• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.260-266
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• 2015

Twenty sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) have provided valuable experience in design, licensing, and operation. This paper summarizes the important safety criteria and safety guidelines of intermediate sodium systems, steam generators, decay heat removal systems and associated construction materials and in-service inspection. The safety criteria and guidelines provide a sufficient framework for design and licensing, in particular by new entrants in SFRs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3563-3579
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• 2021

Measured decay heat data of light water reactor (LWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies are adopted to train machine learning (ML) models. The measured data is available for fuel assemblies irradiated in commercial reactors operated in the United States and Sweden. The data comes from calorimetric measurements of discharged pressurized water reactor (PWR) and boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel assemblies. 91 and 171 measurements of PWR and BWR assembly decay heat data are used, respectively. Due to the small size of the measurement dataset, we propose: (i) to use the method of multiple runs (ii) to generate and use synthetic data, as large dataset which has similar statistical characteristics as the original dataset. Three ML models are developed based on Gaussian process (GP), support vector machines (SVM) and neural networks (NN), with four inputs including the fuel assembly averaged enrichment, assembly averaged burnup, initial heavy metal mass, and cooling time after discharge. The outcomes of this work are (i) development of ML models which predict LWR fuel assembly decay heat from the four inputs (ii) generation and application of synthetic data which improves the performance of the ML models (iii) uncertainty analysis of the ML models and their predictions.

• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.945-960
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• 1998

This paper is concerned with investigating the asymptotic behavior of end effects for a generalized heat conduction problem with an added dissipation term defined on a three-dimensional semi-infinite cylinder. With homogeneous Dirichlet conditions on the lateral surface of the cylinder it is shown that solutions either grow exponentially or decay exponentially in the distance from the finite end of the cylinder. In particular, to render decay estimate explicit, we pattern after the analysis of Payne and Song [13, 15]. The continuous dependence effect of perturbing the equations parameters is also investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.605-612
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• 2013

Removal of decay heat from an operating reactor during a prolonged station blackout condition is a big concern for reactor designers, especially after the recent Fukushima accident. In the case of a prolonged station blackout condition, heat removal is possible only by passive means since no pumps or active systems are available. Keeping this in mind, the AHWR has been designed with many passive safety features. One of them is a passive means of removing decay heat with the help of Isolation Condensers (ICs) which are submerged in a big water pool called the Gravity Driven Water Pool (GDWP). The ICs have many tubes in which the steam, generated by the reactor core due to the decay heat, flows and condenses by rejecting the heat into the water pool. After condensation, the condensate falls back into the steam drum of the reactor. The GDWP tank holds a large amount of water, about 8000 $m^3$, which is located at a higher elevation than the steam drum of the reactor in order to promote natural circulation. Due to the recent Fukushima type accidents, it has been a concern to understand and evaluate the capability of the ICs to remove decay heat for a prolonged period without escalating fuel sheath temperature. In view of this, an analysis has been performed for decay heat removal characteristics over several days of an AHWR by ICs. The computer code RELAP5/MOD3.2 was used for this purpose. Results indicate that the ICs can remove the decay heat for more than 10 days without causing any bulk boiling in the GDWP. After that, decay heat can be removed for more than 40 days by boiling off the pool inventory. The pressure inside the containment does not exceed the design pressure even after 10 days by condensation of steam generated from the GDWP on the walls of containment and on the Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) tubes. If venting is carried out after this period, the decay heat can be removed for more than 50 days without exceeding the design limits.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.497-510
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• 2018

In this study, the decay resistance of larch wood, which was heat treated by superheated steam, was evaluated by the field decay test. During the field decay test of 12 months, non-treated wood has been severely damaged by termite, however, no visible damage has occurred in the preservative-treated wood and superheated steam heat-treated wood. Results of field decay test showed approximately 5% mass loss of the non-treated wood and the preservative-treated wood, and approximately 1% mass loss of the superheated steam heat-treated wood. After the field decay test for 12 months, the residual amount of preservatives remaining in the preservative-treated wood was lower than that before the field decay test. It was considered that the preservative was partially eluted during the field decay test, and the mass loss of the preservative-treated wood was thought to be similar to that of the non-treated wood. Through this study and additional long-term monitoring test, superheated steam heat treatment can be considered to be an environmental-friendly method to enhance the decay resistance of wood against rot fungi and/or insect without chemical treatment such as preservative injection.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.309-317
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• 2003

The mass balance of the unit processes of the Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process was calculated to obtain basic information. Based on this mass balance, the changes in decay heat and radioactivity of the spent fuel due to the metallization in the high temperature molten salt system were estimated. The decay heat and the radioactivity were calculated by using the ORIGEN2 computer code, and the result showed that the decay heat and the radioactivity of the metallized spent fuel ingot were $24.27\%\;and\;24.24\%$, respectively, compared to those of oxide spent fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.535-542
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• 2012

A sodium-cooled demonstration fast reactor with the KALIMER-600 as a reference plant is under design by KAERI. The safety grade decay heat removal system (DHRS), which is important to mitigate design basis accidents, was changed in the reactor design. A loss of heat sink and a vessel leak in design basis accidents were simulated using the MARS-LMR system transient analysis code on two plant systems. In the analyses, the DHRS of KALIMER-600 had a weakness due to elevation of the overflow path for the DHRS operation, while it was proved that the DHRS of the demonstration reactor had superior heat transfer characteristics due to the simplified heat transfer mechanism.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.48-55
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• 1989

In this study, simple functional forms which could predict decay heat are referred to and modified in order to analyse more easily long-term behavior of decay heat generated from domestic PWR and CANDU spent fuel. To reduce the difference between the predicted data by functional forms and ORIGEN 2 results and to predict the decay heat under the important parameter(s), sensitivity analysis is performed. By introducing the identified hey parameter, turnup, into the functional forms, the decay heat of spent fuels within a limited rangs of cooling time(3~500 years) becomes predictable for various turnup rates. The predicted decay heat of spent fuels with representative turnup rates such as 33, 37 and 40 GWD/MTU by the functional forms is in so good agreement with ORIGEN 2 results within $\pm$10% difference over the cooling time from 1 to 10$^{5}$ years that the functional forms presented here may be used for engineering purposes such as the thermal design and assessment of the facilities associated with spent fuel management.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.1251-1259
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• 2013

In this study, high temperature design and creep-fatigue damage evaluation of a decay heat exchanger (DHX) in the decay heat removal systems of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) have been performed. Detail design and 3D finite element analysis have been conducted for the DHXs to be installed in active and passive decay heat removal systems in Korean Generation IV SFR, and the DHX installed in the STELLA-1(Sodium integral effect test loop for safety simulation and assessment) at KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). Evaluations of creep-fatigue damage based on full 3D finite element analyses were conducted for the two Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel heat exchangers according to the elevated temperature design codes of ASME Section III Subsection NH and RCC-MR code. Code comparisons were made based on the creep-fatigue damage evaluation and issues on conservatisms of the design codes were discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.78-84
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• 2016

The FHX (Forced-draft sodium-to-air Heat Exchanger) employed in the ADHRS (active decay heat removal system) is a shell-and-tube type counter-current flow heat exchanger with M-shape finned-tube arrangement. Liquid sodium flows inside the heat transfer tubes and atmospheric air flows over the finned tubes. The unit is placed in the upper region of the reactor building and has function of dumping the system heat load into the final heat sink, i.e., the atmosphere. Heat is transmitted from the primary cold sodium pool into the ADHRS sodium loop via DHX (decay heat exchanger), and a direct heat exchange occurs between the tube-side sodium and the shell-side air through the FHX tube wall. This paper describes the DHRS and the structural design of the FHX.