• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1892-1900
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• 2023

A protective oxide layer forms on the material surfaces of a Nuclear Power Plant during operation due to high temperature. These oxides can host radionuclides, the activated corrosion products of fission products, resulting in decommissioning workers' exposure. These deposited oxides are iron oxides such as Fe₃O₄, Fe₂O₃ and mixed ferrites such as nickel ferrites, chromium ferrites, and cobalt ferrites. Developing a new chemical decontamination technology for domestic CANDU-type reactors is challenging due to variations in oxide compositions from different structural materials in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) system. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has already developed a chemical decontamination process for PWRs called 'HyBRID' (Hydrazine-Based Reductive metal Ion Decontamination) that does not use organic acids or organic chelating agents at all. As the first step to developing a new chemical decontamination technology for the Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) system, we investigated magnetite dissolution behaviors in various HyBRID inorganic acidic solutions to assess their applicability to the PHWR reactor system, which forms a thicker oxide film.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.601-610
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• 2024

This paper gives an extensive analysis on the characterization of xenon isotopic ratios for various nuclear reactors and nuclear explosions through neutronic depletion codes. The results of the characterization can be used for discriminating the sources of the xenon isotopes' release among the nuclear explosions and nuclear reactors. The considered sources of the xenon radionuclides do not only include PWR, CANDU, and nuclear explosions using uranium and plutonium bombs, but also IRT-200 and 5MWe Yongbyon (MAGNOX reactor) research reactors operated in North Korea. A new data base (DB) on xenon isotopic activity ratios was produced using the results of the characterization, which can be used in discrimination of the sources of xenon isotopes. The results of the study show that 5MWe Yongbyon reactor has quite different characteristics in ¹³⁵Xe/¹³³Xe ratio from the PWRs and the nuclear reactors have different characteristics in ¹³⁵Xe/¹³³Xe ratios from the nuclear explosions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.179-184
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• 2009

The Fuel Test Loop(FTL) which is capable of an irradiation testing under a similar operating condition to those of PWR(Pressurized Water Reactor) and CANDU(CANadian Deuterium Uranium reactor) nuclear power plants has been developed and installed in HANARO, KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). It consists of In-Pile Section(IPS) and Out-of Pile System(OPS). The IPS, which is located inside the pool is divided into 3-parts; the in-pool pipes, the IVA(IPS Vessel Assembly) and the support structures. The test fuel is loaded inside a double wall, inner pressure vessel and outer pressure vessel, to keep the functionality of the reactor coolant pressure boundary. The IVA is manufactured by local company and the functional test and verification were done through pressure drop, vibration, hydraulic and leakage tests. The brazing technique for the instrument lines has been checked for its functionality and performance. An IVA has been manufactured by local technique and have finally tested under high temperature and high pressure. The IVA and piping did not experience leakage, as we have checked the piping, flanges, assembly parts. We have obtained good data during the three cycle test which includes a pressure test, pressure and temperature cycling, and constant temperature.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.349-358
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• 1996

The leaching behavior of uranium from unirradiated CANDU UO$_2$ fuel pellet in the spent fuel wet storage and disposal conditions has been investigated. A modified IAEA leach test method was used, and then the extent of leaching was monitored by analysis for uranium in the leachant. The leach test has been performed in various leachants(demineralized water and boric acid solution at pH=6, synthetic granite groundwater) for a long-term period of 5.4 years, and the effect of temperature on the leach rate of uranium has been analyzed. The leach rates of uranium at $25^{\circ}C$ were dependent on the leachants. Over initial 100 days of leach periods, the leach rate in groundwater was the highest in three leachants and no significant differences of leach rates ore observed in the demineralized oater and boric acid solution. But these leach rates in three leachants around 2,000 days at $25^{\circ}C$ appeared to be reached the steady rates in the range of 1~5$\times$10$^{-8}$ g/$\textrm{cm}^2$ day. The leach rate of uranium in groundwater shooed to be independent of the temperature, but those in both demineralized water and boric acid solution increased with temperature. These results show that the leaching behavior of uranium from UO$_2$ fuel in both the demineralized water ann boric acid may be controlled tv the surface oxidative.dissolution reaction of UO$_2$ and the leach rate of uranium in groundwater at room temperature could mainly be controlled by the complex reaction of dissolved uranyl ions with carbonate ions and no variation of leach rate of UO$_2$ in groundwater with temperature may be due to the local deposition of passivating uranyl phases on the surface.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.94-101
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• 2003

The pressure tubes made of cold-worked Zr-2.5Nb alloy are subjected to creep deformation during service period resulting in changes to their geometry such as longitudinal elongation, diameter increase and sagging. To evaluate integrity of them, information on the material creep property of the serviced tubes is essential. As one of the methods with which the creep property is directly measured from the serviced components, small punch(SP) creep testing has been considered as a substitute for the conventional uniaxial creep testing. In this study, applicability of the SP creep testing to Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube alloy was studied particularly by measuring the power law creep constants, A, n. The SP creep test has been successfully applied fur other high temperature materials which have isotropic behavior. Since the Zr-2.5Nb alloy has anisotropic property, applicability of the SP creep testing can be limited. Uniaxial creep tests and small punch creep tests were conducted with Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube alloy along with finite element analyses. Creep constants obtained by each test method are compared. It was argued that the SP creep test result gave results reflecting material properties of both directions. But the equations derived in the previous study for isotropic materials need to be modified. Discussions were made fur future research directions for application of the SP creep testing to Zr-2.5Nb tube alloy.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2013

Nuclear fuel can be damaged under unexpected circumstances in a nuclear reactor. Fuel rod failure can be occurred due to debris fretting or excessive hydriding or PCI (Pellet-to-clad Interaction) etc. It is important to identify the causes of such failed fuel rods for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. If a fuel rod failure occurs during the operation of a nuclear power plant, the coolant water is contaminated by leaked fission products, and in some case the power level of the plant may be lowered or the operation stopped. In addition, all spent fuels must be transferred to a dry storage. But failed fuel can not be transferred to a dry storage. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a system which is capable of inspecting whether the spent fuel in the storage pool is failed or not. The sipping technology is to analyze the leakage of fission products in state of gas and liquid. The failed fuel inspection system with gamma analyzer has successfully demonstrated that the system is enough to find the failed fuel at Wolsong plant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.33-45
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• 2013

Systems Engineering Approach was applied to the development of operator-support core management system based on the on-site operation experience and document of core management procedures, which is for enhancing operability and safety in PHWR (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) operation. The dissertation and definition of the system were given on th basis of investigating and analyzing the core management procedures. Fuel management, detector calibration, safety management, core power distribution monitoring, and integrated data management were defined as main user's requirements. From the requirements, 11 upper functional requirements were extracted by considering the on-site operation experience and investigating documents of core management procedures. Detailed requirements of the system which were produced by analyzing the upper functional requirements were identified by interviewing members who have responsibility of the core management procedures, which were written in SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document by using IEEE 830 template. The system was designed on the basis of the SRS and analysis in terms of nuclear engineering, and then tested by simulation using on-site data as a example. A model of core power monitoring related to the core management was suggested and a standard process for the core management was also suggested. And extraction, analysis, and documentation of the requirements were suggested as a case in terms of systems engineering.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.233-241
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• 1987

Difficulties are encountered when the behavior of complex systems (i.e., fuel failure probability) that have unreliable deterministic models is predicted. For more realistic prediction of the behavior of complex systems with limited observational data, the present study was undertaken to devise an approach of combining predictions from the deterministic model and actual observational data. Predictions by this method of combining are inferred to be of higher reliability than separate predictions made by either model taken independently. A systematic method of hierarchical pattern discovery based on the method developed in the SPEAR was used for systematic search of weighting factors and pattern boundaries for the present method. A sample calculation was performed for prediction of CANDU fuel failures that had occurred due to power ramp during refuelling process. It was demonstrated by this sample calculation that there exists a region of feature space in which fuel failure probability from the PROFIT model nearly agree with that from observational data.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.4 s.70
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• pp.335-345
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• 2005

This paper concentrates on the nonlinear analysis of prestressed concrete (PSC) containment structures. Unlike a commercialized program which adopts the perfect bond assumption between concrete and tendon in the analysis of PSC structures, a numerical algorithm to consider the slip effect, simultaneously with the use of commercialized programs such as DIANA and ABAQUS, is introduced in this paper For bonded tendons, the apparent yield stress of an embedded tendon is determined from the bond slip relationship. And for unbonded tendons, Correction for the strength and stiffness of unbonded internal tendons is achieved on the basis of an iteration scheme derived from the slip behavior of tendon along the entire length. Finally, the developed algorithm is applied to two PSC containment structures of PWR and CANDU to verify its efficiency and applicability in simulating the structural behavior of large complex structures, and the obtained result shows that both containment structures represent the ultimate pressure capacity larger than about 3 times of the design pressure.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.132-145
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• 2001

The purpose and need of the study is to quantify the advantage or disadvantage of the environmental friendliness of the partitioning of nuclear fuel cycle. To this end, a preliminary study on the quantitative effect of the partition on the permanent disposal of spent PWR and CANDU fuel (HLW) was carried out. Before any analysis, the so-called reference radionuclide release scenario from a potential repository embedded into a crystalline rock was developed. Firstly, the feature, event and processes (FEPs) which lead to the release of nuclides from waste disposed of in a repository and the transport to and through the biosphere were identified. Based on the selected FEPs, the ‘Well Scenario’which might be the worst case scenario was set up. For the given scenario, annual individual doses to a local resident exposed to radioactive hazard were estimated and compared to that from direct disposal. Even though partitioning and transmutation could be an ideal solution to reduce the inventory which eventually decreases the release time as well as the peaks in the annual dose and also minimize the repository area through the proper handling of nuclides, it should overcome major disadvantages such as echnical issues on the partitioning and transmutation system, cost, and public acceptance, and environment friendly issues. In this regard, some relevant issues are also discussed to show the direction for further studies.