• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1698-1711
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• 2022

A combined safety approach, which uses a best-estimate computer code and adopts conservative assumptions for safety systems availability, is developed and applied to the safety margin evaluation for the Loss of Condenser Vacuum (LOCV) of the 1000 MWe Korean Nuclear Power Plant. The Multi-dimensional Analysis of Reactor Safety-KINS standard (MARS-KS) code is selected as a best-estimate code and the PAPIRUS program is used to obtain different initial operational conditions through random sampling of control variables. During an LOCV event, fuel integrity is not threatened by the increase in Departure from Nuclear Boiling Ratio (DNBR). However, the high pressure in the primary coolant system and the secondary system might affect the system integrity. Thus, the peak pressure becomes a major safety concern. Transient analyses are performed for 124 cases of different initial conditions and the most conservative case, which results in the highest system pressure is selected. It is found the suggested methodology gives similar peak pressures when compared to those predicted from existing methodologies. The proposed approach is expected to minimize the time and efforts required to identify the conservative plant conditions in the existing conservative safety methodologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3229-3240
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• 2023

Due to neutron radiation, atomic displacement has a significant effect on material in nuclear reactors. A range of secondary displacement models, including the Kinchin-Pease (K-P), Lindhard, Norgett-Robinson-Torrens (NRT), and athermal recombination-corrected displacement per atom (arc-dpa) have been suggested to calculate the number of displacement per atom (dpa). As neutron elastic interaction is the main cause of displacement damage, the focus of the current study is to calculate the atomic displacement caused by the neutron elastic interaction in order to estimate the exact amount of yield strength in a WWER-1000 reactor pressure vessel. To achieve this purpose, the reactor core is simulated by MCNPX code. In addition, a program is developed to calculate the elastic radiation damage induced by the incident neutron flux (RADIX) based on different models using Fortran programming language. Also, due to non-elastic interaction, the displacement damage is calculated by the HEATR module of the NJOY code. ASME E-693-01 standard, SPECTER, NJOY codes, and other pervious findings have been used to validate RADIX results. The results showed that the RADIX(arc-dpa)/HEATR outputs have appropriate accuracy. The relative error of the calculated dpa resulting from RADIX(arc-dpa)/HEATR is about 8% and 46% less than NJOY code, respectively in the ¼ and ¾ vessel wall.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.02a
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• pp.140-142
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• 2004

Since the April of 1978, Korea has strongly relied on the nuclear energy for electricity generation. As of today, eighteen nuclear power plants are in operation and ten are to be inaugurated by 2015. The installed nuclear capacity is 15, 716 MW as of the end of 2002, representing 29.3% of the nation's total installed capacity. The nuclear share in electricity remains around 38.9 at the end of 2002, reaching at the level of 119 billion kWh's. New power reactors, KSNP's (Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant) are fully based on the domestic technologies. More advanced reactors such as KNGR (Korea Next Generation Reactor) will be commercialized soon. Even though the front end nuclear cycle enjoys one of the best positions in the world, there have been some chronical problems in the back end fuel cycle. That's the one of the reason why we need more active R&D programs in Korea and active international and regional cooperation in this area. The everlasting NIMBY problem hinders the implementation of the nation's radioactive waste management program. We expect that the storage capacity for the LILW(Low and Intermediate Level radioactive Waste) will be dried out soon. The situation for the spent fuel storage is also not so favorable too. The storage pools for spent fuel are being filled rapidly so that in 2008, some AR pools cannot accommodate any more new spent nuclear fuels. The Korean Government in strong association with utilities and national academic and R&D institutes have tried its best effort to secure the site for a LILW repository and a AFR site. Finally, one local community, Buan in Jeonbook Province, submitted the petition for the site. At the end of the last July, the Government announced that the Wido, a small island in Buan, is suitable for the national complex site. The special force team headed by Dr IS Chang, president of KAERI teamed with Government officials and many prominent scholars and journalists agreed that by the evidences from the preliminary site investigation, they could not find any reason for rejecting the local community's offer.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3854-3859
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• 2023

Background: This study aims to develop an evaluator that can quickly and accurately evaluate the shielding of low-energy industrial radiation generators. Methods: We used PyQt to develop a graphical user interface (GUI)-based program and employed the calculation methodology reported in the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP)-49 for shielding calculations. We gathered the necessary factors for shielding evaluation using two libraries designed for Python, pandas and NumPy, and processed them into a database. We verified the effectiveness of the proposed program by comparing the results with those from safety reports of six domestic facilities. Results: After verifying the effectiveness of the program using the NCRP-49 example, we obtained an average error rate of 1.73%. When comparing the facility safety report and results obtained using the program, we found that the error rate was between 1.09% and 6.51%. However, facilities that did not use a defined shielding methodology were underestimated by 31.82% compared with the program (the final barrier thickness satisfied the shielding standard). Conclusion: The developed program provides a fast and accurate shielding evaluation that can assist personnel that work in radiation generator facilities and government officials in reviewing safety.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1843-1853
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• 1996

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the crack stability of the nuclear main stresm pipes, considering the load reduction effect due to the presence of circumferential throuth-wall crack. Also, the optimization techniques are adoped tosimulate the crack effect on the elbow component of the piuping system. By using a general beam elemetn which contains a discontinuous cross-section, the piping analysis is accomplished to acquire the reduced load. Considering this reduced load, it is feasible for the LBB application in nuclear main stresm pipe. Also, by combining an optimization program and a genaral finite element analysis program, the appropriate dimensions of the simplified beam elemtn which represents the effect of crack in elbow could be successfully determined.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.237-244
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The current South Korean government policy on food irradiation technology should be reformed based on an in-depth investigation of the communications aspect, because the issue is no longer of a technological nature, given the proven safety and efficacy of the processes. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The target population of the education program consisted of elementary, middle, and high school students attending 310 schools in South Korea (2013: 63 schools, 2014: 104 schools, 2015: 143 schools). Data subjected to analysis were 13,327 pre-education and 12,641 post-education questionnaires received from 7,582 elementary, 2,671 middle, and 3,249 high school students who participated in the education program from May 2012 to April 2015 (n = 12,831), after the exclusion of inadequately filled-in questionnaires. RESULTS: Analysis of the three-year educational effect trend was conducted by comparing levels of variables before and after food radiation education. The analysis yielded the finding that the post-education levels were significantly higher for all variables. That is, for interest in education, perception (necessity, safety, subjective knowledge, and information acquisition), objective knowledge, and attitude, with the sole exception of objective knowledge in 2013. CONCLUSIONS: Given that post-education levels of perception, knowledge, and attitude concerning irradiated foods increased considerably compared to pre-education levels, behavior change should be induced by providing continuous education to enhance, these primary variables.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 1999

The credibility of CHECWORKS FAC model analysis was evaluated for plant application in a model plant chosen for demonstration. The operation condition at each pipe component was defined before the wear rate analysis by plant data base, water chemistry analysis, and network flow analysis. The predicted wear was compared with the measured wear for 57 sample components selected from 43 susceptible line groups analysed. The inspected 57 locations represent components of highest predicted wear in each line group. Both absolute value and relative ranking comparisons indicated reasonable correlations between the predicted and the measured values. Four components showed much higher measured wear rates than the predicted ones in the feed water train from main feed water pump discharge to steam generator, probably due to high hydrazine concentration operation the effect of which had not been incorporated into the CHECWORKS model. The measured wear was higher than the predicted one consistently for components with least susceptibility to FAC. It is believed that the conservatism maintained during UT data analysis dominated the measurement accuracy. A great deal of enhancement is anticipated over the current plant pipe management program when a comprehensive plant pipe management program is implemented based on the model analysis.

• Journal of National Security and Military Science
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• s.3
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• pp.169-196
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• 2005

The point of Bush administraion’s foreign policy is to support the promotion and stability of Democracy in Iraq and counter terrorism and spread of WMD with his strong propulsive force caused by his reelection. In such an environment, there are his leadership, his team, himself, Kim Jung Il, and a new understanding of North Korea after September 11 as the effective factors of Bush administration’s policy toward Pyongyang. Bush administration’s foreign policy of North Korea also shows the process of North Korea’s nuclear weapon program and the future scenario of the Korean Peninsula with "the persistence of solving North Korea’s nuclear weapon program such as the method having done in Lybia", "the holding unconditional talks with Pyongyang, and "the continual concerns with human rights in North Korea." The purpose of Bush administration’s foreign policy of North Korea is to make North Korea do not support terrorism rather than remove the nuclear weapon in North Korea. The process of outlining South Korea’s policy toward North Korea must be considered for "national interest" with reasonable analyses not just hopes For this, South Korea must access systematically human rights of North Korea, prepare projects for a daring approach on North Korea, and strengthen South Korea’s defense ability toward North Korea with deep alliance with U.S and systematize the mutual understanding channel between U.S and South Korea. In conclusion, South Korea must try to get specific methods and practices about Bush administration’s foreign policy of North Korea with national wisdom

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.265-276
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• 2013

Pressure tubes made of Zr-2.5 wt% Nb alloy are important components consisting reactor coolant pressure boundary of a pressurized heavy water reactor, in which unanticipated through-wall cracks and rupture may occur due to a delayed hydride cracking (DHC). The Canadian Standards Association has provided deterministic and probabilistic structural integrity evaluation procedures to protect pressure tubes against DHC. However, intuitive understanding and subsequent assessment of flaw behaviors are still insufficient due to complex degradation mechanisms and diverse influential parameters of DHC compared with those of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue crack growth phenomena. In the present study, a deterministic flaw assessment program was developed and applied for systematic integrity assessment of the pressure tubes. Based on the examination results dealing with effects of flaw shapes, pressure tube dimensional changes, hydrogen concentrations of pressure tubes and plant operation scenarios, a simple and rough method for effective cooldown operation was proposed to minimize DHC risks. The developed deterministic assessment program for pressure tubes can be used to derive further technical bases for probabilistic damage frequency assessment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11b
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• pp.76-85
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• 2005

The conceptual study of Accelerator Driven System (ADS) had lasted for about five years and ended in 1999 in China. As one project of 'the major state basic research program (973)' in energy domain, which is sponsored by the China Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), a five years program of basic research for ADS physics and related technology has been launched since 2000 and passed national review last month. CIAE (China Institute of Atomic Energy), IHEP (Institute of High Energy Physics), PKU-IHIP (Institute of Heavy Ion Physics in Peking University) and other institutions are jointly carrying on the research. The research activities are focused on HPPA physics and technology, reactor physics of external source driven sub-critical assembly, nuclear data base and material study. For HPPA, a high current injector consisting of an ECR ion source, LEBT and a RFQ accelerating structure of 3.5MeV has been built. In reactor physics study, a series of neutron multiplication experimental study has been carried out and is being carrying on. The VENUS facility has been constructed as the basic experimental platform for the neutronics study in ADS blanket. It's a zero power sub-critical neutron multiplying assembly driven by external neutron produced by a pulsed neutron generator. The theoretical, experimental and simulation study on nuclear data, material properties and nuclear fuel circulation related to ADS is carrying on to provide the database for ADS system analysis. The main results on ADS related researches will be reported.