• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.732-740
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• 2021

Scattering resonance of medium mass nuclides leads complex spectrum in the fast reactor, which requires thousands of energy groups in the spectrum calculation. When the broad-group cross sections are collapsed, reaction rate cannot be completely conserved. To eliminate the error from energy collapsing, the Super-homogenization method in energy collapsing (ESPH) was employed in the fast reactor code SARAX. An ESPH factor was derived based on the ESPH-corrected SN transport equation. By applying the factor in problems with reflective boundary condition, both the effective multiplication factor and reaction rate were conserved. The fixed-source iteration was used to ensure the stability of ESPH iteration. However, in the energy collapsing process of SARAX, the vacuum boundary condition was adopted, which was necessary for fast reactors with strong heterogeneity. To further reduce the error caused by leakage, an additional conservation factor was proposed to correct the neutron current in energy collapsing. To evaluate the performance of ESPH with conservation factor, numerical benchmarks of fast reactors were calculated. The results of broad-group calculation agreed well with the direct full-core Monte-Carlo calculation, including the effective multiplication factor, radial power distribution, total control rod worth and sodium void worth.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.4731-4742
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• 2022

RBMK fuel assemblies differ from other LWR FA due to a specific arrangement of the fuel rods, the low enrichment, and the used burnable absorber - erbium. Therefore, there is a challenge to adapt modeling tools, developed for other LWR types, to solve RBMK problems. A set of 10 different depletion simulation schemes were tested to estimate the impact on reactivity and spent fuel composition of possible SCALE code options for the neutron transport modelling and the use of different nuclear data libraries. The simulations were performed using cross-section libraries based on both, VII.0 and VII.1, versions of ENDF/B nuclear data, and assuming continuous energy and multigroup simulation modes, standard and user-defined Dancoff factor values, and employing deterministic and Monte Carlo methods. The criticality analysis with burn-up credit was performed for the SFP loaded with RBMK-1500 FA. Spent fuel compositions were taken from each of 10 performed depletion simulations. The criticality of SFP is found to be overestimated by up to 0.08% in simulation cases using user-defined Dancoff factors comparing the results obtained using the continuous energy library (VII.1 version of ENDF/B nuclear data). It was shown that such discrepancy is determined by the higher U-235 and Pu-239 isotopes concentrations calculated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.378-390
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• 2023

The SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) facility, currently under development at Legnaro National Laboratories of INFN, aims at the production of intense RIB (Radioactive Ion Beams) employing the Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) technique for interdisciplinary research. The radioactive isotopes of interest are produced by the interaction of a multi-foil uranium carbide target with a 40 MeV 200 μA proton beam generated by a cyclotron proton driver. The Target Ion Source (TIS) is the core of the SPES project, here the radioactive nuclei, mainly neutron-rich isotopes, are stopped, extracted, ionized, separated, accelerated and delivered to specific experimental areas. Due to efficiency reasons, the TIS unit needs to be replaced periodically during operation. In this highly radioactive environment, the employment of autonomous systems allows the manipulation, transport, and storage of the TIS unit without the need for human intervention. A dedicated remote handling infrastructure is therefore under development to fulfill the functional and safety requirement of the project. This contribution describes the layout of the SPES target area, where all the remote handling systems operate to grant the smooth operation of the facility avoiding personnel exposure to a high dose rate or contamination issues.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.1273-1279
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• 2016

Production of iodine-131 by neutron activation of tellurium in tellurium dioxide ($TeO_2$) material requires a target that meets the safety requirements. In a radiopharmaceutical production unit, a new lid for a can was designed, which permits tight sealing of the target by using tungsten inert gaswelding. The leakage rate of all prepared targets was assessed using a helium mass spectrometer. The accepted leakage rate is ${\leq}10^{-4}mbr.L/s$, according to the approved safety report related to iodine-131 production in the TRIGA Mark II research reactor (TRIGA: Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics). To confirm the resistance of the new design to the irradiation conditions in the TRIGA Mark II research reactor's central thimble, a study of heat effect on the sealed targets for 7 hours in an oven was conducted and the leakage rates were evaluated. The results show that the tightness of the targets is ensured up to $600^{\circ}C$ with the appearance of deformations on lids beyond $450^{\circ}C$. The study of heat transfer through the target was conducted by adopting a one-dimensional approximation, under consideration of the three transfer modes-convection, conduction, and radiation. The quantities of heat generated by gamma and neutron heating were calculated by a validated computational model for the neutronic simulation of the TRIGA Mark II research reactor using the Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code. Using the heat transfer equations according to the three modes of heat transfer, the thermal study of I-131 production by irradiation of the target in the central thimble showed that the temperatures of materials do not exceed the corresponding melting points. To validate this new design, several targets have been irradiated in the central thimble according to a preplanned irradiation program, going from4 hours of irradiation at a power level of 0.5MWup to 35 hours (7 h/d for 5 days a week) at 1.5MW. The results showthat the irradiated targets are tight because no iodine-131 was released in the atmosphere of the reactor building and in the reactor cooling water of the primary circuit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.661-673
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• 2020

The quarter-core simulation of BEAVRS Cycle 2 depletion benchmark has been conducted using the MCS/CTF coupling system. MCS/CTF is a cycle-wise Picard iteration based inner-coupling code system, which couples sub-channel T/H (thermal/hydraulic) code CTF as a T/H solver in Monte Carlo neutron transport code MCS. This coupling code system has been previously applied in the BEAVRS benchmark Cycle 1 full-core simulation. The Cycle 2 depletion has been performed with T/H feedback based on the spent fuel materials composition pre-generated by the Cycle 1 depletion simulation using refueling capability of MCS code. Meanwhile, the MCS internal one-dimension T/H solver (MCS/TH1D) has been also applied in the simulation as the reference. In this paper, an analysis of the detailed criticality boron concentration and the axially integrated assembly-wise detector signals will be presented and compared with measured data based on the real operating physical conditions. Moreover, the MCS/CTF simulated results for neutronics and T/H parameters will be also compared to MCS/TH1D to figure out their difference, which proves the practical application of MCS into the BEAVRS benchmark two-cycle depletion simulations.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.37-43
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• 1986

ICRU 구(球)를 피사체(被射體)로 하여 300 keV 중성자(中性子)의 방사선량(放射線量) 관계량(關係量)을 평가(評價)하였다. 피사체내(被射體內)의 선량당량(線量當量) 분포(分布)를 직접(直接) 산정(算定)하기 위해 중성자(中性子)-광자(光子)-하전입자(荷電粒子) 결합수송(結合輸送)을 다룰 수 있는 몬테칼로 코드 NEDEP을 사용하였다. 계산결과(計算結果) 얻은 방사선량(放射線量) 관계량(關係量)은 다음과 같다. 심부선량당량지수(深部線量當量指數) $H_{I,d}:1.78{\times}10^{11}\;Sv-cm^2$ 표층선량당량지수(表層線量當量指數) $H_{I,s}:2.08{\times}10^{-1}\;Sv-cm^2$ 주위선량당량(周圍線量當量) $H^*(0.07):1.70{\times}10^{-11}\;Sv-cm^2$ 주위선량당량(周圍線量當量) $H^*(10):1.78{\times}10^{-11}\;Sv-cm^2$ 실효선질계수(實效線質係數) $\bar{Q}^*(10):12.4$

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.765-772
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• 2016

In analyzing residual radiation, researchers generally use a two-step Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The first step (MC1) simulates neutron transport, and the second step (MC2) transports the decay photons emitted from the activated materials. In this process, the stochastic uncertainty estimated by the MC2 appears only as a final result, but it is underestimated because the stochastic error generated in MC1 cannot be directly included in MC2. Hence, estimating the true stochastic uncertainty requires quantifying the propagation degree of the stochastic error in MC1. The brute force technique is a straightforward method to estimate the true uncertainty. However, it is a costly method to obtain reliable results. Another method, called the adjoint-based method, can reduce the computational time needed to evaluate the true uncertainty; however, there are limitations. To address those limitations, we propose a new strategy to estimate uncertainty propagation without any additional calculations in two-step MC simulations. To verify the proposed method, we applied it to activation benchmark problems and compared the results with those of previous methods. The results show that the proposed method increases the applicability and user-friendliness preserving accuracy in quantifying uncertainty propagation. We expect that the proposed strategy will contribute to efficient and accurate two-step MC calculations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제43권3호
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• pp.301-308
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• 2011

The diametral creep of pressure tubes (PTs) in CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) reactors is one of the principal aging mechanisms governing the heat transfer and hydraulic degradation of the heat transport system (HTS). PT diametral creep leads to diametral expansion, which affects the thermal hydraulic characteristics of the coolant channels and the critical heat flux (CHF). The CHF is a major parameter determining the critical channel power (CCP), which is used in the trip setpoint calculations of regional overpower protection (ROP) systems. Therefore, it is essential to predict PT diametral creep in CANDU reactors. PT diametral creep is caused mainly by fast neutron irradiation, temperature and applied stress. The objective of this study was to develop a bundle position-wise linear model (BPLM) to predict PT diametral creep employing previously measured PT diameters and HTS operating conditions. The linear model was optimized using a genetic algorithm and was devised based on a bundle position because it is expected that each bundle position in a PT channel has inherent characteristics. The proposed BPLM for predicting PT diametral creep was confirmed using the operating data of the Wolsung nuclear power plant in Korea. The linear model was able to predict PT diametral creep accurately.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제46권6호
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• pp.783-796
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• 2014

The coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) method is applied to the discontinuous finite element method based discrete ordinate calculation for source convergence acceleration. The three-dimensional (3-D) DFEM-Sn code FEDONA is developed for general geometry applications as a framework for the CMFD implementation. Detailed methods for applying the CMFD acceleration are established, such as the method to acquire the coarse mesh flux and current by combining unstructured tetrahedron elements to rectangular coarse mesh geometry, and the alternating calculation method to exchange the updated flux information between the CMFD and DFEM-Sn. The partial current based CMFD (p-CMFD) is also implemented for comparison of the acceleration performance. The modified p-CMFD method is proposed to correct the weakness of the original p-CMFD formulation. The performance of CMFD acceleration is examined first for simple two-dimensional multigroup problems to investigate the effect of the problem and coarse mesh sizes. It is shown that smaller coarse meshes are more effective in the CMFD acceleration and the modified p-CMFD has similar effectiveness as the standard CMFD. The effectiveness of CMFD acceleration is then assessed for three-dimensional benchmark problems such as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and C5G7MOX problems. It is demonstrated that a sufficiently converged solution is obtained within 7 outer iterations which would require 175 iterations with the normal DFEM-Sn calculations for the IAEA problem. It is claimed that the CMFD accelerated DFEM-Sn method can be effectively used in the practical eigenvalue calculations involving general geometries.

• 한국결정학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국결정학회 2003년도 춘계학술연구발표회
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• pp.8-8
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• 2003

Electron-phonon interaction plays a significant role in forming of colossal magnetoresistance effect (CMR). Polaron formation was observed by neutron diffraction and by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis. Local probe as given by the EXAFS is a useful method to study the polaronic charge and its dependence on temperature and ions size. Here we present the EXAFS study of polaronic charge in La/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3-X/Ba/sub X/MnO₃ compositions. The single phase La/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3-X/Ba/sub X/MnO₃ manganites (x=0; 0.03; 0.06, ..., 0.3) were prepared by ceramic technology [1]. The Curie temperature was determined by extrapolation of the temperature dependence of the magnetization (down to zero magnetization). EXAFS experiments were carried out at the 7C EC beam line of the Pohang Light Source (PLS) in Korea. The atomic pair distribution functions (PDF) were obtained by re-regularization method [2] from filtered spectra. The PDF for the x=0.3 sample showed a single peak function and for x=0.0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12 compositions were asymmetric in agreement with a small Jahn-Teller elongation of two (short and long) bonds of the MnO/sub 6/ octahedron. Dispersion, σ/sub Min-O//sup 2/, and asymmetry, σ/sub Min-O//sup 3/, of the Mn-O bond distances varied significantly with x and showed a maximums at x=0.09. The maximum of σ/sub Min-O//sup 2/ is caused by increase of dynamic rms displacements of the Mn-O distances near the T/sub C/. The observed x dependence of σ/sub Min-O//sup 3/ reflects the reduction of charge carriers mobility at approaching to T/sub C/ from low as well as high temperatures.