• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.1005-1014
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• 2009

The Dual Unit Optimizer 2000 MWe (DUO2000) is put forward as a new design concept for large power nuclear plants to cope with economic and safety challenges facing the $21^{st}$ century green and sustainable energy industry. DUO2000 is home to two nuclear steam supply systems (NSSSs) of the Optimized Power Reactor 1000 MWe (OPR1000)-like pressurized water reactor (PWR) in single containment so as to double the capacity of the plant. The idea behind DUO may as well be extended to combining any number of NSSSs of PWRs or pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), or even boiling water reactors (BWRs). Once proven in water reactors, the technology may even be expanded to gas cooled, liquid metal cooled, and molten salt cooled reactors. With its in-vessel retention external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC) as severe accident management strategy, DUO can not only put the single most querulous PWR safety issue to an end, but also pave the way to very promising large power capacity while dispensing with the huge redesigning cost for Generation III+ nuclear systems. Five prototypes are presented for the DUO2000, and their respective advantages and drawbacks are considered. The strengths include, but are not necessarily limited to, reducing the cost of construction by decreasing the number of containment buildings from two to one, minimizing the cost of NSSS and control systems by sharing between the dual units, and lessening the maintenance cost by uniting the NSSS, just to name the few. The latent threats are discussed as well.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 1985

Neutron Streaming analysis in 1300 MWe pressurized water reactor cavity was performed. In this calculation, the discrete ordinates transport codes, ANISN and DOT 3.5, and the Monte Carlo code, TRIPOLI-02 were used with the coupling code, DOTTRI. In this study IBM 3033 type computer was used. The calculated neutron fluxes and dose rates were compared with the measured data in a 900MWe pressurized water reactor cavity to show a good agreement, although some deviations in the results for each energy group were noticed. These results will be applied in the radiation shielding design of high capacity nuclear power reactors and, to the means of radiation protection in case of the reactor maintenance and the access of the reactor cavity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.134-140
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• 2017

A well-performed core power control to track load changes is crucial in pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power stations. It is challenging to keep the core power stable at the desired value within acceptable error bands for the safety demands of the PWR due to the sensitivity of nuclear reactors. In this paper, a state-space model predictive control (MPC) method was applied to the control of the core power. The model for core power control was based on mathematical models of the reactor core, the MPC model, and quadratic programming (QP). The mathematical models of the reactor core were based on neutron dynamic models, thermal hydraulic models, and reactivity models. The MPC model was presented in state-space model form, and QP was introduced for optimization solution under system constraints. Simulations of the proposed state-space MPC control system in PWR were designed for control performance analysis, and the simulation results manifest the effectiveness and the good performance of the proposed control method for core power control.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.719-728
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• 2015

Following the Fukushima accident, a special safety inspection was conducted in Korea. The inspection results show that Korean nuclear power plants have no imminent risk for expected maximum potential earthquake or coastal flooding. However long- and short-term safety improvements do need to be implemented. One of the measures to increase the mitigation capability during a prolonged station blackout (SBO) accident is installing injection flow paths to provide emergency cooling water of external sources using fire engines to the steam generators or reactor cooling systems. This paper illustrates an evaluation of the effectiveness of external cooling water injection strategies using fire trucks during a potential extended SBO accident in a 1,000 MWe pressurized water reactor. With regard to the effectiveness of external cooling water injection strategies using fire engines, the strategies are judged to be very feasible for a long-term SBO, but are not likely to be effective for a short-term SBO.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 1994

A general approach to the dynamic time-history analysis of the reactor core is presented in this paper as a part of the fuel assembly qualification program. Several detailed core models are set up to reflect the placement of the fuel assemblies within the core shroud. Peak horizontal responses are obtained for each model for the motions induced form earthquake. The dynamic responses such as fuel assembly deflected shapes and spacer grid impact loads are carefully investigated. Also, the sensitivity responses are obtained for the earthquake motions and the fuel assembly non-linear response characteristics are discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1126-1139
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• 2016

In this research, for the first time, a new optimization method, i.e., strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm II (SPEA-II), is developed for the burnable poison placement (BPP) optimization of a nuclear reactor core. In the BPP problem, an optimized placement map of fuel assemblies with burnable poison is searched for a given core loading pattern according to defined objectives. In this work, SPEA-II coupled with a nodal expansion code is used for solving the BPP problem of Kraftwerk Union AG (KWU) pressurized water reactor. Our optimization goal for the BPP is to achieve a greater multiplication factor ($K_{eff}$) for gaining possible longer operation cycles along with more flattening of fuel assembly relative power distribution, considering a safety constraint on the radial power peaking factor. For appraising the proposed methodology, the basic approach, i.e., SPEA, is also developed in order to compare obtained results. In general, results reveal the acceptance performance and high strength of SPEA, particularly its new version, i.e., SPEA-II, in achieving a semioptimized loading pattern for the BPP optimization of KWU pressurized water reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2556-2563
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• 2021

Metaheuristic algorithms can work well in solving or optimizing problems, especially those that require approximation or do not have a good analytical solution. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of these algorithms. The response quality of these algorithms depends on the objective function and its regulated parameters. The nonlinear nature of the pressurized light-water nuclear reactor (PWR) dynamics is a significant target for PSO. The two-point kinetics model of this type of reactor is used because of fission products properties. The proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is intended to control the power level of the PWR at a short-time transient. The absolute error (IAE), integral of square error (ISE), integral of time-absolute error (ITAE), and integral of time-square error (ITSE) objective functions have been used as performance indexes to tune the PID gains with PSO. The optimization results with each of them are evaluated with the number of function evaluations (NFE). All performance indexes achieve good results with differences in the rate of over/under-shoot or convergence rate of the cost function, in the desired time domain.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.311-322
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• 2012

Since the crisis at the Fukushima plants, severe accident progression during a station blackout accident in nuclear power plants is recognized as a very important area for accident management and emergency planning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the comparative characteristics of anticipated severe accident progression among the three typical types of nuclear reactors. A station blackout scenario, where all off-site power is lost and the diesel generators fail, is simulated as an initiating event of a severe accident sequence. In this study a comparative analysis was performed for typical pressurized water reactor (PWR), boiling water reactor (BWR), and pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR). The study includes the summarization of design differences that would impact severe accident progressions, thermal hydraulic/severe accident phenomenological analysis during a station blackout initiated-severe accident; and an investigation of the core damage process, both within the reactor vessel before it fails and in the containment afterwards, and the resultant impact on the containment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.52-63
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• 1995

A neuro-fuzzy algorithm is presented for nuclear reactor power control in a pressurized water reactor. Automatic reacotr power control is complicated by the use of control rods because of highly nonlinear dynamics in the axial power shape. Thus, manual shaped controls are usually employed even for the limited capability during the power maneuvers. In an attempt to achieve automatic shape control, a neuro-fuzzy approach is considered because fuzzy algorithms are good at various aspects of operator's knowledge representation while neural networks are efficinet structures capable of learning from experience and adaptation to a changing nuclear core state. In the proposed neuro-fuzzy control scheme, the rule base is formulated based ona multi-input multi-output system and the dynamic back-propagation is used for learning. The neuro-fuzzy powere control algorithm has been tested using simulation fesponses of a Korean standard pressurized water reactor. The results illustrate that the proposed control algorithm would be a parctical strategy for automatic nuclear reactor power control.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.42-46
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• 2010

The evaluation method for the failure frequency of reactor vessel under pressurized thermal shock(PTS) is developed using probabilistic fracture mechanics. The probabilistic reactor integrity evaluation code, named R-PIE code, is developed. The validity and uncertainty of the R-PIE code is investigated. The reactor failure frequencies under PTS for Kori-1 nuclear power plant and other type of domestic nuclear power plants are evaluated. The reference PTS temperature for domestic nuclear power plants is obtained for the rule making against PTS failure.