• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권2호
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• pp.313-317
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• 2018

Licenses for the storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and vitrified highly active waste in casks under dry conditions are limited to 40 years and have to be renewed for prolonged storage periods. If such a license renewal has to be expected since as in accordance with the new site selection procedure a final repository for spent fuel in Germany will not be available before the year 2050. For transport and possible unloading and loading in new casks for final storage, the integrity and the maintenance of the geometry of the cask's inventory is essential because the SNF rod cladding and the cladding of the vitrified highly active waste are stipulated as a barrier in the storage concept. For SNF, the cladding integrity is ensured currently by limiting the hoop stress and hoop strain as well as the maximum temperature to certain values for a 40-year storage period. For a prolonged storage period, other cladding degradation mechanisms such as inner and outer oxide layer formation, hydrogen pick up, irradiation damages in cladding material crystal structure, helium production from alpha decay, and long-term fission gas release may become leading effects driving degradation mechanisms that have to be discussed.

• 한국전산구조공학회논문집
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.245-254
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• 2005

방사성물질은 다양한 분야에서 사용되고 있으며 이에 따른 국내 및 국제간 운반이 계속적으로 증가하고 있다. 방사성물질을 수송하기 위해서는 수송용기의 안전성이 확보되어야 한다. 방사성물질 수송용기의 안전규정에 관해서는 국내 원자력법 운반안전규정 및 IAEA 운반규정에서 규정하고 있다. 방사성물질 수송용기 중에서 사용후핵연료를 운반하는 수송용기는 본체와 충격완충제로 구성되어 있다. 본 논문에서는 사용후핵연료 수송용기의 충격완충제에 작용하는 충격력을 계산하는 간편한 실험식을 차원해석을 통하여 유도하였다. 해석결과는 기존의 충격면적법 및 유한요소해석과 비교를 통하여 그 타당성을 입증하였다. 본 실험식을 이용하여 수송용기의 낙하충격력을 쉽게 예측할 수 있다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권2호
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• pp.690-695
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• 2023

Recommendations are given to improve the efficiency of radiation protection of transport casks for SNF transportation. The attenuation of ${\gamma}$-quanta of long-lived isotopes ¹³⁴Cs, ^137mBa(¹³⁷Cs), ¹⁵⁴Eu and ⁶⁰Co by optimizing the thicknesses and arrangement of layers of Fe and Pb radiation shields of transport casks is studied. The fixed radiation shielding mass (fixed mass thickness) is chosen as the main optimization criterion. The effect of the placement order of Fe and Pb layers in a combined two-layer radiation shield with an equivalent thickness of 30 cm is studied in detail. It is shown that with the same mass thicknesses of the Fe and Pb layers, the placement of Fe in the first layer, and Pb - in the second one provides more than twofold attenuation of ${\gamma}$-quanta compared to the reverse placement: Pb - in the first layer, Fe - in the second. The increase in the efficiency of attenuation of ${\gamma}$-quanta for TC with combined shielding of Fe and Pb is shown to be achieved by designing the first layer of radiation shielding around the canister with SNF from Fe of the maximum possible thickness.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2006년도 학술논문요약집
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• pp.349-350
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• 2006

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2006년도 학술논문요약집
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• pp.351-352
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• 2006

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제42권5호
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• pp.582-589
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• 2010

As a part of the back-end fuel cycle, transportation of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants (NPPs) to a fuel storage facility is very important in establishing a nuclear fuel cycle. In Korea, the accumulated amount of SNF in the NPP pools is troublesome since the temporary storage facilities at these NPP pools are expected to be full of SNF within ten years. Therefore, Korea cannot help but plan for the construction of an interim storage facility to solve this problem in the near future. Especially, a decision on several factors, such as where the interim storage facility should be located, how many casks a transport ship can carry at a time and how many casks are initially required, affect the configuration of the transportation system. In order to analyze the various possible candidate scenarios, we assumed four cases for the interim storage facility location, three cases for the load capacity that a transport ship can carry and two cases for the total amount of casks used for transportation. First, this study considered the currently accumulated amount of SNF in Korea, and the amount of SNF generated from NPPs until all NPPs are shut down. Then, how much SNF per year must be transported from the NPPs to an interim storage facility was calculated during an assumed transportation period. Second, 24 candidate transportation scenarios were constructed by a combination of the decision factors. To construct viable yearly transportation schedules for the selected 24 scenarios, we created a spreadsheet program named TranScenario, which was developed by using MS EXCEL. TranScenario can help schedulers input shipping routes and allocate transportation casks. Also, TranScenario provides information on the cask distribution in the NPPs and in the interim storage facility automatically, by displaying it in real time according to the shipping routes, cask types and cask numbers that the user generates. Once a yearly transportation schedule is established, TranScenario provides some statistical information, such as the voyage time, the availability of the interim storage facility, the number of transported casks sent from the NPPs, and the number of transported casks received at the interim storage facility. By using this information, users can verify and validate a yearly transportation schedule. In this way, the 24 candidate scenarios could be constructed easily. Finally, these 24 scenarios were compared in terms of their operation cost.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.1439-1447
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• 2023

The fuel cycle characteristics of the IVG.1M reactor were studied within the framework of the research reactor conversion program to modernize the IVG.1M reactor. Optimum use of the nuclear fuel and reactor was achieved through routine methods which included partial fuel reloading combined with scheduled maintenance operations. Since, the additional problem in planning the fuel cycle of the IVG.1M reactor was the poisoning of the beryllium parts of the core, reflector, and control system. An assessment of the residual power and composition of spent fuel is necessary for the selection and justification of the technology for its subsequent management. Computational studies were performed using the MCNP6.1 program and the neutronics model of the IVG.1M reactor. The proposed scheme of annual partial fuel reloading allows for maintaining a high reactor reactivity margin, stabilizing it within 2-4 β_eff for 20 years, and achieving a burnup of 9.9-10.8 MW × day/kg U in the steady state mode of fuel reloading. Spent fuel immediately after unloading from the reactor can be placed in a transport packaging cask for shipping or safely stored in dry storage at the research reactor site.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2003년도 가을 학술논문집
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• pp.614-620
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• 2003

원자력연구소에서는 국내 원전에서 배출된 사용후핵연료를 IMEF M6 핫셀에서 건식 재가공하여 건식공정 산화물핵연료를 개발하였다. 개발된 핵연료의 성능을 검증하기 위해서는 실제 상용로와 동일한 고온고압 조건하에서 조사시험이 필요하나 국내에는 이러한 조사시설을 갖추지 못하고 있으므로 핵연료 성능의 검증이 어렵던 차에 한$\cdot$카$\cdot$미 IAEA간의 국제공동연구 과제진도회의에서 AECL측은 중성자비를 받지 않고 캐나다 NRU에서 건식공정 산화물핵연료를 조사시험을 할 수 있다고 제안하였다. NRU 조사시험을 하고자 하는 핵연료는 건식공정 산화물핵연료봉 10개(약 6kgU)이며 운반물 분류등급에 따라 제7종 위험물로 핵분열성물질에 해당한다. 일반적으로 소량의 방사성물질을 운반할 경우에는 비용뿐 아니라 수송기간 측면에서 항공수송이 선박수송에 비해 유리한 것으로 알려져 있어 항공기를 이용한 건식공정 산화물핵연료의 해외 수송방안을 검토하였다. 검토결과, 현재 건식공정 산화물핵연료봉 10개를 운반할 수 있는 적절한 항공수송용 수송용기가 없어 항공수송이 불가능한 것으로 조사되었다. 선박을 이용한 해외 수송방안은 가능하나 이 경우에는 전용선박을 사용해야 함으로 비용이 많이 수요되는 것으로 분석되었다.