• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2020

Nuclear power plants in South Korea are operated to cover the baseload demand. Hence they are operated at 100% rated power and do not deploy power tracking control except for startup, shutdown, or during transients. However, as the contribution of renewable energy in the energy mix increases, load follow operation may be needed to cover the imbalance between consumption and production due to the intermittent nature of electricity produced from the conversion of wind or solar energy. Load follow operation may be quite challenging since the operators need to control the axial power distribution and core reactivity while simultaneously conducting the power maneuvering. In this paper, a systems engineering approach for multi-physics load follow simulation of APR1400 is performed. RELAP5/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4/3DKIN multi-physics package is selected to simulate the Korean Advanced Power Reactor, APR1400, under load follow operation to reflect the impact of feedback signals on the system safety parameters. Furthermore, the systems engineering approach is adopted to identify the requirements, functions, and physical architecture to provide a set of verification and validation activities that guide this project development by linking each requirement to a validation or verification test with predefined success criteria.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3878-3887
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• 2022

For the future energy-mix policy for carbon neutrality, demand for the capability of load-follow operation has emerged in nuclear power plants in order to accommodate the intermittency of renewable energy. The short-term decay heat analysis is also required to evaluate the decay heat level varied by the power level change during the load-follow operation, which is a very important parameter in terms of short-term decay heat removal during a grace time. In this study, the short-term decay heat level for 10 days after the shutdown was evaluated for both seasonal and daily load-follow cases. Additionally, the nuclide-wise contribution to the accumulated decay heat for 10 days was analyzed for further understanding of the short-term decay heat behavior. The result showed that in the seasonal case, the decay heat level was mainly determined by the power level right before the shutdown and the amount of each nuclide was varied with the power variation due to the long variation interval of 90 days. Whereas, in the daily case, the decay heat level was strongly impacted by the average power level during operation and meaningful mass variations for those nuclides were not observed due to the short variation interval of 0.5 days.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.491-497
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• 1985

An applicaton of the linear optimal control theory to the problem or load follow control in pressurized water reactors (PWR) is investigated. In order to perform the steady-state and load follow operation in PWR, a nonlinear model for the reactor and steam generator is derived and linearized at 50% rated power. Simulation tests are performed for 10% demanded load. Comparing the dynamic response of the newly developed optimal load follow controller with those of the integral error feedback controller proposed by Yang, the rise time of dynamic response of the former is about 15 seconds faster than those of the latter, thus the results indicate that the fast response of the optimal load follow controller is verified. The results of this work are directly applicable to the design of the load follow control systems for commercially operated PWRs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.209-217
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• 1986

The inlet coolant temperature reduction technique has been used to extend the load follow operation further in the end-of-cycle-life(EOL). In order to simulate the technique and calculate the nuclear characteristics of a PWR core according to the load follow operation, the three dimensional computing system has been established. The analysis was performed in both MINB and SPINR modes of typical 12-3-6-3 locad follow operation for the EOL of KNU-1 plant. Moreover, the capability of return-to-power has been also tested for those two modes with the system analysis by the RETRAN-02 code. The results show that it has no difficulty to extend the load follow operation further in the EOL by applying the inlet coolant temprature reduction, and also the spinning reserve capacity(SRC) increases by 13% in MINB mode and 14% in SPINR mode Bore that used by control rods only, for 14$^{\circ}$ F drop in the inlet temperature.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 1992

An advanced load-follow operation mode, Mode K, is presented for the Korean Standardized Nuclear Power Plants. The Mode K utilizes a heavy worth bank dedicated to axial shape control independent of the existing regulating banks. In Mode K, the heavy bank provides a wide range of axial shape control and a monotonic relationship between its motion and the axial shape change, which makes it easy to automate axial shape control. The achievement of full automatic reactor power control both for the reactivity and power shape would reduce the burden due to load-follow operation on the operator. Also, it can accommodate the frequen-cy control, which requires the plant to respond to the unexpected demand. The Mode K design concepts were tested using simulation responses of Yonggwang Units 3&4, the reference plants for the Korean Standardized Nuclear Power Plants. The results illustrate that the Mode K is an adequate operation mode to provide practical load-follow capabilities for the Korean Standardized Nuclear Power Plants.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 1991

An improved control method in turbine control system is proposed. By automatic follow-up design, power system frequency may be maintained within prespecified range. Base or half load control is possible by distributing power plant load allotment. Otherwise, diminutive frequency-load control is dine by governor-free operation in power plant. This paper proposes governor-free operation which is automatically followed by load-limitter setter. The condition which limits governor action may be somewhat improved within boiler condition by this idea. This design has been implemented at Samchunpo thermal power plant. The improved practical results are shown.

• Nuclear industry
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• v.6 no.5 s.39
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• pp.16-22
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• 1986

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.231-236
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• 1996

The xenon dynamics module in the nuclear design code MASTER was verified through a simulation calculation. The simulation result shows that the xenon dynamics module in MASTER can trace and predict xenon behavior with accuracy under any core transient state and therefore can simulate load follow operations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1988

During power plant operation, the flow rate from the CVCS makeup system is estimated using the continuity equation and mass balance equation, when the primary loop boron concentration change is required due to the power transient. For this purpose, primary loop, pressurizer and VCT(volume control tank)(in CVCS) are modeled by three control volumes which contain each mass and boron concentration. Connecting pipes between primary loop, pressurizer and CVCS are also modeled by time delay. Calculation for 14-2-6-2 (power 100-50-100) load follow case (at EOL, for KNU 7) is made using these models.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.92.1-92
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• 1999