• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.839-846
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• 2013

This paper describes a finite element model of the microstructure of dispersion type nuclear fuels, which can be used to determine the effective thermal conductivity of the fuels during irradiation. The model simulates a representative region of the fuel as a prism shaped unit cell made of brick elements. The elements within the unit cell are assigned material properties of either the fuel or the matrix depending on position, in such a way as to represent randomly distributed fuel particles with a size distribution similar to that of the as manufactured fuel. By applying an appropriate heat flux across the unit cell it is possible to determine the effective thermal conductivity of the unit cell as a function of the volume fraction of the fuel particles. The presence of a fuel/matrix interaction layer is simulated by the addition of a third set of material properties that are assigned to the finite elements that surround each fuel particle. In this way the effective thermal conductivity of the material may also be determined as a function of the volume fraction of the interaction layer. Work is on going to add fission gas bubbles in the fuel as a fourth phase to the model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.1195-1196
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.434-435
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• 2005

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.spc
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• pp.21-36
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• 2020

With respect to spent nuclear fuels, disposal containers and bentonite buffer blocks in deep geological disposal systems are the primary engineered barrier elements that are required to isolate radioactive toxicity for a long period of time and delay the leakage of radio nuclides such that they do not affect human and natural environments. Therefore, the thermal stability of the bentonite buffer and structural integrity of the disposal container are essential factors for maintaining the safety of a deep geological disposal system. The most important requirement in the design of such a system involves ensuring that the temperature of the buffer does not exceed 100℃ because of the decay heat emitted from high-level wastes loaded in the disposal container. In addition, the disposal containers should maintain structural integrity under loads, such as hydraulic pressure, at an underground depth of 500 m and swelling pressure of the bentonite buffer. In this study, we analyzed the thermal stability and structural integrity in a deep geological disposal environment of the improved deep geological disposal systems for domestic light-water and heavy-water reactor types of spent nuclear fuels, which were considered to be subject to direct disposal. The results of the thermal stability and structural integrity assessments indicated that the improved disposal systems for each type of spent nuclear fuel satisfied the temperature limit requirement (< 100℃) of the disposal system, and the disposal containers were observed to maintain their integrity with a safety ratio of 2.0 or higher in the environment of deep disposal.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 2007

The urania-gadolinia fuels were dissolved with nitric acid. The analytical conditions of ICP-AES for the direct determinations of gadolinium in the uranium matrices without separation process were investigated. Based on the effect of uranium on gadolinium intensity, the best wavelength for gadolinium was 336.223 nm. The relative deviation of two methods, direct and indirect measurements with anion exchange chromatography, was less than 5 %. Therefore it was possible for this procedure directly to measure 5~10 wt.% of gadolinium in urania-gadolinia fuels without separation by ICP-AES.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.295-305
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• 2017

This paper reviews current status of the unified approach known as integrated safety assessment (ISA), as well as the associated SCAIS (simulation codes system for ISA) computer platform. These constitute a proposal, which is the result of collaborative action among the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), University of Madrid (UPM), and NFQ Solutions S.L, aiming to allow independent regulatory verification of industry quantitative risk assessments. The content elaborates on discussions of the classical treatment of time in conventional probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) sequences and states important conclusions that can be used to avoid systematic and unacceptable underestimation of the failure exceedance frequencies. The unified ISA method meets this challenge by coupling deterministic and probabilistic mutual influences. The feasibility of the approach is illustrated with some examples of its application to a real size plant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.413-420
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• 2011

In Korea, although the concept of dry storage system for PWR spent fuels first emerged in the early 1990s, wet storage inside nuclear reactor buildings remains the dominant storage paradigm. Furthermore, as the amount of discharged fuel from nuclear power plants increases, nuclear power plants are confronted with the problem of meeting storage capacity demand. Various measures have been taken to resolve this problem. Dry storage systems along with transportation of spent fuel either on-site or off-site are regarded as the most feasible measure. In order to develop dry storage and transportation system safety analyses, development of design techniques, full scale performance tests, and research on key material degradation should be conducted. This paper deals with two topics, structural analysis methodology to assess cumulative damage to transportation packages and the effects of an aircraft engine crash on a dual purpose cask. These newly emerging issues are selected from among the many technical issues related to the development of transportation and storage systems of spent fuels. In the design process, appropriate analytical methods, procedures, and tools are used in conjunction with a suitably selected test procedure and assumptions such as jet engine simulation for postulated design events and a beyond design basis accident.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.287-297
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• 2014

For several decades, many countries operating nuclear power plants have been studying the various disposal alternatives to dispose of the spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste safely. In this paper, as a direct disposal of spent nuclear fuels for deep geological disposal concept, the rod consolidation from spent fuel assembly for the disposal efficiency was considered and analyzed. To do this, a concept of spent fuel rod consolidation was described and the related concepts of disposal canister and disposal system were reviewed. With these concepts, several thermal analyses were carried out to determine whether the most important requirement of the temperature limit for a buffer material was satisfiedin designing an engineered barrier of a deep geological disposal system. Based on the results of thermal analyses, the deposition hole distance, disposal tunnel spacing and heat release area of a disposal canister were reviewed. And the unit disposal areas for each case were calculated and the disposal efficiencies were evaluated. This evaluation showed that the rod consolidation of spent nuclear fuel had no advantages in terms of disposal efficiency. In addition, the cooling time of spent nuclear fuels from nuclear power plant were reviewed. It showed that the disposal efficiency for the consolidated spent fuel rods could be improved in the case that cooling time was 70 years or more. But, the integrity of fuels and other conditions due to the longer term storage before disposal should be analyzed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1686-1688
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• 2003

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.201-209
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• 2015

Currently, 23 nuclear power plants are in operation at Kori, Uljin, Younggwang and Wolsong site and a reference deep geological disposal system has been developed for the spent fuels generated by them. The reference spent fuel for this disposal system has 4.5wt% of initial enrichment, 55 GWd/MtU of burn-up, and 40 years of cooling time. In this paper, to improve disposal efficiency and economic feasibility, the characteristics of spent fuels from nuclear power plants, such as type and burn-up, were reviewed. A disposal canister concept for shorter length and relatively lower burn-up spent fuels than the reference spent fuels was developed. Based on this canister concept, thermal analyses were carried out and a deep geological disposal concept was proposed. Measures of disposal efficiency such as unit disposal area and disposal density were compared between this disposal system and the reference disposal system. Also, economic feasibility, such as the volume reduction of copper, cast iron, and bentonite, was analyzed and the results of these analyses showed that the disposal system proposed in this paper has an efficiency of at least 20%. These results could be used for establishing spent fuel management policy and designing practical disposal systems for spent fuels.