• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.731-744
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• 2013

Energy security is a topic of high importance to many countries throughout the world. Countries with access to vast energy supplies enjoy all of the economic and political benefits that come with controlling a highly sought after commodity. Given the desire to diversify away from fossil fuels due to rising environmental and economic concerns, there are limited technology options available for baseload electricity generation. Further complicating this issue is the desire for energy sources to be sustainable and globally scalable in addition to being economic and environmentally benign. Nuclear energy in its current form meets many but not all of these attributes. In order to address these limitations, TerraPower, LLC has developed the Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) which is a near-term deployable and truly sustainable energy solution that is globally scalable for the indefinite future. The fast neutron spectrum allows up to a ~30-fold gain in fuel utilization efficiency when compared to conventional light water reactors utilizing enriched fuel. When compared to other fast reactors, TWRs represent the lowest cost alternative to enjoy the energy security benefits of an advanced nuclear fuel cycle without the associated proliferation concerns of chemical reprocessing. On a country level, this represents a significant savings in the energy generation infrastructure for several reasons 1) no reprocessing plants need to be built, 2) a reduced number of enrichment plants need to be built, 3) reduced waste production results in a lower repository capacity requirement and reduced waste transportation costs and 4) less uranium ore needs to be mined or purchased since natural or depleted uranium can be used directly as fuel. With advanced technological development and added cost, TWRs are also capable of reusing both their own used fuel and used fuel from LWRs, thereby eliminating the need for enrichment in the longer term and reducing the overall societal waste burden. This paper describes the origins and current status of the TWR development program at TerraPower, LLC. Some of the areas covered include the key TWR design challenges and brief descriptions of TWR-Prototype (TWR-P) reactor. Selected information on the TWR-P core designs are also provided in the areas of neutronic, thermal hydraulic and fuel performance. The TWR-P plant design is also described in such areas as; system design descriptions, mechanical design, and safety performance.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.331-335
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• 1998

A design modification was made on the 9-th stage wheel dovetail of a high-intermediate pressure (HIP) turbine rotor for a fossil power plant that necessitates the use of new long-shank buckets for the row. A bucket vibration test is necessary to verify that the new 9-th stage buckets have adequate frequency margin from a nozzle passing frequency when running at speed. A finite element analysis (FEA) has been performed using a commercial S/W to approximately estimate bucket natural frequencies, and thus to help the vibration test. A row of the new buckets has assembled on the HIP rotor for the vibration tests using dynamic balancing facilities. The tests have been done during deceleration run with air excitation. The test results are compared with the calculation using our empirical formula, and show that the modified design meets the frequency-margin requirements.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.139-145
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• 2007

Fretting is a kind of surface damage mechanism observed in mechanically jointed components and structures. The initial crack under fretting damage occurs at lower stress amplitude and lower cycles of cyclic loading than that under plain fatigue condition. This can be observed in automobile and railway vehicle, fossil and nuclear power plant, aircraft etc. In the present study, railway axle material RSA1 used for evaluation of fretting fatigue life. Plain and fretting fatigue tests were carried out using rotary bending fatigue tester with proving ring and bridge type contact pad. Through these experiments, it is found that the fretting fatigue limit decreased about 37% compared to the plain fatigue limit. In fretting fatigue, the wear debris is observed on the contact surface, and oblique cracks at an earlier stage are initiated in contact area. These results can be used as useful data in a structural integrity evaluation of railway axle.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.455-461
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• 2002

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) are ubiquitous contaminants in coastal marine environment. PAHs enter estuarine and nearshore marine environment via several routes such as combustion of fossil fuels, domestic and industrial effluents and oil spills. In August of 1997, mussels(Mytilus edulis) were collected at 6 sites near Kori nuclear power plant in order to analyze the PAH content by HPLC with uv/vis detection. Unfortunately, I could not find any living oysters in which I firstly intended to measure the PAH content in the study area. NPTHL and ANCPL were the major dominant PAH compounds in mussels living in the intertidal zone of Kori, Korea, and DahA, BbF, BaP were the next dominant PAH group in mussels in the study area. The mean concentrations of 15 PAH in mussels ranged from 3.2 to 1,680 ppb(mean 105$\pm$60.5 ppb). Compared with other studies world over, the concentrations of carcinogenic PAHs were relatively low in mussels in the study area, even though total PAH content was rather high. According to N/P(Naphthalene/Phenanthrene) ratio(147) and the ratio of 2∼3 ring to 3∼5 ring PAHs(58∼90 %) in mussels in the study area, I expect that the major source of PAHs in this study area is rather fresh petroleum-derived. This study presents preliminary data for the PAH levels in mussels from the intertidal zone of Kori, and the data will hopefully be utilized for the assessment of oil pollution in the East Sea, Korea.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.323-338
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• 1994

This paper outlines a framework for performing intelligent sensor validation for a diagnostic expert system while reasoning under uncertainty. The emphasis is on the algorithmic preprocess technique. A companion paper focusses on heuristic post-processing. Sensor validation plays a vital role in the ability of the overall system to correctly detemine the state of a plant monitored by imperfect sensors. Especially, several theoretical developments were made in understanding uncertain sensory data in statistical aspect. Uncertain information in sensory values is represented through probability assignments on three discrete states, "high", "normal", and "low", and additional sensor confidence measures in Algorithmic Sv.Upper and lower warning limits are generated from the historical learning sets, which represents the borderlines for heat rate degradation generated in the Algorithmic SV initiates a historic data base for better reference in future use. All the information generated in the Algorithmic SV initiate a session to differentiate the sensor fault from the process fault and to make an inference on the system performance. This framework for a diagnostic expert system with sensor validation and reasonig under uncertainty applies in HEATXPRT$^{TM}$, a data-driven on-line expert system for diagnosing heat rate degradation problems in fossil power plants.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.7 s.178
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• pp.1673-1680
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• 2000

The degradation of a boiler header constructed by a material, 1Cr-0.5Mo steel in a fossil power plant is observed when the header is exposed for a long period to the high temperature and pressure. The present investigations are for evaluating the effect of the degradation on the material, such as its strength changes. Reheat-treated metal is used to compare the mechanical properties of the degraded and that of reheat-treated materials. Through the investigation, following results are obtained 1) the area ratio of ferrite in the reheat-treated material is larger than that of the degraded material, 2) the hardness and tensile strength of the degraded material are lower than that of the reheat-treated material, 3) the ductile-brittle transition temperature(DBTT) increased toward high temperature region, 4) the fatigue crack growth rate(FCGR) of the degraded material is higher than that of the reheat-treated material in the region of low ΔK value while FCGR of the both materials are similar in high ΔK region.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.74-82
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• 2010

Fretting damage can be observed in automobile and railway vehicle, fossil and nuclear power plant, aircraft etc. In the present study, railway axle material RSA1 used for evaluation of fretting fatigue life. Plain and fretting fatigue tests were carried out using rotary bending fatigue tester with proving ring and bridge type contact pad. Through these test, the following results are obtained: 1) it is found that the fretting fatigue limit of standard specimen decreased about 37% compared to the plain fatigue limit. 2) The early crack of Shinkansen type specimens initiated in contact area and final fractured below samp=214 MPa. 3) The early crack of all TGV type specimens initiated in rounded area and fractured. 4) Tire tracks and rubbed scars were observed in the oblique crack region and fatigue crack growth region of fracture surface. 5) The wear debris is observed on the contact surface, and oblique cracks at an earlier stage are initiated in contact area. These results can be used as useful data in a structural integrity evaluation of railway axle.

• Water for future
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.487-497
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• 1990

The qualitative and quantitative prediction for the dispersion of thermal discharge from nuclear / fossil power plant, steel works etc. has significant roles for the cooling system. Design and environmental management. In this study, the several important physical properties for the behavior of a thermal discharge with strong turbulent and buoyant effects are described. The comparative evaluation between MIT and PDS models is carried out, which have the different model structures. In general, MIT and PDS models are commonly used to calculate the thermal discharge behavior with considering the ambient current and the angle of jet in an unstratified water body. The simulated results by these models have great discrepancies due to the different assumptions in modling.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.320-322
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• 2008

The international oil price now has been going up every each day, about 120 USD per a gallon April 2008, so that most of countries in the world are concern of the the shortage of petroleum and the development of new and renewable energy resources. This paper presents optimal design and operational features of stand-alone 500W PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) system which can be a substitute instead fossil fuel. The stack of PEMFC is composed of 35 laminated graphites, and a unit cell of the stack has electrical characteristics as below; 14W, 0.9V, 15A. The other components of BOP(Balance of Plant) are composed of hydrogen and nitrogen tanks, regulators, 3way solenoid valves, mass flow meters, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.109-115
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• 2008

This paper proposes an adaptive Dynamic Matrix Control (DMC) and its application to boiler-turbine system In a conventional DMC, object system is described as a Step Response Model (SRM). However, a nonlinear system is not effectively described as a single SRM. In this paper, nine SRMs at various operating points are prepared. On-line interpolation is performed at every sampling step to find the suitable SRM. Therefore, the proposed adaptive DMC can consider the nonlinearity of boiler-turbine system. The simulation results show satisfactory results with a wide range operation of the boiler-turbine system.