• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1950-1958
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• 2024

For the pressurized water reactor two-step calculation, the traditional assembly homogenization and two-group neutron diffusion calculation have been widely used. When it comes to the core pin-by-pin simulation, many models and techniques are different and unsettled. In this paper, the homogenization methods based on the pin discontinuity factors and super homogenization factors are used to get the pin-cell homogenized parameters. The heterogeneous leakage model is applied to modify the infinite flux spectrum of the single assembly with reflective boundary condition and to determine the diffusion coefficients for the SP3 solver which is used in the core simulation. To reduce the environment effect of the single-assembly reflective boundary condition, the online method for the SPH factors updating is applied in this paper, and the functionalization of SPH factors based on the least-squares method will be pre-made alone with the table of the group constants. The fitting function will be used to update the thermal-group SPH factors with a whole-core pin-by-pin homogeneous solution online. The three-dimensional Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 1 (WBN1) problem was utilized to test the performance of pin-by-pin calculation. And numerical results have demonstrated that PWR pin-by-pin core calculation has more accurate results compared with the traditional assembly-homogenization scheme.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.243-260
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• 2018

A literature review on the effects of high temperature and radiation on radiation shielding concrete in Spent Fuel Dry Storage is presented in this study with a focus on concrete degradation. The general threshold is $95^{\circ}C$ for preventing long-term degradation from high temperature, and it is suggested that the temperature gradient should be less than $60^{\circ}C$ to avoid crack generation in concrete structures. The amount of damage depends on the characteristics of the concrete mixture, and increases with the temperature and exposure time. The tensile strength of concrete is more susceptible than the compressive strength to degradation due to high temperature. Nuclear heating from radiation can be neglected under an incident energy flux density of $10^{10}MeV{\cdot}cm^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$. Neutron radiation of >$10^{19}n{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ or an integrated dose of gamma radiation exceeding $10^{10}$ rads can cause a reduction in the compressive and tensile strengths and the elastic moduli. When concrete is highly irradiated, changes in the mechanical properties are primarily caused by variation in water content resulting from high temperature, volume expansion, and crack generation. It is necessary to fully utilize previous research for effective technology development and licensing of a Korean dry storage system. This study can serve as important baseline data for developing domestic technology with regard to concrete casks of an SF (Spent Fuel) dry storage system.