• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.3095-3105
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• 2022

Solid Microencapsulated Fuel (SMF) is a type of solid fuel rod design that disperses TRISO coated fuel particles directly into a kind of matrix. SMF is expected to provide improved performance because of the elimination of cladding tube and associated failure mechanisms. This study focused on the neutronics and some of the fuel cycle characteristics of SMF by using OpenMC. Two kinds of SMFs have been designed and evaluated - fuel particles dispersed into a silicon carbide matrix and fuel particles dispersed into a zirconium matrix. A 7×7 fuel assembly with increased rod diameter transformed from the standard NHR200-II 9×9 array was also introduced to increase the heavy metal inventory. A preliminary study of two kinds of burnable poisons (Erbia & Gadolinia) in two forms (BISO and QUADRISO particles) was also included. This study found that SMF requires about 12% enriched UN TRISO particles to match the cycle length of standard fuel when loaded in NHR200-II, which is about 7% for SMF with increased rod diameter. Feedback coefficients are less negative through the life of SMF than the reference. And it is estimated that the average center temperature of fuel kernel at fuel rod centerline is about 60 K below that of reference in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.39-46
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• 2019

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the study, applying Systems Engineering(SE) method, on the feasibility of developing a Melt-down Proof Modular Micro Reactor(MDP-MMR) for its future deployment in Korea. The reactor is being developed by NCSU (North Carolina State University) due to its advantage of melt-down proof nature of the reactor core. For this paper, the characteristics of the MDP-MMR has been studied in terms of fuel characteristics, inherent safety features and passive safety system. The NCSU's development process has been reviewed applying the SE method, and further research is recommended for the feasibility study on deploying such a modular micro reactor in Korea.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2003

탄화규소나 열분해 탄소는 고온 특성 및 화학적인 안정성 이 우수하여 단미 혹은 코팅재로로 소재의 성능을 향상시키기 위하여 에너지 관련 분야, 반도체 치구 분야, 방위산업 및 항공우주 분야와 원자력 분야에서 다양하게 사용된다. 특히 원자력 분야에서는 고온형 원자로의 노심 요소 부품으로 적용 및 개발을 고려하고 있으며, 대표적인 예로 수소생산용 초고온 가스냉각로의 코팅 핵연료 입자를 들 수 있다. 일반적으로 TRISO라 불리는 가스냉각로 핵연료는 구형 $UO_2$ kemel의 주변을 PyC-SiC -PyC의 삼중 코팅층으로 둘러싸는 구조를 하고 있으며, 이 코팅층들은 kernel물질이 분열하는 동안 발생되는 내부 기체 압력을 견디는 압력용기 역할과 기체나 금속 핵분열 생성물들을 가두는 확산 장벽 역할을 하게 된다. 본 연구에서는 구형의 $UO_2$대신 선행연구를 위하여 구형 ZrO$_2$를 이용하여 증착온도나 시간 및 입력기체비 등의 화학증착 변수로 조절하여 SiC 및 PyC을 코팅하고, 각 변수들에 의한 증착층의 거동을 고찰하고자 하였다.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.321-325
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• 2019

Triso-type coating layers of silicon carbide and graphite on UO₂ paticulate nuclear fuel were prepared by using fluidized bed type chemical vapor deposition and self-propagating high temperature synthesis methods to make a coated nuclear fuel of a power plant for hydrogen mass-production. The source and carrier gases were the mixture of methyltrichlorosilane and propane, and inert argon. Chemical analysis and microstructure observation showed that the coated layers were inner graphite, middle silicon carbide and outer graphite. The elastic modulus and nano-hardness of the silicon carbide layer were 503 [GPa] and 36 [GPa], respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2007

The current energy supply system is burdened by environmental and supply problems. The concept of a hydrogen economy has been actively discussed worldwide. KAERI has set up a plan to demonstrate massive production of hydrogen using a VHTR by the early 2020s. The technological gap to meet this goal was identified during the past few years. The hydrogen production process, a process heat exchanger, the efficiency of an I/S thermochemical cycle, the manufacturing of components, the analysis tools of VHTR, and a coated particle fuel are key areas that require urgent development. Candidate NHDD plant designs based on a 200 MWth VHTR core and I/S thermochemical process have been studied and some of analysis results are presented in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1935-1946
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• 2022

The investigations of the coated-particles of nuclear fuel samples are carried out in three stages: front-end, irradiation in the reactor core, and post-irradiation examination. The front-end stage is the initial analysis of the failures rates of produced samples before they are placed in the reactor core. The purpose of the verification is to prepare the particles for an experiment that will determine the degree of damage to the coated particles at each stage. Before starting experiments with the samples, they must be properly prepared. Polishing the samples in order to uncover the inner layers is an important, initial experimental step. The authors of this paper used a novel way to prepare samples for testing - by applying an ion polisher. Mechanical polishing used frequently for sample preparations generates additional mechanical damages in the studied fuel particle, thus directly affecting the experimental results. The polishing methods were compared for three different coated particles using diagnostic methods such as Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Based on the obtained results, it was concluded that the ion polishing method is better because the level of interference with the structures of the individual layers of the tested samples is much lower than with the mechanical method. The same technique is used for the fuel particles undergone ion implantation simulating radiation damage that can occur in the reactor core.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.299-305
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• 2015

Nuclear hydrogen production technology is being developed for the future energy supply system. The sulfur-iodine thermo-chemical hydrogen production process directly splits water by using of the heat generated from very high temperature gas-cooled reactor, a typical Generation IV nuclear system. Nuclear hydrogen key technologies are composed of VHTR simulation technology at elevated temperature, computational tools, TRISO fuel, and sulfur iodine hydrogen production technology. Key technology for nuclear hydrogen production system were developed and demonstrated in a laboratory scale test facility. Technical challenges for the commercial hydrogen production system were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.274-280
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• 2012

A normal incidence ellipsometer is fabricated to measure the optical anisotropy of a small spot whose diameter is less than $8.0{\mu}m$, by adding a beam splitter and a prism to the conventional rotating analyzer type ellipsometer. The polarizing actions of the added optical components are calibrated to improve the accuracy of the anisotropy measurement. The standard deviation of the optical anisotropy factor decreased to 0.00083, and the variation of the optical anisotropy factor of rutile versus sample azimuth angle variation also decreased to 0.015, after adoption of a non-polarizing beam splitter and a quarter wavelength phase retarder, followed by removal of the optical fiber and a careful choice of measurement wavelength.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.248-257
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• 2020

This study presents an initial design for a novel system consisting in a coupled nuclear reactor and a phase change material-based thermal energy storage (TES) component, which acts as a buffer and regulator of heat transfer between the primary and secondary loops. The goal of this concept is to enhance the capacity factor of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the case of high integration of renewable energy sources into the electric grid. Hence, this system could support in elevating the economics of NPPs in current competitive markets, especially with subsidized solar and wind energy sources, and relatively low oil and gas prices. Furthermore, utilizing a prismatic-core advanced high temperature reactor (PAHTR) cooled by a molten salt with a high melting point, have the potential in increasing the system efficiency due to its high operating temperature, and providing the baseline requirements for coupling other process heat applications. The present research studies the neutronics and thermal hydraulics (TH) of the PAHTR as well as TH calculations for the TES which consists of 300 blocks with a total heat storage capacity of 150 MWd. SERPENT Monte Carlo and MCNP5 codes carried out the neutronics analysis of the PAHTR which is sized to have a 5-year refueling cycle and rated power of 300 MW_th. The PAHTR has 10 metric tons of heavy metal with 19.75 wt% enriched UO₂ TRISO fuel, a hot clean excess reactivity and shutdown margin of $33.70 and -$115.68; respectively, negative temperature feedback coefficients, and an axial flux peaking factor of 1.68. Star-CCM + code predicted the correct convective heat transfer coefficient variations for both the reactor and the storage. TH analysis results show that the flow in the primary loop (in the reactor and TES) remains in the developing mixed convection regime while it reaches a fully developed flow in the secondary loop.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.245-249
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• 2008

The SiC and ZrC are critical and essential materials in TRISO coated fuel particles since they act as protective layers against diffusion of metallic and gaseous fission products and provides mechanical strength for the fuel particle. However, SiC and ZrC have critical disadvantage that SiC loses chemical integrity by thermal dissociation at high temperature and mechanical properties of ZrC are weaker than SiC. In order to complement these problems, we made new combinations of the coating layers that the ZrC layers composed of SiC. In this study, after Silicon carbide(SiC) were chemically vapor deposited on graphite substrate, Zirconium carbide(ZrC) were deposited on SiC/graphite substrate by using Zr reaction technology with Zr sponge materials. The different morphologies of sub-deposited SiC layers were correlated with microstructure, chemical composition and mechanical properties of deposited ZrC films. Relationships between deposition pressure and microstructure of deposited ZrC films were discussed. The deposited ZrC films on SiC of faceted structure with smaller grain size has better mechanical properties than deposited ZrC on another structure due to surface growth trend and microstructure of sub-deposited layer.