• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.18-24
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• 2020

When a damage occurs in the nuclear fuel burning in the reactor, fission products that should be in the nuclear fuel rod are released into the reactor coolant. In this case, sipping test, a series of non-destructive inspection methods, are used to find leakage in nuclear fuel assemblies during the power plant overhaul period. In addition, the sipping test is also used to check the integrity of the spent fuel for moving to an intermediate dry storage, which is carried out as the first step of nuclear decommissioning, . In this paper, the principle and characteristics of the sipping test are described. The structure of the sipping inspection equipment is largely divided into a suction device that collects fissile material emitted from a damaged assembly and an analysis device that analyzes their nuclides. In order to make good use of the sipping technology, the radioactive level behavior of the primary system coolant and major damage mechanisms in the event of nuclear fuel damage are also introduced. This will be a reference for selecting an appropriate sipping method when dismantling a nuclear power plant in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.268-279
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• 2018

The ALCYONE multidimensional fuel performance code codeveloped by the CEA, EDF, and AREVA NP within the PLEIADES software environment models the behavior of fuel rods during irradiation in commercial pressurized water reactors (PWRs), power ramps in experimental reactors, or accidental conditions such as loss of coolant accidents or reactivity-initiated accidents (RIAs). As regards the latter case of transient in particular, ALCYONE is intended to predictively simulate the response of a fuel rod by taking account of mechanisms in a way that models the physics as closely as possible, encompassing all possible stages of the transient as well as various fuel/cladding material types and irradiation conditions of interest. On the way to complying with these objectives, ALCYONE development and validation shall include tests on $PWR-UO_2$ fuel rods with advanced claddings such as M5(R) under "low pressure-low temperature" or "high pressure-high temperature" water coolant conditions. This article first presents ALCYONE V1.4 RIA-related features and modeling. It especially focuses on recent developments dedicated on the one hand to nonsteady water heat and mass transport and on the other hand to the modeling of grain boundary cracking-induced fission gas release and swelling. This article then compares some simulations of RIA transients performed on $UO_2$-M5(R) fuel rods in flowing sodium or stagnant water coolant conditions to the relevant experimental results gained from tests performed in either the French CABRI or the Japanese NSRR nuclear transient reactor facilities. It shows in particular to what extent ALCYONE-starting from base irradiation conditions it itself computes-is currently able to handle both the first stage of the transient, namely the pellet-cladding mechanical interaction phase, and the second stage of the transient, should a boiling crisis occur. Areas of improvement are finally discussed with a view to simulating and analyzing further tests to be performed under prototypical PWR conditions within the CABRI International Program. M5(R) is a trademark or a registered trademark of AREVA NP in the USA or other countries.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2004

This study presents the thermal analyses of a spent fuel dry storage cask under normal and off-normal conditions. The environmental temperature is assumed to be 15 $^{\circ}C$ under the normal condition. The off-normal condition has an environmental temperature of 38 $^{\circ}C$. An additional off-normal condition is considered as a partial blockage of the air inlet ducts. Two of the four air inlet ducts are assumed to be completely blocked. The significant thermal design feature of the storage cask is the air flow path used to remove the decay heat from the spent fuel. Natural circulation of the air inside the cask allows the concrete and fuel cladding temperatures to be maintained below the allowable values. The finite volume computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT was used for the thermal analysis. The maximum temperatures of the fuel rod and concrete overpack were lower than the allowable values under the normal and off-normal conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2604-2612
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• 2023

Spent nuclear fuel and long-lived radioactive waste must be carefully handled before disposing them off to a geological repository. After the pre-storage period in water pools, spent nuclear fuel is stored in casks, which are widely used for interim storage. Interim storage in casks is very important part in the whole cycle of nuclear energy generation. This paper presents the results of the numerical study that was performed to evaluate the thermal behavior of a metal-concrete CONSTOR RBMK-1500 cask loaded with spent nuclear fuel and placed in an open type interim storage facility which is under fire conditions (steady-state, fire, post-fire). The modelling was performed using the ANSYS Fluent code. Also, a local sensitivity analysis of thermal parameters on temperature variation was performed. The analysis demonstrated that the maximum increase in the fuel load temperatures is about 10 ℃ and 8 ℃ for 30 min 800 ℃ and 60 min 600 ℃ fires respectively. Therefore, during the fire and the post-fire periods, the fuel load temperatures did not exceed the 300 ℃ limiting temperature set for an RBMK SNF cladding for long-term storage. This ensures that fire accident does not cause overheating of fuel rods in a cask.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.286-300
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• 2002

An algorithm for the sodium boiling model has been developed for calculation of the void reactivity feedback as well as the fuel and cladding temperatures in the KALIMER core after onset of sodium boiling. Modeling of sodium boiling in liquid metal reactors using sodium as a coolant is necessary because of phenomenon difference comparing with that observed generally in light water reactor systems. The applied model to the algorithm is the multiple-bubble slug ejection model. It allows a finite number of bubbles in a channel at any time. Voiding is assumed to result from formation of bubbies that (ill the whole cross section of the coolant channel except for the liquid film left on the cladding surface. The vapor pressure, currently, is assumed to be uniform within a bubble The present study is focused on not only demonstration of the vapor bubble behavior predicted by the developed model, but also confirmation of a qualitative acceptance for the model. As a result, the model can represent important phenomena in the sodium boiling, but it is found that further effort is also needed for its completition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.1031-1043
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• 2017

A structural model for stress distributions of coated Zircaloy subjected to realistic incore pressure difference, thermal expansion, irradiation-induced axial growth, and creep has been developed in this study. In normal operation, the structural integrity of coating layers is anticipated to be significantly challenged with increasing burnup. Strain mismatch between the zircaloy and the coated layer, due to their different irradiation-induced axial growth, and creep deformation are found to be the most dominant causes of stress. This study suggests that the compatibility of the high temperature irradiation-induced strains (axial growth and creep) between zircaloy and the coating layer and the capability to undergo plastic strain should be taken as key metrics, along with the traditional focus on chemical protectiveness.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.211-218
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• 2015

The reaction rates of ZIRLO cladding hulls with cross-section openings were investigated using a thermo-gravimetric analysis system in order to identify whether selective recovery of Zr from oxidized cladding hulls is possible. The experimental results showed that an oxidized ZIRLO cladding hull was not reactive with chlorine gas at 400℃. However, providing fresh cross-sections on one or both ends of the ZIRLO hulls enabled a chlorination reaction. This reaction was completed after 8 hours; a 14% increase on the 7 hours seen with a bare ZIRLO cladding hull. The Sharp-Hancock plot analysis results revealed that the contracting volume model is the best for describing the reaction between the cross-section opened ZIRLO hulls and chlorine gas under the condition of this work. It was concluded that the chlorination process can be employed for oxidized ZIRLO cladding hulls by providing cross-section openings.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.840-843
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• 2002

The dry pulverizing/Mixing device is used to deal with the spent fuels for the safe disposal. The separated pellets from hulls by a slitting device are put and oxidized from UO$_2$ solid pellet to U$_3$O$\_$8/ powder in the device. The device have been developed based on a voloxidation method which is one of several dry de-cladding methods. We have benchmarked dry de-cladding methods, analyzed applicability to the advanced spent fuel management process, integrated and compared several configuration, and finally derived detailed specifications proper to requirements for the device. Also, thermal characteristics of the device such as thermal stress and strain have been analyzed by the commercial software, 1-DEAS, and the reliability of the results have been verified by the KOLAS(Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme). The UO$_2$ solid pellets are put in the device which has a capacity of 20 kgHM per a batch, heated up about 600$^{\circ}C$ in the air environment. Then, the UO$_2$ solid pellets are oxidized into the U$_3$O$\_$8/ powder, and the powder is collected in a special vessel. The device has been designed and developed as fellows: the multi-staged fine hole meshes are used to reduce the size of the powder gradually, heat and air(oxygen) are supplied continuously to reduce the reaction time, and slight vibration effect are applied to collect powder cling to the device.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.144-148
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• 2006

The experimental investigation was performed to find the associated changes in characteristics of fretting wear with various water temperatures. The fretting wear tests were carried out using the zirconium alloy tubes and the grids with increasing the water temperature. The tube materials in water of $20^{\circ}C,\;50^{\circ}C\;and\;80^{\circ}C$ were tested with the applied load of 20 N and the relative amplitude of $200{\mu}m$. The worn surfaces were observed by SEM, EDX analysis and 2D surface profiler. As the water temperature increased, the wear volume was decreased, but oxide layer was increased on the worn surface. The abrasive wear mechanism was observed at water temperature of $20^{\circ}C$ and adhesive wear mechanism occurred at water temperature of $50^{\circ}C,\;80^{\circ}C$. As the water temperature increased, surface micro-hardness was decreased, but wear depth and wear width were decreased due to increasing stick phenomenon. Stick regime occurred due to the formation of oxide layer on the worn surface with increasing water temperatures

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate the brazing characteristics between Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel cladding tubes and bearing pads with filler metals of amorphous $Zr_{1-x}Be_x$(0.3$\leq$x$\leq$0.5) binary alloy, in which they were produced in the ribbon form by the melt-spinning metod. The crystallization behavior, stability, hardness and micro-structure of brazed zone were examined by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, micro-Vickers hardness test, optical microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. $Zr_{1-x}Be_x$(0.3$\leq$x$\leq$0.4) amorphous alloys were crystallized to $\alpha$-Zr with increasing the temperature, and the rest were transformed to ZrBe$_2$at higher temperatures. On the other hand, $Zr_{1-x}Be_x$(0.4$\leq$x$\leq$0.5) amorphous alloys were crystallized to $\alpha$-Zr and ZrBe$_2$, simultaneously. The thickness of the layer brazed with amorphous alloy was increased with increasing the beryllium content due to the higher diffusion of Be. The morphology of brazed layer with PVD Be filler metal showed dendrite while that brazed with amorphous alloys appeared globular. Micro-Vickers hardness of brazed zone increased as the beryllium content of filler metal was decreased.