• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2004

A circumferential guided wave method was developed to detect the axial crack on the bent feeder pipe. Dispersion curves of circumferential guided waves were calculated as a function of curvature of the pipe. In the case of thin plate, i.e. infinite curvature, as the frequency increases, the $S_0$ and $A_0$ mode coincide and eventually become Rayleigh wave mode. In the case of pipe, however, as the curvature increases, the lowest modes do not coincide even in the high frequencies. Based on the analysis, a rocking technique using angle beam transducer was applied to detect an axial defect in the bent region of PHWR feeder pipe. Based on the analysis of experimenal data for artificial notches, the vibration modes of each signal were identified. It was found that the notches with the depth of )0% of wall thickness can be detected with the method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.91-100
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• 2005

Kyung-hee Thorium Fuel (KTF), a heterogeneous thorium-based seed and blanket design concept for pressurized light water reactors, is being studied as an alternative to enhance proliferation resistance and fuel cycle economics of PWRs. The proliferation resistance characteristics of the KTF assembly design were evaluated through parametric studies using neutronic performance indices such as Bare Critical Mass (BCM), Spontaneous Neutron Source rate (SNS), Thermal Generation rate (TG), and Radio-Toxicity. Also, Fissile Economic Index (FEI), a new index for gauging fuel cycle economy, was suggested and applied to optimize the KTF design. A core loaded with optimized KTF assemblies with a seed-to-blanket ratio of 1: 1 was tested at the Korea Next Generation Reactor (KNGR), ARP-1400. Core design characteristics for cycle length, power distribution, and power peaking were evaluated by HELIOS and MASTER code systems for nine reload cycles. The core calculation results show that the KTF assembly design has nearly the same neutronic performance as those of a conventional $UO_2$ fuel assembly. However, the power peaking factor is relatively higher than that of conventional PWRs as the maximum Fq is 2.69 at the M$9^{th}$ equilibrium cycle while the design limit is 2.58. In order to assess the economic potential of a heterogeneous thorium fuel core, the front-end fuel cycle costs as well as the spent fuel disposal costs were compared with those of a reference PWR fueled with $UO_2$. In the case of comprising back-end fuel cycle cost, the fuel cycle cost of APR-1400 with a KTF assembly is 4.99 mills/KWe-yr, which is lower than that (5.23 mills/KWe-yr) of a conventional PWR. Proliferation resistance potential, BCM, SNS, and TG of a heterogeneous thorium-fueled core are much higher than those of the $UO_2$ core. The once-through fuel cycle application of heterogeneous thorium fuel assemblies demonstrated good competitiveness relative to $UO_2$ in terms of economics.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.363-374
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• 2005

A heterogeneous thorium-based Kyung Hee Thorium Fuel (KTF) assembly design was assessed for application in the APR-1400 to study the feasibility of using thorium fuel in a conventional pressurized water reactor (PWR). Thermal hydraulic safety was examined for the thorium-based APR-1400 core, focusing on the Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio (DNBR) and Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) analysis. To satisfy the minimum DNBR (MDNBR) safety limit condition, MDNBR>1.3, a new grid design was adopted, that enabled grids in the seed and blanket assemblies to have different loss coefficients to the coolant flow. The fuel radius of the blanket was enlarged to increase the mass flow rate in the seed channel. Under transient conditions, the MDNBR values for the Beginning of Cycle (BOC), Middle of Cycle (MOC), and End of Cycle (EOC) were 1.367, 1.465, and 1.554, respectively, despite the high power tilt across the seed and blanket. Anticipated transient for the DNBR analysis were simulated at conditions of $112\%$ over-power, $95\%$ flow rate, and $2^{\circ}C$ higher inlet temperature. The maximum peak cladding temperature (PCT) was 1,173K for the severe accident condition of the LBLOCA, while the limit condition was 1,477K. The proliferation resistance potential of the thorium-based core was found to be much higher than that of the conventional $UO_2$ fuel core, $25\%$ larger in Bare Critical Mass (BCM), $60\%$ larger in Spontaneous Neutron Source (SNS), and $155\%$ larger in Thermal Generation (TG) rate; however, the radio-toxicity of the spent fuel was higher than that of $UO_2$ fuel, making it more environmentally unfriendly due to its high burnup rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1981

The KINS (KAERI-Improved Nodal Simulation) program, a three-dimensional nodal simulation code for pressurized water reactors, has been developed and benchmarked against the first cycle of the Kori-1 reactor. The KINS program is based on the computational model used in FLARE code and has been modified to represent the PWR characteristics more explicitly. The critical boron concentration and three-dimensional power distribution at the beginning of life hot zero power have been calculated and compared with the operating data. A three-dimensional depletion calculation at the intervals of 1000 MWD/MTU turnup steps has been performed. As the result of comparison, our calculation is shown to be in excellent agreement with the operating data. It is displayed that, incorporated with the computing time, the KINS program is an effective and powerful tool for PWR core management.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2104-2125
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• 2021

This paper presents the verification and validation (V&V) of a calculation module for isotope inventory prediction to control the back-end cycle of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The calculation method presented herein was implemented in a two-step code system of a lattice code STREAM and a nodal diffusion code RAST-K. STREAM generates a cross section and provides the number density information using branch/history depletion branch calculations, whereas RAST-K supplies the power history and three history indices (boron concentration, moderator temperature, and fuel temperature). As its primary feature, this method can directly consider three-dimensional core simulation conditions using history indices of the operating conditions. Therefore, this method reduces the computation time by avoiding a recalculation of the fuel depletion. The module for isotope inventory calculates the number densities using the Lagrange interpolation method and power history correction factors, which are applied to correct the effects of the decay and fission products generated at different power levels. To assess the reliability of the developed code system for back-end cycle analysis, validation study was performed with 58 measured samples of pressurized water reactor (PWR) SNF, and code-to-code comparison was conducted with STREAM-SNF, HELIOS-1.6 and SCALE 5.1. The V&V results presented that the developed code system can provide reasonable results with comparable confidence intervals. As a result, this paper successfully demonstrates that the isotope inventory prediction code system can be used for spent nuclear fuel analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1769-1785
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• 2021

The Integral Pressurized Water Reactors (IPWRs) as the innovative advanced and generation-III + reactors are under study and developments in a lot of countries. This paper is aimed at the thermal hydraulic study of the hot and average fuel sub-channel in a Generation III + IPWR by loose external coupling to the neutronic simulation. The power produced in fuel pins is calculated by the neutronic simulation via MCNPX2.6 then fuel and coolant temperature changes along fuel sub-channels evaluated by computational fluid dynamic thermal hydraulic calculation through an iterative coupling. The relative power densities along the fuel pin in hot and average fuel sub-channel are calculated in sixteen equal divisions. The highest centerline temperature of the hottest and the average fuel pin are calculated as 633 K (359.85 ℃) and 596 K (322.85 ℃), respectively. The coolant enters the sub-channel with a temperature of 557.15 K (284 ℃) and leaves the hot sub-channel and the average sub-channel with a temperature of 596 K (322.85 ℃) and 579 K (305.85 ℃), respectively. It is shown that the spacer grids result in the enhancement of turbulence kinetic energy, convection heat transfer coefficient along the fuel sub-channels so that there is an increase in heat transfer coefficient about 40%. The local fuel pin temperature reduction in the place and downstream the space grids due to heat transfer coefficient enhancement is depicted via a graph through six iterations of neutronic and thermal hydraulic coupling calculations. Working in a low fuel temperature and keeping a significant gap below the melting point of fuel, make the IPWR as a safe type of generation -III + nuclear reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1386-1395
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• 2020

High fidelity nuclear reactor fuel assembly simulation using CFD method is an effective way for the structure design and optimization. The validated models and user practice guidelines play critical roles in achieving reliable results in CFD simulations. In this paper, the international benchmark MATiS-H is studied carefully and the best user practice guideline is achieved for the rod bundles simulation. Then a 5 × 5 rod bundles model in the advanced pressurized water reactor (PWR) is established and the detailed three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic characteristics are investigated. The influence of spacer grids and mixing vanes on the flow and hear transfer in rod bundles is revealed. As the coolant flows through the spacer grids and mixing vanes in the rod bundles, the drastic lateral flow would be induced and the pressure drop increases significantly. In addition, the heat transfer is enhanced remarkably due to the strong mixing effects. The calculation results could provide meaningful guidelines for the design of advanced PWR fuel assembly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.645-660
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• 1995

The loss of Residual Heat Removal System (RHRS) event during reduced inventory operation for the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plants (KSNPPS) is simulated by RELAP5/MOD3 and RELAP5/MOD3.1 Tn cases are considered : Base case for an intact Reactor Coolant System (RCS) with no tent and a vent case for an open system. Comparative simulations of base case are peformed by RELAP5/MOD3 and RELAP5/MOD3. 1 computer codes. The results of too simulations are generally in good qualitative and quantitative agreement. However, since the results of RELAP5/MOD3 simulation reveals the deficiency of RELAP5/MOD3 wall heat model, the RELAP5/AOD3.1 computer code is used for the simulation of the vent case. The analysis result of base case show that two steam generators are insufficient to remove decay heat at one day after shutdown, where the RCS is closed. The RCS pressure increased continuously and reached the RCS temporary boundaries design pressure of 0.24 MPa around 4,000 seconds. In the vent case with a flow capacity equivalent to three times the capacity of Pressurizer Safety Valve (PSV), it is shown that the RCS Pressure does not reach 0.24 MPa and core uncovery does not occur until 10,000 seconds. The detailed discussions on the results of this study suggest the feasibility of RELAP5/AOD3.1 as an analysis tool for the simulation of the loss of RHRS event at reduced inventory operation. The results of this study also provide insight for the determination of proper vent capacity.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.3260-3268
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• 2009

A test apparatus has been fabricated to simulate chemical effect on head loss through a strainer in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) containment water pool after a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). Tests were conducted under condition of same ratio of strainer surface area to water volume between the test appratus and the containment sump. A series of tests have been performed to investigate the effects of spray, existence of calcium-silicate with tri-sodium phosphate (TSP), and composition of materials. The results showed that head loss across the chemical bed with even a small amount of calcium-silicate insulation instantaneously increased as soon as TSP was added to the test solution. Also, the head loss across the test screen is strongly affected by spray duration and is increased rapidly at the early stage, because of high dissolution and precipitation of aluminum and zinc. After passivation of aluminum and zinc by corrosion, the head loss increase is much slowed down and is mainly induced by materials such as calcium, silicon, and magnesium leached from NUKONTM and concrete. Furthermore, it is newly found that the spay buffer agent, tri-sodium phosphate, to form protective coating on the aluminum surface and reduce aluminum leaching is not effective for a large amount of aluminum and a long spray.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.471-480
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• 2002

In this paper, the thermal stress analysis of spent nuclear fuel disposal canister in a deep repository at 500 m underground is carried out for the basic design of the canister. Since the nuclear fuel disposal usually emits much heat, a long term safe repository at a deep bedrock is used. Under this situation, the canister experiences the thermal load due to the heat generation of spent nuclear fuels in the basket. Hence, in this paper the thermal stress analysis is executed using the finite element method. The finite clement code Eot the analysis Is not written directly, but a commercial code, NISA, is used because of the complexity of the structure and the large number of elements required for the analysis. The analysis result shows that even though the thermal stress is added to the stress generated by the hydrostatic underground water pressure and the swelling pressure of the bentonite buffer, the total stress is still smaller than the yield stress of the cast iron. Hence, the canister is still structurally safe when the thermal loads we included in the external loads applied on the canister.