• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2012.10a
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• pp.457-458
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.445-446
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.347-348
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• 2012

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

EU-APR1400, the Korean nuclear reactor design for European market adopts a so-called core catcher for ex-vessel molten corium retention and cooling as a severe-accident mitigation system. Sacrificial material, which controls melt properties and modifies melt conditions favorable for corium cooling and retention, is usually employed to protect core catcher body from molten corium. Since molten corium can be ejected through a breach of a reactor pressure vessel and impinged on the sacrificial material with enhanced heat transfer at a severe accident, it is very important to predict ablation rate of sacrificial material due to corium jet impingement accurately for core catcher design. In this paper, sacrificial-material ablation model based on boundary layer theory is suggested and compared with the experimental results by KAERI.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.59-73
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• 2019

A decontamination technology for radioactive liquid wastes was newly developed and hypothetically applied to the liquid waste management system (LWMS) of the nuclear power plant (NPP) to evaluate its decontamination efficacy for the purpose of the fundamental reduction of spent resins. The basic principle of the developed technology is to convert major radionuclide ions in the liquid wastes into inorganic crystal minerals via chemical or biological techniques. In a laboratory batch experiment, the biological method selectively removed more than 80% of cesium within 24 hours, and the chemical method removed more than 95% of cesium. Other major nuclides (Co, Ni, Fe, Cr, Mn, Eu), which are commonly present in nuclear radioactive liquid wastes, were effectively scavenged by more than 99%. We have designed a module including the new technology that could be hypothetically installed between the reverse osmosis (R/O) package and the organic ion-exchange resin in the LWMS of the APR1400 reactor. From a technical evaluation for the virtual installation, we found that more than 90% of major radionuclides in the radioactive liquid wastes were selectively removed, resulting in a large volume reduction of spent resins. This means that if the new technology is commercialized in the future, it could possibly provide drastic cost reduction and significant extension of the life of resins in the management of spent resins, consequently leading to delay the saturation time of the Wolsong repository.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.148-148
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• 2004

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1043-1047
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• 2012

The European nuclear design requirements, which should be satisfied by nuclear reactors in Europe, usually recommend a so-called core catcher, which is a molten core ex-vessel cooling facility, to manage a severe accident at a nuclear reactor. Two different types of core catcher concepts are compared to determine their abilities to manage severe accidents and cool core melts. The study reveals that direct cooling is better for cooling capacity and is convenient to construct, while indirect cooing is better for the management of a severe accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1547-1554
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• 2017

VESTA (Verification of Ex-vessel corium STAbilization) and VESTA-S (-small) test facilities were constructed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in 2010 to perform various corium melt experiments. Since then, several tests have been performed for the verification of an ex-vessel core catcher design for the EU-APR1400. Ablation tests of an impinging $ZrO_2$ melt jet on a sacrificial material were performed to investigate the ablation characteristics. $ZrO_2$ melt in an amount of 65-70 kg was discharged onto a sacrificial material through a well-designed nozzle, after which the ablation depths were measured. Interaction tests between the metallic melt and sacrificial material were performed to investigate the interaction kinetics of the sacrificial material. Two types of melt were used: one is a metallic corium melt with Fe 46%, U 31%, Zr 16%, and Cr 7% (maximum possible content of U and Zr for C-40), and the other is a stainless steel (SUS304) melt. Metallic melt in an amount of 1.5-2.0 kg was delivered onto the sacrificial material, and the ablation depths were measured. Penetration tube failure tests were performed for an APR1400 equipped with 61 in-core instrumentation penetration nozzles and extended tubes at the reactor lower vessel. $ZrO_2$ melt was generated in a melting crucible and delivered down into an interaction crucible where the test specimen is installed. To evaluate the tube ejection mechanism, temperature distributions of the reactor bottom head and in-core instrumentation penetration were measured by a series of thermocouples embedded along the specimen. In addition, lower vessel failure tests for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are being performed. As a first step, the configuration of the molten core in the plant was investigated by a melting and solidification experiment. Approximately 5 kg of a mixture, whose composition in terms of weight is $UO_2$ 60%, Zr 10%, $ZrO_2$ 15%, SUS304 14%, and $B_4C$ 1%, was melted in a cold crucible using an induction heating technique.