Nuclear Ship Mutsu - Operations
Mutsu underwent lengthy repairs since 1978 until 1982 at the port of Sasebo. The basic plan concerning the development of a nuclear ship by JAERI was determined by the Japanese Government in March, 1985. The research and development with "Mutsu" proceeded on the schedule of construction of the new home port at Sekinehama,reactor inspection and test, experimental voyage and decommissioning along the basic plan. The primary testing was commenced from March, 1990, successively "Mutsu" left the Sekinehama port to conduct the secondary and third power ascension testing respectively in July and October, 1990. The fourth power ascension testing which was the final one was comp1eted without trouble in December, 1990. In the third and fourth power ascension testing the power of 36,000 KW at l00% of output was achieved.After the ship inspection certificate has been delivered, the experimental voyage is scheduled to be conducted for a period of around one year.
After overcoming various difficulties, four successful experimental voyages in 1991 proved its reliable capability under severe ocean circumstances. It is important for Japan as a worldwide trading country to assure constant energy sources for its ships. The application of nuclear energy to generate electricity is still growing. In the future, nuclear energy may also be used widely for ocean transportation, both to replace fuel oil and to allow sustained high-speed or under-sea voyages. Nuclear energy may contribute to advanced-level sea transportation and the development and ulitization of the oceans.
By its four successful experimental voyages in 1991, the first japanese nuclear ship "MUTSU" has obtained much knowledge and valuable data related to the design, fabrication, and operation of a nuclear ship. Decommissioning work began in September 1992. Using immediate total dismounting technology, the reactor compartment has been removed from the ship and transferred to the storage facility at the vessel's mother port of Sekine-hama. This was completed in June 1995. The first nuclear ship of Japan, "MUTSU", experienced voyage of about 82,000km.
Many data on the ship's motion and the power plant behavior were obtained under various meteorological conditions during the voyage. These data were recorded on more than 500 rolls of magnetic tape (MT). The actual data of a nuclear ship in Japan can be utilized in the development of the advanced marine reactor and in research for power reactors and ships. The nuclear ship database consists of engineering data related to design basis, application documents for nuclear reactor construction permit, design and construction documents related to nuclear and thermal hydraulic characteristics, reactor operation records, and experimental data in the power-up testing and the voyages.
"Mutsu" navigated 81,860 km in total (about 2.2 turns around the earth) in eight test services from July, 1990 to December, 1991 using the atomic power, and recorded the total running time of 3,508 hours of its nuclear reactor, and 81.12 million kWh in the integrated thermal output of the nuclear reactor. The maximum design thermal output of the nuclear reactor was 36 MW, the normal thermal output was 32 MW (the maximum continuous shaft output was 10,000 HP, the normal shaft output was 9,000 HP), and the recorded mean rate of operation to the normal thermal output was as high as 83%. The burnup of the uranium 235 of about 3.2 kg (equivalent to about 4,000 tons in terms of heavy oil) during this period is of about one ball for the baseball in volume. This experiment showed that the marine nuclear reactor can be stored in the space of the dimensions (130 m (length) x 19 m (breadth) and 13 m (depth)) of "Mutsu" without radiation exposure.
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