• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.357-364
• /
• 2022

The safety of a KTC-360 transport cask, a large-capacity pressurized heavy-water reactor transport cask that transports CANDU spent nuclear fuel discharged from the reactor after burning in a pressurized heavy-water reactor, must be demonstrated under the normal transport and accident conditions specified under transport cask regulations. To confirm the thermal integrity of this cask under normal transport and accident conditions, high-temperature and fire tests were performed using a one-third slice model of an actual KTC-360 cask. The results revealed that the surface temperature of the cask was 62℃, indicating that such casks must be transported separately. The highest temperature of the CANDU spent nuclear fuel was predicted to be lower than the melting temperature of Zircaloy-4, which was the sheath material used. Therefore, if normal operating conditions are applied, the thermal integrity of a KTC-360 cask can be maintained under normal transport conditions. The fire test revealed that the maximum temperatures of the structural materials, stainless steel, and carbon steel were 446℃ lower than the permitted maximum temperatures, proving the thermal integrity of the cask under fire accident conditions.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.18 no.spc
• /
• pp.21-36
• /
• 2020

With respect to spent nuclear fuels, disposal containers and bentonite buffer blocks in deep geological disposal systems are the primary engineered barrier elements that are required to isolate radioactive toxicity for a long period of time and delay the leakage of radio nuclides such that they do not affect human and natural environments. Therefore, the thermal stability of the bentonite buffer and structural integrity of the disposal container are essential factors for maintaining the safety of a deep geological disposal system. The most important requirement in the design of such a system involves ensuring that the temperature of the buffer does not exceed 100℃ because of the decay heat emitted from high-level wastes loaded in the disposal container. In addition, the disposal containers should maintain structural integrity under loads, such as hydraulic pressure, at an underground depth of 500 m and swelling pressure of the bentonite buffer. In this study, we analyzed the thermal stability and structural integrity in a deep geological disposal environment of the improved deep geological disposal systems for domestic light-water and heavy-water reactor types of spent nuclear fuels, which were considered to be subject to direct disposal. The results of the thermal stability and structural integrity assessments indicated that the improved disposal systems for each type of spent nuclear fuel satisfied the temperature limit requirement (< 100℃) of the disposal system, and the disposal containers were observed to maintain their integrity with a safety ratio of 2.0 or higher in the environment of deep disposal.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.3136-3148
• /
• 1994

This paper proposed the method of fracture integrity evaluation for semi-elliptical crack. Plane strain fracture toughnesses are used to compare with the thermal shock stress intensity factors for semi-elliptical crack obtained by Vainshtok weight function method. The method is applied to the finite Cr Mo V and 2.25Cr Mo steel plates with semi-elliptical crack under the thermal shock. For the purpose, tensile property and fracture toughness with respect to the temperature are measured. To verify the method, thermal shock experiments are carried. The theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.555-560
• /
• 2007

This paper describes the results of a study on the sealing integrity of polymer housed surge arrester based on the thermal mechanical test. The polymer housed surge arrester employs silicone insulating materials for its housing, instead of the conventional porcelain housing. The polymer housed surge arresters exhibited the highest sealing integrity because it is not air volume between the FRP(fiber reinforced plastics) module and the silicone housing. In accordance, the sealing integrity of station class surge arresters is investigated with moisture ingress test. And, the influence of sealing integrity was evaluated through such as measurement of the deflection, reference voltage, leakage current. In electrical characteristics, reference voltage decreased in the range of $16.45{\sim}16.15\;kV$ with after thermal mechanical test. In contrary, despite the continued moisture ingress, the polymer housed surge arresters exhibited almost the same leakage current value and the resistive leakage current has risen slightly. As a results, It was thought that the polymer housed surge arresters shows good stability with sealing integrity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.99-107
• /
• 2000

A probabilistic integrity analysis method is presented for a reactor vessel under pressurized thermal shock(PTS) based on Monte Carlo simulation. This method can be applied to the structural integrity assessment of a reactor vessel subjected to pressurized thermal shock where the coolant temperature transient cannot be expressed explicitly as a time function. An axially or circumferentially oriented infinite length surface crack is assumed to be in the beltline weld region of the rector vessel's inside surface. The random variables are the initial crack depth, neutron fluence on the vessel's inside surface, the copper and nickel content of the vessel materials, R $T_{NDT}$ , $K_{IC}$ , and K/aub la/. The reliability of a sample reactor vessel under PTS is assessed quantitatively and the influence of the amount of neutron fluence is also examined by applying the present method.sent method.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.74-83
• /
• 2020

A number of so-called 'Type IV' cracking was reported to occur at the welded joints of the P91 steel or P92 steel reheat steam piping systems in Korean supercritical thermal power plants. The reheat steam piping systems are subjected to severe thermal and pressure loading conditions of coolant higher than 570℃ and 4MPa, respectively. In this study, piping analyses and design evaluations were conducted for the piping system of a specific thermal plant in Korea and suggestions were made how structural integrity could be improved so that type IV cracks at the welded joints could be prevented. Integrity evaluations were conducted as per ASME B31.1 code with implicit consideration of creep effects which was used in original design of the piping system and as per nuclear-grade RCC-MRx code with explicit consideration of creep effects. Comparisons were made between the evaluation results from the two design rules. Another approach with modification or reduction of the redundant supports in the piping systems was investigated as a tool to mitigate thermal stresses which should essentially contribute to prevention of Type IV cracking without major modification of the existing piping systems. In addition, a post weld heat treatment method and repair weld method which could improve integrity of the welded joint of P91 steel were investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.727-728
• /
• 2008

The objective of this study is to evaluate the integrity for a reactor pressure vessel under the pressurized thermal shock by applying the probability fracture mechanics. A semi-elliptical axial crack is assumed to be in the beltline region of the reactor pressure vessel. The selected random variables are the neutron fluence on the vessel inside surface, the content of copper, nickel, and phosphorus in the reactor pressure vessel material, and initial RTNDT. The probabilistic integrity analysis was performed using the Monte Carlo simulation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.257-265
• /
• 2011

Plant-specific analyses of 5 types of domestic reactors in Korea are performed to assure the structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) during transients which are expected to initiate pressurized thermal shock (PTS) events. The failure probability of the RPV due to PTS is obtained by performing probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis. The through-wall cracking frequency is calculated and compared to the acceptance criterion. Considering the fluence at the end of life expected by surveillance test, the sufficient safety margin is expected for the structural integrity of all reactor pressure vessels except for the oldest one during the pressurized thermal shock events. If the flaw with aspect ratio of 1/12 is considered to eliminate the conservatism, the acceptance criteria is not exceeded for all plants until the fluence level of $8{\times}10^{19}\;n/cm^2$, generating sufficient margin beyond the design life.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.647-654
• /
• 2007

Postulation of flaws, one of the most important areas in RPV integrity assessment, significantly affects the results. In the present work, several parameters, such as orientation, underclad vs. surface cracking, crack depth and shape, etc., are postulated and parametric studies are performed to investigate the influence of the flaw parameters on the structural integrity assessment of the reactor pressure vessel during pressurized thermal shock. The influence of individual parameters describing the crack is evaluated based on sensitivity study results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 1997.11a
• /
• pp.258-261
• /
• 1997

The sealing integrity is related to the safe operation of arrester the prime failure reason of porcelain housed arresters is moisture ingress. To be a meaningful tests a polymer arrester sealing test must be a realistic acceleration of field service. We think the test should be an accelerating course of actual temperatures, the enduring property to mechanical load and temperatures should be considered together. A union test method consisting of the thermal mechanical test and thermal cycling test is proposed to test the sealing integrity of polymeric arresters, which uses dielectric loss, leakage current 1mA DC voltage and partial discharge as the diagnostic techniques, and the test results were presented. The comparison states that the TMTCUT method is suitable fur the test of sealing integrity of polymeric arresters. .