• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.12-19
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• 1990

The Loss of Offsite Power Transient at 77.5% power which occurred on June 9, 1981 at the Kori Unit 1 PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) is simulated using the RELAP5/MOD2 system thermal-hydraulics computer code. Major thermal-hydraulic parameters are compared with the available plant data. The comparison of the analysis results with the plant data demonstrates that the RELAP5/MOD2 code has the capability to simulate the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of PWRs under accident conditions of this type with accuracy, except the pressurizer pressure and level. The pressurizer pressure increase is sensitive to the in surge now it is believed that the interracial heat transfer in a horizontal stratified flow regime may be estimated low and the compression effect due to insurge flow may be high. In the nodalization sensitivity study it is found that S/G noding with junctions between bypass plenum and steam dome is preferred to simulate the S/G water level decreasing and avoid the spurious level peak at trubine trip.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.22-33
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• 1987

The confirmed integrity of nuclear fuel cladding materials is an important object during steady state and transient operations at nuclear power plant. In this context, the clad material yielding behavior is especially important because of pellet-clad gap expansion. During the steep power excursion, the in-pile irradiation behavior differences between uranium-dioxide fuel pellet and zircaloy clad induce the contact pressure between them. If this pressure reaches the zircaloy clad yield pressure, the zircaloy clad will be plastically deformed. After the reactor power resumed to normal state, this plastic permanent expansion of clad tube give rise to the pellet-clad gap expansion. In this paper, the simple mandrel expansion test method which utilizes thermal expansion difference between copper mandrel and zircaloy tube was adopted to simulate this phenomenon. That is, copper mandrel which has approximately three times of thermal expansion coefficient of zircaloy-4 (PWR fuel cladding material) were used in this experiment at the temperature range from 400C to 700C. The measured plastic expansion of zircaloy outer radius and derived mathematical relations give the yield pressure, yield stress of zircaloy-4 clad at the various clad wall temperatures, the activation energy of zircaloy tube yielding, and pellet-clad gap expansion. The obtained results are in good agreement with previous experimental results. The mathematical analysis and simple test method prove to be a reliable and simple technique to assess the yielding behavior and gap expansion measurement between zircaloy-4 tube and uranium-dioxide fuel pellet under biaxial stress conditions.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 1999

Characteristics of radiation field in the steam generator(S/G) water chamber of a PWR were investigated and the anticipated effective dose rates to the worker in the S/G chamber were evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. The results of crud analysis in the S/G of the Kori nuclear power plant unit 1 were adopted for the source term. The MCNP4A code was used with the MIRD type anthropomorphic sex-specific mathematical phantoms for the calculation of effective doses. The radiation field intensity is dominated by downward rays, from the U-tube region, having approximate cosine distribution with respect to the polar angle. The effective dose rates to adults of nominal body size and of small body size(The phantom for a 15 year-old person was applied for this purpose) appeared to be 36.22 and 37.06 $mSvh^{-1}$) respectively, which implies that the body size effect is negligible. Meanwhile, the equivalent dose rates at three representative positions corresponding to head, chest and lower abdomen of the phantom, calculated using the estimated exposure rates, the energy spectrum and the conversion coefficients given in ICRU47, were 118, 71 and 57 $mSvh^{-1}$, respectively. This implies that the deep dose equivalent or the effective dose obtained from the personal dosimeter reading would be the over-estimate the effective dose by about two times. This justifies, with possible under- or over- response of the dosimeters to radiation of slant incidence, necessity of very careful planning and interpretation for the dosimetry of workers exposed to a non-regular radiation field of high intensity.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.389-396
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• 2018

The Kori-1 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), WH 2-Loop Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) operated for approximately 40 years in Korea, was permanently ceased on June 18, 2017. To reduce worker exposure to radiation by reducing the dose rate in the system before starting main decommissioning activities, the permanently ceased Kori-1 NPP will be subjected to full system decontamination. Generally, the range of system decontamination includes Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPV), Pressurizer (PZR), Steam Generators (SG), Chemical & Volume Control System (CVCS), Residual Heat Removal System (RHRS), and Reactor Coolant System (RCS) piping. In order to decontaminate these systems and equipment in an effective manner, it is necessary to evaluate the influence of the flow characteristics in the RCS during the decontamination period. There are various methods of providing circulating flow rate to the system decontamination. In this paper, the flow characteristics in Kori-1 NPP reactor coolant according to RHR pump operation were evaluated. The evaluation results showed that system decontamination using an RHR pump was not effective at decontamination due first to impurities deposited in piping and equipment, and second to the extreme flow unbalance in the RCS caused deposition of impurities.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.437-450
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• 2014

In this study, we developed a methodology to determine the reference parameter for an aircraft impact induced risk assessment of nuclear power plant (NPP) using finite element impact analysis of containment building. The target structure used to develop the method of reference parameter selection is one of the typical Korean PWR type containment buildings. We composed a three-dimensional finite element model of the containment building. The concrete damaged plasticity model was used for the concrete material model. The steels in the tendon, rebar, and liner were modeled using the piecewise-linear stress-strain curves. To evaluate the correlations between structural response and each candidate parameter, we developed Riera's aircraft impact force-time history function with respect to the variation of the loading parameters, i.e., impact velocity and mass of the remaining fuel. For each force-time history, the type of aircraft is assumed to be a Boeing 767 model. The variation ranges of the impact velocity and remaining fuel percentage are 50 to 200m/s, and 30 to 90%, respectively. Four parameters, i.e., kinetic energy, total impulse, maximum impulse, and maximum force are proposed for candidates of the reference parameter. The wellness of the correlation between the reference parameter and structural responses was formulated using the coefficient of determination ($R^2$). From the results, we found that the maximum force showed the highest $R^2$ value in most responses in the materials. The simplicity and intuitiveness of the maximum force parameter are also remarkable compared to the other candidate parameters. Therefore, it can be concluded that the maximum force is the most proper candidate for the reference parameter to assess the aircraft impact induced risk of NPPs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.581-594
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• 2014

A feasibility study on the seismic design of nuclear reactor buildings with application of a seismic isolation system is introduced. After the Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake in Japan of 1995, seismic isolation technologies have been widely employed for commercial buildings. Having become a mature technology, seismic isolation systems can be applied to NPP facilities in areas of high seismicity. Two reactor buildings are discussed, representing the PWR and BWR buildings in Japan, and the application of seismic isolation systems is discussed. The isolation system employing rubber bearings with a lead plug positioned (LRB) is examined. Through a series of seismic response analyses using the so-named standard design earthquake motions covering the design basis earthquake motions obtained for NPP sites in Japan, the responses of the seismic isolated reactor buildings are evaluated. It is revealed that for the building structures examined herein: (1) the responses of both isolated buildings and isolating LRBs fulfill the specified design criteria; (2) the responses obtained for the isolating LRBs first reach the ultimate condition when intensity of motion is 2.0 to 2.5 times as large as that of the design-basis; and (3) the responses of isolated reactor building fall below the range of the prescribed criteria.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.336-343
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• 1995

The Self Tuning Regulator(STR) method which is an approach of adaptive control theory, is ap-plied to design the fully automatic power controller of the nonlinear reactor model. The adaptive control represent a proper approach to design the suboptimal controller for nonlinear, time-varying stochastic systems. The control system is based on a third­order linear model with unknown, time-varying parameters. The updating of the parameter estimates is achieved by the recursive extended least square method with a variable forgetting factor. Based on the estimated parameters, the output (average coolant temperature) is predicted one-step ahead. And then, a weighted one-step ahead controller is designed so that the difference between the output and the desired output is minimized and the variation of the control rod position is small. Also, an integral action is added in order to remove the steady­state error. A nonlinear M plant model was used to simulate the proposed controller of reactor power which covers a wide operating range. From the simulation result, the performances of this controller for ramp input (increase or decrease) are proved to be successful. However, for step input this controller leaves something to be desired.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.405-412
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• 2014

As a major type of heat exchanger, the steam generator (SG) produces steam from heat energy of a nuclear power plant reactor. The steam produced by the steam generator flows into a turbine, and plays an important role in electric power generation. The heat transfer tubes in the steam generator consist of approximately 10,000 U-shaped tubes, which perform a structural role and act as thermal boundaries. The heat transfer tubes conduct the thermal energy between the primary coolant (about $320^{\circ}C$, $157kgf/cm^2$) obtained from the reactor and the secondary coolant (about $260^{\circ}C$, $60kgf/cm^2$) as part of the secondary system. Recently, the heat transfer tubes in the steam generator of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) are primarily produced from Alloy 600 and Alloy 690 seamless tubes. As a pilot study to find process parameters for the cold U-bending process using rotary draw bending, numerical and experimental investigations were conducted to produce U-shaped tubes from long straight SUS304L seamless tubes. 3D finite element simulations were run using ABAQUS Explicit with consideration of the elastic recovery. The process parameters studied were the angular speed, the operation period and the bending angle. Experimental verifications were conducted to insure the suitability of the final U-shaped configurations with respect to both ovality and wall thickness.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.368-372
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• 2016

Background: Methodologies for a series of radiological consequence assessments show a distinctive difference according to the design principles of the original nuclear suppliers and their technical standards to be imposed. This is due to the uncertainties of the accidental source term, radionuclide behavior in the environment, and subsequent radiological dose. Both types of PWR and PHWR are operated in Korea. However, technical standards for evaluating atmospheric dispersion have been enacted based on the U.S. NRC's positions regardless of the reactor types. For this reason, it might cause a controversy between the licensor and licensee of a nuclear power plant. Materials and Methods: It was modelled under the framework of the NRC Regulatory Guide 1.145 for light-water reactors, reflecting the features of heavy-water reactors as specified in the Canadian National Standard and the modelling features in MACCS2, such as atmospheric diffusion coefficient, ground deposition, surface roughness, radioactive plume depletion, and exposure from ground deposition. Results and Discussion: An integrated accident consequence assessment code, ACCESS (Accident Consequence Assessment Code for Evaluating Site Suitability), was developed by taking into account the unique regulatory positions for reactor types under the framework of the current Korean technical standards. Field tracer experiments and hand calculations have been carried out for validation and verification of the models. Conclusion: The modelling approaches of ACCESS and its features are introduced, and its applicative results for a hypothetical accidental scenario are comprehensively discussed. In an applicative study, the predicted results by the light-water reactor assessment model were higher than those by other models in terms of total doses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.112-120
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the piping failure frequency for the main feedwater system in domestic nuclear power plants(NPPs) for the application to an in-service inspection(ISI), leak before break(LBB) concept, aging management program(AMP), and probabilistic safety analysis(PSA). First, a database was developed for piping failure events in domestic NPPs, and 23 domestic piping failure events were collected. Among the 23 events, 12 locations of wall thinning due to flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) were identified in the main feedwater system in 4 domestic WH 3-loop NPPs. Two types of the piping failure frequency such as the damage frequency and rupture frequency were considered in this study. The damage frequency was calculated from both the plant population data and damage(s) including crack, wall thinning, leak, and/or rupture, while the rupture frequency was estimated by using both the well-known Jeffreys method and a new method considering the degradation due to FAC. The results showed that the damage frequencies based on the number of the base metal piping susceptible to FAC ranged from $1.26{\times}10^{-3}/cr.yr\;to\;3.91{\times}10^{-3}/cr.yr$ for the main feedwater system of domestic WH 3-loop NPPs. The rupture frequencies obtained from the Jeffreys method for the main feedwater system were $1.01{\times}10^{-2}/cr.yr\;and\;4.54{\times}10^{-3}/cr.yr$ for the domestic WH 3-loop NPPs and all the other domestic PWR NPPs respectively, while those from the new method considering the degradation were higher than those from the Jeffreys method by about an order of one.