Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering (한국표면공학회지)

The Korean Institute of Surface Engineering (한국표면공학회)
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An analysis of neutron sources and gamma-ray in spent fuels using SCALE-ORIGEN-ARP

SCALE-ORIGEN-ARP를 이용한 사용후핵연료 내 중성자 및 감마선원 분석

  • So-Hee Cha (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Kwang-Heon Park (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Kyung Hee University)
  • 차소희 (경희대학교 원자력공학과) ;
  • 박광헌 (경희대학교 원자력공학과)
  • Received : 2022.11.21
  • Accepted : 2023.02.09
  • Published : 2023.02.28
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Abstract

The spent nuclear fuel is burned during the planned cycle in the plant and then generates elements such as actinide series, fission products, and plutonium with a long half-life. An 'interim storage' step is needed to manage the high radioactivity and heat emitted by nuclides until permanent-disposal. In the case of Korea, there is no space to dispose of high-level radioactive waste after use, so there is a need for a period of time using interim storage. Therefore, the intensity of neutrons and gamma-ray must be determined to ensure the integrity of spent nuclear fuel during interim storage. In particular, the most important thing in spent nuclear fuel is burnup evaluation, estimation of the source term of neutrons and gamma-ray is regarded as a reference measurement of the burnup evaluation. In this study, an analysis of spent nuclear fuel was conducted by setting up a virtual fuel burnup case based on CE16×16 fuel to check the total amount and spectrum of neutron, gamma radiation produced. The correlation between BU (burnup), IE (enrichment), and CT (cooling time) will be identified through spent nuclear fuel burnup calculation. In addition, the composition of nuclide inventory, actinide and fission products can be identified.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was partly supported by Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning(KETEP) grant funded by the korea government (MOTIE) (20222B10100060, Development of On-site Burn-up Detection System for the Spent Fuel)

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