• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.483-488
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• 2006

Highly radioactive waste is placed in metal canisters embedded in dense clay termed buffer. The radioactive decay is associated with heat production, which causes degradation of the buffer and thereby time-dependent loss of its waste-isolating potential. The buffer is prepared by compacting air-dry smectite clay powder and is initially not fully water saturated. The evolution of the buffer starts with slow wetting by uptake of water from the surrounding rock followed by a long period of exposure to heat, pressure from the rock and chemical reactants. It can be described by conceptual and theoretical models describing processes related to temperature (T), hydraulic (H), mechanical (M) and chemical performance (C). For temperatures below 90 C more than 75 % of the smectite will be preserved for 100 000 years but cementation may reduce the excellent performance of the buffer to a yet not known extention.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.943-947
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• 2002

Volatile Organic Compounds(VOCs) contribute to the formation of ozone and PAN which are injurious to health through complex photochemical reactions. Growing consumption of fossil fuels results in significant emission of VOCs and other air pollutants into the atmosphere. This study was carried out to evaluate of Volatile Organic Compounds(VOCs) concentrations in Kumi industrial complex. Ambient air sampling was determined at five sites from August to September in 2002. The Volatile Organic Compounds samples were collected using the silicocan canisters, and were determined by GC/MS which connected preconcentrator system. The Kumi industrial complex of VOCs concentrations were generally similar with Yeochun's but some of VOCs concentrations of Kumi were higher than Yeochun industrial complex's. Also the industrial area was higher than downtown and residential district.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.6_spc
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• pp.667-673
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• 2016

Canister with composite sandwich panel has been suggested owing to its higher stiffness and strength over a weight for square shaped canisters. The pyro shock induced by a short time explosion inside a canister is generally considered to be the most severe source of load affecting on the entire structure. Therefore, in this study, the approach and modeling method to identify the effect of pyro shock on canister with composite sandwich panel in a numerical way were mainly discussed. Moreover, the verification was implemented through comparison with test results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.1041-1048
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• 2021

An engineered barrier system (EBS) for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) is composed of a disposal canister with spent fuel, a buffer material, a gap-filling material, and a backfill material. As the buffer is located in the empty space between the disposal canisters and the surrounding rock mass, it prevents the inflow of groundwater and retards the spill of radionuclides from the disposal canister. Due to the fact that the buffer gradually becomes saturated over a long time period, it is especially important to investigate its thermal-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) properties considering variations of saturated condition. Therefore, this paper suggests a new method of measuring thermal conductivity and water suction for single compacted bentonite at various levels of saturation. This paper also highlights a convenient method of saturating compacted bentonite. The proposed method was verified with a previous method by comparing thermal conductivity and water suction with respect to water content. The relative error between the thermal conductivity and water suction values obtained through the proposed method and the previous method was determined as within 5% for compacted bentonite with a given water content.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2014

Using results of groundwater flow system modeling for a hypothetical deep geological repository site, a distribution of groundwater flow rates at the disposal depth was analyzed and a method of applying this distribution to a safety assessment for a disposal of radioactive wastes was suggested. The distribution of groundwater flow rates was produced by hydraulic heads simulated from regional and local scale groundwater flow models for the hypothetical disposal site. The flow rates at the locations where deposition holes would be located were estimated. These rates were normalized by the maximum of the flow rates in order to probabilistically illustrate a possibility of canister failures at the deposition holes. From the normalized distribution, probabilistic expectations for mass discharges of radionuclides released from the canisters assumed to be failed were calculated and compared with those deterministically estimated under the assumption that the canisters at the same deposition holes were definitely failed. The suggested method can be contributed to constructing a methodology for safety assessment of a geological repository by reflecting natural conditions of a disposal site in more detail.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.405-418
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• 2019

Based on spent fuels characteristics from domestic nuclear power plants and a disposal scenario from the current basic plan for high-level radioactive waste management, an improved disposal system has been proposed that enhances disposal efficiency and economic effectiveness compared to the existing disposal system. For this purpose, two disposal canisters concepts were derived from the length of the spent fuel generated from the nuclear power plants. In the disposal scenario, the acceptable amount of decay heat for each disposal container was determined, taking into account the discharge and disposal times of spent fuels in accordance with the current basic plan. Based on the determined decay heat of the two types of disposal canisters and the associated disposal system, thermal stability analyses were performed to confirm their suitability to the proposed disposal system design requirement and disposal efficiency assessment. The results of this study confirm 20% reduction in the disposal area and 20% increase in disposal density for the proposed disposal system compared to the existing system. These results can be used to establish a spent fuel management policy and to design a viable commercial disposal system.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2008

Thermal assessment of a new CANDU spent fuel disposal system, which improves the retrievability of the spent fuel and enhances the densification factor compared with the Korean Reference disposal System, is carried out in this study. The canisters for CANDU spent fuels are stored for long term and cooled by natural convection in the proposed disposal system for the retrievability. The steady state thermal analyses for proposed CANDU disposal system are carried out with the ANSYS 10.0 CFX code. The thermal analyses are performed through two steps. At the first step, the sensitivity of the disposal tunnel spacing is analysed. The differences of maximum temperatures by several tunnel spacings are calculated at three points in the disposal tunnel. The result shows that the differences of the temperature at the three points are almost negligible because 99% of the decay heat is removed by natural convection. At the second procedure, 60m tunnel spacing with a ventilation system instead of natural convection is considered. The result is applied to the calculation of the canister surface temperature in disposal tunnel as boundary conditions. Consequently, the average and the maximum surface temperature of disposal canisters are $79.9^{\circ}C$ and $119^{\circ}C$, respectively. The inner maximum temperature of a basket in the disposal canister is calculated as $140.9^{\circ}C$. The maximum temperature of the basket meets the thermal requirement for the CANDU spent fuel cladding.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.488-494
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• 2019

Precision Guided Missiles after production and militarization have various characteristics that enable the final performance to be identified by conducting live-fire tests after long-term storage. Likewise, the performance and reliability of ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ Missiles, which are currently used by the Korean Navy, are also verified consistently by conducting live-fire tests after militarization. Specially, the live fire test at '00 year, which was conducted by Korean Navy, showed the result that 'Ring', which is a component of the canister's front cover, was jammed with wings for propulsion and then broke away from the canister during the missile launch process. This situation led to an interruption of the deployment of wings and finally affected the missile's flight performance. The results of a survey of the canisters of those missiles whose live fire tests were conducted successfully, based on the live fire test at '00 year, showed the 'Ring's separation from canisters. This raises recognition for the need to solve the problems of 'Ring's separation and breakaway. This study suggests an improvement derived by the result of live-fire tests and introduces the effect of final launch performance of ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ Missiles and test result after applying the improvement.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2019

High-level radioactive waste (HLW) such as spent fuel is inevitably produced when nuclear power plants are operated. A geological repository has been considered as one of the most adequate options for the disposal of HLW, and it will be constructed in host rock at a depth of 500~1,000 meters below ground level with the concept of an engineered barrier system (EBS) and a natural barrier system. The compacted bentonite buffer is one of the most important components of the EBS. As the compacted bentonite buffer is located between disposal canisters with spent fuel and the host rock, it can restrain the release of radionuclides and protect canisters from the inflow of groundwater. Because of inflow of groundwater into the compacted bentonite buffer, it is essential to investigate soil-water characteristic curves (SWCC) of the compacted bentonite buffer in order to evaluate the entire safety performance of the EBS. Therefore, this paper conducted laboratory experiments to analyze the SWCC for a Korean Ca-type compacted bentonite buffer considering dry density, confined or unconfined condition, and drying or wetting path. There was no significant difference of SWCC considering dry density under unconfined condition. Furthermore, it was found that there was higher water suction in unconfined condition that in confined condition, and higher water suction during drying path than during wetting path.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2021

The buffer is a key component of an engineered barrier system that safeguards the disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Buffers are located between disposal canisters and host rock, and they can restrain the release of radionuclides and protect canisters from the inflow of ground water. Since considerable heat is released from a disposal canister to the surrounding buffer, the thermal conductivity of the buffer is a very important parameter in the entire disposal safety. For this reason, a lot of research has been conducted on thermal conductivity prediction models that consider various factors. In this study, the thermal conductivity of a buffer is estimated using the machine learning methods of: linear regression, decision tree, support vector machine (SVM), ensemble, Gaussian process regression (GPR), neural network, deep belief network, and genetic programming. In the results, the machine learning methods such as ensemble, genetic programming, SVM with cubic parameter, and GPR showed better performance compared with the regression model, with the ensemble with XGBoost and Gaussian process regression models showing best performance.