• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.227-239
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• 2015

The thermal, mechanical, and neutronic performance of the metal alloy fast reactor fuel design complements the safety advantages of the liquid metal cooling and the pool-type primary system. Together, these features provide large safety margins in both normal operating modes and for a wide range of postulated accidents. In particular, they maximize the measures of safety associated with inherent reactor response to unprotected, doublefault accidents, and to minimize risk to the public and plant investment. High thermal conductivity and high gap conductance play the most significant role in safety advantages of the metallic fuel, resulting in a flatter radial temperature profile within the pin and much lower normal operation and transient temperatures in comparison to oxide fuel. Despite the big difference in melting point, both oxide and metal fuels have a relatively similar margin to melting during postulated accidents. When the metal fuel cladding fails, it typically occurs below the coolant boiling point and the damaged fuel pins remain coolable. Metal fuel is compatible with sodium coolant, eliminating the potential of energetic fuel-coolant reactions and flow blockages. All these, and the low retained heat leading to a longer grace period for operator action, are significant contributing factors to the inherently benign response of metallic fuel to postulated accidents. This paper summarizes the past analytical and experimental results obtained in past sodium-cooled fast reactor safety programs in the United States, and presents an overview of fuel safety performance as observed in laboratory and in-pile tests.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 2007

Metal fuel, which was abandoned in the 1960's in favor of oxide fuel, has since then proven to be a viable fast reactor fuel. Key discoveries allowed high burnup capability and excellent steady-state as well as off-normal performance characteristics. Metal fuel is a key to achieving inherent passive safety characteristics and compact and economic fuel cycle closure based on electrorefining and injection-casting refabrication.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1939-1949
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• 2005

Many studies have been conducted to increase regression rate of solid fuel in hybrid rocket. One of them resorts to swirl flow since it can extend the residence time of oxidizer in the fuel grain. Also, metal wires may lead to increase the regression rate of solid fuel as shown in solid propellants. In this study, a series of experiments was designed to investigate the enhancement of regression rate of solid fuel by embedded metal wires and by fuel port grain. And fuel port was designed with a helical configuration to attempt to induce swirl flow. PMMA with gaseous oxygen is the solid fuel used for investigation. Test results showed that embedded metal wires turned out to be ineffective method because only $3-4\%$ increases in regression rate were observed. However, fuel port grain configuration yields higher burning performance of up to $50\%$ increase in regression rate. Also pitch number as well as total impulse was found to be a design variable.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2020

It is necessary to fabricate uniformly dispersed nanoscale catalyst materials with high activity and long-term stability for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with excellent electrochemical characteristics of the oxygen reduction reaction and hydrogen oxidation reaction. Platinum is known as the best noble metal catalyst for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells because of its excellent catalytic activity. However, given that Pt is expensive, considerable efforts have been made to reduce the amount of Pt loading for both anode and cathode catalysts. Meanwhile, the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method shows excellent uniformity and precise particle size controllability over the three-dimensional structure. The research progress on noble metal ALD, such as Pt, Ru, Pd, and various metal alloys, is presented in this review. ALD technology enables the development of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with excellent reactivity and durability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1096-1108
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• 2016

Metal fuel is being developed for the prototype generation-IV sodium-cooled fast reactor (PGSFR) to be built by 2028. U-Zr fuel is a driver for the initial core of the PGSFR, and U-transuranics (TRU)-Zr fuel will gradually replace U-Zr fuel through its qualification in the PGSFR. Based on the vast worldwide experiences of U-Zr fuel, work on U-Zr fuel is focused on fuel design, fabrication of fuel components, and fuel verification tests. U-TRU-Zr fuel uses TRU recovered through pyroelectrochemical processing of spent PWR (pressurized water reactor) fuels, which contains highly radioactive minor actinides and chemically active lanthanide or rare earth elements as carryover impurities. An advanced fuel slug casting system, which can prevent vaporization of volatile elements through a control of the atmospheric pressure of the casting chamber and also deal with chemically active lanthanide elements using protective coatings in the casting crucible, was developed. Fuel cladding of the ferritic-martensitic steel FC92, which has higher mechanical strength at a high temperature than conventional HT9 cladding, was developed and fabricated, and is being irradiated in the fast reactor.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.514-517
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• 2008

Water gas shift(WGS) is an important step in fuel process for fuel cells, and improperness of commercial WGS catalysts for use in fuel cell systems has prompted numerous researches on noble metal catalysts. A selected noble metal catalyst for water gas shift reaction(WGS) was prepared with various metal loadings. The prepared catalysts were tested under two feeding conditions. At moderate residence time, carbon monoxide conversion was much higher on the noble metal catalysts as compared to commercial high-temperature shift catalyst. Effects of metal loading were examined by activity tests at short residence time. Higher metal loading effected higher reaction rate. The kinetic data was fitted to simple reaction equations and effectiveness factor was estimated. The results suggest the necessity of a structural design for the highly active noble metal catalysts.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.101-104
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• 2007

Mechanical behavior in metal bipolar plate of a fuel cell stack was studied using finite element analysis. The fuel stack is essentially composed of a metal bipolar plate (metal BP), a gasket, an end plate, a membrane electrolyte assembly (MEA), and a gas diffusion layer (GDL). It is important to maintain a suitable fastening force of Metal BP, because it influences the power efficiency of the fuel cell stack. After a gasket and a GDL are placed on the metal BP, the reaction force with the displacement is measured. The channel of metal bipolar plate is replaced by a simple geometrical plate. The results of FEM are similar to those of experiment. Therefore mechanical behavior in metal BP of a fuel cell stack can be estimated by using FEM.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.129-132
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• 2007

Advanced structure of metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells was devised to overcome sealing problem and mechanical instability in ceramic-supported solid oxide fuel cells. STS430 whose dimensions were 26mm diameter, 1mm thickness and 0.4mm channel width was used as metal support. Thin ceramic layer composed of anode(Ni/YSZ) and electrolyte(YSZ) was joined with STS430 metal support by using a cermet adhesive. $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Co_{0.4}Mn_{0.6}O_{3}$ perovskite oxide was used as cathode material. It was noted that oxygen reduction reaction of cathode governed the overall cell performance from oxygen partial pressure dependance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.35-41
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• 2001

In recent applications, map controlled thermostat has been adapted to optimize engine cooling system and vehicle cooling system. First of all, this strategy is focused on improving fuel consumption rate and reducing emissions, especially unburned hydrocarbon. The object can be obtained through controlling engine metal temperature by varying engine coolant temperature with engine load and speed. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of engine metal temperature and heat rejection rate to coolant. From the results of tested engines, it is obvious that fuel consumption rate has more dominant effect on engine metal temperatures than the corresponding engine power does. Also, Re-Nu relation which shows heat rejection rate to coolant in function of air-fuel mixture and engine specifications has been studied. Also, the empirical Re-Nu relation at full loaded engine was developed.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.06e
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• pp.247-250
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• 1998

The scattering of plane ultrasonic waves by the nuclear fuel pin of liquid metal reactor in sodium is studied. According to the internal composition in the cladding tube, the fuel pin has three cross sections, i.e. helium gas plenum, sodium-filled section, and fuel insertion section. The scattering spectra for each section of the fuel pin are different. The circumnavigating ultrasonic waves of each section are analyzed by the resonance scattering method. The whispering gallery wave modes are generated in the sodium-filled plenum section and the fuel rod insertion section with a sodium-gap. The circumferential wave modes are propagated in the cladding tube of the helium gas plenum section. The annular gap between the cladding tube and metal uranium pellet rod affects the scattering spectra. The different propagation characteristics can be utilized for the nondestructive method of detecting the unbonded area and measuring the level of the sodium-filled section of the fuel pin.