• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2874-2879
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• 2020

Due to excess reactivity, fresh nuclear fuel often contains burnable poisons. This research looks at six different burnable poisons and their impacts on reactivity, material attractiveness, and waste management. An MCNP simulation of a PWR fuel pin was performed with a fuel burnup of 60 GWd/MTHM to determine when each burnable poison fuel type would decrease below a k_∞ of 1. For determining the plutonium material attractiveness in each burnable poison fuel type, the plutonium isotopic content of the used fuel was evaluated using Bathke's Figure of Merit formula. For the waste management analysis, the thermal output of each burnable poison fuel type was determined through ORIGEN decay simulations at 100 and 300 years after being discharged from the core. The performance of all six burnable poisons varied over the three criteria considered and no single burnable poison performed best in all three considerations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1769-1785
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• 2021

The Integral Pressurized Water Reactors (IPWRs) as the innovative advanced and generation-III + reactors are under study and developments in a lot of countries. This paper is aimed at the thermal hydraulic study of the hot and average fuel sub-channel in a Generation III + IPWR by loose external coupling to the neutronic simulation. The power produced in fuel pins is calculated by the neutronic simulation via MCNPX2.6 then fuel and coolant temperature changes along fuel sub-channels evaluated by computational fluid dynamic thermal hydraulic calculation through an iterative coupling. The relative power densities along the fuel pin in hot and average fuel sub-channel are calculated in sixteen equal divisions. The highest centerline temperature of the hottest and the average fuel pin are calculated as 633 K (359.85 ℃) and 596 K (322.85 ℃), respectively. The coolant enters the sub-channel with a temperature of 557.15 K (284 ℃) and leaves the hot sub-channel and the average sub-channel with a temperature of 596 K (322.85 ℃) and 579 K (305.85 ℃), respectively. It is shown that the spacer grids result in the enhancement of turbulence kinetic energy, convection heat transfer coefficient along the fuel sub-channels so that there is an increase in heat transfer coefficient about 40%. The local fuel pin temperature reduction in the place and downstream the space grids due to heat transfer coefficient enhancement is depicted via a graph through six iterations of neutronic and thermal hydraulic coupling calculations. Working in a low fuel temperature and keeping a significant gap below the melting point of fuel, make the IPWR as a safe type of generation -III + nuclear reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2591-2603
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• 2023

Simulating the Corrosion-Related Unidentified Deposit (CRUD) on the surface of fuel assemblies is necessary to predict the axial offset anomaly and the localized corrosion induced by the CRUD during the operation of nuclear power plants. A new CRUD model was developed to predict the formation of the CRUD deposits, considering the deposition and erosion mechanisms. The heat transfer and capillary flow within the CRUD were also considered to evaluate the boiling amount within the CRUD layer. This model predicted a CRUD deposit thickness of 44 ㎛ during a one-cycle operation of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. The CRUD deposition tended to accelerate and decelerate during the simulation, by being related to boiling mechanism on the deposits surface. Additionally, during a three-cycle operation corresponding to the refueling period, the CRUD deposition was saturated at a thickness of 80 ㎛, which was in good agreement with the suggested thickness for CRUD buildupin pressurized water reactors. Surface boiling on the thin CRUD deposits enhanced the acceleration of the deposition, even when the wick boiling properties were not favorable for CRUD deposition. To ensure the certainty of the simulation results, sensitivity analyses were conducted for the porosity, chimney density, and the constants employed in the proposed model of the CRUD.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4499-4513
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• 2022

Spent fuel behavior of dry storage was simulated in a continuous state from steady-state operation by modifying FRAPCON-4.0 to incorporate spent fuel-specific fuel behavior models. Spent fuel behavior of a typical PWR was compared with that of NuScale Power Module (NPM^TM). Current PWR discharge burnup (60 MWd/kgU) gives a sufficient margin to the hoop stress limit of 90 MPa. Most hydrogen precipitation occurs in the first 50 years of dry storage, thereby no extra phenomenological safety factor is identified for extended dry storage up to 100 years. Regulation for spent fuel management can be significantly alleviated for LWR-based SMRs. Hydride embrittlement safety criterion is irrelevant to NuScale spent fuels; they have sufficiently lower plenum pressure and hydrogen contents compared to those of PWRs. Cladding creep out during dry storage reduces the subchannel area with burnup. The most deformed cladding outer diameter after 100 years of dry storage is found to be 9.64 mm for discharge burnup of 70 MWd/kgU. It may deteriorate heat transfer of dry storage by increasing flow resistance and decreasing the view factor of radiative heat transfer. Self-regulated by decreasing rod internal pressure with opening gap, cladding creep out closely reaches the saturated point after ~50 years of dry storage.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.324-329
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• 2010

Fuel rods using in nuclear power plants consist of uranium dioxide pellets enclosed in zirconium alloy(zircaloy) tubes. It is vitally important for the pellet surface to remain free from pits, cracks and chipping defects after it is loaded into the tubes to prevent local hot spots during reactor operation. This paper investigates the feasibility study for detecting surface flaws of pellets contained within nuclear fuel rod through X-ray tomography simulation. Reconstructed images used by parallel and fan-beam filtered back projection method were presented and confirmed the accessibility between simulation data and MPS(missing pellet surface) image data.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.377-383
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• 2019

Targeting at simulating the application of thorium-uranium (TU) fuel in the CANDU-6 reactor, this paper analyzes the process using the code DRAGON/DONJON where the discrete TU fuel pins are applied in the CANDU-6 reactor under the time-average equilibrium refueling. The results show that the coolant void reactivity of the assembly analyzed in this paper is lower than that of 37-element bundle cell with natural uranium and 37-element bundle cell with mixed TU fuel pins; that the max time-average channel/bundle power of the core meets the limits - less than 6700kW/860 kW; that the fuel conversion ratio is higher than that of the CANDU-6 reactor with natural uranium; and that the exit burnup increases to 13400 MWd/tU. Thus, the simulation in this paper with the fuel in the 37-element bundle cell using discrete TU fuel pins can be considered to be applied in CANDU-6 reactor with adequate modifications of the core structure and operating modes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1596-1609
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• 2019

The fuel rod performance has great importance for the safety and economy of an operating reactor. The fuel rod performance analysis code, which considers the thermal-mechanical response and irradiation effects of fuel rod, is usually developed in order to predict fuel rod performance accurately. The FRIPAC (${\underline{F}}uel$ ${\underline{R}}od$ ${\underline{I}}ntegral$ ${\underline{P}}erformance$ ${\underline{A}}nalysis$ ${\underline{C}}ode$) is such a fuel rod performance analysis code that has been developed recently by China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd. The code aims at the computational simulation of the Pressurized Water Reactor fuel rod behavior for both steady-state and power ramp condition. A brief overview of FRIPAC is presented including the computational framework and the main behavioral models. Validation of the code is also presented and it focuses on the fuel rod behavior including fuel center temperature, fission gas release, rod internal pressure/internal void volume, cladding outer diameter and cladding corrosion thickness. The validation is based on experimental data from several international projects. The validation results indicate that FRIPAC is an accurate and reliable fuel rod performance analysis code because of the satisfactory comparison results between the experimental measurements and the code predictions.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.3-8
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• 2001

For the successful design of nuclear reactor, it is very important to investigate thermal-hydraulic characteristics of fuel rod bundle. Fluid flow and heat transfer in the non-circular cross-section of nuclear fuel rod bundle are different from those found in common circular tube. And complex three dimensional flow including secondary and vortex flow, is formed around the bundles. The purpose of this research is to examine how geometries and flow conditions affect heat transfer in fuel rod bundle. Design data for nuclear fuel rod bundle and structure are surveyed, and $3{\times}3$ sub-channel model is adopted in this study. Computational results are compared with the heat transfer data measured by naphthalene sublimation method, and numerical analysis and evaluation are performed at various design conditions and flow conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4798-4808
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• 2022

The porous corrosion deposits (known as CRUD) adhered to the cladding have an important effect on the heat transfer from fuel rods to coolant in PWRs. The vapor film is the main constituent in the two-phase film boiling model. This paper presents a vapor film thickness correlation, associated with CRUD porosity, CRUD chimney density, CRUD particle size, CRUD thickness and heat flux. The dependences of the vapor film thickness on the various influential factors can be intuitively reflected from this vapor film thickness correlation. The temperature, pressure, and boric acid concentration distributions in CRUD can be well predicted using the two-phase film boiling model coupled with the vapor film thickness correlation. It suggests that the vapor thickness correlation can estimate the vapor film thickness more conveniently than the previously reported vapor thickness calculation methods.

• 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.