• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.149-163
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• 2015

In this study, we conducted study on the confirmation of thermal-hydraulic safety for Mast assembly with Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) analysis. Before performing the natural convection analysis for the Mast assembly by using CFD code, we validated the CFD code against two benchmark natural convection data for the evaluation of turbulence models and confirmation of its applicability to the natural convection flow. From the first benchmark test which was performed by Betts et al. in the simple rectangular channel, we selected standard k-omega turbulence model for natural convection. And then, calculation performance of CFD code was also investigated in the sub-channel of rod bundle by comparing with PNL(Pacific Northwest Laboratory) experimental data and prediction results by MATRA and Fluent 12.0 which were performed by Kwon et al.. Finally, we performed main natural convection analysis for fuel assembly inside the Mast assembly by using validated turbulence model. From the calculation, we observed stable natural circulation flow between the mast assembly and pool side and evaluated the thermal-hydraulic safety by calculating the departure from nucleate boiling ratio.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3217-3228
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• 2021

Flow blockage of the fuel assembly in the lead-based fast reactor (LFR) may produce critical local spots, which will result in cladding failure and threaten reactor safety. In this study, the flow blockage characteristics were analyzed with the sub-channel analysis method, and the circumferentially-varied method was employed for considering the non-uniform distribution of circumferential temperature. The developed sub-channel analysis code SACOS-PB was validated by a heat transfer experiment in a blocked 19-rod bundle cooled by lead-bismuth eutectic. The deviations between the predicted coolant temperature and experimental values are within ±5%, including small and large flow blockage scenarios. And the temperature distributions of the fuel rod could be better simulated by the circumferentially-varied method for the small blockage scenario. Based on the validated code, the analysis of blockage characteristics was conducted. It could be seen from the temperature and flow distributions that a large blockage accident is more destructive compared with a small one. The sensitivity analysis shows that the closer the blockage location is to the exit, the more dangerous the accident is. Similarly, a larger blockage length will lead to a more serious case. And a higher exit temperature will be generated resulting from a higher peak coolant temperature of the blocked region. This work could provide a reference for the future design and development of the LFR.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2011

There are two types of nuclear reactors in Korea and they are PWR type and CANDU type. The safe management of the spent fuels from these reactors is very important factor to maintain the sustainable energy supply with nuclear power plant. In Korea, a reference disposal system for the spent fuels has been developed through a study on the direct disposal of the PWR and CANDU spent fuel. Recently, the research on the demonstration and the efficiency analyses of the disposal system has been performed to make the disposal system safer and more economic. PWR spent fuels which include a lot of reusable material can be considered being recycled and a study on the disposal of HLW from this recycling process is being performed. CANDU spent fuels are considered being disposed of directly in deep geological formation, since they have little reusable material. In this study, based on the Korean Reference spent fuel disposal System (KRS) which was to dispose of both PWR type and CANDU type, the more effective CANDU spent fuel disposal systems were developed. To do this, the disposal canister for CANDU spent fuels was modified to hold the storage basket for 60 bundles which is used in nuclear power plant. With these modified disposal canister concepts, the disposal concepts to meet the thermal requirement that the temperature of the buffer materials should not be over $100^{\circ}C$ were developed. These disposal concepts were reviewed and analyzed in terms of disposal effective factors which were thermal effectiveness, U-density, disposal area, excavation volume, material volume etc. and the most effective concept was proposed. The results of this study will be used in the development of various wastes disposal system together with the HLW wastes from the PWR spent fuel recycling process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.1 s.173
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• pp.206-214
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• 2000

The pressure tube is a major component of the CANDU reactor, which supports nuclear fuel bundle and it's containment vessel. If a flaw is found during the periodic inspection from the pressure tube s. the integrity evaluation must be carried out. and the safety requirements must be satisfied for continued service. In order to complete the integrity evaluation, complicated and iterative calculation procedures are required. Besides, a lot of data and knowledge for the evaluation are required for the entire: integrity evaluation process. For this reason. an integrity evaluation system, which provides efficient of evaluation with the help of attached databases, was developed. The developed system was built on the basis of ASME Sec. XI and FFSG(Fitness For Service Guidelines for zirconium alloy pressure tubes in operating CANDU reactors) issued by the AECL, and covers the delayed hydride cracking(DHC). This system does not only provide various databases including the 3-D finite element analysis results on pressure tubes, inspection data and design specifications but also is compatible with other commercial database software. In order to verify the developed system, several case studies have been performed and the results were compared with those from AECL. A good agreement was observed between those two results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.2305-2311
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• 2002

The pressure tube is a major component of the CANDU reactor, which supports nuclear fuel bundle and heavy water coolant. Pressure tubes are installed horizontally inside the reactor and only selected samples are periodically examined during in-service inspection. In this respect, a probabilistic safety assessment method is more appropriate fur the assessment of overall pressure tube safety. The failure behavior of CANDU pressure tubes, however, is governed by delayed hydride cracking which is the major difference from pipings and reactor pressure vessels. Since the delayed hydride cracking has more widely distributed governing parameters, it is impossible to apply a general PFM methodology directly. In this paper, a PFM methodology for the safety assessment of CANDU pressure tubes is introduced by applying Monte Carlo simulation in determining failure probability Initial hydrogen concentration, flaw shape and depth, axial and radial crack growth rate and fracture toughness were considered as probabilistic variables. Parametric study has been done under the base of pressure tube dimension and hydride precipitation temperature in calculating failure probability. Unstable fracture and plastic collapse are used for the failure assessment. The estimated failure probability showed about three-order difference with changing dimensions of pressure tube.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1834-1845
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• 2021

Liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor is one of the most promising reactor types among the fourth-generation nuclear energy systems. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are completely different from ordinary fluids due to its special thermal properties, causing that the traditional Reynolds analogy is no longer recommended and appropriate. More accurate turbulence flow and heat transfer model for the liquid metal lead-bismuth should be developed and applied in CFD simulation. In this paper, a specific CFD solver for simulating the flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth based on the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was developed based on the open source platform OpenFOAM. Then the advantage of proposed model was demonstrated and validated against a set of experimental data. Finally, the simulation of LBE turbulent flow and heat transfer in a 7-pin wire-wrapped rod bundle with the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was carried out. The influence of wire on the flow and heat transfer characteristics and the three-dimensional distribution of key thermal hydraulic parameters such as temperature, cross-flow velocity and Nusselt number were studied and presented. Compared with the traditional SED model with a constant Pr_t = 1.5 or 2.0, the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is more accurate on predicting the turbulence flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth. The average relative error of the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is reduced by 11.1% at most under the simulation conditions in this paper. This work is meaningful for the thermal hydraulic analysis and structure design of fuel assembly in the liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor.