Main Outputs from the OECD/NEA ARC-F Project

The Analysis of Information from Reactor Buildings and Containment Vessels of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) (ARC-F) project was initiated in January 2019 for three years with 22 signatories from 12 countries. Three main tasks were implemented in the ARC-F project, which were relevant to 1) refinement of analysis for accident scenarios and associated fission product (FP) transport and dispersion, 2) compilation and management of data and information, and 3) discussion for the next-phase project. Various activities were performed in Task 1, covering improvement of analysis for accident scenarios, and in-depth analyses for specific phenomena such as in-vessel melt progression, molten core/concrete interaction, FP transport and source term, hydrogen combustion and atmospheric dispersion of FPs. Through these studies, analyses for accident scenarios with severe accident codes were refined and important phenomena with large uncertainties were clarified. In order to share well selected and organized information from the FDNPS with the project partners, two databases, information source database and sample database, were built under Task 2. The analysis techniques including the separation of iodine species were developed also in Task 2 and applied to the analysis of FPs in several samples taken from the FDNPS. The next-phase project was discussed in Task 3, resulting in launching the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Information Collection and Evaluation (FACE) project. The FACE project officially started in July 2022 with the participation of 23 organizations from 12 countries and the European Commission.