• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.7
• /
• pp.2483-2488
• /
• 2023

Differential die-away analysis (DDAA) technology is a special nuclear material (SNM) active detection analysis technology. Be a nuclear material shielded or not, the technology can reveal the existence of nuclear materials by inducing fission from an external pulsed neutron source. In this paper, a detection model based on DDAA analysis technology was established by geant4 Monte Carlo simulation software, and the optimal sensitivity of the detection system is achieved by optimizing different configurations. After the geant4 simulation and optimization, a prototype was established, and experimental research was carried out. The result shows that the prototype can detect 200 g of ²³⁵U in a steel cylinder shield that's of 1.5 cm in inner diameter, 10 cm in thickness and 280 kg in weight.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.498-505
• /
• 2024

In this paper, a cable-driven endoscopic manipulator (CEM) is designed for the Chinese latest compact fusion reactor. The whole CEM arm is more than 3000 mm long and includes end vision tools, an endoscopic manipulator/control system, a feeding system, a drag chain system, support systems, a neutron shield door, etc. It can cover a range of ±45° of the vacuum chamber by working in a wrap-around mode, etc., to meet the need for observation at any position and angle. By placing all drive motors in the end drive box via a cable drive, cooling, and radiation protection of the entire robot can be facilitated. To address the CEM motion control problem, a discrete trajectory tracking method is proposed. By restricting each joint of the CEM to the target curve through segmental fitting, the trajectory tracking control is completed. To avoid the joint rotation angle overrun, a joint limit rotation angle optimization method is proposed based on the equivalent rod length principle. Finally, the CEM simulation system is established. The rationality of the structure design and the effectiveness of the motion control algorithm are verified by the simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.12 no.7
• /
• pp.909-917
• /
• 2018

3D printing technology is expected to be an innovative technology of the manufacturing industry during the 4th industrial revolution, and it is being used in various fields including biotechnology and medical field. In this study, we verified the printing materials through Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the radiation shielding ability of the raw material using this 3D printing technology. In this paper, the printing materials were selected from the raw materials available in a general-purpose FDM-based 3D printer. Simulation of the ICRU phantom and the shielding system was carried out to evaluate the shielding effect by evaluating the particle fluence according to the type and energy of radiation. As a result, the shielding effect tended to decrease gradually with increasing energy in the case of photon beam, and the shielding effect of TPU, PLA, PVA, Nylon and ABS gradually decreased in order of materials. In the case of the neutron beam, the neutron intensity increases at a low thickness of 5 ~ 10 mm. However, the effective shielding effect is shown above a certain thickness. The shielding effect of printing material is gradually increased in the order of Nylon, PVA, ABS, PLA and TPU Respectively.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.359-365
• /
• 2021

A heavy particle accelerator is a device that accelerates particles using high energy and is used in various fields such as medical and industrial fields as well as research. However, secondary neutrons and particle fragments are generated by the high-energy particle beam, and among them, the neutrons do not have an electric charge and directly interact with the nucleus to cause radiation of the material. Quantitative evaluation of the radioactive material produced in this way is necessary, but there are many difficulties in actual measurement during or after operation. Therefore, this study compared and evaluated the generated radioactive material in the concrete shield for protons and carbon ions of specific energy by using the simulation code FLUKA. For the evaluation of each energy of proton beam and carbon ion, the reliability of the source term was secured within 2% of the relative error with the data of the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory(NSRL), which is an internationally standardized data. In the evaluation, carbon ions exhibited higher neutron flux than protons. Afterwards, in the evaluation of radioactive materials under actual operating conditions for disposal, a large amount of short-lived beta-decay nuclides occurred immediately after the operation was terminated, and in the case of protons with a high beam speed, more radioactive products were generated than carbon ions. At this time, radionuclides of ⁴⁴Sc, ³H and ²²Na were observed at a high rate. In addition, as the cooling time elapsed, the ratio of long-lived nuclides increased. For nonparticulate radionuclides, ³H, ²²Na, and for particulate radionuclides, ⁴⁴Ti, ⁵⁵Fe, ⁶⁰Co, ¹⁵²Eu, and ¹⁵⁴Eu nuclides showed a high ratio. In this study, it is judged that it is possible to use the particle accelerator as basic data for facility maintenance, repair and dismantling through the prediction of radioactive materials in concrete according to the cooling time after operation and termination of operation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.241.1-241.1
• /
• 2014

The large-area high-power radio-frequency (RF) driven ion sources based on the negative hydrogen (deuterium) ion beam extraction are the major components of neutral beam injection (NBI) systems in future large-scale fusion devices such as an ITER and DEMO. Positive hydrogen (deuterium) RF ion sources were the major components of the second NBI system on ASDEX-U tokamak. A test large-area high-power RF ion source (LAHP-RaFIS) has been developed for steady-state operation at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to extract the positive ions, which can be used for the NBI heating and current drive systems in the present fusion devices, and to extract the negative ions for negative ion-based plasma heating and for future fusion devices such as a Fusion Neutron Source and Korea-DEMO. The test RF ion source consists of a driver region, including a helical antenna and a discharge chamber, and an expansion region. RF power can be transferred at up to 10 kW with a fixed frequency of 2 MHz through an optimized RF matching system. An actively water-cooled Faraday shield is located inside the driver region of the ion source for the stable and steady-state operations of RF discharge. The characteristics and uniformities of the plasma parameter in the RF ion source were measured at the lowest area of the expansion bucket using two RF-compensated electrostatic probes along the direction of the short- and long-dimensions of the expansion region. The plasma parameters in the expansion region were characterized by the variation of loaded RF power (voltage) and filling gas pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.584-589
• /
• 2003

The hot cell facility which is designed to permit safe handling of source materials with radioactivity levels up to 1,385 TBq, is planned to be built. To meet this goal, the facility is designed to keep gamma and neutron radiation lower than the recommended dose-rate in normally occupied areas. The calculations performed with QAD-CGGP and MCNP-4C are used to evaluate the proposed engineering design concepts that would provide acceptable dose-rates during a normal operation in hot cell facility. The maximum effective gamma dose-rates on the surfaces of the facility at operation area and at service area calculated by QAD-CGGP are estimated to be $2.10{\times}10^{-3}$, $2.97{\times}10^{-2}$ and $1.01{\times}10^{-1}$ mSv/h, respectively. And those calculated by MCNP-4C are $1.60{\times}10^{-3}$, $2.99{\times}10^{-3}$ and $7.88{\times}10^{-2}$ mSv/h, respectively The dose-rates contributed by neutrons are one order of magnitude less than that of gamma sources, and penetration and toboggan will be partly reinforced by lead shield.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2020

Small nuclear reactor features higher power capacity, longer operation life than conventional power sources. It could be an ideal alternative of existing power source applied for special equipment for terrestrial or underwater missions. In this paper, a 25kWe heat pipe cooled reactor power source applied for multiple use is preliminary designed. Based on the design, a thermal-hydraulic analysis code for heat pipe cooled reactor is developed to analyze steady and transient performance of the designed nuclear reactor. For reactor design, UN fuel with 65% enrichment and potassium heat pipes are adopted in the reactor core. Tungsten and LiH are adopted as radiation shield on both sides of the reactor core. The reactor is controlled by 6 control drums with B₄C neutron absorbers. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) converts fission heat into electricity. Cooling water removes waste heat out of the reactor. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of heat pipes are simulated using thermal resistance network method. Thermal parameters of steady and transient conditions, such as the temperature distribution of every key components are obtained. Then the postulated reactor accidents for heat pipe cooled reactor, including power variation, single heat pipe failure and cooling channel blockage, are analyzed and evaluated. Results show that all the designed parameters satisfy the safety requirements. This work could provide reference to the design and application of the heat pipe cooled nuclear power source.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.343-356
• /
• 2016

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) has developed a dual-purpose metal cask for the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel that has been generated by domestic light-water reactors. The metal cask was designed in compliance with international and domestic technology standards, and safety was the most important consideration in developing the design. It was designed to maintain its integrity for 50 years in terms of major safety factors. The metal cask ensures the minimization of waste generated by maintenance activities during the storage period as well as the safe management of the waste. An activation evaluation of the main body, which includes internal and external components of metal casks whose design lifetime has expired, provides quantitative data on their radioactive inventory. The radioactive inventory of the main body and the components of the metal cask were calculated by applying the MCNP5 ORIGEN-2 evaluation system and by considering each component's chemical composition, neutron flux distribution, and reaction rate, as well as the duration of neutron irradiation during the storage period. The evaluation results revealed that 10 years after the end of the cask's design life, $^{60}Co$ had greater radioactivity than other nuclides among the metal materials. In the case of the neutron shield, nuclides that emit high-energy gamma rays such as $^{28}Al$ and $^{24}Na$ had greater radioactivity immediately after the design lifetime. However, their radioactivity level became negligible after six months due to their short half-life. The surface exposure dose rates of the canister and the main body of the metal cask from which the spent nuclear fuel had been removed with expiration of the design lifetime were determined to be at very low levels, and the radiation exposure doses to which radiation workers were subjected during the decommissioning process appeared to be at insignificant levels. The evaluations of this study strongly suggest that the nuclide inventory of a spent nuclear fuel metal cask can be utilized as basic data when decommissioning of a metal cask is planned, for example, for the development of a decommissioning plan, the determination of a decommissioning method, the estimation of radiation exposure to workers engaged in decommissioning operations, the management/reuse of radioactive wastes, etc.