• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권12호
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• pp.2812-2820
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• 2020

House load operation (HLO) occurs when the generator supplies power to the house load without triggering reactor trips during grid disturbances. In Korea, the HLO capability of optimized power reactor 1000 (OPR1000) plants has prevented several reactor trips. Operational experiences demonstrate the difference in the reactor trip incidence due to grid disturbances between OPR1000 plants and Westinghouse plants in Korea, attributable to the availability of the HLO capability. However, probabilistic safety assessments (PSAs) for OPR1000 plants have not considered their specific design features in the initiating event analyses. In an at-power PSA, the HLO capability can affect the initiating event frequencies of general transients (GTRN) and loss of offsite power (LOOP), resulting from transients within the grid system. The initiating event frequencies of GTRN and LOOP for an OPR1000 plant are reduced by 17.7% and 78.7%, respectively, compared to the Korean industry-average initiating event frequencies, and its core damage frequency from internal events is reduced by 15.2%. The explicit consideration of the HLO capability in initiating event analyses makes significant changes in the risk contributions of the initiating events. Consequently, for more realistic at-power PSAs in Korea, we recommend incorporating plant-specific HLO-related design features when estimating initiating event frequencies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권12호
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• pp.4014-4021
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• 2021

If safety injection systems (SISs) do not work in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), the accident can progress to a severe accident in which the reactor core is exposed and the reactor vessel fails. Therefore, it is considered that a technology that provides recoverable maximum time for SIS actuation is necessary to prevent this progression. In this study, the corresponding time was defined as the golden time. To achieve the objective of accurately predicting the golden time, the prediction was performed using the deep fuzzy neural network (DFNN) with rule-dropout. The DFNN with rule-dropout has an architecture in which many of the fuzzy neural networks (FNNs) are connected and is a method in which the fuzzy rule numbers, which are directly related to the number of nodes in the FNN that affect inference performance, are properly adjusted by a genetic algorithm. The golden time prediction performance of the DFNN model with rule-dropout was better than that of the support vector regression model. By using the prediction result through the proposed DFNN with rule-dropout, it is expected to prevent the aggravation of the accidents by providing the maximum remaining time for SIS recovery, which failed in the LOCA situation.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제18권spc호
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• pp.75-87
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• 2020

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has developed geological repository systems for the disposal of high-level wastes and spent nuclear fuels (SNFs) in South Korea. The purpose of the most recently developed system, the improved KAERI Reference Disposal System Plus (KRS⁺), is to dispose of all SNFs in Korea with improved disposal area efficiency. In this paper, a system-level safety assessment model for the KRS⁺ is presented with long-term assessment results. A system-level model is used to evaluate the overall performance of the disposal system rather than simulating a single component. Because a repository site in Korea has yet to be selected, a conceptual model is used to describe the proposed disposal system. Some uncertain parameters are incorporated into the model for the future site selection process. These parameters include options for a fractured pathway in a geosphere, parameters for radionuclide migration, and repository design dimensions. Two types of SNF, PULS7 from a pressurized water reactor and Canada Deuterium Uranium from a heavy water reactor, were selected as a reference inventory considering the future cumulative stock of SNFs in Korea. The highest peak radiological dose to a representative public was estimated to be 8.19×10^-4 mSv·yr^-1, primarily from ¹²⁹I. The proposed KRS⁺ design is expected to have a high safety margin that is on the order of two times lower than the dose limit criterion of 0.1 mSv·yr^-1.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.1974-1987
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• 2023

The load-following operation of small modular reactors (SMRs) requires accurate prediction of transient behaviors that can occur in the balance of plants (BOP) and the nuclear steam supply system (NSSS). However, 1-D thermal-hydraulics analysis codes developed for safety and performance analysis have conventionally excluded the BOP from the simulation by assuming ideal boundary conditions for the main steam and feed water (MS/FW) systems, i.e., an open loop. In this study, we introduced a lumped model of BOP fluid system and coupled it with NSSS without any ideal boundary conditions, i.e., in a closed loop. Various methods for coupling boundary conditions at MS/FW were tested to validate their combination in terms of minimizing numerical instability, which mainly arises from the coupled boundaries. The method exhibiting the best performance was selected and applied to a transient simulation of an integrated NSSS and BOP system of a SMART. For a transient event with core power change of 100-20-100%, the simulation exhibited numerical stability throughout the system without any significant perturbation of thermal-hydraulic parameters. Thus, the introduced boundary-condition coupling method and BOP fluid system model can expectedly be employed for the transient simulation and performance analysis of SMRs requiring daily load-following operations.

• 정보과학회 컴퓨팅의 실제 논문지
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.335-342
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• 2017

원자력발전소 안전-필수 소프트웨어를 개발하고 검증 및 확인을 수행하여 규제기관으로부터 인허가를 받기 위하여 단순하게 문서를 읽고 검토해서는 개발, 구현 및 검증활동에 대한 신뢰성과 안전성 확보에 대하여 정확하게 판단하기가 쉽지 않다. 따라서 이러한 활동, 특히 안전보증 활동이 소프트웨어 결함이 허용가능한 수준인지 판단하기 위한 체계적인 평가기술이 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 원전 디지털 원자로보호계통의 비교논리 프로세서와 동시논리 프로세서를 대상으로 제작자가 수행한 개발 및 검증 결과물의 수준과 깊이를 평가하기 위해 안전진술(Safety case) 방법론을 적용하고 그 결과를 분석한다. 안전진술 방법론 적용으로 기존의 안전입증 방법을 효과적으로 보완할 수 있음을 확인하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.1083-1095
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• 2016

The design of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR) has been developed and the validation and verification (V&V) activities to demonstrate the system performance and safety are in progress. In this paper, the current status of test activities is described briefly and significant results are discussed. The large-scale sodium thermal-hydraulic test program, Sodium Test Loop for Safety Simulation and Assessment-1 (STELLA-1), produced satisfactory results, which were used for the computer codes V&V, and the performance test results of the model pump in sodiumshowed good agreement with those in water. The second phase of the STELLA program with the integral effect tests facility, STELLA-2, is in the detailed design stage of the design process. The sodium thermal-hydraulic experiment loop for finned-tube sodium-to-air heat exchanger performance test, the intermediate heat exchanger test facility, and the test facility for the reactor flow distribution are underway. Flow characteristics test in subchannels of a wire-wrapped rod bundle has been carried out for safety analysis in the core and the dynamic characteristic test of upper internal structure has been performed for the seismic analysis model for the PGSFR. The performance tests for control rod assemblies (CRAs) have been conducted for control rod drive mechanism driving parts and drop tests of the CRA under scram condition were performed. Finally, three types of inspection sensors under development for the safe operation of the PGSFR were explained with significant results.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2017년도 추계학술논문요약집
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• pp.333-334
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• 2017

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• 제17권7호
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• pp.947-957
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• 2003

The pressure tube is a major component of the CANDU reactor, which supports nuclear fuel bundle. In order to complete the integrity evaluation of pressure tube, expert knowledge, iterative calculation procedures and a lot of input data are required. More over, results of integrity assessment may be different according to the evaluation method. For this reason, an integrity evaluation system, which provides efficient way of evaluation with the help of attached database, was developed. The present system was built on the basis of 3D FEM results, ASME Sec. XI, and Fitness For Service Guidelines for CANDU pressure tubes issued by the AECL (Atomic Energy Canada Limited). The present system also covers the delayed hydride cracking and the blister evaluation, which are the characteristics of pressure tube integrity evaluation. In order to verify the present system, several case studies have been performed and the results were compared with those from AECL. A good agreement was observed between those two results.

• 디지털산업정보학회논문지
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.35-44
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• 2021

With the development of information technology, the cybersecurity threat continues as digital-related technologies are applied to the instrumentation and control system of nuclear power plants. The malfunction of the instrumentation and control system can cause economic damage due to shutdown, and furthermore, it can lead to national disasters such as radioactive emissions, so countering cybersecurity threats is an important issue. In general, the study of cybersecurity in instrumentation and control systems is concentrated on safety systems, and diverse protection systems perform protection and reactor shutdown functions, leading to reactor shutdown or, in the worst case, non-stop situations. To accurately analyze cyber threats in the diverse protection system, its linked facilities should be analyzed together. Risk analysis should be conducted by analyzing the potential impact of inter-facility cyberattacks on related facilities and the impact of cybersecurity on each configuration module of the diverse protection system. In this paper, we analyze the linkage of the diverse protection system and discuss the cybersecurity linkage threat by analyzing the availability of equipment, the cyber threat impact of the linked equipment, and the configuration module's cybersecurity vulnerability.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2002년도 학술대회지
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• pp.835-838
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• 2002

An experiment has been performed using a facility, which simulates the safety depressurization system (SDS) and in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST) of APR1400, an advanced PWR being developed in Korea, to investigate the dynamic load resulting from the blowdown of steam from a steam generator through a sparser. The influence of the key parameters, such as air mass, steam pressure, submergence, valve opening time, and pool temperature, on frequency and peak toads was investigated. The blowdown phenomenon was analyzed to find out the real cause of the initiation of bubble oscillation and discrepancy in frequencies between the experiment and calculation by conventional equation for bubble oscillation. The cause of significant damping was discussed and is presumed to be the highly tortuous flow path around bubble. The Rayleigh-Plesset equation, which is modified by introducing method of image, reasonably reproduces the bubble oscillation in a confined tank. Right after the completion of air discharge the steam discharge immediately follows and it condenses abruptly to provide low-pressure pocket. It may contribute to the negative maximum being greater than positive maximum. The subsequently discharging steam does not play as at the driving force anymore.