• 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.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.49 no.7
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• pp.1388-1395
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• 2017

The Helically coiled tube Once-Through Steam Generator (H-OTSG) is a key piece of equipment for compact small reactors. The present study developed and verified a thermal-hydraulic design and performance analysis computer code for a countercurrent H-OTSG installed in a small pressurized water reactor. The H-OTSG is represented by one characteristic tube in the model. The secondary side of the H-OTSG is divided into single-phase liquid region, nucleate boiling region, postdryout region, and single-phase vapor region. Different heat transfer correlations and pressure drop correlations are reviewed and applied. To benchmark the developed physical models and the computer code, H-OTSGs developed in Marine Reactor X and System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor are simulated by the code, and the results are compared with the design data. The overall characteristics of heat transfer area, temperature distributions, and pressure drops calculated by the code showed general agreement with the published data. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a typical countercurrent H-OTSG are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the code can be utilized for design and performance analysis of an H-OTSG.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.33-34
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• 2017

• Review of KIISC
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.15-20
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• 2023

지금까지 원자력 산업은 국가의 전기수요 상당부분을 충족시키기 위해 대형 원전을 중심으로 건설하고 운영해 왔다. 그러나 대형 원전의 안전사고, 사용후 핵연료 처리 문제, 건설비 증가 등으로 세계 원자력 산업은 안전성을 향상시킨 소형모듈원전(Small Modular Reactor, 이하 SMR)의 개발에 주력하고 있다. 이에 본 논문에서는 SMR에 활용이 예상되는 최신기술에 따라 증대되는 사이버보안 이슈와 관련 규제 동향에 관해 기술한다.

• 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.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.55 no.8
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• pp.2952-2965
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• 2023

Advanced reactors, such as Small Modular Reactors or existing Nuclear Power Plants, often use Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based controllers in new Instrumentation and Control (I&C) system architectures or as an alternative to existing analog-based I&C systems. Compared to CPU-based Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), FPGAs offer better overall performance. However, programming functions on FPGAs can be challenging due to the requirement for a hardware description language that does not explicitly support the operation of real numbers. This study aims to implement the Reactor Trip (RT) functions of the existing analog-based Reactor Protection System (RPS) using FPGAs. The RT equations for Overtemperature delta Temperature and Overpower delta Temperature involve dynamic compensators expressed with the Laplace transform variable, 's', which is not directly supported by FPGAs. To address this issue, the trip equations with the Laplace variable in the continuous-time domain are transformed to the discrete-time domain using the Z-transform. Additionally, a new operation based on a relative value for the equation range is introduced for the handling of real numbers in the RT functions. The proposed approach can be utilized for upgrading the existing analog-based RPS as well as digitalizing control systems in advanced reactor systems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1834-1846
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• 2020

The SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor) is an integral-type small modular reactor developed by KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). This paper discusses the development of a dynamic equivalent model of the SMART control rod drive mechanism that can be efficiently utilized for complicated analysis during the design of the SMART. A semi-empirical approach is used to develop the equivalent model; that is, the equivalent model is defined analytically and verified empirically. Two types of tests, dynamic characteristics tests and seismic loading tests, are conducted for the development and verification of the dynamic equivalent model, respectively. Acceleration response spectra from the seismic analysis based on the developed equivalent model show good agreement with those from the seismic loading tests.

• 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.