• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권8호
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• pp.3405-3424
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• 2024

Reactivity worth of fuel rods at the JSI TRIGA research reactor was measured. Differently burned fuel rods were chosen to validate fuel burnup calculations. Two methods of measuring reactivity worth of fuel rods are used, traditional method is compared to newly introduced method using fuel rods swapping. Connection between both methods is described theoretically and the theory is validated experimentally. Fuel rod worth calculated using the newly introduced fuel rod swap method was within 1σ of worth measured using the traditional method. In addition to the recently performed experiments, weekly measurements of reactor core reactivity throughout the operational history are used for validation. The measured data were used to validate the fuel burnup and core criticality calculations. Fuel burnup calculations are performed using three different computer codes: the deterministic TRIGLAV, the Monte Carlo Serpent-2, and the hybrid RAPID. Great agreement was observed for Serpent-2 and RAPID by simulating fuel rod worth and its burnup, indicating that the fuel burnup and criticality calculations are accurate and that reactivity changes due to small burnup differences on the order of 10 pcm can be accurately simulated. In addition it was shown using ex-core detectors and large fission chamber that detector response changes due to fuel swapping are evident for fuel rod burnup differences of 20 MWd/kg. Fuel burnup calculations were further validated on excess reactivity measurements for three mixed TRIGA cores. The calculated burnup reactivity coefficient Δρ_BU using Serpent-2 and RAPID was within 1σ of the measurements, showing both codes are capable of calculating burnup for different TRIGA fuel types.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.781-789
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• 2022

KHNP had licensed Dynamic Control rod Reactivity Measurement (DCRM) method using detector current signals of PWRs in 2006. The method has been applied to all PWRs in Korea for about 15 years successfully. However, the original method was inapplicable to PWRs using low-sensitivity integral fission chamber as ex-core detectors because of their pulse pile-up and the nonlinearity of the mean-square voltage at low power region. Therefore, to overcome this disadvantage, a modified method, DCRM-EK, was developed using kinetics behavior after equilibrium condition where the pulse counts maintain the maximum value before pulse pile-up. Overall measurement, analysis procedure, and related computer codes were changed slightly to reflect the site test condition. The new method was applied to a total of 15 control rods of 1000 MWe and 1400 MWe PWRs in Korea with worths in the range of 200 pcm -1200 pcm. The results show the average difference of -0.4% and the maximum difference of 7.1% compared to the design values. Therefore, the new DCRM-EK will be applied to PWRs using low sensitivity integral fission chambers, and also can replace the original DCRM when the evaluation fails by big noises present in current or voltage signals of uncompensated/compensated ion chambers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.361-370
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• 1993

국내 가압 경수로는 핵연료 재장전후 해당 주기 노심핵설계의 타당성 및 안선 제한치의 만족 여부를 확인하기 위하여 저출력에서 노물리 시험을 수행한다. 그러나 고리 3호기 7주기를 포함한 일부 저출력 노물리 시험 중 step 반응도를 삽입한 후에도 반응도가 서서히 증가하는 기이한 현상이 나타났다. 이러한 현상은 시험시 중성자속 준위가 낮고 노외 핵계측기로 비보상형 전리함을 사용하기 때문에 감마 background가 존재하여 생기는 것이다. 이로 인해 노물리 시험 결과는 많은 오차를 포함할 수도 있는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 반응도가 증가하는 현상을 정량적으로 분석하고 기준 제어봉 제어능 측정 시험을 모사함으로써 노물리 시험 결과의 오차를 줄일 수 있는 방법을 제시하고 이후의 노물리 시험에 적용하여 확인하였다. 또한 감마 background 준위를 산정한 후 중성자속 준위를 조정하여 기준 제어봉 제어능 측정 시험을 통해 감마 background의 영향을 받지 않는 중성자속 준위를 결정하였다. 결정된 중성자속 준위는 핵가열이 발생하는 중성자속의 3/10이다. 이것은 기존의 상한치보다 3배 증가된 것이다. 이 결과는 고리 4호기 7주기 및 영광 1호기 7주기 노물리 시험에 성공적으로 적용되었다.