• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2022

Pyroprocessing is a promising technology for managing spent nuclear fuel. The nuclear material accounting of feed material is a challenging issue in safeguarding pyroprocessing facilities. The input material in pyroprocessing is in a solid-state, unlike the solution state in an input accountability tank used in conventional wet-type reprocessing. To reduce the uncertainty of the input material accounting, a double-stage homogenization process is proposed in considering the process throughput, remote controllability, and remote maintenance of an engineering-scale pyroprocessing facility. This study tests two types of mixing equipment in the proposed double-stage homogenization process using surrogate materials. The expected heterogeneity and accounting uncertainty of Pu are calculated based on the surrogate test results. The heterogeneity of Pu was 0.584% obtained from Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) spent fuel of 59 WGd/tU when the relative standard deviation of the mass ratio, tested from the surrogate powder, is 1%. The uncertainty of the Pu accounting can be lower than 1% when the uncertainty of the spent fuel mass charged into the first mixers is 2%, and the uncertainty of the first sampling mass is 5%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4226-4230
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• 2022

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has designed a Hybrid-Low Power Research Reactor (H-LPRR) which can be used for critical assembly and conventional research reactor as well. It is an open tank-in-pool type research reactor (Thermal Power: 50 kW_th) of which the most important applications are Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), Radioisotope (RI) production, education and training. There are eight irradiation holes on the edge of the reactor core: IR (6 holes for RI production) and NA (2 holes for NAA) holes. In order to quantify the elemental concentration in target samples through the Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), it is necessary to measure neutron spectrum parameters such as thermal neutron flux, the deviation from the ideal 1/E epithermal neutron flux distribution (α), and the thermal-to-epithermal neutron flux ratio (f) for the irradiation holes. In this study, the MCNP6.1 code and FORTRAN 90 language are applied to determine the parameters for the two irradiation holes (NA-SW and NA-NW) in H-LPRR, and in particular its α and f parameters are compared to values of other research reactors. The results confirmed that the neutron irradiation holes in H-LPRR are designed to be sufficiently applied to neutron activation analysis, and its performance is comparable to that of foreign research reactors including the TRIGA MARK II.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.171-180
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• 2015

This study was performed on the removal of Cs, one of the main high- radioactive nuclides contained in the high-radioactive seawater waste (HSW), by adsorption with IE911 (crystalline silicotitanate type). For the effective removal of Cs and the minimization of secondary solid waste generation, adsorption of Cs by IE911 (hereafter denoted as IE911-Cs) was effective to carry out in the m/V (ratio of absorbent weight to solution volume) ratio of 2.5 g/L, and the adsorption time of 1 hour. In these conditions, Cs and Sr were adsorbed about 99% and less than 5%, respectively. IE911-Cs could be also expressed as a Langmuir isotherm and a pseudo-second order rate equation. The adsorption rate constants (k₂) were decreased with increasing initial Cs concentrations and particle sizes, and increased with increasing ratios of m/V, solution temperatures and agitation speeds. The activation energy of IE911-Cs was about 79.9 kJ/mol. It was suggested that IE911-Cs was dominated by a chemical adsorption having a strong bonding form. From the negative values of Gibbs free energy and enthalpy, it was indicated that the reaction of IE911-Cs was a forward, exothermic and relatively active at lower temperatures. Additionally, the negative entropy values were seen that the adsorbed Cs was evenly distributed on the IE911.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.281-287
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• 2011

We consider the uncertainty in the elastic buckling formula for a thin tube. We take into account the measurement uncertainty of Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio and the tolerance of the tube thickness and diameter. Elastic buckling must be prohibited for a thin tube such as a nuclear fuel rod that must satisfy a self-stand criterion. Since the predicted critical buckling pressure overestimated that found in the experiment, the determination of the minimum safety factor is crucial. The uncertainty in each parameter (i.e., Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, thickness, and diameter) is mutually independent, so the safety factor is evaluated as the sum of the inverse of each uncertainty. We found that the thickness variation greatly affects the uncertainty. The minimum safety factor of a thin tube of Zirconium alloy is evaluated as 1.547 for a thickness of 0.87 mm and 3.487 for a thickness of 0.254 mm.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2013

The recovery of Zr from Zircaloy-4 (Zry-4) cladding hulls using a chlorination method was demonstrated for complete conversion of Zr into $ZrCl_4$. A chlorination reaction was performed by reacting Zry-4 hulls for 8 h under a 70 cc/min $Cl_2$ + 70 cc/min Ar flow at $380^{\circ}C$. The initial weight of the reactant (51.7 g) decreased to 0.49 g after 8 h of operation, which is only 0.95wt% of the initial weight. The weight of the total reaction products was 121.7 g with a high Zr purity of 99.80wt%. Fe and Sn were identified as major (0.18wt%) and minor (0.02wt%) impurities of the reaction products, respectively. It was also shown that Zr exhibited a high recovery ratio of 96.95wt% with a relatively small experimental loss of 2.34wt%. Observation of the reaction residues revealed that the chlorination reaction was dominant along the longitudinal direction, and surface oxide layers remained as reaction residues. The high purity and recovery ratio of Zr proposed the feasibility of the chlorination technique as an effective hull waste treatment method.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 1999

The determination method of free acid in spent U-Al nuclear fuel solutions by Gran plot titration was described. Effect of U(VI) and Al(III) on the alkalimetric titration of nitric acid was investigated in oxalate complexing media as well as in noncomplexing media. Positive biases were observed in both titration media when the end-point was estimated by the Gran plot method. It was found that the cause of the bias was U(VI) in the oxalate complexing media, but Al(III) in the noncomplexing media. The relative error was less than 1% in the titration of 0.1 M $HNO_3$ at a U(VI) : Al(III) : $H^+$ mole ratio of up to 2:12:1 as long as the pH of the oxalate titration media was sustained to be below 5.0 at the beginning of titration. The method was successfully applied to the determination of nitric acid in a solution of HANARO reactor fuel with U:Al mole ratio of 1:6.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.215-220
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• 2010

An experiment measuring the concentration ratios of $^{137}Cs$ and $^{85}Sr$ in fish as an index aquatic animal was performed. The species was Chinese minnow (Rhynchocypris Oxycephalus), a Korean native freshwater species. Chinese minnows were reared in acryl aquarium which was 45 cm wide, 85 cm long and 50 cm high. Water in the aquarium was successively purified using filtering devices attached on the floor and the wall. Fish powder in a particulate form was supplied twice a day for feeding. After a radioactive solution was added to make the initial water concentrations approximately $0.02\;{\mu}Ci/l$ and $0.1\;{\mu}Ci/l$ for $^{137}Cs$ and $^{85}Sr$, respectively, the fish and water were sampled 10 times for a month. The concentration ratios were measured to be $0.348lkg^{-1}\sim13.906lkg^{-1}$ for $^{137}Cs$ and $0.474lkg^{-1}\sim13.089lkg^{-1}$ for $^{85}Sr$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.334-341
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• 2003

When the pressure tubes(f are in contact with the calandria tube(CT) in the pressurized heavy water reactor(PHWR), the temperature difference between inner and outer wall of W results in a thermal diffusion of hydrogen (deuterium) and hydride blisters are formed on the outer surface of PT. Because the hydride blisters and zirconium matrix are acoustically continuous, it is not easy to distinguish the blisters from the matrix with conventional ultrasonic method. An ultrasonic velocity ratio method was developed to detect small hydride blisters on the zirconium pressure tube. Hydride blisters were grown in the PT specimen using a steady state thermal diffusion device. The flight times of longitudinal echo and reflected shear echo from the outer surface were measured accurately. The velocity ratio of the longitudinal wave to the shear wave was calculated and displayed using contour plot. Compared to the conventional flight time method of longitudinal wave, the velocity ratio method shows superior sensitivity to detect smaller blisters as well as better images for the blister shapes. Detectable limit of the outer shape of the hydride blisters was conservatively estimated as $500{\mu}m$, with the same specifications of ultrasonic transducer used in the actual PHWR pressure tube inspection.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1516-1519
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• 2004

A tele-operated robot should be used to maintain and inspect nuclear power plants to reduce the radiation exposure to the human operators. During an overhaul of the nuclear power plants in Korea, a ROV(Remotely Operated Vehicle) may enter a cold-leg connected to the reactor to examine the state of the thermal sleeve and it's position in the safety injection nozzle. To measure the positions of the thermal sleeve or scratches from the video images captured during the examination, the camera parameters should be identified. However, the focal length of the CCD camera could be increased to a close up of the target and the aspect ratio and the center of the image could also be varied with capturing devices. So, it is desired to self-calibrated the intrinsic parameters of the camera and capturing device with the video images captured during the examination. In the video image of the safety injection nozzle, two or more circular grooves around the nozzle are shown as ellipse contours. In this paper, we propose a camera self-calibration method using a single image containing two circular grooves which are the greatest circles of the cylindrical nozzle whose radius and distance are known.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 1996

An optimized method for determining beta-emitting $^{241}Pu$ in the presence of alpha-emitting nuclides was developed using a liquid scintillation counting system. Pulse shape analysis (PSA) level was set using pulse-shape discrimination method and the $^{241}Pu$ counting channel was adjusted for maximum value of figure of merit using the 241pu standard source. The volume of scintillant was determined for the maximum value of counting efficiency. This optimized method has been applied to environmental samples to measure concentration of $^{241}Pu$ in soils and mosses. Also it has been identified the origin of Pu deposited in Korea from the activity ratio of $^{241}Pu/^{239,\;240}Pu$.