• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2268-2276
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• 2021

Spent nuclear fuel, which can degrade during long-term storage, must be transported intact in normal transport conditions. In this regard, many studies, including those involving Multi-Modal Transportation Test (MMTT) campaigns, have been conducted. In order to transport the spent fuel safely, a tie-down structure for supporting and transporting a cask containing the spent fuel is essential. To ensure its structural integrity, a method for finding an optimum conceptual design for the tie-down structure is presented. An optimized transportation test model of a tie-down structure for the KORAD-21 metal cask is derived based on the proposed optimization approach, and the transportation test model is manufactured by redesigning the optimized model to enable its producibility. The topology optimization approach presented in this paper can be used to obtain optimum conceptual designs of tie-down structures developed in the future.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.54-61
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• 2016

When spent fuel assemblies from the reactor of nuclear power plants(NPPs) are transported, the assemblies are exposed to short-term operations that can affect the peak cladding temperature of spent fuel assemblies. Therefore, it needs to perform the analysis of heat transfer on spent fuel dry cask during the operation. For 3 dimensional computational fluid dynamnics(CFD) simulation, it is proposed that the short-term operation is divided into three processes: Wet, dry, and vacuum drying condition. The three processes have different heat transfer mode and medium. Metal transportation cask, which is Korea Radioactive Waste Agency(KORAD)'s developing cask, is evaluated by the methods proposed in this work. During working hours, the boiling at wet process does not occur in the cask and the peak cladding temperatures of all processes remain below $400^{\circ}C$. The maximum peak cladding temperature is $173.8^{\circ}C$ at vacuum drying process and the temperature rise of dry, and vacuum drying process occurs steeply.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.624-634
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• 2016

Nuclear criticality safety analyses (NCSAs) considering burnup credit were performed for the GBC-32 cask. The used nuclear fuel assemblies (UNFAs) discharged from Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 Cycle 6 were loaded into the cask. Their axial burnup distributions and average discharge burnups were evaluated using the DeCART and Multi-purpose Analyzer for Static and Transient Effects of Reactors (MASTER) codes, and NCSAs were performed using SCALE 6.1/STandardized Analysis of Reactivity for Burnup Credit using SCALE (STARBUCS) and Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code, version 6 (MCNP 6). The axial burnup distributions were determined for 20 UNFAs with various initial enrichments and burnups, which were applied to the criticality analysis for the cask system. The UNFAs for 20- and 30-year cooling times were assumed to be stored in the cask. The criticality analyses indicated that $k_{eff}$ values for UNFAs with nonuniform axial burnup distributions were larger than those with a uniform distribution, that is, the end effects were positive but much smaller than those with the reference distribution. The axial burnup distributions for 20 UNFAs had shapes that were more symmetrical with a less steep gradient in the upper region than the reference ones of the United States Department of Energy. These differences in the axial burnup distributions resulted in a significant reduction in end effects compared with the reference.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.391-402
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• 2017

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) has developed a concrete cask for the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel that has been generated by domestic light-water reactors. During long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel in concrete casks kept in dry conditions, the integrity of the concrete cask and spent nuclear fuel must be maintained. In addition, the radiation dose rate must not exceed the storage facility's design standards. A suitable shielding design for radiation protection must be in place for the dry storage facilities of spent nuclear fuel under normal and accident conditions. Evaluation results show that the appropriate distance to the annual dose rate of 0.25 mSv for ordinary citizens is approximately 230 m. For a $2{\times}10$ arrangement within storage facilities, rollover accidents are assumed to have occurred while transferring one additional storage cask, with the bottom of the cask facing the controlled area boundary. The dose rates of 12.81 and 1.28 mSv were calculated at 100 m and 230 m from the outermost cask in the $2{\times}10$ arrangement. Therefore, a spent nuclear fuel concrete cask and storage facilities maintain radiological safety if the distance to the appropriately assessed controlled area boundary is ensured. In the future, the results of this study will be useful for the design and operation of nuclear power plant on-site storage or intermediate storage facilities based on the spent fuel management strategy.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.313-327
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• 1996

As an at-reactor(AR) storage method o( spent fuel, there are horizontal concrete module type, metal storage cask type, concrete storage cask type, dual purpose (transportation and storage) cask type and multi-purpose (transportation, storage and disposal) cask type. All other types except multi-purpose one have been already used for AR dry storage of spent fuels after obtaining operation license in various foreign countries. Also the development of multi-purpose type has been continued for operation license. In America, Japan, Germany, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, and Czech Republic, etc., AR dry storage facilities are under operation or on propulsion, and spent fuels are transported to interim storage facility or reprocessing plant after dry storage at reactor temporarily. At Wolsung site, in case of Korea, concrete silo type has already been introduced, and it is believed to be inevitable to store spent fuels at reactor temporarily, considering the reality that storage capacity of spent fuel is approaching to the limit in some nuclear power plants. In this report, the system characteristics, design requirements, technical standards and status of AR storage system, which is suitable for domestic site such as Kori, have been studied. In most cases, the licensed period of storage cask is limited up to 20 years and the integrity of material and maintenance of leaktightness are required during the whole service life.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2011

The radiation shielding analysis for a Burnup-credit (BUC) cask designed under the management of Korea Radioactive Waste Management Corporation (KRMC) was performed to examine the contribution of each radiation source affecting dose rate distribution around the cask. Various radiation sources, which contain neutron and gamma-ray sources placed in active fuel region and the activation source, and imaginary nuclear fuel were all considered in the MCNP calculation model to realistically simulate the actual situations. It was found that the maximum external and surface dose rates of the spent fuel cask were satisfied with the domestic standards both in normal and accident conditions. In normal condition, the radiation dose rate distribution around the cask was mainly influenced by activation source ($^{60}Co$ radioisotope); in another case, the neutron emitted in active fuel region contributed about 90% to external dose rate at 1m distance from side surface of the cask. Besides, the contribution level of activation source was dramatically increased to the dose rates in top and bottom regions of the cask. From this study, it was recognized that the detailed investigation on the radiation sources should be performed conservatively and accurately in the process of radiation shielding analysis for a BUC cask.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.375-387
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• 2019

In this study, the radiation dose rates for the design basis fuel of 360 assemblies CANDU spent nuclear fuel transportation cask were evaluated, by measuring radiation source terms for the design basis fuel of a pressurized heavy water reactor. Additionally, radiological safety evaluation was carried out and the validity of the results was determined by radiological technical standards. To select the design basis fuel, which was the radiation source term for the spent fuel transportation cask, the design basis fuels from two spent fuel storage facilities were stored in a spent fuel transportation cask operating in Wolsung NPP. The design basis fuel for each transportation and storage system was based on the burnup of spent fuel, minimum cooling period, and time of transportation to the intermediate storage facility. A burnup of 7,800 MWD/MTU and a minimum cooling period of 6 years were set as the design basis fuel. The radiation source terms of the design basis fuel were evaluated using the ORIGEN-ARP computer module of SCALE computer code. The radiation shielding of the cask was evaluated using the MCNP6 computer code. In addition, the evaluation of the radiation dose rate outside the transport cask required by the technical standard was classified into normal and accident conditions. Thus, the maximum radiation dose rates calculated at the surface of the cask and at a point 2 m from the surface of the cask under normal transportation conditions were respectively 0.330 mSv·h^-1 and 0.065 mSv·h^-1. The maximum radiation dose rate 1 m from the surface of the cask under accident conditions was calculated as 0.321 mSv·h^-1. Thus, it was confirmed that the spent fuel cask of the large capacity heavy water reactor had secured the radiation safety.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.10a
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• pp.789-790
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.1343-1344
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• 2013

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2011

In general, conventional criticality analyses for spent fuel transport/dry storage systems have been performed based on assumption of fresh fuel concerning the potential uncertainties from number density calculation of Transuranic and Fission Products in spent fuel. However, because of economic loss due to the excessive criticality margin, recently the design of transport/dry storage systems with Burnup Credit(BUC) application has been actively developed. The uncertainties in criticality analyses on transport/storage systems with BUC technique show strong dependance upon initial enrichment and burnup rate, whereas those in the conventional criticality evaluation based on fresh fuel assumption do not show such a dependance. In this study, regulatory-required uncertainties of the criticality analyses for BK 26 Cask, which is conceptually designed spent fuel transport cask with BUC corresponding to the limiting circumstances on nuclear power plants in Korea, are evaluated as a function of initial enrichment and burnup rate. Results of this study will be used as basic data for spent fuel loading curve of BK 26 Cask.