• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

The number of nuclear power plants operating in Korea was 24 as of year 2015. Nine units out of 24 units have been operated for a period over 20 years. Kori unit 1 has been in operation for 40 years, and an extended operation for Wolsong unit 1 was decided in 2015. There has been reported some crackings in reactor internals in PWR have been reported in Europe, USA, Japan and Korea, and some of them were replaced with new one. Repair and replacement technologies for the reactor internals have been developing in order to meet the regulatory requirements for long term operation in Korea. The technologies will also be used for the exported nuclear units. It is required to review degradation history of the reactor internals worldwide as a part of the degradation management program development. Schematics of reactor internals designed and supplied by Westinghouse, Framatome and Combustion Engineering are described herein. Materials degradation history of reactor internals of PWR plants in USA, Japan and Europe is surveyed and summarized. Some events from Korean plants are also described. Aging management strategy for the internals is suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.123-130
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• 2015

Wolsong Unit 2,3&4 has been performing a containment integrity test during power operation. This test could impact to the safe operation during test. If an accident occurs during pressure dropping phase, reactor trip can be delayed because of the increased pressure difference which causes a time delay to reach the trip set-point. On the contrary, if an accident occurs during pressure increasing phase, reactor trip could be accelerated because the pressure difference to the trip set-point decrease. Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, which installed GCLMS (Gross Containment Leakage Monitoring System) in 1990, has discontinued the test since 1992 due to these adverse effects. Therefore, we evaluated the risk to obviate the GCLMS test based on PWR's ILRT (Integrated Leak Rate Test) extension methodologies. The results demonstrate that risk increase rate is not high in case of performing only ILRT test at every 5 years instead of doing GCLMS test at every 1.5 years. In addition, the result shows that GCLMS test can be removed on a risk-informed perspective since risk increasement is in acceptable area of regulatory acceptance criteria.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.495-499
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• 2010

In this paper, the regulatory guidelines for the continued operation of the CANDU reactor in Korea were introduced. Wolsong Unit 1, which is a CANDU 600 reactor in Korea, will reach its design life of 30 years in 2012. A licensee who wants to operate a nuclear power plant beyond its design life should submit reports of periodic safety reviews (PSRs) conducted on the basis of 11 safety factors. In addition, the licensee should provide the following: (1) scoping and screening results for aging management, (2) aging management program, (3) TLAA, including the continued operation term, (4) operation-experience feedback, and (5) important safety-research results. In this study, 54 regulatory guidelines for the five above-mentioned items for the CANDU reactor in Korea were developed.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2016

This paper focuses on the estimation of durability and service-life of reinforced concrete structures in Wolsong Low- and intermediate-level wastes Disposal Center (WLDC) in Korea. There are six disposal silos located in the saturated environment. The silo concrete is degraded due to reactions with groundwater and chemical attacks, and finally it will lose its properties as a transport barrier. The infiltration of sulfate and magnesium, leaching of potassium hydroxide, and chlorine induced corrosion are the most significant factors for degradation of reinforced concrete structure in underground environment. From the result of evaluation of the degradation time for each factor, the degradation rate of the reinforced concrete due to sulfate and magnesium is $1.308{\times}10^{-3}cm/yr$, and it is estimated to take 48,000 years for full degradation while potassium hydroxide is leached in depth of less than 1.5 cm at 1,000 years after the initiation of degradation. In case of chlorine induced corrosion, it takes 1,648 years to initiate corrosion in the main reinforced bar and 2,288 years to reach the lifetime limit of the structural integrity, and thus it is evaluated as the most significant factor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.699-706
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• 2014

The probabilistic seismic performance of a standard Korean nuclear power plant (NPP) with an idealized isolation is investigated in the present work. A probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the Wolsong site on the Korean peninsula is performed by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) as an earthquake intensity measure. A procedure is reported on the categorization and selection of two sets of ground motions of the Tohoku earthquake, i.e. long-period and common as Set A and Set B respectively, for the nonlinear time history response analysis of the base-isolated NPP. Limit state values as multiples of the displacement responses of the NPP base isolation are considered for the fragility estimation. The seismic risk of the NPP is further assessed by incorporation of the rate of frequency exceedance and conditional failure probability curves. Furthermore, this framework attempts to show the unacceptable performance of the isolated NPP in terms of the probabilistic distribution and annual probability of limit states. The comparative results for long and common ground motions are discussed to contribute to the future safety of nuclear facilities against drastic events like Tohoku.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2014

Recently, a CANDU digital reactivity computer system (CDRCS) to measure the worth of the liquid zone controller in a CANDU-6 was developed and successfully applied to a physics test of refurbished Wolsong Unit 1. In advance of using the CDRCS, its measureable reactivity range should be investigated and confirmed. There are two reasons for this investigation. First, the CANDU-6 has a larger reactor and smaller excore detectors than a general PWR and consequently the measured reactivity is likely to reflect the peripheral power variation only, not the whole core. The second reason is photo neutrons generated from the interaction of the moderator and gamma-rays, which are never considered in a PWR. To evaluate the limitations of the CDRCS, several tens of three-dimensional steady and transient simulations were performed. The simulated detector signals were used to obtain the dynamic reactivity. The difference between the dynamic reactivity and the static worth increases in line with the water level changes. The maximum allowable reactivity was determined to be 1.4 mk in the case of CANDU-6 by confining the difference to less than 1%.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2013

The safe management of radioactive waste is a national task required for sustainable generation of nuclear power and for energy self-reliance in Korea. Since the initial introduction of nuclear power to Korea in 1978, rapid growth in nuclear power has been achieved. This large nuclear power generation program has produced a significant amount of radioactive waste, both low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF); and the amount of waste is steadily growing. For the management of LILW, the Wolsong LILW Disposal Center, which has a final waste disposal capacity of 800,000 drums, is under construction, and is expected to be completed by June 2014. Korean policy about how to manage the SNF has not yet been decided. In 2004, the Atomic Energy Commission decided that a national policy for SNF management should be established considering both technological development and public consensus. Currently, SNF is being stored at reactor sites under the responsibility of plant operator. The at-reactor SNF storage capacity will run out starting in 2024. In this paper, the fundamental principles and steps for implementation of a Korean policy for national radioactive waste management are introduced. Korean practices and prospects regarding radioactive waste management are also summarized, with a focus on strategy for policy-making on SNF management.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-82
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• 2018

With the significant increase in spent ion-exchange resin generation, to meet the requirements of Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) of the Wolsong disposal facility in Korea, blending is considered as a method for enhancing disposal options for intermediate level waste from nuclear reactors. A mass balance formula approach was used to enable blending process with an appropriate mixing ratio. As a result, it is estimated around 44.3% of high activity spent resins can be blended with the overall volume of low activity spent resins at a 1:7.18 conservative blending ratio. In contrast, the reduction of high activity spent resins is considered a positive solution in reducing the amount of spent resins stored. In an economic study, the blending process has been proven to lower the disposal cost by 10% compared to current APR1400 treatment. Prior to commencing use of this blending method in Korea, coordinated discussion, and safety and health assessment should be undertaken to investigate the feasibility of fitting this blending method to national policy as a means of waste predisposal processing and management in the future.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 1994

A computer code DRL was developed to calculate the derived release limits at CANDU type nuclear power plants. The derived release limits resulting from DRL code is to set guidelines for the release of radionuclides in airborne and water-borne effuents during normal operations of a CANDU type nuclear power plant. The DRL code generally follows the methodology Prescribed in the CSA standard N288.1-M87 and uses the Parameter values recommended in the same standards. The DRL code was used to calculate a set of preliminary derived release limits for the Wolsong NPP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.36-46
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• 2004

The ISAAC fission product release calculation is based on detailed FPRAT models developed by Jaycor. For volatile fission product release calculations, either the Cubicciotti steam oxidation correlation or the NUREG-0772 correlation is used. In this study, evaluation is carried out for these volatile fission product release models. As a result, in the case of early release, the IDCOR model with an in-vessel Te release option shows the most conservative results and for the late release case, the NUREG-0772 model shows the most conservative results. Considering both early and late release, the IDCOR model with an in-vessel Te bound option is evaluated to show mitigated conservative results. In addition, a sensitivity study on detailed core nodalization is performed. In the study, 380 horizontal fuel channels in the Wolsong plant are nodalized into 12 (6 channels per loop, $3{\times}3$ Core Pass) representative channels and detailed by 16/20/24 channels. For reference accidents, LOAH and large LOCA are selected as representing high and low pressure sequences, respectively. According to the results, the original 12 channel approach with $3{\times}3$ core passes is evaluated to be sufficient as an optimal scheme.