• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.1323-1330
• /
• 2021

This work reported the radiation shielding characteristic of the bismuth titanium vanadium sodium tellurite glass system. The density of the specially-developed glass samples was increased from 2.21 to 4.01 g/cm³ with the addition of Bi₂O₃, despite the fact the molar volume is decease within 85.43-54.79 cm³/mol. The WinXcom program was used to approximate the effect of Bi₂O₃ on the gamma radiation shielding parameters of bismuth titanium vanadium sodium tellurite glasses. The ㎛ values decrease with the increase of Bi₂O₃ concentration. The computed data shows that the glass sample with 20 mol.% of Bi₂O₃ content has the greatest radiation attenuation performance in comparison to other selected glasses. The Bi₂O₃-TiO₂-V₂O₅-Na₂O-TeO₂ glass system shows excellent neutron shielding material with high long-term light transmittance and discharge resistance and could be potentially used as transparent radiation-resistant shielding glass applications.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.45 no.7
• /
• pp.921-928
• /
• 2013

A future nuclear energy system is being developed at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), the system involves a Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) linked with the pyro-process. The pyro-process produces a source material to fabricate a SFR fuel rod. Therefore, an isotopic fissile content assay is very important for fuel rod safety and SFR economics. A new technology for an analysis of isotopic fissile content has been proposed using a lead slowing down spectrometer (LSDS). The new technology has several features for a fissile analysis from spent fuel: direct isotopic fissile assay, no background interference, and no requirement from burnup history information. Several calculations were done on the designed spectrometer geometry: detection sensitivity, neutron energy spectrum analysis, neutron fission characteristics, self shielding analysis, and neutron production mechanism. The spectrum was well organized even at low neutron energy and the threshold fission chamber was a proper choice to get prompt fast fission neutrons. The characteristic fission signature was obtained in slowing down neutron energy from each fissile isotope. Another application of LSDS is for an optimum design of the spent fuel storage, maximization of the burnup credit and provision of the burnup code correction factor. Additionally, an isotopic fissile content assay will contribute to an increase in transparency and credibility for the utilization of spent fuel nuclear material, as internationally demanded.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.6
• /
• pp.1297-1303
• /
• 2020

In this study, nuclear radiation shielding and rigidity parameters of Y (0.1-x)B0.6Bi1.8O3La2x glassy system were investigated in order to determine it's suitability for use as nuclear radiation shielding materials. Therefore, a group of bismuth borate glass samples with La₂O₃ additive were synthesized using the technique of melt quenching. According to the results, the increase of the La₂O₃ additive increases the density of the glass samples and the mass attenuation coefficient (μ_m) values, whereas the half-value layer (HVL) and mean free path (MFP) values decrease. The effective atomic number (Z_eff) is also enhanced with an increment of both mass removal cross section for neutron (Σ_R) and absorption neutron scattering cross section (σ_abs). In addition to the other parameters, rigidity parameter values were theoretically examined. The increase of La₂O₃ causes some other important magnitudes to increase. These are the average crosslink density, the number of bonds per unit volume, as well as the stretching force constant values of these glass samples. These results are in concordance with the increase of elastic moduli in terms of the Makishima-Mackenzie model. This model showed an increase in the rigidity of the glass samples as a function of La₂O₃.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.547-556
• /
• 2014

Korea expects a shortage in storage capacity for spent fuels at reactor sites. Therefore, a need for more metal and/or concrete casks for storage systems is anticipated for either the reactor site or away from the reactor for interim storage. For the purpose of interim storage and transportation, a dual purpose metal cask that can load 21 spent fuel assemblies is being developed by Korea Radioactive Waste Management Corporation (KRMC) in Korea. At first the gamma and neutron flux for the design basis fuel were determined assuming in-core environment (the temperature, pressure, etc. of the moderator, boron, cladding, $UO_2$ pellets) in which the design basis fuel is loaded, as input data. The evaluation simulated burnup up to 45,000 MWD/MTU and decay during ten years of cooling using the SAS2H/OGIGEN-S module of the SCALE5.1 system. The results from the source term evaluation were used as input data for the final shielding evaluation utilizing the MCNP Code, which yielded the effective dose rate. The design of the cask is based on the safety requirements for normal storage conditions under 10 CFR Part 72. A radiation shielding analysis of the metal storage cask optimized for loading 21 design basis fuels was performed for two cases; one for a single cask and the other for a $2{\times}10$ cask array. For the single cask, dose rates at the external surface of the metal cask, 1m and 2m away from the cask surface, were evaluated. For the $2{\times}10$ cask array, dose rates at the center point of the array and at the center of the casks' height were evaluated. The results of the shielding analysis for the single cask show that dose rates were considerably higher at the lower side (from the bottom of the cask to the bottom of the neutron shielding) of the cask, at over 2mSv/hr at the external surface of the cask. However, this is not considered to be a significant issue since additional shielding will be installed at the storage facility. The shielding analysis results for the $2{\times}10$ cask array showed exponential decrease with distance off the sources. The controlled area boundary was calculated to be approximately 280m from the array, with a dose rate of 25mrem/yr. Actual dose rates within the controlled area boundary will be lower than 25mrem/yr, due to the decay of radioactivity of spent fuel in storage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.12 no.7
• /
• pp.909-917
• /
• 2018

3D printing technology is expected to be an innovative technology of the manufacturing industry during the 4th industrial revolution, and it is being used in various fields including biotechnology and medical field. In this study, we verified the printing materials through Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the radiation shielding ability of the raw material using this 3D printing technology. In this paper, the printing materials were selected from the raw materials available in a general-purpose FDM-based 3D printer. Simulation of the ICRU phantom and the shielding system was carried out to evaluate the shielding effect by evaluating the particle fluence according to the type and energy of radiation. As a result, the shielding effect tended to decrease gradually with increasing energy in the case of photon beam, and the shielding effect of TPU, PLA, PVA, Nylon and ABS gradually decreased in order of materials. In the case of the neutron beam, the neutron intensity increases at a low thickness of 5 ~ 10 mm. However, the effective shielding effect is shown above a certain thickness. The shielding effect of printing material is gradually increased in the order of Nylon, PVA, ABS, PLA and TPU Respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.56 no.4
• /
• pp.1204-1212
• /
• 2024

To accurately calculate the heating distribution of the fast reactor, a neutron-photon library in MATXS format named Knight-B7.1-1968n × 94γ was processed based on the ENDF/B-VII.1 library for ultrafine groups. The neutron cross-section processing code MGGC2.0 was used to generate few-group neutron cross sections in ISOTXS format. Additionally, the self-developed photon cross-section processing code NGAMMA was utilized to generate photon libraries for neutron-photon coupled heating calculations, including photo-atom cross sections for the ISOTXS format, prompt photon production cross sections, and kinetic energy release in materials (KERMA) factors for neutrons and photons, and the self-shielding effect from the capture and fission cross sections of neutron to photon have been taken into account when the photon source generated by neutron is calculated. The interface code GSORCAL was developed to generate the photon source distribution and interface with the DIF3D code to calculate the neutron-photon coupling heating distribution of the fast reactor core. The neutron-photon coupled heating calculation route was verified using the ZPPR-9 benchmark and the RBEC-M benchmark, and the results of the coupled heating calculations were analyzed in comparison with those obtained from the Monte Carlo code MCNP. The calculations show that the library was accurately processed, and the results of the fast reactor neutron-photon coupled heating calculations agree well with those obtained from MCNP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.65-70
• /
• 1988

A Shielding analysis of the shipping cask designed conceptually, of which shielding material are lead and resin, for containing 4 PWR spent fuel assemblies, has been made with the help of a computer code, ANISN. The shielding materials being used in the cask have been selected and arranged to minimize cask weight while maintaining an overall shielding effectiveness. Radiation source terms have been calculated by means of ORIGIN-2 code under the assumptions of 38,000 MWD/MTU burnup and 3-year cooling time. A calculation of gamma-ray and neutron dose rates on the cask surface and 1m from the surface has been done. It is revealed that the total dose rates under the normal transport and hypothetical accident conditions meet the standards specified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.7
• /
• pp.2151-2161
• /
• 2021

Nuclear data (ND) sensitivity and uncertainty (S/U) quantification in shielding applications is performed using deterministic and probabilistic approaches. In this paper the validation of the newly developed deterministic program package ASUSD (ADVANTG + SUSD3D) is presented. ASUSD was developed with the aim of automating the process of ND S/U while retaining the computational efficiency of the deterministic approach to ND S/U analysis. The paper includes a detailed description of each of the programs contained within ASUSD, the computational workflow and validation results. ASUSD was validated on two shielding benchmark experiments from the Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBAD) - the fission relevant ASPIS Iron 88 experiment and the fusion relevant Frascati Neutron Generator (FNG) Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) mock-up experiment. The validation process was performed in two stages. Firstly, the Denovo discrete ordinates transport solver was validated as a standalone solver. Secondly, the ASUSD program package as a whole was validated as a ND S/U analysis tool. Both stages of the validation process yielded excellent results, with a maximum difference of 17% in final uncertainties due to ND between ASUSD and the stochastic ND S/U approach. Based on these results, ASUSD has proven to be a user friendly and computationally efficient tool for deterministic ND S/U analysis of shielding geometries.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.264-270
• /
• 2016

Self-powered neutron detector (SPND) is a sensor to monitor a neutron flux proportional to a reactor power of the nuclear power plants. Since an SPND is usually installed in the reactor core and does not require additional outside power, it generates electrons itself from interaction between neutrons and a neutron-sensitive material called an emitter, such as rhodium and vanadium. This paper presents the simulations of the depletion sensitivity evaluations based on MCNP models of rhodium and vanadium SPNDs and light water reactor fuel assembly. The evaluations include the detail geometries of the detectors and fuel assembly, and the modeling of rhodium and vanadium emitter depletion using MCNP and ORIGEN-S codes, and the realistic energy spectrum of beta rays using BETA-S code. The results of the simulations show that the lifetime of an SPND can be prolonged by using vanadium SPND than rhodium SPND. Also, the methods presented here can be used to analyze a life-time of those SPNDs using various emitter materials.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.1036-1044
• /
• 2023

The combination of MCNP6 and the FISPACT codes was used to predict inventories of radioisotopes produced by neutron exposure of a sample in a research reactor. The detailed MCNP6 model of the Budapest Research Reactor and the specific irradiation geometry of the NAA channel was established, while realistic material cards were specified based on concentrations measured by PGAA and NAA, considering the precursor elements of all significant radioisotopes. The energy- and spatial distributions of the neutron field calculated by MCNP6 were transferred to FISPACT, and the resulting activities were validated against those measured using neutron-irradiated small and bulky targets. This approach is general enough to handle different target materials, shapes, and irradiation conditions. A general agreement within 10% has been achieved. Moreover, the method can also be made applicable to predict the activation properties of the near-vessel concrete of existing nuclear installations or assist in the optimal construction of new nuclear power plant units.