• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.88-94
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• 2001

DUPIC (Direct use of spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactors) nuclear fuel is a CANDU fuel fabricated remotely from spent PWR fuel materials in a hot cell. The soundness of the end closure welds of nuclear fuel elements is an important factor for the safety and performance of nuclear fuel. To evaluate the soundness of the end closure welds of DUPIC fuel element, a precise X-ray inspection system is developed using a micro-focus X-ray generator with an image intensifier and a real time camera system. The fuel elements made of Zircaloy-4 and stainless steel by an Nd:YAG laser welding and a TIG welding aye inspected by the developed inspection system. The soundness of the welds of the fuel elements was confirmed by the X-ray inspection process, and the irradiation test of DUPIC fuel elements has been successfully completed at the HANARO research reactor.

• 한국분말재료학회지
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.123-130
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• 2000

The simulated DUPIC fuel provides a convenient way to investigate fuel properties and behaviours such as thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, fission gas release, leaching and so on. Several pellets simulating the composition and microstructure of the DUPIC fuel were fabricated from resintering powder through the OREOX process of the simulated spent fuel pellets, which were prepared from the mixture of stable forms of constituent nuclides. This study describes the powder treatment, OREOX, compaction and sintering to fabricate simulated DUPIC fuel using the simulated spent fuel. The homogeneity of additives in the powder was observed after attrition milling. The microstructure of the simulated spent fuel was in agreement with the previous studies. The densities and the grain size of simulated DUPIC fuel was pellets are higher than those of simulated spent fuel pellets. Small metallic precipitates and oxide precipitates were observed on matrix grain boundaries.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.27-39
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• 1996

DUPIC핵연료주기로 인해 변화되는 경수로 사용 후 핵연료 물질의 핵종별 농도, 방사능, 붕괴열, 위해지수 및 방사선원항등을 시간의 함수로 그 변화특성을 분석하고, 각 인자별로 크게 영향을 미치는 주요핵종의 거동을 물질농도 측면에서 추적 분석평가하였다. 방사성물질 농도에 있어서 연소도 19,000 MWD/MTU의 사용 후 DUPIC핵연료에 존재하는 악티나이드 양은 연소도 35,000 MWD/MTU의 경수로 사용후 핵연료에 비해 약 2% 감소한 반면 핵분열생성물의 양은 약 20% 증가된 것으로 나타났다. 그리고 사용 후 DUPIC핵연료의 방사능 및 붕괴열은 일반적인 사용후핵연료 특성과는 달리, 방사성물질 농도 변화와 비례하지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 사용후 DUPIC핵연료가 갖는 감마 스펙트럼을 경수로핵연료의 경우와 비교해 볼 때, 전체적인 특징은 사용후 DUPIC핵연료의 경우가 $0.01{\sim}0.575MeV$의 낮은 에너지 범위에서는 경수로핵연료 보다 약 $40{\sim}50%$ 낮은 감마선 세기를 보여주고 있으나, 3.5 MeV이상의 높은 에너지 범위에서는 사용후 DUPIC핵연료의 감마선 세기가 휭씬 크게 나타났다. 중성자 선원항은 모두 악티나이드 물질의$({\alpha},\;n)$ 반응 및 자발핵분열에 의해 결정되고 있고, 특히 Cm-244의 자발 핵분열에 의한 중성자선원이 지배적인 것으로 나타났다. 이런 이유 때문에 Cm-244의 농도가 약 3.3배 큰 사용후 DUPIC핵연료의 중성자 선원이 경수로핵연료보다 4배 이상 크게 나타났다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.359-374
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• 2006

Since 1991, Korea, Canada and United States have performed the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel in the Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel development project. Unlike the Tandem fuel cycle, which requires a wet reprocessing, the DUPIC fuel technology can directly refabricate CANDU fuels from the PWR spent fuel and, therefore, is recognized as a highly proliferation-resistant fuel cycle technology, which can be adopted even in non-proliferation treaty countries. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has fabricated DUPIC fuel elements in a laboratory-scale remote fuel fabrication facility. KAERI has demonstrated the fuel performance in the research reactor, and has confirmed the operational feasibility and safety of a CANDU reactor loaded with the DUPIC fuel using conventional design and analysis tools, which will be the foundation of the future practical and commercial uses of DUPIC fuel.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(1)
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• pp.124-129
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• 1998

A sensitivity study has been done to determine the composition of DUPIC fuel from the viewpoint of neutronics fuel design. The spent PWR fuel compositions were generated and fissile contents adjusted by blending fresh uranium after mixing two spent PWR fuel assemblies. The $^{239}$ Pu and $^{235}$ U enrichments of DUPIC fuel were adjusted by controlling the amount of fresh uranium feed and the ratio of slightly enriched and depleted uranium in the fled uranium. Based on the material balance calculation, it is recommended that DUPIC fuel composition be such that spent PWR fuel utilization is more than 90%.. A sensitivity study on the temperature reactivity coefficient of DUPIC fuel has shown that it is desirable to increase the $^{239}$ Pu and $^{235}$ U contents to reduce both the fuel and coolant temperature coefficients. On the other hand, refueling simulations of the DUPIC core have shown that the channel power peaking factor, which is a measure of the reactor trip margin, increases with the total fissile content. Considering these neutronic characteristics of the DUPIC fuel, il is recommended to have enrichments of 0.45 and 1.00 wt% for $^{239}$ Pu and $^{235}$ U, respectively.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2004년도 Proceedings of the 4th Korea-China Joint Workshop on Nuclear Waste Management
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• pp.170-181
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• 2004

DUPIC powder and pellets were successfully fabricated in accordance with the quality assurance program described in the Quality Assurance Manual for DUPIC fuel fabrication, which was developed on the basis of the CAN3-Z299.2-85 standard. This manual describes the quality management system applicable to the activities performed for DUPIC fuel fabrication. It covers the work processes, policies and procedures used for planning, executing, and verifying the work carried out for DUPIC fuel fabrication. It is important that a Quality Program is in place before the fabrication of the fuel for irradiation testing. In order to qualify the DUPIC pellet manufacturing processes, 3 series of experiments for the pre-qualification and 3 series for the qualification were performed. In these experiments, the optimum process conditions were established. Then, under the control of the QA program, 8 series of production runs were performed to make the qualified DUPIC pellets in a batch size of 1 kg. In these production runs, DUPIC fuel pellets satisfying the standard CANDU fuel pellet specifications could be successfully produced.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.125-133
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• 2004

최대 선출력 61 ㎾/m 및 평균 연소도 1,770 ㎿d/tU의 조건으로 하나로에서 조사한 DUPIC(Direct Use of Spent PWR Fuel in CANDU Reactors) 핵 연료를 EPMA (Electron Probe Micro Analyzer)를 이용하여 핵분열 생성물을 분석하였다. EPMA의 정확한 분석 방법을 확립하고자, 핵분열생성물 대신 시약을 첨가하여 제조한 모의 DUPIC 핵연료로 EPMA 분석을 수행하였고, 그 결과를 습식 화학 분석의 결과와도 비교하여 평가하였다. 모의 DUPIC 핵연료 중심부의 금속 석출물은 약 1 $\mu\textrm{m}$ 정도의 크기로 관찰되었으며, 이들의 조성은 Mo-53.89 at.%, Ru-37.40 at.% 및 Pd+Rh-8.71 at%이었다. 모의 DUPIC 핵연료 시험에서 정립한 시험방법으로 조사한 DUPIC 핵연료 시편의 금속 석출물 특성을 분석하였다. 핵연료 중앙부에서 관찰된 금속 석출물들의 크기는 2∼2.5 $\mu\textrm{m}$ 정도이었으며, Mo-47.34 at.%, Ru-46 at.%, Pd+Rh-6.65 at.%의 조성임을 확인하였다. 이 실험을 위하여, 특별히 시료의 전도성을 향상시키기 위한 처리를 하였으며, 작은 금속 석출물에 EPMA의 전자빔을 정확히 조사할 수 있는 실험 조건을 제시하였다.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.72-77
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• 1998

A defect model for UO$_2$ fuel containing soluble fission products was devised based on the defect structure of pure and doped uranias. Using the equilibrium between fuel solid-solution and fission-products and the material balance within the fuel, a tracing method to get the stoichiometry change of urania fuel with burnup was made. This tracing method was applied to high burnup urania fuel and DUPIC fuel. The oxygen potential of urania fuel turned out to increase slightly with burnup. The stoichiometry change was calculated to be negligible due to the buffering role f Mo. The oxygen potential of DUPIC fuel out to be sensitive to the initial chemical state of Mo in the fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.1109-1119
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• 2016

Although, the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel in CANda Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) cycle is still under investigation, DUPIC cycle is a promising method for uranium utilization improvement, for reduction of high level nuclear waste, and for high degree of proliferation resistance. This paper focuses on the effect of DUPIC cycle on CANDU reactor safety parameters. MCNP6 was used for lattice cell simulation of a typical 3,411 MWth PWR fueled by $UO_2$ enriched to 4.5w/o U-235 to calculate the spent fuel inventories after a burnup of 51.7 MWd/kgU. The code was also used to simulate the lattice cell of CANDU-6 reactor fueled with spent fuel after its fabrication into the standard 37-element fuel bundle. It is assumed a 5-year cooling time between the spent fuel discharges from the PWR to the loading into the CANDU-6. The simulation was carried out to calculate the burnup and the effect of DUPIC fuel on: (1) the power distribution amongst the fuel elements of the bundle; (2) the coolant void reactivity; and (3) the reactor point-kinetics parameters.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2003년도 가을 학술논문집
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• pp.614-620
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• 2003

원자력연구소에서는 국내 원전에서 배출된 사용후핵연료를 IMEF M6 핫셀에서 건식 재가공하여 건식공정 산화물핵연료를 개발하였다. 개발된 핵연료의 성능을 검증하기 위해서는 실제 상용로와 동일한 고온고압 조건하에서 조사시험이 필요하나 국내에는 이러한 조사시설을 갖추지 못하고 있으므로 핵연료 성능의 검증이 어렵던 차에 한$\cdot$카$\cdot$미 IAEA간의 국제공동연구 과제진도회의에서 AECL측은 중성자비를 받지 않고 캐나다 NRU에서 건식공정 산화물핵연료를 조사시험을 할 수 있다고 제안하였다. NRU 조사시험을 하고자 하는 핵연료는 건식공정 산화물핵연료봉 10개(약 6kgU)이며 운반물 분류등급에 따라 제7종 위험물로 핵분열성물질에 해당한다. 일반적으로 소량의 방사성물질을 운반할 경우에는 비용뿐 아니라 수송기간 측면에서 항공수송이 선박수송에 비해 유리한 것으로 알려져 있어 항공기를 이용한 건식공정 산화물핵연료의 해외 수송방안을 검토하였다. 검토결과, 현재 건식공정 산화물핵연료봉 10개를 운반할 수 있는 적절한 항공수송용 수송용기가 없어 항공수송이 불가능한 것으로 조사되었다. 선박을 이용한 해외 수송방안은 가능하나 이 경우에는 전용선박을 사용해야 함으로 비용이 많이 수요되는 것으로 분석되었다.