• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1679-1686
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• 2024

Graphite material plays an important role in nuclear reactors especially the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) by its outstanding comprehensive nuclear properties. The structural integrity of graphite pebble fuel elements is the first barrier to core safety under any circumstances. The correct knowledge of the stiffness coefficient of the graphite pebble fuel element inside the reactor's core is significant to ensure the valid design and inherent safety. In this research, a vertical extrusion device was set up to measure the stiffness coefficient of the graphite pebble fuel element by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University in China. The stiffness coefficient equations of graphite pebble fuel elements at different temperatures are given (in a helium atmosphere). The result first provides the data on the high-temperature stiffness coefficient of pebbles in helium gas. The result will be helpful for the engineering safety analysis of pebble-bed nuclear reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2483-2488
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• 2023

Differential die-away analysis (DDAA) technology is a special nuclear material (SNM) active detection analysis technology. Be a nuclear material shielded or not, the technology can reveal the existence of nuclear materials by inducing fission from an external pulsed neutron source. In this paper, a detection model based on DDAA analysis technology was established by geant4 Monte Carlo simulation software, and the optimal sensitivity of the detection system is achieved by optimizing different configurations. After the geant4 simulation and optimization, a prototype was established, and experimental research was carried out. The result shows that the prototype can detect 200 g of ²³⁵U in a steel cylinder shield that's of 1.5 cm in inner diameter, 10 cm in thickness and 280 kg in weight.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2723-2733
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• 2023

Transuranic nuclides (such as ²³⁸Pu, ²⁵²Cf, ²⁴⁹Bk, etc.) have a wide range of application in industry, medicine, agriculture, and other fields. However, due to the complex conversion chain and remarkable fission losses in the process of transuranic nuclides production, the generation amounts are extremely low. High flux reactor with high neutron flux and flexible irradiation channels, is regarded as the promising candidate for producing transuranic nuclides. It is of great significance to increase the conversion ratio of transuranic nuclides, resulting in higher efficiency and better economy. In this paper, we perform an optimization design evaluation of producing transuranic nuclides in high flux reactor, which includes optimization design of irradiation target and influence study of reactor core loading. It is demonstrated that the production rate increases with appropriately determined target material and target structure. The target loading scheme in the irradiation channel also has a significant influence on the production of transuranic nuclides.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.407-408
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.537-538
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2026-2033
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• 2023

Due to Thailand's nuclear energy public acceptance problem, the understanding of nuclear energy public perception was the key factor affecting to re-consideration of the nuclear energy program. Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology and its alliances together developed the classification model for the nuclear energy public perception from the big data comments on social media using Facebook using deep transfer learning. The objective was to insight into the Thailand nuclear energy public perception on Facebook social media platform using sentiment analysis. The supervised learning was used to generate up-to-date classification model with more than 80% accuracy to classify the public perception on nuclear power plant news on Facebook from 2009 to 2022. The majority of neutral sentiments (80%) represented the opportunity for Thailand to convince people to receive a better nuclear perception. Negative sentiments (14%) showed support for other alternative energies due to nuclear accident concerns while positive sentiments (6%) expressed support for innovative nuclear technologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.147-159
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• 2024

Plutonium-238 has always been considered as the one of the promising radioisotopes for space nuclear power supply, which has long half-life, low radiation protection level, high power density, and stable fuel form at high temperatures. The industrial-scale production of ²³⁸Pu mainly depends on irradiating solid ²³⁷NpO₂ target in high flux reactors, however the production process faces problems such as large fission loss and high requirements for product quality control. In this paper, a conceptual design study of producing ²³⁸Pu in a multi-purpose high flux reactor was evaluated and analyzed, which includes a sensitivity analysis on ²³⁸Pu production and a further study on the irradiation scheme. It demonstrated that the target structure and its location in the reactor, as well as the operation scheme has an impact on ²³⁸Pu amount and product quality. Furthermore, the production efficiency could be improved by optimizing target material concentration, target locations in the core and reflector. This work provides technical support for irradiation production of ²³⁸Pu in high flux reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.763-775
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• 2021

The thermal hydraulic performances of Steam Generator (SG) under both steady and transient operation conditions are of great importance for the safety and economy in nuclear power plants. In this paper, based on our self-developed SG thermal hydraulic analysis code STAF (Steam-generator Thermalhydraulic Analysis code based on Fluent), an improved new version STAF-CT (fully Coupling and Transient) is developed and introduced. Compared with original STAF, the new version code STAF-CT has two main functional improvements including "Transient" and "Fully Three Dimensional Coupling" features. In STAF-CT, a three dimensional energy transferring module is established which can achieve energy exchange computing function at the corresponding position between two sides of SG. The STAF-CT is validated against the international benchmark experiment data and the results show great agreement. Then the U-shaped SG in AP1000 nuclear power plant is modeled and simulated using STAF-CT. The results show that three dimensional flow fields in the primary side make significant effect on the energy source distribution between two sides. The development of code STAF-CT in this paper can provide an effective method for further SG high fidelity research in the nuclear reactor system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.353-354
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2564-2571
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• 2022

SiPMs are generally coupled into whole columns in gamma energy spectrum measurement, but the relationship between the distribution of whole SiPM columns and the energy resolution of the measured energy spectra is rarely reported. In this work, ∅ 3 × 3 inch NaI scintillator is placed on an 8 × 8 SiPM array, and the energy resolution of the ¹³⁷Cs peak at 662 keV corresponding to the γ-ray is selected as a reference. Each SiPM is switched to explore the influence of the number of SiPM arrays, distribution position, and reflective layer on the energy resolution of SiPMs. Results show that without coupling, the energy resolution is greatly improved when the number of SiPMs ranges from 4 to 32. However, after 32 slices (the area covered by SiPMs relative to the scintillator reaches 25.9%), the improvement in energy resolution and total pulse count is not obvious. In addition, the position of SiPMs relative to the scintillator does not exert much impact on the energy resolution. Results also indicate that by adding a reflective film (ESR), the energy resolution of the tested group increases by 10.38% on average. This work can provide a reference for the design and application of miniaturized SiPM gamma spectrometers.