• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1574-1583
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• 2024

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are compact nuclear reactors designed to generate electric power up to 300 MWe. They could be assembled in factory, and then transported to be directly installed on-stie. CAREM (Central Argentina de Elementos Modulares) is a national SMR development project, based on light water reactor technology supervised by Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). It is a natural circulation-based SMR with an indirect-cycle, including specific items and parts that simplify the design and improve safety performance. In this paper, the thermal-hydraulic study of CAREM-25 advanced small modular reactor is conducted by using COBRA-EN modified code and the Porous Media Approach (PMA) for the first time. According to PMA approach, each fuel assembly is modeled and divided into a network of lumped regions. While complex geometries are defined, the thermal-hydraulic parameters such as temperature and density are calculated for coolant and fuel rods. The obtained results show that the temperature in the fuel center may reach a peak around 1280 K in the hottest fuel assembly. Finally, the comparison of results from both methods (modified COBRA-EN and PMA) presented an appropriate consistency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.433-446
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• 2005

The development of accelerator science and technology has been accommodating ever increasing demand from scientific community of the beam energy and intensity of proton beams. The use of high-powered proton beams has extended from the traditional application of nuclear and high-energy physics to other applications, including spallation neutron source replacing nuclear reactor, nuclear actinide transmutation, energy amplification reactors. This article attempts to review development of proton accelerator, both linear and circular, and issues related to the proton beam energy, intensity as well as its output power. For related accelerator physics and technical review, one should refer to the recent article in the Reviews of Modem Physics [1]

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.437-442
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• 2006

European Material Test Reactors (MTRs) have provided essential support for nuclear power programs over the last 40 years. MTRs are now ageing in Europe and they cannot ensure the securing of experimental capability for the next decades. In this context, a new Material Testing Reactor, named Jules Horowitz Reactor -JHR-, operated as an international user-facility, is under development in Europe. The European MTRs context and the JHR objectives and status will be presented. Emphasis will be put on experiments in the field of nuclear fuels and materials irradiation which are developed in the framework of European and international collaboration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.120-120
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• 2003

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.2_spc
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• pp.291-303
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• 2020

The Kori-Unit 1 nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to be decommissioned after permanent shutdown, is expected to generate large amounts of various types of radioactive waste during the decommissioning process. Among these, nuclear reactors and internal structures have high levels of radioactivity and the dismantled structure must have the proper size and weight on the primary side. During decommissioning, it is important to prepare an appropriate and efficient disposal method through analysis of the disposal status and the legal restrictions on wastes generated from the reactors and internal structures. Nuclear reactors and internal structures generate radioactive wastes of various levels, such as medium, very low, and clearance. A radiation evaluation indicates that wastes in the clearance level are generated in the reactor head and upper head insulation. In this study, a clearance waste safety evaluation was conducted using the RESRAD-RECYCLE code, which is a safety evaluation code, based on the activation evaluation results for the clearance level wastes. The clearance scenario for the target radioactive waste was selected and the maximum individual and collective exposure doses at the time of clearance were calculated to determine whether the clearance criteria limit prescribed by the Nuclear Safety Act was satisfied. The evaluation results indicated that the doses were significantly low, and the clearance criteria were satisfied. Based on the safety assessment results, an appropriate metal recycle and disposal method were suggested for clearance, which are the subject of the deregulation of internal structures of nuclear power plant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1303-1314
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• 2016

This work examines the most viable nuclear technology options for future underwater designs that would meet high safety standards as well as good economic potential, for construction in the 2030-2040 timeframe. The top five concepts selected from a survey of 13 nuclear technologies were compared to a small modular pressurized water reactor (PWR) designed with a conventional layout. In order of smallest to largest primary system size where the reactor and all safety systems are contained, the top five designs were: (1) a lead-bismuth fast reactor based on the Russian SVBR-100; (2) a novel organic cooled reactor; (3) an innovative superheated water reactor; (4) a boiling water reactor based on Toshiba's LSBWR; and (5) an integral PWR featuring compact steam generators. A similar study on potential attractive power cycles was also performed. A condensing and recompression supercritical $CO_2$ cycle and a compact steam Rankine cycle were designed. It was found that the hull size required by the reactor, safety systems and power cycle can be significantly reduced (50-80%) with the top five designs compared to the conventional PWR. Based on the qualitative economic consideration, the organic cooled reactor and boiling water reactor designs are expected to be the most cost effective options.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1887-1894
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• 2024

Fatigue strength of the structural materials of lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) and accelerator-driven systems (ADS) may be degraded in liquid metal (Lead or lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE)) environments. The fatigue crack growth (FCG) data of structural materials in liquid LBE are necessary for damage tolerance design, safety assessment and life management of key equipment. A novel monitoring system for fatigue crack length was designed on the compliance method and the monitor technology of crack opening displacement (COD) of CT specimens by the linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) system. It can be used to predict the crack length by monitoring the COD of CT specimens in harsh high-temperature liquid LBE using a LVDT system. The prediction accuracy of this system was verified by FCG experiments in room temperature air and liquid LBE at 150, 250 and 350 ℃. The first results obtained in the FCG test for T91 steel in liquid LBE at 350 ℃ are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1517-1523
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• 2020

The widely used medical isotope technetium-99 m (^99mTc) is a daughter of Molybdenum-99 (⁹⁹Mo), which is mainly produced using dedicated research reactors from the nuclear fission of uranium-235 (²³⁵U). ^99mTc has been used for several decades, which covers about 80% of the all the nuclear diagnostics procedures. Recently, the instability of the supply has become an important topic throughout the international radioisotope communities. The aging of major ⁹⁹Mo production reactors has also caused frequent shutdowns. It has triggered movements to establish new research reactors for ⁹⁹Mo production, as well as the development of various ⁹⁹Mo production technologies. In this context, a new research reactor project was launched in 2012 in Korea. At the same time, the development of fission-based ⁹⁹Mo production process was initiated by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in 2012 in order to be implemented by the new research reactor. The KAERI process is based on the caustic dissolution of plate-type LEU (low enriched uranium) dispersion targets, followed by the separation and purification using a series of columns. The development of proper waste treatment technologies for the gaseous, liquid, and solid radioactive wastes also took place. The first stage of this process development was completed in 2018. In this paper, the results of the hot test production of fission ⁹⁹Mo using HANARO, KAERI's 30 MW research reactor, was described.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.11-25
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• 2015

The accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, caused by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, resulted in a failure of the power systems that are needed to cool the reactors at the plant. The accident progression in the absence of heat removal systems caused Units 1-3 to undergo fuel melting. Containment pressurization and hydrogen explosions ultimately resulted in the escape of radioactivity from reactor containments into the atmosphere and ocean. Problems in containment venting operation, leakage from primary containment boundary to the reactor building, improper functioning of standby gas treatment system (SGTS), unmitigated hydrogen accumulation in the reactor building were identified as some of the reasons those added-up in the severity of the accident. The Fukushima accident not only initiated worldwide demand for installation of adequate control and mitigation measures to minimize the potential source term to the environment but also advocated assessment of the existing mitigation systems performance behavior under a wide range of postulated accident scenarios. The uncertainty in estimating the released fraction of the radionuclides due to the Fukushima accident also underlined the need for comprehensive understanding of fission product behavior as a function of the thermal hydraulic conditions and the type of gaseous, aqueous, and solid materials available for interaction, e.g., gas components, decontamination paint, aerosols, and water pools. In the light of the Fukushima accident, additional experimental needs identified for hydrogen and fission product issues need to be investigated in an integrated and optimized way. Additionally, as more and more passive safety systems, such as passive autocatalytic recombiners and filtered containment venting systems are being retrofitted in current reactors and also planned for future reactors, identified hydrogen and fission product issues will need to be coupled with the operation of passive safety systems in phenomena oriented and coupled effects experiments. In the present paper, potential hydrogen and fission product issues raised by the Fukushima accident are discussed. The discussion focuses on hydrogen and fission product behavior inside nuclear power plant containments under severe accident conditions. The relevant experimental investigations conducted in the technical scale containment THAI (thermal hydraulics, hydrogen, aerosols, and iodine) test facility (9.2 m high, 3.2 m in diameter, and $60m^3$ volume) are discussed in the light of the Fukushima accident.

• Nuclear industry
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.60-63
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• 2014

현재 3세대 원자로의 엄청난 건설 비용과 사용후핵연료를 재처리 하지 못하고 폐기물로 보관 처리함에 따라 장기간의 지속적 가동이 불가능한 일회성 연료 사이클 때문에 원자력 발전 업계는 4세대 고속로 시대로 진입할 수밖에 없을 것인데 현재 개발중인 SMR 과 HTGR 타입의 두 원자로가 그 대안이 될 것이다.