• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권8호
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• pp.2477-2487
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• 2021

To improve safety analysis technology for a nuclear reactor containment considering an interaction between a reactor coolant system (RCS) and containment, this study aims at an experimental investigation on the integrated simulation of the RCS and containment, with an integral effect test facility, ATLAS-CUBE. For a realistic simulation of a pressure and temperature (P/T) transient, the containment simulation vessel was designed to preserve a volumetric scale equivalently to the RCS volume scale of ATLAS. Three test cases for a steam line break (SLB) transient were conducted with variation of the initial condition of the passive heat sink or the steam flow direction. The test results indicated a stratified behavior of the steam-gas mixture in the containment following a high-temperature steam injection in prior to the spray injection. The test case with a reduced heat transfer on the passive heat sink showed a faster increase of the P/T inside the containment. The effect of the steam flow direction was also investigated with respect to a multi-dimensional distribution of the local heat transfer on the passive heat sink. The integral effect test data obtained in this study will contribute to validating the evaluation methodology for mass and energy (M/E) and P/T transient of the containment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.1140-1153
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• 2016

Since the inception of nuclear power as a commercial energy source, safety has been recognized as a prime consideration in the design, construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The release of radioactivity to the environment requires the failure of multiple safety systems and the breach of three physical barriers: fuel cladding, the reactor cooling system, and containment. In this study, nuclear reactor containment pressurization has been modeled in a large break-loss of coolant accident (LB-LOCA) by programming single-cell and multicell models in MATLAB. First, containment has been considered as a control volume (single-cell model). In addition, spray operation has been added to this model. In the second step, the single-cell model has been developed into a multicell model to consider the effects of the nodalization and spatial location of cells in the containment pressurization in comparison with the single-cell model. In the third step, the accident has been simulated using the CONTAIN 2.0 code. Finally, Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) containment has been considered as a case study. The results of BNPP containment pressurization due to LB-LOCA have been compared between models, final safety analysis report, and CONTAIN code's results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권1호
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• pp.268-273
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• 2016

An innovative safety concept for a light water reactor has been developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. It is a unique concept that adopts both a fast heat transfer mechanism for a small containment and a changing mechanism of the cooling geometry to take advantage of the potential, thermal, and dynamic energies of the cold water in the containment. It can bring about rapid cooling of the containment and long-term cooling of the decay heat. By virtue of this innovative concept, nuclear fuel damage events can be prevented. The ultimate heat transfer mechanism contributes to minimization of the heat exchanger size and containment volume. A small containment can ensure the underground construction, which can use river or seawater as an ultimate heat sink. The changing mechanism of the cooling geometry simplifies several safety systems and unifies diverse functions. Simplicity of the present safety system does not require any operator actions during events or accidents. Therefore, the unique safety concept of PX can realize both economic competitiveness and inherent safety.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제44권3호
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• pp.249-260
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• 2012

Main focus of the combined nuclear research activities at Aachen University (RWTH) and the Research Center J$\ddot{u}$lich (J$\ddot{U}$LICH) is the experimental and analytical investigation of containment phenomena and processes. We are deeply convinced that reliable simulations for operation, design basis and beyond-design basis accidents of nuclear power plants need the application of so-called lumped-parameter (LP) based codes as well as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes in an indispensable manner. The LP code being used at our institutions is the GRS code COCOSYS and the CFD tool is ANSYS CFX mostly used in German nuclear research. Both codes are applied for safety analyses especially of beyond design accidents. Focal point of the work is containment thermal-hydraulics, but source term relevant investigations for aerosol and iodine behavior are performed as well. To increase the capability of COCOSYS and CFX detailed models for specific features, e.g. recombiner behavior including chimney effect, building condenser, and wall condensation are developed and validated against facilities at different scales. The close connection between analytical and experimental activities is notable and identifying feature of the RWTH/J$\ddot{U}$LICH activities.

• 콘크리트학회지
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.155-165
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• 1997

프리스트레스트 콘크리트 구조물인 원자로 격납구조에서 콘크리트의 크리프는 프리스트레스의 가장 큰 시간의존적 손실을 야기하며 격납구조의 설계 시공 및 유지관리시의 안전성 확보에 매우 중요한 재료특성이다. 본 논문은 원자로 격납구조 콘크리트의 크리프 특성에 관한 연구이다. 본 논문에서는 5종 시멘트로 제조된 원자로 격납구조 콘크리트의 크리프트성을 알기 위하여 크리프시험을 수행하였다. 또한 최근 개정된 건교부 제정 콘크리트 표준시방서와 일본 콘크리트 표준 시방서에 의한 크리프 예측식을 포함하여 ACI-209식, CEB/FIB식 및 HANSEN식의 적용성을 평가하기 위하여 예측식들에 의한 크리프 예측결과를 실험결과와 비교하였다. 비교로부터 건교부제정 콘크리트 표준시방서의 크리프 예측식이 다른 비교 대상 크리프 예측식들보다 대상 콘크리트의 크리프치를 비교적 잘 예측함을 알았으며, 1년 이상의 재령에서는 비교대상이 된 모든 예측식들이 크리프 변형을 과소평가함을 알았다. 한편 실험결과의 회귀분석으로부터 재령 1년이후의 재하조건에 의해 발생되는 대상 콘크리트의 크리프를 유효하게 예측할 수 있는 예측식을 제안하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권8호
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• pp.2960-2973
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• 2022

Since Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) accident in 2011, the importance of research on various severe accident phenomena has been emphasized. Particularly, detailed analysis of combustion risk is necessary following the containment damage caused by combustion in the Fukushima accident. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the risk of local hydrogen concentration increases and flame propagation using computational code. In particular, the potential for combustion by local hydrogen concentration in specific areas within the containment has been emphasized. In this study, the process of flame propagation generated inside a reactor core to containment during a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) was analyzed using MELCOR 2.1 code. Later in the LOCA scenario, it was expected that hydrogen combustion occurred inside the reactor core owing to oxygen inflow through the cold leg break area. The main driving force of the oxygen intrusion is the elevated containment pressure due to the molten corium-concrete interaction. The thermal and mechanical loads caused by the flame threaten the integrity of the containment. Additionally, the containment spray system effectiveness in this situation was evaluated because changes in pressure gradient and concentrations of flammable gases greatly affect the overall behavior of ignition and subsequent containment integrity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권6호
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• pp.767-790
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• 2013

MAAP4 is a computer code that can simulate the response of a light water reactor power plant during severe accident sequences, including actions taken as part of accident management. The code quantitatively predicts the evolution of a severe accident starting from full power conditions given a set of system faults and initiating events through events such as core melt, reactor vessel failure, and containment failure. Furthermore, models are included in the code to represent the actions that could mitigate the accident by in-vessel cooling, external cooling of the reactor pressure vessel, or cooling the debris in containment. A key element tied to using a code like MAAP4 is an uncertainty analysis. The purpose of this paper is to present a MAAP4 based analysis to examine the sensitivity of a key parameter, in this case hydrogen production, to a set of model parameters that are related to a Level 2 PRA analysis. The Level 2 analysis examines those sequences that result in core melting and subsequent reactor pressure vessel failure and its impact on the containment. This paper identifies individual contributors and MAAP4 model parameters that statistically influence hydrogen production. Hydrogen generation was chosen because of its direct relationship to oxidation. With greater oxidation, more heat is added to the core region and relocation (core slump) should occur faster. This, in theory, would lead to shorter failure times and subsequent "hotter" debris pool on the containment floor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.434-441
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• 2017

Containment venting is one of several essential measures to protect the integrity of the final barrier of a nuclear reactor during severe accidents, by which the uncontrollable release of fission products can be avoided. The authors seek to develop an optimization approach to venting operations, from a simulation-based perspective, using an integrated severe accident code, THALES2/KICHE. The effectiveness of the containment-venting strategies needs to be verified via numerical simulations based on various settings of the venting conditions. The number of iterations, however, needs to be controlled to avoid cumbersome computational burden of integrated codes. Bayesian optimization is an efficient global optimization approach. By using a Gaussian process regression, a surrogate model of the "black-box" code is constructed. It can be updated simultaneously whenever new simulation results are acquired. With predictions via the surrogate model, upcoming locations of the most probable optimum can be revealed. The sampling procedure is adaptive. Compared with the case of pure random searches, the number of code queries is largely reduced for the optimum finding. One typical severe accident scenario of a boiling water reactor is chosen as an example. The research demonstrates the applicability of the Bayesian optimization approach to the design and establishment of containment-venting strategies during severe accidents.

• 한국건축시공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국건축시공학회 2012년도 추계 학술논문 발표대회
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• pp.167-168
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• 2012

Analysis on structural effects which are reduction of friction coefficient and increase of tendon area by HDPE greased and large size strand in post-tensioning system of reactor containment building was carried out. Effective ratio of tendon force increases 67% to 83% by HDPE greased strand and vertical, horizontal internal section forces increased maximum 51%, 41% respectively. Tendon quantity could be reduced 30% by large size and HDPE greased strand that can maintain safety of ultimate internal pressure same as at present.

• 한국건축시공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국건축시공학회 2012년도 추계 학술논문 발표대회
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• pp.165-166
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• 2012

A thermal stresses by heat of hydration was analyzed according to a change of a pour height in reactor containment building. In case of more than 3.6m pouring height a crack index by heat of hydration analysis resulted in less than 1 because there is not a construction joint of vertical direction and for a self-restraint effect of circumferential section shape. Therefore detailed consideration on a mixture proportion of binder type, quantity in concrete and selection of a form in seasonal air temperature is needed for a control of tensile stress by heat of hydration.