• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.504-511
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• 2018

In Lithuania, all spent nuclear fuel (SNF) resulted from the operation of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP), which had two Russian Acronym for "Channelized Large Power Reactor"-type reactors. After the final shutdown, the total amount of SNF at the INPP was approximately 22,000 fuel assemblies. All these assemblies will be stored for about 50 years and disposed of after that. The decision to shut down and decommission both reactors in Lithuania before termination of design period raises a significant challenge for the treatment of accumulated SNF. Therefore, various techniques and technologies for SNF management were developed and justified for that specific case, and a set of special equipment was installed at the INPP, the effectiveness of which was demonstrated during its operation. This article presents unique techniques related to the management of SNF adopted and commissioned at the INPP after its operation shutdown, namely fuel rod cladding leak tightness control system and special equipment for collection of possible spillage during handling of SNF assembly in the hot cell. The operational experience and measurement results of fuel rod cladding leak tightness control system are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2373-2379
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• 2023

In sodium systems, leakage is one of the safety concerns; it can cause chemical reactions, which may result in fires. There are contact and non-contact types of leak detectors, and the conventional method of non-contact type detection is by gas sampling. Because of the complexity of this method, there has always been a need for a simple gas sensor, and the resistive-type nanostructure ZnO sensor is a promising option with various advantages. In this study, a ZnO sensor was fabricated, and the concept was tested as a leak detector using a dedicated experiment facility. The experiment results showed distinctive changes in resistance with the presence of sodium aerosol under various conditions. Replacing the conventional gas sampling with the ZnO sensors is expected to enable identification of the leakage location if used as a point-wise instrumentation and to greatly reduce the total cost, making the system simple, light, and effective. For further study, more tests will be performed to evaluate the sensitivity of key parameters under various conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.651-659
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• 2011

With the increase in the thermal power output of recently developed nuclear power plants, the applied forces and moments are increased in some piping systems, so that the leak-before-break (LBB) application criteria would not be satisfied in those pipes. In this paper, we present a method for obtaining the additive LBB margin in the pipes by considering the nonlinearity of the crack and material properties. Finite element analysis and the moment-rotation equation of beam theory were used to calculate the nonlinearity of the crack and material properties. Moreover crack stability analysis was performed using the method proposed in this study. The LBB margin was increased effectively through consideration of the nonlinearity of the crack and material properties in the pipe.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.7-13
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• 2017

As environmental problems become a problem of survival, interest in eco-friendly energy is increasing to improve the environment. So, demand for eco-friendly fuels such as hydrogen, LPG and CNG is increasing. In particular, Korea, which relies on imports of most fuels, is investing in the development of hydrogen energy, which is favorable in terms of high production volume and energy independence. However, As demand grows every year, a variety of accidents occur in various ways, ranging from small leak incidents to massive fires and explosion, thus research needs to be done. So, in this study, compared and analyzed cases of hydrogen, LPG, CNG accidents occurring at domestic and overseas refueling stations. and various programs were used for assessing risk, estimated the flame length due to gas leakage and evaluated the dangerous distance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.292-297
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• 2011

Gas pipeline safety management and risk prediction are recognized as a very important issue. And the effort to prevent accidents is essential. So, in this study, it was studied through correlation of pressure changes for leak point detection in real-time. It experimented by installing the five leakage valves in the pipe of 378 m and compared the actual leak points with simulation results. The results showed that experimental leak points and the actual leak points have differences within the 6 m. And this technology has to be commercialized by the demonstration in dangerous zone.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1162-1173
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• 2016

In this paper, we describe a physicomathematical model of the processes that occur in a sodium circuit with a variable flow cross-section in the case of a water leak into sodium. The application area for this technique includes the possibility of analyzing consequences of this leak as applied to sodium-water steam generators in fast neutron reactors. Hydrodynamic processes that occur in sodium circuits in the event of a water leak are described within the framework of a one-dimensional thermally nonequilibrium three-component gas-liquid flow model (sodium-hydrogen-sodium hydroxide). Consideration is given to the results of a mathematical modeling of experiments involving steam injection into the sodium loop of a circulation test facility. That was done by means of the computer code in which the proposed model had been implemented.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2014

In order to research the relationship between the tip clearance and leakage flow of centrifugal compressor, a high speed centrifugal compressor was investigated by using CFD. A numerical study on the effect of four different rotor tip clearance sizes of centrifugal compressor, which were 0.5times, 1 times, 1.5times and 2.0times of the design tip clearance, was carried out. Efficiency and pressure ratio curves were obtained under different mass flow. The reasons of the clearance vortex and the factors of vortex size were analyzed. The result indicated that with the increase of tip clearance size, the performance of the compressor changed obviously, the performance parameters such as efficiency and pressure ratio tended to decrease obviously. While, the leakage flow does not always lead to leak vortex. The strength of the vortex increased with the tip clearance. The size of leak vortex was affected by the pressure difference between the suction side and the pressure side of blade tip.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.23-31
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• 2012

The basic understanding of gas diffusion and technology to predict the diffusion phenomena are needed to prepare against a disaster of leakage of natural gas and to design better consistent and reliable gas supply system in enclosure. The experimental results of British Gas Technology Co. are used in present study as a reference of theoretical study using CFD. The present results of 2D CFD analysis for mass flow rate of nozzle release show good agreement with experimental results within 2.6 % error. 3D CFD analysis for the characteristics of natural gas diffusion in enclosure with various ventilation patterns also gives reasonable agreement with experimental results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2000

It is reported that the toughness and safety margins of the SA106 Gr.C main steam line piping steel is reduced due to dynamic strain aging (DSA) at the reactor operating temperature for Leak-Before-Break (LBB) application. In this study, intercritical annealing in two-phase ($\alpha$+${\gamma}$）region was performed to investigate the possibility of improving the toughness and reducing DSA susceptibility. The manifestations of DSA were still observed in the tensile tests of the annealed specimens. However, the ductility loss caused by DSA was smaller than that in the as-received material. Furthermore, the intercritical annealing was able to increase the Charpy impact toughness by 1.5 times compared to as-received. With the heat treatment, we could obtain microstructural changes such as the cleaner retained ferrite, increased ferrite content and somewhat finer grain size. It is considered that the reduced DSA was induced by cleaner retained ferrite, which in turn resulted in higher impact toughness in addition to the general toughening due to finer grain sizes and increased ferrite content.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.7 no.2 s.19
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

In this work, procedure evaluating failure modes such as pipe rupture, large scale leak, and small scale leak was suggested using equations to assess remaining strength by corrosion failure. Additionally, the method to predict probability of failure was suggested according to the aforementioned failure modes, and by combining data on corrosion rate, probability of long-term failure can be induced. This work will be very useful in predicting lifetime or exchanging period of pipeline.