• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1563-1570
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• 2023

In this study, a DeCART/MIG uncertainty quantification (UQ) analysis code system with a multicorrelated cross section stochastic sampling (S.S.) module was established and verified through the UAM (Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling) and the BEAVRS (Benchmark for Evaluation And Validation of Reactor Simulations) benchmark calculations. For the S.S. calculations, a sample of 500 DeCART multigroup cross section sets for two major actinides, i.e., ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U, were generated by the MIG code and covariance data from the ENDF/B-VII.1 evaluated nuclear data library. In the three pin problems (i.e. TMI-1, PB2, and Koz-6) from the UAM benchmark, the uncertainties in k_inf by the DeCART/MIG S.S. calculations agreed very well with the sensitivity and uncertainty (S/U) perturbation results by DeCART/MUSAD and the S/U direct subtraction (S/U-DS) results by the DeCART/MIG. From these results, it was concluded that the multi-group cross section sampling module of the MIG code works correctly and accurately. In the BEAVRS whole benchmark problems, the uncertainties in the control rod bank worth, isothermal temperature coefficient, power distribution, and critical boron concentration due to cross section uncertainties were calculated by the DeCART/MIG code system. Overall, the uncertainties in these design parameters were less than the general design review criteria of a typical pressurized water reactor start-up case. This newly-developed DeCART/MIG UQ analysis code system by the S.S. method can be widely utilized as uncertainty analysis and margin estimation tools for developing and designing new advanced nuclear reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.968-980
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• 2023

The dynamic structural responses are sensitive to the time-frequency content of seismic waves, and seismic input motions in time-history analysis are usually required to be compatible with design response spectra according to nuclear codes. In order to generate spectra-compatible input motions while maintaining the intrinsic non-stationarity of seismic waves, an improved time-domain approach is proposed in this paper. To maintain the nonstationary characteristics of the given seismic waves, a new time-frequency envelope function is constructed using the Hilbert amplitude spectrum. Based on the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) obtained from given seismic waves through variational mode decomposition, a new corrective time history is constructed to locally modify the given seismic waves. The proposed corrective time history and time-frequency envelope function are unique for each earthquake records as they are extracted from the given seismic waves. In addition, a dimension reduction iterative technique is presented herein to simultaneously superimpose corrective time histories of all the damping ratios at a specific frequency in the time domain according to optimal weights, which are found by the genetic algorithm (GA). Examples are presented to show the capability of the proposed approach in generating spectra-compatible time histories, especially in maintaining the nonstationary characteristics of seismic records. And numerical results reveal that the modified time histories generated by the proposed method can obtain similar dynamic behaviors of AP1000 nuclear power plant with the natural seismic records. Thus, the proposed method can be efficiently used in the design practices.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1519-1526
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• 2023

For the first time Aluminium-BariumeZinc oxide nanocomposite (ZABONC) was synthesized by solution combustion method where calcination was carried out at low temperatures (600℃) to study the electromagnetic (EM) (X/γ) radiation shielding properties. Further for characterization purpose standard techniques like PXRD, SEM, UV-VISIBLE, FTIR were used to find phase purity, functional groups, surface morphology, and to do structural analysis and energy band gap determination. The PXRD pattern shows (hkl) planes corresponding to spinel cubic phase of ZnAl₂O4, cubic Ba(NO₃)₂, α and γ phase of Al₂O₃ which clearly confirms the formation of complex nano composite. From SEM histogram mean size of nano particles was calculated and is in the order of 17 nm. Wood and Tauc's relation direct energy band gap calculation gives energy gap of 2.9 eV. In addition, EM (X/γ) shielding properties were measured and compared with the theoretical ones using standard procedures (NaI (Tl) detector and multi channel analyzer MCA). For energy above 356 keV the measured shielding parameters agree well with the theory, while below this value slight deviation is observed, due to the influence of atomic/crystallite size of the ZABONC. Hence synthesized ZABONC can be used as a shielding material in EM (X/γ) radiation shielding.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2096-2106
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• 2023

Rotating machinery is widely applied in important equipment of nuclear power plants (NPPs), such as pumps and valves. The research on intelligent fault diagnosis of rotating machinery is crucial to ensure the safe operation of related equipment in NPPs. However, in practical applications, data-driven fault diagnosis faces the problem of small and imbalanced samples, resulting in low model training efficiency and poor generalization performance. Therefore, a deep convolutional conditional generative adversarial network (DCCGAN) is constructed to mitigate the impact of imbalanced samples on fault diagnosis. First, a conditional generative adversarial model is designed based on convolutional neural networks to effectively augment imbalanced samples. The original sample features can be effectively extracted by the model based on conditional generative adversarial strategy and appropriate number of filters. In addition, high-quality generated samples are ensured through the visualization of model training process and samples features. Then, a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is designed to extract features of mixed samples and implement intelligent fault diagnosis. Finally, based on multi-fault experimental data of motor and bearing, the performance of DCCGAN model for data augmentation and intelligent fault diagnosis is verified. The proposed method effectively alleviates the problem of imbalanced samples, and shows its application value in intelligent fault diagnosis of actual NPPs.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.7-23
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• 2015

Women are more disadvantaged than men in many fronts and this confines them to informal sector livelihood activities. Any attempt to improve women's economic status will require information on the organization, cost and returns to investment in the livelihood activities in which they predominate. This is the issue for this study which compared yield performance in artisanal fishing and fresh fish marketing. Primary data collected through multi-stage sampling method were analyzed using inferential statistics, budgeting and regression models. Empirical findings revealed that about 75.0% of fisher folks either had no formal education or acquired only primary school education while 50.0% of marketers had secondary school education. The budgeting model revealed fisher-folks' and marketers' annual net profit to be N2,882,626.00 and N640,227.00, respectively. Profit from fishing was significantly higher than that of fish marketing. At 53.2% for fishing and 40.3% for marketing, returns to investment was better in fishing. Regression model results showed the significant factors influencing returns to each livelihood strategy to include fishing ground, distance covered and years of experience. The major constraint faced by operators of both livelihoods groups was insufficient credit. Despite this, the livelihood strategies were shown to be profitable ventures which contributed to households' consumption expenditure. Organizing women informal sector operators into groups to enhance access to government support and formal credit are recommended for improving livelihood strategy performance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2578-2590
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• 2023

In this work, a 24-month two-batch fuel management strategy for the APR1400 using LEU + has been investigated, where enrichments of 5.9 and 5.2 w/o are utilized in lieu of the conventional 4-5 w/o UO₂ fuel. In addition, an Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) clad based on the swaging technology is applied to APR1400 fuel assemblies. In this special ATF clad design, both outer and inner SS316 layers protect the conventional zircaloy clad. Erbia (Er₂O₃) is introduced as a burnable absorber with two-fold goals to lower the critical boron concentration in the long-cycle LEU + loaded core as well as to handle the LEU + fuel in the existing front-end fuel facilities without renewing the license. Two types of fuel assemblies with different loading of gadolinia (Gd₂O₃) are considered to control both the reactivity and the core radial power distribution. The erbia burnable absorber is uniformly admixed with UO₂ in all fuel pins except for the gadolinia-bearing ones. In this study, two core designs were devised with different erbia loading, and core performance and safety parameters were evaluated for each case in comparison with a core design without any burnable absorbers. The core analysis was done using the two-step method. First, cross-sections are generated by the SERPENT 2 Monte Carlo code, and the 3-D neutronic analysis is performed with an in-house multi-physics nodal code KANT.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2466-2473
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• 2023

A superconducting ion-Linac (iLinac), which is supposed to work as the injector in the High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility project, is under development at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The iLinac is a superconducting heavy ion linear accelerator approximately 100 meters long and contains 96 superconducting cavities in two types of 17 cyromodules. Two types of superconducting resonators (quarter-wave resonators with a frequency of 81.25 MHz and an optimal beta β = v/c = 0.07 called QWR007 and half-wave resonators with a frequency of 162.5 MHz and an optimal beta β = 0.15 called HWR015) have been investigated. The cavity design included extensive multi-parameter electromagnetic simulations and mechanical analysis, and its results are described in details. The fundamental power coupler and cavity dynamic tuner designs are also presented in this article. The prototypes are under manufacturing and expected to be ready in 2023.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3732-3753
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• 2023

The Real-time Analysis for Particle-transport and In-situ Detection (RAPID) Code System, developed based on the Multi-stage Response-function Transport (MRT) methodology, enables real-time simulation of nuclear systems such as reactor cores, spent nuclear fuel pools and casks, and sub-critical facilities. This paper presents the application of a novel fission matrix-based burnup methodology to the well-characterized JSI TRIGA Mark II research reactor. This methodology allows for calculation of nuclear fuel depletion by combination and interpolation of RAPID's burnup dependent fission matrix (FM) coefficients to take into account core changes due to burnup. The methodology is compared to experimentally validated Serpent-2 Monte Carlo depletion calculations. The results show that the burnup methodology for RAPID (bRAPID) implemented into RAPID is capable of accurately calculating the k_eff burnup changes of the reactor core as the average discrepancies throughout the whole burnup interval are 37 pcm. Furthermore, capability of accurately describing 3D fission source distribution changes with burnup is demonstrated by having less than 1% relative discrepancies compared to Serpent-2. Good agreement is observed for axially and pin-wise dependent fuel burnup and nuclear fuel nuclide composition as a function of burnup. It is demonstrated that bRAPID accurately describes burnup in areas with high gradients of neutron flux (e.g. vicinity of control rods). Observed discrepancies for some isotopes are explained by analyzing the neutron spectrum. This paper presents a powerful depletion calculation tool that is capable of characterization of spent nuclear fuel on the fly while the reactor is in operation.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.151-160
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• 2023

Breast cancer is the most dangerous and deadly form of cancer. Initial detection of breast cancer can significantly improve treatment effectiveness. The second most common cancer among Indian women in rural areas. Early detection of symptoms and signs is the most important technique to effectively treat breast cancer, as it enhances the odds of receiving an earlier, more specialist care. As a result, it has the possible to significantly improve survival odds by delaying or entirely eliminating cancer. Mammography is a high-resolution radiography technique that is an important factor in avoiding and diagnosing cancer at an early stage. Automatic segmentation of the breast part using Mammography pictures can help reduce the area available for cancer search while also saving time and effort compared to manual segmentation. Autoencoder-like convolutional and deconvolutional neural networks (CN-DCNN) were utilised in previous studies to automatically segment the breast area in Mammography pictures. We present Automatic SegmenAN, a unique end-to-end adversarial neural network for the job of medical image segmentation, in this paper. Because image segmentation necessitates extensive, pixel-level labelling, a standard GAN's discriminator's single scalar real/fake output may be inefficient in providing steady and appropriate gradient feedback to the networks. Instead of utilising a fully convolutional neural network as the segmentor, we suggested a new adversarial critic network with a multi-scale L1 loss function to force the critic and segmentor to learn both global and local attributes that collect long- and short-range spatial relations among pixels. We demonstrate that an Automatic SegmenAN perspective is more up to date and reliable for segmentation tasks than the state-of-the-art U-net segmentation technique.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1225-1233
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• 2024

Level 3 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is performed to calculate radionuclide concentrations and exposure dose resulting from nuclear power plant accidents. To calculate the external exposure dose from the released radioactive materials, the radionuclide concentrations are multiplied by two factors of dose coefficient and a finite cloud dose correction factor (FCDCF), and the obtained values are summed. This indicates that a standard set of FCDCFs is required for external exposure dose calculations. To calculate a standard set of FCDCFs, the effective distance from the release point to the receptor along the wind direction should be predetermined. The TID-24190 document published in 1968 provides equations to calculate FCDCFs and the resultant standard set of FCDCFs. However, it does not provide any explanation on the effective distance required to calculate the standard set of FCDCFs. In 2021, Sandia National Laboratories (SNLs) proposed a method to predetermine finite effective distances depending on the atmospheric stability classes A to F, which results in six standard sets of FCDCFs. Meanwhile, independently of the SNLs, the authors of this paper discovered that an infinite effective distance assumption is a very reasonable approach to calculate one standard set of FCDCFs, and they implemented it into the multi-unit radiological consequence calculator (MURCC) code, which is a post-processor of the level 3 PSA codes. This paper calculates and compares short- and long-range FCDCFs calculated using the TID-24190, SNLs method, and MURCC method, and explains the strength of the MURCC method over the SNLs method. Although six standard sets of FCDCFs are required by the SNLs method, one standard sets of FCDCFs are sufficient by the MURCC method. Additionally, the use of the MURCC method and its resultant FCDCFs for level 3 PSA was strongly recommended.