• Title/Summary/Keyword: nuclear division

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Development status of microcell UO2 pellet for accident-tolerant fuel

  • Kim, Dong-Joo;Kim, Keon Sik;Kim, Dong Seok;Oh, Jang Soo;Kim, Jong Hun;Yang, Jae Ho;Koo, Yang-Hyun
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.50 no.2
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    • pp.253-258
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    • 2018
  • A microcell $UO_2$ pellet, as an accident-tolerant fuel pellet, is being developed to enhance the accident tolerance of nuclear fuels under accident conditions as well as the fuel performance under normal operation conditions. Improved capture-ability for highly radioactive and corrosive fission product (Cs and I) is the distinct feature of a ceramic microcell $UO_2$ pellet, and the enhanced pellet thermal conductivity is that of a metallic microcell $UO_2$ pellet. The fuel temperature can be effectively decreased by enhanced thermal conductivity. In this study, the material concepts of metallic and ceramic microcell $UO_2$ pellets were designed, and the fabrication process of microcell $UO_2$ pellets embodying the designed concept was developed. We successfully implemented the microcell $UO_2$ pellets and produced microcell $UO_2$ pellets. In addition, an assessment of the out-of-pile properties of a microcell $UO_2$ pellet was performed, and the in-reactor performance and behavior of the developed microcell pellets were evaluated through a Halden irradiation test. According to the expectations, the excellent performance of the microcell $UO_2$ pellets was confirmed by the online measurement data of the Halden irradiation test.

Determination of Boron Isotopic Ratio by Using an Alpha Track Technique

  • Park, Yong-Joon;Pyo, Hyung-Yeal;Song, Kyu-Seok;Song, Byoung-Chul;Jee, Kwang-Yong;Kim, Won-Ho
    • Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.27 no.10
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    • pp.1609-1612
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    • 2006
  • The determination of the boron isotopic ratio in solutions was achieved by means of a solid state track detector by using an alpha track. The neutron flux was optimized by using a Cd-foil to find the optimum conditions for counting the number of alpha tracks on the selected solid detector caused by the (n, $\alpha$) nuclear reaction of boron. The home-made multi-dot detector plate was utilized in this study to increase the reproducibility of the measurement by uniformly drying the boron solution within the marked circle area on the detector plate. The experimental results of this study verified that the $^{11}B/^{10}B $ isotopic ratio can be measured by observing the number of alpha tracks for different concentrated standard solutions with various isotopic compositions. This technique was applied to the determination of $^{10}B$ enrichment factor in a biological sample for a boron neutron capture therapy.

Internal Radiation Dosimetry using Nuclear Medicine Imaging in Radionuclide Therapy (방사성핵종 이용 치료에서 핵의학영상을 이용한 흡수선량평가)

  • Kim, Kyeong-Min;Byun, Byun-Hyun;Cheon, Gi-Jeong;Lim, Sang-Moo
    • Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.265-271
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    • 2007
  • Radionuclide therapy has been an important field in nuclear medicine. In radionuclide therapy, relevant evaluation of Internally absorbed dose is essential for the achievement of efficient and sufficient treatment of incurable disease, and can be accomplish by means of accurate measurement of radioactivity in body and its changes with time. Recently, the advances of nuclear medicine imaging and multi modality imaging processing techniques can provide change of more accurate and easier measurement of the measures commented above, in cooperation of conventional imaging based approaches. in this review, basic concept for internal dosimetry using nuclear medicine imaging is summarized with several check points which should be considered In real practice.

Survivability assessment of Viton in safety-related equipment under simulated severe accident environments

  • Ryu, Kyungha;Song, Inyoung;Lee, Taehyun;Lee, Sanghyuk;Kim, Youngjoong;Kim, Ji Hyun
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.50 no.5
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    • pp.683-689
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    • 2018
  • To evaluate equipment survivability of the polymer Viton, used in sealing materials, the effects of its thermal degradation were investigated in severe accident (SA) environment in a nuclear power plant. Viton specimens were prepared and thermally degraded at different SA temperature profiles. Changes in mechanical properties at different temperature profiles in different SA states were investigated. The thermal lag analysis was performed at calculated convective heat transfer conditions to predict the exposure temperature of the polymer inside the safety-related equipment. The polymer that was thermally degraded at postaccident states exhibited the highest change in its mechanical properties, such as tensile strength and elongation.

Evaluation of Hydride Effect on Fuel Cladding Degradation (피복관 열화거동에 미치는 수소화물 영향 평가)

  • Kim, Hyun-Gil;Kim, Il-Hyun;Park, Sang-Yoon;Park, Jeong-Yong;Jeong, Yong-Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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    • v.48 no.8
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    • pp.717-723
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    • 2010
  • The degradation behavior of fuel cladding is a very import concern in nuclear power generation, because the operation of nuclear plants can be limited by fuel cladding degradation. In order to evaluate the hydride effect on failure of zirconium fuel claddings, a ring tensile test for the circumferential direction was carried out at room temperature for claddings having different hydride characteristics such as density and orientation; microstructural evaluation was also performed for those claddings. The circumferential failure of the claddings was promoted by increasing the hydride concentration in the matrix; however, the failure of the claddings was affected by the hydride orientation rather than by the hydride concentration in the matrix. From fracture surface observation, the cladding failure during the ring tensile test was matched with the hydride orientation.

ANALYSIS OF HIGH BURNUP PRESSURIZED WATER REACTOR FUEL USING URANIUM, PLUTONIUM, NEODYMIUM, AND CESIUM ISOTOPE CORRELATIONS WITH BURNUP

  • KIM, JUNG SUK;JEON, YOUNG SHIN;PARK, SOON DAL;HA, YEONG-KEONG;SONG, KYUSEOK
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.47 no.7
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    • pp.924-933
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    • 2015
  • The correlation of the isotopic composition of uranium, plutonium, neodymium, and cesium with the burnup for high burnup pressurized water reactor fuels irradiated in nuclear power reactors has been experimentally investigated. The total burnup was determined by Nd-148 and the fractional $^{235}U$ burnup was determined by U and Pu mass spectrometric methods. The isotopic compositions of U, Pu, Nd, and Cs after their separation from the irradiated fuel samples were measured using thermal ionization mass spectrometry. The contents of these elements in the irradiated fuel were determined through an isotope dilution mass spectrometric method using $^{233}U$, $^{242}Pu$, $^{150}Nd$, and $^{133}Cs$ as spikes. The activity ratios of Cs isotopes in the fuel samples were determined using gamma-ray spectrometry. The content of each element and its isotopic compositions in the irradiated fuel were expressed by their correlation with the total and fractional burnup, burnup parameters, and the isotopic compositions of different elements. The results obtained from the experimental methods were compared with those calculated using the ORIGEN-S code.

3D reconstruction of two-phase random heterogeneous material from 2D sections: An approach via genetic algorithms

  • Pizzocri, D.;Genoni, R.;Antonello, F.;Barani, T.;Cappia, F.
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.53 no.9
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    • pp.2968-2976
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    • 2021
  • This paper introduces a method to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of two-phase materials, e.g., porous materials such as highly irradiated nuclear fuel, from two-dimensional (2D) sections via a multi-objective optimization genetic algorithm. The optimization is based on the comparison between the reference and reconstructed 2D sections on specific target properties, i.e., 2D pore number, and mean value and standard deviation of the pore-size distribution. This represents a multi-objective fitness function subject to weaker hypotheses compared to state-of-the-art methods based on n-points correlations, allowing for a broader range of application. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on synthetic data and compared with state-of-the-art methods adopting a fitness based on 2D correlations. The method here developed can be used as a cost-effective tool to reconstruct the pore structure in highly irradiated materials using 2D experimental data.