• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.968-976
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• 2019

This paper presents a number of verification case studies for a recently developed sensitivity/uncertainty code package. The code package, ROMUSE (Reduced Order Modeling based Uncertainty/Sensitivity Estimator) is an effort to provide an analysis tool to be used in conjunction with reactor core simulators, in particular the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) core simulator. ROMUSE has been written in C++ and is currently capable of performing various types of parameter perturbations and associated sensitivity analysis, uncertainty quantification, surrogate model construction and subspace analysis. The current version 2.0 has the capability to interface with the Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications (DAKOTA) code, which gives ROMUSE access to the various algorithms implemented within DAKOTA, most importantly model calibration. The verification study is performed via two basic problems and two reactor physics models. The first problem is used to verify the ROMUSE single physics gradient-based range finding algorithm capability using an abstract quadratic model. The second problem is the Brusselator problem, which is a coupled problem representative of multi-physics problems. This problem is used to test the capability of constructing surrogates via ROMUSE-DAKOTA. Finally, light water reactor pin cell and sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel assembly problems are simulated via SCALE 6.1 to test ROMUSE capability for uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis purposes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.894-903
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• 2019

An approach for collapse risk assessment is proposed to evaluate the vulnerability of electric cabinet in nuclear power plants. The lognormal approaches, namely maximum likelihood estimation and linear regression, are introduced to establish the fragility curves. These two fragility analyses are applied for the numerical models of cabinets considering various boundary conditions, which are expressed by representing restrained and anchored models at the base. The models have been built and verified using the system identification (SI) technique. The fundamental frequency of the electric cabinet is sensitive because of many attached devices. To bypass this complex problem, the average spectral acceleration $S_{\bar{a}}$ in the range of period that cover the first mode period is chosen as an intensity measure on the fragility function. The nonlinear time history analyses for cabinet are conducted using a suite of 40 ground motions. The obtained curves with different approaches are compared, and the variability of risk assessment is evaluated for restrained and anchored models. The fragility curves obtained for anchored model are found to be closer each other, compared to the fragility curves for restrained model. It is also found that the support boundary conditions played a significant role in acceleration response of cabinet.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.837-842
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• 2019

A large amount of radioactive material was released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in 2011 and dispersed into the environment. Though seven years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, some parts of Japan are still under the influence of radionuclide contamination, especially Fukushima Prefecture and prefectures neighboring Fukushima Prefecture. The long-term effective doses and the contributions of each exposure pathway (5 exposure pathways) and radionuclide ($^{131}I$, $^{134}Cs$, and $^{137}Cs$) were evaluated for people living in the regions of Fukushima and neighboring prefectures in Japan using a developed dose assessment code system with Japanese specific input data. The results estimated in this study were compared with data from previously published reports. Groundshine and ingestion were predicted to contribute most significantly to the total long-term dose for all regions. The contributions of each exposure pathway and radionuclide show different patterns for certain regions of Japan.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권7호
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• pp.1860-1865
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• 2019

The confinement degradation of the energetic particles during RMP would be a key issue in success of realizing the successful energy production using fusion plasma, because a 3.5 MeV energetic alpha particle should be able to sustain the burning plasma after the ignition. As KSTAR recent results indicate the generation of high-performance plasma(${\beta}_p{\sim}3$), the confinement of the energetic particles is also an important key aspect in neutral beam driven plasma. In general, the measured absolute value of the neutron intensity is generally used for to estimating the confinement time of energetic particles by comparing it with the theoretical value based on transport calculations. However, the availability of, but for its calculation process, many accurate diagnostic data of plasma parameters such as thermal and incident fast ion density, are essential to the calculation process. In this paper, the time evolution of the neutron signal from an He3 counter during the beam blank has permitted to facilitate the estimation of the slowing down time of energetic particles and the method is applied to investigate the fast ion effect on ELM suppressed KSTAR plasma which is heated by high energy deuterium neutral beams.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권7호
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• pp.1805-1815
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• 2019

While nickel-based alloys have been widely used for power plants due to corrosion resistance and good mechanical properties, during the last couple of decades, failures of nuclear components increased gradually. One of main degradation mechanisms was primary water stress corrosion cracking at dissimilar metal welds of piping and reactor head penetrations. In this context, precise estimation of welding effects became an important issue for ensuring reliability of them. The present study deals with a series of finite element analyses and crack growth rate evaluation of Alloys 690/152. Firstly, variation of residual stresses and equivalent plastic strains was simulated taking into account welding of a cylindrical block. Subsequently, extraction and pre-cracking of compact tension (CT) specimens were considered from different locations of the block. Finally, crack growth curves of the alloys and heat affected zone were developed based on analyses results combined with experimental data in references. Characteristics of crack growth behaviors were also discussed in relation to mechanical and fracture parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권2호
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• pp.607-617
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• 2019

Global warming and climate change are increasing the intensity of typhoons and hurricanes and thus increasing the risk effects of typhoon and hurricane hazards on nuclear power plants (NPPs). To reflect these changes, a new NPP should be designed to endure design-basis hurricane wind speeds corresponding to an exceedance frequency of $10^{-7}/yr$. However, the short typhoon and hurricane observation records and uncertainties included in the inputs for an estimation cause significant uncertainty in the estimated wind speeds for return periods of longer than 100,000 years. A logic-tree framework is introduced to handle the epistemic uncertainty when estimating wind speeds. Three key parameters of a typhoon wind field model, i.e., the central pressure difference, pressure profile parameter, and radius to maximum wind, are used for constructing logic tree branches. The wind speeds of the simulated typhoons and the probable maximum wind speeds are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations, and wind hazard curves are derived as a function of the annual exceedance probability or return period. A logic tree decreases the epistemic uncertainty included in the wind intensity models and provides reasonably acceptable wind speeds.

• 천문학회보
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• 제44권1호
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• pp.79.2-79.2
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• 2019

Based on three types of 2-point statistics (galaxy clustering, galaxy-galaxy lensing, and cosmic shear power spectra) from the Deep Lens Survey (DLS), we constrain cosmology and baryonic feedback. The DLS is a deep survey, so-called a precursor to LSST, reaching down to ~27th magnitude in BVRz' over 20 deg2. To measure the three power spectra, we choose two lens galaxy populations centered at z ~0.27 and 0.54 and two source galaxy populations centered at z ~0.64 and 1.1, with more than 1 million galaxies. We perform a number of consistency tests to confirm the reliability of the measurements. We calibrated photo-z estimation of the lens galaxies and validated the result with galaxy cross-correlation measurement. The B-mode signals, indicative of potential systematics, are found to be consistent with zero. The two cosmological results independently obtained from the cosmic shear and the galaxy clustering + galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements agree well with each other. Also, we verify that cosmological results between bright and faint sources are consistent. While there exist some weak lensing surveys showing a tension with Planck, the DLS constraint on S8 agrees nicely with the Planck result. Using the HMcode approach derived from the OWLS simulation, we constrain the strength of baryonic feedback. The DLS results hint at the possibility that the actual AGN feedback may be stronger than the one implemented in the current state-of-the-art simulations.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.364-379
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• 2019

Wave-induced ship motion and load responses are usually investigated on the assumption that the incident waves are long-crested. The realistic sea waves are however short-crested irregular waves. Real practice reveals that the ship motion and load responses induced by short-crested waves are different from those induced by long-crested waves. This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive study on ship motions and loads in different wave fields. For this purpose, comparative studies by small-scale model towing tank test and large-scale model sea trial are conducted to experimentally identify the difference between ship motions and loads in long-crested and short-crested irregular waves. Moreover, the influences of directional spreading function of short-crested waves on ship motions and loads are analyzed by numerical seakeeping calculation. The results and conclusions obtained from this study are of great significance for the further extrapolation and estimation of ship motions and loads in short-crested waves based on long-crested wave response results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권1호
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• pp.198-206
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• 2019

A new methodology to analyze the nuclear material accountability for pyroprocessing system is developed. The $Pu-to-^{244}Cm$ ratio quantification is one of the methods for Pu accountancy in pyroprocessing. However, an uncertainty in the $Pu-to-^{244}Cm$ ratio due to the non-uniform composition in used fuel assemblies can affect the accountancy of Pu. A random variable, LOPu, is developed to analyze the probability of detection for Pu diversion of hypothetical scenarios at a pyroprocessing facility considering the uncertainty in $Pu-to-^{244}Cm$ ratio estimation. The analysis is carried out by the hypothesis testing and the event tree method. The probability of detection for diversion of 8 kg Pu is found to be less than 95% if a large size granule consisting of small size particles gets sampled for measurements. To increase the probability of detection more than 95%, first, a new Material Balance Area (MBA) structure consisting of more number of Key Measurement Points (KMPs) is designed. This multiple KMP-measurement for the MBA shows the probability of detection for 8 kg Pu diversion is greater than 96%. Increasing the granule sample number from one to ten also shows the probability of detection is greater than 95% in the most ranges for granule and powder sizes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.960-966
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• 2021

A technical approach to design and carry out an experiment to determine the uptake of selected radionuclides in site-specific conditions in Kuwait was developed and successfully executed for developing a radioecological decision support system. The radionuclides from soil-to-plant transfer factors have been obtained for leafy and non-leafy vegetables, and root crops cultivated in Kuwait. Two types of vegetated soils were selected and spiked with high concentrations of three relatively short-lived selected radionuclides (⁸⁵Sr, ¹³⁴Cs, and ¹³³Ba). The highest strontium and barium transfer factors were found in the order: leafy vegetables > root crops > non-leafy vegetables. The approximate range of radiocesium transfer factor was found to be low in all plant groups and was comparable to those reported elsewhere in different soil types of temperate and tropical environments. A strong negative correlation between the obtained transfer factors and the distribution coefficient of the radionuclide in soil was found. It is recommended to adopt the newly derived parameters for the sensitive areas in Kuwait and other Gulf countries instead of using the generic parameters, whenever dose calculation codes are used. This will help to more accurately assess and predict the end results of the committed effective dose equivalent through ingestion pathway.