• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.707-716
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• 2023

The influence of waste technological waters of thermal and fast reactors of Beloyarsk NPP (Russia) on the accumulation of ⁶⁰Co, ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs in macrophytes and ichthyofauna of the cooling pond has been studied. Critical radionuclides, routes of their entry into the ecosystem and periods of maximum discharge of radioisotopes into the cooling pond have been determined. It is shown that the technology of electricity generation at the Beloyarsk NPP, based on fast reactors, has a much smaller effect on the release of artificial radionuclides into the environment. Therefore, during the entire period of monitoring studies (1976-2019), the decrease in the specific activity of radionuclides of NPP origin in macrophytes was 13-25800 times, in ichthyofauna 1.5-44.5 times. The maximum discharge of artificial radionuclides into the Beloyarsk reservoir was noted during the period of restoration and decontamination work aimed at eliminating the emergencies at the AMB reactors of NPP. The factors influencing the accumulation of artificial radionuclides in the components of the freshwater ecosystem of the Beloyarsk cooling pond have been determined, including: the physicochemical nature of radioisotopes, their concentration in surface water, the temperature of the aquatic environment, the trophicity of the reservoir, the species of hydrobionts.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.439-447
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• 2012

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.148-156
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• 2015

Several vendors have recently been actively pursuing the development of integral pressurized water reactors (iPWRs) that range in power levels from small to large reactors. Integral reactors have the features of minimum vessel penetrations, passive heat removal after reactor shutdown, and modular construction that allow fast plant integration and a secure fuel cycle. The features of an integral reactor limit the options for placing control and safety system instruments. The development of instrumentation and control (I&C) strategies for a large 1,000 MWe iPWR is described. Reactor system modeling-which includes reactor core dynamics, primary heat exchanger, and the steam flashing drum-is an important part of I&C development and validation, and thereby consolidates the overall implementation for a large iPWR. The results of simulation models, control development, and instrumentation features illustrate the systematic approach that is applicable to integral light water reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1442-1450
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• 2017

In liquid metal fast breeder reactors, postulated failures of the plant protection system may lead to serious unprotected accidental consequences. Unprotected transients are generically categorized as transient overpower accidents and transient under cooling accidents. In both cases, core meltdown may occur and this can lead to a molten fuel coolant interaction (MFCI). The understanding of MFCI phenomena is essential for study of debris coolability and characteristics during post-accident heat removal. Sodium is used as coolant in liquid metal fast breeder reactors. Viewing inside sodium at elevated temperature is impossible because of its opaqueness. In the present study, a methodology to depict MFCI phenomena using a flat panel detector based imaging system (i.e., real time radiography) is brought out using a woods metal-water experimental facility which simulates the $UO_2-Na$ interaction. The developed imaging system can capture attributes of the MFCI process like jet breakup length, jet front velocity, fragmented particle size, and a profile of the debris bed using digital image processing methods like image filtering, segmentation, and edge detection. This paper describes the MFCI process and developed imaging methodology to capture MFCI attributes which are directly related to the safe aspects of a sodium fast reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3438-3448
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• 2021

Dynamic seals are one of the critical components of Absorber Rod Drive Mechanism of Fast Breeder Reactors, requiring separate experimental development. Their significance can't be overemphasized considering that the availability and re-usability of Control Rod Drive Mechanisms of Fast Breeder Test Reactor is governed by the failure rate of dynamic seals (bellows). For prototype and subsequent Fast Breeder Reactors in India, choice of the dynamic seal is changed to an in-house designed & developed labyrinth type V-ring seal. The present work is related to the numerical investigations carried out to gain insights into the sealing mechanism and the thermal behaviour of these seals. The results indicate that the seal geometry is very important for obtaining optimum performance. By changing the geometry of the present seal, performance enhancement by more than 50% in important indices is obtained. Further, the results point out that caution shall be exercised when the seal material & its operating temperature are changed. Also, the numerical model developed in this study will be useful for developing more robust dynamic seals in future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2788-2802
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• 2021

Multigroup cross section (MG XS) generation by the UNIST in-house Monte Carlo (MC) code MCS for fast reactor analysis using nodal diffusion codes is reported. The feasibility of the approach is quantified for two sodium fast reactors (SFRs) specified in the OECD/NEA SFR benchmark: a 1000 MW_th metal-fueled SFR (MET-1000) and a 3600 MW_th oxide-fueled SFR (MOX-3600). The accuracy of a few-group XSs generated by MCS is verified using another MC code, Serpent 2. The neutronic steady-state whole-core problem is analyzed using MCS/RAST-K with a 24-group XS set. Various core parameters of interest (core k_eff, power profiles, and reactivity feedback coefficients) are obtained using both MCS/RAST-K and MCS. A code-to-code comparison indicates excellent agreement between the nodal diffusion solution and stochastic solution; the error in the core k_eff is less than 110 pcm, the root-mean-square error of the power profiles is within 1.0%, and the error of the reactivity feedback coefficients is within three standard deviations. Furthermore, using the super-homogenization-corrected XSs improves the prediction accuracy of the control rod worth and power profiles with all rods in. Therefore, the results demonstrate that employing the MCS MG XSs for the nodal diffusion code is feasible for high-fidelity analyses of fast reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2011

Two conceptual flowsheets were developed for recycling used nuclear fuel. One flowsheet was developed for recycling used oxide nuclear fuel from light water reactors while the other was developed for recycling used metal fuel from fast spectrum reactors. Both flowsheets were developed from a set of design principles including efficient actinide recovery, nonproliferation, waste minimization and commercial viability. Process chemistry is discussed for each unit operation in the flowsheet.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.2442-2451
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• 2020

The safety level of Sodium Fast Reactors is directly related with the sodium void reactivity. A low-void effect design has been proposed within the Horizon2020 ESFR-SMART project thanks to the introduction of a sodium plenum above the active core. In order to assess the impact of this core conception on transient analysis, a map with the spatial distribution of sodium void worth can be computed and fed into a point-kinetics-based transient code. Due to the spatial correlations between neighboring zones, the global effect of voiding two different axial or radial regions is not necessarily the sum of both individual contributions. Neglecting those correlations in the void worth map and consequently in the transient analysis may lead to an unrealistic prediction of the transient sequences. In this work, a method based on sensitivity analysis and similarity assessment is proposed for predicting those correlations. The method proved to be able to establish correlations between axial slices of a sub-assembly and was checked against realistic sodium void propagation patterns.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2003

This study was performed to compare the effects of rice straw and towage sludge cake as bulking materials on temperature, pH, weight and volume reduction, porosity, C/N ratio, salinity, and conductivity in aerobic composting of food wastes. Volume ratios of food wastes to rice straw in reactor control, RS-1, RS-2, RS-3 and RS-4 were 4:0, 4:1, 4:2, 4:3 and 4:4, respectively. Weight ratios of food wastes to sewage sludge rake in reactor control, SL-1, SL-2, SL-3 and SL-4 were 4:0, 4:1, 4:2, 4:3 and 4:4, respectively. Reactors were operated for 24 days with 1 hour stirring by 1 rpm and 2 hours aeration per day. The values of pH of food waters, rice straw and sewage sludge cake were 4.39, 7.40 and 5.79, respectively. The lowering of the volume ratio of food wastes to rice straw resulted in the high reaction temperature and the fast weight and volume reduction rates. The lowering of the weight ratio of food wastes to sewage sludge cake resulted in the slow weight and volume reduction rates. C/N ratio in control was larger than that in rice straw containing reactors, and that in rice straw containing reactors was larger than that in sewage sludge cake containing reactors. Salinity and conductivity in reactors were condensed and increased by reaction days.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.161-167
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• 2019

Several types of reactors have been used during the past decade to perform fast pyrolysis of biomass. Among the developed fast pyrolysis reactors, fluidized bed reactors have been widely used in the fast pyrolysis process. In recent years, experimental studies have been conducted on the characteristics of biomass fast pyrolysis in a spouted bed reactor. The fluidization characteristics of a spouted bed reactor are influenced by particle properties, fluid jet velocity, and the structure of the core and annulus. The geometry of the spouted bed reactor is the main factor determining the structure of the core and annulus. Accordingly, to optimize the design of a spouted bed reactor, it is necessary to study the pyrolysis characteristics of biomass. However, no detailed investigations have been made of the fast pyrolysis characteristics of biomass in accordance with the geometry of the spouted bed reactor. In this study, fast pyrolysis experiments using Jatropha curcas L. seed shell cake were conducted in a conical spouted bed reactor to study the effects of reaction temperature and reactor cone angle on the product yield and pyrolysis oil quality. The highest energy yield of pyrolysis oil obtained was 63.9% with a reaction temperature of $450^{\circ}C$ and reactor cone angle of $44^{\circ}$. The results showed that the reaction temperature and reactor cone angle affected the quality of the pyrolysis oil.