• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.654-664
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• 2018

Self-pressurization analysis of the natural circulation integral nuclear reactor through a new dynamic model is studied. Unlike conventional pressurized water reactors, this reactor type controls the system pressure using saturated coolant water in the steam dome at the top of the pressure vessel. Self-pressurization model is developed based on conservation of mass, volume, and energy by predicting the condensation that occurs in the steam dome and the flashing inside the chimney using the partial differential equation. A simple but functional model is adopted for the steam generator. The obtained results indicate that the variable measurement is consistent with design data and that this new model is able to predict the dynamics of the reactor in different situations. It is revealed that flashing and condensation power are in direct relation with the stability of the system pressure, without which pressure convergence cannot be established.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.3140-3153
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• 2022

A numerical feasibility study was conducted to investigate the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a steam generator with corrugated plates for a small modular reactor. Accordingly, a one-dimensional thermal-hydraulic analysis code was developed based on the existing state-of-the-art thermal-hydraulic models and correlations for corrugated plate heat exchangers. Subsequently, the pressure loss, heat transfer, and instability characteristics of the steam generator with corrugated plates were investigated according to the chevron angle and mass flux. Additionally, the characteristics of rectangular and disk-type corrugated plate steam generators with equivalent heat transfer areas were analyzed. The steam generator with disk-type corrugated plates exhibited better performance in terms of pressure loss and heat transfer rate than the rectangular type. In addition, when the mass flux decreased from the onset of boiling points, reverse gradients of the total pressure change were observed in both types. Thus, it was confirmed that Ledinegg instability could occur in the steam generator with corrugated plates. However, it was dependent on the chevron angle, and the optimal chevron angle to minimize instability was 45° under the conditions of the present analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1654-1666
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• 2024

The goal of this research is to propose a way to maximize small modular reactor (SMR) utilization to gain better market feasibility in support of carbon neutrality. For that purpose, a comprehensive tool was developed, combining off-design thermohydraulic models, economic objective models (levelized cost of electricity, annual profit), non-economic models (saved CO2), a parameter input sampling method (Latin hypercube sampling, LHS), and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (Non-dominated Sorting Algorithm-2, NSGA2 method) for optimizing a SMR-combined heat and power cycle (CHP) system design. Considering multiple objectives, it was shown that NSGA2+LHS method can find better optimal solution sets with similar computational costs compared to a conventional weighted sum (WS) method. Out of multiple multi-objective optimal design configurations for a 105 MWe design generation rating, a chosen reference SMR-CHP system resulted in its levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) below $60/MWh for various heat prices, showing economic competitiveness for energy market conditions similar to South Korea. Examined economic feasibility may vary significantly based on CHP heat prices, and extensive consideration of the regional heat market may be required for SMR-CHP regional optimization. Nonetheless, with reasonable heat market prices (e.g. district heating prices comparable to those in Europe and Korea), SMR can still become highly competitive in the energy market if coupled with a CHP system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.723-730
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• 2019

Acquiring instrumentation signals generated from nuclear power plants (NPPs) is essential to maintain nuclear reactor integrity or to mitigate an abnormal state under normal operating conditions or severe accident circumstances. However, various safety-critical instrumentation signals from NPPs cannot be accurately measured on account of instrument degradation or failure under severe accident circumstances. Reactor vessel (RV) water level, which is an accident monitoring variable directly related to reactor cooling and prevention of core exposure, was predicted by applying a few signals to deep neural networks (DNNs) during severe accidents in NPPs. Signal data were obtained by simulating the postulated loss-of-coolant accidents at hot- and cold-legs, and steam generator tube rupture using modular accident analysis program code as actual NPP accidents rarely happen. To optimize the DNN model for RV water level prediction, a genetic algorithm was used to select the numbers of hidden layers and nodes. The proposed DNN model had a small root mean square error for RV water level prediction, and performed better than the cascaded fuzzy neural network model of the previous study. Consequently, the DNN model is considered to perform well enough to provide supporting information on the RV water level to operators.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2915-2923
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• 2022

There is an increasing interest in passive safety systems to minimize the need for operator intervention or external power sources in nuclear power plants. Because a passive system has a weak driving force, there is greater uncertainty in the performance compared with an active system. In previous studies, several methods have been suggested to evaluate passive system reliability, and many of them estimated the failure probability using thermal-hydraulic analyses and the Monte Carlo method. However, if the functional failure of a passive system is rare, it is difficult to estimate the failure probability using conventional methods owing to their high computational time. In this paper, a procedure for the application of the Chernoff bound to the evaluation of passive system reliability is proposed. A feasibility study of the procedure was conducted on a passive decay heat removal system of a micro modular reactor in its conceptual design phase, and it was demonstrated that the passive system reliability can be evaluated without performing a large number of thermal-hydraulic analyses or Monte Carlo simulations when the system has a small failure probability. Accordingly, the advantages and constraints of applying the Chernoff bound for passive system reliability evaluation are discussed in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1125-1139
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• 2023

The system-integrated modular advanced reactor 100 (SMART100), an integral-type pressurized water small modular reactor, is based on a novel design concept for containment cooling and radioactive material reduction; it is known as the containment pressure and radioactivity suppression system (CPRSS). There is a passive cooling system using a condensation with non-condensable gas in the SMART CPRSS. When a design basis accident such as a small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA) occurs, the pressurized low containment area (LCA) of the SMART CPRSS leads to steam condensation in an incontainment refuelling water storage tank (IRWST). Additionally, the steam and non-condensable gas mixture passes through the CPRSS heat exchanger (CHX) submerged in the emergency cooldown tank (ECT) that can partially remove the residual heat. When the steam and non-condensable gas mixture passes through the CHX, the non-condensable gas can interrupt the condensation heat transfer in the CHX and it degrades CHX performance. In this study, condensation heat transfer experiments of steam and non-condensable gas mixture in the natural circulation loop were conducted. The pressure, temperature, and effects of the non-condensable gas were investigated according to the constant inlet steam flow rate with non-condensable gas injections in the loop.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 2014

New design concept of Reactor Coolant System (RCS) including a reactor assembly for the SMR is introduced in this work. An exploration of new type of reactor that is advanced from proposed SMRs is performed by using systems engineering approach. In this point of view project structured on three main phases; needs analysis (NA), concept exploration (CE), and concept definition (CD). Main objectives as an output of the CE stage are a small size, low cost, shortening the schedule, and enhancing safety. The SMRs usually have a small size requirement. In order to meet the size requirement and to achieve a productivity, in other words, easiness to manufacture, this paper suggests an integrated PWR design concept through researching predecessors. Although the integrated PWR concept provides many advantages, it has disadvantages that composite of maintenance and a low availability problem. Therefore, this paper comes up with a run-to-fail design concept based on modular design to address the maintenance problem and to maximize the availability of SMRs as well as to be compatible with the overall-SMRs including Barge Mounted(BM)type.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.689-696
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• 2012

A small integral reactor SMART (System Integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor), being developed in Korea since late 1990s and targeted to obtaining a standard design approval by the end of 2011, is introduced. The design scope and level for design certification (DC) is well described in the U.S. NRC SECY documents published the early 1990s. However, the documents are valid for a one-step licensing process called a combined operating license (COL) by the U.S. NRC, while Korea still uses a two-step licensing process. Thus, referencing the concept of the SECY documents, we have established the design scope and level for the SMART DC using the contexts of the standard review plan (SRP). Some examples of the results and issues raised during our review are briefly presented in this paper. The same methodology will be applied to other types of reactor under development in Korea, such as future VHTR reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3639-3647
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• 2023

This paper defines a 3D full core neutronics benchmark which is based on the NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) concept. The paper provides a detailed description of the NuScale-like core, a list of expected outputs, and a reference solution to the benchmark exercises obtained with the Monte Carlo code Serpent. The benchmark was developed in the framework of the Euratom McSAFER project and can be used for verification of computational chains dedicated to 3D full-core neutronics simulations of water cooled SMRs. The paper is supplemented with a digital data set to ease the modeling process.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4551-4559
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• 2022

The aim of this research is to analyze the characteristics of a core melt discharged from the reactor vessel and the spreading behavior the core melt in the reactor cavity of the SMART. First, a severe accident sequence under conservative conditions is simulated by the MELCOR code to obtain the conditions for an analysis of the spreading behavior and coolability of the ex-vessel melt. Second, the spreading behavior and coolability of the ex-vessel melt are analyzed by the MELTSPREAD code. The level, temperature, and pressure of the water in the cavity as well as the temperature, mass, composition, and discharge velocity of the melt were utilized to construct the ex-vessel analysis. The melt spread only to part of the cavity, and that the height of the corium in a static state was less than 25 cm. The characteristics of a small modular reactor on the spreading behavior and coolability of melt were analyzed. In the SMART, the amount of melt discharged into the cavity is relatively small and the area of the cavity is sufficiently large when compared to a high-power pressurized water reactor. It was found that the coolability of an ex-vessel core melt can be sufficiently secured.