• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2077-2083
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• 2022

In the unlikely event of core disruptive accident in sodium cooled fast reactors, the reactor containment building would be bottled up with sodium and fission product aerosols. The behavior of these aerosols is crucial to estimate the in-containment source term as a part of nuclear reactor safety analysis. In this work, the evolution of sodium aerosol characteristics (mass concentration and size) is simulated using HAARM-S code. The code is based on the method of moments to solve the integro-differential equation. The code is updated to FORTRAN-77 and run in Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation 4.0 (on Desktop). The sodium aerosol characteristics simulated by HAARM-S code are compared with the measured values at Aerosol Test Facility. The maximum deviation between measured and simulated mass concentrations is 30% at initial period (up to 60 min) and around 50% in the later period. In addition, the influence of humidity on aerosol size growth for two different aerosol mass concentrations is studied. The measured and simulated growth factors of aerosol size (ratio of saturated size to initial size) are found to be matched at reasonable extent. Since sodium is highly reactive with atmospheric constituents, the aerosol growth factor depends on the hygroscopic growth, chemical transformation and density variations besides coagulation. Further, there is a scope for the improvement of the code to estimate the aerosol dynamics in confined environment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.959-964
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• 2022

Lead is an important material, both for fusion or fission reactors. The cross sections of natural lead should be validated because lead is a main component of lithium-lead modules suggested for fusion power plants and it directly affects the crucial variable, tritium breeding ratio. The presented study discusses a validation of the lead transport libraries by dint of the activation of carefully selected activation samples. The high emission standard ²⁵²Cf neutron source was used as a neutron source for the presented validation experiment. In the irradiation setup, the samples were placed behind 5 and 10 cm of the lead material. Samples were measured using a gamma spectrometry to infer the reaction rate and compared with MCNP6 calculations using ENDF/B-VIII.0 lead cross sections. The experiment used validated IRDFF-II dosimetric reactions to validate lead cross sections, namely ¹⁹⁷Au(n, 2n)¹⁹⁶Au, ⁵⁸Ni(n,p)⁵⁸Co, ⁹³Nb(n, 2n)^92mNb, ¹¹⁵In(n,n')^115mIn, ¹¹⁵In(n,γ)^116mIn, ¹⁹⁷Au(n,γ)¹⁹⁸Au and ⁶³Cu(n,γ)⁶⁴Cu reactions. The threshold reactions agree reasonably with calculations; however, the experimental data suggests a higher thermal neutron flux behind lead bricks. The paper also suggests ²⁵²Cf isotropic source as a valuable tool for validation of some cross-sections important for fusion applications, i.e. reactions on structural materials, e.g. Cu, Pb, etc.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2023

Biofilms significantly affect the performance of wastewater treatment processes in which biodegradability of numerous microorganisms are actively involved, and various technologies have been applied to secure microbial biofilms. Understanding changes in biofilm characteristics by regulating expression of signaling molecules is important to control and regulate biofilms in membrane bioreactor, i.e., biofouling. This study investigated effects of addition of acyl-homoserine lactones (AHL) as a controllable factor for the microbial signaling system on biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and multiple strains in membrane bioreactor. The addition of three AHL, i.e., C4-, C6-, and C8-HSL, at a concentration of 200 ㎍/L, enhanced the formation of the PAO1 biofilm and the degree of increases in the biofilm formation of PAO1 were 70.2%, 76.6%, and 72.9%, respectively. The improvement of biofilm formation of individual strains by C4-HSL was an average of 68%, and the microbial consortia increased by approximately 52.1% in the presence of 200 ㎍/L C4-HSL. CLSM images showed that more bacterial cells were present on the membrane surface after the AHL application. In the COMSTAT results, biomass and thickness were increased up to 2.2 times (PAO1) and 1.6 times (multi-strains) by C4-HSL. This study clearly showed that biofilm formation was increased by the application of AHL to individual strain groups, including PAO1 and microbial consortia, and significant increases were observed when 50 or 100 ㎍/L AHL was administered. This suggests that AHL application can improve the biofilm formation of microorganisms, which could yield an enhancement in efficiency of biofilm control, such as in various biofilm reactors including membrane bioreactor and bioflocculent systems in water/wastewater treatment processes.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.73-82
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• 2003

Various forest humic substances were collected at different climate regions with different forest types, and adsorption of heavy metals such as Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) were characteristically conducted to obtain optimal adsorption conditions and to evaluate the removal efficiency of heavy metals by each forest humic substance. The adsorption isotherms for Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) conformed to Langmuir's equation. In the stirred reactor, the removal efficiencies of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) by forest humic substances were more than 90% but that of Cr(III) was less than 60%. The adsorption capacities of heavy metals in the stirred reactor were considerably varied depending on the type of forest humic substances. Among humic substances, the one from deciduous forest at subtropical region showed the highest removal efficiency for Cu(II). There was no significant difference in removal efficiency by each heavy metal depending on reaction temperature ranged from 20 to 50oC except for Cr(III), and the adsorptions of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) were occurred rapidly in the incipient stage within 10 min, while Cr(III) needed more reaction time to be adsorbed. The stirred and packed bed column reactors showed similar adsorption characteristics of heavy metals by humic substances, but the removal efficiency was considerably higher in the packed bed column reactor than in the stirred reactor. Therefore, in actual operation process, a continuous packed bed column reactor was more economical.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.185-194
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• 2022

The decommission of nuclear legacy sites, which have been contaminated by previous activities such as uranium mining & milling as well as nuclear tests, has started to gain global attention. Within the Korean peninsula, Republic of Korea(ROK)has had experience in dismantling research reactors. For the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK), the possibility of nuclear activities being implemented and operations records being managed without consideration of the latest nuclear safety regulations are high. Hence, the chances of DPRK's sites remaining as nuclear legacy is also high. This study investigates approaches and considerations that needs to be taken in account in the event of a nuclear legacy site occurrence, reviewing its international cases for the solution of the legacy sites. The regulation, process of optimization, and stakeholder engagement for a nuclear legacy site should be considered in such an event. Developing legacy site response plans can be used to prevent future legacy site occurrences.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.44-54
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• 2023

The rupture disk corrosion test (RDCT) method was recently developed to evaluate stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and was found to have great potential for the real-time detection of SCC initiation in a high temperature and pressure environment, simulating the primary water coolant of pressurized water reactors. However, it is difficult to directly measure the stress applied to a disk specimen, which is an essential factor in SCC initiation. In this work, finite element analysis (FEA) was performed using ABAQUS^TM to calculate the stress and deformation of a disk specimen. To determine the best mesh design for a thin disk specimen, hexahedron, hex-dominated, and tetrahedron models were used in FEA. All models revealed similar dome-shaped deformation behavior of the disk specimen. However, there was a considerable difference in stress distribution in the disk specimens. In the hex-dominated model, the applied stress was calculated to be the maximum at the dome center, whereas the stress was calculated to be the maximum at the dome edge in the hexahedron and tetrahedron models. From a comparison of the FEA results with deformation behavior and SCC location on the disk specimen after RDCT, the most proper FE model was found to be the tetrahedron model.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.12-21
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• 2022

The pyrolysis characteristics of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polypropylene (PP) were analyzed numerically using a 1D plug flow reactor (PFR) model. A lumped kinetic model was selected to simplify the pyrolysis products as wax, oil, and gas. The simulation was performed in the 400-600℃ range, and the plastic pyrolysis and product generation characteristics with respect to time were compared at various temperatures. It was found that plastic pyrolysis accelerates rapidly as the temperature rises. The amounts of the pyrolysis products wax and oil increase and then decrease with time, whereas the amount of gas produced increases continuously. In LDPE pyrolysis, the pyrolysis time was longer than that observed for other plastics at a specified temperature, and the amount of wax generated was the greatest. The maximum mass fraction of oil was obtained in the order of HDPE, PP, and LDPE at a specified temperature, and it decreased with temperature. Although the 1D model adopted in this study has a limitation in that it does not include material transport and heat transfer phenomena, the qualitative results presented herein could provide base data regarding various types of plastic pyrolysis to predict the product characteristics. These results can in turn be used when designing pyrolysis reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2966-2976
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• 2023

A tritium breeder is a lithium-based material capable of producing tritium. Many researchers designing nuclear-fusion energy are studying tritium production using pebbles, which are solid-type breeders. The sphericity and size of the pebbles are critical in obtaining pebbles with good tritium-breeding efficiency. Furthermore, tritium-release efficiency can be increased by using pebbles with appropriate porosities. Promising raw materials for tritium-breeding materials include Li₄SiO₄ and Li₂TiO₃. Li₄SiO₄ has a higher lithium density than Li₂TiO₃ and exhibits excellent tritium-breeding efficiency. However, it has the disadvantage of being easily decomposed during the Li₄SiO₄-green-pebble sintering process because of its low structural stability at high temperatures and high lithium density. In this study, we attempted to determine the optimal conditions for manufacturing Li₄SiO₄ pebbles using the droplet-freeze-drying method. The optimal Li₄SiO₄ slurry conditions and sintering temperatures were determined. The optimal Li₄SiO₄ slurry-fabrication conditions were 3 wt% polyvinyl alcohol and 75 wt% Li₄SiO₄ based on the deionized-water weight content. The sintering temperature at which Li₄SiO₄ did not decompose and exhibited the optimum porosity of 10.8% was 900 ℃.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.711-731
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• 2022

In Korea, nuclear power plants are major sources of electricity supply with relatively low costs. Despite the importance and scale of nuclear electricity generation, the Korean tax and levy system is less organized than those in other countries, such as France and Japan, where nuclear power plants also play significant roles for electricity supply. Countries impose tax on nuclear electricity generation roughly in three ways: tax on nuclear reactors; tax on uranium fuel; tax on electricity from nuclear power plants. The Korean government may consider taxing nuclear electricity generation based on uranium fuel or electricity generation. If taxing on uranium fuel at the rate of 90 KRW per milligram of uranium, the Korean government can collect additional tax revenue of 430 billion KRW. If taxing on electricity from nuclear power plants at the rate of 11 KRW per kilowatt-hour, the government can collect additional tax revenue of 1,600 billion KRW.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.516-525
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• 1994

Since the TMI and Chernobyl accidents, many passive safety features are suggested in advanced reactors in order to enhance the safety in future nuclear power plants. In order to verify the effectiveness and provide the data for detailed design of passive cooling system, in the present work, the effects of air inlet position and external condition on the natural circulated air flow rate and the natural and forced convective heat transfer coefficient have been investigated for the one-side heated closed path such as the passive containment cooling system of the Westinghouse's AP-600. A series of experiments have been peformed with the 1/26th scaled segment type test facility of the AP-600 passive containment. Under natural and forced convection, the air velocities and temperatures are measured at several points of the air flow path. The experimental result are compared with a simple one-dimensional model and it shows a good agreement.