• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.617-621
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to analyze piping failure trend of safety pipings In domestic nuclear power plants. First, database for the piping failure was constructed with 105 data fields. The database includes plant population data, event data, and service history data. 7 kinds of piping failures in domestic NPPs were investigated. Among the 7 cases, detailed root causes were investigated for 3 cases. The first one is pipe wall thinning in main feedwater pipings of Westinghouse 3 loop type plants. The root cause of the wall thinning was flow accelerated corrosion near welding area. The next one is leak event in chemical and volume control system(CVCS) due to vibration. Some cracks occurred in socket welding area. The events showed that the integrity or socket weld is very vulnerable to vibration. The last one is also a leak event in primary sampling line in Korean standard reactor due to thermal fatigue. Although the structural integrity was not maintained by the events, there was no effect on nuclear safety in the above 3 piping failure eases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.745-750
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• 1996

An analysis of a loss of residual heat removal system (RHRS) event during midloop operation after reactor shutdown was performed using the RELAP5/MOD3 thermal-hydraulic computer code. The experimental data of a 5% cold leg break test conducted at the ROSA-IV Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF) to simulate a main coolant pump shaft seal removal event during midloop operation of a Westinghouse-type PWR were used in the analysis. The predicted core boiling time and the peak primary system pressure showed good agreements with the measured data. Some differences between the calculational results and the experimental results were, however, found in areas of the timing of loop seal clearing and the temperature distribution in a pressurizer. Other calculational problems identified were discussed as well.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2012

A PHE (Process Heat Exchanger) in a nuclear hydrogen system is a key component required to transfer heat energy of $950^{\circ}C$ generated in a VHTR (Very High Temperature gas cooled Reactor) to the chemical reaction that yields a large quantity of hydrogen. A small-scale PHE prototype made of Hastelloy-X is being tested in a small-scale gas loop at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. Previous research on the high-temperature structural analysis of the small-scale PHE prototype had been performed only using parent material properties. In this study, high-temperature structural analysis using weld properties in weld zone was performed and the analysis results compared with the previous research.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.201-205
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• 2006

HYPER(Hybrid Power Extraction Reactor) is the accelerator driven subcritical transmutation system developed by KAERI(Korea Atomic Research Institute). HYPER is designed to transmute long-lived transuranic actinides and fission products such as Tc-99 and I-129. Liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE). Has been a primary candidate for coolant and spallation neutron target due to its appropriate thermal-physical and chemical properties, However, it is very corrosive to the common steels used in nuclear installations at high temperature. This corrosion problem is one of the main factors considered to set the upper limits of temperature and velocity of HYPER system. In this study, a parametric study for a corrosion model was performed. And a preliminary corrosion model was also developed to predict the corrosion rate in isothermal Pb and LBE flow loops.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.177-184
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• 1999

PSA(Probabilistic Safety Assessment) methodology is widely used on assessing the safety of Nuclear Power Plants(NPPs) quantitatively in the domestic nuclear field. Initiating event frequencies are absolutely needed to conduct PSA, and they considerably affect PSA results. There is no domestic database where domestic trip event cases are reflected, so they are used to assess the safety of NPPs that are from the foreign database. In this paper, operating experience data from the Korean NPPs was collected and analyzed for the trip event cases, which are necessary to determine the initiating events and their frequencies. Korean NPPs have experienced five of 16 initiating events, which we LOFW. LOCV, LOCCW, LOOP and GTRN as a result of analyzing the trip event cases. Initiating frequencies based on the domestic trip event cases are analyzed, and they are similar to that from the foreign database.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.513-518
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• 1996

This report presents a demonstration of application of realistic evaluation methodology to a posturated cold leg large break LOCA in a Westinghouse three-loop pressurized water reactor with 17$\times$17 fuel. The new method of this analysis can be divided into three distinct step: 1) Best Estimate Code Validation and Uncertainty Quantification 2) Realistic LOCA Calculation 3) Limiting Value LOCA Calculation and Uncertainty Combination RELAP5/MOD3/K ［1］, which was improved from RELAP5/MOD3.1, and CONTEMPT4/MOD5 code were used as a best estimate thermal-hydraulic model for realistic LOCA calculation. The code uncertainties which will be determined in step 1) were quantified already in previous study ［2］, and thus the step 2) and 3) for plant application were presented in this paper. The application uncertainty parameters are divided into two categories, i.e. plant system parameters and fuel statistical parameters. Single parameter sensitivity calculations were performed to select system parameters which would be set at their limiting value in Limiting Value Approach (LVA) calculation. Single run of LVA calculation generated 27 PCT data according to the various combinations of fuel parameters and these data provided input to response surface generation. The probability distribution function was generated from Monte Carlo sampling of a response surface and the upper 95$^{th}$ percentile PCT was determined. Break spectrum analysis was also made to determine the critical break size. The results show that sufficient LOCA margin can be obtained for the demonstration NPP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.296-307
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• 2020

Permanent magnet sodium flowmeter (PMSF) have been used to measure the sodium flow in fast breeder reactors. Due to the effects of irradiation, thermal cycling, time lapse, etc., the magnetic flux density of the PMSF will decrease after being used in the reactor for a period of time. Therefore, it must be calibrated regularly. But some flowmeters that immersed in sodium cannot be removed for an off-line calibration, so the on-line calibration is required. However, the best online calibration accuracy of PMSF using cross-correlation analysis method was 2.0-level without considering the repeatability. In order to further improve this work, the operational principle of the transducer in PMSF is analyzed and the design principle of the transducer is proposed. The transducers were tested on the sodium flow loop to collect the experimental data. The signal characteristics are analyzed from the time and frequency domains, respectively. The cross-correlation analysis method based on biased estimation is adopted to obtain the flow rate. The verification experimental results showed that the measurement accuracy is 1.0-level when the flow velocity is above 0.5 m/s, and the measurement accuracy is 3.0-level when the flow velocity is in the range of 0.2 m/s to 0.5 m/s.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.163-177
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• 1996

An investigation on thermohydraulic stability of flow oscillations in the CANada Deuterium Uranium-600(CANDU-6) heat transport system has been conducted. Flow oscillations in reactor coolant loops, comprising two heat sources and two heat sinks in series, are possibly caused by the response of the pressure to extraction of fluid in two-phase region. This response consists of two contributions, one arising from mass and another from enthalpy change in the two-phase region. The system computer code used in the investigation os SOPHT, which is capable of simulating steady states as well as transients with varying boundary conditions. The model was derived by linearizing and solving one-dimensional, homogeneous single- and two-phase flow conservation equations. The mass, energy and momentum equations with boundary conditions are set up throughout the system in matrix form based on a node-link structure. Loop stability was studied under full power conditions with interconnecting the two compressible two phase regions in the figure-of-eight circuit. The dominant function of the interconnecting pipe is the transfer of mass between the two-phase regions. Parametric survey of loop stability characteristics, i. e., damping ratio and period, has been made as a function of geometrical parameters of the interconnection line such as diameter, length, height and orifice flow coefficient. The stability characteristics with interconnection line has been clarified to provide a simple criterion to be used as a guide in scaling of the pipe.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.15 no.12 s.105
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• pp.1370-1377
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• 2005

The bottom structure of an instrumented capsule is a part which is joined at the receptacle of the flow tube in the reactor in-core. A geometrical change of the bottom structure has an effect on the pressure drop and the vibration of the capsule. The out-pile test to evaluate the structural integrity of the material capsule called 04M-17U was performed by using a single channel and a half core test loop. From the pressure drop test, the optimized diameter of the cone shape's bottom structure which satisfies HANARO's flow requirement (19.6 kg/s) is 71 mm. The maximum displacement of the capsule measured at the half core test loop is lower than 1.0 mm. From the analysis results, it is found that the test hole will not be interfered with near the flow tubes because its displacement due to the cooling water is very small at 0.072 mm. The fundamental frequency of the capsule under water is 9.64 Hz. It is expected that the resonance between the capsule and the fluid flow due to the cooling water in HANARO's in-core will not occur. Also, the new bottom structure of a solid cone shape with 71 mm in diameter will be applicable to the material and special capsules in the future.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.596-603
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• 2011

The very high temperature gas reactor (VHTR) is one of the next generation nuclear reactors for its safety, long-term stability, and proliferation-resistance. The high operating temperature of over 800$^{\circ}C$ enables various applications with high energy efficiency. Heat is transferred from the primary helium loop to the secondary helium loop through the intermediate heat exchanger (IHX). The IHX material requires creep resistance, oxidation resistance, and corrosion resistance in a helium environment at high operating temperatures. A Ni-based superalloy such as Alloy 617 is considered as a primary candidate material for the intermediate heat exchanger. In this study, the microstructures of Alloy 617 crept in pure helium and air environments at 950$^{\circ}C$ were observed. The rupture time in helium was shorter than that in air under small applied stresses. As the exposure time increased, the thickness of outer oxide layer of the specimens clearly increased but delaminated after a long creep time. The depth of the carbide-depleted zone was rather high in the specimens under high applied stress. The reason was elucidated by the comparison between the ruptured region and grip region of the samples. It is considered that decarburization caused by minor gas impurities in a helium environment caused the reduction in creep rupture time.