• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권12호
• /
• pp.4072-4079
• /
• 2021

This article presents a study on the state-of-the-art methods for automated radioactive material detection and identification, using gamma-ray spectra and modern machine learning methods. The recent developments inspired this in deep learning algorithms, and the proposed method provided better performance than the current state-of-the-art models. Machine learning models such as: fully connected, recurrent, convolutional, and gradient boosted decision trees, are applied under a wide variety of testing conditions, and their advantage and disadvantage are discussed. Furthermore, a hybrid model is developed by combining the fully-connected and convolutional neural network, which shows the best performance among the different machine learning models. These improvements are represented by the model's test performance metric (i.e., F1 score) of 93.33% with an improvement of 2%-12% than the state-of-the-art model at various conditions. The experimental results show that fusion of classical neural networks and modern deep learning architecture is a suitable choice for interpreting gamma spectra data where real-time and remote detection is necessary.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권3호
• /
• pp.908-914
• /
• 2019

Fusion power shutdown system (FPSS) is a safety system to stop plasma in case of accidents or incidents. The gas injection system for the FPSS presented in this work is designed to research the flow development in a closed system. As the efficiency of the system is a crucial property, plenty of experiments are executed to get optimum parameters. In this system, the flow is driven by the pressure difference between a gas storage tank and a vacuum vessel with a source pressure. The idea is based on a constant volume system without extra source gases to guarantee rapid response and high throughput. Among them, valves and gas species are studied because their properties could influence the velocity of the fluid field. Then source pressures and volumes are emphasized to investigate the volume flow rate of the injection. The source pressure has a considerable effect on the injected volume. From the data, proper parameters are extracted to achieve the best performance of the FPSS. Finally, experimental results are used as a quantitative benchmark for simulations which can add our understanding of the inner gas flow in the pipeline. In generally, there is a good consistency and the obtained correlations will be applied in further study and design for the FPSS.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권3호
• /
• pp.967-973
• /
• 2021

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing simultaneous accidents in several reactors. This accident shows us that if there are several reactors on site, the seismic risk to multiple units is important to consider, in addition to that to single units in isolation. When a seismic event occurs, a seismic-failure correlation exists between the nuclear power plant's structures, systems, and components (SSCs) due to their seismic-response and seismic-capacity correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the multi-unit seismic risk by considering the SSCs' seismic-failure-correlation effect. In this study, a methodology is proposed to obtain the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs to calculate the risk to multi-unit facilities. This coefficient is calculated from a probabilistic multi-unit seismic-response analysis. The seismic-response and seismic-failure-correlation coefficients of the emergency diesel generators installed within the units are successfully derived via the proposed method. In addition, the distribution of the seismic-response-correlation coefficient was observed as a function of the distance between SSCs of various dynamic characteristics. It is demonstrated that the proposed methodology can reasonably derive the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs, which is the input data for multi-unit seismic probabilistic safety assessment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권4호
• /
• pp.1301-1311
• /
• 2022

Global climate change brings environmental quality sensitivity, especially in developed countries. Developed countries use non-renewable energy sources intensively both in their own countries and in other countries, they make productions that cause an enormous rate of increase in CO₂ emissions and unsustainable environmental costs. This has increased the interest in environmentally friendly alternative energy sources. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of nuclear energy consumption and technological innovation on environmental quality in G7 countries using annual data over the period 1970-2015. The Panel Threshold Regression Model was used for the analysis. Empirical findings have indicated that the relationship between nuclear energy consumption and carbon emissions differs according to innovation for nuclear power plants. It was also concluded that nuclear energy consumption reduces carbon emissions more after a certain level of innovation. This result shows that the increase in innovative technologies for nuclear power plants not only increases energy efficiency but also contributes positively to environmental quality.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권6호
• /
• pp.1962-1971
• /
• 2022

The liquid lead-lithium (Pb-17Li) blanket has many applications in fusion reactors due to its good tritium breeding performance, high heat transfer efficiency and safety. The compatibility of liquid Pb-17Li alloy with the structural material of blanket under magnetic field is one of the concerns. In this study, corrosion experiments China low activation martensitic (CLAM) steel and 316L steel were carried out in a forced convection Pb-17Li loop under 1.0 T magnetic field at 480 ℃ for 1000 h. The corrosion results on 316L steel showed the characteristic with a superficial porous layer resulted from selective leaching of high-soluble alloy elements and subsequent phase transformation from austenitic matrix to ferritic phase. Then the porous layers were eroded by high-velocity jet fluid. The main corrosion mechanism of CLAM steel was selective dissolution-base corrosion attack on the microstructure boundary regions and exclusively on high residual stress areas. CLAM steel performed a better corrosion resistance than that of 316L steel. The high Ni dissolution rate and the erosion of corroded layers are the main causes for the severe corrosion of 316L steel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권8호
• /
• pp.2708-2715
• /
• 2021

The Multi-Purpose Overload Robot (CMOR) is a key subsystem of China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) remote handling system. Due to the long cantilever and large loads of the CMOR, it has a large rigid-flexible coupling deformation that results in a poor position accuracy of the end-effector. In this study, based on the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, the spatial grid, and the linearized variable load principle, a variable parameter compensation model was designed to identify the parameters of the CMOR's kinematics models under different loads and at different poses so as to improve the trajectory tracking accuracy. Finally, through Adams-MATLAB/Simulink, the trajectory tracking accuracy of the CMOR's rigid-flexible coupling model was analyzed, and the end position error exceeded 0.1 m. After the variable parameter compensation model, the average position error of the end-effector became less than 0.02 m, which provides a reference for CMOR error compensation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권8호
• /
• pp.2728-2745
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study is to reduce seismic responses of an actual nuclear piping system using a tuned mass damper (TMD) device. A numerical piping model was developed and validated based on shaking table test results with actual nuclear piping. A TMD for nuclear piping was newly devised in this work. A TMD shape design suitable for nuclear piping systems was conducted, and its operating performance was verified after manufacturing. The response reduction performance of the developed TMD under earthquake loading on actual piping was investigated. Results confirmed that, on average, seismic response reduction rates of 34% in the maximum acceleration response, 41% in the root mean square acceleration response, and 57% in the spectral acceleration response were shown through the TMD application. This developed TMD operated successfully within the seismic response reduction rate of existing TMD optimum design values. Therefore, the developed TMD and dynamic interpretation help improve the nuclear piping's seismic performance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권5호
• /
• pp.1623-1634
• /
• 2022

A new irradiation loop design has been developed, which provides the ability to carry out radiolytic resistance studies of extraction systems simulating process relevant conditions in an easy and simple way. The step-by-step loop configuration permits an easy modification of settings and has a relative low volume requirement. This irradiation loop has been initially set up to test the main EURO-GANEX process steps: the lanthanide (Ln) and actinide (An) co-extraction followed by the transuranic (TRU) stripping. The performance and changes in the composition have been analyzed during the irradiation experiment by different techniques: gamma spectroscopy and ICP-MS for the extraction and corrosion behavior of the full system, and HPLC-MS and Raman spectroscopy to determine the degradation of the organic and aqueous solvents, respectively. The Ln and An co-extraction step and the corrosion that occurred during the first irradiation step revealed the favorable expected results according to literature. The effects of acidity changes occurred during the irradiation process, the presence of stainless corrosion products in solution as well as the new possible degradation compounds have been explored in the An stripping step. The results obtained demonstrate the importance of developing realistic irradiation experiments where different factors affecting the performance can be easily studied and isolated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권5호
• /
• pp.1712-1725
• /
• 2022

For improving the seismic performance of the nuclear power plant (NPP) piping system, attempts have been made to apply a dynamic absorber (DA). However, the current piping DA design method is limited because it cannot provide the globally optimum values for the target design seismic loading. Therefore, this study proposes a seismic time history analysis-based DA optimal design method for piping. To this end, the Kriging approach is introduced to reduce the numerical cost required for seismic time history analyses. The appropriate design of the experiment method is used to increase the efficiency in securing response data. A gradient-based method is used to efficiently deal with the multi-dimensional unconstrained optimization problem of the DA optimal design. As a result, the proposed method showed an excellent response reduction effect in several responses compared to other optimal design methods. The proposed method showed that the average response reduction rate was about 9% less at the maximum acceleration, about 5% less at the maximum value of the response spectrum, about 9% less at the maximum relative displacement, and about 4% less at the maximum combined stress compared to existing optimal design methods. Therefore, the proposed method enables an effective optimal DA design method for mitigating seismic response in NPP piping in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제55권8호
• /
• pp.2879-2888
• /
• 2023

In fusion environments, large scales of helium (He) atoms are produced by a radical transformation along with structural damage in structural materials, resulting in material swelling and degradation of physical properties. To understand its irradiation effects, this paper investigates the stability, electronic structure, energetics, charge density distribution, PDOS and TDOS, and diffusion processes of He impurities in 6HSiC materials. The formation energy indicates that a stable, favorable position for interstitial He is the HR site with the lowest energy of 2.40 eV. In terms of vacancy, the He atom initially prefers to substitute at pre-existing Si vacancy than C vacancy due to lower substitution energy. The minimum energy paths (MEPs) with migration energy barriers are also calculated for He impurity by interstitial and vacancy-mediated diffusion. Based on its calculated energy barriers, the most possible diffusion path includes the exchange of interstitial and vacancy sites with effective migration energies ranging from 0.101 eV to 1.0 eV. Our calculation provides a better understanding of the stabilization and diffusion behaviors of He impurities in 6H-SiC materials.