• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.407-412
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• 2014

In this research, we investigated the burnup characteristics and the conversion of fertile $^{232}Th$ into fissile $^{233}U$ in the core of a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR). The SFR fuel assemblies were designed for burning $^{232}Th$ fuel (fuel pin 1) and $^{233}U$ fuel (fuel pin 2) and include mixed minor actinide compositions. Monte Carlo simulations were performed using Serpent Code1.1.19 to compare with CRAM (Chebyshev Rational Approximation Method) and TTA (Transmutation Trajectory Analysis) method in the burnup calculation mode. The total heating power generated in the system was assumed to be 2000 MWth. During the reactor operation period of 600 days, the effective multiplication factor (keff) was between 0.964 and 0.954 and peaking factor is 1.88867.

• Ceramist
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.63-73
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• 1998

현재 원자력발전에 사용되는 핵연료는 산화물 핵연료가 그 주종을 이루고 있다. 특히, 고속증식로용 핵연료로는 최근까지 혼합산화물 핵연료가 개발, 사용되어 왔다. 그러나 이 산화물 핵연료 못지 않게 경제성 및 안전성 관점에서 이를 능가할 수 있는 핵연료 재료로서 탄화물 및 질화물 등의 비산화물 세라믹 핵연료도 그 동안 꾸준히 연구되어 왔으며, 최근 들어서는 새로운 개념의 Pu 혹은 Minor Actinide burning용 핵연료 후보재료로도 각광을 받고 있다. 이들 비산화물 세라믹 핵연료는 산화물 핵연료에 비해 증식능력이 좋아, 특히 8~12년의 증배시간을 갖는 고속증식로 개발의 가능성을 보여준다. 이는 그 특성이 산화물 핵연료의 경우에 비해 더 높은 중금속(Heavy Metal) 밀도와 열전도도를 갖는 장점 때문이며, 이로 인해 높은 선출력(linear power)을 낼 수 있어 소형 노심의 설계가 가능하다. 본 고에서는 고속증식로 뿐만 아니라 다른 형태의 원자로에의 사용에서도 그 응용가치와 개발의 여지가 충분히 있는 비산화물 세라믹 핵연료의 기초특성, 제조기술, 그리고 그 성능에 대하여 비교, 분석함으로써 앞으로의 핵연료 개발연구에 보다 효율적이고 다양한 방향을 제시하고자 하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.177-198
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• 2012

This paper reviews the fast reactor physics and computational methods. The basic reactor physics specific to fast spectrum reactors are briefly reviewed, focused on fissile material breeding and actinide burning. Design implications and reactivity feedback characteristics are compared between breeder and burner reactors. Some discussions are given to the distinct nuclear characteristics of fast reactors that make the assumptions employed in traditional LWR analysis methods not applicable. Reactor physics analysis codes used for the modeling of fast reactor designs in the U.S. are reviewed. This review covers cross-section generation capabilities, whole-core deterministic (diffusion and transport) and Monte Carlo calculation tools, depletion and fuel cycle analysis codes, perturbation theory codes for reactivity coefficient calculation and cross section sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty analysis codes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.351-358
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• 1990

A new fission-product burnup chain model was developed for use in research reactor analysis capable of predicting the burnup-dependent reactivity with high precision over a wide range of burnup. The new model consists of 63 nuclides treated explicitly and one fissile-independent pseudo-element. The effective absorption cross sections for the pseudo-element and the pseudo-element yield of actinide nuclides were evaluated in the this report. The model is capable of predicting the high burnup behavior of low-enriched uranium-fueled research reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.588-595
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• 2015

This study presents an effective method for additional recovery of residual actinides in liquid electrodes after the electrowinning process of pyroprocessing. The major distinctive feature of this method is a reactor with multiple reaction cells separated by partition walls in order to improve the recovery yield, thereby using the interelement difference in diffusion coefficients within the liquid electrode and controlling the selectivity and purity of element recovery. Through an example of numerical simulation of the diffusion scenarios of individual elements, we verified that the proposed method could effectively separate the actinides (U and Pu) and rare-earth elements contained in liquid cadmium. We performed a five-step consecutive recovery process using a simplified conceptual reaction cell and recovered 58% of the initial amount of actinides (U + Pu) in high purity (${\geq}99%$).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.663-672
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• 2007

The mutual separation behavior of actinides and rare earths in a countercurrent multistage reductive extraction system was predicted by computer calculation. The distribution information for actinides and rare earths in the reductive extraction systems of LiCl-KCl/Cd and LiCl-KCl/Bi was collected from literature and then it was used for the calculation of a multistage extraction. The results of the concentration profiles throughout the extraction cascade, recovery yields of various metal solutes, and separation factors between the actinides and rare earths were calculated. The effects of the major process parameters, such as reducing agent content in the metal phase, number of stages, and salt/metal flow ratio, etc., on the extraction behavior were also examined.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2008

The results of process development for the blending of waste salt from the electrorefining of spent fuel with zeolite-A are presented. This blending is a key step in the ceramic waste process being used for treatment of EBR-II spent fuel and is accomplished using a high-temperature v-blender. A labscale system was used with non-radioactive surrogate salts to determine optimal particle size distributions and time at temperature. An engineering-scale system was then installed in the Hot Fuel Examination Facility hot cell and used to demonstrate blending of actual electrorefiner salt with zeolite. In those tests, it was shown that the results are still favorable with actinide-loaded salt and that batch size of this v-blender could be increased to a level consistent with efficient production operations for EBR-II spent fuel treatment. One technical challenge that remains for this technology is to mitigate the problem of material retention in the v-blender due to formation of caked patches of salt/zeolite on the inner v-blender walls.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.51-52
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• 2018

Selective oxidation of RE elements from the U/RE metal ingot was studied in this paper using electrochemical process. Constant potential of -1.7V was applied between anode and cathode, where the potential value corresponds to standard potentials between actinide and rare earth materials. When the current values approached to nearly 0 mA, the reaction was finished. It is confirmed from the EPMA analysis that only U part of the U/RE ingot was remained. The metal recovered to the zinc cathode was obtained through the distillation process and it is being chemically analyzed in the KAERI analytical laboratory.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.261-267
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• 2010

The pyrometallurgical nuclear fuel recycle process, called pyroprocessing, has been known as a promising nuclear fuel recycling technology. Pyroprocessing technology is crucial to advanced nuclear systems due to increased nuclear proliferation resistance and economic efficiency. The basic concept of pyroprocessing is group actinide recovery, which enhances the nuclear proliferation resistance significantly. One of the key steps in pyroprocessing is "electrowinning" which recovers group actinides with lanthanide from the spent nuclear fuels. In this study, a vertical cadmium distiller was manufactured. The evaporation rate of pure cadmium in vertical cadmium distiller varied from 12.3 to $40.8g/cm^2/h$ within a temperature range of 773 923 K and pressure below 0.01 torr. Uranium - cadmium alloy was fabricated by electrolysis using liquid cadmium cathode in a high purity argon atmosphere glove box. The distillation behavior of pure cadmium and cadmium in uranium - cadmium alloy was investigated. The distillation behavior of cadmium from this study could be used to develop an actinide recovery process from a liquid cadmium cathode in a cadmium distiller.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

In the present work, an electrowinning process in the LiCl-KCl/Cd system is considered to model and analyze the electrotransport of the actinide and rare-earth elements. A simple dynamic modeling of this process was performed by taking into account the material balances and diffusion-controlled electrochemical reactions in a diffusion boundary layer at an electrode interface between the molten salt electrolyte and liquid cadmium cathode. The proposed modeling approach was based on the half-cell reduction reactions of metal chloride occurring on the cathode. This model demonstrated a capability for the prediction of the concentration behaviors, a faradic current of each element and an electrochemical potential as function of the time up to the corresponding electrotransport satisfying a given applied current based on a galvanostatic electrolysis. The results of selected case studies including five elements (U, Pu, Am, La, Nd) system are shown, and a preliminary simulation is carried out to show how the model can be used to understand the electrochemical characteristics and provide better information for developing an advanced electrowinner.