• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2005.11b
• /
• pp.149-155
• /
• 2005

The $ACP^1$ is under development for effective management of spent fuel by converting $UO_2$ into U-metal. For demonstration of this process, $\alpha-\gamma$ type new hotcell was built in the $IMEF^2$ basement. To secure against radiation hazard, this facility needs radiation monitoring system which will observe the entire operating area before the hotcell and service area at back of it. This system consists of 7 parts; Area Monitor for $\gamma$-ray, Room Air Monitor for particulate and iodine in both area, Hotcell Monitor for hotcell inside high radiation and rear door interlock, Duct Monitor for particulate of outlet ventilation, Iodine Monitor for iodine of outlet duct, CCTV for watching workers and material movement, Server for management of whole monitoring system. After installation and test of this, radiation monitoring system will be expected to assist the successful ACP demonstration.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.985-990
• /
• 2003

In order to demonstrate Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process (ACP), shielding facilities such as hot cell suitable to handling radionuclides and process property will be necessary. But the construction of new facilities needs much money, man-power and time, it is now scheduled to remodel the hot cell, which has already been installed and maintained at Irradiated Material Experiment Facility (IMEF) in the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The basic structure and concrete shield wall of hot cell partly have been constructed on the base floor in IMEF building in current status. And hot cell after remodeling will be used for carrying out the lab-scale experiment of ACP. The hot cell was built in accordance with 35 curies of fe-59(1.2 MeV) as design criteria of radiation dose limit. But the radioactive source of ACP is expected to be much higher than design criteria of IMEF, shielding ability of the hot cell in the current status is unsatisfactory to the hot test of ACP. Therefore shield wall shall be reinforced with heavy concrete, steel or lead. In this paper, dose rates are calculated according to ACP source, shielding materials, etc., and reinforcement structures are determined considering the current situation of hot cells, installation of shield windows and the easiness of work.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2006

A demonstration facility for advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) is under construction in KAERI. In this hot cell facility, all process equipments and materials are taken in and out only through the rear door. The working table in front of the process rear door is specially designed to be openable for the efficient use of the space. This paper presents the structural safety analysis of the openable working table, for the normal operational load condition and accidential drop condition of heavy object. Both cases are investigated through static and dynamic finite element analyses. The analysis results show that structural safety of the working table is sufficiently assured and the working table is not collapsed even when an object of 500 kg is dropped from the height of 50 cm.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.183-192
• /
• 2010

An electrochemical reduction of a mixture of metal oxides was conducted in a LiCl molten salt containing 3 wt% $Li_2O$ at $650^{\circ}C$. The oxide reduction was carried out by applying a current to an electrolysis cell, and the $Li_2O$ concentration was analyzed during each run. The concentration of $Li_2O$ in the electrolyte bulk phase gradually decreases according to Faraday's law due to a slow diffusion of the $O^{2-}$ ions. A hindrance effect of the unreduced metal oxides was observed for the reduction of the uranium oxide. Cs, Sr, and Ba of high heat-load fission products were diffused into and accumulated in the salt phase as predicted with thermodynamic consideration.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.309-322
• /
• 2007

This study deals with the irradiation effects on some selected components which are being used in an Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process (ACP). Irradiation test components have a higher priority from the aspect of their reliability because their degradation or failure is able to critically affect the performance of an ACP equipment. Components that we chose for the irradiation tests were the AC servo motor, potentiometer, thermocouples, accelerometer and CCD camera. ACP facility has a number of AC servo motors to move the joints of a manipulator and to operate process equipment. Potentiometers are used for a measurement of several joint angles in a manipulator. Thermocouples are used for a temperature measurement in an electrolytic reduction reactor, a vol-oxidation reactor and a molten salt transfer line. An accelerometer is installed in a slitting machine to forecast an incipient failure during a slitting process. A small CCD camera is used for an in-situ vision monitoring between ACP campaigns. We made use of a gamma-irradiation facility with cobalt-60 source for an irradiation test on the above components because gamma rays from among various radioactive rays are the most significant for electric, electronic and robotic components. Irradiation tests were carried out for enough long time for total doses to be over expected threshold values. Other components except the CCD camera showed a very high radiation hardening characteristic. Characteristic changes at different total doses were investigated and threshold values to warrant at least their performance without a deterioration were evaluated as a result of the irradiation tests.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.77-85
• /
• 2006

A demonstration facility for an advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) is under construction at KAERI. In this hotcell facility, the rear door is frequently used since all process equipment and materials are taken in and out only through the rear door. Therefore , both the structural safety and stability of the door are essentially required for the safety of ACP facility. In this paper, the finite element analysis has been performed to investigate the structural safety under the impact condition between the rear door and the door frame. Also the possibility of the rear door being tumbled over by the impact force or the inertia force under a sudden stop conditon has been evaluated. The analysis results demonstrate that the structural safety and stability of the rear door are sufficiently assured for both the impact and the accidential stop conditions.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.257-268
• /
• 2005

In this paper, a prototype of the Bridge-Transported Servo Manipulator (BTSM) system is introduced, which has been developed to do operation and maintenance jobs remotely in a hot cell. The system consists of a telescopic transporter, a slave arm, a master arm, and a control system. Several tests such as a positional tracking, a weight handling, reliability, and operability have been performed and test results are presented. Based on the test results, an upgraded system which will be used during demonstrations of the advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) has been designed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.388-394
• /
• 2003

To handle the high level radioactive materials such a spent fuel, the master-slave manipulators (MSM) are widely used as a remote handling device in nuclear facilities such as the hot cell with sealed and shielded space. In this paper, the Digital Mockup which simulates the remote operation of the Advanced Conditioning Process(ACP) is developed. Also, the workspace and the motion of the slave manipulator, as well as, the remote operation task should be analyzed. The process equipment of ACP and Maintenance/Handling Device are drawn in 3D CAD models using IGRIP. Modeling device of manipulator is assigned with various mobile attributes such as a relative position, kinematics constraints, and a range of mobility, The 3D graphic simulator using the external input device of space ball displays the movement of manipulator. To connect the external input device to the graphic simulator, the interface program of external input device with 6 DOF is deigned using the Low Level Tele-operation Interface(LLTI). The experimental result shows that the developed simulation system gives much-improved human interface characteristics and shows satisfactory response characteristics in terms of synchronization speed. This should be useful for the development of work's education system in the virtual environment.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.22-27
• /
• 2004

To handle the high level radioactive materials such a spent fuel, the master-slave manipulaters (MSM) are wide1y used as a remote handling device in nuclear facilities such as the hot cell with sealed and shielded space. In this paper, the Digital Mockup which simulates the remote operation of the Advanced Conditioning Process(ACP) is developed. Also, the workspace and the motion of the slave manipulator, as well as, the remote operation task should be analyzed. The process equipment of ACP and Maintenance/Handling Device are drawn in 3D CAD model using IGRIP. Modeling device of manipulator is assigned with various mobile attributes such as a relative position, kinematics constraints, and a range of mobility. The 3D graphic simulator using the extermal input device of spare ball displays the movement of manipulator. To connect the exterral input device to the graphic simulator, the interface program of external input device with 6 DOF is deigned using the Low Level Tele-operation Interface(LLTI). The experimental result show that the developed simulation system gives much-improved human interface characteristics and shows satisfactory reponse characteristics in terms of synchronization speed. This should be useful for the development of work`s education system in the environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.305-306
• /
• 2007

ACP(Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process)의 금속전환로에 $U_3O_8$을 공급하기 위하여 20 kgHM/batch의 $UO_2$ 펠릿(pellets)을 처리할 수 있는 건식분말화 장치가 개발되고있다. 건식분말화 장치는 500 $^{\circ}C$온도에서 공기를 공급하여 일정한 입도범위의 균질한 $U_3O_8$을 만든다. 이런 건식 분말화 장치의 효율을 높이기 위해서는 반웅로에 불어 넣어주는 공기의 유량을 증가시킬 필요가 있다. 하지만 공기와 반응하여 생성되는 $U_3O_8$ 입자는 그 크기가 최소 3 ${\mu}$m 정도로 매우 미세하여，반응로 출구를 통해 외부로 빠져나갈 가능성 이있다. 이를 방지하기 위해 분말화 장치 출구 바깥에는 필터가 설치되어 있으나 공기와 함께 $U_3O_8$ 입자가 계속해서 빠져 나갈 경우 입자로 인해 필터가 막혀 제 기능을 할 수 없게 된다. 따라서 건식 분말화 장치는 미세한 $U_3O_8$ 입자가 반응로 밖으로 빠져나가지 않도록 입구에서의 공기 유량을 일정 수준 이하로 조절해주는 것이 필요하다. 이 연구의 목적은 초기 유량으로부터 유량을 점점 증가시키면서 시간변화에 따른 입자 거동 특성을 해석하며， 결과로부터 주어진 크기의 타원입자에 대해 최대 허용 공기 유량을 결정하고자한다. 이 해석을 위해 유동과 입자를 동시에 해석할 수 있는 ANSYS-CFX 5.7.1과 ANSYS-CFX 10.0 두 가지의 소프트웨어가 사용되었다. 해석 결과를 바탕으로 좀더 정확한 유량 한계치 계산을 위해 추가로 수행되어야 할 해석에 대해 제안하였다.