• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.859-866
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• 2001

During the Pre-service Inspection for Wolsong Unit 3&4 in 1997/1998 respectively, 17 Distorted Roll Transition indications(over expanded beyond tubesheet secondary face) were identified at the Unit 4 (S/G B, D). Six(6) tubes out of these tubes were plugged in 1998. However the first Periodic Inspection identified additional 110 indications in 1999 and 2000. The additionally identified 110 indication call, not reported at the Pre-service Inspection, are; 2 Not-Finally-Expanded-Tubes and 108 Distorted Roll Transition tubes. Design limit of each Steam Generator tube Plugging is 6.4%. Plugging was performed by the Steam Generator manufacturer under the warranty. When Distorted Roll Transition indications were first identified on the Unit 4 in 1998 the degree of Over-expansion was measured using an inner dial-gage to make the disposition of Nonconformance report. 2 Not-Finally-Expanded-Tubes were plugged and 10 tubes out of 108 Distorted Roll Transition Tubes were also plugged as a preventive measure.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.49-58
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• 2018

The regulatory periodic inspection program (PSI) conducted at every overhaul period is the most important process for confirming the safety of nuclear power plants. The PSI for operating nuclear power plants in Korea mainly consist of component level performance check that had been developed based on deterministic approach putting the same degree of importance to all the inspection items. This inspection methodology is likely to be effective for preoperational inspection. However, once the plant is put into service, the PSI must be focused on whether to minimize the risk of accident using defense-in-depth concept and risk insight. The incorporation of defense-in-depth concept and risk insight into the deterministic based safety inspection has not been well studied so far. In this study, two track approaches are proposed to make sure that core damage be avoided: one is to secure success path and the other to block the failure path in a specific event tree of PSA. The investigation shows how to select safety important components and how to set up inspection group to ensure that core damage would not occur for a given initiating event, which results in strengthening defense-in-depth level 3.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.42-49
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• 1989

It has not been performed to inspect the underclad cracking in Korea nuclear plant since there is no Code Requirements for inspection. However, underclad cracks in nuclear pressure vessels were reported firstly in 1970. The objection of this study is to be established the ultrasonic inspection techniques for underclad cracking. The ultrasonic inspection of bimetalic stainless steel weld is very difficult by high attenuation and multiple scattering at weld surface and weld/base metal interface. The various inspection methods using $70^{\circ}$ refracted longitudinal wave, 50/70 tandem transducer, $45^{\circ}\;and\;60^{\circ}$ single shear wave are compared. Experiments on limited specimens applied same condition to nuclear pressure vessels shows that $70^{\circ}$ refracted longitudinal wave method is the best one for the detection of underclad cracks. 50/70 tandem transducer using SPOT(Satellite Pulse Observation Technique) is more effective for underclad crack sizing than other sizing methods.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2063-2065
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• 2003

The control rod drive mechanisms in a reactor head are arranged too narrow for a human worker to approach. Moreover, the working environment is in high radiation area. In order to inspect defections in the surfaces of the reactor head and welding parts, a visual inspection device that can approach such a narrow and high radiation area is required. This paper introduces a tele-operated mobile robot for visual inspection of a reactor head, which has pan/tilt camera, fixed rear camera, ultrasonic collision detection system, and so on. Moreover, the host controller and digital video logging system are developed and integrated control software is also developed. The robot is operated by a wireless control, which gives flexibility for the inspection.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2001

DUPIC (Direct use of spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactors) nuclear fuel is a CANDU fuel fabricated remotely from spent PWR fuel materials in a hot cell. The soundness of the end closure welds of nuclear fuel elements is an important factor for the safety and performance of nuclear fuel. To evaluate the soundness of the end closure welds of DUPIC fuel element, a precise X-ray inspection system is developed using a micro-focus X-ray generator with an image intensifier and a real time camera system. The fuel elements made of Zircaloy-4 and stainless steel by an Nd:YAG laser welding and a TIG welding aye inspected by the developed inspection system. The soundness of the welds of the fuel elements was confirmed by the X-ray inspection process, and the irradiation test of DUPIC fuel elements has been successfully completed at the HANARO research reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2348-2356
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• 2021

As a relatively new radiation imaging method, the cosmic-ray muon scattering imaging technology can be used to prevent nuclear smuggling and is of considerable significance to nuclear safety. Proposed in this paper is a new reconstruction algorithm based on density clustering, aiming to improve inspection quality with better performance. Firstly, this new algorithm is introduced in detail. Then in order to eliminate the inequity of the density threshold caused by the heterogeneity of the muon flux in different positions, a new flux correction method is proposed. Finally, three groups of simulation experiments are carried out with the help of Geant4 toolkit to optimize the algorithm parameters, verify the correction method and test the inspection quality under shielded condition, and compare this algorithm with another common inspection algorithm under different conditions. The results show that this algorithm can effectively identify and locate nuclear material with low misjudging and missing rates even when there is shielding and momentum precision is low, and the threshold correcting method is universally effective for density clustering algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.25-40
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• 2016

The Systems Engineering (SE) approach is characterized by the application of a structured engineering methodology for the design of a complex system or component. In this study, the SE methodology is used to design a nondestructive inspection system for Bottom Mounted Instrumentation (BMI) nozzles. We developed a system that enables nondestructive inspection of BMI nozzles during regular refueling outage without removing the reactor internals. A special ultrasonic (UT) probe is introduced to scan and detect cracks within the weld region of the nozzle. A 3D model of the inspection structure system was developed along with the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and internals which permits a virtual 3D simulation of the operation to check the design concept and effectiveness of the system and to provide a good visualization of the system. This approach allows for a virtual walk through to verify the proposed BMI nozzle inspection system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2014

Recently, it is getting more and more important ensuring the integrity for the equipment degradation according to the increase of nuclear power plant operating period. In many equipment of the nuclear power plant, snubbers mainly installed in reactor coolant pumps, steam generators and piping protected the equipment and piping from the occurrence of transient dynamic loads such as the earthquake, thermal load during the plant operation. This report describes the function, regulation, inspection requirements and management status of the snubbers installed in domestic nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1955-1963
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• 2021

As the IAEA has applied integrated safeguards and a state level approach to member states, the importance of national inspection has increased. However, the requirements for national inspection for some member states are different from the IAEA safeguards. In particular, the national inspection for the ROK requires on-site U concentration analysis due to a domestic notification. This research proposes an on-site U concentration analysis (OUCA) method for UO₂ pellets using gamma spectroscopy to satisfy the domestic notification requirement. The OUCA method calculates the U concentration of UO₂ pellets using the measured net X-ray counts and declared ²³⁵U enrichment. This research demonstrates the feasibility of the OUCA method using both MCNP simulation and experiment. It simulated and measured the net X-ray counts of different UO₂ pellets with different U concentrations and ²³⁵U enrichments. The simulated and measured net X-ray counts were fitted to polynomials as a function of U concentration and ²³⁵U enrichment. The goodness-of-fit results of both simulation and experiment demonstrated the feasibility of the OUCA method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.800-806
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• 2019

This paper presents a laboratory experiment on data acquisition technique that applied to the gamma radiation scanning coupled with computed tomography (CT) technique for inspection of broken nozzle inside the vertical vessel. The acquisition technique was developed to inspect a large diameter vessel when suspicious problem location is not easily accessed. This technique allows the installation of gamma radiation source (Cesium 137, Cs-137), and detectors (Sodium Iodine. NaI(Tl)) from the accessible location to the required location and performs the scanning by designed pattern. To demonstrate the designed technique, top opened tank which installed with six cut steel pipes diameter of 76.2 mm (3") at a certain position was selected. They were assumed to be a gas riser pipes inside the vessel. Three studied cases were performed, (a) projection of well installed six pipes, (b) projection of one out of six broken pipe and (c) one of nozzle was assumed to be failure and fell down until one out of six pipes was broken and obstructed by nozzle. Results clearly indicated the capability of developed technique to distinguish between normal situation case and abnormal situation cases.