• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.110-116
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• 2020

As the management plan for domestic spent nuclear fuel is delayed, the storage of the operating nuclear power plant is approaching saturation, and the Kori 1 Unit that has reached its end of operation life is preparing for the dismantling plan. The first stage of dismantling is the transfer of spent nuclear fuel stored in storage at plants. The spent fuel management process leads to temporary storage, interim storage, reprocessing and permanent disposal. In this paper, the technical issues to be considered when transporting spent fuel in this process are summarized. The spent fuels are treated as high-level radioactive waste and strictly managed according to international regulations. A series of integrity tests are performed to demonstrate that spent fuel can be safely stored for decades in a dry environment before being transferred to an intermediate storage facility. The safety of spent fuel transport container must be demonstrated under normal transport conditions and virtual accident conditions. IAEA international standards are commonly applied to the design of transport containers, licensing regulations and transport regulations worldwide. In addition, each country operates a physical protection system to reduce and respond to the threat of radioactive terrorism.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.351-357
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• 2007

The Japanese Government selected Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture as a provisional spent-fuel repository site. This comes as a result of the prefecture's five-year campaign to host the site since 2000. Korea stores spent nuclear fuel within sites of nuclear power plants, and expects the storage capacity to reach its limit by the year 2016. This compels Korea to learn the cases of Japan. Having successfully hosted Gyeongju as a site for low-to-intermediate-level nuclear waste repository, Korea has already learned the potential process of hosting spent fuel storage site. The striking difference between the two countries in the process of hosting the site is that the Korean government had to offer the local city a large amount of subsidy for hosting through competitive citizens' referendum among candidate cities while it was the leadership of the local municipality that enabled the controversial decision in Japan. It is also a distinguishable characteristics of Japan that not a huge subsidy is provided to the local host city. I hope this study offers an idea to Korea's future effort to select a spent-fuel host site.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2008

It is expected that the temporary storage facilities at the nuclear power plants will be full of the spent fuels within 10 years. Provided that a centralized interim storage facility is constructed along the coast of the Korean peninsula to solve this problem, a substantial amount of spent fuels should be transported by sea or by land every year. In this paper we developed a computer program for the analysis of transportation logistics of the spent fuels from 4 different nuclear power plant sites to the hypothetical centralized interim storage facility and the final repository. Mass balance equations were used to analyze the logistics between the nuclear power plants and the interim storage facility. To this end a computer program, CASK, was developed by using the VISUAL BASIC language. The annual transportation rates of spent fuels from the four nuclear power plant sites were determined by using the CASK program. The parameter study with the program illustrated the easiness of logistics analysis. The program could be used for the cost analysis of the spent fuel transportation as well.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.4125-4133
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• 2023

The transportation of spent nuclear fuel is an important process that involves road and sea transport from an interim storage facility to storage and final disposal sites. As spent nuclear fuel poses a significant risk, carefully evaluating its vibration and shock characteristics under normal transport conditions is essential. In this regard, full-scale multi-modal transport tests (MMTT) have been conducted domestically and internationally. In this paper, we discuss the process of developing a multi-body dynamics (MBD) model to analytically simulate conditions that cannot be considered in tests. The MBD model is based on the KORAD-21 transportation system was validated using the Korean MMTT results from 2020 to 2021. This paper summarizes the details of the development and verification of the MBD model for the KORAD-21 transportation system under normal transport test conditions. This approach can be applicable to various transportation scenarios and systems, and the results of this study will help to ensure that nuclear fuel transportation is conducted safely and effectively.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.435-446
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• 2021

This article examines the consequences of a significant spent fuel management decision or event in the United States, South Korea and Taiwan. For the United States, it is the financial impact of the Department of Energy's inability to take possession of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power companies beginning in 1998 as directed by Congress. For South Korea, it is the potential financial and socioeconomic impact of the successful construction, licensing and operation of a low and intermediate level waste disposal facility on the siting of a spent fuel/high level waste repository. For Taiwan, it is the operational impact of the Kuosheng 1 reactor running out of space in its spent fuel pool. From these, it draws six broad lessons other countries new to, or preparing for, nuclear energy production might take from these experiences. These include conservative planning, treating the back-end of the fuel cycle holistically and building trust through a step-by-step approach to waste disposal.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2024

Currently, there are no interim storage facilities and permanent disposal facilities in Korea, so all spent nuclear fuels are temporarily stored. However, the temporary storage facility is approaching saturation, and as a measure to this, the 2nd Basic Plan for the Management of High-Level Radioactive Waste presented an operation plan for dry interim storage facilities and dry temporary storage facilities on the NPP on-site. The dry storage can be operated in various ways, and to select the optimal dry storage method, the reduction of exposure for workers must be considered. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a worker exposure scenario according to the dry storage method and evaluate and compare the radiological impact for each method. The purpose of this study is to develop an exposure scenario for workers transporting spent nuclear fuel by dry storage method. To this end, first, the operation procedure of the foreign commercial spent nuclear fuel dry storage system was analyzed based on the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR). 1) the concrete overpack-based system, 2) the metal overpack-based system, and 3) the vertical storage module-based system were selected for analysis. Factors were assumed that could affect the type of work (working distance, working hours, number of workers, etc.) during transportation work. Finally, the work type of the processes involved in transporting spent nuclear fuel by dry storage method was set, and an exposure scenario was developed accordingly. The concrete overpack method, the metal overpack method, and the vertical storage module method were classified into a total of 31, 9, and 23 processes, respectively. The work distance, work time, and number of workers for each process were set. The product of working hours and number of workers (Man-hour) was set high in the order of concrete overpack method, vertical storage module method, and metal overpack method, and short-range work (10 cm) was most often applied to the concrete overpack method. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data for performing radiological comparisons of transport workers by dry storage method of spent nuclear fuel.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.163-169
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• 2015

In many nuclear power plant sites in Korea, high density storage racks were installed in the spent fuel pool to expand the spent fuel storage capacity. Nevertheless, the capability of the Hanbit nuclear site will be saturated by 2024. Also, 10 NPPs will reach their design life expiration date by 2029. In the case of the US, SFPI (Spent Fuel Pool Island) operated temporarily as a spent fuel storage option before spent nuclear fuels were transported to an interim storage facility or a final disposal facility. As a spent fuel storage option after shutdown during decommissioning, the SFPI concept can be expected to have the following effects: reduced occupational exposure, lower cost of operation, strengthened safety, and so on. This paper presents a case study associated with the regulations, operating experiences, and systems of SFPI in the US. In conclusion, the following steps are recommended for applying SFPI during decommissioning in Korea: confirmation of design change scope of SFPI and expected final cost, the submission of a decommissioning plan which is reflected in SFPI improvement plans, safety assessment using PSR, application of an operating license change for design change, regulatory body review and approval, design change, inspection by the regulatory body, education and commissioning for SFPI, SFPI operation and periodic inspection, and dismantling of SFPI.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2021

This study aims to assess the effect of postulated seismic loads on the structural integrity of a spent nuclear fuel dry storage facility. Firstly, three-dimensional modal and response spectrum analyses were carried out. With regard to the latter analysis, the effect of incident angles against two horizontal and one vertical response spectra was also considered. Results showed that even though two critical locations were predicted at the longitudinal axis central part of upper flow path as well as the end discontinuity part of upper and lower flow paths connector, their maximum principal stress values were less than the tensile strength. Moreover, since the influence of vertical angle was 87% higher than that of horizontal angle in particular, which should be carefully handled to demonstrate integrity of the facility.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2021

A paradigm shift in the government's energy policy was reflected in its declaration of early closure of old nuclear plants as well as cancellation of plans for the construction of new plants. To this end, unit 1 of Kori Nuclear Power Plant was permanently shut down and is set for decommission. Based on these changes, the off-site transport of spent fuels from nuclear power plants has become a critical issue. The purpose of this study is to develop an optimized method for transportation of spent fuels from Kori Nuclear Power Plant's units 1, 2, 3, and 4 to an assumed interim storage facility by simulating the scenarios using the Flexsim software, which is widely used in logistics and manufacturing applications. The results of the simulation suggest that the optimized transport methods may contribute to the development of delivery schedule of spent fuels in the near future. Furthermore, these methods can be applied to decommissioning plan of nuclear power plants.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.237-245
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• 2011

As necessity of safety re-evaluation for spent fuel storage facility has emphasized after the Fukushima accident, accuracy improvement of heat load evaluation has become more important to acquire reliable thermal-hydraulic evaluation results. As groundwork, parametric and sensitivity analyses of various storage conditions for Kori Unit 4 spent fuel storage pool and spent fuel depletion parameters such as axial burnup effect, operation history, and specific heat are conducted using ORIGEN2 code. According to heat load evaluation and parametric sensitivity analyses, decay heat of last discharged fuel comprises maximum 80.42% of total heat load of storage facility and there is a negative correlation between effect of depletion parameters and cooling period. It is determined that specific heat is most influential parameter and operation history is secondly influential parameter. And decay heat of just discharged fuel is varied from 0.34 to 1.66 times of average value and decay heat of 1 year cooled fuel is varied from 0.55 to 1.37 times of average value in accordance with change of specific power. Namely depletion parameters can cause large variation in decay heat calculation of short-term cooled fuel. Therefore application of real operation data instead of user selection value is needed to improve evaluation accuracy. It is expected that these results could be used to improve accuracy of heat load assessment and evaluate uncertainty of calculated heat load.