is a test

sodium-cooled fast reactor A sodium-cooled fast reactor is a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid sodium. The initials SFR in particular refer to two Generation IV reactor proposals, one based on existing liquid metal cooled reactor (LMFR) technology using mixed oxide fue ...

located in

Ōarai, Ibaraki is a town located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,867 in 6,881 households and a population density of . The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 34.0%. The total area of the town is . The Japa ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, operated by the

Japan Atomic Energy Agency The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is a Japanese atomic energy company. While it inherited the activities of both Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, JNC and Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, JAERI, it also inherited the nickname of J ...

. The name comes from the previous country name of the area around Ibaraki. It was made with the purpose of doing tests on and advancing the development of that type of reactor, as an irradiation test facility for construction materials. It also does tests with the nuclear fuel as well as activation experiments. The reactor has gone through 3 different core changes. *MK-I April 24, 1977 - January 1, 1982 (the power was 50-75 MWt) *MK-II November 22, 1982 - September 12, 1997. This core surpassed 50,000 hours of operating time with 100 MWt. *MK-III July 2, 2003–2007 (140-150 MWt). The current core provides the neutron flux of 4×10¹⁵ cm⁻²s⁻¹ for E>0.1 MeV. After an incident in 2007, the reactor is suspended for repairing, recovery works were planned to be completed in 2014. Following the closure of the unsuccessful follow-on

fast breeder reactor A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These reactors can be Nuclear fuel, fueled with more-commonly available isotopes of uranium and Isotopes of thorium, thorium, such as uranium-238 and t ...

Monju in 2016, a decision was made to continue research at Jōyō. On May 24, 2023 the

Nuclear Regulation Authority The is an administrative body of the Cabinet of Japan established to ensure nuclear safety in Japan as part of the Ministry of the Environment. Established on September 19, 2012, its first head was Shunichi Tanaka. Background The NRA was forme ...

approved a draft report on the safety screening of the reactor which concludes that the countermeasures implemented against sodium fires or core damages meet the new safety standards. The draft is expected to be formally approved after soliciting public comments.

References

External links

Official Joyo site (in english)
*T. Soga, W. Itagaki, Y. Kihara, Y. Maeda
Endeavor to improve in-pile testing techniques in the experimental fast reactor Joyo
/ In-pile testing and instrumentation for development of generation-IV fuels and materials. Proceedings of a technical meeting held in Halden, Norway, 21–24 August 2012. - IAEA, 2013. - P. 107–122. *T. Shikama et al
Heavy neutron irradiation test of materials in Joyo instrumented rigs
/ In-pile testing and instrumentation for development of generation-IV fuels and materials. Proceedings of a technical meeting held in Halden, Norway, 21–24 August 2012. - IAEA, 2013. - P. 165–170. Nuclear research reactors Liquid metal fast reactors Buildings and structures in Ibaraki Prefecture Ōarai, Ibaraki {{japan-struct-stub

See also

References

External links