• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.413-420
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• 2011

In Korea, although the concept of dry storage system for PWR spent fuels first emerged in the early 1990s, wet storage inside nuclear reactor buildings remains the dominant storage paradigm. Furthermore, as the amount of discharged fuel from nuclear power plants increases, nuclear power plants are confronted with the problem of meeting storage capacity demand. Various measures have been taken to resolve this problem. Dry storage systems along with transportation of spent fuel either on-site or off-site are regarded as the most feasible measure. In order to develop dry storage and transportation system safety analyses, development of design techniques, full scale performance tests, and research on key material degradation should be conducted. This paper deals with two topics, structural analysis methodology to assess cumulative damage to transportation packages and the effects of an aircraft engine crash on a dual purpose cask. These newly emerging issues are selected from among the many technical issues related to the development of transportation and storage systems of spent fuels. In the design process, appropriate analytical methods, procedures, and tools are used in conjunction with a suitably selected test procedure and assumptions such as jet engine simulation for postulated design events and a beyond design basis accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.776-790
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• 2015

Background: The advanced spent fuel conditioning process facility (ACPF) of the irradiated materials examination facility (IMEF) at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been renovated to implement a lab scale electrolytic reduction process for pyroprocessing. The interior and exterior structures of the ACPF hot cell have been modified under the current renovation project for the experimentation of the electrolytic reduction process using spent nuclear fuel. The most important aspect of this renovation was the installation of the argon compartment within the hot cell. Method: For the design and system implementation of the argon compartment system, a full-scale mock-up test and a three-dimensional (3D) simulation test were conducted in advance. The remodeling and repairing of the process cell (M8a), the maintenance cell (M8b), the isolation room, and their utilities were also planned through this simulation to accommodate the designed argon compartment system. Results and conclusion: Based on the considered refurbishment workflow, previous equipment in the M8 cell, including vessels and pipes, were removed and disposed of successfully after a zoning smear survey and decontamination, and new equipment with advanced functions and specifications were installed in the hot cell. Finally, the operating area and isolation room were also refurbished to meet the requirements of the improved hot cell facility.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.280-291
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• 2018

In the framework of OECD/NEA Working Group on Fuel Safety, a RIA fuel-rod-code Benchmark Phase I was organized in 2010-2013. It consisted of four experiments on highly irradiated fuel rodlets tested under different experimental conditions. This benchmark revealed the need to better understand the basic models incorporated in each code for realistic simulation of the complicated integral RIA tests with high burnup fuel rods. A second phase of the benchmark (Phase II) was thus launched early in 2014, which has been organized in two complementary activities: (1) comparison of the results of different simulations on simplified cases in order to provide additional bases for understanding the differences in modelling of the concerned phenomena; (2) assessment of the uncertainty of the results. The present paper provides a summary and conclusions of the second activity of the Benchmark Phase II, which is based on the input uncertainty propagation methodology. The main conclusion is that uncertainties cannot fully explain the difference between the code predictions. Finally, based on the RIA benchmark Phase-I and Phase-II conclusions, some recommendations are made.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.3102-3113
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• 2023

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the simulation of accidents in the spent fuel pool has become more noticeable. Despite the low amount of decay heat power, the consequences of the accidents in a spent fuel pool (SFP) can be severe due to the high content of long-lived radionuclides and lack of protection by the pressure vessel. In this study, the loss-of-cooling accident (LOFA) for the VVER-1000/V446 spent fuel pool is simulated by employing RELAP5 and MELCOR 1.8.6 as the best estimate and severe accident analysis codes, respectively. For two cases with different total power levels, decay heat of spent fuels is calculated by ORIGEN-II code. For modeling SFP of a VVER-1000, a qualified nodalizations are considered in both codes. During LOFA in SFP, the key sequences such as heating up of the pool water, boiling and reducing the water level, uncovering the spent fuels, increasing the temperature of the spent fuels, starting oxidation process (generating Hydrogen and extra power), the onset of fuel melting, and finally releasing radionuclides are studied for both cases. The obtained results show a reasonable consistency between the RELAP5 and MELCOR codes, especially before starting the oxidation process.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.439-450
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• 2023

In this study, the impact load resulting from collision with the fuel rods of surrogate spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies was measured during a rolling test based on an analysis of the data from surrogate SNF-loaded sea transportation tests. Unfortunately, during the sea transportation tests, excessive rolling motion occurred on the ship during the test, causing the assemblies to slip and collide with the canister. Hence, we designed and conducted a separate test to simulate rolling in sea transportation to determine whether such impact loads can occur under normal conditions of SNF transport, with the test conditions for the fuel assembly to slide within the basket experimentally determined. Rolling tests were conducted while varying the rolling angle and frequency to determine the angles and frequencies at which the assemblies experienced slippage. The test results show that slippage of SNF assemblies can occur at angles of approximately 14° or greater because of rolling motion, which can generate impact loads. However, this result exceeds the conditions under which a vessel can depart for coastal navigation, thus deviating from the normal conditions required for SNF transport. Consequently, it is not necessary to consider such loads when evaluating the integrity of SNFs under normal transportation conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.517-518
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.493.2-493.2
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.310.2-310.2
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.606-607
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2454-2465
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• 2023

Film boiling may lead to burnout of the heating element. Even though burnout does not occur, the heating element is subject to deformation because it is not sufficiently strong to withstand external loads. In particular, the ballooning and rupture of a tube under film boiling are important phenomena in the field of nuclear reactor safety. If the tube-type cladding of nuclear fuel ruptures owing to high internal pressure and thermal load, radioactive materials inside the cladding are released to the coolant. Therefore, predicting the ballooning and rupture is important. This study presents numerical simulations to predict the ballooning behavior and rupture time of a horizontal tube at high internal pressure under saturated film boiling. To do so, a multi-step coupled simulation of conjugated film boiling heat transfer and ballooning using creep model is adopted. The numerical methods and models are validated against experimental values. Two different nonuniform heat flux distributions and four different internal pressures are considered. The three-step simulation is enough to obtain a convergent result. However, the single-step simulation also successfully predicts the rupture time. This is because the film boiling heat transfer characteristics are slightly affected by the tube geometry related to creep ballooning.