• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.577-578
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.473-478
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• 1997

A severe accident management strategy, in-vessel retention corium through external reactor vessel cooling(ERVC) is being studied worldwide as a means to prevent reactor vessel failure following a core melt accident. An evaluation of feasibility of this ERVC for a large Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR) is presented. To account for the coolability of corium and metal in the reactor vessel, a thermal analysis is performed using an existing method. Results show that the peak heat flux along the inner surface of the reactor vessel lower head has a relatively smaller margin than a small capacity reactor such as AP600 in regards with the critical heat flux attainable at the outer surface of the reactor vessel lower head.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2262-2275
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• 2022

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) studied the sodium-water reaction (SWR) minimized steam generator for the safety of the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), and selected the copper bonded steam generator (CBSG) as the optimal concept. This paper introduces the conceptual design of the CBSG and the development of the CBSG sizing analyzer (CBSGSA). The CBSG consists of multiple heat transfer modules with a crossflow heat transfer configuration where sodium flows horizontally and water flows vertically. The heat transfer modules are stacked along a vertical direction to achieve the targeted large heat transfer capacity. The CBSGSA code was developed for the thermal-hydraulic analysis of the CBSG in a multi-pass crossflow heat transfer configuration. Finally, we conducted a preliminary sizing and rating analysis of the CBSG for the trans-uranium (TRU) core system using the CBSGSA code proposed by KAERI.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.2204-2220
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• 2020

An open-pool type research reactor is designed and operated considering the accessibility around the pool top area to enhance the reactor utilization. The reactor structure assembly is placed at the bottom of the pool and filled with water as a primary coolant for the core cooling and radiation shielding. Most radioactive materials are generated from the fuel assemblies in the reactor core and circulated with the primary coolant. If the primary coolant goes up to the pool surface, the radiation level increases around the working area near the top of the pool. Hence, the hot water layer is designed and formed at the upper part of the pool to suppress the rising of the primary coolant to the pool surface. The temperature gradient is established from the hot water layer to the primary coolant. As this temperature gradient suppresses the circulation of the primary coolant at the upper region of the pool, the radioactive primary coolant rising up directly to the pool surface is minimized. Water mixing between these layers is reduced because the hot water layer is formed above the primary coolant with a higher temperature. The radiation level above the pool surface area is maintained as low as reasonably achievable since the radioactive materials in the primary coolant are trapped under the hot water layer. The key to maintaining the stable hot water layer and keeping the radiation level low on the pool surface is to have a stable flow of the primary coolant. In the research reactor with a downward core flow, the primary coolant is dumped into the reactor pool and goes to the reactor core through the flow guide structure. Flow fields of the primary coolant at the lower region of the reactor pool are largely affected by the dumped primary coolant. Simple, circular, and duct type discharge headers are designed to control the flow fields and make the primary coolant flow stable in the reactor pool. In this research, flow fields of the primary coolant and hot water layer are numerically simulated in the reactor pool. The heat transfer rate, temperature, and velocity fields are taken into consideration to determine the formation of the stable hot water layer and primary coolant flow. The bulk Richardson number is used to evaluate the stability of the flow field. A duct type discharge header is finally chosen to dump the primary coolant into the reactor pool. The bulk Richardson number should be higher than 2.7 and the temperature of the hot water layer should be 1 ℃ higher than the temperature of the primary coolant to maintain the stability of the stratified thermal layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.102-107
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• 1997

A stiffness in a dynamical system is numerically studied to investigate a sensitivity of a reactor to the delayed neutron spectra with the Doppler feedback. To test numerical procedure, we adopted a case of a reactivity accident in a point reactor model. We found that the stiffness is sensitive to a reactivity insertion rate and the delayed neutron spectra in the Doppler feedback phase. Our numerical results show that global reactor characteristics are not very sensitive to the delayed neutron spectra even though their instantaneous ones are sensitive. We present the time evolution of each precursor group explicitly.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.225-229
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• 2001

In Korea, an advanced reactor system of 330MWt power called SMART (System integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor) is being developed by KAERI to supply energy for seawater desalination as well as electricity generation. A shielding design of the SMART core with 49 CEDM is established by a two-dimensional discrete ordinates radiation transport analyses. The DORT two-dimensional discrete ordinates transport code is used to evaluate the SMART shielding designs. Three axial regions represent the SMART reactor assembly, each of which is modeled in the R-Z geometry. The BUGLE-96 library is used in the analyses, which consists of 47 neutron and 20 gamma energy groups. The results indicate that the maximum neutron fluence at the bottom of reactor vessel is $5.89 {\times} 10^{17}\;n/cm^2$ and that on the radial surface of reactor vessel is $4.49 {\times} 10^[16}\;n/cm^2$. These results meet the requirement, $1.0 {\times} 10^{20}\;n/cm^2$, in 10 CFR 50.61 and the integrity of SMART reactor vessel during the lifetime of the reactor is confirmed.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.189-195
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• 2021

A technology for designing and licensing a dedicated radiation shielding facility needs to be developed for safe and efficient operation an R&D center. Technology development is important for smooth operation of such facilities. Causes of damage to internal structures (such as baffle former bolt (BFB) of pressurized water reactor) of a nuclear power reactor should be analyzed along with prevention and countermeasures for similar cases of other plants. It is important to develop technologies that can comprehensively analyze various characteristics of internal structures of long term operated reactors. In high-temperature, high-pressure operating environment of nuclear power plants, cases of BFB cracks caused by irradiated assisted stress corrosion cracks (IASCC) have been reported overseas. The integrity of a reactor's internal structure has emerged as an important issue. Identifying the cause of the defect is requested by the Korean regulatory agency. It is also important to secure a foundation for testing technology to demonstrate the operating environment for medium-level irradiated testing materials. The demonstration testing facility can be used for research on material utilization of the plant, which might have highest fluence on the internal structure of a reactor globally.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.2321-2326
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• 2018

We evaluated the optimal conditions for fluidization of nickel oxide (NiO) and its reduction into high-purity Ni during hydrogen reduction in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed reactor. A comparative study was performed through structural shape analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM); variance in pressure drop, minimum fluidization velocity, terminal velocity, reduction rate, and mass loss were assessed at temperatures ranging from 400 to $600^{\circ}C$ and at 20, 40, and 60 min in reaction time. We estimated the sample weight with most active fluidization to be 200 g based on the bed diameter of the fluidized bed reactor and height of the stocked material. The optimal conditions for NiO hydrogen reduction were found to be height of sample H to the internal fluidized bed reactor diameter D was H/D=1, reaction temperature of $550^{\circ}C$, reaction time of 60 min, superficial gas velocity of 0.011 m/s, and pressure drop of 77 Pa during fluidization. We determined the best operating conditions for the NiO hydrogen reduction process based on these findings.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.117-131
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• 2002

Core disruptive accidents have been investigated at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI) as part of the work to demonstrate the inherent and ultimate safety of conceptual design of the Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor(KALIMER), a 150 MWe pool- type sodium cooled prototype fast reactor that uses U-Pu-Zr metallic fuel. In this study, a simple method and associated computer program, SCHAMBETA, was developed using a modified Bethe-Tait method to simulate the kinetics and thermodynamic behavior of a homogeneous spherical core over the period of the super-prompt critical power excursion induced by the ramp reactivity insertion. Calculations of the energy release during excursions in the sodium-voided core of the KALIMER were subsequently performed using the SCHAMBETA code for various reactivity insertion rates up to 100 S/s, which has been widely considered to be the upper limit of ramp rates due to fuel compaction. Benchmark calculations were made to compare with the results of more detailed analysis for core meltdown energetics of the oxide fuelled fast reactor. A set of parametric studies were also performed to investigate the sensitivity of the results on the various thermodynamics and reactor parameters.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1993.04a
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• pp.165-172
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• 1993

A non-linear mathematical model has been developed for the dynamic analysis of the reactor internals. The model includes a lumped mass and stiffness with non-linear members such as gap-spring. As hydrodynamic couplings have also been considered in the model, the effect of fluid/structure interaction between internals components due to their immersion in a confining fluid can be studied for the dynamic response analysis. The reactor internals responses for seismic and pipe break excitations have been calculated for the case of with-and without-hydrodynamic couplings.