Kenetsu Shirakawa

Early construction and operation of the highly contaminated water treatment system in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (IV) - Assessment of hydrogen behavior in stored Cs adsorption vessel

Hydrogen diffusion behavior in a cesium adsorption vessel is assessed. The vessel is used to remove radioactive substance from contaminated water, which is proceeded from Fukushima accident. Experiment and numerical calculation are conducted to clarify the characteristics of natural circulation in the vessel. The natural circulation arising from the temperature difference between inside and outside the vessel is confirmed. We develop an evaluation model to predict the natural circulation and its prediction agrees well with the results obtained by the experiment and the calculation. Using the model, we predict steady and transient behavior of hydrogen concentration. Results indicate that hydrogen concentration is kept lower than the flammability limit when the short vent pipe is open.

Effect of Two-Phase Flow Structure in Decontamination Factor of Filtered Containment Venting System

In order to gain the best use of filtered containment venting systems (FCVSs), the decomtamination factor of FCVSs is to be investigated as a function of system parameter including steam flow rate, pressure, temperature, water level, and operating time. A full-height test facilities were designed and constructed in Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan to evaluate the decontamination factor (DF) in FCVSs. The target types are the orifice and the venturi FCVSs. The height and the internal diameter of the cylindrical test vessel is 8 m and 0.5 m. Bubbly flows were visualized through the view window up to 0.8 MPa and 170 °C. Steam bubbles in 0.2 wt% sodium thiosulfate and 0.5 wt% sodium hydroxide were found to be much smaller than those in water. The DF were evaluated for the aerosol, elemental iodine and organic iodine. The installed aerosol optical spectrometer measures the number density and the diameter of aerosols. The concentrations of elemental iodine were quantified with an inductively-coupled plasma with mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The concentration of organic iodine was quantified with a gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In order to investigate two-phase flow dynamics in the vessel, separate effect tests were conducted with air-water test facility. The height of cylindrical test vessel is 8 m. Visual observation was conducted for two internal diameter levels: 0.05 and 0.5 m. High speed video frames were recorded through the transparent (acrylic) vessel wall. Wire-Mesh Sensors (WMS) were installed to acquire a cross-sectional void fraction to compare with DF in the facility. On the basis of the obtained database, we develop the FCVSs performance evaluation technique and propose an optimal FCVSs operation method for a further safety improvements of the nuclear power plant.© 2014 ASME