Yasuteru Sibamoto

Insights from review and analysis of the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident

An unprecedented earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plants on 11 March 2011. Although extensive efforts have been continuing on investigations into the causes and consequences of the accident, and the Japanese Government has presented a comprehensive report on the accident in the IAEA Ministerial Conference held in June 2011, there is still much to be clarified on what happened during the accident and why. This article aims at identifying what should be clarified further about the progression of the accident at Units 1–3 through the review and analysis of information released from Tokyo Electric Power Company and government authorities. It also discusses the safety issues raised by the accident based on the insights gained, in order to contribute to establishing a new framework that pursues continuous improvement toward the highest standards of safety that can reasonably be achieved.

Small-scale Experiment on Subcooled Water Jet Injection into Molten Alloy by Using Fluid Temperature-Phase Coupled Measurement and Visualization

The plunging water jet behavior into a pool of a molten lead-bismuth alloy is experimentally investigated. The mixing and interactions of fluids were detected by measuring the fluid temperature as well as the fluid phase distinction by the newly developed bifunctional probes. In general knowledge of fuel-coolant interactions, the film boiling of water is caused immediately after the first contact of high-temperature melt and water, but the vapor film is locally collapsed by some reasons and the direct contact is extensively propagating in some cases which may produce the explosive vapor generation. In the melt-injection mode previously investigated by numerous researchers, the triggering of explosive interactions is considered as a local rewetting caused by instabilities of the vapor film as the melt temperature decrease. In the coolant-injection mode discussed by the present study, on the other hand, the water temperature poured into bulk melt continues to rise for penetration, in general, that should be effective to stabilize the film boiling. The present experiments showed, however, that the explosive boiling occurred in a condition that both water and melt initial temperatures were high enough for maintaining stable film boiling on the melt-water interface that is clearly different manner of the melt injection mode. Such unstable phenomena are observed when the instantaneous interfacial contact temperature exceeds the homogeneous nucleation temperature of water and the amount of saturated water is accumulated in a melt pool.

Core Heat Transfer Coefficients Immediately Downstream of the Rewetting Front during Anticipated Operational Occurrences for BWRs

A heat transfer coefficient (HTC) model was developed for the prediction of post-boiling transition (post-BT) behavior that might occur during anticipated operational occurrences (AOOs) for boiling water reactors (BWRs). The model development was based on measurements of heat transfer coefficient, liquid droplet deposition rate, and droplet concentration in our experiments conducted at high pressure. The model focused on the heat transfer near the rewetting front where the cooling by droplet deposition significantly affects the propagation behavior of a liquid film. The correlation by Sugawara was validated for the prediction of the deposition by using the experimental data. The model was also expressed as a function of the distance from the rewetting front to use in analytical models for the rewetting propagation. Both expressions of the present model successfully predicted our experimental data simulating the BWR thermal-hydraulic conditions.

In-pile Experiment in JMTR on the Radiation Induced Surface Activation (RISA) Effect on Flow-boiling Heat Transfer

In-pile flow-boiling experiments were performed to investigate the possible enhancement of heat transfer by the radiation induced surface activation (RISA) effect. The test section was a 2-mm diameter 100-mm long bore in a SUS-316L stainless steel block heated electrically. The test section, housed in an irradiation capsule, was inserted into one of the irradiation holes in the Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Quasi-steady state experiments were conducted before irradiation (out-of-pile and in-pile before reactor operation), during irradiation and after irradiation (in-pile), for the same boundary conditions using the same test section block. This approach allowed direct evaluation of the RISA effect through comparison of experimental data. Boiling curves were obtained up to the onset of dryout in an annular dispersed flow, for mass fluxes ranging from 180 to 630kg/(m2s) under a fixed pressure of 420 kPa. The critical heat flux obtained during and after irradiation indicated an about 17% increase, on average, from that before irradiation. Meanwhile, the wall superheat at subcritical heat fluxes generally became greater than that before irradiation.

RANS and LES Analyses on a Density Stratified Layer Behavior of Multicomponent Gas by Buoyant Jet in a Small Vessel

The analysis on a density stratified layer consisting of multiple gases in the reactor containment vessel is important for the safety assessment of sever accidents. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code has a potential to clarify detailed stratification phenomena in the containment vessel. In this paper, CFD analyses were carried out in order to investigate the erosion of the stratified layer by a vertical buoyant jet injected from the bottom of a small vessel. Although the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model is commonly used in industrial applications, it is known that the RANS analyses tend to overpredict effects of turbulent mixing and stratification erosion for these phenomena. This study carried out the RANS and Large-Eddy simulations (LES) in order to understand the detailed phenomena of the stratification erosion in a containment vessel, and clarify the problems of the RANS analysis from the comparison. As a result, although both the RANS and LES models calculated the erosion, the erosion rates calculated by the RANS models were faster than that by the LES model. The calculated erosion behavior was qualitatively different: the LES analyses showed the vertical helium turbulent transport was enhanced only in the radial region directly affected by the impinging jet, while the RANS analyses indicated the occurrences of such transportation at all the radial locations. Although more detailed validation is required using appropriate experimental data, this difference among the calculated cases suggests the importance of the improvement of the turbulence models in order to accurately predict turbulence damping in the stratification layer.Copyright

A simple mass and heat balance model for estimating plant conditions during the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident

A simple evaluation method for the analysis of thermal-hydraulic transients in reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and primary containment vessel (PCV) is proposed to support understanding the accident behaviors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (NPP). Since most of the measurements of the plants were unavailable especially in the early stage of the accident, and the accessibility to the plants had been limited by radiation, analytical investigation for the plant was required to understand the plant conditions such as the magnitude of the damages. In order to provide easy-to-use technical tools to support the analytical investigation, we developed a simplified analysis code, named “HOTCB”, based on total mass and heat balances in a lamped parameter system. The HOTCB code has capabilities to treat two-phase fluid including water, steam, and non-condensable gas in a wide range of temperatures up to highly superheated conditions, and to consider heat structures, i.e. heat capacities and heat transfer to the fluid. The code was provided to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and was practically used for the analysis on the accident. This paper provides the details of the code and simulations of Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (NPP) as examples to show the usefulness of the code.

Heat conduction analyses on rewetting front propagation during transients beyond anticipated operational occurrences for BWRs

ABSTRACT Our previous study investigated the rewetting behavior of dryout fuel surface during transients beyond anticipated operational occurrences for BWRs, which indicated the rewetting velocity was significantly affected by the precursory cooling defined as cooling immediately before rewetting. This study further investigated the previous experiments by conducting additional experimental and numerical heat conduction analyses to characterize the precursory cooling. For the characterization, the precursory cooling was first defined quantitatively based on evaluated heat transfer rates; the rewetting velocity was investigated as a function of the cladding temperature immediately before the onset of the precursory cooling. The results indicated that the propagation velocity appeared to be limited by the maximum heat transfer rate near the rewetting front. This limitation was consistent with results of the heat conduction analysis using heat transfer models for the precursory cooling expressed as a function of distance from the rewetting front, the maximum wetting temperature, and the heat transfer coefficients in the wetted region. This paper also discusses uncertainties in the evaluation of transient heat flux from the measured surface temperature, and technical issues requiring further investigation.

Measurement and Analysis for Rewetting Velocity Under Post-BT Conditions During Anticipated Operational Occurrence of BWR

A series of experiments was performed for rewetting phenomena on dryed-out fuel rod surfaces under post-BT (Boiling Transition) conditions with high-pressure and high-water flow rate simulating anticipated operational occurrences of a BWR. An analytical model for rewetting velocity, defined by a propagation velocity of a quench front, has been developed on the basis of the experimental results. The rewetting for the post-BT condition is characterized by the faster propagation of the quench front than that for reflood phase conditions during a postulated large-break loss-of-coolant accident. In order to provide an explanation of this characteristic, the present analytical model took an effect of a precursory cooling into account by modifying the existing correlation by Sun-Dix-Tien [1] which is based on a one-dimensional analysis in a flow direction during the reflood phase. The present model demonstrates that the precursory cooling can significantly increase the rewetting velocity by more than an order of magnitude. Applying the experimental correlation developed in the separately conducted experiment into the heat transfer coefficient in the present model at a wet and a dry region with precursory cooling, our data of the rewetting velocity as well as the wall temperature profiles for the variable flow rates are successfully predicted.© 2009 ASME