• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.393-396
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• 2000

Spent fuel rod cutting device should cut a spent fuel rod to an optimal size in order to fast decladding operation. In this paper, for developing spent fuel rod cutting device with cutter blade, rod properties such as dimension and material of zircaloy tube and fuel pellet are investigated at first and then, various methods of existing cutting devices used commercially are investigated and their performance are analyzed and compared. This device is designed to be operated automatically via remote control system considering later use in Hot-Cell (radioactive area) and the mdularization in the structure of this device makes maintenance easy. SUS and Zircaloy-4 are selected as cut material used in the test of spent fuel rod cutting device by cutter blade. In order for constructing the high durable cutter blade, various materials are analyzed in terms of quality, shape, characteristic, and heat treatment, etc. and from these results, spent fuel rod cutting device is designed and manufactured based on the considerations of durability, round shape sustainability of rod cross-section, debris generation, and fire risk, etc.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.149-158
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• 2011

Metal waste generated from the pyroprocessing of 10 MtU of spent fuel was classified by comparing the specific activity of a relevant radionuclide with the limit value of the specific activity specified in the Korean acceptance criteria for a lowand intermediate-level waste repository. A Korean Optimized Fuel Assembly design with a 17${\times}$17 array, an initial enrichment of 4.5 weight-percent, discharge burn-up of 55 GWD/MtU, and a 10-year cooling time was considered. Initially, the mass and volume of each structural component of the assembly were calculated in detail, and a source term analysis was subsequently performed using ORIGEN-S for these components. An activation cross-section library generated by the KENO-VI/ORIGEN-S module was utilized for top-end and bottom-end pieces. As a result, an Inconel grid plate, a SUS plenum spring, a SUS guide tube subpart, SUS top-end and bottom-end pieces, and an Inconel top-end leaf spring were determined to be unacceptable for the Gyeongju low- and intermediate-level waste repository, as these waste products exceeded the acceptance criteria. In contrast, a Zircaloy grid plate and guide tube can be placed in the Gyeongju repository. Non-contaminated Zircaloy cladding occupying 76% of the metal waste was found to have a lower level of specific activity than the limit value. However, Zircaloy cladding contaminated by fission products and actinides during the decladding process of pyroprocessing was revealed to have 52 and 2 times higher specific activity levels than the limit values for alpha and $^{90}Sr$, respectively. Finally, it was found that 88.7% of the metal waste from the 17${\times}$17 Korean Optimized Fuel Assembly design should be disposed of in a deep geological repository. Therefore, it can be summarized that separation technology with a higher decontamination factor for transuranics and strontium should be developed for the efficient management of metal waste resulting from pyroprocessing.