• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.434-441
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• 2010

The activation products of aluminum and argon are key radionuclides for operational and environmental radiological safety during the normal operation of open-tank-in-pool type research reactors using aluminum-clad fuels. Their activities measured in the primary coolant and pool surface water of HANARO have been consistent. We estimated their sources from the measured activities and then compared these values with their production rates obtained by a core calculation. For each aluminum activation product, an equivalent aluminum thickness (EAT) in which its production rate is identical to its release rate into the coolant is determined. For the argon activation calculation, the saturated argon concentration in the water at the temperature of the pool surface is assumed. The EATs are 5680, 266 and 1.2 nm, respectively, for Na-24, Mg-27 and Al-28, which are much larger than the flight lengths of the respective recoil nuclides. These values coincide with the water solubility levels and with the half-lives. The EAT for Na-24 is similar to the average oxide layer thickness (OLT) of fuel cladding as well; hence, the majority of them in the oxide layer may be released to the coolant. However, while the average OLT clearly increases with the fuel burn-up during an operation cycle, its effect on the pool-top radiation is not distinguishable. The source of Ar-41 is in good agreement with the calculated reaction rate of Ar-40 dissolved in the coolant.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.303.2-303.2
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• 2003

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.1109-1116
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• 2019

It is essential to predict the radioactivity distribution around the reactor cooling system (RCS) during obligatory cyclic operation of AP-1000. A home-developed program CPA-AP1000 is upgraded to predict the response of activated corrosion products (ACPs) in the RCS. The program is written in MATLAB and it uses state of the art MCNP as a subroutine for flux calculations. A pair of cyclic power profiles were superimposed after initial full power operation. The effect of cyclic operation is noticed to be more prominent for in-core surfaces, followed by the primary coolant and out-of-core structures. The results have shown that specific activity trends of $^{56}Mn$ and $^{24}Na$ promptly follow the power variations, whereas, $^{59}Fe$, $^{58}Co$, $^{99}Mo$ and $^{60}Co$ exhibit a sluggish power-following response. The investigations pointed out that promptly power-following response of ACPs in the coolant is vital as an instant radioactivity source during leakage incidents. However, the ACPs with delayed power-following response in the out-of-core components are perceived to cause a long-term activity. The present results are found in good agreement with those for a reference PWR. The results are useful for source term monitoring and optimization of work procedures for an innovative reactor design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.1974-1982
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• 2020

Numerical prediction of fission product plateout and circulating coolant activities under normal operating conditions is crucial in the design of a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). The results are used for the maintenance and repair of the components as well as the safety analysis regarding early source terms under loss of coolant accident scenarios. In this work, a new computer code named POSCA (Plate-Out Surface and Circulating Activities) was developed based on a one-dimensional model to evaluate fission product plateout and circulating coolant activities within the primary circuit of a HTGR. The verification and validation of study for the POSCA code was done using available analytical results and two in-pile experiments (i.e., OGL-1 and VAMPYR-1). The results of the POSCA calculations show that POSCA is able to simulate plateout and circulating coolant activities in a HTGR with fast computation and reasonable accuracy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.397-398
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• 2004

It is important to estimate the radiation activity of the nuclear fuel which is a source term of the loss of coolant accident. The purpose of this study is to identify the most important parameters of the source term calculation based on three fuel types: typical natural uranium CANDU fuel, slightly enriched uranium and DUPIC fuel. The characteristics of the radiation source term were analyzed through sensitivity calculations of the linear power, fuel turnup, and the power shape.(omitted)

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2014

A lot of radiation exposure for radiation workers who are engaged in Nuclear Power Plants, especially PWRs, have been caused during the outage by CRUD, such as $^{58}Co$, $^{60}Co$, in Reactor Coolant System. And therefore we need to know source terms to achieve optimization of protection for the radiation workers from radiation exposure at Nuclear Power Plants efficiently. This study analyzed source terms at domestic NPPs (PWRs) nearby Steam Generator with CZT semiconductor detector using by IN-VIVO method during the outage for the first time in the country. We checked difference for the detected source terms between old and new NPP. It was performed especially to see a change of source terms by water chemistry process as well. There was not any difference by water chemistry process both NPPs. The main source terms are $^{58}Co$ and $^{60}Co$ at all NPPs. $^{59}Fe$ only appears in the new NPP. $^{137}Cs$ and $^{95}Zr$ are shown in the old NPP. The fraction of $^{58}Co/^{60}Co$ in the new NPP is higher than the old NPP for increasing the specific activity of $^{60}Co$.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 1995

The radiation fields following the large loss of coolant accident (LOCA) have been assessed for the vital areas in the service building of Wolsong 2, 3, and 4 nuclear power plants. The ORIGEN2 code was used in calculating the fission product inventories in the fuel. The source terms were based upon the activity released following the dual failure accident scenario, i.e., a LOCA followed by impaired emergency core cooling (ECC). Configurations of the reactor building, the service building, and the ECC system were constructed for the QAD-CG calculations. The dose rates and the time-integrated doses were calculated for the time period of upto 90 days after the accident. The results showed that the radiation fields in the vital access areas were found to be sufficiently low. Some areas however showed relatively high radiation fields that may require limited access.