• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제48권4호
• /
• pp.1022-1035
• /
• 2016

A double-tube once-through steam generator (DOTSG) consisting of an outer straight tube and an inner helical tube is studied in this work. First, the structure of the DOTSG is optimized by considering two different objective functions. The tube length and the total pressure drop are considered as the first and second objective functions, respectively. Because the DOTSG is divided into the subcooled, boiling, and superheated sections according to the different secondary fluid states, the pitches in the three sections are defined as the optimization variables. A multi-objective optimization model is established and solved by particle swarm optimization. The optimization pitch is small in the subcooled region and superheated region, and large in the boiling region. Considering the availability of the optimum structure at power levels below 100% full power, we propose a new operating scheme that can fix the boundaries between the three heat-transfer sections. The operation scheme is proposed on the basis of data for full power, and the operation parameters are calculated at low power level. The primary inlet and outlet temperatures, as well as flow rate and secondary outlet temperature are changed according to the operation procedure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제52권11호
• /
• pp.2660-2666
• /
• 2020

Korea successfully achieved energy independence in the shortest period of time from being the poorest country in terms of energy 50 years ago through steady development of nuclear technology. In the past, the nuclear industry has been driven through government-centered policy development, public institution-based research, and industrial facility and infrastructure construction. Consequently, South Korea became a nuclear energy powerhouse exporting nuclear power plants to the UAE, surpassing the level of domestic technological independence. However, in recent years, the nuclear industry in Korea has experienced a decline in new plant construction since the Fukushima accident in Japan, which caused changes in public perspectives regarding nuclear power plant operation, more stringent safety standards on the operation of nuclear power plants, and a shift in governmental energy policy. These changes are expected to change the domestic nuclear industry ecosystem. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the priority of technology development investment from the perspective of experts in private nuclear power companies, shifting the focus from government-led nuclear R&D policies. To establish a direction in nuclear technology development, a survey was conducted by applying an analytic hierarchy analysis to experts who have worked in nuclear power plants for more than 15 years. The analysis items of focus were the 3 attributes of strategic importance, urgency, and business feasibility of four major fields related to nuclear energy: nuclear safety, decommissioning, radioactive waste management, and strengthening industrial competitiveness.

• 플랜트 저널
• /
• 제5권3호
• /
• pp.66-73
• /
• 2009

This study aims to develop a strategy for South Korean companies to penetrate into the global NPP(nuclear power plant) market with their strength as the sixth biggest nuclear power generator in the world. With 20 nuclear plants in commercial operation and 6 more in construction, South Korea has the best technology in construction and operation of NPP. Despite these capabilities as demonstrated on its domestic market, Korean companies' constraint to enter and play a key role in global NPP market would be the lack of experience in overseas NPP projects, original technologies, and diplomatic effectiveness. This study analyzes the competitiveness of Korean standardized nuclear power plant, construction management skills, construction technologies, manufacturing equipment and materials and operation skills. In this research the current status of existing NPP and the forecast of building NPP according to countries was analyzed in order to work out strategies with technology, cost-effectiveness, and diplomatic consideration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제56권6호
• /
• pp.1959-1974
• /
• 2024

Nuclear energy plays a crucial role in energy supply in the 21st century, and more and more Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) will be in operation to contribute to the development of human society. However, as a typical complex system engineering, the operation and development of NPPs require efficient and stable control methods to ensure the safety and efficiency of nuclear power generation. Reinforcement learning (RL) aims at learning optimal control policies via maximizing discounted long-term rewards. The reward-oriented learning paradigm has witnessed remarkable success in many complex systems, such as wind power systems, electric power systems, coal fire power plants, robotics, etc. In this work, we try to present a systematic review of the applications of RL on these complex systems, from which we believe NPPs can borrow experience and insights. We then conduct a block-by-block investigation on the application scenarios of specific tasks in NPPs and carried out algorithmic research for different situations such as power startup, collaborative control, and emergency handling. Moreover, we discuss the possibilities of further application of RL methods on NPPs and detail the challenges when applying RL methods on NPPs. We hope this work can boost the realization of intelligent NPPs, and contribute to more and more research on how to better integrate RL algorithms into NPPs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권9호
• /
• pp.2888-2898
• /
• 2021

Vital area identification (VAI) is an essential procedure for the design of physical protection systems (PPSs) for nuclear power plants (NPPs). The purpose of PPS design is to protect vital areas. VAI has been improved continuously to overcome the shortcomings of previous VAI generations. In first-generation VAI, a sabotage fault tree was developed directly without reusing probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) results or information. In second-generation VAI, VAI model was constructed from all PSA event trees and fault trees. While in third-generation VAI, it was developed from the simplified PSA event trees and fault trees. While VAIs have been performed for NPPs in full-power operations, VAI for NPPs in low-power and shutdown (LPSD) operations has not been studied and performed, even though NPPs in LPSD operations are very vulnerable to sabotage due to the very crowded nature of NPP maintenance. This study is the first to research and apply VAI to LPSD operation of NPP. Here, the third-generation VAI method for full-power operation of NPP was adapted to the VAI of LPSD operation. In this study, LPSD VAI for a few plant operational states (POSs) was performed. Furthermore, the operation strategy of vital areas for both full-power and LPSD operations was discussed. The LPSD VAI method discussed in this paper can be easily applied to all POSs. The method and insights in this study can be important for future LPSD VAI that reflects various LPSD operational states. Regulatory bodies and electric utilities can take advantage of this LPSD VAI method.

• 전기저널
• /
• 통권451호
• /
• pp.46-58
• /
• 2014

2013년 말, 전세계에 운행중인 원자력발전소 원자로는 434기로 총 용량은 371.6GW(e)이며, 이 중 약 80%는 20년 이상 사용되었다. 많은 회원국들은 최우선 순위로 자신들의 원자력발전소 운행 기간을 원래의 예상 기간인 30~40년 보다 길게 허용했다. 그렇다면 원자력발전소의 어려운 환경에서 기존의 케이블을 어떻게 적격 판정할 것인가. 본 원고는 원자력발전소의 저전압 케이블의 적격, 상태 모니터링 및 관리에 대한 연구 사항을 기술하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권4호
• /
• pp.1109-1116
• /
• 2019

It is essential to predict the radioactivity distribution around the reactor cooling system (RCS) during obligatory cyclic operation of AP-1000. A home-developed program CPA-AP1000 is upgraded to predict the response of activated corrosion products (ACPs) in the RCS. The program is written in MATLAB and it uses state of the art MCNP as a subroutine for flux calculations. A pair of cyclic power profiles were superimposed after initial full power operation. The effect of cyclic operation is noticed to be more prominent for in-core surfaces, followed by the primary coolant and out-of-core structures. The results have shown that specific activity trends of $^{56}Mn$ and $^{24}Na$ promptly follow the power variations, whereas, $^{59}Fe$, $^{58}Co$, $^{99}Mo$ and $^{60}Co$ exhibit a sluggish power-following response. The investigations pointed out that promptly power-following response of ACPs in the coolant is vital as an instant radioactivity source during leakage incidents. However, the ACPs with delayed power-following response in the out-of-core components are perceived to cause a long-term activity. The present results are found in good agreement with those for a reference PWR. The results are useful for source term monitoring and optimization of work procedures for an innovative reactor design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제49권5호
• /
• pp.905-913
• /
• 2017

Advanced reactor designs often feature longer operating cycles between refueling and new concepts of operation beyond traditional baseload electricity production. Owing to this increased complexity, traditional proportional-integral control may not be sufficient across all potential operating regimes. The prototypical advanced reactor (PAR) design features two independent reactor modules, each connected to a single dedicated steam generator that feeds a common balance of plant for electricity generation and process heat applications. In the current research, the PAR is expected to operate in a load-following manner to produce electricity to meet grid demand over a 24-hour period. Over the operational lifetime of the PAR system, primary and intermediate sodium pumps are expected to degrade in performance. The independent operation of the two reactor modules in the PAR may allow the system to continue operating under degraded pump performance by shifting the power production between reactor modules in order to meet overall load demands. This paper proposes a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy logic-based power distribution system. Two T-S fuzzy power distribution controllers have been designed and tested. Simulation shows that the devised T-S fuzzy controllers provide improved performance over traditional controls during daily load-following operation under different levels of pump degradation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제52권1호
• /
• pp.78-86
• /
• 2020

The operation and monitoring (OM) interface is the digital medium between nuclear power system and operators. The cognitive load of OM interface has an important effect on the operation errors made by operator during OM task between operator and computer. The cognitive load model of OM interface is constructed for analysing the composition and influencing factors of OM interface cognitive load. And to study the coping strategies and methods for cognitive load of nuclear power system. An experiment method based on eye movement is proposed to measure the cognitive load of OM interface. Experiment case is carried out with 20 subjects and typical OM interface of a nuclear power system simulator. The OM interface is optimized based on the experiment results. And the results comparison between the original OM interface and the optimized OM interface shows that the cognitive load model and proposed method is valuable contributions in reducing the cognitive load and improving the interaction efficiency of OM tasks.

• 기술사
• /
• 제30권5호
• /
• pp.82-95
• /
• 1997

A Study of Improvement in Reactor Thermal Power Measurement Method using Kalman Filter. The objectives of the safety analysis of nuclear power plants are to maintain the surface temperature of fuel and fuel cladding within limit value in case of Loss of Coolant accident (LOCA) so that it ensures the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants. The new technique evaluating the reactor power and improvement of existing plant system increase the safety margin of nuclear power plant operation, and accordingly, economic effect will be anticipated. Hereby, 1 would like to introduce reactor power measurement method using Kalman filter that enables to calculate the reactor power more precisely combining the parameters, for example, turbine output as the 1 st stage pressure of high pressure turbine, and reactor power using energy equilibrium relation. It is expected that the new technique will enhance the accuracy of measurement of reactor power and maintain the reliability of nuclear power operation by increasing operational safety margin, and gain the economic benefit