Research activities on nuclear reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics in Japan after Fukushima-Daiichi accident

Research and development in nuclear reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics continue to be vital parts of nuclear science and technology in Japan. The Fukushima accident not only brought tremendous change in public attitudes towards nuclear engineering and technology, but also had huge influence towards the research and development culture of scientific communities in Japan. After the Fukushima accident, thorough accident reviews were completed by independent committees, namely, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Japanese government, the Diet of Japan, the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics divisions of Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) also issued the roadmaps after the accident. As a result, lessons learned from the accident were made clear, and a number of new research activities were initiated. The present paper reviews ongoing nuclear engineering research activities in Japanese institutes, universities, and corporations, focusing on the areas in reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics since the Fukushima accident to the present date.     

Improvement of productivity of active horseradish peroxidase in Escherichia coli by coexpression of Dsb proteins

Coexpression of two classes of folding accessory proteins, molecular chaperones and foldases, can be expected to improve the productivity of soluble and active recombinant proteins. In this study, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), which has four disulfide bonds, was selected as a model enzyme and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The effects of coexpression of a series of folding accessory proteins (DnaK, DnaJ, GrpE, GroEL/ES, trigger factor (TF), DsbA, DsbB, DsbC, DsbD, and thioredoxin (Trx)) on the productivity of active HRP in E. coli were examined. Active HRP was produced by very mild induction with 1 μM isopropyl-β- -thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) at 37°C, whereas the amount of active HRP produced by the induction with 1 mM IPTG was negligibly small. Active HRP production was increased significantly by coexpression of DsbA-DsbB (DsbAB) or DsbC-DsbD (DsbCD), while coexpression of molecular chaperones did not improve active HRP production. The growth of E. coli cells was inhibited significantly by the induction with 1 mM IPTG in a HRP single expression system. In contrast, when HRP was coexpressed with DsbCD, the growth inhibition of E. coli was not observed. Therefore, coexpression of Dsb proteins improves both the cell growth and the productivity of HRP.     

Structure of insoluble complex formed by a block copolymer of 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline and ethylene oxide and poly(methacrylic acid)

Complexes that were insoluble in water were formed by mixing aqueous solutions of a block copolymer of 2-ethtyl-2-oxazoline (EOX) and ethylene oxide (EO) and those of poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA). The structures of these complexes were investigated by the results obtained mainly by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry. The molar ratio of MAA in the complexes was also estimated by analyzing the infrared spectra. Whereas homopolymers of EOX and EO formed nearly equimolar complexes with PMAA irrespective of the feed molar ratio, the molar ratio of MAA in the complexes formed by the block copolymer and PMAA depended on the feed molar ratio. Although the infrared spectra indicated structural differences between the homopolymer of EOX and EOX in the block copolymer before forming complexes, the spectra obtained for the complexes formed by the homopolymer and the block copolymer were similar to each other.     

Morphological Effects of Grinding on Bismuth-Based Cuprate Superconductors

Morphological changes of bismuth-based cuprate superconductors, such as the 2223 phase, via a small mechanical force were studied mainly by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Even light mechanical grinding of the sintered 2223 samples led to the formation of superfine particles that had a width of ∼5 nm. Moreover, we found first that the superfine particles had a discrete thickness of odd numbers of a half unit length c /2 of the 2223 phase, e.g. 1.9 nm, 5.6 nm, and so on. The formation of the superfine particles was due to cleavage at Bi—O double layers that were bound weakly to each other in a unit cell.     

Effect of hydrocarbons on the efficiency of catalytic reactor of detritiation system in an event of fire

Detritiation system of a nuclear fusion plant is mandatory to be designed and qualified taking carefully into consideration all the possible extraordinary situations in addition to that in a normal condition. We focused on the change in the efficiency of tritium oxidation of a catalytic reactor in an event of fire where the air accompanied with hydrocarbons, water vapor, and tritium is fed into a catalytic reactor at the same time. Our test results on the effect of these gases on the efficiency of tritium oxidation of the catalytic reactor indicated; (1) tritiated hydrocarbon produces significantly by reaction between tritium and hydrocarbons in a catalytic reactor; (2) there is little possibility of degradation in the detritiation performance because the tritiated hydrocarbons produced in the catalyst reactor are combusted; (3) there is no possibility of uncontrollable rise in the temperature of the catalytic reactor by heat of reactions; and (4) saturated water vapor could temporarily poison the catalyst and degrades the detritiation performance. Our investigation indicated a saturated water vapor condition without hydrocarbons would be the dominant scenario to determine the amount of catalyst for the design of catalytic reactor of the detritiation system.     

Unsolved issues related to thermal-hydraulics in the suppression chamber during Fukushima Daiichi accident progressions

ABSTRACT

On 11 March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The Fukushima Daiichi Units 1–3 lost all DC and AC power supplies, which set in motion a chain of events that led to releases of radioactivity to the environment. Since then, TEPCO has made many efforts to investigate the accident progressions and the status of the reactors and containment vessels. However, there still exist several tens of unsolved issues to be investigated for the fully understanding of the accident. In this paper, we introduce the unsolved issues related to thermal-hydraulics in the suppression chamber during the Fukushima Daiichi accident progressions. Especially, in Units 2 and 3, there are possibilities that thermal stratification inside their suppression chambers played an important role. It is important that these phenomena are addressed following both theoretical and experimental approaches as support to severe accident simulations.     

Influence on moisture and hydrocarbons on conversion rate of tritium in catalytic reactors of fusion-DEMO detritiation system

Thoughtful consideration of abnormal events such as fire is required to design and qualify a detritiation system (DS) of a nuclear fusion facility. Since conversion of tritium to tritiated vapor over catalyst is the key process of the DS, it is indispensable to evaluate the effect of excess moisture and hydrocarbons produced by combustion of cables on tritium conversion rate considering fire events. We conducted demonstration tests on tritium conversion under the following representative conditions: (I) leakage of tritium, (II) leakage of tritium plus moisture, and (III) leakage of tritium plus hydrocarbons. Detritiation behavior in the simulated room was assessed, and the amount of catalyst to fulfill the requirement on tritium conversion rate was evaluated. The dominant parameters for detritiation are the concentration of hydrogen in air and catalyst temperature. The tritium in the simulated room was decreased for condition (I) following ventilation theory. An initial reduction in conversion rate was measured for condition (II). To recover the reduction smoothly, it is suggested to optimize the power of preheater. An increase in catalyst temperature by heat of reaction of hydrocarbon combustion was evaluated for condition (III). The heat balance of catalytic reactor is a point to be carefully investigated to avoid runaway of catalyst temperature.     

A study of economic evaluation of demand‐side energy storage system in consideration of market clearing price

In Japan the electricity market will open on April 1, 2004. Electric utility, Power Producer and Supplier (PPS), and Load Service Entity (LSE) will join the electricity market. LSEs purchase electricity based on the Market Clearing Price (:MCP) from the electricity market. LSEs supply electricity to the customers that contracted with the LSEs on a certain electricity price, and one to the customers that introduced Energy Storage System (:ES) on a time‐of‐use pricing. It is difficult for LSEs to estimate whether they have any incentive to promote customers to introduce ES or not. This paper evaluates the reduction of LSEs' purchasing cost from the electricity market and other LSEs' purchasing cost by introducing ES to customers. It is clarified which kind of customers has the effect of decreasing LSEs' purchasing cost and how much MCP of the whole power system the demand‐side energy storage systems change. Through numerical examples, this paper evaluates the possibility of giving the cost merit to both customers with energy storage systems and LSE by using real data for a year's worth of MCP. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 158(1): 22–35, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20447     

Stochastic synchrony of chaos in a pulse-coupled neural network with both chemical and electrical synapses among inhibitory neurons

The synchronous firing of neurons in a pulse-coupled neural network composed of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is analyzed. The neurons are connected by both chemical synapses and electrical synapses among the inhibitory neurons. When electrical synapses are introduced, periodically synchronized firing as well as chaotically synchronized firing is widely observed. Moreover, we find stochastic synchrony where the ensemble-averaged dynamics shows synchronization in the network but each neuron has a low firing rate and the firing of the neurons seems to be stochastic. Stochastic synchrony of chaos corresponding to a chaotic attractor is also found.