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Abstract: At Tritium Process Laboratory (TPL) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), tritium technologies for a fusion reactor have been carried out up to date. The design studies of Air Detrtiation and Vent Detritiation System (ADS/VDS) of ITER have been carried out in JAEA as a contribution of Japan to ITER. For the tritium processing technologies, our efforts have been focused on the R&D of the tritium recovery system of ITER test blanket system. A ceramic proton conductor has been studied as an advanced blanket system. A series of fundamental studies on tritium safety technologies for ITER and for fusion DEMO plants has also been carried out. The main R&D activities in this field are the tritium behavior in a confinement and its barrier materials, monitoring, accountancy, detritiation and decontamination, etc. Especially, for the fundamental studies for a DEMO plants, a part of the studies will be carries out a new facility at Rokkasho in Aomori in the Broader Approach (BA) program in coming 10 years. For this purpose, a design study of the facility at Rokkasho has first been started. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The possibility of reducing the concentration of 14C produced in irradiation of reduced activation ferritic steels (RAFS) intended as structural materials in first wall and blanket of fusion power plants was investigated. During RAFS irradiation 14C is mainly produced from the more abundant of the two isotopes of nitrogen present in the steel, namely 14N. The method proposed consists in increasing the enrichment of the other isotope (15N). One-dimension transport calculations show that for a typical DEMO blanket configuration an 15N enrichment from the natural value (0.37%) to 95% was sufficient to keep the end of life 14C concentration in the RAFS below the limit (3.7×107 Bq/kg) fixed by the Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission for qualifying it as a low level material (LLM) which can be disposed by shallow land burial. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In a fusion reactor, high-level tritiated water of more than one PBq/m3 will be generated and stored in various areas. The high-level tritiated water decomposes by itself and generates mainly hydrogen, becoming tritiated hydrogen peroxide water. In order to summarize safety requirements for long-term storage of high-level tritiated water, the characteristics, such as effective G-values of hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide, pH and Oxidation–Reduction Potential (ORP), have been investigated by storing tritiated water from 5TBq/m3 to 2EBq/m3 for 5 years. Because the effective G-value of hydrogen increases with decreasing tritium concentration, the storage tank for a wider range of tritium concentrations requires not only depression but, also, adequate processing of the cover gases. High-level tritiated water of more than 1PBq/m3 was acid and in some cases was in a corrosive condition; these characteristics have been maintained for 5 years. Therefore, the ORP–pH situation should be monitored periodically to avoid the corrosive condition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

After the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident, a need for assuring safety of fusion energy has grown in the Japanese (JA) fusion research community. DEMO safety research has been launched as a part of Broader Approach DEMO Design Activities (BA-DDA). This paper reports progress in the fusion DEMO safety research conducted under BA-DDA. Safety requirements and evaluation guidelines have been, first of all, established based on those established in the Japanese ITER site invitation activities. The radioactive source terms and energies that can mobilize such source terms have been assessed for a reference DEMO concept. This concept employs in-vessel components that are cooled by pressurized water and built of a low activation ferritic steel (F82H), contains solid pebble beds made of lithium-titanate (Li 2 TiO 3 ) and beryllium–titanium (Be 12 Ti) for tritium breeding and neutron multiplication, respectively. It is shown that unlike the energies expected in ITER, the enthalpy in the first wall/blanket cooling loops is large compared to the other energies expected in the reference DEMO concept. Reference accident event sequences in the reference DEMO in this study have been analyzed based on the Master Logic Diagram and Functional Failure Mode and Effect Analysis techniques. Accident events of particular concern in the DEMO have been selected based on the event sequence analysis and the hazard assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An experimental study on tritium (T) transfer in porous concrete for the tertiary T safety containment is performed to investigate (i) how fast HTO penetrates through concrete walls, (ii) how well concrete walls contaminated with water-soluble T are decontaminated by a solution-in-water technique, and (iii) how well hydrophobic paint coating works as a protecting film against HTO migrating through concrete walls. The experiment is comparatively carried out using disks of cement paste which W(water)/C(cement) weight ratio is 0.6:1 with or without hydrophobic paints, and mortar disks which W/C/sand ratio is 0.6:1:2 with or without the paints. The hydrophobic paints tested in the present study are an epoxy polymer resin paint and an acrylic-silicon polymer resin one. After T exposure during specified time under a constant HTO vapor pressure in an acrylic box, the amount of water-soluble HTO on/in the disks is determined using a technique of H2O dissolution during specified time. The results obtained here are summarized as follows: (1) HTO penetration in porous concrete can be correlated in terms of the effective diffusivity. (2) Its value in porous cement without coating is 1.2×10−11 m2/s at 25°C. (3) HTO penetrates only through pores in cement, and there is no path for HTO transfer in non-porous sand. (4) Rates of sorption and dissolution of HTO in disks of cement and mortar coated with the epoxy resin paint are correlated in terms of the effective diffusivity through the paint film which value is D T =1.0×10−16 m2/s. The rate-determining step is diffusion through the paint. (5) The epoxy resin paint works more effectively as an anti-HTO diffusion coating. (6) Another acrylic-silicon resin paint does not work well as anti-HTO diffusion coating. This may be because the hydrophobic property of the silicon resin paint is deteriorated with elongating the contact time with H2O vapor or liquid. (7) The HTO uptake inside the epoxy paint is greater than that of the silicon one. (8) The permeation reduction factor (PRF) of HTO for the epoxy paint at steady-state is expected large, if HTO vapor only contributes to diffusion. However, when concrete surfaces coated with the epoxy paint are under wet conditions, the PRF value becomes smaller. All those results can be used to estimate the effect of HTO soaking in concrete walls in case of accidental T release in a fusion reactor room and to decontaminate wastes of tritiated concrete. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new type of aid system for fusion reactor design, to which the virtual reality (VR) visualization and sonification techniques are applied, is developed. This system provides us with an intuitive interaction environment in the VR space between the observer and the designed objects constructed by the conventional 3D computer-aided design (CAD) system. We have applied the design aid tool to the heliotron-type fusion reactor design activity FFHR2m [A. Sagara, S. Imagawa, O. Mitarai, T. Dolan, T. Tanaka, Y. Kubota, et al., Improved structure and long -life blanket concepts for heliotron reactors, Nucl. Fusion 45 (2005) 258–263] on the virtual reality system CompleXcope [Y. Tamura, A. Kageyama, T. Sato, S. Fujiwara, H. Nakamura, Virtual reality system to visualize and auralize numerical imulation data, Comp. Phys. Comm. 142 (2001) 227–230] of the National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan, and have evaluated its performance. The tool includes the functions of transfer of the observer, translation and scaling of the objects, recording of the operations and the check of interference. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Three options of fusion DEMO plant are proposed characterized by functions of the center solenoid (CS). The prime option uses a downsized CS, which does not provide sufficient V-s for plasma current ramp-up but supplies enough coil current for plasma shaping. This option produces a fusion output of 3GW with a major radius of 5.5m, aspect ratio of 2.6, normalized beta of 4.3 and maximum field of 16.4T. The estimated reactor weight is lighter than that of other conventional tokamak reactors, suggesting an economic advantage. The plant uses rather conservative technologies such as Nb3Al superconductor, water-cooled solid breeder blanket, low activation ferritic steel as the structural material and tungsten monoblock divertor plate. The design philosophy and key issues related to the constituent technologies of the plant are described in the present paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Tritium and deuterium are expected to be the fuel for the first fusion power reactors. Being radioactive, tritium is a health, safety and environment concern. Room air tritium clean systems can be used to handle tritium that has been lost to the room from primary or secondary containment. Such a system called the Experimental Tritium Cleanup (ETC) systems is installed at the Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The ETC consists of (1) two compressors which draw air from the room, (2) a catalyst bed for conversion of tritium to tritiated water, and (3) molecular sieve beds for collection of the water. The exhaust from this system can be returned to the room or vented to the stack. As part of the US–Japan fusion collaboration, on two separate occasions, tritium was released into the 3000 m3 TSTA test cell, and the ETC was used to handle these releases. Each release consisted of about one Curie of tritium. Tritium concentrations in the room were monitored at numerous locations. Also recorded were the HT and HTO concentrations at the inlet and outlet of the catalyst bed. Tritium surface concentrations in the test cell were measured before and at a series of times after the releases. Surfaces included normal test cell equipment as well as idealized test specimens. The results showed that the tritium became well-mixed in the test cell after about 45 min. When the ETC was turned on, the tritium in the TSTA test cell decreased exponentially as was expected. The test cell air tritium concentration was reduced to below one DAC (derived air concentration) in about 260 min. For the catalyst bed, at startup when the bed was at ambient temperature, there was little conversion of tritium to HTO. However, once the bed warmed to about 420 K, all of the tritium that entered the bed was converted to HTO. Immediately after the experiment, surfaces in the room initially showed moderately elevated tritium concentrations. However, with normal ventilation, these concentrations soon returned to routine levels. The data collected and reported here should be useful for planning for the operation of existing and future tritium facilities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]