• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.621-631
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• 2017

Many developing countries considering the introduction of nuclear power find that large-scale reactor plants in the range of 1,000 MWe to 1,600 MWe are not grid appropriate for their current circumstance. By contrast, small modular reactors are generally too small to make significant contributions toward rapidly growing electricity demand and to date have not been demonstrated. This paper proposes a radically simplified re-design for the nuclear steam cycle for a medium-sized reactor plant in the range of 600 MWe. Historically, balance of plant designs for units of this size have emphasized reliability and efficiency. It will be demonstrated here that advances over the past 50 years in component design, materials, and fabrication techniques allow both of these goals to be met with a less complex design. A disciplined approach to reduce component count will result in substantial benefits in the life cycle cost of the units. Specifically, fabrication, transportation, construction, operations, and maintenance costs and expenses can all see significant reductions. In addition, the design described here can also be expected to significantly reduce both construction duration and operational requirements for maintenance and inspections.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2547-2555
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• 2021

The frequency of reactor coolant leakage is expected to increase over the lifetime of a nuclear power plant owing to degradation mechanisms, such as flow-acceleration corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. When loss of coolant accidents (LOCAs) occur, several parameters change rapidly depending on the size and location of the cracks. In this study, leak flow during LOCAs is predicted using a deep fuzzy neural network (DFNN) model. The DFNN model is based on fuzzy neural network (FNN) modules and has a structure where the FNN modules are sequentially connected. Because the DFNN model is based on the FNN modules, the performance factors are the number of FNN modules and the parameters of the FNN module. These parameters are determined by a least-squares method combined with a genetic algorithm; the number of FNN modules is determined automatically by cross checking a fitness function using the verification dataset output to prevent an overfitting problem. To acquire the data of LOCAs, an optimized power reactor-1000 was simulated using a modular accident analysis program code. The predicted results of the DFNN model are found to be superior to those predicted in previous works. The leak flow prediction results obtained in this study will be useful to check the core integrity in nuclear power plant during LOCAs. This information is also expected to reduce the workload of the operators.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.723-730
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• 2019

Acquiring instrumentation signals generated from nuclear power plants (NPPs) is essential to maintain nuclear reactor integrity or to mitigate an abnormal state under normal operating conditions or severe accident circumstances. However, various safety-critical instrumentation signals from NPPs cannot be accurately measured on account of instrument degradation or failure under severe accident circumstances. Reactor vessel (RV) water level, which is an accident monitoring variable directly related to reactor cooling and prevention of core exposure, was predicted by applying a few signals to deep neural networks (DNNs) during severe accidents in NPPs. Signal data were obtained by simulating the postulated loss-of-coolant accidents at hot- and cold-legs, and steam generator tube rupture using modular accident analysis program code as actual NPP accidents rarely happen. To optimize the DNN model for RV water level prediction, a genetic algorithm was used to select the numbers of hidden layers and nodes. The proposed DNN model had a small root mean square error for RV water level prediction, and performed better than the cascaded fuzzy neural network model of the previous study. Consequently, the DNN model is considered to perform well enough to provide supporting information on the RV water level to operators.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.1054-1060
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• 2019

A extension of the high boost voltage-lift DC-DC converter with large conversion ratio has been proposed in this paper. The proposed extension is combined the switched-inductor cell (SL-cell) and modular voltage cell (MV-cell). The proposed structure can achieve the large voltage conversion without high duty-cycle and the low voltage of the components. Moreover, the PID controller for novel SL-MV voltage-lift DC-DC converter also introduces. This technique a good-performance output voltage can kept constant with an good transient performance when the output load is suddenly changed. In order to prove the theoretical analysis, the experimental setup has been built for the DC load of $150[{\Omega}]$ and $300[{\Omega}]$. In addition, the transient of output voltage has been tested to determine the controller. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis proving the satisfactory converter performance.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.481-496
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• 2020

After nuclear power plants are permanently shut down and decommissioned, the remaining irradiated metal components such as stainless steel, carbon steel, and Inconel can be used as neutron absorber. This study investigates the possibility of reusing these metal components as neutron absorber materials, that is burnable poison. The absorption cross section of the irradiated metals did not lose their chemical properties and performance even if they were irradiated over 40-50 years in the NPPs. To examine the absorption capability of the waste metals, the lattice calculations of WH 17×17 fuel assembly were analyzed. From the results, Inconel-718 significantly hold-down fuel assembly excess reactivity compared to stainless steel 304 and carbon steel because Inconel-718 contains a small amount of boron nuclide. From the results, a 20wt% impurity of boron in irradiated Inconel-718 enhances the excess reactivity suppression. The application of irradiated Inconel-718 as a burnable absorber for SMR core was investigated. The irradiated Inconel-718 impurity with 20wt% of boron content can maintain and suppress the whole core reactivity. We emphasize that the irradiated metal components can be used as burnable absorber materials to control the reactivity of commercial reactor power and small modular reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1464-1470
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• 2022

This paper presents a high performance burnable absorber named as CIMBA (Cylindrically Inserted and Mechanically Separated Burnable Absorber) for the soluble-boron-free SMR. The CIMBA is the cylindrical gadolinia inserted into the annular fuel pellets. Although the CIMBA utilizes the spatial self-shielding effect of the fuel material, a large reactivity upswing occurs when the gadolinia is depleted. To minimize the reactivity swing of the CIMBA-loaded FA, two approaches were investigated. One is controlling the spatial self-shielding effect of the CIMBA as burnup proceeds by a multi-layered structure of the CIMBA (ML-CIMBA) and the other is the mixed-loading of two different types of CIMBA (MIX-CIMBA). Both approaches show promising performances to minimize the reactivity swing, where the MIX-CIMBA is more preferable due to its simpler fabrication process. In conclusion, the MIX-CIMBA is expected to accelerate the commercialization of the CIMBA and can be used to achieve an optimal soluble-boron-free SMR core design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1890-1901
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• 2022

We have assessed the applicability of the thermal-hydraulic system analysis code, SPACE, to a small modular reactor called SMART. For the assessment, the experimental data from a scale-down integral-test facility, SMART-ITL, were used. It was conformed that the SPACE code unrealistically calculates the safety injection flow rate through the CMT and SIT during a small-break loss-of-coolant experiment. This unrealistic behavior was due to the overprediction of interfacial heat transfer at the steam-water interface in a vertically stratified flow in the tanks. In this study, a special thermal-hydraulic component model has been developed to realistically calculate the interfacial heat transfer when a strong non-equilibrium two-phase flow is formed in the CMT or SIT. Additionally, we developed a special heat structure model, which analytically calculates the heat transfer from the hot steam to the cold tank wall. The combination of two models for the tank are called the special component model. We assessed it using the SMART-ITL passive safety injection system (PSIS) test data. The results showed that the special component model well predicts the transient behaviors of the CMT and SIT.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.101-121
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• 2022

Purpose This study aims to introduce a Smart-Platform for solving numerous problems in urban cities and improving citizens' convenience. This Smart-Platform is achieved by studying the City Data Hub technology to build and spread a Smart City Data Hub . Design/methodology/approach In this study, we analyzed the functions in detail and interlocking flows specific to the published City Data Hub module and designed a Smart-Platform with additional UI-based functions to improve users' convenience based on our previous experience. Findings The City Data Hub will provide a modular data hub platform functionality for application by different stakeholders. However, further research on detailed functionality and experience in interworking legacy systems will be required to apply the platform realistically. Therefore, we judged that this Smart-Platform, which supplements the City Data Hub with additional functions, would be useful for utilizing the City Data Hub in the future. Through the demonstration of the platform designed, it is also necessary to explore the direction of continuous development for the future.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.299-307
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• 2023

In the midst of accelerating wars around the world, unmanned robot technology that can guarantee the safety of human life is emerging. ERP-42 is a modular platform that can be used according to the application. In the field of defense, it can be used for transporting supplies, reconnaissance and surveillance, and medical evacuation in conflict areas. Due to the nature of the military environment, atypical environments are predominant, and in such environments, the platform's path followability is an important part of mission performance. This paper focuses on reducing the minimum turning radius in terms of improving path followability. The minimum turning radius of the existing 2WS/2WD in-wheel platform was reduced by increasing the torque of the independent driving in-wheel motor on the rear wheel to generate oversteer. To determine the degree of oversteer, two GPS were attached to the center of the front and rear wheelbases and measured. A closed-loop speed control method was used to maintain a constant rotational speed of each wheel despite changes in load or torque.

• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.1073-1085
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• 2023

A partition of n is called a t-core partition if none of its hook number is divisible by t. In 2019, Hirschhorn and Sellers [5] obtained a parity result for 3-core partition function a3(n). Motivated by this result, both the authors [8] recently proved that for a non-negative integer α, a3αm(n) is almost always divisible by an arbitrary power of 2 and 3 and at(n) is almost always divisible by an arbitrary power of pji, where j is a fixed positive integer and t = pa11pa22···pamm with primes pi ≥ 5. In this article, by using Hecke eigenform theory, we obtain infinite families of congruences and multiplicative identities for a2(n) and a13(n) modulo 2 which generalizes some results of Das [2].