• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.630-633
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• 1997

Spent fuel decladding device and dry voloxidizer is to separate the spent pellet from spent fuel rod cut by 250mm and to convert the spent pellet into powder form for reuse and/or disposal of the spent fuel. There are two methods in decladding and voloxidation of spent fuel, that is, wet method with chemical material and dry method with mechanical device. In this study, to examine the fuel rod decladding process and the pellet voloxidation process, the devices for the spent fuel decladding and the pellet voloxidation with dry method are developed. The decladding machine is designed to separate pellets from fuel rod by slitting device. And, the voloxidizer is designed to convert the spent pellet which is ceramic form into powder form by oxidation using the multi step mesh, vibrator, and air in the high temperature environment. The result of this study, such as operation condition et., will be utilized in the design of the machine for demonstration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.441-444
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• 2000

The recycling process for reuse of uranium in the spent fuels consists various unit processes and the decladding process to extract the spent fuel pellet from the zirconium-based cladding is the beginning process of the recycling. There are two methods - mechanical and chemical - in the decladding process. In this paper, the mechanical decladding device by using a motor as a driving part and a press pin to separate the pellets from tube has been developed. This device was automated and modularized to make the remote operation and maintenance easy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.421-422
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.413-414
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• 2009

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.141-144
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• 2006

In this study, we developed a decladding device which separates 250 mm length of simulated nuclear spent fuel rod into the pallets and the pieces of the hulls after inserting the rod cut into the module with several pairs of blades. To improve the performance of the equipment, we considered some mechanisms to prevent the rod cut from being exposed or bounced into the hot-cell, to reduce the operation time, and to insert the rods automatically. It is expected that the newly developed system will contribute to prevent radioactive pollution in the hot-cell, reduce the operation time, and to increase the safety of the operators. As a result of the performance test for some mockup fuel rod cuts in the ACP(Advanced Spent Fuel Control Process) facility, it was verified that the decladding device could be applied to the actual fuel rod cut. And it will be able to use for a scale-up facility in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.651-654
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• 2001

In the dismantling process of nuclear spent fuels, the spent fuel rod cutting process, followed immediately by the decladding process, performs the cutting the spent fuel rods to a proper length for fast decladding operation. In this paper, we analyzed the chemical compositions, mechanical properties, and physical characteristics for SUS and zircaloy tubes in order to identify the feasibility of cutter-blade type in cutting SUS and zircaloy tubes. It is considered that material, shape and angle, and heat treatment for fabricating the highly durable cutter blade and also it is investigated that the round-shape sustenance of cross-section, amount of debris production, and fire occurrence for measuring the cutting performance on SUS and zircaloy tubes, spent fuel rod cutting device is designed to be operated automatically through the remote control system for use in Hot Cell(radioactive) area and the electro-driven mechanical parts are modularized for easy maintenance. Results from various experiments confirm the efficiency of this device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.537-538
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.297-297
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• 1998

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.473-476
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• 2008

In this paper, we designed the main mechanism of high throughput device for rod-cuts of spent fuel. For this, we analyzed the mechanical methods(slitting, ball mill, roller straightening) and chemical methods(muffle furnace, rotary kiln). As the results, methods of ball drop and rotary drum for concepts design were selected in the analysis step. For enhancement of oxidation rate, we devised the blades on the reactor with mesh type. Also, for enhancement of decladding rate, we designed ball size and rotation reactor with mesh type and devised the vacuum system for fission products. Mechanisms of oxidation and recovery can simultaneously handle the rod-cuts of spent fuel and independently recover. The results of mechanism design can be used for scale-up of high throughput device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.393-396
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• 2000

Spent fuel rod cutting device should cut a spent fuel rod to an optimal size in order to fast decladding operation. In this paper, for developing spent fuel rod cutting device with cutter blade, rod properties such as dimension and material of zircaloy tube and fuel pellet are investigated at first and then, various methods of existing cutting devices used commercially are investigated and their performance are analyzed and compared. This device is designed to be operated automatically via remote control system considering later use in Hot-Cell (radioactive area) and the mdularization in the structure of this device makes maintenance easy. SUS and Zircaloy-4 are selected as cut material used in the test of spent fuel rod cutting device by cutter blade. In order for constructing the high durable cutter blade, various materials are analyzed in terms of quality, shape, characteristic, and heat treatment, etc. and from these results, spent fuel rod cutting device is designed and manufactured based on the considerations of durability, round shape sustainability of rod cross-section, debris generation, and fire risk, etc.