• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.69-76
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• 2022

In order to prepare for a future nuclear market, research for developing floating small modular reactor has been initiated with the aim of differentiating it from large nuclear power plants such as distributed power, heat supply to remote communities and sea water desalination. Depending on the characteristics of the small modular reactor, it is necessary to design a plate and shell heat exchanger that can be manufactured smaller than the U-tube recirculation method. In this study, 12 cases are selected by changing the diameter of the heat plate, the thickness of the device body and the size of the stiffener. Finite element analysis is performed by setting the stress classification lines for the point at which deformation is expected under external pressure conditions for these analysis cases. For the basic design of the plate and shell heat exchanger, the optimal conditions are derived by analyzing the tendency of stress change in the device body and stiffener.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권6호
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• pp.701-706
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• 2013

According to the OECD/NEA estimates, nuclear power plants (NPPs), whether with a large reactor or with small modular reactors (SMRs), are competitive with many other electricity generation technologies in a significant number of cases, one of the exceptions being natural gas in the USA with the current level of prices. However, SMRs have particular features and requirements setting conditions for their deployment. This paper presents the preliminary analysis by OECD/NEA of the economics, opportunities, and market for small nuclear reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.1974-1987
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• 2023

The load-following operation of small modular reactors (SMRs) requires accurate prediction of transient behaviors that can occur in the balance of plants (BOP) and the nuclear steam supply system (NSSS). However, 1-D thermal-hydraulics analysis codes developed for safety and performance analysis have conventionally excluded the BOP from the simulation by assuming ideal boundary conditions for the main steam and feed water (MS/FW) systems, i.e., an open loop. In this study, we introduced a lumped model of BOP fluid system and coupled it with NSSS without any ideal boundary conditions, i.e., in a closed loop. Various methods for coupling boundary conditions at MS/FW were tested to validate their combination in terms of minimizing numerical instability, which mainly arises from the coupled boundaries. The method exhibiting the best performance was selected and applied to a transient simulation of an integrated NSSS and BOP system of a SMART. For a transient event with core power change of 100-20-100%, the simulation exhibited numerical stability throughout the system without any significant perturbation of thermal-hydraulic parameters. Thus, the introduced boundary-condition coupling method and BOP fluid system model can expectedly be employed for the transient simulation and performance analysis of SMRs requiring daily load-following operations.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.164-164
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• 1998

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권7호
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• pp.1367-1379
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• 2020

The small modular sodium-cooled fast reactor (SMSFR) is an important component of Generation-IV reactors. The objective of this work is to improve the reactivity control in SMSFR by using innovative systems, including burnable poisons and optimized control rods. SMSFR with MOX fuel usually exhibits high burnup reactivity loss that leads to high excess reactivity and potential fuel melting in control rod withdrawal (CRW) accidents, which becomes an important constraint on the safety and economic efficiency of SMSFR. This work applies two types of burnable poisons in a SMSFR to reduce the excess reactivity. The first one homogenously loads minor actinides in the fuel. The second one combines absorber and moderators in specific assemblies. The influence of burnable poisons on the core characteristics is discussed and integrated into the analysis of CRW accidents. The results show that burnable poisons improve the safety performance of the core in a significant way. Burnable poisons also lessen the demand for the number, absorption ability, and insertion depth of control rods. Two optimized control rod designs with rare earth oxides (Eu₂O₃ and Gd₂O₃) and moderators are compared to the conventional design with natural boron carbide (B₄C). The optimized designs show improved neutronic and safety performance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권12호
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• pp.2743-2759
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• 2020

A detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation analysis model was developed using ANSYS CFX 16.1 and analyzed to simulate the basic design and internal flow characteristics of a 180 MW small modular reactor (SMR) with a natural circulation flow system. To analyze the natural circulation phenomena without a pump for the initial flow generation inside the reactor, the flow characteristics were evaluated for each output assuming various initial powers relative to the critical condition. The eddy phenomenon and the flow imbalance phenomenon at each output were confirmed, and a flow leveling structure under the core was proposed for an optimization of the internal natural circulation flow. In the steady-state analysis, the temperature distribution and heat transfer speed at each position considering an increase in the output power of the core were calculated, and the conceptual design of the SMR had a sufficient thermal margin (31.4 K). A transient model with the output ranging from 0% to 100% was analyzed, and the obtained values were close to the T_hot and T_cold temperature difference value estimated in the conceptual design of the SMR. The K-factor was calculated from the flow analysis data of the CFX model and applied to an analysis model in RELAP5/MOD3.3, the optimal analysis system code for nuclear power plants. The CFX analysis results and RELAP analysis results were evaluated in terms of the internal flow characteristics per core output. The two codes, which model the same nuclear power plant, have different flow analysis schemes but can be used complementarily. In particular, it will be useful to carry out detailed studies of the timing of the steam generator intervention when an SMR is activated. The thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the models that applied porous media to the core & steam generators and the models that embodied the entire detail shape were compared and analyzed. Although there were differences in the ability to analyze detailed flow characteristics at some low powers, it was confirmed that there was no significant difference in the thermal hydraulic characteristics' analysis of the SMR system's conceptual design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권9호
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• pp.2100-2106
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• 2020

This paper newly proposes an efficient analytic springback prediction method to predict the final dimensions of bent cylindrical tubes for a helical tube steam generator in a small modular reactor. Three-dimensional bending procedure is treated as a two-dimensional in-plane bending procedure by integrating the Euler beam theory. To enhance the accuracy of the springback prediction, mathematical representations of flow stress and elastic modulus for unloading are systematically integrated into the analytic prediction model. This technique not only precisely predicts the final dimensions of the bent helical tube after a springback, but also effectively predicts the various target radii. Numerical validations were performed for five different radii of helical tube bending by comparing the final radius after a springback.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제20권8호
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• pp.362-370
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• 2019

격납구조는 사고시 방사능 유출을 막기 위해 내압성능을 확보해야 하므로 소형 원자로용 격납구조에 모듈 방식을 적용하기 위해서는 내압성능의 분석이 필요하다. 따라서 소형 원자로용 모듈화 격납구조의 내압성능 분석을 위해 프리캐스트 콘크리트 모듈과 모듈 사이의 연결부 접촉면과 긴장재 배치를 고려한 FEM모델을 작성하고 정적해석을 수행한다. 이를 통해 모듈화 격납구조의 하중단계별 변위 및 응력의 변화특성을 분석한다. 그리고 변수 분석을 위해 선정된 각 변수가 모듈화 격납구조의 내압성능에 미치는 영향을 분석한다. 비교를 위해 일체화 격납구조의 내압성능도 함께 분석한다. FEM해석을 통한 변수 분석을 통해 긴장력 크기, 긴장재 배치 간격, 콘크리트 두께방향 긴장재 위치, 연결부 접촉면 마찰 계수 크기, 콘크리트 두께 등과 같은 변수 값의 범위가 제시되었다. 모듈화 격납구조의 모듈 간 접촉면에서 합성효과를 발생시켜주는 주요인자는 긴장재에 의한 긴장력과 연결부 접촉면의 마찰력이다. 일체화 격납구조 대비 추가적인 긴장재배치를 통해 긴장력을 증가시키면 모듈화 격납구조에서도 일체화 격납구조와 동등 수준의 내압성능을 확보할 수 있다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.896-904
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• 2017

Several Generation IV nuclear reactor concepts have goals for optimizing investment recovery through phased introduction of multiple units on a common site with shared facilities and/or reconfigurable energy conversion systems. Additionally, small modular reactors are suitable for remote deployment to support highly localized microgrids in isolated, underdeveloped regions. The long-term economic viability of these advanced reactor plants depends on significant reductions in plant operations and maintenance costs. To accomplish these goals, intelligent control and diagnostic capabilities are needed to provide nearly autonomous operations with anticipatory maintenance. A nearly autonomous control system should enable automatic operation of a nuclear power plant while adapting to equipment faults and other upsets. It needs to have many intelligent capabilities, such as diagnosis, simulation, analysis, planning, reconfigurability, self-validation, and decision. These capabilities have been the subject of research for many years, but an autonomous control system for nuclear power generation remains as-yet an unrealized goal. This article describes a functional framework for intelligent, autonomous control that can facilitate the integration of control, diagnostic, and decision-making capabilities to satisfy the operational and performance goals of power plants based on multimodular advanced reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권3호
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• pp.401-414
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• 2013

HTR50S is a small modular reactor system based on HTGR. It is designed for a triad of applications to be implemented in successive stages. In the first stage, a base plant for heat and power is constructed of the fuel proven in JAEA's $950^{\circ}C$, 30MWt test reactor HTTR and a conventional steam turbine to minimize development risk. While the outlet temperature is lowered to $750^{\circ}C$ for the steam turbine, thermal power is raised to 50MWt by enabling 40% greater power density in 20% taller core than the HTTR. However the fuel temperature limit and reactor pressure vessel diameter are kept. In second stage, a new fuel that is currently under development at JAEA will allow the core outlet temperature to be raised to $900^{\circ}C$ for the purpose of demonstrating more efficient gas turbine power generation and high temperature heat supply. The third stage adds a demonstration of nuclear-heated hydrogen production by a thermochemical process. A licensing approach to coupling high temperature industrial process to nuclear reactor will be developed. The low initial risk and the high longer-term potential for performance expansion attract development of the HTR50S as a multipurpose industrial or distributed energy source.