• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.2A
• /
• pp.161-168
• /
• 2010

The bonded tendon was adopted to the reactor building of some operating nuclear power plants in Korea and the assessment of the effective prestress force on the bonded tendon is being issued as an important pending problem for continuous operation beyond their design life. The sensitivity analysis of various parameters was carried out to evaluate the effective prestress force using the system identification technique and the optimal parameters were determined for SI technique in this study. The 1/5 scaled post-tensioned concrete beams with the bonded tendon type were manufactured and in order to investigate the relationship of the natural frequency and the displacement to the effective prestress force, impact test, SIMO sine sweep test and bending test using the optical fiber sensor and the compact displacement transducer were carried out. As a result of tests, both the natural frequency and the displacement show the good relationship with the effective prestress force and both parameters are available for the SI technique to estimate the effective prestress force.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.70-74
• /
• 2023

The Small Punch Test (SPT) was developed to evaluate the softening and embrittlement of materials such as power plants and nuclear fusion reactors by taking samples in the field. Specimens used in the SPT are very thin and small disk-shaped compared to specimens for general tensile test, and thus have economic advantages in terms of miniaturization and repeatability of the test. The cryogenic SPT can also be miniaturized and has a significantly lower heat capacity than conventional universal test machines. This leads to reduced cooling and warm-up times. In this study, the cryogenic SPT was developed by modifying the existing room temperature SPT to be cooled by liquid nitrogen using a super bellows and a thermal insulation structure. Since the cryogenic SPT was first developed, basic experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of it. For the validation, aluminum alloy 6061- T6 specimens were tested for mechanical properties at room and cryogenic temperature. The results of the corrected tensile properties from the SPT experiment results were compared with known room temperature and cryogenic properties. Based on the correction results, the effectiveness of the cryogenic SPT test was confirmed, and the surface fracture characteristics of the material were analyzed using a 3d image scanner. In the future, we plan to conduct property evaluation according to the development of various alloy materials.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.56 no.5
• /
• pp.501-514
• /
• 2023

Forest fires can generate numerous pollutants through the combustion of vegetation and cause serious environmental problems. The global warming and climate change will increase the frequency and scale of forest fires across the world. In Korea, many nuclear power plants (NPPs) are located in the East Coast where large-scale forest fires frequently occur. Therefore, understanding the sorption and transport characteristics of radionuclides in the forest fire areas is required against the severe accidents in NPPs. This article reviewed the physiochemical changes and contamination of groundwater and soil environments after forest fires, and discussed sorption and transport of radionuclides in the subsurface environment of burned forest area. We considered the geochemical factors of subsurface environment changed by forest fire. Moreover, we highlighted the need for studies on changes and contamination of subsurface environments caused by forest fires to understand more specific mechanisms.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.419-428
• /
• 2023

Seawater has been used to cool devices in nuclear power plants. However, the pipes used to transport seawater are vulnerable to corrosion; hence, the inner side of pipelines is coated with an epoxy layer as prevention. Upon coating damage, the pipe becomes exposed, and corrosion progresses. The major cause is widely known as cavitation corrosion, causing the degradation of mechanical properties. In this study, corroded specimens were prepared using cavitation and immersion methods to clarify the degradation trend of mechanical properties with corrosion. Three different types of epoxy coatings were used, and accelerated cavitation procedures were composed of amplitudes of 15 ㎛, 50 ㎛, and 85 ㎛ for 2 h, 4 h, and 6 h. The immersion periods were 3 and 6 weeks. We conducted instrumented indentation tests on all degradation samples to measure mechanical properties. The results showed that higher cavitation amplitudes and longer cavitation or immersion times led to more degradation in the samples, which, in turn, decreased the yield strength. Of the three samples, the C coating had the highest resistance to cavitation and immersion degradation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.155-162
• /
• 2023

In nuclear power plants, the flow rate information is a major indicator of the performance of rotating equipment such as pumps, and is a very important one required for facility operation and maintenance. To measure a flow rate, various types of methods have been developed and used. Among them, the differential pressure type using orifice and the direct doppler type using ultrasonic waves are the most commonly used. However, these flow rate measurement methods have limitations in installation, conditions and status of the measuring part, etc. To solve this problem, we have studied a new technique for measuring flow rate from scratch. In this paper, we have devised a technique to estimate the flow rate using an average moving velocity of large-scale eddy in turbulence that occurs in the piping flow field. The velocity of the large-scale eddy can be measured using the pressure fluctuation signals on the inner surface of the pipe. To estimate the flow rate, at first a cross-correlation function is applied to the two pressure fluctuation signals located at different positions in the down stream for calculating the time delay between the moving eddies. In order to validate the proposed flow rate estimation method, CFD analyses for the internal turbulence flow in pipe are conducted with a fixed flow condition, where the pressure fluctuation signals on the pipe inner surface are simulated. And then the average flow velocity of the large scale eddy is to be estimated. The estimated flow velocity is turned out to be similar to the fixed (known) flow rate.

• Journal of The Korean Institute of Defense Technology
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.18-28
• /
• 2023

The threat of drones is widely occurring not only in the military field but also for important national facilities such as airports and nuclear power plants. Drones are very diverse in types and control methods, so it is not easy to have a uniform defense method and system, and with the development of drone technology, the war paradigm using drones as weapons is also changing. In particular, advances in drone technology are improving the efficiency and accuracy of reconnaissance and attack missions. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to secure research cases on military operation of drones due to difficulties in obtaining information on military operations. Therefore, in this study, we try to create basic data that can effectively establish a plan for performing reconnaissance and attack missions by deriving each operational aspect through analysis of operation cases of reconnaissance and attack drones.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.122-131
• /
• 2016

Caesium radioisotopes, ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs which come from the atmospheric nuclear tests and discharges from nuclear power plants, are very important to study artificial radioactivity. In this work, in order to lower the minimum detection activity (MDA) we investigated environmental radioactivity according to the Environment Measurement Laboratory procedure by ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³⁴Cs which is similar to chemical and environmental behaviors of ¹³⁷Cs. The environmental soils in high mountain areas near nuclear power plant were collected, and an Ammonium Molybdophosphate (AMP) precipitation method, which showed high selectivity toward Cs⁺ ions, was applied to chemically extract and concentrate Caesium radioisotopes. Radioactivity was estimated by a gamma-ray spectrometry. In gamma energy spectrum, with an increasing of ⁴⁰K radioactivity, it increased the MDA of ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs. Therefore, if the natural radionuclides were removed from the soil samples, the MDA of Caesium may be reduced, and the contents of ¹³⁷Cs of in the environmental soils can effectively be estimated. In the standard soil sample of Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, radioactivity of ⁴⁰K was removed more than 84% on average, and the MDA of ¹³⁴Cs was reduced 2 times. The content of ¹³⁷Cs was recovered over 84%. On the other hand, in environmental soils, AMP precipitation method showed removal ratio of ⁴⁰K up to 180 times, which reduced the MDA about 5 times smaller than those of Direct method. ¹³⁷Cs recovery ratio showed from 54.54% to 70.06%. When considering the MDA and recovery ratio, AMP precipitation method is effective for detection of Caesium radioisotopes in low concentration.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.339-346
• /
• 2019

Based on the $8^{th}$ Basic Plan for Electric Power Demand and Supply, an estimation has been made for inventories and characteristics of spent fuel (SF) to be generated from existing and planned nuclear power plants. The characteristics under consideration in this study are dimensions, fuel array, $^{235}U$ enrichment, discharge burnup, and cooling time for each fuel assembly. These are essentially needed for designing a disposal facility for SFs. It appears that the anticipated quantity by the end of 2082 is about 62,500 assemblies for PWR SFs. The inventories of Westinghouse-type and Korean-type SFs were revealed to be 60% and 40%, respectively as of the end of 2018. The proportion of SFs with initial $^{235}U$ enrichment below 4.5 weight percent (wt%) was shown to be approximately 90% in total as of the end of 2018. As of 2077, more than 97% of SFs generated from Westinghouse-type nuclear reactors were shown to have cooling time of over 50 years. As of 2125, more than 98% of SFs generated from Korean-type nuclear reactors were shown to have cooling time of over 45 years. Based on these results, for the efficient design of a disposal system, it is reasonable to adopt two types of reference spent fuel. SF of KSFA with $^{235}U$ enrichment of 4.5 wt%, discharge burnup of 55 GWd/tU, and cooling time of 50 years was determined as reference fuel for Westinghouse-type SFs; SF of PLUS7 with $^{235}U$ enrichment of 4.5 wt%, discharge burnup of 55 GWd/tU, and cooling time of 45 years was determined as reference fuel for Korean-type SFs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.673-680
• /
• 2017

sump pump is a system that draws in water that is stored in a dam or reservoir. They are used to pump large amounts of water for cooling systems in large power plants, such as thermal and nuclear plants. However, if the flow and sump pump ratio are small, the flow rate increases around the inlet port. This causes a turbulent vortex or swirl flows. The turbulent flow reduces the performance and can cause failure. Various methods have been devised to solve the problem, but a correct solution has not been found for low water level. The most efficient solution is to install an anti-vortex device (AVD) or increase the length of the sump inlet, which makes the flow uniform. This paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the flow characteristics in a sump pump for different sump inlet lengths and AVD types. Modeling was performed in three stages based on the pump intake, sump, and pump. For accurate analysis, the grid was made denser in the intake part, and the grid for the sump pump and AVD were also dense. 1.2-1.5 million grid elements were generated using ANSYS ICEM-CFD 14.5 with a mixture of tetra and prism elements. The analysis was done using the SST turbulence model of ANSYS CFX14.5, a commercial CFD program. The conditions were as follows: H.W.L 6.0 m, L.W.L 3.5, Qmax 4.000 kg/s, Qavg 3.500 kg/s Qmin 2.500 kg/s. The results of analysis by the vertex angle and velocity distribution are as follows. A sump pump with an Ext E-type AVD was accepted at a high water level. However, further studies are needed for a low water level using the Ext E-type AVD as a base.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.107-115
• /
• 2016

Currently, there are 442 operating nuclear power plants in the world, and 62 more are under construction. According to this reasoning, the treatment of radioactive waste is important to prevent the environmental ecosystem including humans, animals, and plants. Especially, a leakage of radioactive waste causes not only regional problem but also serious global one. In this study, we demonstrate the effect of radioisotopes (e.g., cesium, strontium, and cobalt) on a 3D culture cell. To develop the 3D cell culture system, we used a 96-well-culture plate with biocompatible agarose hydrogel. Using this method, we can perform the 3D cell culture system with three different cell lines such as HeLa, HepG2, and COS-7. In addition, we conducted a cell viability test in the presence of radioisotopes. Interestingly, the 3D morphological cells showed 42% higher cell viability than those on the 2D against cesium. This result indicates that the 3D platform provides cells morphological and physiological characteristic similar to in vivo grown tissues. Moreover, it overcomes the limitation of conventional cell culture system that can't reflect in vivo systems. Finally, we believe that the proposed approach can be applied a new strategy for simple high-throughput screening and accurate evaluation of metal toxicity assay.