• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1037-1051
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• 2024

This paper presents the construction results and design of the UNIST Reactor Innovation platform for small modular reactors as a versatile testbed for exploring innovative technologies. The platform uses simulant fluids to simulate the thermal-hydraulic behavior of a reference small modular reactor design, allowing for cost-effective design modifications. Scaling analysis results for single and two-phase natural circulation flows are outlined based on the three-level scaling methodology. The platform's capability to simulate natural circulation behavior was validated through performance calculations using the 1-D system thermal-hydraulic code-based calculation. The strategies for evaluating cutting-edge technologies, such as the integration of a solid oxide electrolysis cell for hydrogen production into a small modular reactor, are presented. To overcome experimental limitations, the hardware-in-the-loop technique is proposed as an alternative, enabling real-time simulation of physical phenomena that cannot be implemented within the experimental facility's hardware. Overall, the proposed versatile innovation platform is expected to provide valuable insights for advancing research in the field of small modular reactors and nuclear-based hydrogen production.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1402-1411
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• 2018

Nuclear-related facilities can be detrimentally affected by ground vibrations due to the collapse of adjacent cooling towers in nuclear power plants. To reduce this hazard risk, a design-oriented acceleration response spectrum (ARS) was proposed to predict the dynamic responses of nuclear-related facilities subjected to ground vibrations. For this purpose, 20 computational cases were performed based on cooling tower-soil numerical models developed in previous studies. This resulted in about 2664 ground vibration records to build a basic database and five complementary databases with consideration of primary factors that influence ground vibrations. Afterwards, these databases were applied to generate the design-oriented ARS using a response spectrum analysis approach. The proposed design-oriented ARS covers a wide range of natural periods up to 6 s and consists of an ascending portion, a plateau, and two connected descending portions. Spectral parameters were formulated based on statistical analysis. The spectrum was verified by comparing the representative acceleration magnitudes obtained from the design-oriented ARS with those from computational cases using cooling tower-soil numerical models with reasonable consistency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3745-3765
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• 2022

The concrete structures related to nuclear safety are threatened by accidental impact loadings, mainly including the low-velocity drop-weight impact (e.g., spent fuel cask and assembly, etc. with the velocity less than 20 m/s) and high-speed projectile impact (e.g., steel pipe, valve, turbine bucket, etc. with the velocity higher than 20 m/s), while the existing studies are still limited in the impact resistant design of nuclear power plant (NPP), especially the primary RC slab. This paper aims to propose the numerical simulation and theoretical approaches to assist the impact-resistant design of RC slab in NPP. Firstly, the continuous surface cap (CSC) model parameters for concrete with the compressive strength of 20-70 MPa are fully calibrated and verified, and the refined numerical simulation approach is proposed. Secondly, the two-degree freedom (TDOF) model with considering the mutual effect of flexural and shear resistance of RC slab are developed. Furthermore, based on the low-velocity drop hammer tests and high-speed soft/hard projectile impact tests on RC slabs, the adopted numerical simulation and TDOF model approaches are fully validated by the flexural and punching shear damage, deflection, and impact force time-histories of RC slabs. Finally, as for the two low-velocity impact scenarios, the design procedure of RC slab based on TDOF model is validated and recommended. Meanwhile, as for the four actual high-speed impact scenarios, the impact-resistant design specification in Chinese code NB/T 20012-2019 is evaluated, the over conservation of which is found, and the proposed numerical approach is recommended. The present work could beneficially guide the impact-resistant design and safety assessment of NPPs against the accidental impact loadings.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.108-112
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• 2016

This study is established the data-centric design concept, which is the latest design technique, by analyzing existing study literature for its application on the nuclear power plant industry in Korea. This study investigated the data-centric design cases in the advanced companies and suggests a data-centric design integrated system framework by analyzing the major functions of the commercial 3D CAD system, which is globally used in the plant architect engineering. In order to apply the data-centric design integrated system framework to the nuclear power plant industry in Korea, the main functions of a nuclear power plant design information integrated system framework, which can manage the design products of each EPC step and the related information in integrated way, is suggested by analyzing the supplier design, field design process and field design drawings, which have close relation with the plant Architect Engineering (A/E). It is expected that the result of this study would contribute in the dramatic enhancement in the job efficiency of nuclear power plant design process in Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.19-26
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• 1998

Nuclear design bases for System-Integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor(SMART) core are presented. Based on the proposed design bases, a SMART core loading pattern is constructed and its nuclear characteristics are studied. The proposed core loading pattern satisfies 3-year cycle length and soluble boron-free operation requirements at any time during the cycle

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.170-181
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• 2018

Because of the design and construction requirements, the nuclear structures need to maintain the structural integrity under both design state and extreme earthquake shaking. The base-isolation technology can significantly reduce the damages of structures under extreme earthquake events, and effectively protect the safeties of structures and internal equipment. This study proposes a base-isolation design for the AP1000 nuclear shield building on considering the performance requirements of the seismic isolation systems and devices of shield building. The seismic responses of isolated and nonisolated shield buildings subjected to design basis earthquake (DBE) shaking and beyond-design basis earthquake (BDBE) shaking are analyzed, and three different strategies for controlling the displacements subjected to BDBE shaking are performed. By comparing with nonisolated shield buildings, the floor acceleration spectra of isolated shield buildings, relative displacement, and base shear force are significantly reduced in high-frequency region. The results demonstrate that the base-isolation technology is an effective approach to maintain the structural integrity which subjected to both DBE and BDBE shaking. A displacement control design for isolation layers subjected to BDBE shaking, which adopts fluid dampers for controlling the horizontal displacement of isolation layer is developed. The effectiveness of this simple method is verified through numerical analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.637-646
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• 2021

The free-piston Stirling engine (FPSE) has been widely used in aerospace owing to its advantages of high efficiency, high reliability, and self-starting ability. In this paper, a 20-kW FPSE is proposed by analyzing the requirements of space nuclear power reactor. A code was developed based on an improved simple analysis method to evaluate the performance of the proposed FPSE. The code is benchmarked with experimental data, and the maximum relative error of the output power is 17.1%. Numerical results show that the output power is 21 kW, which satisfies the design requirements. The results show that: a) reducing the pressure shell's thickness can improve the output power significantly; b) the system efficiency increases with the wire porosity, while the growth of system efficiency decreases when the porosity is higher than 80%, and system efficiency exhibits a linear relationship with the temperatures of the cold and hot sides; c) the system efficiency increases with the compression ratio; the compression ratio increases by 16.7% while the system efficiency increases by 42%. This study can provide valuable theoretical support for the design and analysis of FPSEs for space nuclear power reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1116-1123
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• 2024

-In recent years, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) have been vigorously developed, and with the continuous deepening of marine exploration, traditional energy can no longer meet the energy supply. Nuclear energy can achieve a huge and sustainable energy supply. The heat pipe reactor has no flow system and related auxiliary systems, and the supporting mechanical moving parts are greatly reduced, the noise is relatively small, and the system is simpler and more reliable. It is more favorable for the control of unmanned systems. The use of heat pipe reactors in unmanned underwater vehicles can meet the needs for highly compact, long-life, unmanned, highly reliable, ultra-quiet power supplies. In this paper, a heat pipe reactor scheme named UPR-S that can be applied to unmanned underwater vehicles is designed. The reactor core can provide 1 MW of thermal power, and it can operate at full power for 5 years. UPR-S has negative reactive feedback, it has inherent safety. The temperature and stress of the reactor are within the limits of the material, and the core safety can still be guaranteed when the two heat pipes are failed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.949-953
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• 2019

The burnup equation of nuclides is one of the most equations in nuclear reactor physics, which is generally coupled with transport calculations. The burnup equation describes the variation of the nuclides with time. Because of its very stiffness and the need for large time step, this equation is solved by special methods, for example transmutation trajectory analysis (TTA) or the matrix exponential methods where the matrix exponential is approximated by CRAM. However, TTA or CRAM functions well when the flux is constant. In this work, a new method is proposed when the flux changes. It's an improved method compared to TTA or CRAM. Furtherly, this new method is based on TTA or CRAM, and it is more accurate than them. The accuracy and efficiency of this method are investigated. Several cases are used and the results show the accuracy and efficiency of this method are great.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2215-2221
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• 2023

In order to further meet the requirements of weight, volume, and dose minimization for new nuclear energy devices, the bare-bones multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to automatically and iteratively optimize the design parameters of radiation shielding system material, thickness, and structure. The radiation shielding optimization program based on the bare-bones particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed and coupled into the reactor radiation shielding multi-objective intelligent optimization platform, and the code is verified by using the Savannah benchmark model. The material type and thickness of Savannah model were optimized by using the BBMOPSO algorithm to call the dose calculation code, the integrated optimized data showed that the weight decreased by 78.77%, the volume decreased by 23.10% and the dose rate decreased by 72.41% compared with the initial solution. The results show that the method can get the best radiation shielding solution that meets a lot of different goals. This shows that the method is both effective and feasible, and it makes up for the lack of manual optimization.