• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.273-286
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• 2007

This paper presents the research activities performed to date for the development of a supercritical pressure water-cooled reactor (SCWR) in Korea. The research areas include a conceptual design of an SCWR with an internal flow recirculation, a reactor core conceptual design, a heat transfer test with supercritical $CO_2$, an adaptation of an existing safety analysis code to the supercritical pressure condition, and an evaluation of candidate materials through a corrosion study. Methods to reduce the cladding temperature are introduced from two different perspectives, namely, thermal-hydraulics and core neutronics. Briefly described are the results of an experiment on the heat transfer at a supercritical pressure, an experiment that is essential for the analysis of the subchannels of fuel assemblies and the analysis of a system safety. An existing system code has been adapted to SCWR conditions, and the process of a first-hand validation is presented. Finally, the corrosion test results of the candidate materials for an SCWR are introduced.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.281-286
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• 2009

Bitumen extraction and sulfur removal from Athabasca oil sand were conducted using water in sub- and supercritical condition. Bitumen yield in micro reactor was investigated in the pressure range of 15~30 MPa, the temperature of 360 and $380^{\circ}C$ and water density $0.074{\sim}0.61g/cm^3$ for 0~120 min. Bitumen yield increased with reaction pressure irrespective of temperature and dramatically increased in especially supercritical region due to hydrogen formed from water gas shift reaction. Total amount of gas product decreased with reaction pressure but the portion of sulfur and hydrogen increased a little with increasing pressure to 25 and 30 MPa. It is seen that supercritical condition was favourable to the hydrogen formation and sulfur removal. Bitumen yield and sulfur removal from original oil sand reached a maximum 22% and 40% respectively in supercritical condition(the reaction time of 60 min at $380^{\circ}C$ and 25 or 30 MPa).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 2007

Light water reactors operated under supercritical pressure conditions have been selected as one of the promising future reactor concepts to be studied by the Generation IV International Forum. Whereas the steam cycle of such reactors can be derived from modem fossil fired power plants, the reactor itself, and in particular the reactor core, still need to be developed. Different core design concepts shall be described here to outline the strategy. A first option for near future applications is a pressurized water reactor with $380^{\circ}C$ core exit temperature, having a closed primary loop and achieving 2% pts. higher net efficiency and 24% higher specific turbine power than latest pressurized water reactors. More efficiency and turbine power can be gained from core exit temperatures around $500^{\circ}C$, which require a multi step heat up process in the core with intermediate coolant mixing, achieving up to 44% net efficiency. The paper summarizes different core and assembly design approaches which have been studied recently for such High Performance Light Water Reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.877-887
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• 2022

A new reactor concept is described that directly couples a supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) power cycle with a CO₂-cooled, heavy water moderated pressure tube core. This configuration attains the simplification and economic potential of past direct-cycle sCO₂ concepts, while also providing safety and power density benefits by using the moderator as a heat sink for decay heat removal. A 200 MWe design is described that heavily leverages existing commercial nuclear technologies, including reactor and moderator systems from Canadian CANDU reactors and fuels and materials from UK Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs). Descriptions are provided of the power cycle, nuclear island systems, reactor core, and safety systems, and the results of safety analyses are shown illustrating the ability of the design to withstand large-break loss of coolant accidents. The resulting design attains high efficiency while employing considerably fewer systems than current light water reactors and advanced reactor technologies, illustrating its economic promise. Prospects for the design are discussed, including the ability to demonstrate its technologies in a small (~20 MWe) initial system, and avenues for further improvement of the design using advanced technologies.

• Plant Journal
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.60-65
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• 2008

As the operating conditions in a supercritical oxidation reactor are set in high temperature with high pressure causing a reactor suffering from the harsh circumstances. It means the reactor adopts itself with Fe-Cr alloy in acidic atmosphere with low pH value and Ni alloy in basic atmosphere with high pH value due to its superior corrosion resistance. The study, whose target waster water is pertinent to the latter part, has selected Ni alloy such as ostenite type stainless steel 304 and 316, superstainless steel AL6XN, Inconel 625, MAT 21, and titanium Gr. 5 in order to measure corrosion resistance against those samples under the same conditions of temperature and pressure applied for a supercritical oxidation reactor. The result shows the identifiable difference in corrosion resistance by observing the surface states through a scanning probe microscope as well as measuring the weight loss through making the samples above deposited in wastewater for two-week and four-week stay. The purpose of this corrosion experiment is to identify the most corrosion-resistant material among sample species pre-selected according to pH concentration of wastewater in pursue of applying for a reactor exposed to the extreme corrosion environment. It is because such a reactor made of a verified material enables to safeguard a stable operation under the supercritical wastewater processing facility.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.292-295
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• 2008

In a SCWR (SuperCritical pressure Water cooled Reactor), the coolant temperature initially at below the pseudo-critical temperature at the bottom of a reactor core increases as the coolant flows upward through the sub-channels of the fuel assemblies, and it finally becomes higher than the pseudo-critical temperature when it leaves the reactor core. At certain conditions, heat transfer deterioration occurs near the pseudo-critical temperature and it may cause a drastic rise of the fuel surface temperature resulting a fuel failure. Therefore, an accurate estimation of the heat transfer coefficient is very important for the thermal-hydraulic design of a reactor core. An experiment on heat transfer to the vertically upward flowing $CO_2$ at a supercritical pressure in a circular tube were performed at KAERI. The internal diameter of the test section is 6.32 mm, which corresponds to the hydraulic diameter of a sub-channel in the conceptional design proposed by KAERI. The test range of the mass flux is 285 to 1200 kg/m$^2$s and the maximum heat flux is 170 kW/m$^2$. The inlet pressure is maintained at 8.12 MPa, which is 1.1 times the critical pressure. A new correlation, which covers both the normal and deterioration heat transfer regimes was proposed and compared with the estimations by exiting correlations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1100-1108
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• 2021

Supercritical water has great potential as a coolant for nuclear reactor. Its use will lead to higher thermal efficiency of Rankine cycle. However, in certain conditions heat transfer may get deteriorated which may lead to undesirable high clad surface temperature. It is necessary to estimate the operating conditions in which heat transfer deterioration (HTD) will take place, so as to establish thermal margins for safe reactor operation. In the present work, the heat flux corresponding to onset of HTD for vertically upward flow of supercritical water in a pipe is obtained over a wide range of system parameters, namely pressure, mass flux, and pipe diameter. This is done by performing large number of simulations using an in-house CFD code, which is especially developed and validated for this purpose. The identification of HTD is based on observance of one or more peak/s in the computed wall temperature profile. The existing correlations for predicting the onset of HTD are compared against the results obtained by present simulations as well as available sets of experimental data. It is found that the prediction accuracy of the correlation proposed by Dongliang et al. is best among the existing correlations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2008

In this paper, a new reactor core design is proposed on the basis of a mixed core concept consisting of a thermal zone and a fast zone. The geometric structure of the fuel assembly of the thermal zone is similar to that of a conventional thermal supercritical water-cooled reactor(SCWR) core with two fuel pin rows between the moderator channels. In spite of the counter-current flow mode, the co-current flow mode is used to simplify the design of the reactor core and the fuel assembly. The water temperature at the exit of the thermal zone is much lower than the water temperature at the outlet of the pressure vessel. This lower temperature reduces the maximum cladding temperature of the thermal zone. Furthermore, due to the high velocity of the fast zone, a wider lattice can be used in the fuel assembly and the nonuniformity of the local heat transfer can be minimized. This mixed core, which combines the merits of some existing thermal SCWR cores and fast SCWR cores, is proposed for further detailed analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.257-272
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• 2007

Supercritical water-cooled reactors (SCWRs) are recognized as a Generation IV reactor concept. The Super LWR is a pressure-vessel type thermal spectrum SCWR with downward-flow water rods and is currently under study at the University of Tokyo. This paper reviews Super LWR safety. The fundamental requirement for the Super LWR, which has a once-through coolant cycle, is the core coolant flow rate rather than the coolant inventory. Key safety characteristics of the Super LWR inhere in the design features and have been identified through a series of safety analyses. Although loss-of-flow is the most important abnormality, fuel rod heat-up is mitigated by the "heat sink" and "water source" effects of the water rods. Response of the reactor power against pressurization events is mild due to a small change in the average coolant density and flow stagnation of the once-through coolant cycle. These mild responses against transients and also reactivity feedbacks provide good inherent safety against anticipated-transient-without-scram (ATWS) events without alternative actions. Initiation of an automatic depressurization system provides effective heat removal from the fuel rods. An "in-vessel accumulator" effect of the reactor vessel top dome enhances the fuel rod cooling. This effect enlarges the safety margin for large LOCA.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3395-3400
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• 2007

Heat transfer experiments at a vertical annulus passage were carried out in the SPHINX(Supercritical Pressure Heat Transfer Investigation for NeXt Generation) to investigate the heat transfer behaviors of supercritical $CO_2$. The collected test data are to be used for the reactor core design of the SCWR (SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactor). The mass flux was in the range of 400${\sim}$1200 kg/$m^2$s and the heat flux was chosen up to 150 kW/$m^2$. The selected pressures were 7.75 and 8.12 MPa. The heat transfer data were analyzed and compared with the previous tube test data. The test results showed that the heat transfer characteristics were similar to those of the tube in case of a normal heat transfer mode and degree of heat transfer deterioration became smaller than that in the tube. Comparison of the experimental heat transfer coefficients with the predicted ones by the existing correlations showed that there was not a distinct difference between the correlations.