• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권8호
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• pp.1339-1348
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• 2018

The aim of this paper is to determine neutronic performances of the light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel mixed with fertile thorium fuel in a FFHR. Time dependent three dimensional calculations for major technical data, such as blanket energy multiplication, tritium breeding ratio, cumulative fissile fuel enrichment and burnup have been performed by using Monte Carlo Neutron-Particle Transport code MCNP5 1.4, coupled with a novel interface code MCNPAS, which is developed by our research group. A self-sustaining tritium breeding ratio (TBR>1.05) has been kept throughout the calculations. The study has shown that the fissile fuel quality will be improved in the course of the transmutation of the LWR spent in the FFHR. The latter has gained the reusable fuel enrichment level conventional LWRs between one and two years. Furthermore, LWR spent fuel - thorium mixture provides higher burn-up values than in light water reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권5호
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• pp.417-422
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• 2006

The present paper describes the 45 MW High Flux Reactor (HFR) which is located in Petten, The Netherlands. This paper focuses on selected technical aspects of this reactor and on nuclear fuel irradiation experiments. These fuel experiments are mainly experiments on Light Water Reactor (LWR) and Very/High Temperature Reactor (V/HTR) fuels, but also on Fast Reactor (FR) fuels, transmutation fuels and Material Test Reactor (MTR) fuels.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권11호
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• pp.3563-3579
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• 2021

Measured decay heat data of light water reactor (LWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies are adopted to train machine learning (ML) models. The measured data is available for fuel assemblies irradiated in commercial reactors operated in the United States and Sweden. The data comes from calorimetric measurements of discharged pressurized water reactor (PWR) and boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel assemblies. 91 and 171 measurements of PWR and BWR assembly decay heat data are used, respectively. Due to the small size of the measurement dataset, we propose: (i) to use the method of multiple runs (ii) to generate and use synthetic data, as large dataset which has similar statistical characteristics as the original dataset. Three ML models are developed based on Gaussian process (GP), support vector machines (SVM) and neural networks (NN), with four inputs including the fuel assembly averaged enrichment, assembly averaged burnup, initial heavy metal mass, and cooling time after discharge. The outcomes of this work are (i) development of ML models which predict LWR fuel assembly decay heat from the four inputs (ii) generation and application of synthetic data which improves the performance of the ML models (iii) uncertainty analysis of the ML models and their predictions.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.157-166
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• 2014

경수로 핵연료가 원자로내에서 연소되는 동안 핵연료 펠릿에서부터 피복관까지 온도해석은 핵연료 안전 해석에 있어 중요한 요소이며, 경수로 핵연료 온도 해석을 하기 위해서는 간극 모델 개발이 필수적이다. 간극 열전도도는 특성상 간극 두께값에 의존적이게 되며 이러한 특성으로 인해 다차원 간극 열전도도 모델이 비선형적 거동을 보인다. 본 연구에서는 선형화된 다차원 간극 열전도도 모델 개발을 위해 가상 연결 간극 요소를 제안하였다. 제안된 간극 연결 요소에 간극 열전도도를 적용하기 위해 등가 열전달 계수를 정의하였다. 제안된 모듈을 평가하기 위해 상용코드 ANSYS APDL 을 이용하여 열-구조 연계 해석 모듈을 구현하였으며, 다양한 예제를 통해 정확성과 수렴성을 평가하였다.

• 공학교육연구
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2012

The success history of Light Water Reactors (PWR and BWR) showed how a dominant technology could be shaped in a political and economical context. The american nuclear politics, the interest of american nuclear industry, and the accumulated technological know-hows made it possible that the not inherently safe reactor-Light Water Reactor- became a prominent reactor model. The path dependency of reactor technology on LWR kept the engineers from developing a new safer reactor, even if the severe reactor accidents occurred. In oder to increase safety of nuclear power system, we should understand the social shaping process of nuclear technology.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제36권7호
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• pp.689-695
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• 2012

지지격자가 있는 봉다발과 축방향으로 평행한 유동에서, 봉다발 마찰계수와 지지격자 손실계수를 평가하였다. 시험부는 외경 9.5 mm, 길이 2000 mm 인 봉 25 개를 $5{\times}5$ 정사각 구조로 배열하여 제작하였으며, 봉 중심간 거리와 봉 외경의 비는 1.35 였다. 지지격자로는 plain 지지격자, split-vane 지지격자, hybrid-vane 지지격자를 이용하였다. 지지격자가 없는 봉다발의 마찰계수는 기존 상관식과 비교적 잘 일치하였다. 지지격자가 있는 봉다발 실험의 경우, hybrid-vane 지지격자에서 봉다발 마찰계수 및 지지격자 손실계수가 가장 크게 측정되었으며, 이는 지지격자의 유동단면 막음비 증가와 혼합날개 형상에 의한 유동 교란이 증가되기 때문인 것으로 판단된다. Re=$5{\times}10^5$ 조건에서 plain 지지격자, split-vane 지지격자, hybrid-vane 지지격자의 손실계수는 약 0.79, 0.80, 0.88 로 예측되었다.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회A
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• pp.590-592
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• 2008

A spacer grid is one of the most important structural components in a LWR nuclear fuel assembly. The primary considerations are to provide a Zircaloy spacer grid with crush strength sufficient to resist design basis loads, without significantly increasing pressure drop across the reactor core. In this study, the dynamic crush strength analysis and test are carried out for the specimens of a spacer grid assembly.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제34권9호
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• pp.1175-1183
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• 2010

지지격자체는 경수로 핵연료집합체의 가장 중요한 핵심 구조부품 중에 하나이다. 질칼로이 지지격자체 설계시의 우선적으로 고려해야 할 사항은 지지격자체가 원자로심에서 냉각수의 심한 수두손실을 유발하지 않으면서 지진사고를 고려한 설계하중 하에서 충분한 횡방향 충격강도를 갖도록 하는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 시험과 유한요소해석을 통해 지지격자체의 횡방향 충격강도에 영향을 주는 인자들에 대한 분석을 수행하였고, 지지격자체 제조용 질칼로이 원자재 소요량을 획기적으로 줄이면서 지지격자체의 횡방향 충격강도를 개선할 수 있는 방안을 제시하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권11호
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• pp.2415-2421
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• 2020

The axial heterogeneous void distribution in a fuel channel is a relevant and important issue during nuclear reactor analysis for LWR, especially for boiling water channel-type reactors. Variation of the coolant density in fuel channel has an effect on the neutron spectrum that will in turn have an impact on the values of absolute reactivity, the void reactivity coefficient, and the fuel isotopic compositions during irradiation. This effect is referring to as the history effect in light water reactor calculations. As the void reactivity effect is positive in RBMK type reactors, the underestimation of water density heterogeneity in 3D reactor core numerical calculations could cause an uncertainty during assessment of safe operation of nuclear reactor. Thus, this issue is analysed with different cross-section libraries which were generated with WIMS8 code at different reference water densities. The libraries were applied in single fuel model of the nodal code of QUABOX-CUBBOX/HYCA. The thermohydraulic part of HYCA allowed to simulate axial water distribution along fuel assembly model and to estimate water density history effect for RBMK type fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.327-362
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• 2005

The design, construction, and operation of a light water reactor (LWR) are subject to compliance with safety criteria specified for accident situations, such as loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) and reactivity-initiated accident (RIA). Because reactor fuel is the primary source of radioactivity and heat generation, such a criterion is established on the basis of the characteristics and performance of fuel under the specific accident condition. As such, fuel behavior under accident situations impact many aspects of fuel design and power generation, and in an indirect manner, even spent fuel storage and management. This paper provides a comprehensive review of: the history of the current LOCA criteria, results of LOCA-related investigations on conventional and new classes of fuel, and status of on-going studies on high-burnup fuel under LOCA situations. The objective of the paper is to provide a better understanding of important issues and an insight helpful to establish new LOCA criteria for modem LWR fuels.