• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3488-3493
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• 2022

Accelerator driven subcritical systems have long been discussed as facilities which can be used for solving the nuclear waste problem. The physics of these systems is very different from conventional reactors and new techniques had to be developed for reactivity monitoring. One such technique is the Area Ratio Method which studies the response of a subcritical system upon insertion of a large number of neutron pulses. An issue associated with this technique is the spatial dependence of measured reactivity which is intrinsic to the sub criticality of the system since the reactor does not operate on the fundamental mode and measured reactivity depends on the detector position. This is generally addressed by defining Bell-Glasstone spatial correction factor. This factor upon multiplication with measured reactivity gives the correct reactivity which is independent of detector location. Monte Carlo Methods are used for evaluating these factors. This paper presents a complete three dimensional map of spatial correction factors for BRAHMMA subcritical system. In addition, the dataset obtained also helps in identifying detector locations where the correction factor is close to unity, thereby implying no correction if the detector is used at those locations.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.13-17
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• 2014

Subcritical water acts like an organic solvent at elevated temperature in terms of its physicochemical properties. Taking into account this advantage, the remediation experiments of benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil (8.45 mg/kg of initial concentration) were conducted using subcritical water extraction apparatus. The effect of operating factors on the removal efficiency was studied at the varying the conditions of the water temperature ranging $200{\sim}300^{\circ}C$, extraction time 30~90 min, and flow rate 0.3~2.0 mL/min. 12 g of benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil was inserted into the extraction cell and placed into the reactor and then the subcritical water was driven through the cell. In this study, the removal efficiency of benzo[a]pyrene was increased from 55.1 to 98.1% when the temperature increased from 200 to $300^{\circ}C$. The removal efficiency was decreased from 97.0 to 77.0% when the flow rate increased from 0.3 to 2.0 mL/min, suggesting that the extraction is limited by intra-particle diffusion. The 30 min reaction time was determined as an effective treatment time at $250^{\circ}C$. Based on the results, the optimum condition for the remediation of benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil was suggested to be $250^{\circ}C$, 30 min, and 0.3 mL/min.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.963-967
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• 2019

Accurate measurement of the reactivity worth of safety rods is very important for the safe reactor operation, in normal and emergency conditions. In this paper, the reactivity worth of safety rods in Heavy Water Zero Power Reactor (HWZPR) in the new lattice pitch is measured by advanced source jerk method. The average of the results related to two different detectors is equal to 29.88 mk. In order to verify the result, this parameter was compared to the previously measured value by subcritical to critical approach. Different experiment results are finally compared with corresponding calculated result. Difference between the average experimental and calculated results is equal to 2.2%.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2013

Subcritical water hydrolysis was carried out in a batch reactor to produce valuable materials, such as low-molecular weight (MW) peptides and essential amino acids with antioxidant properties, from heat-dried squid viscera. Hydrolysis of squid viscera was performed at 160 to $280^{\circ}C$ for 3 min. The yield was increased by increasing the temperature and pressure, while the protein content of squid viscera hydrolysate decreased with increasing temperature. Low-MW peptides were detected in all hydrolysates by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The highest yields of free and structural amino acids in heat-dried squid viscera hydrolysate were at $160^{\circ}C$ and were $411.95{\pm}1.15$ and $346.62{\pm}1.25$ mg/100 g, respectively. All essential amino acids were detected in viscera hydrolysates; leucine was the most abundant. Antioxidant activities of hydrolysates were highest at $220^{\circ}C$. Greater than $98{\pm}0.26%$ of the ABTS antioxidant activity was retained in hydrolysates after long-term heat treatment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1398-1406
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• 2024

The control rod worth is a key safety parameter required to be measured in commercial pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Conventionally, the control rod worth is measured after reaching the critical state, which occupies the considerable time in the zero-power physics test. In this study, an efficient control-rod worth measurement technique has been proposed based on the improved neutron-source multiplication method, which can be implemented with the source-range detector count rates in the subcritical states. Moreover, the noise reduction technique has been adopted to smooth the large fluctuation existing in the original signals. In order to verify the engineering performance of the proposed measurement technique, the measured source-range detector count rates during the rod withdrawal process before reaching critical state in a CNP1000 reactor have been employed. It demonstrated that almost all estimated results of control rod worth satisfy the engineering acceptance criteria, except one control rod with the relative difference over 10 %, which indicates the capability of the proposed method in estimating control rod worth.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.648-653
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• 2018

Elimination of soluble boron from reactor design eliminates boron-induced reactivity accidents and leads to a more negative moderator temperature coefficient. However, a large negative moderator temperature coefficient can lead to large reactivity feedback that could allow the reactor to return to power when it cools down from hot full power to cold zero power. In soluble boron-free small modular reactor (SMR) design, only control rods are available to control such rapid core transient. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether an SMR would have enough control rod worth to compensate for large reactivity feedback. The investigation begins with classification of reactivity and completes an analysis of the reactivity balance in each reactor state for the SMR model. The control rod worth requirement obtained from the reactivity balance is a minimum control rod worth to maintain the reactor critical during the whole cycle. The minimum available rod worth must be larger than the control rod worth requirement to manipulate the reactor safely in each reactor state. It is found that the SMR does have enough control rod worth available during rapid transient to maintain the SMR at subcritical below k-effectives of 0.99 for both hot zero power and cold zero power.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.66-66
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• 2002

Under Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) and Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERO, a Working Party on Reactor Physics of Accelerator-Driven System (ADS-WP) has been set since March 1999 to review and investigate special subjects related to reactor physics research of Accelerator-Driven System (ADS). In the ADSWP, the extensive and aggressive activity is being made by 25 professional members in the field of reactor physics in Japan. The ADS is now studying three subjects related to subcriticality of ADS; (1) calculation accuracy of sub criticality on ADS, (2) critical safety issues of ADS, and (3) theoretical review of subcriticality and its measurement methods. This paper describes two topics related to the subjects (1) and (2); one is an analysis of maximum reactivity potentially inserted to a subcritical core and the other is a benchmark proposal for checking calculation accuracy of sub criticality on ADS. The full specification of the calculation benchmark will be supplied by June 2002. Researchers from overseas, especially from Korea, are welcome to join this benchmark

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4743-4750
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• 2022

Heat pipe cooled nuclear reactor has been a very attractive technical solution to provide the power for deep space applications. In this paper, a 200 kWe space nuclear reactor power design has been proposed based on the combination of an integrated UN ceramic fuel, a heat pipe cooling system and the Stirling power generators. Neutronics and thermal analysis have been performed on the space nuclear reactor. It was found that the entire reactor core has at least 3.9 $ subcritical even under the worst-case submersion accident superimposed a single safety drum failure, and results from fuel temperature coefficient, neutron spectrum and power distribution analysis also showed that this reactor design satisfies the neutronics requirements. Thermal analysis showed that the power in the core can be successfully removed both in normal operation or under one or more heat pipes failure scenarios.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2013

Subcritical water which acts as organic solvent with increasing temperature and pressure because dielectric constant and viscosity decrease can be used to remediate PAHs-contaminated soil. Factors influencing on extraction were studied with varying the water temperature $200{\sim}275^{\circ}C$, extraction time 0~90 min, flow rate 10~100 mL/min and pressure 3.9~10MPa. 300 g of soil sample which was contaminated with PAHs(naphthalene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene; 423, 420, 539 and 428 mg/kg of initial concentration) was packed into the cell and placed to reactor and then the subcritical water was pumped through the cell for PAHs extraction. Naphthalene was removed almost 100% at relatively low temperature ($200^{\circ}C$). The removal rate of phenanthrene, fluoranthene, and pyrene increased by 8, 26, and 23% when the temperature increased from 200 to $275^{\circ}C$; and it was gradually increased as extraction time increased from 0 to 90 min. Decreasing removal rate when water flow rate increased from 10 to 30 mL/min, but there was no significant change after 30 mL/min. This is supposed due to channeling phenomenon. The pressure was not an effective factor for extraction of PAHs in this study. Based on the results, the importance of effective factor was in following sequence: temperature >> time > flow rate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.60-73
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• 1973

The reactor noise analysis was performed by the cross correlation method using two detectors to determine the dynamic stability and the system parameter of TRIGA Mark-II reactor under critical and subcritical conditions. The a values turned out to be 46.67 and 70.04 respectively at zero power and full power under critical condition, while 79.47 and 97.59 respectively at the safety rod dropping and the regulating rod dropping under subcritical condition. Prompt neutron life time of TRIGA Mark-II reactor measured 107 and 160 $\mu$sec, and shut down margin was -10.03$\times$10-4 at the safety rod dropping and -29-43$\times$10-4 at the regulating rod dropping CDC 3100/MSOS digital computer, HITACHI 505 Analog computer, and preamplifier, bandpass filter, FM modulator or demodulator designed for this specific purpose, were employed for the present investigation.