• 한국방사선학회논문지
• /
• 제10권2호
• /
• pp.117-124
• /
• 2016

본 연구에서는 디지털 의료용 X선을 이용하여 소듐냉각고속로 금속연료봉 내부의 소듐 충전상태를 평가하고자 하였다. 의료용 X선은 디지털방사선(digital radiography, DR)시스템을 사용하였다. 최상의 공간분해능을 도출하기 위해 X선관의 초점크기와 디지털영상후처리 방법을 변화시켰다. 이때 텅스텐을 이용한 에지방법의 변조전달함수(modulation transfer function, MTF)를 사용하여 선예도(0.5 MTF)와 해상도(0.1 MTF) 를 평가하였다. 그 결과 소초점에서 영상후처리의 대조도를 강화시킨 조건에서 3.871 lp/mm (0.1 MTF)와 3.290 lp/mm (0.5 MTF)의 공간분해능을 얻었다. 결론적으로 이러한 결과는 디지털 의료용 X선을 이용하여 소듐냉각고속로 금속연료봉 내부의 소듐 충전상태를 관찰할 수 있었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제48권2호
• /
• pp.330-338
• /
• 2016

The U-Zr or U-TRU-Zr cylindrical metallic fuel slug used in fast reactors is known to swell significantly and to grow during irradiation. In neutronics simulations of metallic-fueled fast reactors, it is assumed that the slug has swollen and contacted cladding, and the bonding sodium has been removed from the fuel region. In this research, a realistic burnup-dependent fuel-swelling simulation was performed using Monte Carlo code McCARD for a single-batch compact sodium-cooled breed-and-burn reactor by considering the fuel-swelling behavior reported from the irradiation test results in EBR-II. The impacts of the realistic burnup-dependent fuel swelling are identified in terms of the reactor neutronics performance, such as core lifetime, conversion ratio, axial power distribution, and local burnup distributions. It was found that axial fuel growth significantly deteriorated the neutron economy of a breed-and-burn reactor and consequently impaired its neutronics performance. The bonding sodium also impaired neutron economy, because it stayed longer in the blanket region until the fuel slug reached 2% burnup.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제47권1호
• /
• pp.47-58
• /
• 2015

Four recycling scenarios involving pyroprocessing of spent fuel (SF) have been investigated for a 600-MWe transmutation sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), KALIMER. Performance evaluation was done with code system REBUS connected with TRANSX and TWODANT. Scenario Number 1 is the pyroprocessing of Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) SF. Because the recycling of CANDU SF does not have any safety problems, the CANDU-Pyro-SFR system will be possible if the pyroprocessing capacity is large enough. Scenario Number 2 is a feasibility test of feed SF from a pressurized water reactor PWR. Thefsensitivity of cooling time before prior to pyro-processing was studied. As the cooling time sensitivity of cooling time before prior to pyro-processing was studied. As the cooling time increases, excess reactivity at the beginning of the equilibrium cycle (BOEC) decreases, thereby creating advantageous reactivity control and improving the transmutation performance of minor actinides. Scenario Number 3 is a case study for various levels of recovery factors of transuranic isotopes (TRUs). If long-lived fission products can be separated during pyroprocessing, the waste that is not recovered is classified as low- and intermediate-level waste, and it is sufficient to be disposed of in an underground site due to very low-heat-generation rate when the waste cooling time becomes >300 years at a TRU recovery factor of 99.9%. Scenario Number 4 is a case study for the recovery factor of rare earth (RE) isotopes. The RE isotope recovery factor should be lowered to ${\leq}20%$ in order to make sodium void reactivity less than <7$, which is the design limit of a metal fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제39권3호
• /
• pp.193-206
• /
• 2007

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed an advanced fast reactor concept, KALIMER-600, which satisfies the Generation IV reactor design goals of sustainability, economics, safety, and proliferation resistance. The concept enables an efficient utilization of uranium resources and a reduction of the radioactive waste. The core design has been developed with a strong emphasis on proliferation resistance by adopting a single enrichment fuel without blanket assemblies. In addition, a passive residual heat removal system, shortened intermediate heat-transport system piping and seismic isolation have been realized in the reactor system design as enhancements to its safety and economics. The inherent safety characteristics of the KALIMER-600 design have been confirmed by a safety analysis of its bounding events. Research on important thermal-hydraulic phenomena and sensing technologies were performed to support the design study. The integrity of the reactor head against creep fatigue was confirmed using a CFD method, and a model for density-wave instability in a helical-coiled steam generator was developed. Gas entrainment on an agitating pool surface was investigated and an experimental correlation on a critical entrainment condition was obtained. An experimental study on sodium-water reactions was also performed to validate the developed SELPSTA code, which predicts the data accurately. An acoustic leak detection method utilizing a neural network and signal processing units were developed and applied successfully for the detection of a signal up to a noise level of -20 dB. Waveguide sensor visualization technology is being developed to inspect the reactor internals and fuel subassemblies. These research and developmental efforts contribute significantly to enhance the safety, economics, and efficiency of the KALIMER-600 design concept.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권12호
• /
• pp.3930-3943
• /
• 2021

To improve the capability of the SAS4A code, which simulates the initiating phase of core disruptive accidents for MOX-fueled Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs), the authors have investigated in detail the physical phenomena under unprotected loss-of-flow (ULOF) conditions in a previous paper (Kawada and Suzuki, 2020) [1]. As the conclusion of the last article, fuel stub motion, in which the residual fuel pellets would move toward the core central region after fuel pin disruption, was identified as one of the key phenomena to be appropriately simulated for the initiating phase of ULOF. In the present paper, based on the analysis of the experimental data, the behaviors related to the stub motion were evaluated and quantified by the author from scratch. A simple model describing fuel stub motion, which was not modeled in the previous SAS4A code, was newly proposed. The applicability of the proposed model was validated through a series of analyses for the CABRI experiments, by which the stub motion would be represented with reasonable conservativeness for the reactivity evaluation of disrupted core.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제53권1호
• /
• pp.111-120
• /
• 2021

During the core disruptive accident (CDA) of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), the molten fuel and steel are solidified into debris particles, which form debris bed in the lower plenum. When the boiling occurs inside debris bed, the flow of coolant and vapor makes the debris particles relocated and the bed flattened, which called debris bed relocation. Because the thickness of debris bed has great influence on the cooling ability of fuel debris in low plenum, it's very necessary to evaluate the transient changes of the shape and thickness in relocation behavior for CDA simulation analysis. To simulate relocation behavior, a large number of debris bed relocation experiments were carried out by improved bottom gas-injection experimental method in this paper. The effects of different experimental factors on the relocation process were studied from the experiments. The experimental data were also used to further evaluate a semi-empirical onset model for predicting relocation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제34권2호
• /
• pp.117-131
• /
• 2002

Core disruptive accidents have been investigated at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI) as part of the work to demonstrate the inherent and ultimate safety of conceptual design of the Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor(KALIMER), a 150 MWe pool- type sodium cooled prototype fast reactor that uses U-Pu-Zr metallic fuel. In this study, a simple method and associated computer program, SCHAMBETA, was developed using a modified Bethe-Tait method to simulate the kinetics and thermodynamic behavior of a homogeneous spherical core over the period of the super-prompt critical power excursion induced by the ramp reactivity insertion. Calculations of the energy release during excursions in the sodium-voided core of the KALIMER were subsequently performed using the SCHAMBETA code for various reactivity insertion rates up to 100 S/s, which has been widely considered to be the upper limit of ramp rates due to fuel compaction. Benchmark calculations were made to compare with the results of more detailed analysis for core meltdown energetics of the oxide fuelled fast reactor. A set of parametric studies were also performed to investigate the sensitivity of the results on the various thermodynamics and reactor parameters.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국원자력학회 2005년도 춘계학술발표회
• /
• pp.133-134
• /
• 2005

• 방사성폐기물학회지
• /
• 제10권1호
• /
• pp.21-26
• /
• 2012

소듐냉각 고속로 (SFR) 핵연료 피복관 후보재료로 고려되고 있는 중형 규모의 HT9 단조품 소재에 대한 금속조직학적 영향을 고찰하였다. 시험 재료는 유도가열법을 이용하여 1.1톤 규모의 잉곳으로 성형한 후, $1170^{\circ}C$에서 고온 단조 및 공랭을 통하여 160mm 직경 및 7000mm 길이를 갖는 단조품으로 가공하여 반경방향으로 미세조직의 변화를 관찰하였다. 시험 결과 시험 재료는 페라이트-마르텐사이트 조직을 보였으며 합금 조성에 의하여 2~3%의 델타 페라이트 (delta ferrite)를 가짐과 동시에 반경방향의 냉각속도 차이에 의하여 최대 15%의 변태 페라이트 (transformed ferrite)를 함유함이 관찰되었다. 냉각곡선의 모델링과 시간-온도-변태 (TTT) 선도를 이용한 민감도 분석을 통하여 단조품의 직경을 120mm로 줄였을 경우 중심부의 변태 페라이트 형성을 억제할 수 있음을 제시하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제56권3호
• /
• pp.873-879
• /
• 2024

A sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) core has a potential of prompt criticality due to a change of core material distribution during a severe accident, and the resultant energy release has been one of the safety issues of SFRs. In this study, the safety assessment of an unprotected loss-of-flow (ULOF) in a small SFR (SSFR) has been performed using the SIMMER-IV computer code, which couples the models of space- and time-dependent neutronics and multi-component, multi-field thermal hydraulics in three dimensions. The code, therefore, is applicable to the simulations of transient behaviors of extended disrupted core material motion and its reactivity effects during the transition phase (TP) of ULOF, including a potential of prompt-criticality power excursions driven by fuel compaction. Several conservative assumptions are used in the TP analysis by SIMMER-IV. It was found out that one of the important mechanisms that drives the reactivity-inserting fuel motion was sodium vapor pressure resulted from a fuel-coolant interaction (FCI), which itself was non-energetic local phenomenon. The uncertainties relating to FCI is also evaluated in much conservative way in the sensitivity analysis. From this study, the ULOF characteristics in an SSFR have been understood. Occurrence of recriticality events under conservative assumptions are plausible, but their energy releases are limited.