• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.201-211
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• 2005

In this study, conventional head-end processes of spent TRISO fuel have been reviewed to develope more effective treatment methods. The main concerns in the TRISO treatment are to effectively separate the carbon and SiC contained in the TRISO particles. The crush-burn scheme which was considered in the early stages of the development has been replaced by the crush-leach process because of $^{14}C$ problems as a second waste being generated during the process. However, there are still many obstacles to overcome in the reported processes. Hence, innovative thermomechanical concepts and a molten salt electrochemical approach to breach the coating layers of the TRISO particle with a minimized amount of second waste are proposed in this paper and their principles are described in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.368-374
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• 2007

CVD-SiC coating has been introduced as a protective layer in TRISO nuclear fuel particle of high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) due to its excellent mechanical stability at high temperature. In order to prevent the failure of the TRISO particles, it is important to evaluate the fracture strength of the SiC coating layer. It is needed to develop a new simple characterization technique to evaluate the mechanical properties of the coating layer as a pre-irradiation step. In present work, direct strength measurement method with the specimen of hem i-spherical shell configuration was suggested. The indentation experiment on a hemisphere shell with a plate indenter was conducted. The fracture strength of the coating layer is related with the critical load for radial cracking of the shell. The finite element analysis was used to drive the semi-empirical equation for the strength measurement. The SiC hemispherical shells were successfully recovered from the section-grinding of TRISO coated particle and successive heat treatment in air. The strength of CVD-SiC coating layer was evaluated from the experimentally measured critical load during the indentation on SiC hemisphere shell. Weibull diagram of fracture strength was also constructed. This study suggested a new strength equation and experimental method to measure the fracture strength of CVD-SiC coating of TRISO coated fuel particles.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.3 s.298
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• pp.169-174
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• 2007

TRISO coated fuel particle is one of the most important materials for hydrogen production using HTGR (high temperature gas cooled reactors). It is composed of three isotropic layers: inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC), silicon carbide (SiC), outer pyrolytic carbon (OPyC) layers. In this study, TRISO coated fuel particle layers were deposited through CVD process in a horizontal hot wall deposition system. Also the computational simulations of input gas velocity, temperature profile and pressure in the reaction chamber were conducted with varying process variable (i.e temperature and input gas ratios). As deposition temperature increased, microstructure, chemical composition and growth behavior changed and deposition rate increased. The simulation showed that the change of reactant states affected growth rate at each position of the susceptor. The experimental results showed a close correlation with the simulation results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.352-361
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• 2005

In this study, conventional head-end processes of spent TRISO fuel have been reviewed to develope more effective treatment methods. The main concerns in the TRISO treatment are to effectively separate the carbon and SiC contained in the TRISO particles. The crush-burn scheme which was considered in the early stages of the development has been replaced by the crush-leach process because of $^{14}C$ problems as a second waste during the process. However there are still many obstacles to overcome in the reported processes. Hence, innovative thermomechanical concepts to breach the coating layers of the TRISO particle with a minimized amount of second waste are proposed in this paper and their principles are described in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11b
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• pp.92-106
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• 2005

The head-end processes of spent TRISO fuel have been reviewed to understand the current status and the limitations of the reported processes. The main concerns in the TRISO treatment are to effectively breach and separate the carbon and SiC layers composing the TRISO particles. The crush-bum scheme which was considered in the early stages of the development has been replaced by the crush-leach or $CO_2$ burning and the succeeding CO decomposition process because of a sequestration problem of $CO_2$ containing $^{14}C$. However there are still many obstacles to overcome in the reported processes. Hence, innovative thermomechanical and pyrochemical concepts to breach the coating layers of the TRISO particle with a minimized amount of second waste are proposed in this paper and their principles are described in detail.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.941-950
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• 2013

The Korean Nuclear-Hydrogen Technology Development (NHTD) Plan will be performing irradiation testing of coated particle fuel at HANARO to support the development of VHTR in Korea. This testing will be carried out to demonstrate and qualify TRISO-coated particle fuel for use in VHTR. The testing will be irradiated in an inert gas atmosphere without on-line temperature monitoring and control combined with on-line fission product monitoring of the sweep gas. The irradiation device contains two test rods, one has nine fuel compacts and the other five compacts and eight graphite specimens. Each compact contains about 260 TRISO-coated particles. The irradiation device is being loaded and irradiated into the OR5 hole of the in HANARO core from August 2013. The device will be operated for about 150 effective full-power days at a peak temperature of about $1030^{\circ}C$ in BOC (Beginning of Cycle) during irradiation testing. After a peak burn-up of about 4 atomic percentage and a peak fast neutron fluence of about $1.7{\times}10^{21}\;n/cm^2$, PIE (Post-Irradiation Examination) of the irradiated coated particle fuel will be performed at IMEF (Irradiated Material Examination Facility). This paper reviews the design of test rod and irradiation device for coated particle fuel, and discusses the technical results for irradiation testing at HANARO.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.10
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• pp.580-584
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• 2007

The ZrC layer instead of SiC layer is a critical and essential layer in TRISO coated fuel particles since it is a protective layer against diffusion of fission products and provides mechanical strength for the fuel particle. In this study, we carried out computational simulation before actual experiment. With these simulation results, Zirconium carbide (ZrC) films were chemically vapor deposited on $ZrO_2$ substrate using zirconium tetrachloride $(ZrCl_4),\;CH_4$ as a source and $H_2$ dilution gas, respectively. The change of input gas ratio was correlated with growth rate and morphology of deposited ZrC films. The growth rate of ZrC films increased as the input gas ratio decreased. The microstructure of ZrC films was changed with input gas ratio; small granular type grain structure was exhibited at the low input gas ratio. Angular type structure of increased grain size was observed at the high input gas ratio.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.1087-1100
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• 2009

A finite element method utilizing the Galerkin form of the weighted residuals procedure was developed to estimate the mechanical behavior for a coated fuel particle (CFP) of a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). Through a weak formulation, finite element equations for multiple layers were set up to calculate the displacements and stresses in a CFP. The finite element method was applied to the stress analyses for three coating layers of a tri-isotropic coated fuel particle (TRISO) of a HTGR. The stresses calculated by the finite element method were in good agreement with those from a previously developed computer code and depicted the typical stress behavior of the coating layers very well. The newly developed finite element method performs a stress analysis for multiple bonded layers in a CFP by changing the material properties at any position in the layers during irradiation.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.95.1-95.1
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• 2012

Very High Temperature gas cooler Reactor (VHTR) has been considered as one of the most promising nuclear reactor because of many advantages including high inherent safety to avoid environmental pollution, high thermal efficiency and the role of secondary energy source. The TRISO coated fuel particles used in VHTR are composed of 4 layers as OPyC, SiC, IPyC and buffer PyC. The significance of CVD-SiC coatings used in tri-isotropic(TRISO) nuclear coated fuel particles is to maintain the strength of the whole particle. Various methods have been proposed to evaluate the mechanical properties of CVD-SiC film at room temperature. However, few works have been attempted to characterize properties of CVD-SiC film at high temperature. In this study, micro tensile system was newly developed for mechanical characterization of SiC thin film at elevated temperature. Two kinds of CVD-SiC films were prepared for micro tensile test. SiC-A had [111]-preferred orientation, while SiC-B had [220]-preferred orientation. The free silicon was co-deposited in SiC-B coating layer. The fracture strength of two different CVD-SiC films was characterized up to $1000^{\circ}C$.The strength of SiC-B film decreased with temperature. This result can be explained by free silicon, observed in SiC-B along the columnar boundaries by TEM. The presence of free silicon causes strength degradation. Also, larger Weibull-modulus was measured. The new method can be used for thin film material at high temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.669-672
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• 2006

고온가스냉각 원자로에서는 고온 안정성 및 핵분열생성물 차단 성능이 우수한 TRISO(tri-tsotropic) 핵연료를 사용하고 있다. TRISO 핵연료 입자는 직경이 약 1 mm인 구 형태로 입자의 중심에는 직경 $0.5{\mu}m$의 핵연료 커널(kernel)이 포함되며 커널 외곽을 코팅 층이 에워싸고 있다. 이 코팅 층은 완충(buffer) PyC(pyrolytic carbon) 층, 내부 PyC 층, SiC 층, 그리고 외부 PyC 층으로 구성되어 있다. 각 코팅 층의 두께는 수십${\sim}$백 ${\mu}m$ 범위이며, 본 연구에서는 각 코팅 층의 두께를 비파괴적으로 측정하기 위하여 마이크로포커스 X-선 발생장치와 고해상도 X-선 평판(flat panel) 검출기로 구성된 정밀한 X-선 래디오그래피 장치를 구성하고, $UO_2$ 핵물질 대신에 $ZrO_2$를 커널로 사용한 모의 TRISO 핵연료 입자에 대한 래디오그래피 영상을 획득한 후 디지털 영상처리기술을 이용하여 코팅 층 사이의 경계선이 구분 가능하도록 영상을 개선하고 디지털 영상처리 알고리즘을 개발하여 코팅 층의 두께를 측정하였다.