• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.275-279
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• 2001

In uranium enrichment plants and nuclear fuel fabrication facilities, exact measurement of fissile isotope enrichment of uranium is required for material accounting in international safeguards inspection as well as process quality control. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple measurement system which can portably be used at nuclear fuel fabrication plants especially dealing with low enriched uranium. For this purpose, a small size CZT (CdZnTe) detector was used, and the detector performance in low uranium gamma/X -rays energy range was investigated by use of various enriched uranium oxide samples. New enrichment measurement technique and analysis method for low enriched uranium oxide, so-called, 'semi-peak ratio technique' was developed. The newly developed method was considered as an alternative technique for the low enrichment and would be useful to account nuclear material in safeguarding activity at nuclear fuel fabrication facility.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3650-3659
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• 2022

We proposed a modification of a double cascade scheme to enrich reprocessed uranium. Such a cascade scheme represents a combination of one cascade with "broadening" of the flow and an ordinary three-flow cascade. A calculation and optimization method has been developed for the proposed scheme according to various efficiency criteria. It is shown that the proposed scheme makes it possible to obtain low-enriched uranium of commercial quality using reprocessed uranium of different initial compositions. For example, the enrichment of reprocessed uranium, which had gone through five consequent recycles, was considered. The proposed scheme allowed to enrich it with simultaneous fulfillment of restrictions on isotopes ²³²U, ²³⁴U, and ²³⁶U. Such results indicate the scheme's applicability under conditions of multiple recycling of uranium in reactor fuel. Computational experiments have shown that in the proposed modification, a noticeable saving of natural uranium in the cycle (~18%) can be achieved, provided that the additional consumption of separative work does not exceed 10%, compared with the case of enrichment of natural uranium to obtain LEU of equivalent quality.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.155-161
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• 2015

Technetium-99m (^99mTc) is an important, short-lived decay product of molybdenum-99 (⁹⁹Mo), and it is considered the backbone of the modern nuclear diagnostic procedures. Since fission of ²³⁵U is the main source of production of ⁹⁹Mo, either highly-enriched uranium (HEU) targets or low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets are irradiated in the research reactors. The use of LEU targets is being promoted by the international community to avoid the proliferation issues linked with the use of HEU. In order to define the waste management strategy at the planning stage of establishment of an LEU based ⁹⁹Mo production facility, the impact of the use of LEU targets on the radioactive waste stream of the ⁹⁹Mo production facility was analyzed. Because the volume of uranium waste is estimated to increase six times, the use of high uranium density targets and the utilization of hot isostatic pressing were recommended to reduce the increased waste volume from the use of LEU based targets.

• Strategy21
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• s.41
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• pp.261-293
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• 2017

Nuclear power is a way of attaining an enormous amount of energy with relatively small amount of resources and after it has been introduced to the submarine since 1954, there are approximately 150 of nuclear powered submarine currently on a mission around the world. This is due to the maneuverability, mountability and covertness of nuclear submarines. However, there are other tasks, not only the high level of nuclear technology that are needed to be dealt with in order to construct nuclear powered submarine. The biggest task of all is to secure the enriched uranium. Accordingly, this research is about the way of enriching and securing the nuclear fuel that are used in the nuclear submarine with the characteristics, merits and demerits of the nuclear submarine. Due to the fact that the pressurized water reactor in South Korea is the reactor that was originally built for the development of nuclear powered submarine, many parts is designed to be suitable for the submarine propulsion. However, in order to apply this to submarine it is needed to consider additional requests such as the position of reactor, accident-coping system, radioactive covering, reactor output adjustment and ship's pitch and roll in order to apply this to submarine. Nuclear submarines have much higher speed based on the powerful propulsion in comparison with diesel-electric submarine and also have bigger loading area. Besides, there is no need to snorkel and they also have advantages in covertness with the multi-noise proof system. The nuclear technology in South Korea has seen the dramatic development since 1962 and in 1998 reached to the level that we have succeeded in the localization of nuclear plant and exported the world-class one-piece small-sized reactor (SMART) to UAE. To operate these reactors, we import the whole quantity of low-enriched uranium and having our own uranium enrich facility is not probable because of the budget and international regulations. With the ROK/US nuclear agreement revised on 2015 November, the enrichment of uranium that are available without special permission has changed up to 20%. According to the assumption that we use the 20% enrichment of Uranium on U.S. virginia class submarine, it is necessary to change the fuel after 11 years and it will cause additional cost of 1 billion dollars. But the replace period by the uranium's enrichment rate is not fixed so that it is possible to change according to the design of reactor. Therefore, I would like to make a suggestion on two types of design concepts of nuclear submarine that can be operated for 30 years without nuclear fuel change by using the 20% enriched uranium from ONNp.First of all, it is possible by increasing the size of reactor by 3 times and it results in the 1,000t increase of the weight. And secondly, it is by designing the one piece reactor to insert devices such as steam turbine, condenser into the inside of nuclear core like the Rubis class submarines of France.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.979-986
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• 2013

Uranium metal particle dispersion plates have been proposed as targets for Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production to improve the radioisotope production efficiency of conventional low enriched uranium targets. In this study, uranium powder was produced by centrifugal atomization, and miniature target plates containing uranium particles in an aluminum matrix with uranium densities up to 9 $g-U/cm^3$ were fabricated. Additional heat treatment was applied to convert the uranium particles into UAlx compounds by a chemical reaction of the uranium particles and aluminum matrix. Thus, these target plates can be treated with the same alkaline dissolution process that is used for conventional $UAl_x$ dispersion targets, while increasing the uranium density in the target plates.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.613-623
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• 2016

Molybdenum-99 ($^{99}Mo$) is the most important isotope because its daughter isotope, technetium-99m ($^{99m}Tc$), has been the most widely used medical radioisotope for more than 50 years, accounting for > 80% of total nuclear diagnostics worldwide. In this review, radiochemical routes for the production of $^{99}Mo$, and the aspects for selecting a suitable process strategy are discussed from the historical viewpoint of $^{99}Mo$ technology developments. Most of the industrial-scale $^{99}Mo$ processes have been based on the fission of $^{235}U$. Recently, important issues have been raised for the conversion of fission $^{99}Mo$ targets from highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium (LEU). The development of new LEU targets with higher density was requested to compensate for the loss of $^{99}Mo$ yield, caused by a significant reduction of $^{235}U$ enrichment, from the conversion. As the dramatic increment of intermediate level liquid waste is also expected from the conversion, an effective strategy to reduce the waste generation from the fission $^{99}Mo$ production is required. The mitigation of radioxenon emission from medical radioisotope production facilities is discussed in relation with the monitoring of nuclear explosions and comprehensive nuclear test ban. Lastly, the $^{99}Mo$ production process paired with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute's own LEU target is proposed as one of the most suitable processes for the LEU target.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2867-2873
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• 2020

In reprocessed uranium, derived from an impoverished fuel of light-water moderated reactors, there are isotopes of ^{232, 234, 236}U, which make its recycling remarkably difficult. A method of concentration of ²³⁵U target isotope in cascade's additional product was proposed to recover the isotopic composition of reprocessed uranium. A general calculation procedure is presented and a parameters' optimization of multi-flow cascades with additional products. For the first time a numeric model of a cascade that uses the cuts of partial flows of stages with relatively high separation factors was applied in this procedure. A novel computing experiment is carried out on separation of reprocessed uranium hexafluoride with providing a high concentration of ²³⁵U in cascade's additional product with subsequent dilution. The parameters of cascades' stages are determined so as to allow reducing the ^{232, 234, 236}U isotope content up to the acceptable. It was demonstrated that the dilution of selected products by the natural waste makes it possible to receive a low enriched uranium hexafluoride that meets the ASTM C996-15 specification for commercial grade.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 1969

Determinations of the isotopic contents of U$^{235}$ and U$^{238}$ in ten uranium samples containing 0.72-89.70 at % U$^{235}$ were carried out in two ways utilizing high resolution Ge (Li) gamma-ray spectrometer. One method is based upon the fact that the intensity of 185.5 kev gamma-ray vary linearly with U$^{235}$ content for a given geometry. Another method applied for the direct determination of the U$^{235}$ / U$^{238}$ isotopic ratios is the precision gamma-ray spectrometric analysis of reactor irradiated uranium samples after allowing a fixed cooling time for one hour. The results obtained by both methods well agree with the values calculated from the isotopic contents of highly enriched original uranium samples measured by mass spectrometer. The precision obtained was well below 5% for most of the isotopic ratios investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2660-2669
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• 2022

The attractiveness for weapons usage of the proposed fuel cycle for the PT-SCWR was evaluated in this study using the Figure-of-Merit methodology. It was compared to the attractiveness of other fuel cycles namely, Low Enriched Uranium (LEU), U/Th, Re-enriched Reprocessed Uranium (RepU), and Pu/Th/U. The optimal content of natural uranium, which can be added to Pu/Th to render the produced U-233 unattractive, was found to be 9%. A ranking system to compare the attractiveness of the various fuel cycles is proposed. RepU was found to be the most proliferation resistant fuel cycle for the first 100 years,while, the least proliferation resistant fuel cycle was the originally proposed Pu/Th one. The reactivity feedback coefficients were calculated for all proposed fuel cycles. All studied reactivity coefficients have the same sign implying that all the fuel cycles will behave neutronically in a similar way. The Pu/Th/U fuel was found to have the most negative value of the Coolant Void Reactivity which will help to restore the core to a safe status faster in case of a loss-of-coolant accident. The fuel and moderator temperature coefficients did not show significant differences between the fuels studied.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.689-699
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• 2020

In this work, new multi-recycling options of TRU nuclides using PWR fuel assemblies comprised of MOX and FCM (Fully Ceramic Micro Encapsulated) fuels are suggested and neutronically analyzed. These options do not use a fully recycling of TRU but a partial recycling where TRUs from MOX fuels are recycled while the ones from FCM fuels are not recycled due to their high consumption rate resulted from high burnup. In particular, additional external TRU feed in MOX fuels for each cycle was considered to significantly increase the TRU consumption rate and the finally selected option is to use external TRU and enriched uranium feed as a makeup for the heavy metal consumption in MOX fuels. This hybrid external feeding of TRU and enriched uranium in MOX fuel was shown to be very effective in significantly increasing TRU consumption rate, maintaining long cycle length, and achieving negative void reactivity worth during recycling.