The purpose of this study is to investigate experimentally the effects of reduced surface tension on the liquid film structure in vertical-upward air-liquid annular flows in a 19.2 mm i.d. and 5.4 m long circular tube. The test liquid was water and/or a dilute water solution of Polyoxyethylene-Lauryl-Ether, and the surface tension of these liquids ranged from 72 to 45 dyne/cm. The liquid film structure was observed by use of both the still photographs and the maps of time and spatial characteristics of peripheral-mean liquid film thickness detected with a series of 63 liquid holdup sensors each axially 15 mm apart in a constant current method. The parameters studied were the wave heights of the liquid film, the passing frequencies of the waves, the mean value and the standard deviation of the wave velocities, each determined from the liquid film thickness signals through a computer program of signal processing. From the observations of still photographs and the maps of time and spatial characteristics of peripheral-mean liquid film thickness, it was cleared that the liquid film structure depends strongly on the surface tension, i.e., the reduction of surface tension makes the passing of the large waves decrease remarkably, the wave height of the large waves lower like small waves, the passing of the small waves more frequent, and the small wave velocity faster.

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Performance of thermoelectric (TE) modules for the TE power conversion system combined with open rack type LNG vaporizer (ORV) is discussed. Most of the conventional BiTe TE modules suffer sudden decrease of the power at cryogenic temperature as low as -160°C. This is called as Mayer-Marschall effect. Authors investigated the cause of this effect and found TE modules that could avoid such effect. Performance data of such TE modules obtained at the cryogenic thermoelectric (CTE) test rig which could realize temperature and fluid dynamic condition of the ORV is presented.

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The production of electricity from the solar cells continues to attract interest as a power source for distributed energy generation. It is important to be able to estimate solar cell power to optimize system energy management. This paper proposes a prediction algorithm based on a neural network (NN) to predict the electricity production from a solar cell. The operation plan for a combined solar cell and diesel engine generator system is examined using the NN prediction algorithm. Two systems are examined in this paper: one with and one without a power storage facility. Comparisons are presented of the results from the two systems with respect to the actual calculations of output power and the predicted electricity production from the solar cell. The exhaust heat from the engine is used to supply the heat demand. A back-up boiler is operated when the engine exhaust heat is insufficient to meet the heat demand. Electricity and heat are supplied to the demand side from the proposed systems, and no external sources are used. When the NN production-of-electricity prediction was introduced, the engine generator operating time was reduced by 12.5% in December and 16.7% for March and September. Moreover, an operation plan for the combined system exhaust heat is proposed, and the heat output characteristics of the back-up boiler are characterized.

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A safety assessment code, DecDose, for decommissioning of nuclear facilities has been developed, based on the experiences of the decommissioning project of Japan Power Demonstration Reactor (JPDR) at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (currently JAEA). DecDose evaluates the annual exposure dose of the public and workers according to the progress of decommissioning, and also evaluates the public dose at accidental situations including fire and explosion. As for the public, both the internal and the external doses are calculated by considering inhalation, ingestion, direct radiation from radioactive aerosols and radioactive depositions, and skyshine radiation from waste containers. For external dose for workers, the dose rate from contaminated components and structures to be dismantled is calculated. Internal dose for workers is calculated by considering dismantling conditions, e.g. cutting speed, cutting length of the components and exhaust velocity. Estimation models for dose rate and staying time were verified by comparison with the actual external dose of workers which were acquired during JPDR decommissioning project. DecDose code is expected to contribute the safety assessment for decommissioning of nuclear facilities.

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We measured the skyshine dose from turbine buildings at Shimane Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 (NS-1) and Unit 2 (NS-2), and then compared it with the dose calculated with the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP5. The skyshine dose values calculated with the MCNP5 code agreed with the experimental data within a factor of 2.8, when the roof of the turbine building was precisely modeled. We concluded that our MCNP5 calculation was valid for BWR turbine skyshine dose evaluation.

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In primary coolant of pressurized water reactors, high concentration dissolved hydrogen (DH) has been added, to prevent generation of oxidizing species through radiolysis of the coolant. Recently, number of ageing plants is increasing and utilities are concerned about primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC). Some researchers consider that occurrence of PWSCC and crack propagation rate are affected by the DH concentration. The authors consider that one of possible mitigation methods toward PWSCC is use of alternative reductant in place of hydrogen. Because from the radiation chemical aspect aliphatic alcohols are typical scavengers of the oxidizing radical generated through the radiolysis of water, they are promising candidates of the alternative reductant. In the present work, possible alternatives of hydrogen were screened, and methanol was selected as the best candidate. Corrosion tests of type 304 stainless steels were carried out in high temperature water at 320°C without irradiation under two conditions: (1) DH 1.5 ppm (part per million) and (2) methanol 2.9 ppm. Electrochemical corrosion potential of the stainless steel specimens was measured during the immersion tests. After the immersion tests for 1500 h, surface morphology of the stainless steel specimens was observed by scanning probe microscope. Major component of the oxide film formed on the stainless steel specimens was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. From comparison of the test results, it is concluded that addition of 2.9 ppm methanol has almost the same effect on corrosion environment as DH 1.5 ppm addition.

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In the design study of the large-sized sodium-cooled fast reactor (JSFR), one key issue is suppression of gas entrainment (GE) phenomena at a gas-liquid interface. Therefore, the authors have been developed a high-precision CFD algorithm to evaluate the GE phenomena accurately. The CFD algorithm has been developed on unstructured meshes to establish an accurate modeling of JSFR system. For two-phase interfacial flow simulations, a high-precision volume-of-fluid algorithm is employed. It was confirmed that the developed CFD algorithm could reproduce the GE phenomena in a simple GE experiment. Recently, the authors have been developed an important technique for the simulation of the GE phenomena in JSFR. That is an unstructured adaptive mesh technique which can apply fine cells dynamically to the region where the GE occurs in JSFR. In this paper, as a part of the development, a two-dimensional unstructured adaptive mesh technique is discussed. In the two-dimensional adaptive mesh technique, each cell is refined isotropically to reduce distortions of the mesh. In addition, connection cells are formed to eliminate the edge incompatibility between refined and non-refined cells. The two-dimensional unstructured adaptive mesh technique is verified by solving well-known lid-driven cavity flow problem. As a result, the two-dimensional unstructured adaptive mesh technique succeeds in providing a high-precision solution, even though poor-quality distorted initial mesh is employed. In addition, the simulation error on the two-dimensional unstructured adaptive mesh is much less than the error on the structured mesh with a larger number of cells.

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MONJU is a sodium-cooled, loop-type prototype fast breeder reactor with three primary cooling loops which can supply 280 MW of electricity. Limiting conditions of operation (LCO) defined in the safety regulations in MONJU given the allowed outage time (AOT) are evaluated using a PSA technique. The result indicates the possibility of limit extension and some prospects that we should examine.

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Laser peening without protective coating (LPwC) treatment is one of surface enhancement techniques using an impact wave of high pressure plasma induced by laser pulse irradiation. High compressive residual stress was induced by the LPwC treatment on the surface of low-carbon type austenitic stainless steel SUS316L. The affected depth reached about 1mm from the surface. High cycle fatigue tests with four-points rotating bending loading were carried out to confirm the effects of the LPwC treatment on fatigue strength and surface fatigue crack propagation behaviors. The fatigue strength was remarkably improved by the LPwC treatment over the whole regime of fatigue life up to 10⁸ cycles. Specimens with a pre-crack from a small artificial hole due to fatigue loading were used for the quantitative study on the effect of the LPwC treatment. The fracture mechanics investigation on the pre-cracked specimens showed that the LPwC treatment restrained the further propagation of the pre-crack if the stress intensity factor range ΔK on the crack tip was less than 7.6 MPa√m. Surface cracks preferentially propagated into the depth direction as predicted through ΔK analysis on the crack by taking account of the compressive residual stresses due to the LPwC treatment.

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An intergranular corrosion is a main degradation mechanism of austenitic stainless steels for use in a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. The intergranular corrosion is caused by the segregation of impurities to grain boundaries and the resultant formation of active sites. Extra High Purity (EHP) austenitic stainless steel was developed with conducting the new multiple refined melting in order to suppress the total harmful impurities less than 100ppm. The intergranular corrosion behavior of EHP austenitic stainless steels added various impurities was examined in boiling HNO₃ solution with highly oxidizing ions to find a correlation between the intergranular corrosion and the impurities of EHP-SSs. The corrosion rate of EHP austenitic stainless steels supported with the degree of intergranular corrosion relatively well. The relationships between the corrosion rate and the impurities content for EHP-SSs was determined using a multiple regression analysis. The influence on corrosion rate became small in order of B, P, Si, C, S and Mn. There is little effect of Mn on corrosion rate of EHP-SSs in case of 10000appm or less. It was important to control B and P in intergranular corrosion behavior of EHP-SSs

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In-Vessel Observations (IVO) techniques for Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) are important in confirming its safety and integrity. And several IVO equipments for an SFR are developed. However, in order to secure the reliability of IVO techniques, it was necessary to demonstrate the performance under the actual reactor environment with high temperature, high radiation dose and remained sodium. During the investigation of an incident that occurred with Joyo, IVO using a standard Video Camera (VC) and a Radiation-Resistant Fiberscope (RRF) took place at (1) the top of the Sub-Assemblies (S/As) and the In-Vessel Storage rack (IVS), (2) the bottom face of the Upper Core Structure (UCS). A simple 6 m overhead view of each S/A, through the fuel handling or inspection holes etc, was photographed using a VC for making observations of the top of S/As and IVS. About 650 photographs were required to create a composite photograph of the top of the entire S/As and IVS, and a resolution was estimated to be approximately 1mm. In order to observe the bottom face of the UCS, a Remote Handling Device (RHD) equipped with RRFs (approximately 13 m long) was specifically developed for Joyo with a tip that could be inserted into the 70 mm gap between the top of the S/As and the bottom of the UCS. A total of about 35,000 photographs were needed for the full investigation. Regarding the resolution, the sodium flow regulating grid of 0.8mm in thickness could be discriminated. The performance of IVO equipments under the actual reactor environment was successfully confirmed. And the results provided useful information on incident investigations. In addition, fundamental findings and the experience gained during this study, which included the design of equipment, operating procedures, resolution, lighting adjustments, photograph composition and the durability of the RRF under radiation exposure, provided valuable insights into further improvements and verifications for IVO techniques to secure the safety and integrity of the future SFRs.

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The COMPASS code is designed based on the moving particle semi-implicit method to simulate various complex mesoscale phenomena relevant to core disruptive accidents of sodium-cooled fast reactors. In this study, a computational framework for fluid-solid mixture flow simulations was developed for the COMPASS code. The passively moving solid model was used to simulate hydrodynamic interactions between fluid and solids. Mechanical interactions between solids were modeled by the distinct element method. A multi-time-step algorithm was introduced to couple these two calculations. The proposed computational framework for fluid-solid mixture flow simulations was verified by the comparison between experimental and numerical studies on the water-dam break with multiple solid rods.

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A supercritical CO₂ gas turbine of 20MPa is suitable to couple with the Na-cooled fast reactor since Na - CO₂ reaction is mild at the outlet temperature of 800K, the cycle thermal efficiency is relatively high and the size of CO₂ gas turbine is very compact. In this gas turbine cycle, a compressor operates near the critical point. The property of CO₂ and then the behavior of compressible flow near the critical point changes very sharply. So far, such a behavior is not examined sufficiently. Then, it is important to clarify compressible flow near the critical point. In this paper, an aerodynamic design of the axial supercritical CO₂ compressor for this system has been carried out based on the existing aerodynamic design method of Cohen¹⁾. The cycle design point was selected to achieve the maximum cycle thermal efficiency of 43.8%. For this point, the compressor design conditions were determined. They are a mass flow rate of 2035kg/s, an inlet temperature of 308K, an inlet static pressure of 8.26MPa, an outlet static pressure of 20.6MPa and a rotational speed of 3600rpm. The mean radius was constant through axial direction. The design point was determined so as to keep the diffusion factor and blade stress within the allowable limits. Number of stages and an expected adiabatic efficiency was 14 and 87%, respectively. CFD analyses by FLUENT have been done for this compressor blade. The blade model consists of one set of a guide vane, a rotor blade and a stator blade. The analyses were conducted under the assumption both of the real gas properties and also of the modified ideal gas properties. Using the real gas properties, analysis was conducted for the 14th blade, whose condition is remote from the critical point and the possibility of divergence is very small. Then, the analyses were conducted for the blade whose conditions are nearer to the critical point. Gradually, divergence of calculation was encountered. Convergence was relatively easy for the modified ideal gas properties. Main output of calculation is a value of the mass flow rate, which was larger than the design value. However the discrepancy of mass flow rates between CFD and design reduced if the 3-dimensional effects are taken into consideration. Absolute velocity distributions, relative velocity distributions and static pressure distributions surrounding rotor blade and stator blade were obtained. The characteristics of these distributions were consistent with those of the fundamental theory and these analyses were justified.

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A supercritical carbon dioxide gas turbine can generate power at a high cycle thermal efficiency, even at modest temperatures of 500-550°C. Consequently, a more reliable and economically advantageous power generation system is achieved by coupling with a Na-cooled fast reactor. This paper mainly describes the bypass compressor (a key component) design and thermal hydraulic analysis using CFD (with FLUENT code). Fluid conditions of the bypass compressor are determined by the cycle calculation of this system. Aerodynamic design was conducted using the loss model described by Cohen et al., which enables the use of several stages while providing total adiabatic efficiency of 21 and 87%, respectivly. Blade shapes were prepared based on flow angles and chord length obtained for the aerodynamic design. In the CFD analysis, the calculated value of the mass flow rate for each stage was adjusted to that of the design. The value of the design outlet pressure was reached at stage No. 16, which is fewer stages than that for design, No. 21. The difference between these stage numbers is attributed to the three-dimensional effect in design. If these effects are eliminated, then the design calculation yields an almost identical number of stages. Therefore, it was concluded that the existing design method is applicable to the supercritical CO₂ bypass compressor. Furthermore, CFD analysis appears to be an effective aerodynamic design tool, but these conclusions should be verified experimentally.

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This paper describes experimental analyses using the SIMMER-III computer code, which is a two-dimensional multi-component multi-phase Eulerian fluid-dynamics code. Two topics of key phenomena in core disruptive accidents were presented in this paper: fuel-pin disruption, and low energy disrupted core motion. Related experimental database were reviewed to select appropriate experiments. To analyze the fuel-pin disruption behavior, the CABRI-EFM1 and the CABRI-E7 in-pile experiments were selected. The SIMMER-III calculation was in good agreement with the overall fuel-pin disruption and dispersion behavior, which was characterized by a thermal pin-failure mode, observed in the CABRI-EFM1 experiment. Since the code framework of SIMMER-III cannot treat a mechanical deformation and breakup behavior, the SAS4A code was applied to the CABRI-E7 experiment, where a mechanical pin-failure mode was realized. In this study, such a failure mode was also reasonably simulated. The low-energy disrupted core consists principally of fuel particles and liquid steel (or fuel). Under such a mixture condition, significantly reduced melt penetration length was obtained in the THEFIS out-of-pile experiments. SIMMER-III well simulated the melt freezing and blockage behavior observed in the experiment.

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CCSE/JAEA (Center for Computational Science and e-Systems/Japan Atomic Energy Agency) integrated a prototype system of a network computing infrastructure for sharing tools and data to support the U.S. and Japan collaboration in GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership). We focused on three technical issues to apply our information process infrastructure, which are accessibility, security, and usability. In designing the prototype system, we integrated and improved both network and Web technologies. For the accessibility issue, we adopted SSL-VPN (Security Socket Layer-Virtual Private Network) technology for the access beyond firewalls. For the security issue, we developed an authentication gateway based on the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) authentication mechanism to strengthen the security. Also, we set fine access control policy to shared tools and data and used shared key based encryption method to protect tools and data against leakage to third parties. For the usability issue, we chose Web browsers as user interface and developed Web application to provide functions to support sharing tools and data. By using WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) function, users can manipulate shared tools and data through the Windows-like folder environment. We implemented the prototype system in Grid infrastructure for atomic energy research: AEGIS (Atomic Energy Grid Infrastructure) developed by CCSE/JAEA. The prototype system was applied for the trial use in the first period of GNEP.

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Uranium crystallization based on solubility difference is one of the remarkable technologies which can provide simple reprocessing process to separate uranium in nitric acid solution since the process is mainly controlled by temperature and concentration of solute ions. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC) are developing the crystallization process for elemental technology of FBR fuel reprocessing. [1-3] The uranium (U) crystallization process is a key technology for New Extraction System for TRU Recovery (NEXT) process that was evaluated as the most promising process for future FBR reprocessing. [4-6] We had developed an innovative crystallizer and carried out several fundamental investigations. On the basis of the results, we fabricated an engineering-scale crystallizer and have carried out continuous operation test to investigate the stability of the equipment at steady and non-steady state conditions by using depleted uranium. As for simulating typical failure events in the crystallizer, crystal accumulation and crystal blockage were induced intentionally, and monitoring method and resuming procedure were evaluated in this work. As the test results, no significant phenomenon was observed in the steady state test. And in the non-steady state test, process fluctuation could be detected by monitoring of screw torque and liquid level in the crystallizer, and all failure events are proven to be recovered by appropriate resumed procedures.

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Pyrometallurgical-reprocessing is one of the most promising technologies for advanced fuel cycle with favorable economic potential and intrinsic proliferation resistance. The development of transport technology for molten salt is a key issue in the industrialization of pyro-reprocessing. As for pure molten LiCl-KCl eutectic salt at approximately 773 K, we have already reported the successful results of transport using gravity and a centrifugal pump. However, molten salt in an electrorefiner mixes with insoluble fines when spent fuel is dissolved in porous anode basket. The insoluble consists of noble metal fission products, such as Pd, Ru, Mo, and Zr. There have been very few transport studies of a molten salt slurry (metal fines-molten salt mixture). Hence, transport experiments on a molten salt slurry were carried out to investigate the behavior of the slurry in a tube. The apparatus used in the transport experiments on the molten salt slurry consisted of a supply tank, a 10° inclined transport tube (10 mm inner diameter), a valve, a filter, and a recovery tank. Stainless steel (SS) fines with diameters from 53 to 415 μm were used. To disperse these fines homogenously, the molten salt and fines were stirred in the supply tank by an impeller at speeds from 1200 to 2100 rpm. The molten salt slurry containing 0.04 to 0.4 vol.% SS fines was transported from the supply tank to the recovery tank through the transportation tube. In the recovery tank, the fines were separated from the molten salt by the filter to measure the transport behavior of molten salt and SS fines. When the velocity of the slurry was 0.02 m/s, only 1% of the fines were transported to the recovery tank. On the other hand, most of the fines were transported when the velocity of the slurry was more than 0.8 m/s. Consequently, the molten salt slurry can be transported when the velocity is more than 0.8 m/s.

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J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex) is a multi-purpose research facility for materials and life sciences, nuclear and particle physics, and nuclear engineering with MW class proton beams at 3 GeV and at several 10 GeV. The accelerator complex consists of a 400-MeV linac, a 3-GeV Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), and a 50-GeV Main Ring synchrotron (MR). It is a challenge to suppress beam loss to the level to allow hands-on maintenance of accelerator components. The RCS scheme is adopted to realize this, which is advantageous over a conventional accumulation ring regarding less beam loss due to lower beam current and easier construction and operation of a linac. RCS, however, required challenging technologies such as a high field radio frequency system, ceramic ducts to reduce eddy current effects. The linac has also unique technologies to minimize beam loss, such as compact electromagnet Drift-Tube Quadrupoles for precise beam size controls, and a fast beam suspending system. The linac achieved its first goal energy of 181 MeV in Jan. 2007. RCS beam was accelerated to its designed energy of 3 GeV in Oct. 2007. The beam acceleration in MR to 30 GeV was established in Dec. 2008. The first neutron and muon beams were produced in May and Sep. 2008, at Materials and Life science experimental Facility (MLF). The linac commissioning has resulted in stable beam with short down time. RCS recorded the highest beam power of 0.21 MW in Sep. 2008 with beam loss localized at the collimators. The linac beam energy will be upgraded to 400 MeV with Annular Coupled Structure linac (ACS) to increase the beam power.

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This report presents a unique TRU burning core capable of accommodating oxide fuel and metal fuel and easy to change oxide core to metal core conforming to the design requirements. For the homogeneous oxide fueled core containing transuranics (TRU) fuel with 12% of the moderator pins, the results of calculation show the TRU conversion ratio (ratio of loss of TRU to loss of heavy metal) of 0.33 and the TRU burning capability (ratio of loss of TRU per electric generation) of 67 kg/TWeh. On the other hand, the calculations replacing from oxide fuel assemblies to metal fuel assemblies have indicated the TRU transmutation capability of 69 kg/TWeh with the TRU conversion ratio of 0.30. As the result of simulation calculations, three ordinary fuel exchanges transform the oxide equilibrium core to the full metal core by way of transitional cores, where the maximum linear heat rates are still equal to the metal equilibrium core or less. With this, the presented core concept is concluded that a full oxide core, a full metal core, mixed fueled cores can be materialized in the presented first unit of Advanced Recycling Reactor (ARR1).

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The short stroke shearing tests with simulated fuel pin bundle were carried out in engineering scale. The shearing device was designed to handle the simulated Monju (FBR prototype reactor) type fuel pin bundle. Monju type and Commercial reactor type simulated fuel pins were used for the test. The sheared pin length and the opening ratio of sheared section were measured under several shearing conditions such as the pressure to hold pin bundle, the shearing speed and the filling-ratio of pins in the pin magazine. Both types of fuel pin were able to be sheared accurately at the length of about 10mm, and the opening ratio of sheared section was not significantly reduced. As the results, fundamental data of the short stroke shearing characteristics were obtained and that shearing method was confirmed to be promising with the reliable shearing device.

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A key problem in the application of a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) turbine cycle to a fast breeder reactor (FBR) is the corrosion of structural material by supercritical CO₂ at high temperature. In this study, corrosion test of high-chromium martensitic steel (12Cr-steel) and FBR grade type 316 stainless steel (316FR), which are candidate materials for FBRs, were performed at 400-600°C in supercritical CO₂ pressurized at 20MPa. Corrosion due to the high temperature oxidation in exposed surface was measured up to approximately 2000h in both steels. In the case of 12Cr-steel, the weight gain showed parabolic growth with exposure time at each temperature. The oxidation coefficient could be estimated by the Arrhenius function. The specimens were covered by two successive oxide layers, an Fe-Cr-O layer (inside) and an Fe-O layer (outside). A partial thin oxide diffusion layer appeared between the base metal and the Fe-Cr-O layer. The corrosion behavior was equivalent to that in supercritical CO₂ at 10MPa, and no effects of CO₂ pressure on oxidation were observed in this study. In the case of 316FR specimens, the weight gain was significantly lower than that of 12Cr-steel. Dependency of neither temperature nor exposed time on oxidation was not observed, and the value of all tested specimens was within 2g/m². Nodule shape oxides which consisted of two structures, Fe-Cr-O and Fe-O were observed on the surface of the 316FR specimen. Carburizing, known as a factor in the occurrence of breakaway corrosion and/or the degradation of ductility, was observed on the surface of both steels.

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Forced convection transient heat transfer coefficients were measured for helium gas and carbon dioxide gas flowing over a twisted heater due to exponentially increasing heat input. The twisted platinum ribbon with a thickness of 0.1 mm was used as test heater and heated by electric current. The heat generation rate was exponentially increased with a function of Q₀exp(t/τ). The gas flow velocities ranged from 1 to 10 m/s, the gas temperatures ranged from 313 to 353 K, and the periods of heat generation rate ranged from 46 ms to 17 s. The surface temperature difference and heat flux increase exponentially as the heat generation rate increases exponentially. Transient heat transfer coefficients increase with increasing gas flow velocity. The heater configuration of twisted heater in this study shows a large effect on the heat transfer coefficient. Empirical correlations for quasi-steady-state heat transfer were obtained based on the experimental data.

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