• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1968-1973
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• 2004

Structural degradations are often experienced on the components of nuclear power plants in reactor pressure vessels (RPV) and steam generators (SG) when these components are exposed to high temperature and high pressure for a long period of time. Such conditions result in the change of microstructures and of mechanical properties of materials, which requires an evaluation of the safeguards related to structural integrity. In a primary reactor cooling system (RCS), a dissimilar weld zone exists between cast stainless steel (CF8M) in a pipe and low-alloy steel (SA508 cl.3) in a nozzle. Thermal aging is observed in CF8M as the RCS is exposed for a long period of time under the operating temperature between 290 and 33$0^{\circ}C$. Under the same conditions, it is well known that degradation is not observed in low alloy steel. An investigation of the effect of thermal aging on the various mechanical properties of the dissimilar weld zone is required. The purpose of the present investigation is to find the effect of thermal aging on the dissimilar weld zone. The specimens are prepared by an artificially accelerated aging technique maintained for various times at 43$0^{\circ}C$, respectively. Then, The various mechanical test for the dissimilar welds are performed.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.294-298
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• 2001

A research for transmutation reactor is in progress to transmute high radioactive isotopes into low radioactive ones. In this study, thermal-hydraulic and structural analysis was performed to design liquid metal target system that would be used in subcritical transmutation reactor. Diffuse plate installation was considered to enhance cooling of window. And thermal-structural analysis of window was performed varying window thickness, beam power, and coolant flow rate to determine target system design valuers. It is ensured that maximum window temperature and stress would be acceptable in the design condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.968-978
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• 2017

Three small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) tests with safety injection pumps were carried out using the integral-effect test loop for SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor), i.e., the SMART-ITL facility. The types of break are a safety injection system line break, shutdown cooling system line break, and pressurizer safety valve line break. The thermal-hydraulic phenomena show a traditional behavior to decrease the temperature and pressure whereas the local phenomena are slightly different during the early stage of the transient after a break simulation. A safety injection using a high-pressure pump effectively cools down and recovers the inventory of a reactor coolant system. The global trends show reproducible results for an SBLOCA scenario with three different break locations. It was confirmed that the safety injection system is robustly safe enough to protect from a core uncovery.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.110.1-110.1
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• 2010

A bench scale slurry bubble column reactor (SBCR) with active-Fe based catalyst was developed for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction. Considering the highly exothermic reaction heat generated in the bench scale SBCR, an effective cooling system was devised consisting of a U-type dip tube submerged in the reactor. Also, the physical and chemical properties of the catalyst were controlled so as to achieve high activity for the CO conversion and liquid oil ($C_{5+}$) production. Firstly, the FTS performance of the FeCuK/$SiO_2$ catalyst in the SBCR under reaction conditions of $265^{\circ}C$, 2.5 MPa, and $H_2/CO=1$ was investigated. The CO conversion and liquid oil ($C_{5+}$) productivity in the reaction were 88.6% and 0.226 $g/g_{cat}-h$, respectively, corresponding to a liquid oil ($C_{5+}$) production rate of 0.03 bbl/day. To investigate the FTS reaction behavior in the bench scale SBCR, the effects of the space velocity and superficial velocity of the synthesis gas and reaction temperature were also studied. The liquid oil production rate increased upto 0.057 bbl/day with increasing space velocity from 2.61 to 3.92 $SL/h-g_{Fe}$ and it was confirmed that the SBCR bench system developed in this research precisely simulated the FTS reaction behavior reported in the small scale slurry reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.678-699
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• 2015

Although the harsh space environment imposes many severe challenges to space pioneers, space exploration is a realistic and profitable goal for long-term humanity survival. One of the viable and promising options to overcome the harsh environment of space is nuclear propulsion. Particularly, the Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) is a leading candidate for nearterm human missions to Mars and beyond due to its relatively high thrust and efficiency. Traditional NTR designs use typically high power reactors with fast or epithermal neutron spectrums to simplify core design and to maximize thrust. In parallel there are a series of new NTR designs with lower thrust and higher efficiency, designed to enhance mission versatility and safety through the use of redundant engines (when used in a clustered engine arrangement) for future commercialization. This paper proposes a new NTR design of the second design philosophy, Korea Advanced NUclear Thermal Engine Rocket (KANUTER), for future space applications. The KANUTER consists of an Extremely High Temperature Gas cooled Reactor (EHTGR) utilizing hydrogen propellant, a propulsion system, and an optional electricity generation system to provide propulsion as well as electricity generation. The innovatively small engine has the characteristics of high efficiency, being compact and lightweight, and bimodal capability. The notable characteristics result from the moderated EHTGR design, uniquely utilizing the integrated fuel element with an ultra heat-resistant carbide fuel, an efficient metal hydride moderator, protectively cooling channels and an individual pressure tube in an all-in-one package. The EHTGR can be bimodally operated in a propulsion mode of $100MW_{th}$ and an electricity generation mode of $100MW_{th}$, equipped with a dynamic energy conversion system. To investigate the design features of the new reactor and to estimate referential engine performance, a preliminary design study in terms of neutronics and thermohydraulics was carried out. The result indicates that the innovative design has great potential for high propellant efficiency and thrust-to-weight of engine ratio, compared with the existing NTR designs. However, the build-up of fission products in fuel has a significant impact on the bimodal operation of the moderated reactor such as xenon-induced dead time. This issue can be overcome by building in excess reactivity and control margin for the reactor design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.103-112
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• 2017

Application of the supercritical condition in reactor core cooling needs to be properly justified based on the extreme level of parameters involved. Therefore, a numerical study is presented to compare the thermalhydraulic performance of supercritical and single-phase natural circulation loops under low-to-intermediate power levels. Carbon dioxide and water are selected as respective working fluids, operating under an identical set of conditions. Accordingly, a three-dimensional computational model was developed, and solved with an appropriate turbulence model and equations of state. Large asymmetry in velocity and temperature profiles was observed in a single cross section due to local buoyancy effect, which is more prominent for supercritical fluids. Mass flow rate in a supercritical loop increases with power until a maximum is reached, which subsequently corresponds to a rapid deterioration in heat transfer coefficient. That can be identified as the limit of operation for such loops to avoid a high temperature, and therefore, the use of a supercritical loop is suggested only until the appearance of such maxima. Flow-induced heat transfer deterioration can be delayed by increasing system pressure or lowering sink temperature. Bulk temperature level throughout the loop with water as working fluid is higher than supercritical carbon dioxide. This is until the heat transfer deterioration, and hence the use of a single-phase loop is prescribed beyond that limit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.327-336
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• 2007

The influence of density differences on the mixing of the primary loop inventory and the Emergency Core Cooling (ECC) water in the downcomer of a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) was analyzed at the ROssendorf COolant Mixing (ROCOM) test facility. ROCOM is a 1:5 scaled model of a German PWR, and has been designed for coolant mixing studies. It is equipped with advanced instrumentation, which delivers high-resolution information for temperature or boron concentration fields. This paper presents a ROCOM experiment in which water with higher density was injected into a cold leg of the reactor model. Wire-mesh sensors measuring the tracer concentration were installed in the cold leg and upper and lower part of the downcomer. The experiment was run with 5% of the design flow rate in one loop and 10% density difference between the ECC and loop water especially for the validation of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS CFX. A mesh with two million control volumes was used for the calculations. The effects of turbulence on the mean flow were modelled with a Reynolds stress turbulence model. The results of the experiment and of the numerical calculations show that mixing is dominated by buoyancy effects: At higher mass flow rates (close to nominal conditions) the injected slug propagates in the circumferential direction around the core barrel. Buoyancy effects reduce this circumferential propagation. Therefore, density effects play an important role during natural convection with ECC injection in PWRs. ANSYS CFX was able to predict the observed flow patterns and mixing phenomena quite well.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1330-1337
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• 2016

A visualization test of the fuel-coolant interaction in the Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI) test facility was carried out. To experimentally simulate the In-Vessel corium Retention (IVR)- External Reactor Vessel Cooling (ERVC) conditions, prototypic corium was released directly into the coolant water without a free fall in a gas phase before making contact with the coolant. Corium (34.39 kg) consisting of uranium oxide and zirconium oxide with a weight ratio of 8:2 was superheated, and 22.54 kg of the 34.39 kg corium was passed through water contained in a transparent interaction vessel. An image of the corium jet behavior in the coolant was taken by a high-speed camera every millisecond. Thermocouple junctions installed in the vertical direction of the coolant were cut sequentially by the falling corium jet. It was clearly observed that the visualization image of the corium jet taken during the fuel-coolant interaction corresponded with the temperature variations in the direction of the falling melt. The corium penetrated through the coolant, and the jet leading edge velocity was 2.0 m/s. Debris smaller than 1 mm was 15% of the total weight of the debris collected after a fuel-coolant interaction test, and the mass median diameter was 2.9 mm.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1991.11a
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• pp.299-303
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• 1991

A lamp heated LPCVD equipment has been made. Wafer is heated by an array of fifteen tungsten halogen lamps above the front side of a wafer and pyrometer views the back side of the wafer through $CaF_2$ window. Reactor which consisits of a quartz window and a water cooled-stainless steel plate can be evacuated to $5{\times}10^{-3}$ torr with a rotary vane pump. By pyrolysis of $SiH_4$ at about $600^{\circ}C$, polysilicon has been formed on the silicon dioxide film. The measured results show that thickness nonuniformity is 15% and temperature nonuniformity is 1.1%. Because activation energy of pyrolysis of $SiH_4$ is very high, about 1.8eV, small temperature variation will induce large thickness nonuniformity. The main cause of temperature nonuniformity is unsymmetry of lamp power and an unbalanced cooling structure. Charls & Evans' SIMS result shows that the oxygen content in the deposited polysilicon is comparable to that of silicon substrate but carbon content is ten times higher.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.206-213
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• 2003

This study focuses on an understanding of the environmental effect on delayed hydride cracking velocity (DHCV) of CANDU Zr-2.5Nb tubes. To simulate DHC susceptibility of the Zr-2.5Nb tubes in reactor operating conditions, DHC tests were successfully carried out in pressurized water at 180 and $250^{\circ}C$ using a self-designed autoclave for the first time. Using 17 mm compact tension specimens electorlytically charged to 34 and 60 ppm H, 3 to 7 DHCV data were determined in water at both temperatures and compared to those determined in air that were already confirmed to be valid through a round robin test on DHCV of Zr-2.5Nb tubes sponsored by a IAEA coordinated research program. The pressurized water environment has little effect on DHCV of Zr-2.5Nb tube in water at both temperatures even though DHCV is slightly lower in water than that in air. The lower DHCV of the Zr-2.5Nb tube during short-term tests is discussed in viewpoint of the cooling rate from the peak temperature to the test temperature.