• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.517-526
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• 2008

The widespread concern regarding the management of spent fuel that mainly contributes to nuclear waste has led to the development of the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) as one of the most promising future types of reactors at both national and international levels. Various reactor deployment scenarios with SFR introductions with different conversion ratios in the existing PWR-dominant nuclear fleet have been assessed to optimize the SFR deployment strategy to replace PWRs with the view toward a reduction in the level of spent fuel as well as efficient uranium utilization through its reuse in a closed fuel cycle. An efficient reactor deployment strategy with the SFR introduction starting in 2040 has been drawn based on an SFR deployment strategy in which burners are deployed prior to breakeven reactors to reduce the amount of PWR spent fuel substantially at the early deployment stage. The PWR spent fuel disposal is reduced in this way by 98% and the cumulative uranium demand for PWRs to 2100 is projected to be 445 ktU, implying a uranium savings of 115 ktU. The SFR mix ratio in the nuclear fleet near the year 2100 is estimated to be approximately 35-40%. PWRs will remain as a main power reactor type until 2100 and SFRs will support waste minimization and fuel utilization.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.231-236
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• 2010

The growth in global energy demand and the increased recognition of the impacts of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel plants have aroused a renewed interest on nuclear energy. Many countries are looking afresh at building more nuclear power stations to deal with the twin problems of global warming and the need for more generating capacity. Many in the nuclear community are also anticipating a significant growth of new nuclear generation in the coming decades. If there is a nuclear renaissance, will the expansion of nuclear power be compatible with global non-proliferation and security? or will it add to the environmental burden from the large inventory of spent nuclear fuel already produced in existing nuclear power reactors? We learn from past peaceful nuclear activities that significant concerns associated with nuclear proliferation and spent-fuel management have resulted in a decrease in public acceptance for nuclear power in many countries. The terrorist attack in the United States (US) on September 11, 2001 also raised concern for security and worry that nuclear materials may fall into the wrong hands. As we increase the use of nuclear power, we must simultaneously reduce the proliferation, security and environmental risks in managing spent-fuel below where they are today.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1577-1582
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• 2010

A 20 wt % Pt/C is fabricated and characterized for use as the cathode catalyst in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). By using the polyol method, the fabrication process is optimized by modifying the carbon addition sequence and precursor mixing conditions. The crystallographic structure, particle size, dispersion, and activity toward oxygen reduction of the as-prepared catalysts are compared with those of commercial Pt/C catalysts. The most effective catalyst is obtained by ultrasonic treatment of ethylene glycol-carbon mixture and immediate mixing of this mixture with a Pt precursor at the beginning of the synthesis. The catalyst exhibits very uniform particle size distribution without agglomeration. The mass activities of the as-prepared catalyst are 13.4 mA/$mg_{Pt}$ and 51.0 mA/$mg_{Pt}$ at 0.9 V and 0.85 V, respectively, which are about 1.7 times higher than those of commercial catalysts.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.332-340
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• 2000

The reduction of sulfur content in the diesel fuel has caused the poor lubricity of diesel fuel in the distributor type injection pumps of diesel engines that use the diesel for lubrication of their moving parts. To investigate the reason for poor lubricity of low sulfur diesel fuels, the wear scar diameters by HFRR (High Frequency Reciprocating Rig) were measured on the diesel fuels from Korean markets and the results were compared with their physical and chemical properties. Also, the lubricity change and the improvement effects on lubricity additives for the ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, were made experimentally, that will be regulated to a maximum of 0.005 wt% from about 2005 were evaluated. As a result, a good correlation was found between the wear scar diameter and the polyaromatic compound which includes heterocyclic compound in the diesel fuel. It was also found that the content of polyaromatic compound including heterocyclic compound was affected by the amount of desulfurization treatment fraction. And the lubricity additives with ester base were more effective than that with acid base on the ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. Therefore, it is suggested that the factors affecting the lubricity stated above should be taken into account to improve the lubricity property of the diesel fuel in the refining process.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.104-114
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• 2019

Energy is an essential driving force for modern society. In particular, electricity has become the standard source of power for almost every aspect of life. Electric power runs lights, televisions, cell phones, laptops, etc. However, it has become apparent that the current methods of producing this most valuable commodity combustion of fossil fuels are of limited supply and has become detrimental for the Earth's environment. It is also self-evident, given the fact that these resources are non-renewable, that these sources of energy will eventually run out. One of the most promising alternatives to the burning of fossil fuel in the production of electric power is the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The PEM fuel cell is environmentally friendly and achieves much higher efficiencies than a combustion engine. Water management is an important issue of PEM fuel cell operation. Water is the product of the electrochemical reactions inside fuel cell. If liquid water accumulation becomes excessive in a fuel cell, water columns will clog the gas flow channel. This condition is referred to as flooding. A number of researchers have examined the water removal methods in order to improve the performance. In this paper, a new water removal method that investigates the use of vibro-acoustic methods is presented. Piezo-actuators are devices to generate the flexural wave and are attached at end of a cathode bipolar plate. The "flexural wave" is used to impart energy to resting droplets and thus cause movement of the droplets in the direction of the traveling wave.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.18-24
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• 2020

When a damage occurs in the nuclear fuel burning in the reactor, fission products that should be in the nuclear fuel rod are released into the reactor coolant. In this case, sipping test, a series of non-destructive inspection methods, are used to find leakage in nuclear fuel assemblies during the power plant overhaul period. In addition, the sipping test is also used to check the integrity of the spent fuel for moving to an intermediate dry storage, which is carried out as the first step of nuclear decommissioning, . In this paper, the principle and characteristics of the sipping test are described. The structure of the sipping inspection equipment is largely divided into a suction device that collects fissile material emitted from a damaged assembly and an analysis device that analyzes their nuclides. In order to make good use of the sipping technology, the radioactive level behavior of the primary system coolant and major damage mechanisms in the event of nuclear fuel damage are also introduced. This will be a reference for selecting an appropriate sipping method when dismantling a nuclear power plant in the future.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.514-524
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• 2022

Carbon emissions from fuel consumption have been pointed by scientists as the cause of global warming. In particular, fossil fuels are known to emit more carbon when burned than other types of fuels. In this regard, International Maritime Organization has announced a regulation plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, recently, Liquefied Natural Gas propulsion ships are responding to such carbon reduction regulation. However, from a long-term perspective, it is necessary to use carbon-free fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. Nitrogen oxides might be generated during ammonia combustion. There is a possibility that incompletely burned ammonia is discharged. Therefore, rather than being used as a direct fuel, Ammonia is only used to reduce NO_X such as urea solution in diesel vehicle Selective Catalyst Reduction. Currently, LPG vehicle fuel feed system studies have evaluated the durability of combustion injectors and fuel tanks in ammonia environment. However, few studies have been conducted to apply ammonia as a ship fuel. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate corrosion damage that might occur when ammonia is used as a propulsion fuel on ships.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.84-93
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• 2023

The spent nuclear fuel is burned during the planned cycle in the plant and then generates elements such as actinide series, fission products, and plutonium with a long half-life. An 'interim storage' step is needed to manage the high radioactivity and heat emitted by nuclides until permanent-disposal. In the case of Korea, there is no space to dispose of high-level radioactive waste after use, so there is a need for a period of time using interim storage. Therefore, the intensity of neutrons and gamma-ray must be determined to ensure the integrity of spent nuclear fuel during interim storage. In particular, the most important thing in spent nuclear fuel is burnup evaluation, estimation of the source term of neutrons and gamma-ray is regarded as a reference measurement of the burnup evaluation. In this study, an analysis of spent nuclear fuel was conducted by setting up a virtual fuel burnup case based on CE16×16 fuel to check the total amount and spectrum of neutron, gamma radiation produced. The correlation between BU (burnup), IE (enrichment), and CT (cooling time) will be identified through spent nuclear fuel burnup calculation. In addition, the composition of nuclide inventory, actinide and fission products can be identified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4731-4742
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• 2022

RBMK fuel assemblies differ from other LWR FA due to a specific arrangement of the fuel rods, the low enrichment, and the used burnable absorber - erbium. Therefore, there is a challenge to adapt modeling tools, developed for other LWR types, to solve RBMK problems. A set of 10 different depletion simulation schemes were tested to estimate the impact on reactivity and spent fuel composition of possible SCALE code options for the neutron transport modelling and the use of different nuclear data libraries. The simulations were performed using cross-section libraries based on both, VII.0 and VII.1, versions of ENDF/B nuclear data, and assuming continuous energy and multigroup simulation modes, standard and user-defined Dancoff factor values, and employing deterministic and Monte Carlo methods. The criticality analysis with burn-up credit was performed for the SFP loaded with RBMK-1500 FA. Spent fuel compositions were taken from each of 10 performed depletion simulations. The criticality of SFP is found to be overestimated by up to 0.08% in simulation cases using user-defined Dancoff factors comparing the results obtained using the continuous energy library (VII.1 version of ENDF/B nuclear data). It was shown that such discrepancy is determined by the higher U-235 and Pu-239 isotopes concentrations calculated.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2023

Since spent nuclear fuel assemblies (SFA) are transported to interim storage or final disposal facility after cooling the decay heat, finite element analysis (FEA) with simplification is widely used to show their integrity against cladding failure to cause dispersal of radioactive material. However, there is a lack of research addressing the comprehensive impact of shape and element simplification on analysis results. In this study, for the optimization of a typical pressurized water reactor SFA, different types of finite element models were generated by changing number of fuel rods, fuel rod element type and assembly length. A series of FEA in use of these different models were conducted under a shock load data obtained from surrogate fuel assembly transportation test. Effects of number of fuel rods, element type and length of assembly were also analyzed, which shows that the element type of fuel rod mainly affected on cladding strain. Finally, an optimal finite element model was determined for other practical application in the future.