• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.355-361
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• 2014

Steam explosions can be caused by fuel-coolant interactions resulting from failure of the external vessel cooling system in a new nuclear power plant. This can threaten the integrity of structures, including the nuclear reactor and the containment building. In the present study, an improved technique for analyzing the steam explosion phenomenon was proposed on the basis of previous research and was verified by simulations involving alumina experiments. Also, the improved analysis technique was applied to determine the pressure history of the reactor cavity in accordance with postulated failure locations. The results of the analysis revealed that the effects of vessel side failure are more serious than those of vessel bottom failure, with approximately 70% higher maximum pressure.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.61-70
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• 1992

Photon, neutron and beta radiation fields were measured at PWR plants which are the representative types of nuclear power plant operated in Korea. The photon energy spectra were measured at locations in the auxiliary building during operation period and in the containment vessel(C/V) during shutdown period using a portable gamma spectrometer with a HPGe detector. The distribution of average energy was found to range from 440 to 780 keV in the C/V and from 280 keV to 760 keV in the auxiliary building, respectively. The average neutron energy measured at the five locations around the operation deck in the C/V in operation using a BMSS (Bonner Multi-Sphere Spectrometer) ranged from 20 keV to 210 keV. A computer code, BUNKI was used to unfold the spectrum. The beta energy spectra in the C/V and in the auxiliary building in annual outage were determined using 14 smear samples taken from the highly contaminated areas. The analysis showed that the representative corrosion product, $^{60}Co$ made main contribution to the beta energy field.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.166-171
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• 2017

Hydrogen gas is a green energy sources because it features no emission of pollutants during combustion. But hydrogen gas is very dangerous, being flammable and very explosive. Hydrogen gas detection is very important for the safety of a nuclear power plant. Hydrogen gas is generated by oxidation of nuclear fuel cladding during a critical accident, and leads to serious secondary damage in the containment building. This paper discusses the development of a Raman lidar system for remote detection and measurement of hydrogen gas. A small, portable Raman lidar system was designed, and a measurement algorithm was developed to quantitatively measure hydrogen gas concentration. To verify the capability of measuring hydrogen gas with the developed Raman lidar system, experiments were carried out under daytime outdoor conditions by using a gas chamber that can adjust the hydrogen gas density. As results, our Raman lidar system is able to measure a minimum density of 0.67 vol. % hydrogen gas at a distance of 20 m.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.6 s.46
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• pp.13-19
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• 2005

Floor response spectra for dynamic response of subsystem such as equipment, or piping in nuclear power plants are usually generated without considering dynamic interaction between main structure and subsystem. This study describes the analytic method in which equipment response spectra can be obtained through dynamic analysis considering equipment-structure Interaction(ESI). In this method, dynamic response of the equipment by this method is based on a dynamic substructure method in which the equipment-structure system is partitioned into the single-degree-ol-freedom system(SDOF) representing the equipment and the equipment support impedance representing the dynamic charactenstics of the structure ai the equipment support. A family of equipment response spectra is developed by applying this method to calculate the maximum responses of a family of SDOF equipment systems with wide banded equipment frequency, damping ratio, and mass. The method is validated by comparing the floor response spectrum from this method with the floor response spectrum generated from the rigorous analysis including equipments on the containment building of a prototypical nuclear power plant. in order to Investigate ESI effect in the response of equipment, response values from the method and the conventional approach without considering ESI are compared for the equipment having the mass less than 1% of the total structural mass. Response spectra from the method showed lower spectral amplitudes than those of the conventional floor response spectra around controlling frequencies.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the application of various numerical models and frequency contents of earthquakes on the performances of the reactor containment building (RCB) in a nuclear power plant (NPP) equipped with an advanced power reactor 1400. Two kinds of numerical models are developed to perform time-history analyses: a lumped-mass stick model (LMSM) and a full three-dimensional finite element model (3D FEM). The LMSM is constructed in SAP2000 using conventional beam elements with concentrated masses, whereas the 3D FEM is built in ANSYS using solid elements. Two groups of ground motions considering low- and high-frequency contents are applied in time-history analyses. The low-frequency motions are created by matching their response spectra with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1.60 design spectrum, whereas the high-frequency motions are artificially generated with a high-frequency range from 10Hz to 100Hz. Seismic responses are measured in terms of floor response spectra (FRS) at the various elevations of the RCB. The numerical results show that the FRS of the structure under low-frequency motions for two numerical models are highly matched. However, under high-frequency motions, the FRS obtained by the LMSM at a high natural frequency range are significantly different from those of the 3D FEM, and the largest difference is found at the lower elevation of the RCB. By assuming that the 3D FEM approximates responses of the structure accurately, it can be concluded that the LMSM produces a moderate discrepancy at the high-frequency range of the FRS of the RCB.