• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1109-1119
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• 2016

Although, the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel in CANda Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) cycle is still under investigation, DUPIC cycle is a promising method for uranium utilization improvement, for reduction of high level nuclear waste, and for high degree of proliferation resistance. This paper focuses on the effect of DUPIC cycle on CANDU reactor safety parameters. MCNP6 was used for lattice cell simulation of a typical 3,411 MWth PWR fueled by $UO_2$ enriched to 4.5w/o U-235 to calculate the spent fuel inventories after a burnup of 51.7 MWd/kgU. The code was also used to simulate the lattice cell of CANDU-6 reactor fueled with spent fuel after its fabrication into the standard 37-element fuel bundle. It is assumed a 5-year cooling time between the spent fuel discharges from the PWR to the loading into the CANDU-6. The simulation was carried out to calculate the burnup and the effect of DUPIC fuel on: (1) the power distribution amongst the fuel elements of the bundle; (2) the coolant void reactivity; and (3) the reactor point-kinetics parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.218-227
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• 2016

Background: Steam explosions may occur in nuclear power plants by molten fuel-coolant interactions when the external reactor vessel cooling strategy fails. Since this phenomenon can threaten structural barriers as well as major components, extensive integrity assessment research is necessary to ensure their safety. Method: In this study, the influence of yield criteria was investigated to predict the failure of a reactor cavity under a typical postulated condition through detailed parametric finite element analyses. Further analyses using a geometrically simplified equivalent model with homogeneous concrete properties were also performed to examine its effectiveness as an alternative to the detailed reinforcement concrete model. Results: By comparing finite element analysis results such as cracking, crushing, stresses, and displacements, the Willam-Warnke model was derived for practical use, and failure criteria applicable to the reactor cavity under the severe accident condition were discussed. Conclusion: It was proved that the reactor cavity sustained its intended function as a barrier to avoid release of radioactive materials, irrespective of the different yield criteria that were adopted. In addition, from a conservative viewpoint, it seems possible to employ the simplified equivalent model to determine the damage extent and weakest points during the preliminary evaluation stage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.639-647
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• 2018

In this study, the effects of selecting water/silver nanofluid as both a coolant and a reactivity controller during the first operating cycle of a light water nuclear reactor are investigated. To achieve this, coupled neutronic-thermo-hydraulic analysis is employed to simulate the reactor core. A detailed VVER1000/446 reactor core is modeled in monte carlo code (MCNP), and the model is verified using the porous media approach. Results show that the maximum required level of silver nanoparticles is 1.3 Vol.% at the beginning of the cycle; this value drops to zero at the end of cycle. Due to substitution of water/boric acid with water/Ag nanofluid, reactor operation time at maximum power extends to 357.3 days, and the energy generation increases by about 27.3%. The higher negative coolant temperature coefficient of reactivity in the presence of nanofluid in comparison with the water/boric acid indicates that the reactor is inherently safer. Considering the safety margins in the presence of the nanofluid, minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio is calculated to be 2.16 (recommendation is 1.75).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4560-4570
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• 2022

Dynamic fault tree (DFT) and its related research methods have received extensive attention in safety analysis and reliability engineering. DFT can perform reliability modelling for systems with sequential correlation, resource sharing, and cold and hot spare parts. A technical modelling method of DFT is proposed for modelling ship collision accidents and loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs). Qualitative and quantitative analyses of DFT were carried out using the cutting sequence (CS)/extended cutting sequence (ECS) method. The results show nine types of dynamic fault failure modes in ship collision accidents, describing the fault propagation process of a dynamic system and reflect the dynamic changes of the entire accident system. The probability of a ship collision accident is 2.378 × 10^-9 by using CS. This failure mode cannot be expressed by a combination of basic events within the same event frame after an LOCA occurs in a marine nuclear reactor because the system contains warm spare parts. Therefore, the probability of losing reactor control was calculated as 8.125 × 10^-6 using the ECS. Compared with CS, ECS is more efficient considering expression and processing capabilities, and has a significant advantage considering cost.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1022-1028
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• 2024

A neutronics study of a supercritical CO₂-cooled fast reactor core for nuclear propulsion has been performed in this work. The thermal power of the reactor core is 30 MWth and a ceramic UO₂ fuel can be used to achieve a 20-year lifetime without refueling. In order to make a compact core with inherent safety features, the drum-type reactivity control system and folding-type shutdown system are adopted. In addition, we suggest a cold shutdown system using gadolinium as a spectral shift absorber (SSA) against flooding. Although there is a penalty of U-235 enrichment for the core embedded with the cold shutdown system, it effectively mitigates the increment of reactivity at the flooding of seawater. In this study, the neutronics analyses have been performed by using the continuous energy Monte Carlo Serpent 2 code with the evaluated nuclear data file ENDF/B-VII.1 Library. The supercritical CO₂-cooled fast reactor core is characterized in view of important safety parameters such as the reactivity worth of reactivity control systems, fuel temperature coefficient (FTC), coolant temperature coefficient (CTC), and coolant temperature-density coefficient (CTDC). We can say that the suggested core has inherent safety features and enough flexibility for load-following operation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2438-2446
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• 2023

To cool down a nuclear reactor core and prevent the fuel damage without a pump-driven active component during any anticipated accident, the passive emergency core cooling system (PECCS) was designed and adopted in an advanced light water reactor, i-POWER. In this study, for a validation of the cooling capability of PECCS, thermal-hydraulic integral effect tests were performed with the ATLAS facility by simulating intermediate and small break loss-of-coolant accidents (IBLOCA and SBLOCA). The test result showed that PECCS could effectively depressurize the reactor coolant system by supplying the safety injection water from the safety injection tanks (SITs). The result pointed out that the safety injection from IRWST should have been activated earlier to inhibit the excessive core heat-up. The sequence of the PECCS injection and the major thermal hydraulic transient during the SBLOCA transient was similar to the result of the IBLOCA test with the equivalent PECCS condition. The test data can be used to evaluate the capability of thermal hydraulic safety analysis codes in predicting IBLOCA and SBLOCA transients under an operation of passive safety system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.12 s.177
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• pp.131-140
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• 2005

Responses of the cabinet of the reactor safety system under seismic leadings are analyzed, its dynamic characteristics and structural reliability being evaluated. Analyzed natural frequencies are compared with those measured from a resonance test. Structural safety of the cabinet is evaluated in consideration of the required response spectrums of the operation-base and safe-shutdown earthquakes. Transient responses of the cabinet are analyzed with input ground acceleration measured during the seismic test, accelerations being extracted at the locations of the main internal parts. The transient responses are compared with those from the seismic test, favorable results being shown.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.115-120
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• 2020

From 2009 when the CNS facility was installed, the number of reactor failures due to abnormal CNS facility system has increased significantly. Of the total of 19 nuclear reactor shutdowns over the six years from 2009 to 2019, there were 10 nuclear reactor shutdowns associated with the CNS facility, which are very numerous. Therefore, this report intends to analyze the history of nuclear reactor shutdowns due to CNS facility system failure in detail, and to present the root cause and solution to problems. As a result of FMEA implementation of CNS facility system, a total of 76 SPVs were selected. In addition, 10 cases of reactor shutdown history due to CNS facility system abnormalities were analyzed in detailed, and improvement plans for solving the root cause and problem were suggested for each trip history. The results of this study are expected to be able to operate the domestic research reactor and CNS facilities more stably by providing effective measures to prevent recurrence of CNS facilities and reactor trips.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.32-38
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• 2020

Based on the cases of fire and explosion accident in the chemical reactor, thr problems of preventive measures installed in the chemical reactor were analyzed. The chemical reactors produce a variety of chemicals and install rupture disk to relieve the pressure that rises sharply in the event of a runaway reaction. In order to maintain the function of the rupture disk, the emissions was allowed to be discharged into the atmosphere, resulting in fire and explosion accidents. As a way to improve this, safety instrumented system based on the safety integrity level(SIL3) was applied as a preventive measures for chemical reactor. Two emergency shur-off valves are installed in series on pipe dropping raw materials for chemical reactor so that the supply of raw materials can be cut off even if only one of the two emergency shut-off valves is operated during the runaway reaction. The automatic on/off valve is installed in parallel in the supply pipe of the reaction inhibitor so that the reaction inhibitor can be injected even if only one valve is opened at the time of the runaway reaction.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.1630-1631
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• 2007

This paper deals with the design of control cabinet based on safety PLC for reactor power control system(PCS). The PCS controls the operation of the CEDMs(Control Element Drive Mechanisms). The CEDM moves the CEAs(Control Element Assemblies) which regulates the reactor power, vertically in the reactor core. The Control Cabinet in PCS makes and conveys control signals to the power cabinet which provides power to the CEDM. We designed the Control Cabinet, based on POSAFE-Q, safety PLC. The application programs working in PLC can be programmed by pSET, Identified Development Environment.