The Fourth 2017 Fukushima Research Conference (FRC).

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) held the FY2017 fourth Fukushima Research Conference entitled “Corrosion Prediction and Mitigation for Key Components of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FRC-Corrosion 2017)” on November 27 and 28, 2017 at the Culture Center “Manabi-no-Mori” in Tomioka Town, Futaba County, Fukushima Prefecture. The objective of the conference was to promote the research on decommissioning by the cross-cutting collaboration and the efforts towards the problem-solving by the researchers in wide fields related to decommissioning.

On the first day, the keynote lectures (open to the public and press) were presented, in which about one-hundred people participated. In the morning, Professor Damian Feron of the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) made an opening remarks. Then, Mr. Jun Matsumoto, Vice President of the Decommissioning Promotion Company, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. explained the present status of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and the decommissioning. Next, Mr. Yuichi Fukaya, Executive Chief Engineer of the Management Technology Strategy Institute, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. presented the outline of the subjects on corrosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. In the afternoon, the domestic and oversea invitees presented many examples for the topics “Corrosion in carbon steel” and “Effect of radiation decomposition on corrosion” together with the latest knowledge. After the lectures, the active discussion was made among the presenters and the audience.

On the second day, the experts presented the topics on “Local corrosion in corrosion-resistant alloy” and “The other important corrosion” continuing from the previous day. Then, a poster session in which all people participated was held together for lunch. In the concluding session, Professor Yutaka Watanabe of Tohoku University, Co-organizer of this conference, made a lecture entitled “Idea of controlling corrosion and necessary research”. At the end of the session, all participants discussed about the corrosion prediction and mitigation.

Through the discussion, various opinions were expressed as to the research subjects that are necessary to the technological development of corrosion prediction and mitigation. Also, the difficulty and importance of the technological development were recognized. From now on, with this conference as a trigger, it is expected that the research in this field will be developed to the activities towards cross-cutting collaboration among various fields and the problem-solving which will contributed to the promotion of the decommissioning research.