• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.3236-3246
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• 2021

Lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident directed that multiple failures should be considered more seriously rather than single failure in the licensing bases and safety cases because attempts to take accident management measures could be unsuccessful under the high radiation environment aggravated by multiple failures, such as complete loss of electric power, uncontrollable loss of coolant inventory, failure of essential safety function recovery. In the case of the complete loss of electric power called station blackout (SBO), if there is no mitigation action for recovering safety functions, the reactor core would be overheated, and severe fuel damage could be anticipated due to the failure of the active heat sink. In such a transient condition at CANDU-6 plants, the seal failure of the primary heat transport (PHT) pumps can facilitate a consequent increase in the fuel sheath temperature and eventually lead to degradation of the fuel integrity. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the regulatory guidelines for multiple failures on a licensing basis so that licensees should prepare the accident management measures to prevent or mitigate accident conditions. In order to explore the efficiency of implementing accident management strategies for CANDU-6 plants, this study proposed a realistic accident analysis approach on the SBO transient with multiple-failure sequences such as seal failure of PHT pumps without operator's recovery actions. In this regard, a comparative study for two PHT pump seal failure modes with and without coolant seal leakage was conducted using a best-estimate code to precisely investigate the behaviors of thermal-hydraulic parameters during transient conditions. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis for different PHT pump seal leakage rates was also carried out to examine the effect of leakage rate on the system responses. This study is expected to provide the technical bases to the accident management strategy for unmitigated transient conditions with multiple failures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권4호
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• pp.493-520
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• 2009

During the last four decades, 16 Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) and 4 Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) have been constructed and operated in Korea, and nuclear fuel technology has been developed to a self-reliant state. At first, the PWR fuel design and manufacturing technology was acquired through international cooperation with a foreign partner. Then, the PWR fuel R&D by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has improved fuel technology to a self-reliant state in terms of fuel elements, which includes a new cladding material, a large-grained $UO_2$ pellet, a high performance spacer grid, a fuel rod performance code, and fuel assembly test facility. The MOX fuel performance analysis code was developed and validated using the in-reactor test data. MOX fuel test rods were fabricated and their irradiation test was completed by an international program. At the same time, the PWR fuel development by Korea Nuclear Fuel (KNF) has produced new fuel assemblies such as PLUS7 and ACE7. During this process, the design and test technology of fuel assemblies was developed to a self-reliant state. The PHWR fuel manufacturing technology was developed and manufacturing facility was set up by KAERI, independently from the foreign technology. Then, the advanced PHWR fuel, CANFLEX(CANDU Flexible Fuelling), was developed, and an irradiation test was completed in a PHWR. The development of the CANFLEX fuel included a new design of fuel rods and bundles.. The nuclear fuel technology in Korea has been steadily developed in many national R&D programs, and this advanced fuel technology is expected to contribute to a worldwide nuclear renaissance that can create solutions to global warming.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.468-481
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• 2002

There are 4 CANDU6 type reactors operating at Wolsong site. For fuelling operation of certain fuel channels (with flow less than 21.5 kg/s) a FARE flow Assist Ram Extension) device is used. During the refuelling operation, two remote controlled F/Ms (Fuelling Machines) are attached to a designated fuel channel and carry out refuelling job. The upstream F/M inserts new fuel bundles into the fuel channel while the downstream F/M discharges spent fuel bundles. In order to assist fuelling operation of channels that has lower coolant How rate, the FARE device is used instead of F/M C-ram to push the fuel bundle string. The FARE device is essentially a How restricting element that produces enough drag force to push the fuel bundle string toward downstream F/M. Channels that require the use of FARE device for refuelling are located along the outside perimeter of reactor. This paper presents the FARE device design feature, steady state hydraulic and operational characteristics and behavior of the device when coupled with fuel bundle string during fuelling operation. The study showed that the steady state performance of FARE device meets the design objective that was confirmed by downstream F/M C-ram force to be positive.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.262-272
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• 1998

The experiences and causes of pressure tube cracking accidents in the CANDU reactors and the development of the fuel channel at AECL(Atomic Energy Canada Limited) have been described. Most of the accidents were caused by Delayed Hydride Cracking(DHC). In the cases of the Pickering units 3&4 and the Bruce unit 2, excessive residual stresses induced by an improper rolled joint process played a role in DHC. In the Pickering unit 2, cracks formed by contact between the pressure and calandria tubes due to the movement of the garter spring were the direct cause of the failure. To extend the life of a fuel channel, several R&D programs examining each component of the fuel channel have been carried out in Canada. For a pressure tube, the main concern is focused on changing the fabrication processes, e.g., increasing cold working rate, conducting intermediate annealing and adding a third element like Fe, V, and Cr to the tube material. In addition to them, chromium plating on the end fitting and increasing wall thickness at both ends of the calandria tube are considered. There has also been much interest in the improvement of fuel channel performance in our country and several development programs are currently under way.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.153-162
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• 1980

냉각재상실사고의 재관수 단계중 연료봉 피복재의 온도거동 및 열전달 기구를 파악하는 것은 비상노심냉각계통 및 원자로의 안전성해석에 중요하다. 냉각재유동채널의 방위가 rewetting과정에 미치는 영향을 연구하기 위하여 수직 및 수경 유동채널을 이용한 실험을 수행하였으며, 노심이 수평압력관으로 구성되어 있는 CANDU원자로에 관한 실험을 중점적으로 수행하여 그 결과를 수직채널의 결과와 비교 하였다. 또한 rewetting현상을 육안관찰가기 위해 환상형 테스트부 및 외부에서 가열되는 석영관을 사용하였다. 실험결과로써 수평채널에서의 rewetting 속도는 유동의 층상 현상에 크게 영향을 받으나 그 평균값은 수직채널리 경우와 큰차이없음을 알 수 있었다.

• 한국기계기술학회지
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.145-153
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• 2011

The irradiation tests of materials in HANARO have been performed usually at temperatures below $300^{\circ}C$ at which the RPV(Reactor Pressure Vessel) materials of the commercial reactors such as the light water reactor and CANDU are operated. As VHTR(Very High Temperature Reactor) and SFR(Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor) projects are being carried as a part of the present Gen-IV program in Korea, the requirements for irradiation of materials at temperatures higher than $500^{\circ}C$ are recently being gradually increased. To overcome the restriction in the use at high temperature of the existing Al thermal media, a new capsule with double thermal media composed of two kinds of materials such as Al-Ti and Al-graphite was designed and fabricated more advanced than the single thermal media capsule. At the irradiation test of the capsule, the temperature of the specimens successfully reached $700^{\circ}C$ and the integrity of Al, Ti and graphite material was maintained.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제34권9호
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• pp.1273-1279
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• 2010

가압중수로 연료관은 CSA N 285.4 기술기준에 따라 주기적인 가동중검사가 수행되고 있다. 가동중검사시 발견된 결함이 CSA N 285.4 의 허용기준을 초과하는 경우, 결함 연료관의 계속 운전을 위해 가동적합성 평가를 허용하고 있다. 캐나다 COG(CANDU Owner's Group)를 중심으로 중수로 연료관의 결함 건전성 평가 기술기준인 CSA N285.8 이 개발되었다. 본 논문에서는 CSA N285.8 을 기반으로 연료관의 건전성 평가시스템 WIES(Wolsong In-service Evaluation System)를 개발 하였다. 중수로 연료관의 가동중검사시 결함이 발견되는 경우, 개발된 시스템은 신속하고 정확한 건전성 평가를 수행하여 계획예방 정비기간의 연장을 방지하여 원전 이용률 향상에 기여할 것으로 판단된다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.663-667
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• 2017

Delayed hydride cracking (DHC) was first observed in pressure tubes in Canadian CANDU reactors. In light water reactors, DHC was not observed until the late 1990s in high-burnup boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel cladding. In recent years, the focus on DHC has resurfaced in light of the increased interest in the cladding integrity during interim conditions. In principle, all spent fuel in the wet pools has sufficient hydrogen content for DHC to operate below $300^{\circ}C$. It is therefore of importance to establish the critical parameters for DHC to operate. This work studies the threshold stress intensity factor ($K_{IH}$) to initiate DHC as a function of temperature in Zry-4 for temperatures between $227^{\circ}C$ and $315^{\circ}C$. The experimental technique used in this study was the pin-loading testing technique. To determine the $K_{IH}$, an unloading method was used where the load was successively reduced in a stepwise manner until no cracking was observed during 24 hours. The results showed that there was moderate temperature behavior at lower temperatures. Around $300^{\circ}C$, there was a sharp increase in $K_{IH}$ indicating the upper temperature limit for DHC. The value for $K_{IH}$ at $227^{\circ}C$ was determined to be $2.6{\pm}0.3MPa$ ${\surd}$m.

• 한국에너지공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국에너지공학회 2000년도 추계 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.115-120
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• 2000

The analysis of flux distribution under stead-state in large power reactors with assymetry reactivity insertions requires the use of three-dimensional diffusion calculations. For the purpose, consistently formulated modern nodal methods based on higher order interface techniques have become popular tools for flux distributions in large commercial nuclear reactors. Among the earlier developments, the nodal Green's function method obtains its nodal interface equation from the transverse-integrated integral diffusion equation using a finite-medium Green's function. In this method, the outgoing current from a node surface is formulated as a response of the incoming currents and the spatially integrated neutron source within the same node. The well-known nodal expansion method is also based on an interface partial current formulation. Nodal methods high-level interface variables, i.e., interface net current and flux, may be more computationally efficient than the nodal Green's function method because they have one fewer unknown per interface. The Analytic Nodal Method(ANM), which can be classified as an interface net current technique and, was faster in solving some standard benchmark problems than the other two methods.(omitted)

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권11호
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• pp.4338-4347
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• 2022

The CUPID code was developed and is continuously updated in KAERI. Verification and validation (V&V) is mainly done for light water reactors (LWRs). This paper describes a benchmarking of the detailed mesh level compared with sub-channel level for application to pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), even though component scale comparison for the PHWR moderator system was done once before. We completed a sub-channel level comparison between the CUPID code and the ASSERT code and a CUPID code analysis. Because the ASSERT code has already been validated with numerous experiments, benchmarking with the ASSERT code will offer us more trust on the CUPID code. The target channel has high power and thus high pressure deformation. The high power channel tends to have a high possibility of critical heat flux (CHF), because a high void fraction and quality in channel exit region appear. In this research, after determining the reference grid and T/H model, we compared the sub-channel level results of the CUPID code with those of the ASSERT code.