• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1060-1067
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• 2018

A feasibility of reusing option of spent nuclear fuel in a fusion-fission hybrid system without partitioning was checked as an alternative option of pyro-processing with critical reactor system. Neutronic study was performed with MCNP 6.1 for this option, direct reuse of spent PWR fuel (DRUP). Various options with DRUP fuel were compared with the reference design concept; transmutation purpose blanket with (U-TRU)Zr fuel loading connected with pyro-processing. Performance parameters to be compared are transmutation performance of transuranic (TRU) nuclides, required fusion power and tritium breeding ratio (TBR). When blanket part is loaded only with DRUP, initial $k_{eff}$ level becomes too low to maintain a practical subcritical system, increasing the required fusion power. In this case, production rate of TRU nuclides exceeds the incineration rate. Design optimization is done for combining DRUP fuel with (U-TRU)Zr fuel. Reactivity swing is reduced to about 2447 pcm through fissile breeding compared to (U-TRU)Zr fuel option. Therefore, a required fusion power is reduced and tritium breeding performance is improved. However, transmutation performance with TRU nuclides especially $^{241}Am$ is degraded because of softening effect of spectrum. It is known that partitioning and transmutation should be accompanied with fusion-fission hybrid system for the effective transmutation of TRU.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.696-696
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• 2013

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) have been gaining academic/industrial attention due to the unique high efficiency and minimized pollution emission. SOFCs are an electrochemical system composed of dissimilar materials which operates at relatively high temperatures ranging from 800 to 1000oC. The cell performance is critically dependent on the inherent properties and integration processing of the constituents, a cathode, an electrolyte, an anode, and an interconnect in addition to the sealing materials. In particular, the gas transport, ion transport, and by-product removal also affect the cell performance, in terms of open cell voltages, and cell powers. In particular, the polarization of cathode materials is one of the main sources which affects the overall function in SOFCs. Up to now, there have been studies on the materials design and microstructure design of the component materials. The current work reports the effect of thin film processing on cathode polarization in solid oxide fuel cells. The polarization issues are discussed in terms of dc- and ac-based electrical characterizations. The potential of thin film processing to the applicability to SOFCs is discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1485-1494
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• 2023

The bow of the nuclear fuel assembly is a well-known phenomenon. One of the vital criteria during the history of nuclear fuel development has been fuel assembly's mechanical stability. Once present, the fuel assembly bow can lead to safety issues like excessive water gap and power redistribution or even incomplete rod insertion (IRI). The extensive bow can result in assembly handling and loading problems. This is why the fuel assembly's bow is one of the most often controlled geometrical factors during periodic fuel inspections for VVER when compared e.g. to on-site fuel rod gap measurements or other instrumental measurements performed on-site. Our proposed screening method uses existing video records for fuel inspection. We establish video frames normalization and aggregation for the purposes of bow measurement. The whole process is done by digital image processing algorithms which analyze rotations of video frames, extract angles whose source is the fuel set torsion, and reconstruct torsion schema. This approach provides results comparable to the commonly utilized method. We tested this new approach in real operation on 19 fuel assemblies with different campaign numbers and designs, where the average deviation from other methods was less than 2 % on average. Due to the fact, that the method has not yet been validated during full scale measurements of the fuel inspection, the preliminary results stand for that we recommend this method as a complementary part of standard bow measurement procedures to increase measurement robustness, lower time consumption and preserve or increase accuracy. After completed validation it is expected that the proposed method allows standalone fuel assembly bow measurements.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 1999

An image processing technology was developed to measure the dimension of nuclear fuel rods and the diameter of nuclear fuel rods was measured by this method. It was confirmed that parameters such as camera-to-specimen distance. camera location, light intensity and light characteristic would affect dimension measurement of nuclear fuel rods. The percent relative error and percent standard deviation of measuring the diameter of nuclear fuel rods using image processing method were 4.88%, ${\pm}3.34%$ while the percent relative error and percent standard deviation using conventional method were 12.7%, ${\pm}9.72%$, respectively. The accuracy of diameter measurement of nuclear fuel rods using image processing method was about 3 times as high as that using conventional method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2011

In this paper, a deformation measurement technology for nuclear fuel rods is proposed. The deformation measurement system includes a high-definition CMOS image sensor, a lens, a semiconductor laser line beam marker, and optical and mechanical accessories. The basic idea of the proposed deformation measurement system is to illuminate the outer surface of a fuel rod with a collimated laser line beam at an angle of 45 degrees or higher. For this method, it is assumed that a nuclear fuel rod and the optical axis of the image sensor for observing the rod are vertically composed. The relative motion of the fuel rod in the horizontal direction causes the illuminated laser line beam to move vertically along the surface of the fuel rod. The resulting change of the laser line beam position on the surface of the fuel rod is imaged as a parabolic beam in the high-definition CMOS image sensor. An ellipse model is then extracted from the parabolic beam pattern. The center coordinates of the ellipse model are taken as the feature of the deformed fuel rod. The vertical offset of the feature point of the nuclear fuel rod is derived based on the displacement of the offset in the horizontal direction. Based on the experimental results for a nuclear fuel rod sample with a formation of surface crud, an inspection resolution of 50 ${\mu}m$ is achieved using the proposed method. In terms of the degree of precision, this inspection resolution is an improvement of more than 300% from a 150 ${\mu}m$ resolution, which is the conventional measurement criteria required for the deformation of neutron irradiated fuel rods.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.342-350
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• 2009

Fuel cells convert a fuel together with oxygen in a highly efficient electrochemical reaction to electricity and water. Since the electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell stack dose not generate any noise, Fuel cell systems are expected to operated much quieter than combustion engines. However, the tonal noise and the broad band noise caused by a centrifugal compressor and an electric motor cause which is required to feed the ambient air to the cathode of the fuel cell stack with high pressure. In this study, the multi-camber perforated muffler is used to reduce noise. We propose optimized muffler model using an axiomatic design method that optimizes the parameters of perforated muffler while keeping the volume of muffler minimized.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.46-53
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• 2013

An inspection of nuclear fuel rods should be performed at remoteness from risks of high level radioactivity, and accuracy is required. Currently, inspection of the nuclear fuel rods is operated to monitor the video that recording an original nuclear fuel rods at remoteness because of the risks of radioactivity. In this paper, it is an implementation of the system was carried out in the process according to the image processing inspection of the nuclear fuel rods. The nuclear fuel rods are configured to use a bundle of plurality, in the image processing technology to verify this, the edge detection method is useful. We suggest to DoG technique to add threshold for the nuclear fuel rod edge detections. This is the new technique that optimized DoG. It is to deal with DoG and threshold to dual process. In this way, after detecting an edge of the nuclear fuel rods, by running a nuclear fuel rod inspection algorithm to determine the status of nuclear fuel rods. We applied the system using the new algorithm, and confirmed an excellent characteristic. In this study, it is considered to be able to be carried out more easily and securely inspect of nuclear fuel rods.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.123-127
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• 2016

Methanol fuel cells having advantages of relatively favorable reaction kinetics and higher energy density have attracted increasing interests as best alternative to hydrogen fuel cell because of H2 production, storage and distribution issues. While there have been extensive research works on developing key components such as electrocatalysts as well as their physicochemical properties in practical formic acid fuel cells, there have also been urgent requests for investigating which fuel sources will be more suitable for direct liquid fuel cells in future. In this mini-review, we highlight the overall interest and outlook of formic acid fuel cells in terms of electrocatalysts, fuel supply and crossover, water management, fuel cell efficiency and system integration in comparison with methanol fuel cells.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2001

DUPIC (Direct use of spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactors) nuclear fuel is a CANDU fuel fabricated remotely from spent PWR fuel materials in a hot cell. The soundness of the end closure welds of nuclear fuel elements is an important factor for the safety and performance of nuclear fuel. To evaluate the soundness of the end closure welds of DUPIC fuel element, a precise X-ray inspection system is developed using a micro-focus X-ray generator with an image intensifier and a real time camera system. The fuel elements made of Zircaloy-4 and stainless steel by an Nd:YAG laser welding and a TIG welding aye inspected by the developed inspection system. The soundness of the welds of the fuel elements was confirmed by the X-ray inspection process, and the irradiation test of DUPIC fuel elements has been successfully completed at the HANARO research reactor.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.115-120
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• 2010

The reduction rate of fuel consumption by showing the fuel injection data for driver was measured in this study. The fuel injection data are composed of injection period, real time fuel economy and average fuel economy. The fuel consumption was measured by processing the voltage signal of injector and driven distance by GPS sensor. The fuel consumption was reduced by driving more carefully, i.e driving more steady without sudden acceleration and deceleration watching these fuel injection data. The reduction rate was up to 37% and the rate increased as the driver is customed to this driving pattern.