• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1996년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(1)
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• pp.225-230
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• 1996

A three-dimensional reactor core simulation code, MASTER has been developed as a part of ADONIS which is the Korean core design package in KAERI. CASMO-3 is used as a precedent lattice code for two-group microscopic cross section and heterogeneous formfunctions. The pin power reconstruction capability of CASMO-3/MASTER was evaluated for a validation and verification Five B&W critical experiments were selected as benchmark problems. These problems included two experiments for CE-type and three for WH-type fuel assemblies. Two of them contained gadolinia rods as burnable absorber. Comparison of the calculated pin power distributions with the measured ones demonstrate that CASMO-3/MASTER can predict the pin power distribution as well as CASMO-3/SIMULATE-3.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권9호
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• pp.3388-3400
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• 2023

Detailed analysis of the neutron pathway through matter inside the nuclear reactor core is exceedingly needed for safety and economic considerations. Due to the constant development of high-performance computing technologies, neutronics analysis using computer codes became more effective and efficient to perform sophisticated neutronics calculations. In this work, a commercial pressurized water reactor (PWR) presented by Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) Core Physics Benchmark are modeled and simulated using a high-fidelity simulation of OpenMC code in terms of criticality and fuel pin power distribution. Various problems have been selected from VERA benchmark ranging from a simple two-dimension (2D) pin cell problem to a complex three dimension (3D) full core problem. The development of the code capabilities for reactor physics methods has been implemented to investigate the accuracy and performance of the OpenMC code against VERA SCALE codes. The results of OpenMC code exhibit excellent agreement with VERA results with maximum Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values of less than 0.04% and 1.3% for the criticality eigenvalues and pin power distributions, respectively. This demonstrates the successful utilization of the OpenMC code as a simulation tool for a whole core analysis. Further works are undergoing on the accuracy of OpenMC simulations for the impact of different fuel types and burnup levels and the analysis of the transient behavior and coupled thermal hydraulic feedback.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.81-92
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• 1996

This study is to compare the weldability of Zircaloy-4 end cap of nuclear fuel pin using by GTA and Nd :YAG LB. The welding parameters which affect bead width and penetration depth have been investigated. The effect of joint geometry of end cap for GTAW and LBW has been studied and optimum conditions of Zircaloy-4 endcap welding have been found. Microstructures and microhardness of GTA and LB welded zones have been also compared.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권7호
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• pp.1024-1036
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• 2018

In this paper, McCARD code was verified using various models listed in the NUREG/CR-6361 benchmark guide, which provides specifications for single pin-cells, single assemblies, and the whole core classified depending on the nuclear properties and structural characteristics. McCARD code was verified by comparing its results with those of SCALE code for single pin-cell and single assembly benchmark problems. The difference in the multiplication factor obtained through the two codes did not exceed 90 pcm. The benchmark guide treats a total of 173 whole core experiments. The experiments are categorized as simple lattices, separator plates, reflecting walls, reflecting walls and separator plates, burnable absorber fuel rods, water holes, poison rods, and borated moderator. As a result of numerical simulation using McCARD, the mean value of the multiplication factors is 1.00223 and the standard deviation of the multiplication factors is 285 pcm. The difference between the multiplication factors and the experimental value is in the range of -665 pcm to + 1609 pcm. In addition, statistics of results for experiments categorized by reactor shape, additional structure, burnable poison, etc., are detailed in the main text.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권12호
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• pp.2874-2879
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• 2020

Due to excess reactivity, fresh nuclear fuel often contains burnable poisons. This research looks at six different burnable poisons and their impacts on reactivity, material attractiveness, and waste management. An MCNP simulation of a PWR fuel pin was performed with a fuel burnup of 60 GWd/MTHM to determine when each burnable poison fuel type would decrease below a k_∞ of 1. For determining the plutonium material attractiveness in each burnable poison fuel type, the plutonium isotopic content of the used fuel was evaluated using Bathke's Figure of Merit formula. For the waste management analysis, the thermal output of each burnable poison fuel type was determined through ORIGEN decay simulations at 100 and 300 years after being discharged from the core. The performance of all six burnable poisons varied over the three criteria considered and no single burnable poison performed best in all three considerations.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 2002년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.284-284
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• 2002

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.452-461
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• 1998

The pin power distribution is determined by analyzing the rotational gamma scanning data for 36 element fuel bundle of HANARO. A fission monitor of Nb$^{95}$ is chosen by considering the criteria of the half-life, fission yield, emitting ${\gamma}$-ray energy and probability. The ${\gamma}$-ray spectra were measured in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI) by using a HPGe detector and by rotating the fuel bundle at steps of 10$^{\circ}$. The counting rates of Nb$^{95}$ 766 keV ${\gamma}$-rays are determined by analyzing the full absorption peak in the spectra. A 36$\times$36 response matrix is obtained from calculating the contribution of each rod at every scanning angle by assuming 2-dimensional and parallel beam approximations for the measuring geometry. In terms of the measured counting rates and the calculated response matrix, an inverse problem is set up for the unknown distribution of activity concentrations of pins. To select a suitable solving method, the performances of three direct methods and the iterative least-square method are tested by solving simulation examples. The final solution is obtained by using the iterative least-square method that shows a good stability. The influences of detection error, step size of rotation and the collimator width are discussed on the accuracy of the numerical solution. Hence an improvement in the accuracy of the solution is proposed by reducing the collimator width of the scanning arrangement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.330-338
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• 2023

In this study, impacts of an enhanced-moderation Fuel Assembly (FA) named Truly Optimized PWR (TOP) lattice, which is modified based on the standard 17 × 17 PWR FA, are investigated in a natural circulation Soluble-Boron-Free (SBF) Small Modular Reactor (SMR). Two different TOP lattice designs are considered for the analysis; one is with 1.26 cm pin pitch and 0.38 cm fuel pellet radius, and the other is with 1.40 cm pin pitch and 0.41 cm fuel pellet radius. The NuScale core design is utilized as the base model and assumed to be successfully converted to an SBF core. The analysis is performed following the primary coolant circulation loop, and the reactor is modelled as a single channel for thermal-hydraulic analyses. It is assumed that the ratio of the core pressure drop to the total system pressure drop is around 0.3. The results showed that the reactor power could be increased by 2.5% and 9.8% utilizing 1.26/0.38 cm and 1.40/0.41 cm TOP designs, respectively, under the identical coolant inlet and outlet temperatures as the constraints.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.980-992
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• 2024

Steam line break accident (SLB) in the nuclear reactor is one of the representative Non-LOCA accidents in which thermal-hydraulics and neutron kinetics are strongly coupled each other. Thus, the multi-scale and multi-physics approach is applied in this study in order to examine a realistic safety margin. An entire reactor coolant system is modelled by system scale node, whereas sub-channel scale resolution is applied for the region of interest such as the reactor core. Fuel performance code is extended to consider full core pin-wise fuel behaviour. The MARU platform is developed for easy integration of the codes to be coupled. An initial stage of the steam line break accident is simulated on the MARU platform. As cold coolant is injected from the cold leg into the reactor pressure vessel, the power increases due to the moderator feedback. Three-dimensional coolant and fuel behaviour are qualitatively visualized for easy comprehension. Moreover, quantitative investigation is added by focusing on the enhancement of safety margin by means of comparing the minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR). Three factors contributing to the increase of the MDNBR are proposed: Various geometric parameters, realistic power distribution by neutron kinetics code, Radial coolant mixing including sub-channel physics model.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 유체기계공업학회 2004년도 유체기계 연구개발 발표회 논문집
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• pp.473-478
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• 2004

This work presents the Thermal Hydraulic analysis has been performed for a 19-pin wire-spacer fuel assembly using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. SST model is used as a turbulence closure. The whole fuel assembly has been analyzed for one period of the wire-spacer using periodic boundary condition at inlet and outlet of the calculation domain. The overall results far a preliminary calculation show a good agreement with the experimental observations. It has been found that the major unidirectional flows are the axial velocity in sub-channels and the peripheral sweeping flows and the velocities are found to be following a cyclic path of period equal to the wire-wrap pitch. The temperature is found to be maximum in the central region and also, there exist a radial temperature gradient between the fuel rods. The major advantage of performing this kind of analysis is the prediction of thermal-hydraulic behavior of a fuel assembly with much ease.