• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.291-295
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• 2007

FTL(Fuel Test Loop) is a facility that confirms performance of nuclear fuel at a similar irradiation condition with that of nuclear power plant. FTL consists of In-Pile Test Section (IPS) and Out-Pile System (OPS). FTL construction work began on August, 2006 and ended on March, 2007. During Construction, ensuring the worker's safety was the top priority and installation of the FTL without hampering the integrity of the HANARO was the next one. Task Force Team was organized to do a construction systematically and the communication between members of the task force team was done through the CoP(community of Practice) notice board provided by the Institute. The installation works were done successfully overcoming the difficulties such as on the limited space, on the radiation hazard inside the reactor pool, and finally on the shortening of the shut down period of the HANARO. Without a sweet of the workers of the participating company of HEC(Hyundae Engineering Co, Ltd), HDEC(HyunDai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd), equipment manufacturer, and the task force team, it is not possible to install the FTL facility within the planned shutdown period. The Commissioning of the FTL is on due to check the function and the performance of the equipment and the overall system as well. The FTL shall start operation with high burn up test fuels in early 2008 if the commissioning and licensing progress on schedule.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.523-534
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to experimentally investigate the effect of heat curing methods on the temperature history and strength development of slab concrete exposed to $-10^{\circ}C$. The goal was to determine proper heat curing methods for the protection of nuclear power plant structures against early-age frost damage under adverse (cold) conditions. Two types of methods were studied: heat insulation alone and in combination with a heating cable. For heat curing with heat insulation alone, either sawdust or a double layer bubble sheet (2-BS) was applied. For curing with a combination of heat insulation and a heating cable, an embedded heating cable was used with either a sawdust cover, a 2-BS cover, or a quadruple layer bubble sheet (4-BS) cover. Seven different slab specimens with dimensions of $1200{\times}600{\times}200$ mm and a design strength of 27 MPa were fabricated and cured at $-10^{\circ}C$ for 7 d. The application of sawdust and 2-BS allowed the concrete temperature to fall below $0^{\circ}C$ within 40 h after exposure to $-10^{\circ}C$, and then, the temperature dropped to $-10^{\circ}C$ and remained there for 7 d owing to insufficient thermal resistance. However, the combination of a heating cable plus sawdust or 2-BS maintained the concrete temperature around $5^{\circ}C$ for 7 d. Moreover, the combination of the heating cable and 4-BS maintained the concrete temperature around $10^{\circ}C$ for 7 d. This was due to the continuous heat supply from the heating cable and the prevention of heat loss by the 4-BS. For maturity development, which is an index of early-age frost damage, the application of heat insulation materials alone did not allow the concrete to meet the minimum maturity required to protect against early-age frost damage after 7 d, owing to poor thermal resistance. However, the combination of the heating cable and the heat insulating materials allowed the concrete to attain the minimum maturity level after just 3 d. In the case of strength development, the heat insulation materials alone were insufficient to achieve the minimum 7-d strength required to prevent early-age frost damage. However, the combination of a heating cable and heat insulating materials met both the minimum 7-d strength and the 28-d design strength owing to the heat supply and thermal resistance. Therefore, it is believed that by combining a heating cable and 4-BS, concrete exposed to $-10^{\circ}C$ can be effectively protected from early-age frost damage and can attain the required 28-d compressive strength.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.947-955
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• 2023

This study was conducted to investigate the awareness of spent nuclear fuel among residents in nuclear power plant areas and use it as basic data for establishing a disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste. 204 questionnaires collected online were analyzed using SPSS Window Ver 28.0. To verify differences between groups, t-test and one-way ANOVA were performed. And correlation analysis was conducted to confirm the relationship between variables. As a result, first, risk perception regarding nuclear-related accidents showed statistically significant differences depending on gender and educational level. The position on the construction of a permanent disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel showed a statistically significant difference depending on gender, education, and age, and the perception of the importance of each evaluation standard for establishing a spent nuclear fuel management plan showed a statistically significant difference depending on education and age. In terms of trust in information-providing institutions, trust in the National Assembly was found to be the lowest. Second, the results of the correlation analysis between variables showed that local residents are aware that an alternative to the current disposal of spent nuclear fuel is needed, and that financial support for the construction of a permanent disposal facility is needed. Therefore, in order to build a high-level radioactive waste disposal site, it is believed that it is necessary to increase trust in the government, collect opinions from local residents, and provide economic support.

• Plant Journal
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2014

The national capacity of electricity of Korea was 81,737 MW and the peak demand was renewed by the record of 71,230 MW in 2012 which has been increasing since the first lighting ceremony had taken place in the Royal Palace(Kyung-Bok Goong) in 1887. Aa the counteract on the rapid increasing of the demand, Korean government is constructing and operating the high capacity nuclear and thermal power plants, however, the operating reserve on weekdays is small while those of weekends are more than 40% of capacity, so they are providing the pumped-storage power plants with the surplus electricity during weekends and operating the power plants which cost higher production price and located in the capital area with WSS (Weekly Start and Stop) mode including the Seoul Thermal Power Plant. Since the Seoul Thermal Power Plant is spending huge amount of expenses for more than 30 times of the WSS annually due to the high production cost even though it is in Seoul, the core of the demand, I chose the power plant unit #5 which was on the grid in 1969 for the case to confirm reducing 23% of the warm start-up time by applying the "Start-up time management program", and that reducing 35% of the water temperature increasing time by accelerate the increasing rate of the inlet temperature of the water circulating pump.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2014

IIt takes a lot of time and needs the workloads to verify the RTL code used in complex system like a nuclear control system which is required high level reliability using simple testbench. UVM has a layered testbench architecture and it is easy to modify the testbench to improve the code coverage. A test vector can be easily constructed in the UVM, since a constrained random test vector can be used even though the construction of testbench using UVM. We showed that the UVM testbench is easier than the verilog testbench for the analysis and improvement of code coverage.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of different strength-maturity models to account for the effect of the hydration heat on the in-place strength development of high-strength concrete specifically developed for nuclear facility structures under various ambient curing temperatures. To simulate the primary containment-vessel of a nuclear reactor, three 1200-mm-thick wall specimens were prepared and stored under isothermal conditions of approximately $5^{\circ}C$ (cold temperature), $20^{\circ}C$ (reference temperature), and $35^{\circ}C$ (hot temperature). The in situ compressive strengths of the mock-up walls were measured using cores drilled from the walls and compared with strengths estimated from various strength-maturity models considering the internal temperature rise owing to the hydration heat. The test results showed the initial apparent activation energies at the hardening phase were approximately 2 times higher than the apparent activation energies until the final setting. The differences between core strengths and field-cured cylinder strengths became more notable at early ages and with the decrease in the ambient curing temperature. The strength-maturity model proposed by Yang provides better reliability in estimating in situ strength of concrete than that of Kim et al. and Pinto and Schindler.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.265-276
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• 2013

Pressure tubes made of Zr-2.5 wt% Nb alloy are important components consisting reactor coolant pressure boundary of a pressurized heavy water reactor, in which unanticipated through-wall cracks and rupture may occur due to a delayed hydride cracking (DHC). The Canadian Standards Association has provided deterministic and probabilistic structural integrity evaluation procedures to protect pressure tubes against DHC. However, intuitive understanding and subsequent assessment of flaw behaviors are still insufficient due to complex degradation mechanisms and diverse influential parameters of DHC compared with those of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue crack growth phenomena. In the present study, a deterministic flaw assessment program was developed and applied for systematic integrity assessment of the pressure tubes. Based on the examination results dealing with effects of flaw shapes, pressure tube dimensional changes, hydrogen concentrations of pressure tubes and plant operation scenarios, a simple and rough method for effective cooldown operation was proposed to minimize DHC risks. The developed deterministic assessment program for pressure tubes can be used to derive further technical bases for probabilistic damage frequency assessment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.770-780
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• 2022

In 1993 the University of Extremadura initiated the design, construction and management of the Radiological Alert Network of Extremadura (RAREx). The goal was to acquire reliable near-real-time information on the environmental radiological status in the surroundings of the Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant by measuring, mainly, the ambient dose equivalent. However, the phased development of this network has been carried out from two points of view. Firstly, there has been an increase in the number of stations comprising the network. Secondly, there has been an increase in the number of monitored parameters. As a consequence of the growth of RAREx network, large data volumes are daily generated. To face this big data paradigm, software applications have been developed and implemented in order to maintain the indispensable real-time and efficient performance of the alert network. In this paper, the description of the current status of RAREx network after 30 years of design and performance is showed. Also, the performance of the graphing software for daily assessment of the registered parameters and the automatic on real time warning notification system, which aid with the decision making process and analysis of values of possible radiological and non-radiological alterations, is briefly described in this paper.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.100-106
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• 2014

There is a growing need to introduce advanced pressure vessel steels with higher strength and toughness for the optimizatiooCn of the design and construction of longer life and larger capacity nuclear power plants. SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steels have superior strength and fracture toughness, compared to SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. Therefore, the application of SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steel could be considered to satisfy the strength and toughness required in advanced nuclear power plants. The purpose of this study is to characterize the microstructure and mechanical properties of SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steels. 1 ton ingot of SA508 Gr.4N model alloy was fabricated by vacuum induction melting followed by forging, quenching, and tempering. The predominant microstructure of the SA508 Gr.4N model alloy is tempered martensite having small packet and fine Cr-rich carbides. The yield strength at room temperature was 540MPa, and it was decreased with an increase of test temperature while DSA phenomenon occurred at around $288^{\circ}C$. Overall transition property of SA508 Gr.4N model alloy was much better than SA508 Gr.3 low alloy steel. The index temperature, $T_{41J}$, of SA508 Gr.4N model alloy was $-132^{\circ}C$ in Charpy impact tests, and reference nil-ductility transition temperature, $RT_{NDT}$ of $-105^{\circ}C$ was obtained from drop weight tests. From the fracture toughness tests performed in accordance with the ASTM standard E1921 Master curve method, the reference temperature, $T_0$ was $-147^{\circ}C$, which was improved more than $60^{\circ}C$ compared to SA508 Gr.3 low alloy steels.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.75-88
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• 2019

With Kori nuclear power plant unit 1 as a beginning in April 1978, 24 nuclear power plants have been operated in Korea and two more plants are under construction. As the nuclear power plants being operated, radioactive wastes from the plants have been accumulated so that various methods for disposing them have been proposed. In Korea, researches have been conducted, being focused on DGD (Deep Geological Disposal), however, DBD (Deep Borehole Disposal) method needs considering as an alternative. In this technical note, element technologies for DBD were analyzed by compiling previous researches and their applicability on domestic cases were investigated. Conceptual studies regarding relevant designs were conducted and finally, technical challenges for actual disposal were described.