• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.2_spc
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• pp.291-303
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• 2020

The Kori-Unit 1 nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to be decommissioned after permanent shutdown, is expected to generate large amounts of various types of radioactive waste during the decommissioning process. Among these, nuclear reactors and internal structures have high levels of radioactivity and the dismantled structure must have the proper size and weight on the primary side. During decommissioning, it is important to prepare an appropriate and efficient disposal method through analysis of the disposal status and the legal restrictions on wastes generated from the reactors and internal structures. Nuclear reactors and internal structures generate radioactive wastes of various levels, such as medium, very low, and clearance. A radiation evaluation indicates that wastes in the clearance level are generated in the reactor head and upper head insulation. In this study, a clearance waste safety evaluation was conducted using the RESRAD-RECYCLE code, which is a safety evaluation code, based on the activation evaluation results for the clearance level wastes. The clearance scenario for the target radioactive waste was selected and the maximum individual and collective exposure doses at the time of clearance were calculated to determine whether the clearance criteria limit prescribed by the Nuclear Safety Act was satisfied. The evaluation results indicated that the doses were significantly low, and the clearance criteria were satisfied. Based on the safety assessment results, an appropriate metal recycle and disposal method were suggested for clearance, which are the subject of the deregulation of internal structures of nuclear power plant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.248-257
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• 2020

This study presents an initial design for a novel system consisting in a coupled nuclear reactor and a phase change material-based thermal energy storage (TES) component, which acts as a buffer and regulator of heat transfer between the primary and secondary loops. The goal of this concept is to enhance the capacity factor of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the case of high integration of renewable energy sources into the electric grid. Hence, this system could support in elevating the economics of NPPs in current competitive markets, especially with subsidized solar and wind energy sources, and relatively low oil and gas prices. Furthermore, utilizing a prismatic-core advanced high temperature reactor (PAHTR) cooled by a molten salt with a high melting point, have the potential in increasing the system efficiency due to its high operating temperature, and providing the baseline requirements for coupling other process heat applications. The present research studies the neutronics and thermal hydraulics (TH) of the PAHTR as well as TH calculations for the TES which consists of 300 blocks with a total heat storage capacity of 150 MWd. SERPENT Monte Carlo and MCNP5 codes carried out the neutronics analysis of the PAHTR which is sized to have a 5-year refueling cycle and rated power of 300 MW_th. The PAHTR has 10 metric tons of heavy metal with 19.75 wt% enriched UO₂ TRISO fuel, a hot clean excess reactivity and shutdown margin of $33.70 and -$115.68; respectively, negative temperature feedback coefficients, and an axial flux peaking factor of 1.68. Star-CCM + code predicted the correct convective heat transfer coefficient variations for both the reactor and the storage. TH analysis results show that the flow in the primary loop (in the reactor and TES) remains in the developing mixed convection regime while it reaches a fully developed flow in the secondary loop.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.479-494
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• 2017

After Fukushima incident, negative sentiment towards nuclear power has led to transition in policies that reduce the dependency on nuclear power in some countries. President Moon of Republic of Korea also announced a national plan of decommissioning retired nuclear power plants stage by stage. Therefore, nuclear power that once was considered the critical solution to energy security and climate change is now a limited option. This study aims to find an optimal energy mix in Korea's electricity system from 2016 through 2030 to combat climate change through energy transition with minimum cost. The study is divided into two different scenarios; energy transition and nuclear sustenance, to compare the total costs of the systems. Both scenarios show that electricity generated by wind technology increases from 2018 whereas that of photovoltaic(PV) increases from 2021. However, the total cost of the energy transition scenario was USD 4.7 billion more expensive than the nuclear sustenance scenario.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-74
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• 2018

Large industrial motors require a large area because of the high risk of shutdown accidents and large industrial accidents due to the lowering of the dielectric strength of the armature windings and overheating problems. Therefore, there is a demand for a large-capacity motor that has small size, light weight, and excellent dielectric strength compared with conventional motors. Superconducting motors have advantages of high efficiency and output power, low size, low weight, and improved stability. This results from greatly increasing the magnetic field generation by using superconductive field coils in rotating machines such as generators and motors. It is very important to design and analyze the cooling system to lower the critical temperature of the wires to achieve superconducting performance. In this study, a field loss analysis and low-temperature heat transfer analysis of the cooling system were performed through the conceptual design of a 100-HP high-temperature superconducting synchronous motor. The field loss analysis shows that a uniform pore magnetic flux density appears when high-temperature superconducting wire is used. The low-temperature heat transfer analysis for gaseous neon and liquid neon showed that a flow rate of 1 kg/min of liquid neon is suitable for maintaining low-temperature stability of the high-temperature superconducting wire.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.674-682
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• 2018

Large industrial motors require a large area because of the high risk of shutdown accidents and large industrial accidents due to the lowering of the dielectric strength of the armature windings and overheating problems. Therefore, there is a demand for a large-capacity motor that has small size, light weight, and excellent dielectric strength compared with conventional motors. Superconducting motors have advantages of high efficiency and output power, low size, low weight, and improved stability. This results from greatly increasing the magnetic field generation by using superconductive field coils in rotating machines such as generators and motors. It is very important to design and analyze the cooling system to lower the critical temperature of the wires to achieve superconducting performance. In this study, a field loss analysis and low-temperature heat transfer analysis of the cooling system were performed through the conceptual design of a 100-HP high-temperature superconducting synchronous motor. The field loss analysis shows that a uniform pore magnetic flux density appears when high-temperature superconducting wire is used. The low-temperature heat transfer analysis for gaseous neon and liquid neon showed that a flow rate of 1 kg/min of liquid neon is suitable for maintaining low-temperature stability of the high-temperature superconducting wire.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2021

When the decommissioning of South Korea nuclear power plants is promoted in earnest with the permanent shutdown of Kori Unit 1 in 2017, a large amount of various types of radioactive waste will be generated. For minimal generation and safe management of decommissioning waste, the waste should be made by appropriate classification of the dismantling waste characteristics in accordance with physical, chemical and radiological characteristics to meet the acceptance criteria of disposal facilities. Replacing the preliminary inspection at the site for the compliance of the waste acceptance criteria (WAC) of medium and low-level radioactive waste with the generator's own radioactive waste certification program (WCP), from the perspective of disposal, the optimization of waste management at the national level contributes to the efficient availability of disposal, such as the processing of non-conforming radioactive wastes at the site. To this end, it is important to evaluate radioactivity in each system and area such as nuclear reactors before decommissioning is carried out in earnest, and the prior removal of harmful wastes is important. From waste collection to waste disposal, decommissioning waste should be managed at each stage in consideration of the acceptance criteria of disposal facilities to minimize the generation of non-conforming waste.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.437-445
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• 2019

After the permanent shutdown of K1 in 2017, decommissioning processes have attracted great attention. According to the current decommissioning roadmap, the dismantling of the activated components of K1 may start in 2026, following the removal of its spent fuel. Since the reactor vessel (RV) and reactor vessel internal (RVI) of K1 contain massive components and are relatively highly activated, their decommissioning process should be conducted carefully in terms of radiological and industrial safety. For achieving maximum efficiency of nuclear waste management processes for K1, we present activation analysis of the segmentation process and waste classification of the RV and RVI components of K1. For RVI, the active fuel regions and some parts of the upper and lower active regions are classified as intermediate-level waste (ILW), while other components are classified as low-level waste (LLW). Due to the RVI's complex structure and high activation, we suggest various underwater segmentation techniques which are expected to reduce radiation exposure and generate approximately nine ILW and nineteen very low level waste (VLLW)/LLW packages. For RV, the active fuel region and other components are classified as LLW, VLLW, and clearance waste (CW). In this case, we suggest in-situ remote segmentation in air, which is expected to generate approximately forty-two VLLW/LLW packages.

• Journal of Software Assessment and Valuation
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2019

The existing smart grid device authentication system is concentrated on DCU, meter reading FEP and MDMS, and the authentication system for smart meters is not established. Although some cryptographic chips have been developed at present, it is difficult to complete the PKI authentication scheme because it is at the low level of simple encryption. Unlike existing power grids, smart grids are based on open two-way communication, increasing the risk of accidents as information security vulnerabilities increase. However, PKI is difficult to apply to smart meters, and there is a possibility of accidents such as system shutdown by sending manipulated packets and sending false information to the operating system. Issuing an existing PKI certificate to smart meters with high hardware constraints makes authentication and certificate renewal difficult, so an ultra-lightweight password authentication protocol that can operate even on the poor performance of smart meters (such as non-IP networks, processors, memory, and storage space) was designed and implemented. As a result of the experiment, lightweight cryptographic authentication protocol was able to be executed quickly in the Cortex-M3 environment, and it is expected that it will help to prepare a more secure authentication system in the smart grid industry.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.441-454
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• 2018

Since the permanent shutdown of Kori Unit 1 in 2017, a full-scale decommissioning project for a commercial nuclear reactor has been approaching. It is estimated that about 160,000 t of low-activity concrete waste will be produced from decommissioning of one unit of this commercial nuclear power reactor. Accordingly, it is necessary to review whether the effectiveness of the current regulatory framework for clearance waste (i.e. waste stream that meets activity concentration guidelines or dose criteria for clearance set forth in NSSC Notice No. 2017-65) can be maintained for the clearance of a bulk amount of concrete waste. In this regard, the IAEA SRS No. 44, which was used as a basis for revision of the Korean clearance regulations, is thoroughly analyzed and the radiological effects from four different clearance scenarios, along with input values and parameters derived from industrial practices in Korea, were evaluated. Though it is shown that the maximum annual dose from most recycling scenarios will be less than the clearance dose criterion for the normal scenario (i.e. an order of magnitude of $0.01mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$), the radiation dose, estimated with conservative assumptions for the banking scenario, may exceed the above clearance dose criteria. Therefore, for safe and sustainable clearance of the bulk amount of concrete waste, it is required to diversify the concrete waste processors, perform more detailed site-specific assessment, and apply limiting conditions to the banking scenario.