• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권2호
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• pp.448-456
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• 2016

Severe accident scenarios in nuclear reactors, such as nuclear meltdown, reveal that an extremely hot molten core may fall into the nuclear reactor cavity and seriously affect the safety of the nuclear containment vessel due to the chain reaction caused by the reaction between the molten core and concrete. This paper reports on research focused on the type and amount of vapor produced during the reaction between a high-temperature molten core and concrete, as well as on the erosion rate of concrete and the heat transfer characteristics at its vicinity. This study identifies themass fraction and melting temperature as the most influential properties of concrete necessary for a safety analysis conducted in relation to the thermal interaction between the molten core and the basemat concrete. The types of concrete that are actually used in nuclear reactor cavities were investigated. The $H_2O$ content in concrete required for the computation of the relative amount of gases generated by the chemical reaction of the vapor, the quantity of $CO_2$ necessary for computing the cooling speed of the molten core, and the melting temperature of concrete are evaluated experimentally for the molten core-concrete interaction analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.1017-1023
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• 2019

The increase of the alternate current frequency results in increased rotational speed of the electrical motors and connected pumps. The consequence for the reactor coolant pumps is increased flow in primary coolant system. Increase of the current frequency can be initiated by the subsynchronous resonance phenomenon (SSR). This paper analyses the implications of the SSR and consequential increase of the frequency on the nuclear power plant safety. The Simulink $MATLAB^{(R)}$ model of the steam turbine and governor system and RELAP5 computer code of the pressurized water reactor are used in the analysis. The SSR results in fast increase of reactor coolant pumps speed and flow in the primary coolant system. The turbine trip value is reached in short time following SSR. The increase of flow of reactor coolant pumps results in increase of heat removal from reactor core. This results in positive reactivity insertion with reactor power increase of 0.5% before reactor trip is initiated by the turbine trip. The main parameters of the plant did not exceed the values of reactor trip set points. The pressure drop over reactor core is small discarding the possibility of core barrel lift.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권8호
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• pp.3085-3094
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• 2022

The design concept of a Small High-flux Multipurpose LBE(Lead Bismuth Eutectic) cooled Fast Reactor (SHMLFR) was proposed in the paper. The primary cooling system of the reactor is forced circulation, and the fuel element form is arc-plate loaded high enrichment MOX fuel. The core is cylindrical with a flux trap set in the center of the core, which can be used as an irradiation channel. According to the requirements of the core physical design, a series of physical design criteria and constraints were given, and the steady and transient parameters of the reactor were calculated and analyzed. Regarding the thermal and hydraulic phenomena of the reactor, a simplified model was used to conduct a preliminary analysis of the fuel plates at special positions, and the temperature field distribution of the fuel plate with the highest power density under different coolant flow rates was simulated. The results show that the various parameters of SHMLFR meet the requirements and design criteria of the physical design of the core and the thermal design of the reactor. This implies that the conceptual design of SHMLFR is feasible.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.129-138
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• 2022

A new method for injecting cooling water into the Korean research reactor (KRR) in the event of beam tube rupture is proposed in this paper. Moreover, the research evaluates the risk to the reactor core in terms of core damage frequency (CDF). The proposed method maintains the cooling water in the chimney at a certain level in the tank to prevent nuclear fuel damage solely by gravitational coolant feeding from the emergency water supply system (EWSS). This technique does not require sump recirculation operations described in the current procedure for resolving beam tube accidents. The reduction in the risk to the core in the event of beam tube rupture that can be achieved by the proposed change in the cooling water injection design is quantified as follows. 1) The total CDF of the KRR for the proposed design change is approximately 4.17E-06/yr, which is 8.4% lower than the CDF of the current design (4.55E-06/yr). 2) The CDF for beam tube rupture is 7.10E-08/yr, which represents an 84.1% decrease compared with that of the current design (4.49E-07/yr). In addition to this quantitative reduction in risk, the modified cooling water injection design maintains a supply of pure coolant to the EWSS tank. This means that the reactor does not require decontamination after an accident. Thermal hydraulic analysis proves that the water level in the reactor pool does not cause damage to the nuclear fuel cladding after beam tube rupture. This is because the amount of water in the chimney can be regulated by the EWSS function. The EWSS supplies emergency water to the reactor core to compensate for the evaporation of coolant in the core, thus allowing water to cover the fuel assemblies in the reactor core over a sufficient amount of time.

• 한국에너지공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국에너지공학회 1995년도 춘계학술발표회 초록집
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• pp.113-116
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• 1995

Simplified approach has been adopted for the prediction of the thermal behavior of CANDU reactor core during power transients. Based on the assumption that the ratio of mass flow rate for each core channel does not vary during the transient, quasy-steady state analysis technique is applied with predicted core inlet boundary conditions(total mass flow rate and specific enthalpy). For restricted transient case, the presented method shows functionally reasonable estimation of core thermal behavior which could be implemented in the fast running reactor simulation program.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.741-751
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• 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
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.1116-1123
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• 2024

-In recent years, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) have been vigorously developed, and with the continuous deepening of marine exploration, traditional energy can no longer meet the energy supply. Nuclear energy can achieve a huge and sustainable energy supply. The heat pipe reactor has no flow system and related auxiliary systems, and the supporting mechanical moving parts are greatly reduced, the noise is relatively small, and the system is simpler and more reliable. It is more favorable for the control of unmanned systems. The use of heat pipe reactors in unmanned underwater vehicles can meet the needs for highly compact, long-life, unmanned, highly reliable, ultra-quiet power supplies. In this paper, a heat pipe reactor scheme named UPR-S that can be applied to unmanned underwater vehicles is designed. The reactor core can provide 1 MW of thermal power, and it can operate at full power for 5 years. UPR-S has negative reactive feedback, it has inherent safety. The temperature and stress of the reactor are within the limits of the material, and the core safety can still be guaranteed when the two heat pipes are failed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권1호
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• pp.54-59
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• 2019

The main objective of nuclear reactor safety is to maintain the nuclear fuel in a thermally safe condition with enough safety margins during normal operation and anticipated operational occurrences. In this research, core flow bypass is studied under the conditions of the unavailability of safety systems. As core bypass occurs, the core flow rate is assumed to decrease exponentially with a time constant of 25 s to new steady state values of 20, 40, 60, and 80% of the nominal core flow rate. The thermal hydraulic code PARET is used through these calculations. Reactor thermal hydraulic stability is reported for all cases of core flow bypass.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.1-5
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• 2017

The heavy water zero power reactor (HWZPR), which is a critical assembly with a maximum power of 100 W, can be used in different lattice pitches. The last change of core configuration was from a lattice pitch of 18-20 cm. Based on regulations, prior to the first operation of the reactor, a new core was simulated with MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle)-4C and WIMS (Winfrith Improved Multigroup Scheme)-CITATON codes. To investigate the criticality of this core, the effective multiplication factor ($K_{eff}$) versus heavy water level, and the critical water level were calculated. Then, for safety considerations, the reactivity worth of $D_2O$, the reactivity worth of safety and control rods, and temperature reactivity coefficients for the fuel and the moderator, were calculated. The results show that the relevant criteria in the safety analysis report were satisfied in the new core. Therefore, with the permission of the reactor safety committee, the first criticality operation was conducted, and important physical parameters were measured experimentally. The results were compared with the corresponding values in the original core.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산유체공학회 2008년도 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.268-271
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• 2008

If a reactor vessel is failed to retain a molten corium in a postulated severe accident, the molten corium is released outside the reactor vessel into a reactor cavity. The molten corium would attack the concrete wall and basemat of the reactor cavity, which may lead to inevitable concrete decompositions and possible radiological releases. In the OECD/MCCI project, a series of tests were performed to secure the data for cooling the molten corium spread out at the reactor cavity and for the long-term CCI (Core Concrete Interaction). Also, a MCCI (Molten Core Concrete Interaction) analysis code, CORQUENCH was upgraded at Argonne National Laboratory with embedding the new models developed for the tests. This paper deals with analyses of MCCI at plant scale under the conditions of top flooding using the upgraded CORQUENCH code. The modeling approach is briefly summarized first, followed by presentation of a validation calculation that illustrates the predicative capability of the modeling tool. With this background in place, the model is then used to carry out a parametric set of scoping calculations that define approximate coolability envelopes for the LCS (Limestone Common Sand) concrete that has been evaluated in the OECD/MCCI project.