• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 1997.05a
• /
• pp.45-50
• /
• 1997

The conventional MOX fuel shows adverse controllability in view of its neutronic characteristics such as decreased soluble boron worth and effective delayed-neutron fraction compared to the UO$_2$ fuel. In order to mitigate these disadvantages, we devised a new concept of the hybrid UO$_2$-MOX fuel pellet with dual structure such that its outer annular section contains. UO$_2$ fuel and its inner cylindrical bar contains MOX fuel. The lattice physics code HELIOS was used to evaluate the neutronic characteristics of three different types of fuel pellets ; UO$_2$ fuel pellet, MOX fuel pellet, and hybrid UO$_2$-MOX fuel pellet. Results show that the hybrid UO$_2$-MOX fuel pellet generally has intermediate neutronic tendency between UO$_2$ fuel and MOX which could diminish the problems arising from the use of the conventional MOX fuel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.281-286
• /
• 2007

Needs of fuel's performance evaluation for the dual-cooled fuel pellet (annular shape) necessitate the irradiation test in the test reactor. Irradiation test rig for the HARARO reactor, which is a special-purposed equipment used for material, irradiation and creep test, must satisfy the operational requirement on the hydraulic characteristics and structural integrity. In this paper, pressure drop and flow-induced vibration test for the newly developed non-instrumented test rig were carried out using FIVPET as a out-pile evaluation test. The test results show that the new test rig satisfy the HANARO operational requirement with sufficient margin. The spectral response characteristics of the flow-induced vibration of the test rid were also discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2008.11b
• /
• pp.2236-2241
• /
• 2008

The surface heat flux of nuclear fuel rod is the most important factor which can affect safety of reactor and fuel. If fuel rod surface heat flux exceeds the CHF(${\underline{C}}ritical$ ${\underline{H}}eat$ ${\underline{F}}lux$), fuel can be damaged. In case of double cooled annular fuel, which is under developing, contains two coolant channels. Therefore, a generated heat in the fuel pellet can move to inner or outer channel and heat flow direction is decided by both sides heat resistance which varied by dimension and material property change which caused by temperature and irradiation. The new program(called DUO) was developed. For the calculation of surface heat flux, a both sides convection by inner/outer coolant, s gap temperature jump and conduction in the fuel are modeled. Especially, temperature and time dependent fuel dimension and material property change are considered during the iteration. A sample calculation result shows that the DUO program has sufficient performance for annular fuel thermal hydraulics design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.178-187
• /
• 2021

Dual-cooled annular fuel allows a significant increase in power density while maintaining or improving safety margins. However, the dual-cooled design brings much higher Zircaloy charge in reactor core, which could cause a great threaten of hydrogen explosion during severe accidents. Hence, an innovative fuel combined dual-cooled annular geometry and SiC cladding was proposed for the first time in this study. Capabilities of fuel design and behavior simulation were developed for this new fuel by the upgrade of FROBA-ANNULAR code. Considering characteristics of both SiC cladding and dual-cooled annular geometry, the basic fuel design was proposed and preliminary proved to be feasible. After that, a design optimization study was conducted, and the optimal values of as-fabricated plenum pressure and gas gap sizes were obtained. Finally, the performance simulation of the new fuel was carried out with the full consideration of realistic operation conditions. Results indicate that in addition to possessing advantages of both dual-cooled annular fuel and accident tolerant cladding at the same time, this innovative fuel could overcome the brittle failure issue of SiC induced by pellet-cladding interaction.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2007.05b
• /
• pp.2488-2493
• /
• 2007

A gap conductance is very important factor which can affect nuclear fuel temperature. Especially, in case of an annular fuel, a gap conductance effect can lead an unexpected heat split phenomena which is caused by a large difference of an inner and outer gap conductance. The gap conductance mechanism is very complicated behavior due to the its strong dependency on microscopic factors such as a contact surface roughness, local contact pressure and local temperature. In this paper, for the decision of test temperature and pressure range, a procedure and calculation results of in-reactor fuel temperature and pressure analysis are summarized which can be applied to test equipment design and determination of test matrix. Based upon analysis results, it is concluded that the minimum and maximum test temperature are $300^{\circ}C$ and $530^{\circ}C$ respectively, and the maximum pellet/cladding interfacial contact pressure should be observed up to 45MPa.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.1464-1470
• /
• 2022

This paper presents a high performance burnable absorber named as CIMBA (Cylindrically Inserted and Mechanically Separated Burnable Absorber) for the soluble-boron-free SMR. The CIMBA is the cylindrical gadolinia inserted into the annular fuel pellets. Although the CIMBA utilizes the spatial self-shielding effect of the fuel material, a large reactivity upswing occurs when the gadolinia is depleted. To minimize the reactivity swing of the CIMBA-loaded FA, two approaches were investigated. One is controlling the spatial self-shielding effect of the CIMBA as burnup proceeds by a multi-layered structure of the CIMBA (ML-CIMBA) and the other is the mixed-loading of two different types of CIMBA (MIX-CIMBA). Both approaches show promising performances to minimize the reactivity swing, where the MIX-CIMBA is more preferable due to its simpler fabrication process. In conclusion, the MIX-CIMBA is expected to accelerate the commercialization of the CIMBA and can be used to achieve an optimal soluble-boron-free SMR core design.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.269-274
• /
• 2011

A CFD analysis was performed to examine the inner channel blockage of dual-cooled fuel which has being developed for the power uprate of a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The dual-cooled fuel consists of an annular fuel pellet($UO_2$) and dual claddings as well as internal and external cooling channels. The dual-cooled annular fuel is different from a conventional solid 려el by employing an internal cooling channel for each fuel pellet as well as an external cooling channel. One of the key issues is the hypothetical event of inner channel blockage because the inner channel is an isolated flow channel without the coolant mixing between the neighboring flow channels. The inner channel blockage could cause the Departure from Nucleate Boiling (DNB) in the inner channel that eventually causes a fuel failure. This paper presents the CFD simulation of the flow through the side holes of the bottom end plug for the complete entrance blockage of the inner channel. Since the amount of coolant supply to the inner channel depends on largely the pressure loss at the side hole, the pressure loss coefficient of the side hole was estimated by the CFD analysis. The CFD prediction of the loss coefficient showed a reasonable agreement with an experimental data for the complete blockage of both the inner channel entrance and the outer channel. The CFD predictions also showed the decrease of the loss coefficient as the outer channel blockage increases.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1998.06e
• /
• pp.247-250
• /
• 1998

The scattering of plane ultrasonic waves by the nuclear fuel pin of liquid metal reactor in sodium is studied. According to the internal composition in the cladding tube, the fuel pin has three cross sections, i.e. helium gas plenum, sodium-filled section, and fuel insertion section. The scattering spectra for each section of the fuel pin are different. The circumnavigating ultrasonic waves of each section are analyzed by the resonance scattering method. The whispering gallery wave modes are generated in the sodium-filled plenum section and the fuel rod insertion section with a sodium-gap. The circumferential wave modes are propagated in the cladding tube of the helium gas plenum section. The annular gap between the cladding tube and metal uranium pellet rod affects the scattering spectra. The different propagation characteristics can be utilized for the nondestructive method of detecting the unbonded area and measuring the level of the sodium-filled section of the fuel pin.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.444-455
• /
• 1991

An accurate and fast running NEDAR model for calculating radial power profile throughout fuel life in both solid and annular pellets for existing and advanced CANDU-PHWR-fuel was developed in this work. This model contains resultant flux depression equations and neutron depression data tables which have been developed for CANDU-PHWR fuel of pellet with the diameter 8.0 to 19.5 mm and enrichment 0.71-6.0 wt % U-235, over a bumup range of 0 to 840 MWh /kgU (35000 MWD/T). In order to obtain the neutron flux distribution in the fuel pellet, the CE-HAMMER physics code was run for a neutron flux spectrum appropriate to a CANDU-PHWR to give predictions of radial power profile for several ranges of fuel design parameters. The results, which were calculated by the CE-HAMMER physics code, were fitted to an equation which is solved in terms of Bessel and exponential functions in order to obtain the parameters, $textsc{k}$, $\beta$ and λ in the resultant equation. The present NEDAR model produce a radial profile which, when normalized to unity at the pellet surface, is slightly higher than the profile of the original ELESIM data table. The predictions of the fission gas release by KAFEPA-NEDAR are in slightly better agreement with the experiments than those of ELESIM. The NEDAR model described in this study has been shown to provide an effective, reliable, and accurate method for determining radial power profiles in CANDU-PHWR fuel rods without incurring a significant increase in computing time.