• 한국안전학회지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.123-128
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• 2013

The Advanced Power Reactor Plus(APR+), which is a GEN III+ reactor based on the APR1400, is being developed in Korea. In order to enhance the safety of the APR+, a passive auxiliary feedwater system(PAFS) has been adopted in the APR+. The PAFS replaces the conventional active auxiliary feedwater system(AFWS) by introducing a natural driving force mechanism while maintaining the system function of cooling the primary side and removing the decay heat. As the PAFS completely replaces the conventional AFWS, it is required to verify the cooling capacity of PAFS for the core damage frequency(CDF) evaluation. For this reason, this paper discusses the cooling performance of the PAFS during transient accidents. The test case and scenarios were picked from the result of the sensitivity analysis in APR+ Probabilistic Safety Assessment(PSA). The analysis was performed by the best estimate thermal-hydraulic code, RELAP5/.MOD3.3. This study shows that the plant maintains the stable state without the core damages under the given test scenarios. The results of PSA considering this analysis' results shows that the CDF values are decreased. The analysis results can be used for more realistic and accurate performance of a PSA.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.287-298
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• 2007

As part of the $AP1000^{TM}$ pressurized water reactor design certification program, a series of integral systems tests of the nuclear steam supply system was performed at the APEX-1000 test facility at Oregon State University. These tests provided data necessary to validate Westinghouse safety analysis computer codes for AP1000 applications. In addition, the tests provided the opportunity to investigate the thermal-hydraulic phenomena expected to be important in AP1000 small-break loss of coolant accidents (SBLOCAs). The APEX-1000 facility is a 1/4-scale pressure and 1/4-scale height simulation of the AP1000 nuclear steam supply system and passive safety features. A series of eleven tests was performed in the APEX-1000 facility as part of a U.S. Department of Energy contract. In all, four SBLOCA tests representing a spectrum of break sizes and locations were simulated along with tests to study specific phenomena of interest. The focus of this paper is the SBLOCA tests. The key thermal-hydraulic phenomena simulated in the APEX-1000 tests, and the performance and interactions of the passive safety-related systems that can be investigated through the APEX-1000 facility, are emphasized. The APEX-1000 tests demonstrate that the AP1000 passive safety-related systems successfully combine to provide a continuous removal of core decay heat and the reactor core remains covered with considerable margin for all small-break LOCA events.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.439-458
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• 2013

REX-10 is a fully-passive small modular reactor in which the coolant flow is driven by natural circulation, the RCS is pressurized by a steam-gas pressurizer, and the decay heat is removed by the PRHRS. To confirm design decisions and analyze the transient responses of an integral PWR such as REX-10, a thermal-hydraulic system code named TAPINS (Thermal-hydraulic Analysis Program for INtegral reactor System) is developed in this study. Based on a one-dimensional four-equation drift-flux model, TAPINS incorporates mathematical models for the core, the helical-coil steam generator, and the steam-gas pressurizer. The system of difference equations derived from the semi-implicit finite-difference scheme is numerically solved by the Newton Block Gauss Seidel (NBGS) method. TAPINS is characterized by applicability to transients with non-equilibrium effects, better prediction of the transient behavior of a pressurizer containing non-condensable gas, and code assessment by using the experimental data from the autonomous integral effect tests in the RTF (REX-10 Test Facility). Details on the hydrodynamic models as well as a part of validation results that reveal the features of TAPINS are presented in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.715-731
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• 2021

Uncertainties are calculated for pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) characteristics. The deterministic code STREAM is currently being used as an SNF analysis tool to obtain isotopic inventory, radioactivity, decay heat, neutron and gamma source strengths. The SNF analysis capability of STREAM was recently validated. However, the uncertainty analysis is yet to be conducted. To estimate the uncertainty due to nuclear data, STREAM is used to perturb nuclear cross section (XS) and resonance integral (RI) libraries produced by NJOY99. The perturbation of XS and RI involves the stochastic sampling of ENDF/B-VII.1 covariance data. To estimate the uncertainty due to modeling parameters (fuel design and irradiation history), surrogate models are built based on polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) and variance-based sensitivity indices (i.e., Sobol' indices) are employed to perform global sensitivity analysis (GSA). The calculation results indicate that uncertainty of SNF due to modeling parameters are also very important and as a result can contribute significantly to the difference of uncertainties due to nuclear data and modeling parameters. In addition, the surrogate model offers a computationally efficient approach with significantly reduced computation time, to accurately evaluate uncertainties of SNF integral characteristics.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권2호
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• pp.498-508
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• 2021

Micro reactors are increasingly being considered for utilization as distributed power sources. Hence, the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of a direct supercritical-CO₂-cooled fast reactor, called micro modular reactor (MMR), was performed in this study; this reactor was developed using innovative design concepts. It adopted a modular design and passive safety systems to minimize site constraints. As the MMR is in its conceptual design phase, design weaknesses and valuable safety insights could be identified during PSA. Level 1 internal event PSA was carried out involving literature survey, system characterization, identification of initiating events, transient analyses, development of event trees and fault trees, and quantification. The initiating events and scenarios significantly contributing to core damage frequency (CDF) were determined to identify design weaknesses in MMR. The most significant initiating event category contributing to CDF was the transients with the power conversion system initially available category, owing to its relatively high occurrence frequency. Further, an importance analysis revealed that the safety of MMR can be significantly improved by improving the reliability of reactor trip and passive decay heat removal system operation. The findings presented in this paper are expected to contribute toward future applications of PSA for assessing unconventional nuclear reactors in their conceptual design phases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권1호
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• pp.284-292
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• 2019

For the continuous operation of a nuclear reactor, burnt fuel needs to be replaced with fresh fuel, where appropriate (ex-vessel) fuel handling is required. Particularly for the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) refueling, its process has unique challenges due to liquid sodium coolant. The ex-vessel spent fuel transportation should concern several design features such as the radiation shielding, decay-heat removal, and inert space separated from air. This paper proposes a new design optimization methodology of cask shielding to transport the spent fuel assembly in a prototype SFR for the first time. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm had been applied to design trade-offs between shielding and cask weight. The cask is designed as a double-cylinder structure to block an inert sodium region from the air-cooling space. The PSO process yielded the optimum shielding thickness of 26 cm, considering the weight as well. To confirm the shielding performance, the radiation dose of spent fuel removed at its peak burnup and after 1-year cooling was calculated. Two different fuel positions located during transportation were also investigated to consider a functional disorder in a cask drive system. This study concludes the current cask design in normal operations is satisfactory in accordance with regulatory rules.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권8호
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• pp.2915-2923
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• 2022

There is an increasing interest in passive safety systems to minimize the need for operator intervention or external power sources in nuclear power plants. Because a passive system has a weak driving force, there is greater uncertainty in the performance compared with an active system. In previous studies, several methods have been suggested to evaluate passive system reliability, and many of them estimated the failure probability using thermal-hydraulic analyses and the Monte Carlo method. However, if the functional failure of a passive system is rare, it is difficult to estimate the failure probability using conventional methods owing to their high computational time. In this paper, a procedure for the application of the Chernoff bound to the evaluation of passive system reliability is proposed. A feasibility study of the procedure was conducted on a passive decay heat removal system of a micro modular reactor in its conceptual design phase, and it was demonstrated that the passive system reliability can be evaluated without performing a large number of thermal-hydraulic analyses or Monte Carlo simulations when the system has a small failure probability. Accordingly, the advantages and constraints of applying the Chernoff bound for passive system reliability evaluation are discussed in this paper.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1996년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(2)
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• pp.429-434
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• 1996

K-REM［1］, which is under development as a realistic evaluation model of large break LOCA, is applied to the analysis of cold leg guillotine break of Ulchin 3&4. Fuel parameters on which statistical analysis of their effects on the peak cladding temperature (PCT) are made and system parameters on which the concept of limiting value approach (LVA) are applied, are determined from the single parameter sensitivity study. 3 parameters of fuel gap conductance, fuel thermal conductivity and power peaking factor are selected as fuel related ones and 4 parameters of axial power shape, reactor power, decay heat and the gas pressure of safety injection tank (SIT) are selected as plant system related ones. Response surface of PCT is generated from the plant calculation results and on which Monte Carlo sampling is made to get plant application uncertainty which is statistically combined with code uncertainty to produce the 95th percentile PCT. From the break spectrum analysis, blowdown PCT of 1350.23 K and reflood PCT of 1195.56 K are obtained for break discharge coefficients of 0.8 and 0.5, respectively.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.47-52
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• 2007

This paper presents characteristics analysis of persistent current switch(PCS) system on a small scale by using YBCO coated conductor(CC). A high temperature superconductor(HTS) PCS system mainly consists of a PCS, a HTS magnet load and a magnet power supply(MPS). To design the optimal heater triggering switch. the three-dimensional heat conduction model was analyzed by finite element method(FEM). The electrical equivalent model considering the n-value of CC was applied to analyze current decay during persistent current mode. In the experiment and simulation, the heater was applied with a current of 0.43A and the current was ramped up to 10A and 20A with 0.2A/s. Finally, experimental results of the HTS PCS system have been compared with the theoretical results. It has been concluded that flux creep can not influence the results because the operating current was 40% of critical current and optimal sequential operation of the PCS system is indispensable to enhance its performance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.4759-4775
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• 2022

The RVACS is a versatile and robust safety system driven by two natural circulations: in-vessel coolant and ex-vessel air. To observe interaction between the two natural circulations, SINCRO-IT facility was designed with two different similarity laws simultaneously. Bo' based similarity law was employed for the in-vessel, while Ishii's similarity law for the ex-vessel excluding the radiation. Compared to the prototype, the sodium and air system, SINCRO-IT was designed with Wood's metal and air, having 1:4 of the length reduction, and 1.68:1 of the time scale ratio. For the steady state, RV temperature limit was violated at 0.8% of the decay heat, while the sodium boiling was predicted at 1.3%. It showed good accordance with the system code, TRACE. For an arbitrary re-criticality scenario with RVACS solitary operation, sodium boiling was predicted at 25,100 s after power increase from 1.0 to 2.0%, while the system code showed 30,300. Maximum temperature discrepancy between the experiments and system code was 4.2%. The design and methodology were validated by the system code TRACE in terms of the convection, and simultaneously, the system code was validated against the simulating experiments SINCRO-IT. The validated RVACS model could be imported to further accident analysis.