• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.99-108
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• 2006

SNU-RCCS is a water pool type RCCS (Reactor Cavity Cooling System) developed for VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) application by SNU (Seoul National University). Since radiation heat transfer is the major process of passive heat removal in a RCCS, it is important to determine the precise emissivity of the reactor vessel. Review studies have used a constant emissivity in the passive heat removal analysis, even though the emissivity depends on many factors such as temperature, surface roughness, oxidation level, wavelength, direction, atmosphere conditions, etc. Therefore, information on the emissivity of a given material in a real RCCS is essential in order to properly analyze the radiation heat transfer in a VHTR. The objectives of this study are to develop a method for compensation of the factors affecting the emissivity measurement using an infrared thermometer and to estimate the true emissivity from the measured emissivity via the developed method, especially in the SNU-RCCS environment. From this viewpoint, we investigated factors such as the attenuation effect of the window, filling gas, and the effect of background radiation on the emissivity measurements. The emissivity of the vessel surface of the SNU-RCCS facility was then measured using a sight tube. The background radiation was subsequently removed from the measured emissivity by solving a simultaneous equation. Finally, the calculated emissivity was compared with the measured emissivity in a separate emissivity measurement device, yielding good agreement with the emissivity increase with vessel temperature in a range of 0.82 to 0.88.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2009년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.723-726
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• 2009

As a preliminary study of cost estimates for nuclear hydrogen systems, the hydrogen production costs of the nuclear energy sources benchmarking GT-MHR are estimated in the necessary input data on a Korean specific basis. G4-ECONS developed by EMWG of GIF in 2008 was appropriately modified to calculate the cost for hydrogen production of SI process with VHTR as a thermal energy source rather than the LUEC. The estimated costs presented in this paper show that hydrogen production by the VHTR could be competitive with current techniques of hydrogen production from fossil fuels if $CO_2$ capture and sequestration is required. Nuclear production of hydrogen would allow large-scale production of hydrogen at economic prices while avoiding the release of $CO_2$. Nuclear production of hydrogen could thus become the enabling technology for the hydrogen economy. The major factors that would affect the cost of hydrogen were also discussed.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.33-38
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• 2012

A PHE (Process Heat Exchanger) in a nuclear hydrogen system is a key component required to transfer heat energy of $950^{\circ}C$ generated in a VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) to a chemical reaction that yields a large quantity of hydrogen. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has established a small-scale gas loop for the performance test on VHTR components and recently has manufactured a medium-scale PHE prototype made of Hastelloy-X. A performance test on the PHE prototype is scheduled in the gas loop. In this study, high-temperature structural analysis modeling, and macroscopic thermal and structural analysis of the medium-scale PHE prototype by imposing the established displacement boundary constraints in the previous research were carried out under the gas loop test condition. The results obtained in this study will be compared with performance test results.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제20권5호
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• pp.416-423
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• 2009

High-temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE) using solid oxide cell is a challenging method for highly efficient large-scale hydrogen production as a reversible process of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The overall efficiency of the HTSE hydrogen and synthesis gas production system was analyzed thermo-electrochemically. A thermo-electrochemical model for the hydrogen and synthesis gas production system with solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) and very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) was established. Sensitivity analyses with regard to the system were performed to investigate the quantitative effects of key parameters on the overall efficiency of the production system. The overall efficiency with SOEC and VHTR was expected to reach a maximum of 58% for the hydrogen production system and to 62% for synthesis gas production system by improving electrical efficiency, steam utilization rate, waste heat recovery rate, electrolysis efficiency, and thermal efficiency. Therefore, overall efficiency of the synthesis production system has higher efficiency than that of the hydrogen production system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권5호
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• pp.534-545
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• 2015

In the very high temperature reactor (VHTR), which is a next generation nuclear reactor system, ceramics are used as a fuel coating material and graphite is used as a core structural material. Even if a depressurization accident occurs and the reactor power goes up instantly, the temperature of the core will change only slowly. This is because the thermal capacity of the core is so high. Therefore, the VHTR system can passively remove the decay heat of the core by natural convection and radiation from the surface of the reactor pressure vessel. The objectives of this study are to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of natural convection of a one-side heated vertical channel with inserted porous materials of high porosity and also to develop the passive cooling system for the VHTR. An experiment was carried out using a one-side heated vertical rectangular channel. To obtain the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of the vertical channel with inserted porous material, we have also carried out a numerical analysis using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. This paper describes the thermal performances of the one-side heated vertical rectangular channel with an inserted copper wire of high porosity.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.7-13
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• 2011

A study on reliability estimation of sequential-ordered multiple failure modes, which are sequentially ordered between failure modes in a considering system, was performed. Especially, an approach to estimate the probabilities of failure modes has been proposed under an assumption that failure modes are mutually exclusive and sequentially ordered by only a critical variable. A feasibility of the proposed approach were studied by a practical example, which is a reliability estimation of passive safety systems for a probabilistic safety assessment(PSA) of a very high temperature reactor(VHTR) that is under development as a future nuclear system with enhanced safety features. It is difficult to define a robust failure state of this nuclear system because of its enhanced radiation release characteristics, so the new approach is a useful concept to estimate not only its safety but also a PSA. A feasibility study applied two failure modes(e.g., small and large release of radioactive materials) with considering the integrated behavior of this nuclear system. It is expected that the multiple release states for a practical estimation can be easily extended to the aforementioned example. It was found out that the proposed approach was a useful technique to cover the unfavorable features of this nuclear system as to performing a VHTR PSA.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.267-273
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• 2023

As the impacts of global climate change become increasingly apparent, the reduction of carbon emissions has emerged as a critical subject of discussion. Nuclear power has garnered attention as a potential carbon-free energy source; however, the rapidity of load following in nuclear power generation poses challenges in comparison to fossil-fueled methods. Consequently, power-to-gas systems, which integrate nuclear power and hydrogen, have attracted growing interest. This study presents a preliminary design of a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) integrated blue hydrogen production process utilizing DWSIM, an open-source process simulator. The blue hydrogen production process is estimated to supply the necessary calorific value for carbon capture through tail gas combustion heat. Moreover, a thermodynamic assessment of the main recuperator is performed as a function of the helium flow rate from the VHTR system to the blue hydrogen production system.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.113-120
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• 2008

이 연구에서는 국내 개발중인 초고온가스로 (VHTR: Very High Temperature Reactor)를 대상으로, 발생되는 삼중수소 양, 계통간 이송, 제거, 분포 그리고 최종적으로 생산된 수소에 대한 삼중수소에 의한 오염 준위를 예측할 수 있는 해석 모델인 TRITGO 코드를 소개하였고, 수소를 생산하는 IS (Iodine Sulfide) 계통으로의 삼중수소 투과양을 모의할 수 있도록 코드를 개선하였다. 또한 GT-MHR 600MW 열출력을 가정, 최종 수소 생산물의 삼중수소에 의한 오염치를 예측하였다. 예상 오염치는 약 0.055 Bq/$H_2-g$으로 일본 규제치 56 Bq/$H_2-g$에 약 1/1000 수준으로 낮게 예측되었다. 모의 결과 삼중수소 방출을 억제하기 위해서는 피복관의 건전성 유지 및 헬륨 냉각재와 흑연으로 구성된 반사체내 불순물인 $^3He$ 및 Li을 가능한한 낮은 준위로 유지하는 것이 필요함을 보여 주었다. 또한 냉각재내 불순물을 직접 제거할 수 있는 정화계통의 성능이 중요한 설계인자로 판단되었다.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2016년도 춘계학술논문요약집
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• pp.247-248
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• 2016

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2012

A PHE (Process Heat Exchanger) is a key component required to transfer heat energy of $950^{\circ}C$ generated in a VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) to the chemical reaction that yields a large quantity of hydrogen. A small-scale PHE prototype made of Hastelloy-X is being tested in a small-scale gas loop at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. In order to properly evaluate the high-temperature structural integrity of the small-scale PHE prototype, it is very important to impose a proper constraint condition on its structural analysis model. For this effort, we tried to impose several constraint conditions on the structural analysis model and consequently fixed a proper and effective displacement constraints.