• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권2호
• /
• pp.626-630
• /
• 2019

After several significant nuclear accidents, public attitudes toward nuclear energy technologies and facilities are considered to be one of the essential factors in the national energy and electricity policy-making process of several nations that employ nuclear energy as their key energy resource. However, it is difficult to explore and capture such an attitude, because the majority of prior studies analyzed public attitudes with a limited number of respondents and fragmentary opinion polls. In order to supplement this point, this study suggests a big data analyzing method with K-LIWC (Korean-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), sentiment and query analysis methods, and investigates public attitudes, positive and negative emotional statements about nuclear energy with the collected data sets of well-known social media and network services in Korea over time. Results show that several events and accidents related to nuclear energy have consistent or temporary effects on the attitude and ratios of the statements, depending on the kind of events and accidents. The presented methodology and the use of big data in relation to the energy industry is suggested as it can be helpful in addressing and exploring public attitudes. Based on the results, implications, limitations, and future research areas are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권3호
• /
• pp.741-751
• /
• 2021

There has been a deep interest in trying to find better-performing fuel clad motivated by the desire to decrease the likelihood of the reactor barrier failure like what happened in Fukushima in recent years. In this study, the effect of move towards accident tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding as the most attracting concept for improving reactor safety is investigated for SMART modular reactor. These reactors have less production cost, short construction time, better safety and higher power density. The SiC and FeCrAl materials are considered as the most potential candidate for ATF cladding, and the results are compared with Zircaloy cladding material from reactor physics point of view. In this paper, the calculations are performed by generating PMAX library by DRAGON lattice physics code to be used for further reactor core analysis by PARCS code. The differential and integral worth of control and safety rods, reactivity coefficient, power and temperature distributions, and boric acid concentration during the cycle are analyzed and compared from the conventional fuel cladding. The rod ejection accident (REA) is also performed to study how the power changed in response to presence of the ATF cladding in the reactor core. The key quantitative finding can be summarized as: 20 ℃ (3%) decrease in average fuel temperature, 33 pcm (3%) increase in integral rod worth and cycle length, 1.26 pcm/℃ (50%) and 1.05 pcm/℃ (16%) increase in reactivity coefficient of fuel and moderator, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권4호
• /
• pp.1266-1276
• /
• 2021

The mask parameters of a coded aperture are critical design features when optimizing the performance of a gamma-ray camera. In this paper, experiments and Monte Carlo simulations were performed to derive the minimum detectable activity (MDA) when one seeks a real-time imaging capability. First, the impact of the thickness of the modified uniformly redundant array (MURA) mask on the image quality is quantified, and the imaging of point, line, and surface radiation sources is demonstrated using both cross-correlation (CC) and maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) methods. Second, the minimum detectable activity is also derived for real-time imaging by altering the factors used in the image quality assessment, consisting of the peak-to-noise ratio (PSNR), the normalized mean square error (NMSE), the spatial resolution (full width at half maximum; FWHM), and the structural similarity (SSIM), all evaluated as a function of energy and mask thickness. Sufficiently sharp images were reconstructed when the mask thickness was approximately 2 cm for a source energy between 30 keV and 1.5 MeV and the minimum detectable activity for real-time imaging was 23.7 MBq at 1 m distance for a 1 s collection time.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권3호
• /
• pp.926-939
• /
• 2022

The area of this study will cover the location-wise seismic response variation of an electrical cabinet in nuclear power point (NPP) based on classical reliability analysis. The location-based seismic ground motion (GM) selection is carried out with the help of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis using PSHRisktool, where the variation of reliability analysis can be understood from the relation between the reliability index and intensity measure. Two different approaches such as the first-order second moment method (FOSM) and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) are helped to evaluate and compare the reliability assessment of the cabinet. The cabinet is modeled with material uncertainty utilizing Steel01 as the material model and the fiber section modeling approach is considered to characterize the section's nonlinear reaction behavior. To verify the modal frequency, this study compares the FEM result with recorded data using Least-Squares Complex Exponential (LSCE) method from the impact hammer test. In spite of a few investigations, the main novelty of this study is to introduce the reader to check and compare the seismic reliability assessment variation in different seismic locations and for different earthquake levels. Alongside, the betterment can be found by comparing the result between two considered reliability estimation methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권2호
• /
• pp.601-607
• /
• 2022

In recent years, monitoring of spent nuclear fuel inside dry cask storage has become an important area of national security. Muon tomography is a useful method for monitoring spent nuclear fuel because it uses high energy muons that penetrate deep into the target material and provides a 3-D structure of the inner materials. We designed a muon tomography system consisting of four 2-D position sensitive detector and characterized and optimized the system parameters. Each detector, measuring 200 × 200 cm², consists of a plastic scintillator, wavelength shifting (WLS) fibers and, SiPMs. The reconstructed image is obtained by extracting the intersection of the incoming and outgoing muon tracks using a Point-of-Closest-Approach (PoCA) algorithm. The Geant4 simulation was used to evaluate the performance of the muon tomography system and to optimize the design parameters including the pixel size of the muon detector, the field of view (FOV), and the distance between detectors. Based on the optimized design parameters, the spent fuel assemblies were modeled and the line profile was analyzed to conduct a feasibility study. Line profile analysis confirmed that muon tomography system can monitor nuclear spent fuel in dry storage container.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권1호
• /
• pp.177-185
• /
• 2022

Hydrogen risk in the containment filtered venting system (CFVS) vessel was analyzed, considering operation pressure and modes with the effect of PAR and accident scenarios. The CFVS is to depressurize the containment by venting the containment atmosphere through the filtering system. The CFVS could be subject to hydrogen risk due to the change of atmospheric conditions while the containment atmosphere passes through the CFVS. It was found that hydrogen risk increased as the CFVS opening pressure was set higher because more combustible gases generated by Molten Core Concrete Interaction flowed into the CFVS. Hydrogen risk was independent of operation modes and found only at the early phase of venting both for continuous and cyclic operation modes. With PAR, hydrogen risk appeared only at the 0.9 MPa opening pressure for Station Black-Out accidents. Without PAR, however, hydrogen risk appeared even with the CFVS opening set-point of 0.5 MPa. In a slow accident like SBO, hydrogen risk was more threatening than a fast accident like Large Break Loss-of-Coolant Accident. Through this study, it is recommended to set the CFVS opening pressure lower than 0.9 MPa and to operate it in the cyclic mode to keep the CFVS available as long as possible.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권1호
• /
• pp.226-233
• /
• 2022

In the present work, a phase-field model was developed to investigate the influence of recrystallization on bubble evolution during irradiation. Considering the interaction between bubbles and grain boundary (GB), a set of modified Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn equations, with field variables and order parameters evolving in space and time, was used in this model. Both the kinetics of recrystallization characterized in experiments and point defects generated during cascade were incorporated in the model. The bubble evolution in recrystallized polycrystalline of U-Mo alloy was also investigated. The simulation results showed that GB with a large area fraction generated by recrystallization accelerates the formation and growth of bubbles. With the formation of new grains, gas atoms are swept and collected by GBs. The simulation results of bubble size and distribution are consistent with the experimental results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권6호
• /
• pp.2204-2212
• /
• 2022

Recently, the demand for alpha imaging detectors for quantifying the distributions of alpha particles has increased in various fields. This study aims to reconstruct a high-resolution image from an alpha imaging detector by applying a super-spatial resolution method combined with the maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) algorithm. To perform the super-spatial resolution method, several images are acquired while slightly moving the detector to predefined positions. Then, a forward model for imaging is established by the system matrix containing the mechanical shifts, subsampling, and measured point-spread function of the imaging system. Using the measured images and system matrix, the MLEM algorithm is implemented, which converges towards a high-resolution image. We evaluated the performance of the proposed method through the Monte Carlo simulations and phantom experiments. The results showed that the super-spatial resolution method was successfully applied to the alpha imaging detector. The spatial resolution of the resultant image was improved by approximately 12% using four images. Overall, the study's outcomes demonstrate the feasibility of the super-spatial resolution method for the alpha imaging detector. Possible applications of the proposed method include high-resolution imaging for alpha particles of in vitro sliced tissue and pre-clinical biologic assessments for targeted alpha therapy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권5호
• /
• pp.1644-1651
• /
• 2022

This paper focuses on the power-level control of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the presence of lumped disturbances. An adaptive second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (ASONTSMC) scheme is proposed by resorting to the second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode. The pre-existing mathematical model of the nuclear reactor system is firstly described based on point-reactor kinetics equations with six delayed neutron groups. Then, a second-order sliding mode control approach is proposed by integrating a proportional-derivative sliding mode (PDSM) manifold with a nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) manifold. An adaptive mechanism is designed to estimate the unknown upper bound of a lumped uncertain term that is composed of lumped disturbances and system states real-timely. The estimated values are then added to the controller, resulting in the control system capable of compensating the adverse effects of the lumped disturbances efficiently. Since the sign function is contained in the first time derivative of the real control law, the continuous input signal is obtained after integration so that the chattering effects of the conventional sliding mode control are suppressed. The robust stability of the overall control system is demonstrated through Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the proposed control scheme is validated through simulations and comparisons with a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, a super twisting sliding mode controller (STSMC), and a disturbance observer-based adaptive sliding mode controller (DO-ASMC).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권2호
• /
• pp.455-465
• /
• 2021

The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), one of the six advanced reactor types of the 4th generation nuclear energy systems, has many impressive features including economic advantages, inherent safety and nuclear non-proliferation. This paper introduces a system analysis code named TREND, which is developed and used for the steady and transient simulation of MSRs. The TREND code calculates the distributions of pressure, velocity and temperature of single-phase flows by solving the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy, along with a fluid state equation. Heat structures coupled with the fluid dynamics model is sufficient to meet the demands of modeling MSR system-level thermal-hydraulics. The core power is based on the point reactor neutron kinetics model calculated by the typical Runge-Kutta method. An incremental PID controller is inserted to adjust the operation behaviors. The verification and validation of the TREND code have been carried out in two aspects: detailed code-to-code comparison with established thermal-hydraulic system codes such as RELAP5, and validation with the experimental data from MSRE and the CIET facility (the University of California, Berkeley's Compact Integral Effects Test facility).The results indicate that TREND can be used in analyzing the transient behaviors of MSRs and will be improved by validating with more experimental results with the support of SINAP.