• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.561-574
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• 2009

First ex-vessel core catcher has been applied to the practical design of NPPs with VVER-1000 reactors built in China (Tyanvan) and India (Kudankulam) for severe accident management (SAM) and mitigation of SA consequences. The paper presents the concept and basic design of this crucible-type core catcher as well as an evaluation of its efficiency. The important role of oxidic sacrificial material is discussed. Insight into the behaviour of the molten pool, which forms in the catcher after core relocation from the reactor vessel, is provided. It is shown that heat loads on the water-cooled vessel walls are kept within acceptable limits and that the necessary margins for departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) and of vessel failure caused by thermo-mechanical stress are satisfactorily provided for.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.310-315
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• 1997

System-Integrated Modular Advanced Reactor (SMART), where major primary components such as modular helical steam generator and self regulating pressurizer are integrated into reactor vessel, is currently under development. The pressurizer is designed to control the primary pressure mainly with partial pressure of nitrogen gas and to maintain the fluid temperature as low as possible for the purpose of minimizing steam contribution. The steam generator (SG) is designed to produce super-heated steam inside tube at power operation. Because the in-vessel pressurizer and in-vessel SG are classified as the characteristic components of SMART, it is important to perform a steady state calculation of these components in order to evaluate the adoption of these components. A steady state analysis of the in-vessel pressurizer and in-vessel SG has been performed under normal power operation and the results show an acceptable performance of the components.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.133.6-133
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• 2001

Reactor vessel is one of the most important equipment of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with regard to the nuclear safety. Thus reactor vessel must be examined periodically by certified experts. Currently, ultra-sonic(UT) non-destructive inspection is executed on reactor vessel. Two different techniques are used in this inspection. One is using the movable manipulator fixed with the support-guide placed on the vessel, and the other is using mobile robot moving in the vessel. Movable manipulator machine is very heavy, hard to handle, and very expensive. Mobile robot equipment is small and convenient but has a weak point on positional precision. To solve these problems we developed a reactor inspection system based on laser-driven mobile robot. This paper describes the main concept and structure of integrated inspection units and the feature of implemented units.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2000

A safety assessment of reactor vessel lower head integrity under in-vessel vapor explosion loads has been performed. The core melt relocation parameters were chosen within the ranges of physically realizable bounds. The premixing and explosion calculations were performed using TRACER-II code. Using the calculated explosion pressures imposed on the lower head inner wall, strain calculations were peformed using ANSYS code. Then, the calculated strain results and the established failure criteria were used in determining the failure probability of the lower head, In the explosion analyses, it is shown that the explosion impulses are not altered significantly by the uncertain parameters of triggering location and time, fuel and vapor volume fractions in uniform premixture bounding calculations. Strain analyses show that the vapor explosion-induced lower head failure is not possible under the present framework of assessment. The result of static analysis using the conservative explosion-end pressure of 50 MPa also supports the conclusion. It is recommended, however, that an assessment of fracture mechanics for preexisting cracks be also considered to obtain a more concrete conclusion.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.64-69
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• 1996

원자로 vessel 수명에 영향을 미치는 fluence를 감소시키는 방안을 고리 1호기에 대하여 검토하였다. 적용 방법은 하드웨어 변경과 향상된 설계 방법론 적용등으로 확보한 열적여유도를 정량화하고, 이를 설계상의 F$_{{\Delta}H}$ 제한치 상향조정에 활용하여 상대적으로 저누출 장전모형을 선정하므로써 vessel fluence를 줄이도록 하였다. 분석 결과, 적절한 열적여유도를 보유하고도 F$_{{\Delta}H}$ 제한치를 7% 정도 높일 수 있는 것으로 밝혀졌으며, 이렇게 상향 조정된 제한치를 사용할 경우 핵연료 이용율 향상과 함께 vessel fluence의 감소 효과를 얻어 vessel의 수명 연장에 도움을 줄 수 있는 것으로 밝혀졌다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2716-2727
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• 2021

The core shroud is one of the most important internal components of the reactor vessel internals because it meets the neutron fluence directly emitted by the nuclear fuel. In particular, dynamic effects for an earthquake should be evaluated with respect to the neutron irradiation flux. As a prerequisite to this study, simplified and detailed finite element models are developed for the core shroud using the ANSYS Design Parametric Language. Using the El Centro earthquake, seismic analyses are performed for the simplified and detailed core shroud models. Modal characteristics are obtained and their results are used for a time history analysis. Response spectrum analyses are also performed to access the degree of seismic excitation. The results of these analyses are compared to investigate the response characteristics between the simplified and detailed core shroud models from the time history and response spectrum analyses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.3017-3029
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• 2023

In the late in-vessel phase of a nuclear reactor severe accident, the internal heat transfer and crust evolution during the debris bed melting process have important effects on the thermal load distribution along the vessel wall, and further affect the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) failure mode and the state of melt during leakage. This study coupled the phase change model and large eddy simulation to investigate the variations of the temperature, melt liquid fraction, crust and heat flux distributions during the debris bed melting process in the hypothetical severe accident of HPR1000. The results indicated that the heat flow towards the vessel wall and upper surface were similar at the beginning stage of debris melting, but the upward heat flow increased significantly as the development of the molten pool. The maximum heat flux towards the vessel wall reached 0.4 MW/m². The thickness of lower crust decreased as the debris melting. It was much thicker at the bottom region with the azimuthal angle below 20° and decreased rapidly at the azimuthal angle around 20-50°. The maximum and minimum thicknesses were 2 and 90 mm, respectively. By contrast, the distribution of upper crust was uniform and reached stable state much earlier than the lower crust, with the thickness of about 10 mm. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis of initial condition indicated that as the decrease of time interval from reactor scram to debris bed dried-out, the maximum debris temperature and melt fraction became larger, the lower crust thickness became thinner, but the upper crust had no significant change. The sensitivity analysis of in-vessel retention (IVR) strategies indicated that the passive and active external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) had little effect on the internal heat transfer and crust evolution. In the case not considering the internal reactor vessel cooling (IRVC), the upper crust was not obvious.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.74-83
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• 1995

The accurate determination of the fast neutron flux/fluence onto the pressure vessel is an essential part of the reactor pressure vessel surveillance program. It has been reported recently that the iron cross section data in ENDF/B versions III through V might underestimate the flux/fluence of fast neutrons in steel structures such as reactor pressure vessel. In this study, for the comparison of iron data of ENDF/B-IV and VI we produced two 47-group cross section sets, CXFe-IV and CXFe-Ⅵ, which are based on Yonggwang nuclear unit-3/4 model and the iron data of ENDF/B-IV and VI, respectively. A comparison was made of the results obtained from DOT4.3 calculation using CXFe-IV and CXFe-VI. From the results, it was found that the fast flux(E 〉 1.0 MeV), which is important for the pressure vessel embrittlement analysis, increases by about 7.6％ at the inner wall and 20％ at the outer wall of the vessel, if the iron data are used from ENDF/B-VI instead of ENDF/B-IV.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.429-438
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• 2020

To shorten the construction times of nuclear facility structures, three high-strength concrete mixtures were developed with specific consideration given to their curing temperatures, their economic efficiency, and the practicality of their quality control. This study was conducted to examine the temperature rise profiles of these three concrete mixtures and the potential for early-age thermal cracking in the primary containment vessel of a nuclear reactor with a wall thickness of 1200 mm. The one-layer placement height of the concrete for the primary containment vessel was increased from the conventional 3 m to 3.5 m. A nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted using the thermal properties of concrete determined from the isothermal hydration and adiabatic hydration tests, and tuned through comparisons made with temperature rise profiles obtained for 1200-mm-thick mock-up wall specimens cured at temperatures of 5, 20, and 35℃. The hydration heat performance of the three concrete mixtures and their potential to produce thermal cracking in nuclear facilities indicate that the mixtures have considerable potential for practical application to the primary containment vessel of a nuclear reactor at various curing temperatures, fulfilling the minimum requirements of the ACI 301 and minimizing the likelihood of the occurrence of thermal cracks.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.766-775
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• 2015

The integrity assessment of reactor vessel internals should be conducted in the design process to secure the safety of nuclear power plants. Various loads such as self-weight, seismic load, flow-induced load, and preload are applied to the internals. Therefore, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code, Section III, defines the stress limit for reactor vessel internals. The present study focused on structural response analyses of the upper guide structure upper flange. The distributions of the stress intensity in the flange body were analyzed under various design load cases during normal operation. The allowable stress intensities along the expected sections of stress concentration were derived from the results of the finite element analysis for evaluating the structural integrity of the flange design. Furthermore, seismic analyses of the upper flange were performed to identify dynamic behavior with respect to the seismic and impact input. The mode superposition and full transient methods were used to perform time-history analyses, and the displacement at the lower end of the flange was obtained. The effect of the damping ratio on the response of the flange was also evaluated, and the acceleration was obtained. The results of elastic and seismic analyses in this study will be used as basic information to judge whether a flange design meets the acceptance criteria.