Fouquart, P.*; Excoffier, E.*; David, C.*; Brackx, E.*

Proceedings of 8th European Review Meeting on Severe Accident Research (ERMSAR 2017) (Internet), 12 Pages, 2017/05

no abstracts in English