• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제41권4호
• /
• pp.413-426
• /
• 2009

Nuclear energy plays an important role in world energy production by supplying 6% of the world's current total electricity production. However, 86% of the energy consumed worldwide to produce industrial process heat, to generate electricity and to power the transportation sector still originates in fossil fuels. To cope with dwindling fossil fuels and climate change, it is clear that a clean alternative energy that can replace fossil fuels in these sectors is urgently required. Clean hydrogen energy is one such alternative. Clean hydrogen can play an important role not only in synthetic fuel production but also through powering fuel cells in the anticipated hydrogen economy. With the introduction of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) that can produce nuclear heat up to $950^{\circ}C$ without greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear power is poised to broaden its mission beyond electricity generation to the provision of nuclear process heat and the massive production of hydrogen. In this paper, the features and potential of the HTGR as the energy source of the future are addressed. Perspectives on nuclear heat and hydrogen applications using the HTGR are discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제56권3호
• /
• pp.966-972
• /
• 2024

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announced at COP27 it would reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2031. As a Nuclear, Energy and Environment, and National Homeland Security laboratory, the predominant solution to closing the clean energy gap will include nuclear as a safe, clean, reliable and affordable electricity source with the additional benefit of producing heat and hydrogen to fuel INL's large transportation fleet. INL's collaboration first vs. competition is essential to the program's success. The focused actions in INL's Nuclear Roadmap include: Infrastructure, Licensing/Regulatory, Financial, Time to Market, Fuel Cycle and Public Confidence/Communications. The roadmap also includes nuclear technology innovations and creative partnerships with utility providers, regulators, businesses, community members, and Indigenous Peoples to accelerate deployment of advanced reactors. Through development of the Net-Zero Nuclear Roadmap, INL will offer a model to provide safe and secure energy for the nation and the world by: (1) establishing the necessary infrastructure on its 890-square mile site to support demonstration, (2) showing proven pathways through the licensing and regulation process, (3) partnering with utilities to ensure commercial application, and (4) collaborating with industry to site new technologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제55권10호
• /
• pp.3543-3548
• /
• 2023

Shutdown chemistry evolution is performed in nuclear power plants at each refueling outage (RFO) to establish safe conditions to open system and minimize inventory of corrosion products in the reactor coolant system (RCS). After hydrogen peroxide is added to RCS during shutdown chemistry evolution, corrosion products are released and are removed by filters and ion exchange resins in the chemical volume control system (CVCS). Shutdown chemistry evolution including RCS clean-up time to remove released corrosion products impacts the critical path schedule during RFOs. The estimation of clean-up time prior to RFO can provide more reliable actions for RCS clean-up operations and transients to operators during shutdown chemistry. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) shutdown calculator (SDC) enables to provide clean-up time by Co-58 peak activity through operational data from nuclear power plants (NPPs). In this study, we have investigated the results of EPRI SDC by shutdown chemistry data of Co-58 activity using NPP data from previous cycles and modeled the estimated clean-up time by EPRI SDC using average Co-58 activity of the NPP. We selected two RFO data from the NPP to evaluate EPRI SDC results using the purification time to reach to 1.3 mCi/cc of Co-58 after hydrogen peroxide addition. Comparing two RFO data, the similar purification time between actual and computed data by EPRI SDC, 0.92 and 1.74 h respectively, was observed with the deviation of 3.7-7.2%. As the modeling the estimated clean-up time, we calculated average Co-58 peak concentration for normal cycles after cycle 10 and applied two-sigma (2σ, 95.4%) for predicted Co-58 peak concentration as upper and lower values compared to the average data. For the verification of modeling, shutdown chemistry data for RFO 17 was used. Predicted RCS clean-up time with lower and upper values was between 21.05 and 27.58 h, and clean-up time for RFO 17 was 24.75 h, within the predicted time band. Therefore, our calculated modeling band was validated. This approach can be identified that the advantage of the modeling for clean-up time with SDC is that the primary prediction of shutdown chemistry plans can be performed more reliably during shutdown chemistry. This research can contribute to improving the efficiency and safety of shutdown chemistry evolution in nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권6호
• /
• pp.2056-2065
• /
• 2021

The transition toward clean energy is an issue of great importance with growing debate in climate change mitigation. The complex nature of nuclear energy-CO₂ emissions nexus makes it difficult to predict whether or not nuclear acts as a clean energy source. Hence, we examined the relationship between nuclear energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in the context of the IPAT and Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. Dynamic Auto-regressive Distributive Lag (DARDL), a newly modified econometric tool, is employed for estimation of long- and short-run dynamics by using yearly data spanning from 1971 to 2018. The empirical findings of the study revealed an instantaneous increase in nuclear energy reduces environmental pollution, which highlights that more nuclear energy power in the Indian energy system would be beneficial for climate change mitigation. The results further demonstrate that the overarching effect of population density in the IPAT equation stimulates carbon emissions. Finally, nuclear energy and population density contribute to form the EKC curve. To achieving a cleaner environment, results point out governmental policies toward the transition of nuclear energy that favours environmental sustainability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제52권10호
• /
• pp.2394-2401
• /
• 2020

Octadecylamine is an effective film-forming amine that protects carbon steel from corrosion. In the present study, the effect of octadecylamine concentration on adsorption on a carbon steel surface was investigated in anaerobic alkaline solution by using SEM/EDS, TEM and the Materials Studio simulation techniques. TEM morphology observation and EDS elemental detection determine the thicknesses of octadecylamine film on a carbon steel surface, which are confirmed by the in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement and resistance calculation. The Materials Studio simulation reveals the number of octadecylamine film layers at different concentrations. Results obtained in this study indicate that adsorption of octadecylamine film on carbon steel proceeds with the multi-layer adsorption mechanism.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제52권6호
• /
• pp.1327-1333
• /
• 2020

The global warming phenomenon emerges from the issue of climate change, which attracts the attention of intellectuals towards clean energy sources from dirty energy sources. Among clean sources, nuclear energy is getting immense attention among policymakers. However, the role of nuclear energy in pollution emissions reduction has remained inconclusive and demand for further investigation. Therefore, the current study contributes to extend knowledge by investigating the nexus between nuclear energy, economic growth, and CO₂ emissions in a developing country context such as Pakistan for the period between 1973 and 2017. The auto-regressive distributive lag model summarizes the nuclear energy has negative effect on environmental pollution as it releases carbon emission in the environment. Moreover, vector error correction Granger causality provides evidence for bidirectional causality between nuclear energy and carbon emissions. These interesting findings provide new insight, and policy guidelines provided based on these results.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국원자력학회 2001년도 춘계학술발표회요약집
• /
• pp.390.2-390
• /
• 2001

• 태양에너지
• /
• 제11권1호
• /
• pp.92-97
• /
• 1991

화석에너지로 부터 방출되는 온실효과 가스와 지구 온난화 현상에 대하여 조사하였다. 세계의 사회경제활동과정에서 가속화가 예상되는 에너지 수요증가에 대응하기 위하여, 온실가스 배출을 감소시킬 화석에너지 이용시스템과 핵에너지와 청정자원인 재생에너지를 포함한 종합적인 에너지공급시스템개념에 대하여 고찰하였다.

• 설비공학논문집
• /
• 제24권7호
• /
• pp.591-597
• /
• 2012

For the past few years, the concern for clean energy has been greatly increased. Ocean thermal Energy Conversion(OTEC) power plants are studied as a viable option for the supply of clean energy. In this study, we examined the thermodynamic performance of the OTEC power system for the production of electric power. Computer simulation programs were developed under the same condition and various working fluids for closed Rankine cycle, regenerative cycle, Kalina cycle, open cycle, and hybrid cycle. The results show that the regenerative cycle showed the best system efficiency. And then we examined the thermodynamic performance of regenerative cycle OTEC power system using the condenser effluent from Uljin nuclear power plant instead of the surface water. The highest system efficiency of the condition was 4.55% and the highest net power was 181 MW.

• 에너지공학
• /
• 제20권3호
• /
• pp.236-241
• /
• 2011

다양한 에너지원들 가운데 하나인 원자력(nuclear energy)의 평화적 이용을 위해 많은 나라들이 탄소 배출량 감축, 에너지 수급 안보, 지속가능 발전 등의 글로벌 현안을 고려하면서 청정 라이프 사이클 원자력 시스템을 개발하고 있다. 에너지 자원이 부족한 대한민국은 지금까지 에너지원의 대부분을 해외 수입에 의존하고 있는 국가이다. 이러한 글로벌 현안과 우리의 상황을 해결하기 위해 우리는 탈 화석연료 에너지인 원자력을 기저부하 에너지원으로 투입하고 있고, 전력 생산량에서 원자력 점유율이 50%를 넘어서는 원자력 기술 선진국에 진입하고 있다. 그러나 원자력 부문에서는 최근에 전세계적으로 보면, 사용후-핵연료(SNF)와 같은 고준위 방사성 폐기물의 누적량이 임시 저장 용량을 포화시키는 상태에 도달하고 있다. 이에 따라 지속가능한 SNF 처분시스템의 개발이 시급하게 요구되는 실정이다. 원자력 선진국들은 SNF 처분 시스템의 미래 대안으로 SNF 재처리/재활용 방안을 심도 있게 고려하고 있다. 앞으로 우리나라도 SNF 관리 대책의 하나로 재처리/재활용 방안을 고려하는 기회가 있을 것이다. 이러한 필요성을 바탕으로 여기서는 핵확산 저항성, 자원 재활용 등에 중점을 두면서 SNF 재활용 시스템과 관련하여 국내외 개발 동향을 소개하고자 한다.