• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.4722-4730
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• 2022

This paper introduces a new point depletion-based source term calculation code named BESNA (Bateman Equation Solver for Nuclear Applications), which is aimed to estimate nuclide inventories and source terms from spent nuclear fuels. The BESNA code employs a new modified CE/CM (Constant Extrapolation - Constant Midpoint) predictor-corrector scheme in depletion calculations for improving computational efficiency. In this modified CE/CM scheme, the decay components leading to the large norm of the depletion matrix are excluded in the corrector, and hence the corrector calculation involves only the reaction components, which can be efficiently solved with the Talyor Expansion Method (TEM). The numerical test shows that the new scheme substantially reduces computing time without loss of accuracy in comparison with the conventional scheme using CRAM (Chebyshev Rational Approximation Method), especially when the substep calculations are applied. The depletion calculation and source term estimation capability of BESNA are verified and validated through several problems, where results from BESNA are compared with those calculated by other codes as well as measured data. The analysis results show the computational efficiency of the new modified scheme and the reliability of BESNA in both isotopic predictions and source term estimations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권1호
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• pp.125-137
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• 2019

The purpose of this paper is to study the source term behavior after severe accidents by using a semi-kinetic model for simulation and calculation of in-containment activity. The reactor containment specification and the safety features of the containment under different accident conditions play a great role in evaluating the in-containment activity. Assuming in-vessel and instantaneous release of radioactivity into the containment, the behavior of in-containment isotopic activity is studied for noble gasses (Kr and Xe) and the more volatile elements of iodine, cesium, and aerosols such as Te, Rb and Sr as illustrative examples of source term release under LOCA conditions. The results of the activity removal mechanisms indicates that the impact of volumetric leakage rate for noble gasses is important during the accident, while the influence of deposition on the containment surfaces for cesium, mainly iodine isotopes and aerosol has the largest contribution in removal of activity during evolution of the accident.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.21-34
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• 2015

원자력발전소 해체를 준비하기 위해서는 해체대상 발전소에 대한 선원항 평가가 선행되어야 한다. 해체전략 수립단계에서 선원항 평가 결과를 토대로 해체 폐기물을 분류하고 비용평가를 수행한다. 본 연구에서는 월성 1호기의 예비 선원항 계산을 수행할 수 있도록 MCNP/ORIGEN-2 모델의 타당성 평가를 수행하였다. 연소도가 다른 핵연료 다발의 악티나이드 계열과 핵분열 생성물의 핵종 수밀도는 싱글 채널 모델을 이용하여 MCNPX 코드로 연소 계산하여 구하였다. 선원항의 정확도에 영향을 미치는 두가지 요인에 대해 조사하였다. 첫번째 요인으로 선원항 계산에 영향을 미치는 중성자 스펙트럼을 MCNP로 계산하여 해당 핵종의 1군 미시 핵단면적에 반영하였다. 중성자 스펙트럼이 반영된 라이브러리로 계산한 선원항과 ORIGEN-2 코드 package에 내장된 library (CANDUNAU.LIB)로 구한 선원항을 비교하였다. 두번째 요인으로 선원항에 대한 출력이력의 영향을 조사하였다. 해체 폐기물의 저준위 폐기물 처분 가능성을 살펴보기 위해, 2010년도 교체된 압력관, 칼란드리아관과 기존 칼란드리아 동체에 대하여 중성자 스펙트럼을 반영한 library를 적용하여 MCNP/ORIGEN-2로 선원항 평가 계산을 수행하였다.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2018년도 추계학술논문요약집
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• pp.612-613
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• 2018

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.9-16
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• 1999

A 330 MWt-sized multi-purpose integral-type reactor, SMART is under development in Korea for the use of nuclear energy other than electricity generation. In this study, various radioactive source terms are estimated for SMART. SMART is different from conventional reactor concepts in operation and design. Therefore Specific Calculation method namely recurrence model is used. This model is based on the change rate in the RC radioactivity materials and operational characteristics of SMART Calculation results show tremendously increase of the levels of RC activity because no cleanup of RC and long term operation.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 2002년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.206-206
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• 2002

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2004년도 학술논문집
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• pp.397-398
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• 2004

It is important to estimate the radiation activity of the nuclear fuel which is a source term of the loss of coolant accident. The purpose of this study is to identify the most important parameters of the source term calculation based on three fuel types: typical natural uranium CANDU fuel, slightly enriched uranium and DUPIC fuel. The characteristics of the radiation source term were analyzed through sensitivity calculations of the linear power, fuel turnup, and the power shape.(omitted)

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권7호
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• pp.2690-2701
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• 2022

In this paper, we select important fission products for the estimation of the source term during a severe accident of a PWR. The selection is based on the numerical results obtained from depletion calculations for the typical PWR fuel via the in-house code named DEGETION (Depletion, Generation, and Transmutation of Isotopes on Nuclear Application), release fractions of the fission products derived from NUREG-1465, and effective dose conversion coefficients from ICRP 119. Then, for the selected fission products, we obtain the adjoint solutions of the Bateman equations for radioactive decay in order to determine the importance of precursors producing the aforementioned fission products via radioactive decay, which would provide insights into the assumption used in MACCS 2 for a level 3 PSA analysis in which up to six precursors are considered in the calculations of radioactive decays for the fission product after release from the reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제43권6호
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• pp.583-592
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• 2011

The radiological characteristics for waste classification were assessed for neutron-activated decommissioning wastes from a CANDU reactor. The MCNP/ORIGEN2 code system was used for the source term analysis. The neutron flux and activation cross-section library for each structural component generated by MCNP simulation were used in the radionuclide buildup calculation in ORIGEN2. The specific activities of the relevant radionuclides in the activated metal waste were compared with the specified limits of the specific activities listed in the Korean standard and 10 CFR 61. The time-average full-core model of Wolsong Unit 1 was used as the neutron source for activation of in-core and ex-core structural components. The approximated levels of the neutron flux and cross-section, irradiated fuel composition, and a geometry simplification revealing good reliability in a previous study were used in the source term calculation as well. The results revealed the radioactivity, decay heat, hazard index, mass, and solid volume for the activated decommissioning waste to be $1.04{\times}10^{16}$ Bq, $2.09{\times}10^3$ W, $5.31{\times}10^{14}\;m^3$-water, $4.69{\times}10^5$ kg, and $7.38{\times}10^1\;m^3$, respectively. According to both Korean and US standards, the activated waste of the pressure tubes, calandria tubes, reactivity devices, and reactivity device supporters was greater than Class C, which should be disposed of in a deep geological disposal repository, whereas the side structural components were classified as low- and intermediate-level waste, which can be disposed of in a land disposal repository. Finally, this study confirmed that, regardless of the cooling time of the waste, 15% of the decommissioning waste cannot be disposed of in a land disposal repository. It is expected that the source terms and waste classification evaluated through this study can be widely used to establish a decommissioning/disposal strategy and fuel cycle analysis for CANDU reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권11호
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• pp.3543-3562
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• 2021

The methods and performance of a 3D pin-by-pin neutronics code based on the 2D/1D decoupling method are presented. The code was newly developed as an effort to achieve enhanced accuracy and high calculation performance that are sufficient for the use in practical nuclear design analyses. From the 3D diffusion-based finite difference method (FDM) formulation, decoupled planar formulations are established by treating pre-determined axial leakage as a source term. The decoupled axial problems are formulated with the radial leakage source term. To accelerate the pin-by-pin calculation, the two-level coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) formulation, which consists of the multigroup node-wise CMFD and the two-group assembly-wise CMFD is implemented. To enhance the accuracy, both the discontinuity factor method and the super-homogenization (SPH) factor method are examined for pin-wise cross-section homogenization. The parallelization is achieved with the OpenMP package. The accuracy and performance of the pin-by-pin calculations are assessed with the VERA and APR1400 benchmark problems. It is demonstrated that pin-by-pin 2D/1D alternating calculations within the two-level 3D CMFD framework yield accurate solutions in about 30 s for the typical commercial core problems, on a parallel platform employing 32 threads.