• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 1993

Much effort is being done to standardize the PWR-type nuclear power plant in Korea. This paper presents the development of seismic design criteria for the reactor internals as a part of the standardization program for nuclear power plant. The seismic design loads of the reactor internals are calculated using the reference input motions of reactor vessel taken from Yong-gwang Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4. An overview of analysis related to the basic parameters and methodologies is presented. Also, the response of internal components for the reactor vessel motions is carefully investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.963-970
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• 2018

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Regulatory Guide 1.20 needs to perform a comprehensive vibration assessment program for reactor internals during preoperational and startup testing for nuclear power plants and extended power uprate. Although the measurement program is one of the core programs, it is rarely carried out except for a first-of-a-kind or a unique design. This article describes measurement results of vibration and stress for the comprehensive vibration assessment program for an APR-1400 reactor internals. The measurement was performed at an upper guide structure during the pre-core hot functional test of Shin Kori unit 4 reactor internals because the Shin Kori unit 3 and 4 are the first construction project for the APR-1400, and the upper guide structure assembly was to design change compared with the valid prototype. We confirmed that all measured results are within the test acceptance criteria. It means that the structural integrity of the APR-1400 reactor internals was secured for the flow-induced vibration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3326-3333
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• 2023

The results of the analysis of a mathematical modeling for the IBR-2M pulsed reactor dynamics for a transition from a power pulse repetition frequency of 5 Hz-10 Hz are presented. The change in the amplitude response of the reactor for variable pulse delayed neutron fraction was studied. We used a set of power feedback parameters determined experimentally in 2021 at an energy output of 1820 MW·day. At a pulse repetition frequency of 10 Hz, the amplitude of pulse energy oscillations significantly depends on the value of the delayed neutron fraction in pulse β_p. Depending on β_p both suppression and amplification of reactor power fluctuations in the frequency ranges of 0.05-0.20 and 1.25-5.00 Hz can be realized.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2018

This article presents clean core criticality calculations and control rod worth calculations for TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotope production-General Atomics) Mark II research reactor benchmark cores using Winfrith Improved Multi-group Scheme-D/4 (WIMS-D/4) and Program for Reactor In-core Analysis using Diffusion Equation (PRIDE) codes. Cores 133 and 134 were analyzed in 2-D (r, ${\theta}$) and 3-D (r, ${\theta}$, z), using WIMS-D/4 and PRIDE codes. Moreover, the influence of cross-section data was also studied using various libraries based on Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF/B-VI.8 and VII.0), Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion File (JEFF-3.1), Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (JENDL-3.2), and Joint Evaluated File (JEF-2.2) nuclear data. The simulation results showed that the multiplication factor calculated for all these data libraries is within 1% of the experimental results. The reactivity worth of the control rods of core 134 was also calculated with different homogenization approaches. A comparison was made with experimental and reported Monte Carlo results, and it was found that, using proper homogenization of absorber regions and surrounding fuel regions, the results obtained with PRIDE code are significantly improved.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1604-1615
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• 2023

In an open-pool type research reactor with a downward forced flow in the core, pipes can be under sub-atmospheric pressure because of the large pressure drop at the reactor core in the atmospheric pool. Sub-atmospheric pressure can result in air inflow into the pipe from the pressure difference between the atmosphere and the inside of the pipe, which in a postulated pipe break scenario can lead to the breakdown of the cooling pump. In this study, a plant-scale experiment was conducted to study air inflow in large piping systems by considering the actual operational conditions of an advanced research reactor. The air inflow rate was measured, and the entrained air was visualized to investigate the behavior of air inflow and flow regime depending on the pipe break size. In addition, the developed drift-flux model for a large vertical pipe with a diameter of 600 mm was compared with other correlations. The flow regime transition in a large vertical pipe under downward flow was also studied using the newly developed drift-flux model. Consequently, the characteristics of two-phase flow in a large vertical pipe were found to differ from those in small vertical pipes where liquid recirculation was not dominant.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.443-449
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• 2014

To check the characteristics of nuclear fuels during an irradiation test, the nuclear fuel rod needs to be disassembled from the test rig located in the pool of the research reactor. Then, the disassembled fuel rod is delivered to the hot cell for intermediate examination. A fuel rod that passes the intermediate examination is delivered to the reactor pool to be reassembled into the test rig. The irradiation test is resumed with the reassembled test rig. Because nuclear fuel rods irradiated by neutrons are highly radioactive, all the disassembly and reassembly processes should be carried out in the pool of the research reactor to prevent operators being exposed to radiation. In particular, because a test rig is 5.4-m long and the reactor pool of HANARO is 6-m deep, special tools need to be developed for performing the disassembly and reassembly processes. In this study, a new assembly design of nuclear fuel rods for intermediate examination is introduced. Furthermore, tools for treating the irradiated fuel rod assembly are introduced, and their performance is verified by an out pile test.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3549-3558
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• 2023

The jet pump can be used in a test device of a nuclear reactor for high flow amplification as it reduces inlet flow requirement and thereby size of the process components. In the present work, a miniature jet pump was designed to meet high flow amplification greater than 3. Subsequently, experiments were carried out using a test setup for design validation and performance evaluation of the jet pump for different parameters. It was observed that a minimum pressure of 0.6 bar (g) was required for the secondary fluid inside the jet pump to ensure cavitation free performance at high amplification. Spacing between the nozzle tip and the mixing chamber entry point had significant effect on the performance of the jet pump. Variation in primary flow, temperature and area ratio also affected the performance. It was observed that at high flow amplification, the analytical solution differed significantly from experimental results due to very large velocities encountered in the miniature size jet pump.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.855-864
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• 2017

The control rod assembly controls reactor power by adjusting its position during normal operation and shuts down chain reactions by its free drop under scram conditions. Therefore, the drop performance of the control rod assembly is important for the safety of a nuclear reactor. In this study, the drop performance of the conceptually designed control rod assembly for the prototype generation IV sodium-cooled fast reactor that is being developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute as a next-generation nuclear reactor was experimentally investigated. For the performance test, the test facility and test procedure were established first, and several free drop performance tests of the control rod assembly under different flow rate conditions were then carried out. Moreover, performance tests under several types and magnitudes of seismic loading conditions were also conducted to investigate the effects of seismic loading on the drop performance of the control rod assembly. The drop time of the conceptually designed control rod assembly for 0% of the tentatively designed flow rate was measured to be 1.527 seconds, and this agrees well with the analytically calculated drop time. It was also observed that the effect of seismic loading on the drop time was not significant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.1020-1028
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• 2021

The nuclear reactor coolant pump transferring heat energy inherently brings with it the unsteady flow and inevitably threatens to the safe operation of the pump unit, especially with the pressure pulsation induced by the rotor-stator interaction. In this paper, the characteristics of pressure pulsation of the diffuser in a nuclear reactor coolant pump were investigated by the numerical simulation with experimental validation. Pressure pulsation signals measured synchronously from sensors mounted on the radial diffuser of a model pump were analyzed via Welch's method. Frequency components induced by the rotor-stator interaction can be revealed by the diameter mode analysis method. The pressure pulsation of the diffuser is dominated by the blade passing frequency and its harmonics, which are free from the effect of flow rate and rotational speed while the corresponding amplitudes are easily affected by different operational conditions and measuring positions. The non-uniformity is much more affected by the rotational speed than the flow rate. This research is helpful for further work to reduce the pressure pulsation for the reactor coolant pump.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.165-169
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• 2018

An assessment for determining N-16 activity concentrations during the operation condition of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission TRIGA Research Reactor was performed employing several governing equations. The radionuclide N-16 is a high energy (6.13 MeV) gamma emitter which is predominately created by the fast neutron interaction with O-16 present in the reactor core water. During reactor operation at different power level, the concentration of N-16 at the reactor bay region may increase causing radiation risk to the reactor operating personnel or the general public. Concerning the safety of the research reactor, the present study deals with the estimation of N-16 activity concentrations in the regions of reactor core, reactor tank, and reactor bay at different reactor power levels under natural convection cooling mode. The estimated N-16 activity concentration values with 500 kW reactor power at the reactor core region was $7.40{\times}10^5Bq/cm^3$ and at the bay region was $3.39{\times}10^5Bq/cm^3$. At 3 MW reactor power with active forced convection cooling mode, the N-16 activity concentration in the decay tank exit water was also determined, and the value was $4.14{\times}10^{-1}Bq/cm^3$.