• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.269-269
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• 1998

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.393-394
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.386-396
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• 2001

Mixtures Of AUC-UO$_2$and Gd$_2$O$_3$ Powders doped With Cr$_2$O$_3$ or Cr$_2$O$_3$-SiO$_2$ were Pressed and sintered at 1730 t in hydrogen gas witk various water-vapor contents. The density of UO$_2$- 6wt% Gd$_2$O$_3$ pellets can be increased from 91% TD to 94.5% TD in 1 vol% $H_2O$-H$_2$ gases by the addition of 0.02wt% Cr$_2$O$_3$-(0.01~0.04) wt% SiO$_2$. The magnitude of density increase is much larger in (1~3 vol%) $H_2O$-H$_2$ gases than in 0.05 vol% $H_2O$-H$_2$ gas. The densification of U0$_2$- Gd$_2$O$_3$ compact is significantly delayed in the temperature range between 1300 and 1500 t , but that of compacts with Cr$_2$O$_3$-SiO$_2$ is not. The role of Cr$_2$O$_3$ and SiO$_2$ in densification is discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2454-2463
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• 2021

The objective of this research is to the use of americium (AmO₂) as a burnable absorber effectively instead of conventional gadolinium (Gd₂O₃) for VVER-1200 reactor by analyzing its impacts on reactivity, power peaking factor (PPF), safety factor, and quality of the spent fuel. The assembly is burned to 60 GWd/t by using SRAC-2006 code and JENDL-4.0 data library for finding the optimum amount and effective way of using AmO₂ as a burnable absorber. From these studies, it is found that AmO₂ can decrease the excess reactivity like Gd₂O₃ without changing the criticality life span and enrichment of ²³⁵U. A homogeneous mixture of the 0.20% AmO₂+ 4.95% enriched UO₂ fuel rod (model MF-4) decreases the PPF than the reference assembly. The use of AmO₂+UO₂ in the integral burnable absorber (IBA) rod or the outer layer could also decrease the PPF up to 10 GWd/t but increases rapidly after 30 GWd/t, which could be a safety threat. The fuel temperature coefficient and void coefficient of the model MF-4 are the same as the reference assembly. In addition, 22% of initially loaded Am are burning effectively and contributing to the power production.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.916-920
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• 2003

The change of structure and morphology in ( $U_{0.913}$G $d_{0.087}$) $O_2$ during oxidation at 475$^{\circ}C$ and heat treatment at 130$0^{\circ}C$ in air were investigated using XRD, SEM, and EPMA. The ( $U_{0.913}$G $d_{0.087}$) $O_2$ cubic phase converted to ( $U_{0.913}$G $d_{0.087}$)$_3$ $O_{8}$ orthorhombic phase by oxidation at 475$^{\circ}C$ in air. The XRD and EPMA result of the 130$0^{\circ}C$ heat treated powder revealed that ( $U_{0.913}$G $d_{0.087}$)$_3$ $O_{8}$ orthorhombic phase was separated into $U_3$ $O_{8}$ and ( $U_{0.67}$G $d_{0.33}$) $O_{2+}$x/ cubic phase. The weight variations of (U,Gd) $O_2$ with various Gd contents were measured using TGA at the same heat treated condition. The weight variation during the heat treatment of Gd dissolve (U,Gd) $O_2$ in air can be expressed in terms of phase reaction equations related with oxidation and phase separation. Based on these phase reaction, a initial content of Gd dissolved in (U,Gd) $O_2$ can be exactly calculated by measuring the weight change during the heat treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.309.1-309.1
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• 2004

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 1976

A flash method for measuring the unknown thermal property (the density, specific heat, or thermal diffusivity could be chosen as unknown) is described. The thermal diffusivity of UO$_2$ fuel samples is obtained from room temperature (300 K) to high temperature (1400 K). The specific heat is measured using a commercially available differential scanning calorimeter from room temperature to 500 K. The thermal conductivity of UO$_2$ fuel samples is calculated from the density, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat at constant pressure. The present results are in complete agreement with the usual trends for the thermal conductivity of dielectric materials, in which impurity levels are very important at low temperatures but become relatively unimportant at high temperatures. In addition, the thermal diffusivity values at room temperature are reexamined by measuring the thermal diffusivity of several UO$_2$ fuel samples with same level of doped Gd$_2$O$_3$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2012

A new effective methodology for optimizing the enrichment of low-enriched zones as well as gadolinia fuel ($UO_2/Gd_2O_3$) rod designs in PLUS7 fuel assemblies was developed to minimize the maximum peak power in the core and to maximize the cycle lifetime. An automated link code was developed to integrate the genetic algorithm (GA) and the core design code package of ALPHA/PHOENIX-P/ANC and to generate and evaluate the candidates to be optimized efficiently through the integrated code package. This study introduces an optimization technique for the optimization of gadolinia fuel rod designs in order to effectively reduce the peak powers for a few hot assemblies simultaneously during the cycle. Coupled with the gadolinia optimization, the optimum enrichments were determined using the same automated code package. Applying this technique to the reference core of Ulchin Unit 4 Cycle 11, the gadolinia fuel rods in each hot assembly were optimized to different numbers and positions from their original designs, and the maximum peak power was decreased by 2.5%, while the independent optimization technique showed a decrease of 1.6% for the same fuel assembly. The lower enrichments at the fuel rods adjacent to the corner gap (CG), guide tube (GT), and instrumentation tube (IT) were optimized from the current 4.1, 4.1, 4.1 w/o to 4.65, 4.2, 4.2 w/o. The increase in the cycle lifetime achieved through this methodology was 5 effective full-power days (EFPD) on an ideal equilibrium cycle basis while keeping the peak power as low as 2.3% compared with the original design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 2001

The changes of weight gain, structure, morphology and uranium oxidation states in l0wt% G $d_2$ $O_3$-doped U $O_2$ during the oxidation below 475$^{\circ}C$ and heat treatment at 130$0^{\circ}C$ in air were investigated using TGA, XRD, SEM, EPMA and XPS. The room temperature ( $U_{0.86}$G $d_{0.14}$) $O_2$Cubic Phase Converted to highly distorted ( $U_{0.86}$G $d_{0.14}$)$_3$ $O_{8}$ -type sing1e Phase by oxidation at 475 $^{\circ}C$ in air. This oxidized phase was reduced by annealing at 130$0^{\circ}C$ in air. The room temperature XRD pattern of the 130$0^{\circ}C$ annealed powder revealed that ( $U_{0.86}$G $d_{0.14}$)$_3$ $O_{8}$ -type single phase was separated into Gd-depleted $U_3$ $O_{8}$ and Gd-enriched ( $U_{0.7}$G $d_{0.3}$) $O_2$$_{+x}$ type cubic phase. The reduction and phase separation by the high temperature annealing of kinetically metastable and highly deformed ( $U_{0.86}$G $d_{0.14}$)$_3$ $O_{8}$ -type phase are interpreted in terms of cation size difference between G $d^3$$^{+}$ and U according to the oxidation state of U.U.U.U.U.te of U.U.U.U.U.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.401-402
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• 2005