• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.299-305
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• 2015

Nuclear hydrogen production technology is being developed for the future energy supply system. The sulfur-iodine thermo-chemical hydrogen production process directly splits water by using of the heat generated from very high temperature gas-cooled reactor, a typical Generation IV nuclear system. Nuclear hydrogen key technologies are composed of VHTR simulation technology at elevated temperature, computational tools, TRISO fuel, and sulfur iodine hydrogen production technology. Key technology for nuclear hydrogen production system were developed and demonstrated in a laboratory scale test facility. Technical challenges for the commercial hydrogen production system were discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1174-1183
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• 2016

Hydrogen release during severe accidents poses a serious threat to containment integrity. Mitigating procedures are necessary to prevent global or local explosions, especially in large steel shell containments. The management of hydrogen safety and prevention of over-pressurization could be implemented through a hydrogen reduction system and spray system. During the course of the hypothetical large break loss-of-coolant accident in a nuclear power plant, hydrogen is generated by a reaction between steam and the fuel-cladding inside the reactor pressure vessel and also core concrete interaction after ejection of melt into the cavity. The MELCOR 1.8.6 was used to assess core degradation and containment behavior during the large break loss-of-coolant accident without the actuation of the safety injection system except for accumulators in Beznau nuclear power plant. Also, hydrogen distribution in containment and performance of hydrogen reduction system were investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.537-556
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• 2005

A primary-pipe rupture accident is one of the design-basis accidents of a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). When the primary-pipe rupture accident occurs, air is expected to enter the reactor core from the breach and oxidize in-core graphite structures. This paper describes an experiment and analysis of the air ingress phenomena and the method fur the prevention of air ingress into the reactor during the primary-pipe rupture accident. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental ones regarding the density of the gas mixture, the concentration of each gas species produced by the graphite oxidation reaction and the onset time of the natural circulation of air. A hydrogen production system connected to the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) Is being designed to be able to produce hydrogen by themo-chemical iodine-Sulfur process, using a nuclear heat of 10 MW supplied by the HTTR. The HTTR hydrogen production system is first connected to a nuclear reactor in the world; hence a permeation test of hydrogen isotopes through heat exchanger is carried out to obtain detailed data for safety review and development of analytical codes. This paper also describes an overview of the hydrogen permeation test and permeability of hydrogen and deuterium of Hastelloy XR.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.114-121
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• 2010

Traditionally Nuclear Research and Development (R&D) result has been big influence on other industries and societies and it requires large scale investments and study period. So it is essential to apply Quality Assurance (QA) for systematic R&D management. This paper investigates QA System for U.S. Nuclear R&D and reviews QA elements. Based on this investigation, we applied QA requirements to Nuclear Hydrogen R&D project, and the scope of application be enlarged as R&D stage in progress. We also present QA system improvement way through consideration for Nuclear Hydrogen Project's QA application. As the need for QA in R&D is expected to increase in the future, it is necessary to prepare guidelines for R&D QA.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.228.2-228.2
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• 2010

In this work, the hydrogen production costs of the nuclear energy sources are estimated in the necessary input data on a Korean specific basis. G4-ECONS was appropriately modified to calculate the cost for hydrogen production of HTE process with Very High Temperature nuclear Reactor (VHTR) as a thermal energy source rather than the LUEC (Levelized Unit Electricity Cost). The general ground rules and assumptions follow G4-ECONS. Through a preliminary study of cost estimates, we wished to evaluate the economic potential for hydrogen produced from nuclear energy, and, in addition, to promptly estimate the hydrogen production costs for an updated input data for capital costs. The estimated costs presented in this paper show that hydrogen production by the VHTR could be competitive with current techniques of hydrogen production from fossil fuels if $CO_2$ capture and sequestration is required. Nuclear production of hydrogen would allow large-scale production of hydrogen at economic prices while avoiding the release of $CO_2$. Nuclear production of hydrogen could thus become the enabling technology for the hydrogen economy. The major factors that would affect the cost of hydrogen were also discussed.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.267-273
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• 2023

As the impacts of global climate change become increasingly apparent, the reduction of carbon emissions has emerged as a critical subject of discussion. Nuclear power has garnered attention as a potential carbon-free energy source; however, the rapidity of load following in nuclear power generation poses challenges in comparison to fossil-fueled methods. Consequently, power-to-gas systems, which integrate nuclear power and hydrogen, have attracted growing interest. This study presents a preliminary design of a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) integrated blue hydrogen production process utilizing DWSIM, an open-source process simulator. The blue hydrogen production process is estimated to supply the necessary calorific value for carbon capture through tail gas combustion heat. Moreover, a thermodynamic assessment of the main recuperator is performed as a function of the helium flow rate from the VHTR system to the blue hydrogen production system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

Very High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (VHTR) has been selected as a high energy heat source for nuclear hydrogen generation. The VHTR can produce hydrogen from heat and water by using a thermo-chemical process or from heat, water, and natural gas by steam reformer technology. A co-axial double-tube primary hot gas duct (HGD) is a key component connecting the reactor pressure vessel and the intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) for the VHTR. In this study, a preliminary design analysis for the primary HGD of the nuclear hydrogen system was carried out. These preliminary design activities include a determination of the size, a strength evaluation and an appropriate material selection. The determination of the size was undertaken based on various engineering concepts, such as a constant flow velocity model, a constant flow rate model, a constant hydraulic head model, and finally a heat balanced model.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 2015

Recently, severe accidents in nuclear power plants (NPPs) have become a global concern. The aim of this paper is to predict the hydrogen buildup within containment resulting from severe accidents. The prediction was based on NPPs of an optimized power reactor 1,000. The increase in the hydrogen concentration in severe accidents is one of the major factors that threaten the integrity of the containment. A method using a fuzzy neural network (FNN) was applied to predict the hydrogen concentration in the containment. The FNN model was developed and verified based on simulation data acquired by simulating MAAP4 code for optimized power reactor 1,000. The FNN model is expected to assist operators to prevent a hydrogen explosion in severe accident situations and manage the accident properly because they are able to predict the changes in the trend of hydrogen concentration at the beginning of real accidents by using the developed FNN model.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2850-2855
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• 2008

Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) has been selected as a high energy heat source for a nuclear hydrogen generation. The VHTR heat is transferred to a thermo-chemical hydrogen production process through an intermediate loop. Both Process Heat Exchanger and sulfuric acid evaporator provide the coupled components between the VHTR intermediate loop and hydrogen production module. A small scaled Compact Nuclear Hydrogen Coupled Components test loop is developed to simulate the VHTR intermediate loop and hydrogen production module. Main objective of the loop is to screening the candidates of NHDD (Nuclear Hydrogen Development and Demonstration) coupled components. The operating condition of the gas loop is a temperature up to $950^{\circ}C$ and a pressure up to 6.0MPa. The thermal and fluid dynamic design of the loop is dependent on the structures that enclose the gas flow, especially primary side that has fast gas velocity. We designed and constructed a small scale sulfuric acid experimental system which can simulate a part of the hydrogen production module also.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.424-433
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• 2015

The operating characteristics of hydrogen iodide (HI) decomposition for hydrogen production were investigated using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code, and various factors, such as hydrogen production, heat of reaction, and temperature distribution, were studied to compare device performance with that expected for device development. Hydrogen production increased with an increase of the surface-to-volume (STV) ratio. With an increase of hydrogen production, the reaction heat increased. The internal pressure and velocity of the HI decomposer were estimated through pressure drop and reducing velocity from the preheating zone. The mass of $H_2O$ was independent of the STV ratio, whereas that of HI decreased with increasing STV ratio.