• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.648-653
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• 2018

Elimination of soluble boron from reactor design eliminates boron-induced reactivity accidents and leads to a more negative moderator temperature coefficient. However, a large negative moderator temperature coefficient can lead to large reactivity feedback that could allow the reactor to return to power when it cools down from hot full power to cold zero power. In soluble boron-free small modular reactor (SMR) design, only control rods are available to control such rapid core transient. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether an SMR would have enough control rod worth to compensate for large reactivity feedback. The investigation begins with classification of reactivity and completes an analysis of the reactivity balance in each reactor state for the SMR model. The control rod worth requirement obtained from the reactivity balance is a minimum control rod worth to maintain the reactor critical during the whole cycle. The minimum available rod worth must be larger than the control rod worth requirement to manipulate the reactor safely in each reactor state. It is found that the SMR does have enough control rod worth available during rapid transient to maintain the SMR at subcritical below k-effectives of 0.99 for both hot zero power and cold zero power.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2009

Effect of CO$_2$ concentration on reduction reactivity of oxygen carrier particles for chemical-looping combustor were investigated. Four particles, NiO/bentonite, OCN601-650, OCN702-1100, OCN702-1250, were used as oxygen carrier particles and two kinds of gases (CH$_4$, 5%, N$_2$ balance and CH$_4$ 5%, CO$_2$ balance) were used as reactants for reduction. For all oxygen carrier particles, higher maximum conversion, reduction rate, oxygen transfer capacity, and oxygen transfer rate were achieved when we used N$_2$ balance gas. OCN601-650 particle showed higher oxygen transfer rate for all gases than other particles, and therefore we selected OCN601-650 particle as the best candidate. For all particles, lower carbon depositions were observed when we used CO$_2$ balance gas.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.573-580
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• 2013

The combined effects of reactivity coefficients, along with other core nuclear characteristics, determine reactor core behavior in normal operation and accident conditions. The Power Coefficient of Reactivity (PCR) is an aggregate indicator representing the change in reactor core reactivity per unit change in reactor power. It is an integral quantity which captures the contributions of the fuel temperature, coolant void, and coolant temperature reactivity feedbacks. All nuclear reactor designs provide a balance between their inherent nuclear characteristics and the engineered reactivity control features, to ensure that changes in reactivity under all operating conditions are maintained within a safe range. The $CANDU^{(R)}$ reactor design takes advantage of its inherent nuclear characteristics, namely a small magnitude of reactivity coefficients, minimal excess reactivity, and very long prompt neutron lifetime, to mitigate the demand on the engineered systems for controlling reactivity and responding to accidents. In particular, CANDU reactors have always taken advantage of the small value of the PCR associated with their design characteristics, such that the overall design and safety characteristics of the reactor are not sensitive to the value of the PCR. For other reactor design concepts a PCR which is both large and negative is an important aspect in the design of their engineered systems for controlling reactivity. It will be demonstrated that during Loss of Regulation Control (LORC) and Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) events, the impact of variations in power coefficient, including a hypothesized larger than estimated PCR, has no safety-significance for CANDU reactor design. Since the CANDU 6 PCR is small, variations in the range of values for PCR on the performance or safety of the reactor are not significant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3517-3527
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• 2021

New 80-MW (electric) ultra-long-life sodium cooled fast reactor core having inherent safety characteristics is designed with heterogeneous fuel assemblies comprised of driver and blanket fuel rods. Several options using upper sodium plenum and SSFZ (Special Sodium Flowing Zone) for reducing sodium void reactivity are neutronically analyzed in this core concept in order to improve the inherent safety of the core. The SSFZ allowing the coolant flow from the peripheral fuel assemblies increases the neutron leakage under coolant expansion or voiding. The Monte Carlo calculations were used to design the cores and analyze their physics characteristics with heterogeneous models. The results of the design and analyses show that the final core design option has a small burnup reactivity swing of 618 pcm over ~54 EFPYs cycle length and a very small sodium void worth of ~35pcm at EOC (End of Cycle), which leads to the satisfaction of all the conditions for inherent safety with large margin based on the quasi-static reactivity balance analysis under ATWS (Anticipated Transient Without Scram).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2010

In this study, carbon conversion was measured using an electronic mass balance. In a lab scale furnace, each coal sample was pyrolyzed in a nitrogen environment and became coal char, which was then gasified with steam under isothermal conditions. The reactivity of coal char was investigated at various temperatures and steam concentrations. The VRM(volume reaction model), SCM(shrinking core model), and RPM(random pore model) were used to interpret experimental data. For each model the activation energy(Ea), pre-exponential factor (A), and reaction order(n) of the coal char-steam reaction were determined by applying the Arrhenius equation into the data obtained with thermo-gravimetric analysis(TGA). According to this study, it was found that experimental data agreed better with the VRM and SCM for 1,000 and $1,100^{\circ}C$, and the RPM for 1,200 and $1,300^{\circ}C$. The reactivity of chars increased with the increase of gasification temperature. The structure parameter(${\psi}$) of the surface area for the RPM was obtained.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.34-43
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• 1995

The boundary films formed in sliding on steel surfaces were characterized using various lubricants. The mechanism of boundary film formation and loss was investigated over a range of temperature. The thickness of the boundary films was monitored in-situ by an ellipsometer, and the composition of the films was analyzed by XPS. The performance of the lubricants is closely associated with boundary film forming ability. In order to achieve high load carrying capacity, a boundary film must be formed on the surface. Sliding is necessary to form the films and some time is also required. As temperature increases, chemical reactivity increases the film formation rate, while the film removal rate increases due to thg decrease of durability of the boundary film material. There is a balance between these two competing mechanisms and this balance is reflected in the boundary film thickness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.772-784
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• 2024

The hexagonal nodal code RENUS has been enhanced to handle irregularly deformed hexagonal assemblies. The underlying RENUS methods involving triangle-based polynomial expansion nodal (T-PEN) and corner point balance (CPB) were extended in a way to use line and surface integrals of polynomials in a deformed hexagonal geometry. The nodal calculation is accelerated by the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) formulation extended to unstructured geometry. The accuracy of the unstructured nodal solution was evaluated for a group of 2D SFR core problems in which the assembly corner points are arbitrarily displaced. The RENUS results for the change in nuclear characteristics resulting from fuel deformation were compared with those of the reference McCARD Monte Carlo code. It turned out that the two solutions agree within 18 pcm in reactivity change and 0.46% in assembly power distribution change. These results demonstrate that the proposed unstructured nodal method can accurately model heterogeneous thermal expansion in hexagonal fueled cores.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of reaction pH conditions and hardener types on the reactivity, chemical structure and adhesion performance of UF resins. Three different reaction pH conditions, such as traditional alkaline-acid (7.5 → 4.5), weak acid (4.5), and strong acid (1.0), were used to synthesize UF resins which were cured by adding three different hardeners (ammonium chloride, ammonium citrate, and zinc nitrate) to measure adhesion strength. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (¹³C-NMR) spectroscopies were employed to study chemical structure of the resin prepared under three different reaction pH conditions. Adhesion strength of the resins cured with three different hardeners was determined with lap shear specimens in tension. The gel time of UF resins decreased with an increasing in the amount of both ammonium chloride and ammonium citrate added in the resins. However, the gel time increased for zinc nitrate. Both FT-IR and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopies showed that the strong reaction pH condition produce uronic structures in UF resin, while both alkaline-acid and weak acid conditions produce quite similar chemical species in the resins. The maximum adhesion strength was occurred with the resin prepared under strong acid pH condition. However, this study indicated that the weak acid reaction condition provide a balance between increasing resin reactivity and improving adhesion strength of UF resin. The measurement of formaldehyde emission from the panels bonded with the UF resins prepared is planned for future work.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.374-387
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• 2021

Basic design of 3 MWth chemical looping combustion system for LNG combustion and steam generation was conducted based on the mass and energy balance and the previous reactivity test results of oxygen carrier particles. Process configuration including fast fluidized bed (air reactor), loop seal and bubbling fluidized bed (fuel reactor) was confirmed and their dimensions were determined by mass balance. Then, the external fluidized bed heat exchanger (FBHE) was adopted based on the energy balance to extract heat from the system. The optimum reactor design and operating condition was confirmed with sensitivity analysis by modifying system configuration based on the mass and energy balance.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-205
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• 2003

The dechlorination of chlorinated methanes by iron powder and palladium coated iron (Pd/Fe) was studied in batch experiments. Iron powder dechlorinated carbon tetrachloride (CT) with a half-life of 4 days. Three chloromethane was found as major product and less chlorinated daughters. Mass balance found was to be about 93-99%. Pd/Fe showed very enhanced reactivity for CT in comparing with plain iron. The major dechlorination products of CT were also less chlorinated methanes with Pd/Fe. Pd/Fe also degrade the produced less chlorinated compounds. Sequential reactions were occurred on Pd/Fe. As the Pd/Fe content increased, the reaction rate was increased linearly.