• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1563-1570
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• 2017

In order to perform dry interim storage and transportation of the spent-fuel assemblies of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, dual-purpose casks can be utilized. The effectiveness of different neutron-shield materials for the dual-purpose cask was analyzed through a set of calculations carried out using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. The dose rate for the dual-purpose cask utilizing the recently developed materials of $epoxy/clay/B_4C$ and $epoxy/clay/B_4C/carbon$ fiber was less than the allowable radiation level of 2 mSv/h at any point and 0.1 mSv/h at 2 m from the external surface of the cask. By utilization of $epoxy/clay/B_4C$ instead of an ethylene glycol/water mixture, the dose rates on the side surface of the cask due to neutron sources and consequent secondary gamma rays will be reduced by 17.5% and 10%, respectively. The overall dose rate in this case will be reduced by 11%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.702-708
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• 2019

This paper deals with break size estimation of loss of coolant accidents (LOCA) using a nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) neural network. Previous studies used static approaches, requiring time-integrated parameters and independent firing algorithms. NARX neural network is able to directly deal with time-dependent signals for dynamic estimation of break sizes in real-time. The case studied is a LOCA in the primary system of Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP). In this study, number of hidden layers, neurons, feedbacks, inputs, and training duration of transients are selected by performing parametric studies to determine the network architecture with minimum error. The developed NARX neural network is trained by error back propagation algorithm with different break sizes, covering 5% -100% of main coolant pipeline area. This database of LOCA scenarios is developed using RELAP5 thermal-hydraulic code. The results are satisfactory and indicate feasibility of implementing NARX neural network for break size estimation in NPPs. It is able to find a general solution for break size estimation problem in real-time, using a limited number of training data sets. This study has been performed in the framework of a research project, aiming to develop an appropriate accident management support tool for Bushehr NPP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.961-968
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• 2013

The Arabian Gulf region has one of the highest ocean temperatures, reaching above 35 degrees and ambient temperatures over 50 degrees in the summer. Two nuclear power plants (NPP) are being introduced in the region for the first time, one at Bushehr (1,000 MWe PWR plant from Russia), and a much larger one at Barakah (4X1,400 MWe PWR from Korea). Both plants take seawater from the Gulf for condenser cooling, having to modify the secondary/tertiary side cooling systems design by increasing the heat transfer surface area from the country of origin. This paper analyses the secondary side of a typical PWR plant operating under the Rankine cycle with a simplified thermal-hydraulic model. Parametric study of ocean cooling temperatures is conducted to estimate thermal efficiency variations and its associated design changes for the secondary side. Operational safety is reviewed to deliver rated power output with acceptable safety margins in line with technical specifications, mainly in the auxiliary systems together with the cooling water temperature. Impact on the Gulf seawater as the ultimate heat sink is considered negligible, affecting only the adjacent water near the NPP site, when compared to the solar radiation on the sea surface.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1140-1153
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• 2016

Since the inception of nuclear power as a commercial energy source, safety has been recognized as a prime consideration in the design, construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The release of radioactivity to the environment requires the failure of multiple safety systems and the breach of three physical barriers: fuel cladding, the reactor cooling system, and containment. In this study, nuclear reactor containment pressurization has been modeled in a large break-loss of coolant accident (LB-LOCA) by programming single-cell and multicell models in MATLAB. First, containment has been considered as a control volume (single-cell model). In addition, spray operation has been added to this model. In the second step, the single-cell model has been developed into a multicell model to consider the effects of the nodalization and spatial location of cells in the containment pressurization in comparison with the single-cell model. In the third step, the accident has been simulated using the CONTAIN 2.0 code. Finally, Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) containment has been considered as a case study. The results of BNPP containment pressurization due to LB-LOCA have been compared between models, final safety analysis report, and CONTAIN code's results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.3944-3951
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• 2021

Several reasons such as no free lunch theorem indicate that there is not a universal Feature selection (FS) technique that outperforms other ones. Moreover, some approaches such as using synthetic dataset, in presence of large number of FS techniques, are very tedious and time consuming task. In this study to tackle the issue of dependency of estimation accuracy on the selected FS technique, a methodology based on the heterogeneous ensemble is proposed. The performance of the major learning algorithms of neural network (i.e. the FFNN-BR, the FFNN-LM) in combination with the diverse FS techniques (i.e. the NCA, the F-test, the Kendall's tau, the Pearson, the Spearman, and the Relief) and different combination techniques of the heterogeneous ensemble (i.e. the Min, the Median, the Arithmetic mean, and the Geometric mean) are considered. The target parameters/transients of Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) are examined as the case study. The results show that the Min combination technique gives the more accurate estimation. Therefore, if the number of FS techniques is m and the number of learning algorithms is n, by the heterogeneous ensemble, the search space for acceptable estimation of the target parameters may be reduced from n × m to n × 1. The proposed methodology gives a simple and practical approach for more reliable and more accurate estimation of the target parameters compared to the methods such as the use of synthetic dataset or trial and error methods.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.561-570
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• 2014

Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation and Control System(NPP I&C) which is used to operate safely is changing from analog technology to digital technology. Ever since NPP Centrifuge of Iran Bushehr was shut down by Stuxnet attack in 2010, the possibility of cyber attacks against the NPP has been increasing. However, the domestic and international regulatory guidelines that was published to strengthen the cyber security of the NPP I&C describes security requirements and method s to establish policies and procedures. These guidelines are not appropriate for the development of real applicable cyber security technology. Therefore, specialized cyber security technologies for the NPP I&C need to be developed to enhance the security of nuclear power plants. This paper proposes a cyber security technology development system which is exclusively for the development of nuclear technology. Furthermore, this method has been applied to the ESF-CCS developed by The KINCS R&D project.