• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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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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• v.53 no.11
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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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4731-4742
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• 2022

RBMK fuel assemblies differ from other LWR FA due to a specific arrangement of the fuel rods, the low enrichment, and the used burnable absorber - erbium. Therefore, there is a challenge to adapt modeling tools, developed for other LWR types, to solve RBMK problems. A set of 10 different depletion simulation schemes were tested to estimate the impact on reactivity and spent fuel composition of possible SCALE code options for the neutron transport modelling and the use of different nuclear data libraries. The simulations were performed using cross-section libraries based on both, VII.0 and VII.1, versions of ENDF/B nuclear data, and assuming continuous energy and multigroup simulation modes, standard and user-defined Dancoff factor values, and employing deterministic and Monte Carlo methods. The criticality analysis with burn-up credit was performed for the SFP loaded with RBMK-1500 FA. Spent fuel compositions were taken from each of 10 performed depletion simulations. The criticality of SFP is found to be overestimated by up to 0.08% in simulation cases using user-defined Dancoff factors comparing the results obtained using the continuous energy library (VII.1 version of ENDF/B nuclear data). It was shown that such discrepancy is determined by the higher U-235 and Pu-239 isotopes concentrations calculated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4499-4513
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• 2022

Spent fuel behavior of dry storage was simulated in a continuous state from steady-state operation by modifying FRAPCON-4.0 to incorporate spent fuel-specific fuel behavior models. Spent fuel behavior of a typical PWR was compared with that of NuScale Power Module (NPM^TM). Current PWR discharge burnup (60 MWd/kgU) gives a sufficient margin to the hoop stress limit of 90 MPa. Most hydrogen precipitation occurs in the first 50 years of dry storage, thereby no extra phenomenological safety factor is identified for extended dry storage up to 100 years. Regulation for spent fuel management can be significantly alleviated for LWR-based SMRs. Hydride embrittlement safety criterion is irrelevant to NuScale spent fuels; they have sufficiently lower plenum pressure and hydrogen contents compared to those of PWRs. Cladding creep out during dry storage reduces the subchannel area with burnup. The most deformed cladding outer diameter after 100 years of dry storage is found to be 9.64 mm for discharge burnup of 70 MWd/kgU. It may deteriorate heat transfer of dry storage by increasing flow resistance and decreasing the view factor of radiative heat transfer. Self-regulated by decreasing rod internal pressure with opening gap, cladding creep out closely reaches the saturated point after ~50 years of dry storage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.815-824
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• 2016

The fuel assembly for pressurized water reactor (PWR) consists of fuel rod bundle, spacer grid and bottom/top end fittings. The cooling water in high pressure and temperature is introduced in lower plenum of reactor core and directed to upper plenum through the subchannel which is formed between the fuel rods. The main thermal-hydraulic performance parameters for the PWR fuel are pressure drop and critical heat flux in normal operating condition, and quenching time in accident condition. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing an advanced PWR fuel, dual-cooled annular fuel and accident tolerant fuel for the enhancement of fuel performance and the localization. For the key thermal-hydraulic technology development of PWR fuel, the KAERI LWR fuel team has conducted the experiments for pressure drop, turbulent flow mixing and heat transfer, critical heat flux(CHF) and quenching. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was also performed to predict flow and heat transfer in fuel assembly including the spent fuel assembly in dry cask for interim repository. In addition, the research cooperation with university and nuclear fuel company was also carried out to develop a basic thermal-hydraulic technology and the commercialization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.435-435
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• 2002

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.239-245
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• 2010

There are 11,811 LWR spent fuels stored at reactor sites, as of 2009. Source terms based on reference spent fuel which represents entire spent fuels with bounding values in the aspect of source term has been applied to a design of nuclear installations, instead of those which are generated by weighting respective source term for each spent fuel. Simplified regression models to estimate total decay heat, radioactivity, and ingestion hazard index for spent fuel from Westinghouse-type reactors were developed in this study, because it can be used as a fundamental model for weighting source term for respective spent fuel to exclude conservativeness in source terms. It was found that the estimated source terms agreed with calculated value from ORIGEN-ARP within 5%. It was also found that the conservativeness could be excluded if the weight source terms were used as reference source term in the design. Therefore, it is expected that the developed regression model could be widely used in the conceptual design process of nuclear facilities related with storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.367-376
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• 2013

This study investigated mixing scenarios of the low and high conversion ratios (CRs) of fast reactors (FRs). The fuel cycle was modeled so as to minimize the spent fuel (SF) or transuranics (TRU) inventories. The scenarios were modeled for a single low CR of 0.61 and a high CR of 1.0. The study also investigated the mixing scenario of low-high CR and/or high-low CR. The SF and TRU inventories, associated with different scenarios, were compared to those of the light water reactor (LWR) once-through (OT) case. Also, the important isotope concentration and long-term heat (LTH) load were calculated and compared to those of the OT cycle. As a result, it is known that the deployment of FRs of low CR burns more TRU and results in a reduction of the out-of-pile TRU inventory and LTH with low deployment capacity. This study shows that the mixing strategy of FRs of low and high CR can reduce the SF and TRU inventories with lower deployment capacity as compared with a single deployment of FRs of high CR.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2008

Pyroprocessing is the optimal means of treating spent metal fuels from metal fast fuel reactors and is proposed as a potential option for GNEP in order to meet the requirements of the next generation fuel cycle. Currently, efforts for research and development are being made not only in the U.S., but also in Asian countries. Electrorefining, cathode processing by distillation, injection casting for fuel fabrication, and waste treatment must be verified by the use of genuine materials, and the engineering scale model of each device must be developed for commercial deployment. Pyroprocessing can be effectively extended to treat oxide fuels by applying an electrochemical reduction, for which various kinds of oxides are examined. A typical morphology change was observed following the electrochemical reduction, while the product composition was estimated through the process flow diagram. The products include much stronger radiation emitter than pure typical LWR Pu or weapon-grade Pu. Nevertheless, institutional measures are unavoidable to ensure proliferation-proof plant operations. The safeguard concept of a pyroprocessing plant was compared with that of a PUREX plant. The pyroprocessing is better adapted for a collocation system positioned with some reactors and a single processing facility rather than for a centralized reprocessing unit with a large scale throughput.