• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.38-42
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• 2003

In a pressurized water reactor, radioactive corrosion products (CRUD) in primary coolant system are one of the major sources for the occupational radiation exposure of the personnel in a nuclear power plant. Through the recent trend of long term fuel cycle in a nuclear power plant, radioactive corrosion products deposited in reactor core for a long time are also the cause of Axial Offset Anomaly (AOA) having an effect on reactor power by the hideout of boron. CRUD consist primarily of magnetite, nickel ferrite, cobalt ferrite, and so on. They have the characteristic of strong magnetism. Therefore it is peformed the conceptual design to develop the filter which removes the CRUD by magnetic field that is generated by an arrangement of permanent and electric magnets. Contrary to the conventional filter, the proposed filter does not interrupt the fluid flow, so there is little pressure drop and it can be used continuously. It is expected to be applied as one of the technologies for removal of the CRUD.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.253-264
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• 1988

Our experience of neutron noise analysis in French-type 900 MWe pressurized water reactor (PWR) is presented. Neutron noise analysis is based on the technique of interpreting the signal fluctuations of ex-core detectors caused by core reactivity changes and neutron attenuation due to lateral core motion. It also provides advantages over deterministic dynamic-testing techniques because existing plant instrumentation can be utilized and normal operation of the plant is not disturbed. The data of this paper were obtained in the ULJIN unit 1 reactor during the start-up test period and the statistical descriptors, useful for our purpose, are power spectral density (PSD), coherence function (CF), and phase difference between detectors. It is found that core support barrel (CSB) motions induced by coolant flow forces and pressure pulsations in a reactor vessel were indentified around 8 Hz of frequency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.700-711
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• 2015

Sodium-cooled fast breeder reactors use liquid sodium as a moderator and coolant to transfer heat from the reactor core. The main hazard associated with sodium is its rapid reaction with water. Sodium-water reaction (SWR) takes place when water or vapor leak into the sodium side through a crack on a heat-transfer tube in a steam generator. If the SWR continues for some time, the SWR will damage the surface of the defective area, causing it to enlarge. This self-enlargement of the crack is called "self-wastage phenomena." A stepwise numerical evaluation model of the self-wastage phenomena was devised using a computational code of multicomponent multiphase flow involving a sodium-water chemical reaction: sodiumwater reaction analysis physics of interdisciplinary multiphase flow (SERAPHIM). The temperature of gas mixture and the concentration of NaOH at the surface of the tube wall are obtained by a numerical calculation using SERAPHIM. Averaged thermophysical properties are used to assess the local wastage depth at the tube surface. By reflecting the wastage depth to the computational grid, the self-wastage phenomena are evaluated. A two-dimensional benchmark analysis of an SWAT (Sodium-Water reAction Test rig) experiment is carried out to evaluate the feasibility of the numerical model. Numerical results show that the geometry and scale of enlarged cracks show good agreement with the experimental result. Enlarged cracks appear to taper inward to a significantly smaller opening on the inside of the tube wall. The enlarged outer diameter of the crack is 4.72 mm, which shows good agreement with the experimental data (4.96 mm).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1990

Heavy water is used as a moderator and a coolant in the pressurized heavy water reactor Because of the high cost of heavy water, downgraded heavy water generated in the reactor system is recycled to the reactor after being concentrated up to 99.8% or more in heavy water upgraders. This study investigates the process of upgraders and then suggests a theoretical model. The relations between process variables are derived from tower packing characteristics, vapour-liquid equilibria, and mass-heat balance equations at a steady state operation of the upgrader h computer program UPGR is developed, using the algorithm that solves the nonlinear equations step by step. It shows that the results of computer simulation are in good agreement with the operating data of the Wolsung upgrader. Thus, this computer code offers the optimum operating guide and is now applied to manage the performance of upgraders for the effective operation of the heavy water upgraders.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.162-176
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• 2022

In Lead-based reactor (LBR) severe accident, the meltdown and migration inside the reactor core will lead to fuel fragment concentration, which may further cause re-criticality and even core disintegration. Accurately predicting the migration and solidification behavior of melt in LBR severe accidents is of prime importance for safety analysis of LBR. In this study, the Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) method is validated and used to simulate the migration and solidification behavior. Two main surface tension models are validated and compared. Meanwhile, the MPS method is validated by the L-plate solidification test. Based on the improved MPS method, the migration and solidification behavior of melt in LBR severe accident was studied furthermore. In the Pb-Bi coolant, the melt flows upward due to density difference. The migration and solidification behavior are greatly affected by the surface tension and viscous resistance varying with enthalpy. The whole movement process can be divided into three stages depending on the change in velocity. The heat transfer of core melt is determined jointly by two heat transfer modes: flow heat transfer and solid conductivity. Generally, the research results indicate that the MPS method has unique advantage in studying the migration and solidification behavior in LBR severe accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1386-1395
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• 2020

High fidelity nuclear reactor fuel assembly simulation using CFD method is an effective way for the structure design and optimization. The validated models and user practice guidelines play critical roles in achieving reliable results in CFD simulations. In this paper, the international benchmark MATiS-H is studied carefully and the best user practice guideline is achieved for the rod bundles simulation. Then a 5 × 5 rod bundles model in the advanced pressurized water reactor (PWR) is established and the detailed three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic characteristics are investigated. The influence of spacer grids and mixing vanes on the flow and hear transfer in rod bundles is revealed. As the coolant flows through the spacer grids and mixing vanes in the rod bundles, the drastic lateral flow would be induced and the pressure drop increases significantly. In addition, the heat transfer is enhanced remarkably due to the strong mixing effects. The calculation results could provide meaningful guidelines for the design of advanced PWR fuel assembly.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.218-224
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• 2018

Alloy 617 is a candidate Ni-based superalloy for intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) of a high-temperature gas reactor (VHTR), because of its good creep strength and corrosion resistance at high temperature. Small amount of impurities such as $H_2O$, $H_2$, CO and $CH_4$ are introduced inevitably in helium, as a coolant during operation of a VHTR. Reactions of material and impurities are accelerated with increase of temperature to $950^{\circ}C$ of operating temperature of a VHTR, leading to material corrosion aggravation. In this circumstance, high-temperature corrosion tests were performed at $950^{\circ}C$ in air and impure helium environments, up to 250 hours in this study. Oxidation rate of $950^{\circ}C$ in an air environment was higher than that of impure helium, explained by difference in outer oxide morphology and microstructure as a function of oxygen partial pressure. An equiaxed Cr-rich surface oxide layer was formed in an air environment, and a columnar Cr-rich oxide was formed in an impure helium environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2015

The goal of this paper is to investigate structural integrity factors of RMI(reflective metal insulation) to confirm the design requirements in nuclear power plant. Currently, a glass wool insulation is using now, but it will gradually be replaced with the reflective metal insulation maded by stainless steel plates. The main function of an insulation is to minimize a heat loss of vessel and pipes in RCS(reactor coolant system). It has to maintain structural a integrity in nuclear power plant life duration. In this study, the structural integrity analysis was carried out both multi-plate and outer shell plate by using a static analysis and experimental test. First, inner multi-plate has a self support structure for being air space. Because the effect of total static weight in multi-layer plate is low, a plate collapse possibility is not high. Considering optimum thin plate pressing process, it has to pre-check the basic physical properties. Second, the outer segment thickness and stiffener shape are verified by the numerical static analysis, and sample test for both type of panel and cylindrical pipe model.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2018

For safe operation of nuclear power plants, a loose-part monitoring system (LPMS) is used to detect and locate loose-parts within the reactor coolant system, and to estimate their mass and damage potential. There are several methods to estimate mass, such as the center frequency method based on the Hertz's impact theory, a frequency ratio method and so on, but it is known that these methods cannot provide accurate information on impact response for identifying the impact source. Thanks to increasing computing power, finite element analysis (FEA) method recently become an available option to calculate reliably impact response behavior. In this paper, a finite element analysis model to simulate the propagation behavior of the bending wave, generated by a metal ball impact, is validated by performing a series of impact tests and the corresponding finite element analyses for flat plate and shell structures. Also, a FEA-based metal sphere signal map is developed, and then blind tests are performed to verify the map. This study provides an accurate simulation method for predicting the metal impact behavior and for building a metal sphere signal map, which can be used to estimate the mass of loose-parts on site in nuclear power plants.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.131-137
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• 2015

For the evaluation of safety margin of a nuclear power plant using a conservative methodology, the influence of applied assumptions such as initial conditions and boundary conditions needs to be assessed deliberately. Usually, a combination of the most conservative initial conditions is determined, and the safety margin for the transient is evaluated through the analysis for this conservative conditions. In existing conservative methodologies, a most-conservative condition is searched through the analyses for the maximum, minimum, and nominal values of the major parameters. In the present study, we investigates a new approach which can be applied to choose a most-conservative initial condition effectively when a best-estimate computer code and a conservative evaluation methodology are utilized for the evaluation of safety margin of transients. By constituting the band of various initial conditions using the random sampling of input parameters, the sensitivity study for various parameters are performed systematically. A method of sampling the value of control or operation parameters for a certain range is adopted by use of MOSAIQUE program, which enables to minimize the efforts for achieving the steady-state for various different conditions. A representative control parameter is identified, which governs the reactor coolant flow rate, pressurizer pressure, pressurizer level, and steam generator level, respectively. It is shown that an appropriate distribution of input parameter is obtained by adjusting the range and distribution of the control parameter.