• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.18-30
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• 2012

Zirconium is one of the most important material used as cladding of fuel rods in nuclear reactors because of its high dimensional stability, good corrosion resistance and especially low neutron-absorbing cross section. However, Hf free nuclear grade Zr sponge is commercially produced by only three countries including USA, France and Russia. So, Zr has been thoroughly managed as a national strategic material in Korea. Most of the zirconium is used for Korean nuclear industry as nuclear fuel cladding materials manufactured from Hf free Zr alloy raw material. Also, there are some other applications such as alloying element and detonator. In this review, zirconium production and recycling technologies have been reviewed and current industrial status was also analyzed. And recent achievements in innovative reduction technologies such as electrolytic reduction process and molten oxide electrolysis were also introduced.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2006

Brazing is an important manufacturing process in the fabrication of Heavy Water Reactor fuel rods, in which bearing and spacer pads are joined to Zircaloy-4 cladding tubes. The physical vapor deposition(PVD) technique is currently used to deposit metallic Be on the surfaces of pads as a filler metal. Amorphous Zr-Be binary alloys which are manufactured by rapid solidification process are under developing to substitute the conventional PVD-Be coating. In the present study, brazed joint with PVD and amorphous alloys of $Zr_{1-x}Be_{x}(0.3{\le}x{\le}0.5)$ as filler metals are compared by mechanism, microstructure and hardness. The thickness of brazed joint with amorphous alloys became much smaller than that of PVD-Be. The erosion of base metal did not occur in the brazed joint with amorphous alloys. The brazing mechanism for PVD-Be seems to be Be diffusion into Zr-4 with capillary action resulting from eutectic reaction while that for amorphous alloys are associated with the liquid phase formation in the brazed joint. The brazed joint microstructure with PVD-Be consists of dendrite while that with amorphous alloys is globular. The $Zr_{0.7}Be_{0.3}$ alloy shows the smooth interface with little erosion in the base metal and is recommended a most suitable brazing filler metal for Zircaloy-4.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.302-309
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• 2017

If a hydrogen explosion occurs in a containment building, its multiplex defense wall may be destroyed and a large amount of radioactive material may be released. The hydrogen occurred interacting with melting fuel rods must be effectively controlled and removed. however, the countermeasures for reducing explosion risk are difficult to carry out, due owing to the various variety of accident scenarios causes and the irregularity of hydrogen distribution and behavior. In this study, We examine the guide structures while considering the ambient flows, in order to improve the efficiency of PAR the widely used Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner(PAR). We simulate the fluid behavior and the hydrogen reduction rate were simulated when a guide is attached to the two-step catalyst PAR. For an upward flow, the consisting of a height of 150mm, a gap of 0mm, and a performs $60^{\circ}$ showed the best. In contrast, for a sideways flow, a consisting of the height of 150mm, a gap of 100mm, and a performs $60^{\circ}$ showed the best in the case of side ward flow. for a downward flow, a consisting of the height of 50mm and a directly attached guide produce the best in the case of down ward flow results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1991

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of weld line on the mechanical strengths and the process of weld line elimination in the Zircaloy-4 resistance upset welding for the fabrication of heavy water reactor fuel rods. The weld current and the amount of upset increased linearly with the main heat, in which two relations between them were derived. It was found that the threshold to obtain sound weld was 50% of main heat in terms of weld upset size, mechanical strengths and weld line elimination. The weld microstructure of resistance upset welds of Zircaloy-4 comprsied basketweave, Widmanstatten and martensite respectively by changing the main heats. Dimples on uniaxially fractured surface at weld line in the Zr-4 welds were larger and deeper compared with those on biaxially fractured surface. It was also found that the process of the weld line elimination in the resistance upset weld of Zircaloy-4 could be divided into three stages in terms of the presence of many pores, their shrinkage and elimination, and the shrinkage of the original weld interface with increasing weld currents.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.66-80
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• 1991

The LOFT intermediate break experiment L5-1, which simulates 12 inch diameter ECC line break in a typical PWR, has been analyzed using the reactor thermal/hydraulic analysis code RELAP5/MOD2, Cycle 36.04. The base calculation, which modeled the core with single flow channel and two heat structures without using the options of reflood and gap conductance model, has been successfully completed and compared with experimental data. Sensitivity studies were carried out to investigate the effects of nodalization at reactor vessel and core modeling on major thermal hydraulic parameters, especially on peak cladding temperature(PCT). These sensitivity items are : single flow channel and single heat structure (Case A), two flow channel and two heat structures (Case B), reflood option added (Case C) and both reflood and gap conductance options added (Case D). The code, RELAP5/MOD2 Cycle 36.04 with the base modeling, predicted the key parameters of LOFT IBLOCA Test L5-1 better than Cases A,B,C and D. Thus, it is concluded that the single flow channel modeling for core is better than the two flow channel modeling and two heat structure is also better than single heat structure modeling to predict PCT at the central fuel rods. It is, therefore, recommended to use the reflood option and not to use gap conductance option for this L5-1 type IBLOCA.