• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1555-1562
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• 2017

A loose part monitoring system is used to identify unexpected loose parts in a nuclear reactor vessel or steam generator. It is still necessary for the mass estimation of loose parts, one function of a loose part monitoring system, to develop a new method due to the high estimation error of conventional methods such as Hertz's impact theory and the frequency ratio method. The purpose of this study is to propose a mass estimation method using a Markov decision process and compare its performance with a method using an artificial neural network model proposed in a previous study. First, how to extract feature vectors using discrete cosine transform was explained. Second, Markov chains were designed with codebooks obtained from the feature vector. A 1/8-scaled mockup of the reactor vessel for OPR1000 was employed, and all used signals were obtained by impacting its surface with several solid spherical masses. Next, the performance of mass estimation by the proposed Markov model was compared with that of the artificial neural network model. Finally, it was investigated that the proposed Markov model had matching error below 20% in mass estimation. That was a similar performance to the method using an artificial neural network model and considerably improved in comparison with the conventional methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 2018

There have been recent efforts to establish methods for high-fidelity and multi-physics simulation with coupled thermal-hydraulic (T/H) and neutronics codes for the entire core of a light water reactor under accident conditions. Considering the computing power necessary for a pin-by-pin analysis of the entire core, subchannel-scale T/H analysis is considered appropriate to achieve acceptable accuracy in an optimal computational time. In the present study, the applicability of in-house code CUPID of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute was extended to the subchannel-scale T/H analysis. CUPID is a component-scale T/H analysis code, which uses three-dimensional two-fluid models with various closure models and incorporates a highly parallelized numerical solver. In this study, key models required for a subchannel-scale T/H analysis were implemented in CUPID. Afterward, the code was validated against four subchannel experiments under unheated and heated single-phase incompressible flow conditions. Thereafter, a subchannel-scale T/H analysis of the entire core for an Advanced Power Reactor 1400 reactor core was carried out. For the high-fidelity simulation, detailed geometrical features and individual rod power distributions were considered in this demonstration. In this study, CUPID shows its capability of reproducing key phenomena in a subchannel and dealing with the subchannel-scale whole core T/H analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.107-108
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.1245-1246
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2395-2406
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• 2023

To study the influence of parameter uncertainty in small pressurized water reactor (SPWR) once-through steam generator (OTSG), the nonlinear mathematical model of the SPWR is firstly established. Including the reactor core model, the OTSG model and the pressurizer model. Secondly, a control strategy that both the reactor core coolant average temperature and the secondary-side outlet pressure of the OTSG are constant is adopted. Then, the uncertainty quantification method is established based on Latin hypercube sampling and statistical method. On this basis, the quantitative platform for parameter uncertainty of the OTSG is developed. Finally, taking the uncertainty in primary-side flowrate of the OTSG as an example, the platform application work is carried out under the variable load in SPWR and step disturbance of secondary-side flowrate of the OTSG. The results show that the maximum uncertainty in the critical output parameters is acceptable for SPWR.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.27-32
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• 1997

In this paper, a new multigrid method is developed to solve the reactor eigenvalue problems. The new algorithm can be used in any matrix equation concerned with the eigenvalue problem. The finite difference neutron diffusion problem is considered demonstration of the performance of the new multigrid algorithm. The numerical results show that the new multigrid algorithm works well and requires much shorter (7~10 times) computing time compaired to the production code VENTURE.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2004

The research was performed to develop a CANDU-6 Core Monitoring System(CCMS) that enables operators to have efficient core management by monitoring core power distribution, burnup distribution, and the other important core variables and managing the past core history for Wolsong nuclear power plant unit 1. The CCMS uses Reactor Fueling Simulation Program(RFSP, developed by AECL) for continuous core calculation by integrating the algorithm and assumptions validated and uses the information taken from Digital Control Computer(DCC) for the purpose of producing basic input data. The CCMS has two modules; CCMS server program and CCMS client program. The CCMS server program performs automatic and continuous core calculation and manages overall output controlled by DataBase Management System. The CCMS client program enables users to monitor current and past core status in the predefined GUI(Graphic-User Interface) environment. For the purpose of verifying the effectiveness of CCMS, we compared field-test data with the data used for Wolsong unit 1 operation. In the verification the mean percent differences of both cases were the same($0.008\%$), which showed that the CCMS could monitor core behaviors well.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.111-120
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• 2001

In this study, a dynamic analysis of the integral reactor SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor) under postulated seismic events is performed to review the response characteristics of the major components. To enhance the feasibility of an analysis model, a detailed finite element model is synchronized with the products of concurrent design activities. The artificial time history, which has been applied to the seismic analysis for the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNP), is chosen to envelop broad site specifics in Korea. Responses in the horizontal direction are found slightly amplified, while those in the vertical direction are suppressed. Since amplified response is monitored at the control element drive mechanism (CEDM), minor design provision is considered to enhance the integrity of the subsystem.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1096-1108
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• 2016

Metal fuel is being developed for the prototype generation-IV sodium-cooled fast reactor (PGSFR) to be built by 2028. U-Zr fuel is a driver for the initial core of the PGSFR, and U-transuranics (TRU)-Zr fuel will gradually replace U-Zr fuel through its qualification in the PGSFR. Based on the vast worldwide experiences of U-Zr fuel, work on U-Zr fuel is focused on fuel design, fabrication of fuel components, and fuel verification tests. U-TRU-Zr fuel uses TRU recovered through pyroelectrochemical processing of spent PWR (pressurized water reactor) fuels, which contains highly radioactive minor actinides and chemically active lanthanide or rare earth elements as carryover impurities. An advanced fuel slug casting system, which can prevent vaporization of volatile elements through a control of the atmospheric pressure of the casting chamber and also deal with chemically active lanthanide elements using protective coatings in the casting crucible, was developed. Fuel cladding of the ferritic-martensitic steel FC92, which has higher mechanical strength at a high temperature than conventional HT9 cladding, was developed and fabricated, and is being irradiated in the fast reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.817-824
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• 2012

The most important component of a nuclear power plant is its nuclear reactor. Studies on the integrity of reactors have become an important part regarding the safety of a nuclear power plant. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide (NRC RG) 1.20 presents a Comprehensive Vibration Assessment Program (CVAP) to be used to verify the structural integrity of the Reactor Vessel Internals (RVI) for flow-induced vibration prior to commercial operation. However, there are few published studies related to the RVI CVAP. We classified the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) RVI CVAP as a non-prototype category-2 reactor as part of an independent validation of its design. The aim of this paper is to present the results of structural response analyses of the Upper Guide Structure (UGS) assembly of the APR1400 reactor. These results show that the UGS and the Inner Barrel Assembly (IBA) meet the specified integrity levels of the design acceptance criteria. The vibration and stress analysis results in this paper will be used as basic information to select measurement locations of the vibration and stress for the APR1400 RVI CVAP.