• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.306-314
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• 2015

This paper examines the difference in the value of the nuclear fuel cycle cost calculated by the deterministic and probabilistic methods on the basis of an equilibrium model. Calculating using the deterministic method, the direct disposal cost and Pyro-SFR (sodium-cooled fast reactor) nuclear fuel cycle cost, including the reactor cost, were found to be 66.41 mills/kWh and 77.82 mills/kWh, respectively (1 mill = one thousand of a dollar, i.e., $10^{-3}$ $). This is because the cost of SFR is considerably expensive. Calculating again using the probabilistic method, however, the direct disposal cost and Pyro-SFR nuclear fuel cycle cost, excluding the reactor cost, were found be 7.47 mills/kWh and 6.40 mills/kWh, respectively, on the basis of the most likely value. This is because the nuclear fuel cycle cost is significantly affected by the standard deviation and the mean of the unit cost that includes uncertainty. Thus, it is judged that not only the deterministic method, but also the probabilistic method, would also be necessary to evaluate the nuclear fuel cycle cost. By analyzing the sensitivity of the unit cost in each phase of the nuclear fuel cycle, it was found that the uranium unit price is the most influential factor in determining nuclear fuel cycle costs.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.34-42
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• 2017

Material defects in the Steam Generator Tubes (SGT) of sodium cooled fast breeder reactor (PFBR) can lead to leakage of water into sodium. The water and sodium reaction will lead to major accidents. Therefore, the examination of steam generator tubes for the early detection of defects is an important requirement for safety and economic considerations. In this work, the Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) based Non Destructive Testing (NDT) technique is used to perform the defect detection process. The rectangular notch defects on the outer surface of steam generator tubes are modeled using COMSOL multiphysics 4.3a software. The obtained MFL images are de-noised to improve the integrity of flaw related information. Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) features are extracted from MFL images and taken as input parameter to train the neural network. A comparative study on characterization have been carried out using feed-forward back propagation (FFBP) and cascade-forward back propagation (CFBP) algorithms. The results of both algorithms are evaluated with Mean Square Error (MSE) as a prediction performance measure. The average percentage error for length, depth and width are also computed. The result shows that the feed-forward back propagation network model performs better in characterizing the defects.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권9호
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• pp.3122-3125
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• 2021

Electromagnetic vortex flowmeter is a new type of instrument for detecting leakage of steam generator, and the signal processing method based on the envelope to calculate energy ratio can effectively detect bubbles in sodium flow. The signal processing method is not affected by changes in the amplitude of the sensor output signal, which is caused by changes in magnetic field strength and other factors. However, the detection sensitivity of the electromagnetic vortex flowmeter is reduced. To this end, a signal processing method based on inverse Fourier transform to calculate energy ratio is proposed. According to the difference between the frequency band of the bubble noise signal and the flow signal, only the amplitude in the frequency band of the flow signal is retained in the frequency domain, and then the flow signal is obtained by the inverse Fourier transform method, thereby calculating the energy ratio. Using this method to process the experimental data, the results show that it can detect 0.1 g/s leak rate of water in the steam generator, and its performance is significantly better than that of the signal processing method based on the envelope to calculate energy ratio.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권6호
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• pp.785-796
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• 2009

A KALIMER-600 concept which is a type of sodium-cooled fast reactor, has been developed at KAERI. It uses sodium as a primary coolant and is a pool-type reactor to enhance safety. Also, a supercritical carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) Brayton cycle is considered as an alternative to an energy conversion system to eliminate the sodium water reaction and to improve efficiency. In this study, a simplified model for analyzing the thermodynamic performance of the KALIMER-600 coupled with a supercritical $CO_2$ Brayton cycle was developed. To develop the analysis model, a commercial modular modeling system (MMS) was adopted as a base engine, which was developed by nHance Technology in USA. It has a convenient graphical user interface and many component modules to model the plant. A new user library for thermodynamic properties of sodium and supercritical $CO_2$ was developed and attached to the MMS. In addition, some component modules in the MMS were modified to be appropriate for analysis of the KALIMER-600 coupled with the supercritical $CO_2$ cycle. Then, a simplified performance analysis code was developed by modeling the KALIMER-600 plant with the modified MMS. After evaluating the developed code with each component data and a steady state of the plant, a simple power reduction and recovery event was evaluated. The results showed an achievable capability for a performance analysis code. The developed code will be used to develop the operational strategy and some control logics for the operation of the KALIMER-600 with a supercritical $CO_2$ Brayton cycle after further studies of analyzing various operational events.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.973-979
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• 2024

In the framework of the Generation IV research and development project, in which the French Commission of Alternative and Atomic Energies (CEA) is involved, a main objective for the design of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) is to meet the safety goals for severe accidents. Among the severe ones, the Unprotected Transient OverPower (UTOP) accidents can lead very quickly to a global melting of the core. UTOP accidents can be considered either as slow during a Control Rod Withdrawal (CRW) or as fast. The paper focuses on fast UTOP accidents, which occur in a few milliseconds, and three different scenarios are considered: rupture of the core support plate, uncontrolled passage of a gas bubble inside the core and core mechanical distortion such as a core flowering/compaction during an earthquake. Several levels and rates of reactivity insertions are also considered and the thermal-mechanical behavior of an ASTRID fuel pin from the ASTRID CFV core is simulated with the GERMINAL code. Two types of fuel pins are simulated, inner and outer core pins, and three different burn-up are considered. Moreover, the feedback from the CABRI programs on these type of transients is used in order to evaluate the failure mechanism in terms of kinetics of energy injection and fuel melting. The CABRI experiments complete the analysis made with GERMINAL calculations and have shown that three dominant mechanisms can be considered as responsible for pin failure or onset of pin degradation during ULOF/UTOP accident: molten cavity pressure loading, fuel-cladding mechanical interaction (FCMI) and fuel break-up. The study is one of the first step in fast UTOP accidents modelling with GERMINAL and it has shown that the code can already succeed in modelling these type of scenarios up to the sodium boiling point. The modeling of the radial propagation of the melting front, validated by comparison with CABRI tests, is already very efficient.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제37권5호
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• pp.665-671
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• 2013

제 4 세대 소듐냉각 고속로에는 중간열교환기(IHX), 붕괴열제거 열교환기(DHX), 공기 열교환기(AHX), 핀형 소듐-공기 열교환기(FHX) 및 증기발생기(SG)를 포함한 다양한 열교환기들이 설치된다. 본 연구에서는 STELLA-1 시험루프에 설치된 소듐-공기 열교환기인 AHX 와 SELFA 시험루프에 설치될 핀형(finned) 소듐-공기 열교환기인 FHX 등 2 기의 열교환기 설계에 대해 3D 상세 유한요소해석을 수행하고, 동 결과에 기초하여 고온설계 기술기준을 따라 크리프-피로 손상평가를 수행하였다. 손상 평가결과 AHX와 FHX는 의도하는 크리프 피로 손상 하중 하에서 구조 건전성을 유지하는 것으로 확인되었다.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제34권11호
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• pp.991-998
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• 2010

소듐냉각 고속로 내부기기 배치 변경에 의한 초기냉각 성능변화를 검토하기 위하여 중간열교환기의 수직배치가 다른 3개의 원자로를 대상으로 COMMIX-1AR/P 코드를 활용한 다차원 해석을 수행하였다. 원통좌표계의 중심축을 기준으로 원주방향의 1/4 부분만을 모델링하고 정상상태 및 과도상태 분석을 수행하여 IHX 수직배치 변화가 초기 냉각 특성에 미치는 영향을 분석하였고, DHX를 통한 후기 냉각 모드 개시 시점에 미치는 영향도 분석하였다. 분석 결과 IHX 수직배치 상승은 원자로 풀내부 자연 순환 유량을 증가시켜 초기 냉각과정에서 노심 최고 온도의 급격한 상승을 방지할 수 있으며, 초기냉각 성능을 향상시키기 위한 관성회전차의 가용설계재원의 범위도 확대시킨다. 또한 IHX 수직배치 상승은 후기냉각모드에 큰 영향을 주지 않으면서 초기냉각성능의 향상에 기여할 수 있을 것으로 사료된다.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제38권8호
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• pp.831-836
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• 2014

본 연구에서는 한국원자력연구원 내에 설치될 예정인 소듐시험 시설인 SELFA(Sodium Thermal-hydraulic Experiment Loop for Finned-tube Sodium-to-Air heat exchanger) 내에서 정상상태 가동온도가 $510^{\circ}C$의 고온 압력용기인 팽창탱크에 대해 고온 건전성 평가를 수행하였다. 팽창탱크에 대해 3 차원 유한요소해석에 기초하여 고온설계 기술기준인 ASME Section III Subsection NH 와 프랑스의 RCC-MRx 코드를 따라 크리프-피로 손상평가를 수행하였다. 평가결과 팽창탱크는 크리프-피로 설계 과도 하중 하에서 구조적 건전성을 유지하는 것으로 나타났다. 316L 스테인리스강 재질의 동 압력용기에 대해 정량적 코드 비교 분석을 수행하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권9호
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• pp.3483-3490
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• 2024

The initial size distribution and morphological parameters of sodium aerosols are critical in evaluating the accidental suspended aerosol behaviour in Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) containment. Mass-based measurements were more familiar in characterizing the sodium aerosols. Real-time number size distribution measurements are carried out in this study. The sensitivity analysis of sodium aerosol effective density (ρ_e) in deriving the actual number size distributions from the measured Aerodynamic Particle Size Distributions (APSD) and predicting suspended aerosol dynamics is presented. Tests are conducted in a 1 m³ chamber at 47 ± 3% RH for different initial mass concentrations (M₀) of 0.1, 1, and 2.9 g/m³. The initial APSDs measured just after the generation completions are observed to be polydisperse with the count median aerodynamic diameter (CMAD) < 1 ㎛. The literature reported ρ_e values of sodium aerosols, 2.27, 1.362, and 0.61 g/cm³ are used to derive mobility equivalent PSDs from APSD in each test. The real-time number concentration decay and size growth for four different PSDs are measured and compared with the estimate using nodal method-based code to ascertain the actual parameters. The validated parameters CMD = 0.66 ㎛, σ_g = 1.96, ρ_e = 1 g/cm³ and χ = 1 are used for improved estimation of sodium aerosol dynamics in Indian SFR containment with M₀ = 4 g/m³ for severe accident scenarios.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2009년도 학술논문요약집
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• pp.51-52
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• 2009

Recently, several industrial countries using the fission energy have given attention to the Gen-IV SFR (sodium-cooled fast reactor) for achieving sustainable nuclear energy systems. In this context, an SFR is currently developed at the design concepts study stage in the Republic of Korea [Kim & Hahn 200909]. The sustainability of systems means economic, environment-friendly, proliferation-resistant, and safer systems. More specifically, this sustainability can be accomplished in terms of resource recycling and radioactive waste reduction. In the present work, the objective of fuel cycle cost modeling is to identify the impact of various conceptual options as a cost reduction measure for the Gen-IV SFR at the design concepts study stage. It facilitates the selection of several reasonable fuel cycle pathways for the future Gen-IV SFR from an economic viewpoint.