• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.369-376
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• 2018

The ability to recover the nearly limitless supply of uranium contained within the world's oceans would provide supply security to uranium based fuel cycles. Therefore, in addition to U.S. national laboratories conducting R&D on a system capable of harvesting seawater uranium, a number of collaborative university partners have developed alternative technologies to complement the national laboratory scheme. This works summarizes the systems analysis of such novel uranium recovery technologies along with their potential impacts on seawater uranium recovery. While implementation of some recent developments can reduce the cost of seawater uranium by up to 30%, other researchers have sought to address a weakness while maintaining cost competitiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.114-123
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• 2018

As recognizing the necessity of eco-friendly vehicles in order to reduce air pollution from road sector, Korean government has established and implemented a promotion policy which is encouraging the public transportation companies to purchase CNG buses in replacing diesel buses since 2000s. With CNG bus promotion policy, the number of CNG buses had been increased on the road of metropolitan area and big cities. However, increasing rate of CNG buses had been fluctuated between the decrease and the increase since year 2014. In this study, the impact of fuel cost competitiveness between diesel and CNG on CNG bus increasing volume was testified by simple regression, which was only assumed by precedent research on the CNG promotion policy. And this study suggested the necessity of harmonization among the related policies conducted by related Ministries. Eventually this study should contribute to enhance the validity of CNG bus promotion policy. And it is expected that Korean government should apply the new policy suggestion of this study in the establishment of government's promotion policy on LNG cargo trucks and Zero Emission Vehicles in the future.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.10-17
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• 2011

Recently, electricity industry is facing high market uncertainty which has ever had and which increase risks in power market. In this study, we analyze risk factors such as discount rates, initial investment (overnight cost), plant factor, fuel cost, carbon price, etc, for the perspective of investor. For the analysis of risk factors, we used LCOE method. The results of this study show that renewable energy is more affected by plant factor and overnight cost than other risk factors. First, Renewable energy has higher proportion of overnight cost in the total investment than that of other technologies. Second, renewable energy is free of fuel cost and carbon price so plant factor is the most important factor, in other words, competitiveness of renewable energy depends on plant factor. Furthermore, we conducted economic feasibility of wind power and PV in domestic case study. The minimum requirement condition to get profitability is that plant factor 15% and overnight cost \6,000,000/kW and 26%, \2,200,000/kW for PV and Wind Power, respectively.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.51-55
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• 2003

Recently the requirements for light weight and high performance of the automobile have increased. Especially, the plastic fuel tube makers have made their efforts to dove]op the various plastic fuel tube module with not only dimensional accuracy but also cost competitiveness. The experiment is performed to investigate spring backs for PA12 plastic fuel tubes in case of compound bending. In the experiment, steam bending process is adopted as bending method. In this study, the results we obtained are used to design the bending fixtures and the compound bending system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.91-100
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• 2005

Kyung-hee Thorium Fuel (KTF), a heterogeneous thorium-based seed and blanket design concept for pressurized light water reactors, is being studied as an alternative to enhance proliferation resistance and fuel cycle economics of PWRs. The proliferation resistance characteristics of the KTF assembly design were evaluated through parametric studies using neutronic performance indices such as Bare Critical Mass (BCM), Spontaneous Neutron Source rate (SNS), Thermal Generation rate (TG), and Radio-Toxicity. Also, Fissile Economic Index (FEI), a new index for gauging fuel cycle economy, was suggested and applied to optimize the KTF design. A core loaded with optimized KTF assemblies with a seed-to-blanket ratio of 1: 1 was tested at the Korea Next Generation Reactor (KNGR), ARP-1400. Core design characteristics for cycle length, power distribution, and power peaking were evaluated by HELIOS and MASTER code systems for nine reload cycles. The core calculation results show that the KTF assembly design has nearly the same neutronic performance as those of a conventional $UO_2$ fuel assembly. However, the power peaking factor is relatively higher than that of conventional PWRs as the maximum Fq is 2.69 at the M$9^{th}$ equilibrium cycle while the design limit is 2.58. In order to assess the economic potential of a heterogeneous thorium fuel core, the front-end fuel cycle costs as well as the spent fuel disposal costs were compared with those of a reference PWR fueled with $UO_2$. In the case of comprising back-end fuel cycle cost, the fuel cycle cost of APR-1400 with a KTF assembly is 4.99 mills/KWe-yr, which is lower than that (5.23 mills/KWe-yr) of a conventional PWR. Proliferation resistance potential, BCM, SNS, and TG of a heterogeneous thorium-fueled core are much higher than those of the $UO_2$ core. The once-through fuel cycle application of heterogeneous thorium fuel assemblies demonstrated good competitiveness relative to $UO_2$ in terms of economics.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.185-202
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• 2018

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells can convert solar energy, the largest potential source of renewable energy, into hydrogen fuel which can be stored, transported, and used on demand. In terms of cost competitiveness compared with fossil fuels, however, both photocatalytic efficiency and cost-effectiveness must be achieved simultaneously. Improvement of cost-effective, scalable, versatile, and eco-friendly fabrication methods has emerged as an urgent mission for PEC cells, and solution-based fabrication methods could be capable of meeting these demands. Herein, we review recent challenges for various nanostructured oxide photoelectrodes fabricated by solution-based processes. Hematite, tungsten oxide, bismuth vanadate, titanium oxide, and copper oxides are the main oxides focused on, and various strategies have been attempted with respect to these photocatalyst materials. The effects of nanostructuring, heterojunctions, and co-catalyst loading on the surface are discussed. Our review introduces notable solution-based processes for water splitting photoelectrodes and gives an outlook on eco-friendly and cost-effective approaches to solar fuel generation and innovative artificial photosynthesis technologies.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.547-549
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• 2001

Recently, heating using oil and gas has been continuously replaced by that using midnight power in home, due to increase of oil price. Therefore, midnight power apparatus has been more and more spreading. However, cost of midnight power services is increasing because high fuel cost of generation facilities by existing power generation mix are charge of midnight power services. This paper analyzes trends about rapidly increasing midnight power in winter, and evaluate load pattern and supply cost of midnight power. Also, this study proposes rate direction of midnight power according to introduction of competitiveness system with B/C evaluation of midnight power cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.825-828
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• 1997

The market share of plastic fuel tube in automobile part is now growing rapidly. Especially fuel tube makers have had their efforts to develop tube module not only with dimensional accuracy, spring back and cost competitiveness. In this study, we used steam bending process for heat relaxation on PA12 plastic fuel tube's 128 types experimental bending conditions. we present the results of this process system in term of dimensional accuracy, and spring back.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.232-242
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• 2005

It has been recognized that solar water heating systems are economically inferior to conventional gas water-heaters and boilers using light oil as fuel in spite of having practical possibilities among other alternative energy facilities in Korea. The solar system, however, should be revaluated due to the sharp rise of oil prices recently. We have calculated the energy amount and cost through a series of research projects for the system by experiment and simulation, which lead to analyzing reliable life cycle costs. For the economic analysis, the gas water-heater and light oil boiler were taken as base cases while the solar systems implemented with these facilities were compared as alternatives. As a result, the solar system using the light oil as an auxiliary fuel surpassed the light oil boiler in economics. And a $50\%$ government subsidy for the initial cost is needed to maintain competitiveness with the gas hot-water heater. With this support, the simple payback period of the system can approach 12.8 years under $20\%$ additional curtailment of expenditure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2019

In global competition manufacturing companies have to produce modern, new constructions from advanced materials in order to increase competitiveness. The aim of my research was to develop a new composite cellular plate structure, which can be primarily used for structural elements of road, rail, water and air transport vehicles (e.g. vehicle bodies, ship floors). The new structure is novel and innovative, because all materials of the components of the newly developed structure are composites (laminated Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) deck plates with pultruded Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) stiffeners), furthermore combines the characteristics of sandwich and cellular plate structures. The material of the structure is much more advantageous than traditional steel materials, due mainly to its low density, resulting in weight savings, causing lower fuel consumption and less environmental damage. In the study the optimal construction of a given geometry of a structural element of a road truck trailer body was defined by single- and multi-objective optimization (minimal cost and weight). During the single-objective optimization the Flexible Tolerance Optimization method, while during the multi-objective optimization the Particle Swarm Optimization method were used. Seven design constraints were considered: maximum deflection of the structure, buckling of the composite plates, buckling of the stiffeners, stress in the composite plates, stress in the stiffeners, eigenfrequency of the structure, size constraint for design variables. It was confirmed that the developed structure can be used principally as structural elements of transport vehicles and unit load devices (containers) and can be applied also in building construction.