• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.576-582
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• 1996

The integrity of reactor vessel support system of the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNPP) is investigated for a postulated reactor vessel closure head drop event. The closure head is disassembled from the reactor vessel during refueling process or general inspection of reactor vessel and internal structures, and carried to proposed location by the head lift rig. A postulated closure head drop event could be anticipated during closure head handling process. The drop event may cause an impact load on the reactor vessel and supporting system. The integrity of the supporting system is directly relevant to that of reactor vessel and reactor internals including fuels. Results derived by elastic impact analysis, linear and non-linear buckling analysis and elasto-plastic stress analysis of the supporting system implied that the integrity of the reactor vessel supporting system is intact for a postulated reactor vessel closure head drop event.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1358-1363
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• 2003

Due to the application of Integrated Head Assembly (IHA) in KSNP+ reactor design, an investigation of reactor internals integrity is carried out to assure that the adoption of IHA does not affect the safety of reactor operation. One of the postulated accident events is the R.V. closure head fall from 5.5m high directly above the reactor vessel that may occur during the refueling operation. The analysis model consists of lumped mass elements of the entire reactor vessel and internals. Because of extreme load, separate elastic-plastic analyses are done for the members that undergo plastic deformation. The analysis verified that the stresses of the reactor internals and the fuel assemblies are within the bound of allowable stress limits and the integrity of the fuel assemblies is maintained.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2023

During the operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP), the waste reactor vessel closure head (RVCH) that is replaced owing to design or manufacturing defects is buried in a designated area or temporarily stored in a radiation shielding facility within the NPP. In such cases, storing it for extended periods proves a challenge owing to space constraints in the power plant and a safety risk associated with radiation exposure; therefore, dismantling it quickly and safely is crucial. However, not much research has been done on the dismantling of the RVCH in an operational power plant. This study proposes a dismantling process based on the radioactive contamination level measured for the Kori #1 RVCH, which is currently being discarded and stored, and examines the decontamination and cutting according to this process. In addition, the amount of secondary waste and dismantling cost are evaluated, and the dismantling effect of the reactor closure head is analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.440-446
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• 2006

The reactor vessel body and closure head are fastened with the stud bolt that is one of crucial parts for safety of the reactor vessels in nuclear power plants. It is reported that the stud bolt is often experienced by fatigue cracks initiated at threads. Stud bolts are inspected by the ultrasonic technique during the overhaul periodically for the prevention of failure which leads to radioactive leakage from the nuclear reactor. The conventional ultrasonic inspection for stud bolts was mainly conducted by reflected echo method based on shadow effect. However, in this technique, there were numerous spurious signals reflected from every oblique surfaces of the thread. In this study, ultrasonic phased array technique was applied to investigate detectability of flaws in stud bolts and characteristics of ultrasonic images corresponding to different scanning methods, that is, sector and linear scan. For this purpose, simplified stud bolt specimens with artificial defects of various depths were prepared.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.166-171
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• 1997

LPMS(Loose Part Monitoring System)는 원자로 및 냉각재계통내에서 발생하는 금속파편의 검출 및 분석을 위하여 사용되는 진단 장비이다. 본 논문에서는 RPV(Reactor Pressure Vessel)의 상부헤드(closure head)와 하부헤드(lower head)에서의 금속파편의 충격위치를 평가하는 LPMS를 위한 새로운 기법을 제안하고, Mock-up에서의 실험을 통하여 그 효용성을 검증하였다. 즉, 수정된 원교차법을 제안하고, 이를 반구로 모델링된 RPV의 상ㆍ하부헤드에 존재하는 금속파편의 위치평가에 적용하므로써 정확한 충격위치를 찾을 수 있음을 보였다. 이들 결과는 충격물질의 질량이나 에너지를 계산하는데 정확한 정보를 제공해 줄 수가 있다.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.225-232
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• 2015

The control element drive mechanism (CEDM) is an electro-mechanical device to control reactivity of the nuclear reactor. The conventional CEDM was installed on a nozzle of the reactor vessel closure head as an ex-vessel type. However, there have been demands for an in-vessel CEDM to fundamentally eliminate the rod ejection accident. Conceptual design of the in-vessel CEDM, which was developed based on the existing technology of the ex-vessel CEDM, is introduced in this paper.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.383-387
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• 2004

The Fuel Test Loop (FTL) consists of In-Pile Test Section (IPS) and Out-of-Pile System (OPS). The test condition in IPS such as pressure, temperature and quality of the main cooling water, can be controlled by the OPS. The FTL has been developed to be able to irradiate three pins to the core irradiation hole (IR1 hole) by considering for its utility and user's irradiation requirement. The IPS vessel assembly (IVA) consists of IPS head, outer pressure vessel, inner pressure vessel, inner assembly and test fuel carrier. The IVA is approximately 5.6 m long and fits within a 74 mm in diameter envelope over the full height of the chimney. Above the top of the chimney, the head of the IPS is enlarged to allow the closure flanges and pipe work connections. IVA was designed to test the CANDU and PWR nuclear fuel pin together. Specially, wished to minimize interference by nuclear fuel change in design and synthesize these items and shape design for IVA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.963-964
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.439-445
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• 2005

The stud bolt is one of crucial parts for safe operation of reactor vessels in nuclear power plants, Crack initiation and propagation were reported in stud bolts that arc used for closure of reactor vessel and head, Stud bolts are inspected by ultrasonic technique during overhaul periodically for the prevention of stud bolt failure which could induce radioactive leakage from nuclear reactor, In conventional ultrasonic testing for inspection of stud bolts, cracks are detected by using shadow effect It takes too much time to inspect stud bolts by using conventional ultrasonic technique. In addition, there were numerous spurious signals reflected from every oblique surfaces of thread, In this study, the signal processing technique for enhancing conventional ultrasonic technique was introduced for inspecting stud bolts. The signal processing technique provides removing spurious signal reflected from every oblique surfaces of thread and enhances detectability of defects. Detectability for small crack was enhanced by using this signal processing in ultrasonic inspection of stud bolts in Nuclear Power Plants.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2016

The development of Top-Mounted In-Core Instrumentation(TM-ICI) is an ongoing project to reduce the risk due to severe accidents by inserting the instrumentation into a reactor closure head instead of a reactor bottom head. As part of this project, environmental fatigue analyses for TM-ICI nozzle have been performed using two methods of NUREG/CR-6909 and Code Case N-761. TM-ICI nozzle is subjected to transient loads for level A, level B and test conditions that should be evaluated for a fatigue analysis. It is found that a cumulative usage factor considering reactor coolant environment for TM-ICI nozzle is evaluated as less than 1, which is ASME Code allowable criteria of a fatigue analysis.