• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2012

A new effective methodology for optimizing the enrichment of low-enriched zones as well as gadolinia fuel ($UO_2/Gd_2O_3$) rod designs in PLUS7 fuel assemblies was developed to minimize the maximum peak power in the core and to maximize the cycle lifetime. An automated link code was developed to integrate the genetic algorithm (GA) and the core design code package of ALPHA/PHOENIX-P/ANC and to generate and evaluate the candidates to be optimized efficiently through the integrated code package. This study introduces an optimization technique for the optimization of gadolinia fuel rod designs in order to effectively reduce the peak powers for a few hot assemblies simultaneously during the cycle. Coupled with the gadolinia optimization, the optimum enrichments were determined using the same automated code package. Applying this technique to the reference core of Ulchin Unit 4 Cycle 11, the gadolinia fuel rods in each hot assembly were optimized to different numbers and positions from their original designs, and the maximum peak power was decreased by 2.5%, while the independent optimization technique showed a decrease of 1.6% for the same fuel assembly. The lower enrichments at the fuel rods adjacent to the corner gap (CG), guide tube (GT), and instrumentation tube (IT) were optimized from the current 4.1, 4.1, 4.1 w/o to 4.65, 4.2, 4.2 w/o. The increase in the cycle lifetime achieved through this methodology was 5 effective full-power days (EFPD) on an ideal equilibrium cycle basis while keeping the peak power as low as 2.3% compared with the original design.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.242-258
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• 2004

The duplex burnable poison absorbers concept was suggested by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. This BP rod is composed of inner region of natural U-Gd$_2$O$_3$ and outer shell of enriched UO$_2$-Er$_2$O$_3$. It is expected that this burnable absorber has same reactivity control capability with gadolinia burnable absorber used in extened fuel cycle. In order to evaluate the nuclear feasibility of duplex BPs, the nuclear design characteristics were compared with that of four types of burnable absorbers; gadolinia, erbia, IFBA, dysprosia duplex BP on 24 months fuel cycle for Korean Standard Nuclear Power plants. According to the evaluation results of nuclear characteristics, the duplex BPs were better than other BPs on k-infinitives, reactivity holddown worth (RHW), pin power peaking and moderator temperature coefficient (MTC). The possibility of nuclear core design was also confirmed based on the optimized fuel assemblies which were searched for a sensitivity analysis. Characteristics of core design with duplex BPs was compared with that of reference core with gadolinia BPs for cycle length, power peaking and MTC. The duplex BP core had a little longer cycle length by 4 to 7 days because of increased amount of fissile in enriched uranium at the outer shell of duplex BP In case of power peaking F$\_$Q/ of duplex BP core was reduced from 1.5773 to 1.5335. MTC was also less -0.48 pcm/C than that of reference core. Finally, evaluation of fuel cycle economy was performed for the manufacturing feasibility test and fuel cost evaluation with duplex BPs. Fuel cycle economy of duplex BP core almost was equivalent with that of gadolinia BP core.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.71-79
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• 2002

Nuclear design characteristics of duplex burnable poison rod were evaluated based on 24 month cycle fuel for Korean Standard Nuclear Plant. A fuel assembly with duplex burnable poison rod was designed for an equivalent assembly to 16 gadolinia BPs. Duplex BP is composed of inner region of natural U-12wt%Gd$_2$O$_3$ and outer shell of 4.95wt%UO$_2$-2wt%Er$_2$O$_3$. In order to compare this duplex option, assemblies with 140 erbia pins were designed as an alternative option. The variation of k-infinitive, rod worth, pin peaking and MTC were compared. Duplex BP had the better neutronic performance than gadolinia BP in all parameters. However, Duplex BP was worse than erbia BP in the aspect of safety.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 2007

The urania-gadolinia fuels were dissolved with nitric acid. The analytical conditions of ICP-AES for the direct determinations of gadolinium in the uranium matrices without separation process were investigated. Based on the effect of uranium on gadolinium intensity, the best wavelength for gadolinium was 336.223 nm. The relative deviation of two methods, direct and indirect measurements with anion exchange chromatography, was less than 5 %. Therefore it was possible for this procedure directly to measure 5~10 wt.% of gadolinium in urania-gadolinia fuels without separation by ICP-AES.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.60.2-60
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• 2001

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.321-327
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• 1991

A defect model e)[plaining the oxygen potential of Gadolinia doped urania based on the defect structure of pure urania has been developed. Gd-dopants are assumed to stay in the cation sites pushing away nearby oxygen interstitials reducing the number of interstitial sites. Gd-dopants also form dopant-vacancy clusters in the abundance of oxygen vacancies. This model explains the discontinuous change of the oxygen potential at O/M= as well as the increase of the potential with the dopant concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.15-20
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• 1996

We present the result of physical studies for three integral-type burnable absorbers of gadolinia, erbia and IFBA, in the hexagonal fuel assembly. The analysis of nuclear characteristics for gadolinia and IFBA cases shows that the spectrum hardening of hexagonal fuel assembly compared to rectangular one leads to smaller reactivity hold-down worth(RHW) and less change of MTC in the negative direction per insertion of one burnable absorber rod. Erbia case, on the other hand, exhibits reversed trend in RHW and MTC due to the enhanced absorption of large resonance of Erbium at 0.5 eV It turns out to be that Erbia performs best in terms of minimizing the peak pin power and maintaining as more negative MTC as practically attainable during the entire operational phase, and IFBA provides the least residual reactivity penalty at EOC. Therefore, we take Erbium as the suitable burnable absorber and provide optimal designs of 60, 120, 180, 240 and 300 erbia-shimmed hexagonal fuel assemblies with regard to minimizing the peak pin power.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.73-79
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• 1996

현재의 원전 운용은 연료주기 비용을 최소화하여 경제성을 향상시키는 것이 세계적인 추세이다. 따라서 영광 3, 4호기 이후의 국내 원전 건설의 대부분이 될 한국 표준형 원전을 대상으로 하여, 현재 개발 중이거나 이미 실용화된 개량 원전 연료의 특성을 적용하여 실제 노심해석을 수행하고. 이에 따른 경제성 분석을 수행하였다. 노심해석은 현재의 영광 3, 4호기에 장전된 CE형 연료 및 장주기용 개량연료를 초기노심 및 평형 노심에 각각 장전하는 경우에 대하여 수행하였다. 가연성 흡수체는 현재 사용중인 Gadolinia 및 Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber(IFBA) 가연성 흡수체를 사용하여 분석하였다. 그 결과 현재의 CE형 연료에서 사용하는 0.382" 연료봉보다 0.374"의 연료봉이 중성자 경제성 측면에서 유리하며, Gadolinia보다 IFBA가 반경방향 첨두출력 계수의 제어를 쉽게할 수 있슴이 밝혀졌다. 그 외에 열적 여유도 증진을 위한 유량 혼합 날개의 채용과 고연소도를 위한 새로운 피복관 재료의 사용이 요청된다. 이상과 같은 결과는 향후 표준형 원전의 장주기용 개량연료를 위한 개발 방향으로 제시될 수 있다. 제시될 수 있다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.109.1-109
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• 2000

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.224-224
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• 2002