• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.357-373
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• 2022

The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor pebble-bed module project is the first commercial Generation-IV NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) in China. A new joint is used for the vertical support of RPV(Reactor Pressure Vessel). The steel corbel is integrally embedded into the reactor-cabin wall through eight asymmetrically arranged pre-stressed high-strength bolts, achieving the different path transmission of shear force and moment. The vertical monotonic loading test of two specimens is conducted. The results show that the failure mode of the joint is bolt fracture. There is no prominent yield stage in the whole loading process. The stress of bolts is linearly distributed along the height of corbel at initial loading. As the load increases, the height of neutral axis of bolts gradually decreases. The upper and lower edges of the wall opening contact the corbel plate to restrict the rotation of the corbel. During the loading, the pre-stress of some bolts decreases. The increase of the pre-stress strength ratio of bolts has no noticeable effect on the structure stiffness, but it reduces the ultimate bearing capacity of the joint. A simplified calculation model for the elastic stage of the joint is established, and the estimation results are in good agreement with the experimental results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.1020-1028
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• 2021

The nuclear reactor coolant pump transferring heat energy inherently brings with it the unsteady flow and inevitably threatens to the safe operation of the pump unit, especially with the pressure pulsation induced by the rotor-stator interaction. In this paper, the characteristics of pressure pulsation of the diffuser in a nuclear reactor coolant pump were investigated by the numerical simulation with experimental validation. Pressure pulsation signals measured synchronously from sensors mounted on the radial diffuser of a model pump were analyzed via Welch's method. Frequency components induced by the rotor-stator interaction can be revealed by the diameter mode analysis method. The pressure pulsation of the diffuser is dominated by the blade passing frequency and its harmonics, which are free from the effect of flow rate and rotational speed while the corresponding amplitudes are easily affected by different operational conditions and measuring positions. The non-uniformity is much more affected by the rotational speed than the flow rate. This research is helpful for further work to reduce the pressure pulsation for the reactor coolant pump.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.357-364
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• 2022

The safety of a KTC-360 transport cask, a large-capacity pressurized heavy-water reactor transport cask that transports CANDU spent nuclear fuel discharged from the reactor after burning in a pressurized heavy-water reactor, must be demonstrated under the normal transport and accident conditions specified under transport cask regulations. To confirm the thermal integrity of this cask under normal transport and accident conditions, high-temperature and fire tests were performed using a one-third slice model of an actual KTC-360 cask. The results revealed that the surface temperature of the cask was 62℃, indicating that such casks must be transported separately. The highest temperature of the CANDU spent nuclear fuel was predicted to be lower than the melting temperature of Zircaloy-4, which was the sheath material used. Therefore, if normal operating conditions are applied, the thermal integrity of a KTC-360 cask can be maintained under normal transport conditions. The fire test revealed that the maximum temperatures of the structural materials, stainless steel, and carbon steel were 446℃ lower than the permitted maximum temperatures, proving the thermal integrity of the cask under fire accident conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2088-2095
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• 2023

The safety of nuclear installations is largely determined by the tightness of fuel elements cladding. As the Fukushima nuclear accident showed, the main task in case of loss of power supply is to ensure reliable removal of residual heat release from spent fuel pool (SFP) with irradiated fuel assemblies (IFAs). The paper presents the results of calculated-experimental studies and thermal-hydraulic modeling of temperature storage modes of IFAs in SFP. Experimental studies of SFP's temperature regime and calculated evaluation of residual heat removal due to the thermal conductivity of building structures surrounding the SFP were performed. To ensure the safe operation of research reactors, it's necessary to know the IFA's residual heat power (RHP) in the reactor and SFP, which is determined depending on the operating time of fuel assemblies (FAs) and the IFAs calculated holding time. The FAs operating time depends on the reactor energy output. The IFAs calculated holding time is determined by the fuel burnup, U-235 mass in the fuel, and reactor utilization factor. The IFAs fuel burnup was calculated using the MCU-PTR program. Also presented are the RHP's calculation results using some of the empirical dependencies. The concept of a passive heat removal system (PHRS) based on thermosyphon's operating principle was proposed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2047-2052
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• 2023

Risk-informed approach has been widely applied in the safety design, regulation, and operation of nuclear reactors. It has been commonly accepted that risk-informed design optimization should be used in the innovative reactor designs to make nuclear system highly safe and reliable. In spite of the risk-informed approach has been used in some advanced nuclear reactors designs, such as Westinghouse IRIS, Gen-IV sodium fast reactors and lead-based fast reactors, the process of risk-informed design of nuclear reactors is hardly to carry out when passive system reliability should be integrated in the framework. A practical method for new passive safety reactors based on probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) and passive system reliability analyze linking is proposed in this paper. New three-dimension frequency-consequence curve based on risk concept with three variables is used in this method. The proposed method has been applied to the determination optimization of design options selection in a 10 MWth lead-based research reactor(LR) to obtain one optimized system design in conceptual design stage, using the integrated reliability and probabilistic safety assessment program RiskA, and the computation resources and time consumption in this process was demonstrated reasonable and acceptable.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.433-436
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• 2016

In the area of environmental chemistry of power plant, flow analysis of the reactor with built-in impeller is a very important part from the perspective of the improvement of the efficiency of the entire process. As a wide range of methods are being proposed for the analysis of the flow pattern within the reactor, this study analyzed the flow within the reactor according to the baffle structure (height) installed on the internal wall of the reactor in order to improve the reaction efficiency through the inducing of the up and down stirring with the reactor. As the results of the execution of the flow analysis for each of a diverse range of cases by utilizing the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method, it was possible to confirm that the flow is markdely improved by inducing the up and down stirring among the reactants within the reactor if the baffle is elevated to the level below the water surface. In particular, as the results of the analysis of the general cases in which the baffle is elevated all 4 steps and the cases in which the baffle is elevated only 2 steps, elevating the baffle only 2 steps achieve the same effect as the elevating of the baffle by 4 steps. Therefore, it was possible to expect to improve the efficiency with out the need to increase the use of electric power substantially if the outcomes of this study is applied to the actual sites of power plants in the future.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.11
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• pp.1848-1853
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• 2016

Control Rod Position Indicator in nuclear reactor vessel has developed for small reactor in Korea. Because of severe environment in reactor vessel, target of this study is to develop the suitable position indicator. In this study, solenoid type position indicator made of Mineral Insulated Cable(MI Cable) was introduced to adapt in severe environment. And inductance of the solenoid was used to indicate the rod position for high precision. But problem of this concept is that a linear slope of inductance is changed by temperature effect. To resolve this problem, two sensing coils were introduced for temperature compensation. A role of the sensing coil is to make reference linear equation about certain temperature. To confirm this concept, also, inductance of solenoid and sensing coils were measured at room and high temperature (${\sim}300^{\circ}C$). The results of measurement show that the position error of sensing coil between room and high temperature was about 2%. But it was identified that this error was resulted from insufficient test environment (temperature error between solenoid and sensing coils was about 2% at high temperature condition). Therefore, solenoid type position indicator shows that it is very suitable in reactor vessel as a high precision rod position indicator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Resources Recycling Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.83-96
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• 2005

PVC is the thermoplastic offering excellent material properties. PVC is used in wide variety of applications, however, it causes environmental problems when it is discarded because of its high chlorine content. Since dechlorination reaction of PVC is taking place relatively low temperature compared to the pyrolysis temperature of plastics, study on the dechlorination reaction has been carried out as a pre-treatment process. Twin screw reactor which shows excellent mixing capabilities is employed. Experimental variables are first and second reactor temperature, PVC content in mixed plastics, viscosity of mixed plastics, feeding rate, rotational speed of the second reactor. Over 90% of dechlorination rate can be obtained under proper operation conditions. Chlorine gas evolved from reactor is absorbed in water and can be recovered as a hydrochloric acid. Analysis had been done on chlorine flows by taking material balance over reactor.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.325-335
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• 2017

This study was carried out for 30 days in aeration type and agitation type reactor to characterize organic matter decomposition and ammonia volatilization during the liquid composting of pig slurry, and organic matter and nitrogen removal rate through mass balance analysis was analyzed. In the aeration type reactor, the pH increased from 7.0 to 9.13, and TS 34.5%, VS 33.4%, $BOD_5$ 71.2%, $COD_{Cr}$ 62.3% and TOC 83.2% were removed. In addition, 44.6% of TN and 65.0% of ${NH_4}^+-N$ were removed. In the agitation type reactor, the pH increased from 7.0 to 8.10, and the removal rates of TS 0.9%, VS 0.5%, $COD_{Cr}$ 27.5%, $BOD_5$ 28.9% and TOC 41.3% were obtained. And TN and ${NH_4}^+-N$ showed removal rate of 25.3% and 29.2%, respectively. The first order kinetics constant related to $BOD_5$ degradation was $-0.039day^{-1}$ for aerobic liquid composting and $-0.013day^{-1}$ for agitated reactor. Nitrogen loss in aerobic liquid composting was about 2.3 times higher than that of agitated reactor, whereas FAN/TAN in aerobic liquid composting was about 7.9 times higher than that of agitation type reactor. Therefore, despite the low FAN/TAN in the agitation type reactor, the nitrogen loss rate was relatively high.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.629-637
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• 2000

A two-phase anaerobic reactor with a submerged microfiltration system was tested for its ability to produce methane energy from organic wastewater. A membrane separation system with periodic backwashing with compressed air was submerged in the acidogenic reactor. The cartridge type of microfiltration (MF) membrane with pore size of $0.5{\mu}m$ (mixed esters of cellulose) was tested. An AUBF (Anaerobic Upflow Sludge Bed Filter: 1/2 packed with plastic media) was used for the methanogenic reactor. Soluble starch was used as a substrate. The COD removal was investigated for various organic loading with synthetic wastewater of 5,000 mg starch/L. When the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the acidogenic reactor was changed from 10 to 4.5 days, the organic loading rate (OLR) varied from 0.5 to $1.0kg\;COD/m^3-day$. When the HRT of the methanogenic reactor was changed from 2.8 to 0.5 days, the OLR varied from 0.8 to $5.8kg\;COD/m^3-day$. The acid conversion rate of the acidogenic reactor was over 80% in the 4~5 days of HRT. The overall COD removal efficiency of the methanogenic reactor showed over 95% (effluent COD was below 300 mg/L) under the highly fluctuating organic loading condition. A two-phase anaerobic reactor showed an excellent acid conversion rate from organic wastewater due to the higher biomass concentration than the conventional system. A methanogenic reactor combined with sludge bed and filter, showed an efficient COD and SS removal.