• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제50권7호
• /
• pp.1120-1130
• /
• 2018

An analysis of a pyroprocessing safeguards methodology employing the Pu-to-$^{244}Cm$ ratio is presented. The analysis includes characterization of representative used nuclear fuel assemblies with respect to computed nuclide composition. The nuclide composition data computationally generated is appropriately reformatted to correspond with the material conditions after each step in the head-end stage of pyroprocessing. Uncertainty in the Pu-to-$^{244}Cm$ ratio is evaluated using the Geary-Hinkley transformation method. This is because the Pu-to-$^{244}Cm$ ratio is a Cauchy distribution since it is the ratio of two normally distributed random variables. The calculated uncertainty of the Pu-to-$^{244}Cm$ ratio is propagated through the mass flow stream in the pyroprocessing steps. Finally, the probability of Type-I error for the plutonium Material Unaccounted For (MUF) is evaluated by the hypothesis testing method as a function of the sizes of powder particles and granules, which are dominant parameters to determine the sample size. The results show the probability of Type-I error is occasionally greater than 5%. However, increasing granule sample sizes could surmount the weakness of material accounting because of the non-uniformity of nuclide composition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권1호
• /
• pp.198-206
• /
• 2019

A new methodology to analyze the nuclear material accountability for pyroprocessing system is developed. The $Pu-to-^{244}Cm$ ratio quantification is one of the methods for Pu accountancy in pyroprocessing. However, an uncertainty in the $Pu-to-^{244}Cm$ ratio due to the non-uniform composition in used fuel assemblies can affect the accountancy of Pu. A random variable, LOPu, is developed to analyze the probability of detection for Pu diversion of hypothetical scenarios at a pyroprocessing facility considering the uncertainty in $Pu-to-^{244}Cm$ ratio estimation. The analysis is carried out by the hypothesis testing and the event tree method. The probability of detection for diversion of 8 kg Pu is found to be less than 95% if a large size granule consisting of small size particles gets sampled for measurements. To increase the probability of detection more than 95%, first, a new Material Balance Area (MBA) structure consisting of more number of Key Measurement Points (KMPs) is designed. This multiple KMP-measurement for the MBA shows the probability of detection for 8 kg Pu diversion is greater than 96%. Increasing the granule sample number from one to ten also shows the probability of detection is greater than 95% in the most ranges for granule and powder sizes.

• 융복합기술연구소 논문집
• /
• 제3권2호
• /
• pp.7-10
• /
• 2013

Metal oxides are known as stable materials during a thermal treatment. However, some oxides are readily evaporated at high temperatures. A voloxidation process is a head-end process for a pyroprocessing dealing with spent nuclear fuels (SF). In SFs, fission productions are in the form of oxides and some of them would be evaporated during the voloxidation process. Therefore, it is of importance to analyse the vapor pressures of metal oxides so that the material flows throughout the pyroprocessing could be estimated. In this work, vapor pressures of relevant metal oxides were calculated and presented to draw a baseline on the material flow of the pyroprocessing.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제55권10호
• /
• pp.3525-3534
• /
• 2023

Non-uniformity of Pu and Cm composition in used nuclear fuel was analyzed to determine its effect on Pu accountancy in pyroprocessing, while employing the Pu-to-²⁴⁴Cm ratio method. Burnup simulation of a typical pressurized water reactor fuel assembly, required for the analysis, was carried out using MCNP code. Used fuel nuclide composition, as a function of nine axial and two radial meshes, were evaluated. The axial variation of neutron flux and self-shielding effects were found to affect the uniformity of Pu and Cm compositions and in turn the Pu-to-²⁴⁴Cm ratio. However, the results of the study showed that these non-uniformities do not affect the use of Pu-to-²⁴⁴Cm ratio method for Pu accountancy, if the measurement samples are drawn from the voloxidized powder at the feed step of pyroprocessing. 'Material Unaccounted For' and its uncertainty estimates are also presented for a pyrprocessing facility to verify safeguards monitoring requirements of the IAEA.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제42권2호
• /
• pp.131-144
• /
• 2010

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing pyroprocessing technology for recycling useful resources from spent fuel since 1997. The process includes pretreatment, electroreduction, electrorefining, electrowinning, and a waste salt treatment system. This paper briefly addresses unit processes and related innovative technologies. As for the electroreduction step, a stainless steel mesh basket was applied for adaption of granules of uranium oxide. This basket was designed for ready handling and transfer of feed material. A graphite cathode was used for the continuous collection of uranium dendrite in the electrorefining system. This enhances the throughput of the electrorefiner. A particular mesh type stirrer was designed to inhibit uranium spill-over at the liquid Cd crucible. A residual actinide recovery system was also tested to recover TRU tracer. In order to reduce the waste volume, a crystallization method is employed for Cs and Sr removal. Experiments on the unit processes were tested successfully, and based on the results, engineering-scale equipment has been designed for the PRIDE (PyRoprocess Integrated inactive DEmonstration facility).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권2호
• /
• pp.644-652
• /
• 2022

During the pyroprocessing operation, various signals can be collected by process monitoring (PM). These signals are utilized to diagnose process states. In this study, feasibility of using PM for nuclear safeguards of electrorefining operation was examined based on the use of machine learning for detecting off-normal operations. The off-normal operation, in this study, is defined as co-deposition of key elements through reduction on cathode. The monitored process signal selected for PM was cathode potential. The necessary data were produced through electrodeposition experiments in a laboratory molten salt system. Model-based cathodic surface area data were also generated and used to support model development. Computer models for classification were developed using a series of recurrent neural network architectures. The concept of transfer learning was also employed by combining pre-training and fine-tuning to minimize data requirement for training. The resulting models were found to classify the normal and the off-normal operation states with a 95% accuracy. With the availability of more process data, the approach is expected to have higher reliability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권7호
• /
• pp.1866-1870
• /
• 2019

Residual salt separation is an essential step in pyroprocessing because its reaction products, as prepared by electrochemical unit processes, contain frozen residual electrolyte species, which are generally composed of alkali-metal chloride salts (e.g., LiCl, KCl). In this study, a simple technique that utilizes high-temperature gas flux as a driving force to melt and push out the residual salt in the reaction products was developed. This technique is simple as it only requires the use of a heating gun in combination with a gas injection system. Consequently, $LiNO_3-ZrO_2$ and $LiCl-ZrO_2$ mixtures were successfully separated by the high-temperature gas injection (separation efficiency > 93%), thereby demonstrating the viability of this simple technique for residual salt separation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제50권7호
• /
• pp.1184-1189
• /
• 2018

Pyroprocessing uses various molten salts during electrochemical unit processes. Reaction products after the electrochemical processes must contain a significant amount of residual salts to be separated. Vacuum distillation is a common method to separate the residual salts; however, its high operation temperature may cause side reactions. In this study, a simple rotation technique using centrifugal force was suggested to separate the residual salts from the reaction products at relatively low temperature compared to the distillation technique. When a reaction product container with porous wall rotates inside a vessel heated above the melting point of the residual salt, the residual salt in the liquid phase is separated through centrifugal force. It was shown that the $LiNO_3-Al_2O_3$ mixture can be separated by this technique to leave solid $Al_2O_3$ inside the container, with a separation efficiency of 99.4%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제47권1호
• /
• pp.47-58
• /
• 2015

Four recycling scenarios involving pyroprocessing of spent fuel (SF) have been investigated for a 600-MWe transmutation sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), KALIMER. Performance evaluation was done with code system REBUS connected with TRANSX and TWODANT. Scenario Number 1 is the pyroprocessing of Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) SF. Because the recycling of CANDU SF does not have any safety problems, the CANDU-Pyro-SFR system will be possible if the pyroprocessing capacity is large enough. Scenario Number 2 is a feasibility test of feed SF from a pressurized water reactor PWR. Thefsensitivity of cooling time before prior to pyro-processing was studied. As the cooling time sensitivity of cooling time before prior to pyro-processing was studied. As the cooling time increases, excess reactivity at the beginning of the equilibrium cycle (BOEC) decreases, thereby creating advantageous reactivity control and improving the transmutation performance of minor actinides. Scenario Number 3 is a case study for various levels of recovery factors of transuranic isotopes (TRUs). If long-lived fission products can be separated during pyroprocessing, the waste that is not recovered is classified as low- and intermediate-level waste, and it is sufficient to be disposed of in an underground site due to very low-heat-generation rate when the waste cooling time becomes >300 years at a TRU recovery factor of 99.9%. Scenario Number 4 is a case study for the recovery factor of rare earth (RE) isotopes. The RE isotope recovery factor should be lowered to ${\leq}20%$ in order to make sodium void reactivity less than <7$, which is the design limit of a metal fuel.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
• /
• 제15권3호
• /
• pp.191-197
• /
• 2017

한국원자력연구원은 IAEA에서 권고하고 있는 안전조치기반설계(SBD)에 입각하여 파이로 안전조치 기술을 개발하고 있다. 한국원자력연구원은 파이로 안전조치접근방안 개발을 위한 IAEA 회원국지원프로그램(MSSP)을 수행하였다. IAEA 회원국 지원프로그램을 통하여 기준파이로시설(REPF) 개념을 설계하고, 이 시설에 대한 안전조치시스템을 개발하였다. 최근에 기준파이로시설은 용량이 증대된 REPF+로 업데이트 되고 있다. 핵물질계량관리시스템 성능평가를 위하여 전산코드 PYMUS를 개발하였으며, PYMUS는 전용탐지획률 통계평가 방안을 포함하여 업그레이드하고 있다. 파이로 입력물질 계량을 위한 비파괴분석장비로 ASNC가 개발되고 있으며, 파이로 출력물질인 U/TRU 잉곳을 계량하기위한 비파괴분석장비로 HIPAI가 개발되고 있다. 또한 컴프톤 억제 감마선분광기술, LIBS 기술, 균질화 공정의 샘플링 오차에 대한 평가도 진행 중이다. 이러한 노력들은 국내에서 선진핵주기기술 실현에 크게 기여할 것이다.