• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nuclear Fuels

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Technology Assessment of the Repository Alternatives to Establish a Reference HLW Disposal Concept

  • Choi, Jong-Won;Choi, Young-Sung;Kwon, Sang-Ki;Kuh, Jung-Eui;Kang, Chul-Hyung
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.31 no.6
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    • pp.83-100
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    • 1999
  • As disposal packaging concepts of spent fuels generated from the domestic NPP, two types, one is to package PWR and CANDU spent fuels in different containers and the other is to package them together, were proposed. The configuration of the containers and the layout of underground repository, such as the container spacing and the deposition tunnel spacing, were developed. The layout of underground repository satisfies the thermal constraint of the bentonite buffer surrounding disposal container, which should be lower than $100^{\circ}C$ in order to keep the physical and chemical properties of bentonite From the spent fuel packaging concepts and container emplacement methods, seven options were developed. With a typical pair-wise comparison methods, AHP, the most promising disposal concept was selected based on the technology Point of view.

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Chlorination of TRU/RE/SrOx in Oxide Spent Nuclear Fuel Using Ammonium Chloride as a Chlorinating Agent

  • Yoon, Dalsung;Paek, Seungwoo;Lee, Sang-Kwon;Lee, Ju Ho;Lee, Chang Hwa
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.193-207
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    • 2022
  • Thermodynamically, TRUOx, REOx, and SrOx can be chlorinated using ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) as a chlorinating agent, whereas uranium oxides (U3O8 and UO2) remain in the oxide form. In the preliminary experiments of this study, U3O8 and CeO2 are reacted separately with NH4Cl at 623 K in a sealed reactor. CeO2 is highly reactive with NH4Cl and becomes chlorinated into CeCl3. The chlorination yield ranges from 96% to 100%. By contrast, U3O8 remains as UO2 even after chlorination. We produced U/REOx- and U/SrOx-simulated fuels to understand the chlorination characteristics of the oxide compounds. Each simulated fuel is chlorinated with NH4Cl, and the products are dissolved in LiCl-KCl salt to separate the oxide compounds from the chloride salt. The oxide compounds precipitate at the bottom. The precipitate and salt phases are sampled and analyzed via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. The analysis results indicate that REOx and SrOx can be easily chlorinated from the simulated fuels; however, only a few of U oxide phases is chlorinated, particularly from the U/SrOx-simulated fuels.

Development of CANDU Spent Fuel Bundle Inspection System and Technology (중수로 사용후연료 건전성 검사장비 개발)

  • Kim, Yong-Chan;Lee, Jong-Hyeon;Song, Tae-Han
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.31-39
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    • 2013
  • Nuclear fuel can be damaged under unexpected circumstances in a nuclear reactor. Fuel rod failure can be occurred due to debris fretting or excessive hydriding or PCI (Pellet-to-clad Interaction) etc. It is important to identify the causes of such failed fuel rods for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. If a fuel rod failure occurs during the operation of a nuclear power plant, the coolant water is contaminated by leaked fission products, and in some case the power level of the plant may be lowered or the operation stopped. In addition, all spent fuels must be transferred to a dry storage. But failed fuel can not be transferred to a dry storage. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a system which is capable of inspecting whether the spent fuel in the storage pool is failed or not. The sipping technology is to analyze the leakage of fission products in state of gas and liquid. The failed fuel inspection system with gamma analyzer has successfully demonstrated that the system is enough to find the failed fuel at Wolsong plant.

Direct Determination of Tellurium in Simulated Nuclear Spent Fuels by Hydride Generation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (수소화물 생성-유도결합플라스마 원자방출분광법을 이용한 모의사용후 핵연료 중의 텔루르 분석)

  • Choi, Kwang Soon;Lee, Chang Heon;Han, Sun Ho;Joe, Kih Soo;Kim, Won Ho
    • Analytical Science and Technology
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    • v.13 no.6
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    • pp.781-788
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    • 2000
  • Tellurium in simulated nuclear spent fuels (SIMFUEL) has been determined by hydride generation-inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (HG-ICP-AES). Parameters such as concentrations of HCl and $NaBH_4$, flow rate of HCl and $NaBH_4$ were optimized and then the effects of U, Mo, Pd, Rh and Ru on the Te intensity were investigated. A thiourea as a masking agent was used to eliminate or minimize such interferences specially caused by palladium. Tellurium was measured by HG-ICP-AES and ICP-MS after separation of tellurium from SIMFUEL with cation exchange chromatography. The relative deviation between direct measurement and separation method was less than 6% based on the data by ICP-MS.

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Separation and Purification for the Determination of Zirconium and Its Isotopes in PWR Spent Nuclear Fuels (PWR 사용후핵연료 중 Zr 및 Zr 동위원소 정량을 위한 분리 및 정제)

  • Kim, Jung Suk;Jeon, Young Shin;Park, Yong Joon;Lee, Chang Heon;Kim, Won Ho
    • Analytical Science and Technology
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    • v.11 no.6
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    • pp.421-428
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    • 1998
  • A method has been studied to separate Zr from various fission products in PWR spent nuclear fuels. A solution containing metal ions in place of radioactive fission products was prepared. The Zr was separated with 5 M HCl followed by eluting metal ions such as Ce, Nd, Cs, Rb, Ba, Sr, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag and Cd with 12 M HCl on Dowex $1{\times}8$, anion exchange resin. The recovery of Zr was more than 95%. The purification of Zr was carried out on anion exchange resin, Dowex $1{\times}8$, in 5 M HCl in order to remove Mo causing isobaric effect during mass spectrometry. The method was applied to separate Zr from a spent PWR fuel. From mass spectrometric measurement, the purified Zr portion was not showed the isobars from other elements such as Mo and Sr.

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LOCAL BURNUP CHARACTERISTICS OF PWR SPENT NUCLEAR FUELS DISCHARGED FROM YEONGGWANG-2 NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

  • Ha, Yeong-Keong;Kim, Jung-Suck;Jeon, Young-Shin;Han, Sun-Ho;Seo, Hang-Seok;Song, Kyu-Seok
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.79-88
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    • 2010
  • Spent $UO_2$ nuclear fuel discharged from a nuclear power plant (NPP) contains fission products, U, Pu, and other actinides. Due to neutron capture by $^{238}U$ in the rim region and a temperature gradient between the center and the rim of a fuel pellet, a considerable increase in the concentration of fission products, Pu, and other actinides are expected in the pellet periphery of high burnup fuel. The characterization of the radial profiles of the various isotopic concentrations is our main concern. For an analysis, spent nuclear fuels originating from the Yeonggwang-2 pressurized water reactor (PWR) were chosen as the test specimens. In this work, the distributions of some actinide isotopes were measured from center to rim of the spent fuel specimens by a radiation shielded laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LA-ICP-MS) system. Sampling was performed along the diameter of the specimen by reducing the sampling intervals from 500 ${\mu}m$ in the center to 100 ${\mu}m$ in the pellet periphery region. It was observed that the isotopic concentration ratios for minor actinides in the center of the specimen remain almost constant and increase near the pellet periphery due to the rim effect apart from the $^{236}U$ to $^{235}U$ ratio, which remains approximately constant. In addition, the distributions of local burnup were derived from the measured isotope ratios by applying the relationship between burnup and isotopic ratio for plutonium and minor actinides calculated by the ORIGEN2 code.