• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.103-111
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• 2002

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.462-473
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• 2018

The uranium ore residues from the legacies of past uranium mining and milling activities that resulted from the less stringent environmental standards along with the uranium residues from the existing nuclear power plants continue to be a cause of concern as the final uranium residues are not made safe from radiological and general safety point of view. The deposition of uranium in ponds increases the risk of groundwater getting contaminated as these residues essentially leach through the upper unsaturated geological formation. In this context, a numerical model has been developed in order to forecast the $^{238}U$ and its progenies concentration in an unsaturated soil. The developed numerical model is implemented in a hypothetical uranium tailing pond consisting of sandy soil and silty soil types. The numerical results show that the $^{238}U$ and its progenies are migrating up to the depth of 90 m and 800 m after 10 y in silty and sandy soil, respectively. Essentially, silt may reduce the risk of contamination in the groundwater for longer time span and at the deeper depths. In general, a coupled effect of sorption and hydro-geological parameters (soil type, moisture context and hydraulic conductivity) decides the resultant uranium transport in subsurface environment.

• 자원환경지질
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• 제41권6호
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• pp.719-729
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• 2008

본 연구에서는 지구화학 모델을 활용하여 지하수 환경에서의 우라늄의 존재 형태, 흡착 및 이동 특성을 모사해 보았다. 흡착에 의한 우라늄의 지연 이동을 효과적으로 모사하기 위하여 3차원 지하수 유동 모델과 반응성 용질 이동 모델을 활용하였다. 모사 결과, $pCO_2=10^{-3.6}$조건에서 대부분의 우라늄 흡착(최대 99.5%)은 pH 5.5와 띠에서 발생하였다. $pCO_2$가 $10^{-2.5}$인 경우 우라늄이 대부분 흡착되는 pH범위는 6에서 7사이로 매우 좁았으며, 반면 $pCO_2=10^{-4.5}$인 경우에는 흡착되는 pH가 범위가 상대적으로 넓어 pH 5.5에서 8.5사이에서 대부분 흡착되었다. 음이온 화합물을 고려한 경우에는 pH 6 이하에서는 불소착물의 형성에 의해 우라늄 흡착이 감소하였다. 본 연구를 통하여, 우라늄 이동이 pH, $pCO_2$ 및 음이온의 종류와 농도 등 지하수의 지화학적 조건에 의해 상당히 영향을 받음을 알 수 있었다. 향후 여러 부지 조사 및 평가와 관련하여 우라늄 및 기타 유해성 화합물의 환경 영향을 예측하는데 있어 지구화학 모델이 중요한 도구로 활용되어야 할 것이다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권5호
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• pp.794-800
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• 2018

The proliferation resistance (PR) of Th/U and Th/Pu fuels used in CANada Deuterium Uranium for the deep geological repository was assessed by combining the multiattribute utility analysis proposed by Chirayath et al., 2015 with the transport model of radionuclides in the repository and comparing with that of the used natural U fuel case. It was found that there was no significant advantage for Th/U and Th/Pu fuels from the viewpoint of the PR in the repository. It was also found that the PR values for used nuclear fuels in the repository of Th/U, Th/Pu, and natural U was comparable with those for enrichment and reprocessing facilities in the pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear fuel cycle. On the other hand, the PR values considering the transport of radionuclides in the repository were found to be slightly smaller than those without their transport after the used nuclear fuels started dissolving after 1,000 years.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.1398-1405
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• 2019

We use a molecular dynamics simulation to explore thermal transport in oxide nuclear fuels with point defects. The effect of vacancy and substitutional defects on the thermal conductivity of plutonium dioxide and uranium dioxide is investigated. It is found that the thermal conductivities of these fuels are reduced significantly by the presence of small amount of vacancy defects; 0.1% oxygen vacancy reduces the thermal conductivity of plutonium dioxide by more than 10%. The missing of larger atoms has a more detrimental impact on the thermal conductivity of actinide oxides. In uranium dioxide, for example, 0.1% uranium vacancies decrease the thermal conductivity by 24.6% while the same concentration of oxygen vacancies decreases the thermal conductivity by 19.4%. However, uranium substitution has a minimal effect on the thermal conductivity; 1.0% uranium substitution decreases the thermal conductivity of plutonium dioxide only by 1.5%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.751-757
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• 2016

The present work discusses two different models of boiling water reactor (BWR) bundle to compare the neutronic characteristics of uranium dioxide ($UO_2$) and uranium zirconium hydride ($UZrH_{1.6}$) fuel. Each bundle consists of four assemblies. The BWR assembly fueled with $UO_2$ contains $8{\times}8$ fuel rods while that fueled with $UZrH_{1.6}$ contains $9{\times}9$ fuel rods. The Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport code, based on the Mont Carlo method, is used to design three dimensional models for BWR fuel bundles at typical operating temperatures and pressure conditions. These models are used to determine the multiplication factor, pin-by-pin power distribution, axial power distribution, thermal neutron flux distribution, and axial thermal neutron flux. The moderator and coolant (water) are permitted to boil within the BWR core forming steam bubbles, so it is important to calculate the reactivity effect of voiding at different values. It is found that the hydride fuel bundle design can be simplified by eliminating water rods and replacing the control blade with control rods. $UZrH_{1.6}$ fuel improves the performance of the BWR in different ways such as increasing the energy extracted per fuel assembly, reducing the uranium ore, and reducing the plutonium accumulated in the BWR through burnup.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.231-242
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• 2012

The performance of a nanofiltration membrane for treatment of a low-level radioactive liquid waste was investigated through static and dynamic tests. The liquid waste ("carbonated water") was obtained during conversion of $UF_6$ to $UO_2$. In the static tests membrane samples were immersed in the waste for 24, 48 or 72 h. The transport properties of the samples (hydraulic permeability, permeate flow, selectivity) were evaluated before and after immersion in the waste. In the dynamic tests the waste was permeated in a permeation flow front system under 0.5 MPa, to determine the selectivity of NF membranes to uranium. The surface layer of the membrane was characterized by zeta potential, field emission microscopy, atomic force spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy. The static test showed that the pore size distribution of the selective layer was altered, but the membrane surface charge was not significantly changed. 99% of uranium was rejected after the dynamic tests.

• 한국지하수토양환경학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지하수토양환경학회 2002년도 추계학술발표회
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• pp.161-166
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• 2002

Bioremediation of trace metals in groundwater may require the manipulation of redox conditions via the injection of a carbon source. To simulate the numerous biogeochemical processes that will occur during the bioremediation of trace-metal-contaminated aquifers, a reactive transport model has been developed. The model consists of a set of coupled mass balance equations, accounting for advection, hydrodynamic dispersion, and a kinetic formulation of the biological or chemical transformations affecting an organic substrate, electron acceptors, corresponding reduced species, and trace metal contaminants of interest, uranium in this study. The redox conditions of the domain are characterized by estimating the pE, based on the concentrations of the dominant terminal electron acceptor and its corresponding reduced specie. This pE and the concentrations of relevant species we then used by a modified version of MINTEQA2, which calculates the speciation/sorption and precipitation/dissolution of the species of interest under equilibrium conditions. Kinetics of precipitation/dissolution processes are described as being proportional to the difference between the actual and calculated equilibrium concentration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권5호
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• pp.559-566
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• 2015

The thermalehydraulic characteristics for the CANadian Deuterium Uranium Flexible (CANFLEX)-burnable poison (BP) fuel channel, which is loaded with a BP at the center ring based on the CANFLEX-RU (recycled uranium) fuel channel, are evaluated and compared with that of standard 37-element and CANFLEX-NU (natural uranium) fuel channels. The distributions of fuel temperature and critical channel power for the CANFLEX-BP fuel channel are calculated using the NUclear Heat Transport CIRcuit Thermohydraulics Analysis Code (NUCIRC) code for various creep rate and burnup. CANFLEX-BP fuel channel has been revealed to have a lower fuel temperature compared with that of a standard 37-element fuel channel, especially for high power channels. The critical channel power of CANFLEX-BP fuel channel has increased by about 10%, relative to that of a standard 37-element fuel channel for 380 channels in a core, and has higher value relative to that of the CANFLEX-NU fuel channel except the channels in the outer core. This study has shown that the use of a BP is feasible to enhance the thermal performance by the axial heat flux distribution, as well as the improvement of the reactor physical safety characteristics, and thus the reactor safety can be improved by the use of BP in a CANDU reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.453-461
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• 2018

Shaft stations of underground uranium mines in China are not only utilized as waiting space for loaded mine-cars queuing to be hoisted but also as the principal channel for fresh air taken to working places. Therefore, assessment of how mine-car queuing processes affect shaft station radon concentration was carried out. Queuing network of mine-cars has been analyzed in an underground uranium mine, located in Quzhou, Zhejiang province of Eastern China. On the basis of mathematical analysis of the queue network, a MATLAB-based quasi-random number generating program utilizing Monte-Carlo methods was worked out. Extensive simulations were then implemented via MATALB operating on a DELL PC. Thereafter, theoretical calculations and field measurements of shaft station radon concentrations for several working conditions were performed. The queuing performance measures of interest, like average queuing length and waiting time, were found to be significantly affected by the utilization rate (positively correlated). However, even with respect to the "worst case", the shaft station radon concentration was always lower than $200Bq/m^3$. The model predictions were compared with the measuring results, and a satisfactory agreement was noted. Under current working conditions, queuing-induced variations of shaft station radon concentration of the study mine are not remarkable.