• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.286-298
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• 2003

A steam explosion module, STX, has been developed using the mechanistic steam explosion analysis code, TEXAS-V, in order to estimate the dynamic load with steam explosion by implementing the module to the integrated safety analysis code, MELCOR. One of the difficulties in using mechanistic steam explosion codes is that they do not have any obvious criteria for defining some uncertain parameters such as triggering timing, triggering magnitude, mesh axial length and mesh cross-sectional area. These parameters have been user decision parts in the past. Steam explosion sample calculations and sensitivity studies on uncertain parameters were conducted to investigate those uncertain parameters. The TEXAS-V simulations were summarized in the format of a look-up table and a linear interpolation technique was adopted to calculate the steam explosion load between the data points in the table. The STX-module merged with MELCOR showed the same results as the original MELCOR and additionally it could estimate the steam explosion load in the reactor cavity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제42권5호
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• pp.590-599
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• 2010

Recently, efficient operation and practical management of power plants have become important issues in the nuclear industry. In particular, typical aging parameters such as stress and cumulative usage factor should be determined accurately for continued operation of a nuclear power plant beyond design life. However, most of the major components have been designed via conservative codes based on a 2-D concept, which do not take into account exact boundary conditions and asymmetric geometries. The present paper aims to suggest an effective fatigue evaluation methodology that uses a prototype of the integrated model and its transfer functions. The validity of the integrated 3-D Finite Element (FE) model was proven by comparing the analysis results of individual FE models. Also, mechanical and thermal transfer functions, known as Green's functions, were developed for the integrated model with the standard step input. Finally, the stresses estimated from the transfer functions were compared with those obtained from detailed 3-D FE analyses results at critical locations of the major components. The usefulness of the proposed fatigue evaluation methodology can be maximized by combining it with an on-line monitoring system, and this combination, will enhance the continued operations of old nuclear power plants.

• 지구물리
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.261-268
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• 2000

기상청 지진목록에 대하여 지진활동 매개변수 추정을 위한 최소규모를 분석하였다. 한반도 남부지역 전체에 대하여, 규모별 발생빈도의 시간적 변화로부터 규모 3.0이 적절한 최소규모로 추정되었다. 최소규모 3.0이상 지진의 발생빈도로부터 추정된 b 값은 1.11로서 이전의 연구결과에 비하여 크게 나타났다. 한반도 남부지역을 $0.1^{\circ}{\times}0.1^{\circ}$ 격자로 나누어 최소규모의 공간적 분포를 분석한 결과 많은 지점에서 최소규모에 대한 통계적 기준을 만족시키지 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 통계적 기준을 만족하는 지점은 주로 동부지역에 집중되며, 이 지역에서 최소규모는 $2.4{\sim}3.5$이다. 또한 b 값은 $0.75{\sim}1.73$ 이며, 평균은 1.08로서 한반도 남부지역 전체에 대한 값과 유사하다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권5호
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• pp.1584-1602
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• 2024

It is vital to output the required electrical power following various task requirements when the space reactor power supply is operating in orbit. The dynamic performance of the closed Brayton cycle thermoelectric conversion system is initially studied and analyzed. Based on this, a load tracking power regulation method is developed for the liquid metal cooled space reactor power system, which takes into account the inlet temperature of the lithium on the hot side of the intermediate heat exchanger, the filling quantity of helium and xenon, and the input amount of the heat pipe radiator module. After comparing several methods, a power regulation method with fast response speed and strong system stability is obtained. Under various changes in power output, the dynamic response characteristics of the ultra-small liquid metal lithium-cooled space reactor concept scheme are analyzed. The transient operation process of 70 % load power shows that core power variation is within 30 % and core coolant temperature can operate at the set safety temperature. The second loop's helium-xenon working fluid has a 65K temperature change range and a 25 % filling quantity. The lithium at the radiator loop outlet changes by less than ±7 K, and the system's main key parameters change as expected, indicating safety. The core system uses less power during 30 % load power transient operation. According to the response characteristics of various system parameters, under low power operation conditions, the lithium working fluid temperature of the radiator circuit and the high-temperature heat pipe operation temperature are limiting conditions for low-power operation, and multiple system parameters must be coordinated to ensure that the radiator system does not condense the lithium working fluid and the heat pipe.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권1호
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• pp.18-24
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• 2018

This study proposes a new method of analyzing the burnup credit in boiling water reactor spent fuel assemblies against various operating parameters. The operating parameters under investigation include fuel temperature, axial burnup profile, axial moderator density profile, and control blade usage. In particular, the effects of variations in one and two operating parameters on the curve of effective multiplication factor ($k_{eff}$) versus burnup (B) are, respectively, the so-called single and compound effects. All the calculations were performed using SCALE 6.1 together with the Evaluated Nuclear Data Files, part B (ENDF/B)-VII238-neutron energy group data library. Furthermore, two geometrical models were established based on the General Electric (GE)14 $10{\times}10$ boiling water reactor fuel assembly and the Generic Burnup-Credit (GBC)-68 storage cask. The results revealed that the curves of $k_{eff}$ versus B, due to single and compound effects, can be approximated using a first degree polynomial of B. However, the reactivity deviation (or changes of $k_{eff}$, ${\Delta}k$) in some compound effects was not a summation of the all ${\Delta}k$ resulting from the two associated single effects. This phenomenon is undesirable because it may to some extent affect the precise assessment of burnup credit. In this study, a general formula was thus proposed to express the curves of $k_{eff}$ versus B for both single and compound effects.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1997년도 추계학술발표회논문집(1)
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• pp.645-650
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• 1997

An oxide fuel small size core (1200 MWt) was analyzed in comparison with a large size core (3600 MWt) in order to evaluate the size effects on transient safety performances of liquid-metal reactors (LMRs). in the first part of the study, main static safety parameters (i.e., Doppler coefficient, sodium void effect, etc.) of the two cores were characterized, and the second part of the study was focused on the dynamic behavior of the cores in two representative transient events: the unprotected loss-of-flow(ULOF) and the unprotected transient overpower (UTOP). Margins to fuel molting and sodium boiling have been evaluated for these representative transients. Results show that the small core has a generally better or equivalent level of safety performances during these events.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제46권3호
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• pp.373-380
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• 2014

Safety-related parameters are very important for confirming the status of a nuclear power plant. In particular, the reactor vessel water level has a direct impact on the safety fortress by confirming reactor core cooling. In this study, the reactor vessel water level under the condition of a severe accident, where the water level could not be measured, was predicted using a fuzzy neural network (FNN). The prediction model was developed using training data, and validated using independent test data. The data was generated from simulations of the optimized power reactor 1000 (OPR1000) using MAAP4 code. The informative data for training the FNN model was selected using the subtractive clustering method. The prediction performance of the reactor vessel water level was quite satisfactory, but a few large errors were occasionally observed. To check the effect of instrument errors, the prediction model was verified using data containing artificially added errors. The developed FNN model was sufficiently accurate to be used to predict the reactor vessel water level in severe accident situations where the integrity of the reactor vessel water level sensor is compromised. Furthermore, if the developed FNN model can be optimized using a variety of data, it should be possible to predict the reactor vessel water level precisely.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.53-72
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• 1991

An integrated model is developed in this paper for the performance assessment of high level radioactive waste repository. This integrated model consists of two simple mathematical models. One is a multiple-barrier failure model of the repository system based on constant failure rates which provides source terms to biosphere. The other is a biosphere model which has multiple pathways for radionuclides to reach to human. For the parametric uncertainty and sensitivity analysis for the risk assessment of high level radioactive waste repository, Latin hypercube sampling and rank correlation techniques are applied to this model. The former is cost-effective for large computer programs because it gives smaller error in estimating output distribution even with smaller number of runs compared to crude Monte Carlo technique. The latter is good for generating dependence structure among samples of input parameters. It is also used to find out the most sensitive, or important, parameter groups among given input parameters. The methodology of the mathematical modelling with statistical analysis will provide useful insights to the decision-making of radioactive waste repository selection and future researches related to uncertain and sensitive input parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.650-659
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• 2016

As a type of accident-tolerant fuel, fully ceramic microencapsulated (FCM) fuel was proposed after the Fukushima accident in Japan. The FCM fuel consists of tristructural isotropic particles randomly dispersed in a silicon carbide (SiC) matrix. For a fuel element with such high heterogeneity, we have proposed a two-temperature homogenized model using the particle transport Monte Carlo method for the heat conduction problem. This model distinguishes between fuel-kernel and SiC matrix temperatures. Moreover, the obtained temperature profiles are more realistic than those of other models. In Part I of the paper, homogenized parameters for the FCM fuel in which tristructural isotropic particles are randomly dispersed in the fine lattice stochastic structure are obtained by (1) matching steady-state analytic solutions of the model with the results of particle transport Monte Carlo method for heat conduction problems, and (2) preserving total enthalpies in fuel kernels and SiC matrix. The homogenized parameters have two desirable properties: (1) they are insensitive to boundary conditions such as coolant bulk temperatures and thickness of cladding, and (2) they are independent of operating power density. By performing the Monte Carlo calculations with the temperature-dependent thermal properties of the constituent materials of the FCM fuel, temperature-dependent homogenized parameters are obtained.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.1525-1531
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• 2019

The indigenous nuclear power program of India is based mainly on a series of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). A burst correlation for Indian PHWR fuel claddings has been developed and empirical burst parameters are determined. The burst correlation is developed from data available in literature for single-rod transient burst tests performed on Indian PHWR claddings in inert environment. The heating rate and internal overpressure were in the range of 7 K/s-73 K/s and 3 bar-80 bar, respectively, during the burst tests. A burst criterion for inert environment, which assumes that deformation is controlled by steady state creep, has been developed using the empirical burst parameters. The burst criterion has been validated with experimental data reported in literature and the prediction of burst parameters is in a fairly good agreement with the experimental data. The burst criterion model reveals that increasing the heating rate increases the burst temperature. However, at higher heating rates, burst strain is decreased considerably and an early rupture of the claddings without undergoing considerable ballooning is observed. It is also found that the degree of anisotropy has significant influence on the burst temperature and burst strain. With increasing degree of anisotropy, the burst temperature for claddings increases but there is a decrease in the burst strain. The effect of anisotropy in the ${\alpha}$-phase is carried over to ${\alpha}+{\beta}$-phase and its effect on the burst strain in the ${\alpha}+{\beta}$-phase too can be observed.