• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.1721-1728
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• 2019

The advanced node core code CORCA-3D is one of the independent developed codes of NPIC for the nuclear reactor core design. CORCA-3D code can calculate the few-group cross section, solve the 3D diffusion equations, consider the thermal-hydraulic feedback, reconstruct the pin-by-pin power. It has lots of functions such as changing core status calculation, critical searching, control rod value calculation, coefficient calculation and so on. The main theory and functions of CORCA-3D code are introduced and validated with a lot of reactor measured data and the SCIENCE system. Now, CORCA-3D code has been applied in ACP type reactor nuclear cores design.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.157-163
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• 2018

This paper describes design improvement to a research rector for safety enhancement using Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). This PSA under reactor design was undertaken to assess the level of safety for the design of a research reactor and to evaluate whether it is probabilistically safe to operate and reliable to use. The scope of the PSA reported here is a Level 1 PSA, which addresses the risks associated with the core damage. The technical objectives of this study were to identify accident sequences leading to core damage and to derive design improvement from the dominant accident sequences through the sensitivity analysis. The AIMS-PSA and FTREX were used for the this PSA of the research reactor. The criterion for inclusion was all sequences with a point estimate frequency greater than a truncation value of 1.0E-14/yr. The final result indicates a point estimate of 6.79E-05/yr for the overall Core Damage Frequency (CDF) attributable to internal initiating events for the research reactor under design. Based on the dominant accident sequences from the PSA, the seven kinds of sensitivity analysis were performed and some design improvement items were derived. When the five methods to improve the safety were all applied to the reactor design and emergency operating procedure, its risk was reduced to about 1.21E-06/yr from 6.79E-05/yr. The contribution of LOCA and LOEP with high CDF were significantly reduced by the sensitivity analysis. The safety of the research reactor was well improved and the risk was reduced than before adapting the design improvement gotten from the sensitivity analysis. The present study indicated that the research reactor has the well-balanced safety in regard to each initiating event contribution to CDF. The PSA methodology is very effective to improve reactor safety in a conceptual design phase and especially, Risk-informed design(RID) is very nice way to find the deficiencies of research reactor under design and to improve the reactor safety by solving them.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2007

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed an advanced fast reactor concept, KALIMER-600, which satisfies the Generation IV reactor design goals of sustainability, economics, safety, and proliferation resistance. The concept enables an efficient utilization of uranium resources and a reduction of the radioactive waste. The core design has been developed with a strong emphasis on proliferation resistance by adopting a single enrichment fuel without blanket assemblies. In addition, a passive residual heat removal system, shortened intermediate heat-transport system piping and seismic isolation have been realized in the reactor system design as enhancements to its safety and economics. The inherent safety characteristics of the KALIMER-600 design have been confirmed by a safety analysis of its bounding events. Research on important thermal-hydraulic phenomena and sensing technologies were performed to support the design study. The integrity of the reactor head against creep fatigue was confirmed using a CFD method, and a model for density-wave instability in a helical-coiled steam generator was developed. Gas entrainment on an agitating pool surface was investigated and an experimental correlation on a critical entrainment condition was obtained. An experimental study on sodium-water reactions was also performed to validate the developed SELPSTA code, which predicts the data accurately. An acoustic leak detection method utilizing a neural network and signal processing units were developed and applied successfully for the detection of a signal up to a noise level of -20 dB. Waveguide sensor visualization technology is being developed to inspect the reactor internals and fuel subassemblies. These research and developmental efforts contribute significantly to enhance the safety, economics, and efficiency of the KALIMER-600 design concept.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2094-2106
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• 2022

The solid-state core of a heat pipe cooled reactor operates at high temperatures over 1000 K with thermal and irradiation-induced expansion during burnup. The expansion changes the gap thickness between the solid components and the material properties, and may even cause the gap closure, which then significantly influences the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the reactor core. This study developed an irradiation behavior model for HPRTRAN, a heat pipe reactor system analysis code, to introduce the irradiation effects such as swelling and creep. The megawatt heat pipe reactor MegaPower was chosen as an application case. The coupled irradiation-thermal-mechanical model was developed to simulate the irradiation effects on the heat transfer and stresses of the whole reactor core. The results show that the irradiation deformation effect is significant, with the irradiation-induced strains up to 2.82% for fuel and 0.30% for monolith at the end of the reactor lifetime. The peak temperatures during the lifetime are 1027:3 K for the fuel and 956:2 K for monolith. The gap closure enhances the heat transfer but caused high stresses exceeding the yield strength in the monolith.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.12S
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• pp.1292-1298
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• 2003

In this paper, dc reactor lot the inductive high-Tc superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) was optimally designed by finite element method(FEM). The Prototype high-Tc do reactor was manufactured and compared to the results of design. This dc reactor consists of 4∼stacked double pancake coils which are wounded with Bi-2223 wire coated with SUS315L. Kapton tape is used for the insulation of turn to turn and layer to layer. Each pancake is connected in series by soldering Finally, optimal design and manufacture method lot the dc reactor is suggested in this paper. Through the comparison of result of optimal design and experimental result of prototype high-Tc superconducting dc reactor, reliance on the design of the high-Tc dc reactor tot the 1.2 kV/80 A SFCL is proved.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.566-594
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• 2000

In most LMFBR(Liquid Metal Fast Breed Reactor) design, the operating temperature is very high and the time-dependent creep and stress-rupture effects become so important in reactor structural design. Therefore, unlike with conventional PWR, the normal operating conditions can be basically dominant design loading because the hold time at elevated temperature condition is so long and enough to result in severe total creep ratcheting strains during total service lifetime. In this paper, elevated temperature design of the conceptually designed baffle annulus regions of KALIMER(Korea Advanced Liquid MEtal Reactor) reactor internal strictures is carried out for normal operating conditions which have the operating temperature 53$0^{\circ}C$ and the total service lifetime of 30 years. For the elevated temperature design of reactor internal structures, the ASME Code Case N-201-4 is used. Using this code, the time-dependent stress limits, the accumulated total inelastic strain during service lifetime, and the creep-fatigue damages are evaluated with the calculation results by the elastic analysis under conservative assumptions. The application procedures of elevated temperature design of the reactor internal structures using ASME Code Case N-201-4 with the elastic analysis method are described step by step in detail. This paper will be useful guide for actual application of elevated temperature design of various reactor types accounting for creep and stress-rupture effects.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 2016

The operating temperature of VHTR components is much higher than that of conventional PWR due to high core outlet temperature of VHTR. Material requirements and technical issues of VHTR reactor components which are mainly dominated by high temperature service condition were discussed. The codification effort for high temperature material and design methodology are explained. The design class for VHTR components are classified as class A or B according to the recent ASME high temperature reactor design code. A separation of thermal boundary and pressure boundary is used for VHTR components as an elevated design solution. Key design characteristics for reactor pressure vessel, control rod, reactor internals, graphite reflector, circulator and intermediate heat exchanger were analysed. Thermo-mechanical analysis of the process heat exchanger, which was manufactured for test, is presented as an analysis example.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.551-560
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• 2006

In this study, a controller for a nuclear reactor power is designed. The reactor is modeled using the three dimensional reactor design code MASTER. From the relationship of the input and output of the reactor code, a reactor dynamic model is derived by the system identification method. This model is more realistic than the one based on mathematical theories. With this model, a robust controller is designed by the extended frequency response method. As this method has the same theoretical background as the classical method, all of the existing design techniques of the classical method can be used directly. Furthermore, by introducing the real part of a Laplacian operator into the frequency response, the control design specification can be considered at the initial stage of design. The designed controller is simple, and gives a sufficient robustness with good performance.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.65-70
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• 1999

In this paper, the cost-effective design of output reactor which is used to suppress the over-voltage at the motor terminal in the Adjustable Speed Drives(ASD) application is proposed. In the elevator drive system, the power cable length is relatively shorter than other ASD applications and then the over-voltage at the motor terminal depends on the frequency characteristics of the output reactor at the over-voltage operating frequency. The over-voltage suppression mechanism of output reactor in ASD application is analyzed and the dominant parameters of output reactor for the over-voltage suppression are extracted. Using these parameters as the design values and considering the high frequency characteristics of iron core in the reactor, a new cost-effective structure of output reactor is proposed. Experimental results of the conventional reactor and the proposed reactor with a 15kW induction motor are given to verify the proposed scheme.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.582-582
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• 2012

Characteristics of a fusion-driven transmutation reactor was investigated. A compact reactor concept is desirable from an economic viewpoint. For the optimal design of a reactor, a radial build of reactor components has to be determined by considering the plasma physics and engineering constraints which inter-relate various reactor components. In a transmutation reactor, design of blanket and shield play a key role in determining the size of a reactor; the blanket should produce enough tritium for tritium self-sufficiency, the transmutation rate of waste has to be maximized, and the shield should provide sufficient protection for the superconducting toroidal field (TF) coil. To determine the radial build of the blanket and the shield, not only a radiation transport analysis but also a burnup calculation were coupled with the system analysis and it allowed the self-consistent determination of the design parameters of a transmutation reactor.