• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1338-1348
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• 2016

A novel fully passive small modular superheated water reactor (SWR) for underwater deployment is designed to produce 160 MWe with steam at $500^{\circ}C$ to increase the thermodynamic efficiency compared with standard light water reactors. The SWR design is based on a conceptual 400-MWe integral SWR using the internally and externally cooled annular fuel (IXAF). The coolant boils in the external channels throughout the core to approximately the same quality as a conventional boiling water reactor and then the steam, instead of exiting the reactor pressure vessel, turns around and flows downward in the central channel of some IXAF fuel rods within each assembly and then flows upward through the rest of the IXAF pins in the assembly and exits the reactor pressure vessel as superheated steam. In this study, new cladding material to withstand high temperature steam in addition to the fuel mechanical and safety behavior is investigated. The steam temperature was found to depend on the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the fuel. The SWR showed a very different transient behavior compared with a boiling water reactor. The inter-play between the inner and outer channels of the IXAF was mainly beneficial except in the case of sudden reactivity insertion transients where additional control consideration is required.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.804-809
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• 2008

In this study, the cooling performance of a C/C composite material structure with metallic cooling tubes fixed by elastic force without chemical bonding was evaluated experimentally using combustion gas in a rocket combustor. The C/C composite chamber was covered by a stainless steel outer shell to maintain its airtightness. Gaseous hydrogen as a fuel and gaseous oxygen as an oxidizer were used for the heating test. The surface of these C/C composites was maintained below 1500 K when the combustion gas temperature was about 2900 K and heat flux to the combustion chamber wall was about 9 $MW/m^2$. No thermal damage was observed on the stainless steel tubes which were in contact with the C/C composite materials. Results of the heating test showed that such a metallic-tube-cooled C/C composite structure is able to control the surface temperature as a cooling structure(also as a heat exchanger), as well as indicating the possibility of reducing the amount of the coolant even if the thermal load to the engine is high. Thus, application of the metallic-tube-cooled C/C composite structure to reusable engines such as a rocket-ramjet combined cycle engine is expected.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.645-650
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• 2006

The heat transfer performance and energy transport ability are relatively high due to higher specific heat. Therefore, it can be used in fields such as heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, refrigeration and heat exchangers. In this study, liquid-cooling heat exchangers were designed and tested by varying geometry and operating conditions. In addition, liquid-cooling heat exchangers were tested to provide performance data for MPCM slurry. The liquid-cooling heat exchangers had twelve rectangular channels with flow paths of 1, 2, 4 and 12. Silicon rubber heaters were used to control the heat load to the heat exchanger. Heat input ranged from 293 to 800 W, and inlet temperatures of working fluid varied from 15S to $27^{\circ}C$. The standard deviation of surface temperature was strongly affected by the coolant of MPCM Slurry, All MPCM-cooling heat exchangers showed higher cooling performance than the water-cooling heat exchanger except one path channel heat exchanger.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.19-24
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• 2021

As the size of semiconductor devices decreases, the etching pattern becomes very narrow and a deep high aspect ratio process becomes important. The cryogenic etching process enables high aspect ratio etching by suppressing the chemical reaction of reactive ions on the sidewall while maintaining the process temperature of -100℃. ESC is an important part for temperature control in cryogenic etching equipment. Through the cooling path inside the ESC, liquid nitrogen is used as cooling water to create a cryogenic environment. And since the ESC directly contacts the wafer, it affects the temperature uniformity of the wafer. The temperature uniformity of the wafer is closely related to the yield. In this study, the cooling path was designed and analyzed so that the wafer could have a uniform temperature distribution. The optimal cooling path conditions were obtained through the analysis of the shape of the cooling path and the change in the speed of the coolant. Through this study, by designing ESC with optimal temperature uniformity, it can be expected to maximize wafer yield in mass production and further contribute to miniaturization and high performance of semiconductor devices.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1698-1711
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• 2022

A combined safety approach, which uses a best-estimate computer code and adopts conservative assumptions for safety systems availability, is developed and applied to the safety margin evaluation for the Loss of Condenser Vacuum (LOCV) of the 1000 MWe Korean Nuclear Power Plant. The Multi-dimensional Analysis of Reactor Safety-KINS standard (MARS-KS) code is selected as a best-estimate code and the PAPIRUS program is used to obtain different initial operational conditions through random sampling of control variables. During an LOCV event, fuel integrity is not threatened by the increase in Departure from Nuclear Boiling Ratio (DNBR). However, the high pressure in the primary coolant system and the secondary system might affect the system integrity. Thus, the peak pressure becomes a major safety concern. Transient analyses are performed for 124 cases of different initial conditions and the most conservative case, which results in the highest system pressure is selected. It is found the suggested methodology gives similar peak pressures when compared to those predicted from existing methodologies. The proposed approach is expected to minimize the time and efforts required to identify the conservative plant conditions in the existing conservative safety methodologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2757-2772
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• 2023

The fluid retention effect of the Volume Control Tank (VCT) leads to a long time delay in Reactor Coolant System (RCS) concentration during the boration process. A coupled model combining a lumped-parameter sub-model and a computational fluid dynamics sub-model is currently used to investigate the concentration dynamic characteristic of RCS during the boration process. This model is validated by comparison with experimental data, and the predicted results show excellent agreement with experimental data. We provide detailed fields in VCT and concentration variations of RCS to study the interaction between mixing in VCT and the transient responses of RCS. Moreover, the impacts of the inlet flow rate, inlet nozzle diameter, original concentration, and replenishing temperature of VCT on the RCS concentration characteristic are studied. The inlet flow rate and nozzle diameter of VCT remarkably affect the RCS concentration characteristic. Too-large or too-small inlet flow rates and nozzle diameters will lead to unacceptable long delays. In this work, the optimal inlet flow rate and nozzle diameter of VCT are 5 m³/h and 58.8 mm, respectively. Besides, the impacts of the original concentration and replenishing temperature of VCT are negligible under normal operating conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4560-4570
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• 2022

Dynamic fault tree (DFT) and its related research methods have received extensive attention in safety analysis and reliability engineering. DFT can perform reliability modelling for systems with sequential correlation, resource sharing, and cold and hot spare parts. A technical modelling method of DFT is proposed for modelling ship collision accidents and loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs). Qualitative and quantitative analyses of DFT were carried out using the cutting sequence (CS)/extended cutting sequence (ECS) method. The results show nine types of dynamic fault failure modes in ship collision accidents, describing the fault propagation process of a dynamic system and reflect the dynamic changes of the entire accident system. The probability of a ship collision accident is 2.378 × 10^-9 by using CS. This failure mode cannot be expressed by a combination of basic events within the same event frame after an LOCA occurs in a marine nuclear reactor because the system contains warm spare parts. Therefore, the probability of losing reactor control was calculated as 8.125 × 10^-6 using the ECS. Compared with CS, ECS is more efficient considering expression and processing capabilities, and has a significant advantage considering cost.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4477-4490
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• 2023

Fuel locking mechanisms (FLMs) are essential in upward-flow research reactors to prevent accidental fuel separation from the core during reactor operation. This study presents a novel design concept for a remotely controlled plate-type nuclear fuel locking mechanism. By employing electromagnetic field analysis, we optimized the design of the electromagnet for fuel unlocking, allowing the FLM to adapt to various research reactor core designs, minimizing installation space, and reducing maintenance efforts. Computational flow analysis quantified the drag acting on the fuel assembly caused by coolant upflow. Subsequently, we performed finite element analysis and evaluated the structural integrity of the FLM based on the ASME boiler and pressure vessel (B&PV) code, considering design loads such as dead weight and flow drag. Our findings confirm that the new FLM design provides sufficient margins to withstand the specified loads. We fabricated a prototype comprising the driving part, a simplified moving part, and a dummy fuel assembly. Through basic operational tests on the assembled components, we verified that the manufactured products meet the performance requirements. This remote-controlled micro locking mechanism holds promise in enhancing the safety and efficiency of plate-type nuclear fuel operation in upflow research reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.3315-3329
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• 2024

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) adopt the Helically Coiled Once-Through Steam Generators (OTSG) extensively for its compactness and higher heat transfer efficiency. As a heat exchanger between the primary side (reactor coolant system) and the secondary side (feedwater and steam system) of nuclear steam supply system, the inlet/outlet conditions both of shell side and tube side of OTSGs have significant impacts on overall system response. Considering the flexible operation of SMRs and heat application by extracting steam, a simulation tool for accurate prediction of the OTSG dynamic behaviors would be required for optimizing design and control. In this study, the OTSG dynamic simulation model has been developed. Mathematical governing equation has been derived by using moving boundary approach and a simulation module has been developed by using Modelica Language. The developed module has been compared with publicly available experimental results and benchmarked with MARS-KS calculation results. Also, it has been incorporated into the integrated SMR model (i.e., reactor core, primary side, secondary side) and dynamic behaviors with reactivity feedback and heat balancing have been investigated. In both of steady-state and transient conditions, it shows the promising accuracy.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.464-469
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• 2019

A remote monitoring panel and control system was developed to control various valves and access control chambers, including gas shutoff valves used in CBR(Chemical, Biological and Radiological) facilities. The remote monitoring panel consisted of a main panel installed in the NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) control room and auxiliary panel installed in the clean room, and the size was divided into pure control and control including CCTV. This system can be monitored and controlled remotely according to the situation where an explosion door and gas barrier door can occur during war and during normal times. This system is divided into normal mode and war mode. In particular, it periodically senses the operation status of various valves, sensors, and filters in the CBR facilities to determine if each apparatus and equipment is in normal operation, and remotely alerts situation workers when repair or replacement is necessary. Damage due to the abnormal operation of each device in the situation can be prevented. This enables control of the blower, supply and exhaust damper, emergency generator, and coolant pump according to the state of shutoff valve and positive pressure valve in the occurrence of NBC, and prevents damage caused by abrupt inflow of conventional weapons and nuclear explosions.