• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.54-70
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• 2017

The accumulator is a passive safety injection device for emergency core cooling systems. As an important safety feature for providing a high-speed injection flow to the core by compressed nitrogen gas pressure during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), the accumulator injects its precharged nitrogen into the system after its coolant has been emptied. Attention has been drawn to the possible negative effects caused by such a nitrogen injection in passive safety nuclear power plants. Although some experimental work on the nitrogen injection has been done, there have been no comparative tests in which the effects on the system responses and the core safety have been clearly assessed. In this study, a new thermal hydraulic integral test facility-the advanced core-cooling mechanism experiment (ACME)-was designed and constructed to support the CAP1400 safety review. The ACME test facility was used to study the nitrogen injection effects on the system responses to the small break loss-of-coolant accident LOCA (SBLOCA) transient. Two comparison test groups-a 2-inch cold leg break and a double-ended direct-vessel-injection (DEDVI) line break-were conducted. Each group consists of a nitrogen injection test and a nitrogen isolation comparison test with the same break conditions. To assess the nitrogen injection effects, the experimental data that are representative of the system responses and the core safety were compared and analyzed. The results of the comparison show that the effects of nitrogen injection on system responses and core safety are significantly different between the 2-inch and DEDVI breaks. The mechanisms of the different effects on the transient were also investigated. The amount of nitrogen injected, along with its heat absorption, was likewise evaluated in order to assess its effect on the system depressurization process. The results of the comparison and analyses in this study are important for recognizing and understanding the potential negative effects on the passive core cooling performance caused by nitrogen injection during the SBLOCA transient.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1721-1731
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• 2011

This study was performed to determine the levels of depression symptoms among community elderlies and to reveal its related factors, specifically aimed at revealing social and family supports. The interviews were performed, during the period from July 1, to August 31, 2010, to 412 elderlies in urban areas. As a results, significantly higher level of depression symptoms was laid on those with lower social supports and family supports(p=0.000), and the subjects' depression was a negative correlation with social and family support. On multiple regression analysis, the level of depression symptoms was influenced by the variables of social and family support, with or without disability of visual acuity, sense of satisfaction in daily life, number of friends, educational level, with or without spouse, activity of hobbies and urinary incontinence. In conclusion, the level of depression symptoms was so complicatedly influenced by variable factors as well as socio-demographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, health status, social support net-work and social activities. Especially, the level of depression symptoms was more influenced by social supports and family supports.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.665-672
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• 2018

A venturi scrubber is an important element of Filtered Containment Venting System (FCVS) for the removal of aerosols in contaminated air. The present work involves computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of dust particle removal efficiency of a venturi scrubber operating in self-priming mode using ANSYS CFX. Titanium oxide ($TiO_2$) particles having sizes of 1 micron have been taken as dust particles. CFD methodology to simulate the venturi scrubber has been first developed. The cascade atomization and breakup (CAB) model has been used to predict deformation of water droplets, whereas the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach has been used to handle multiphase flow involving air, dust, and water. The developed methodology has been applied to simulate venturi scrubber geometry taken from the literature. Dust particle removal efficiency has been calculated for forced feed operation of venturi scrubber and found to be in good agreement with the results available in the literature. In the second part, venturi scrubber along with a tank has been modeled in CFX, and transient simulations have been performed to study self-priming phenomenon. Self-priming has been observed by plotting the velocity vector fields of water. Suction of water in the venturi scrubber occurred due to the difference between static pressure in the venturi scrubber and the hydrostatic pressure of water inside the tank. Dust particle removal efficiency has been calculated for inlet air velocities of 1 m/s and 3 m/s. It has been observed that removal efficiency is higher in case of higher inlet air velocity.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.715-725
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• 2017

Importance of climate change and its impact on agriculture and environment has increased with the rise in the levels of Green House Gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. To slow down the speed of climate change, numerous efforts have been applied in industrial sectors to reduce GHGs emission and to enhance carbon storage. In the agricultural sector, several types of research have been performed with emphasis on GHGs emission reduction; however, only a few work has been done in understanding the role of carbon sink on reduction in GHGs emission. In this study, we investigated ecosystem carbon balance and soil carbon storage in an agricultural paddy field. The results obtained were as follows: 1) Evaluation of soil C sequestration in paddy field was average $3.88Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+rice straw compost treatment, average $3.22Mg\;C\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+hairy vetch treatment, and average $1.97Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK treatment; and 2) Net ecosystem production (NEP) during the paddy growing season was average $14.01Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+hairy vetch treatment, average $12.60Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+rice straw compost treatment, and average $11.31Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK treatment. Therefore, it is proposed that organic matter treatment can lead to an increase in soil organic carbon accumulation and carbon sock of crop ecosystem in fields compared to chemical fertilizers.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.569-581
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to determine factors affecting self-rated health status among the elderly in urban areas. The study subjects were 390 persons aged 65 years and older who had lived more than 5 years in D city. Interviews from the questionnaire were conducted from June through August 2016. The distribution of self-rated health status was rated in terms of dependent variables, with odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals calculated using unconditional logistic models. As a result, 67.2% of the study subjects answered that they were healthy, whereas 32.8% were unhealthy. In the logistic regression analysis, disability and lowered IADL greatly lowered self-rated health status. The group without an occupation, living expenses from governmental subsidies, frequency of relative contents is seldom, anxiety is high, subjective sleep quality is low, satisfaction of daily life is low, had low levels of self-rated health status. Above results suggest that the self-rated health status of the elderly in urban areas is closely related to sociodemographic characteristics, physical health status, social activity participation, and psychosocial factors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.1044-1062
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• 2017

The construction project of the Kijang research reactor (KJRR), which is the second research reactor in Korea, has been launched. The KJRR was designed to use, for the first time, U-Mo fuel. Plate-type U-7 wt.% Mo/Al-5 wt.% Si, referred to as U-7Mo/Ale5Si, dispersion fuel with a uranium loading of $8.0gU/cm^3$, was selected to achieve higher fuel efficiency and performance than are possible when using $U_3Si_2/Al$ dispersion fuel. To qualify the U-Mo fuel in terms of plate geometry, the first miniplates [HANARO Miniplate (HAMP-1)], containing U-7Mo/Al-5Si dispersion fuel ($8gU/cm^3$), were fabricated at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and recently irradiated at HANARO. The PIE (Post-irradiation Examination) results of the HAMP-1 irradiation test were analyzed in depth in order to verify the safe in-pile performance of the U-7Mo/Al-5Si dispersion fuel under the KJRR irradiation conditions. Nondestructive analyses included visual inspection, gamma spectrometric mapping, and two-dimensional measurements of the plate thickness and oxide thickness. Destructive PIE work was also carried out, focusing on characterization of the microstructural behavior using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Electron probe microanalysis was also used to measure the elemental concentrations in the interaction layer formed between the U-Mo kernels and the matrix. A blistering threshold test and a bending test were performed on the irradiated HAMP-1 miniplates that were saved from the destructive tests. Swelling evaluation of the U-Mo fuel was also conducted using two methods: plate thickness measurement and meat thickness measurement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3068-3084
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• 2021

Investigations of large commercial aircraft impact effect on nuclear power plant (NPP) buildings have been drawing extensive attentions, particularly after the 9/11 event, and this paper aims to experimentally assess the damage and vibrations of NPP buildings subjected to aircraft crash. In present Part I, two shots of reduce-scaled model test of aircraft impacting on NPP building were carried out. Firstly, the 1:15 aircraft model (weighs 135 kg) and RC NPP model (weighs about 70 t) are designed and prepared. Then, based on the large rocket sled loading test platform, the aircraft models were accelerated to impact perpendicularly on the two sides of NPP model, i.e., containment and auxiliary buildings, with a velocity of about 170 m/s. The strain-time histories of rebars within the impact area and acceleration-time histories of each floor of NPP model are derived from the pre-arranged twenty-one strain gauges and twenty tri-axial accelerometers, and the whole impact processes were recorded by three high-speed cameras. The local penetration and perforation failure modes occurred respectively in the collision scenarios of containment and auxiliary buildings, and some suggestions for the NPP design are given. The maximum acceleration in the 1:15 scaled tests is 1785.73 g, and thus the corresponding maximum resultant acceleration in a prototype impact might be about 119 g, which poses a potential threat to the nuclear equipment. Furthermore, it was found that the nonlinear decrease of vibrations along the height was well reflected by the variations of both the maximum resultant vibrations and Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV). The present experimental work on the damage and dynamic responses of NPP structure under aircraft impact is firstly presented, which could provide a benchmark basis for further safety assessments of prototype NPP structure as well as inner systems and components against aircraft crash.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3217-3228
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• 2021

Flow blockage of the fuel assembly in the lead-based fast reactor (LFR) may produce critical local spots, which will result in cladding failure and threaten reactor safety. In this study, the flow blockage characteristics were analyzed with the sub-channel analysis method, and the circumferentially-varied method was employed for considering the non-uniform distribution of circumferential temperature. The developed sub-channel analysis code SACOS-PB was validated by a heat transfer experiment in a blocked 19-rod bundle cooled by lead-bismuth eutectic. The deviations between the predicted coolant temperature and experimental values are within ±5%, including small and large flow blockage scenarios. And the temperature distributions of the fuel rod could be better simulated by the circumferentially-varied method for the small blockage scenario. Based on the validated code, the analysis of blockage characteristics was conducted. It could be seen from the temperature and flow distributions that a large blockage accident is more destructive compared with a small one. The sensitivity analysis shows that the closer the blockage location is to the exit, the more dangerous the accident is. Similarly, a larger blockage length will lead to a more serious case. And a higher exit temperature will be generated resulting from a higher peak coolant temperature of the blocked region. This work could provide a reference for the future design and development of the LFR.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3367-3378
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• 2021

The design phase and safety assessment of Generation IV liquid metal-cooled fast reactors calls for the improvement of fuel pin performance codes, in particular the enhancement of their predictive capabilities towards uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuels and stainless-steel cladding under irradiation in fast reactor environments. To this end, the current capabilities of fuel performance codes must be critically assessed against experimental data from available irradiation experiments. This work is devoted to the assessment of three European fuel performance codes, namely GERMINAL, MACROS and TRANSURANUS, against the irradiation of two fuel pins selected from the SUPERFACT-1 experimental campaign. The pins are characterized by a low enrichment (~ 2 wt.%) of minor actinides (neptunium and americium) in the fuel, and by plutonium content and cladding material in line with design choices envisaged for liquid metal-cooled Generation IV reactor fuels. The predictions of the codes are compared to several experimental measurements, allowing the identification of the current code capabilities in predicting fuel restructuring, cladding deformation, redistribution of actinides and volatile fission products. The integral assessment against experimental data is complemented by a code-to-code benchmark focused on the evolution of quantities of engineering interest over time. The benchmark analysis points out the differences in the code predictions of fuel central temperature, fuel-cladding gap width, cladding outer radius, pin internal pressure and fission gas release and suggests potential modelling development paths towards an improved description of the fuel pin behaviour in fast reactor irradiation conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1834-1845
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• 2021

Liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor is one of the most promising reactor types among the fourth-generation nuclear energy systems. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are completely different from ordinary fluids due to its special thermal properties, causing that the traditional Reynolds analogy is no longer recommended and appropriate. More accurate turbulence flow and heat transfer model for the liquid metal lead-bismuth should be developed and applied in CFD simulation. In this paper, a specific CFD solver for simulating the flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth based on the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was developed based on the open source platform OpenFOAM. Then the advantage of proposed model was demonstrated and validated against a set of experimental data. Finally, the simulation of LBE turbulent flow and heat transfer in a 7-pin wire-wrapped rod bundle with the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was carried out. The influence of wire on the flow and heat transfer characteristics and the three-dimensional distribution of key thermal hydraulic parameters such as temperature, cross-flow velocity and Nusselt number were studied and presented. Compared with the traditional SED model with a constant Pr_t = 1.5 or 2.0, the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is more accurate on predicting the turbulence flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth. The average relative error of the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is reduced by 11.1% at most under the simulation conditions in this paper. This work is meaningful for the thermal hydraulic analysis and structure design of fuel assembly in the liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor.