• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.435-446
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• 2021

This article examines the consequences of a significant spent fuel management decision or event in the United States, South Korea and Taiwan. For the United States, it is the financial impact of the Department of Energy's inability to take possession of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power companies beginning in 1998 as directed by Congress. For South Korea, it is the potential financial and socioeconomic impact of the successful construction, licensing and operation of a low and intermediate level waste disposal facility on the siting of a spent fuel/high level waste repository. For Taiwan, it is the operational impact of the Kuosheng 1 reactor running out of space in its spent fuel pool. From these, it draws six broad lessons other countries new to, or preparing for, nuclear energy production might take from these experiences. These include conservative planning, treating the back-end of the fuel cycle holistically and building trust through a step-by-step approach to waste disposal.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1708-1714
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• 2019

The purpose of the critical evaluation of the spent fuel pool (SFP) is to verify that the maximum effective multiplication factor ($K_{eff}$) is less than the critical safety limit at 100% stored condition of the spent fuel with the maximum reactivity. At nuclear power plants, the storage standard of spent fuel, ie, the loading curve, is established to prevent criticality from being generated in SFP. Here, the loading curve refers to a graph showing the minimum discharged burnup versus the initial enrichment of spent fuel. Recently, US NRC proposed the new critical safety assessment guideline (DSS-ISG-2010-01, Revision 0) of PWR SFPs and most of utilities in US is following it. Of course, the licensed criterion of the maximum effective multiplication factor of SFP remains unchanged and it should be less than 0.95 from the 95% probability and the 95% confidence level. However, the new guideline is including the new evaluation methodologies like the application of the axial burnup profile, the validation of depletion and criticality code, and trend analysis. Among the new evaluation methodologies, the most important factor that affects $K_{eff}$ is the axial burnup profile of spent fuel. US NRC recommends to consider the axial burnup profiles presented in NUREG-6801 in criticality analysis. In this paper, criticality effect was evaluated considering three profiles, respectively: i) Axial burnup profiles presented in NUREG-6801. ii) Representative PWR axial burnup profile. iii) Uniform axial burnup profile. As the result, the case applying the axial burnup profiles presented in NUREG-6801 showed the highest $K_{eff}$ among three cases. Therefore, we need to introduce a new methodology because it can be issued if the axial burnup profiles presented in NUREG/CR-6801 are applied to the domestic nuclear power plants without any other consideration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.83-94
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• 1990

The radioactivity in the spent fuel storage pool is calculated to ensure to maintain its concentration below the permissible limit, when the storage capacity of Uljin nuclear power plant unit 1&2 is extended from 9/3 to 32/3 core using consolidated fuels in maximum density rack (MDR). For this evalulation, two models to calculate the spent fuel pool activities on the continuous and intermittent operating its purification system are developed and these results compared, The results of above two cases show that the current water purification system can not guarantee the radioactivity concentration below the design limit, 5$\times$10$^{-4}$ $\mu$Ci/ml, for the extention to 32/3 core. Therefore, it has been concluded that a modification of the current purification system is necessary to extend the spent fuel storage capacity with the above method. The alternative way suggested in this study is to increase the number of cation bed demineralizers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2002

A pool image processing measurement method has been developed to improve the examination efficiency and to minimize the errors of dimensional measurements of spent fuel assemblies in pool. Diameter and length measurements of mock-up fuel rods using the image processing system are $-0.24{\pm}0.03mm,\;0.34{\pm}0.06mm$ on the basis of the true value and their maximum errors are within -0.3 and 0.4mm, respectively, According to the result of dimensional measurement of spent fuels in pool, the upper and lower part diameter and mid part diameter of fuel rods of the J44 fuel assembly irradiated for 2 cycles in the Kori-2 nuclear reactor were decreased by about 2.0 and 3.0% in comparison with design values, respectively. The length of fuel rods was elongated by about 0.4%. The change behavior of diameter and length. of fuel rods of the F02 fuel assembly irradiated for 3 cycles in the Kori-1 nuclear reactor showed a trend similar to the results of J44.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.947-955
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• 2020

Predicting the sloshing motion of a coolant during a seismic assessment of a rectangular spent fuel pool is of critical concern. Linear theory, which provides a simple analytical method, has been used to predict the sloshing motion in rectangular pools and tanks. However, this theory is not suitable for the high-frequency excitation problem. In this study, the authors developed a simple analytical method for predicting the sloshing motion in a rectangular pool for a wide range of excitation frequencies. The correlation among the linear theory parameters, influencing on excitation and convective waves, and the excitation frequency is investigated. Sloshing waves in a rectangular pool with several liquid heights are predicted using the original linear theory, a modified linear theory and computational fluid dynamics analysis. The results demonstrate that the developed method can predict sloshing motion over a wide range of excitation frequencies. However, the developed method has the limitations of linear solutions since it neglects the nonlinear features of sloshing motion. Despite these limitations, the authors believe that the developed method can be useful as a simple analytical method for predicting the sloshing motion in a rectangular pool under various external excitations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.125-126
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• 2017

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.45-46
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.313-314
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• 2017

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.321-322
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• 2017

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.110-116
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• 2020

As the management plan for domestic spent nuclear fuel is delayed, the storage of the operating nuclear power plant is approaching saturation, and the Kori 1 Unit that has reached its end of operation life is preparing for the dismantling plan. The first stage of dismantling is the transfer of spent nuclear fuel stored in storage at plants. The spent fuel management process leads to temporary storage, interim storage, reprocessing and permanent disposal. In this paper, the technical issues to be considered when transporting spent fuel in this process are summarized. The spent fuels are treated as high-level radioactive waste and strictly managed according to international regulations. A series of integrity tests are performed to demonstrate that spent fuel can be safely stored for decades in a dry environment before being transferred to an intermediate storage facility. The safety of spent fuel transport container must be demonstrated under normal transport conditions and virtual accident conditions. IAEA international standards are commonly applied to the design of transport containers, licensing regulations and transport regulations worldwide. In addition, each country operates a physical protection system to reduce and respond to the threat of radioactive terrorism.