• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.589-598
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• 2018

To maintain safety and reliability of reactors, redundant sensors are usually used to measure critical variables and estimate their averaged time-dependency. Nonhealthy sensors can badly influence the estimation result of the process variable. Since online condition monitoring was introduced, the online cross-calibration method has been widely used to detect any anomaly of sensor readings among the redundant group. The cross-calibration method has four main averaging techniques: simple averaging, band averaging, weighted averaging, and parity space averaging (PSA). PSA is used to weigh redundant signals based on their error bounds and their band consistency. Using the consistency weighting factor (C), PSA assigns more weight to consistent signals that have shared bands, based on how many bands they share, and gives inconsistent signals of very low weight. In this article, three approaches are introduced for improving the PSA technique: the first is to add another consistency factor, so called trend consistency (TC), to include a consideration of the preserving of any characteristic edge that reflects the behavior of equipment/component measured by the process parameter; the second approach proposes replacing the error bound/accuracy based weighting factor ($W^a$) with a weighting factor based on the Euclidean distance ($W^d$), and the third approach proposes applying $W^d$, TC, and C, all together. Cold neutron source data sets of four redundant hydrogen pressure transmitters from a research reactor were used to perform the validation and verification. Results showed that the second and third modified approaches lead to reasonable improvement of the PSA technique. All approaches implemented in this study were similar in that they have the capability to (1) identify and isolate a drifted sensor that should undergo calibration, (2) identify a faulty sensor/s due to long and continuous missing data range, and (3) identify a healthy sensor.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2013

Tritium was attracted with high energy source in neutron fusion energy systems. A number of research was performed in tritium storage materials. The Korea was raised storage and delivery systems (SDS) of international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) research. However, bottles of SDS would be important because of stability. The bottles have a welding zone, this zone will be vulnerable to hydrogen embrittlement. This zone have a high thermodynamic energy and heat deterioration. Therefore bottles were studied about hydrogen embrittlement to retain stability. The heat treatment of hydrogen was carried under pressure-composition-temperature (PCT) apparatus because of checking at real time. And then, mechanical properties were evaluated by tensile test and hardness test. In results of this study, hydrogen atmosphere condition is very important by tensile test and kinetics test. The samples were evaluated, that is more weak hydrogen pressure, increasing temperature and time. This results could be useful in SDS bottle designs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.584-589
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• 2003

The hot cell facility which is designed to permit safe handling of source materials with radioactivity levels up to 1,385 TBq, is planned to be built. To meet this goal, the facility is designed to keep gamma and neutron radiation lower than the recommended dose-rate in normally occupied areas. The calculations performed with QAD-CGGP and MCNP-4C are used to evaluate the proposed engineering design concepts that would provide acceptable dose-rates during a normal operation in hot cell facility. The maximum effective gamma dose-rates on the surfaces of the facility at operation area and at service area calculated by QAD-CGGP are estimated to be $2.10{\times}10^{-3}$, $2.97{\times}10^{-2}$ and $1.01{\times}10^{-1}$ mSv/h, respectively. And those calculated by MCNP-4C are $1.60{\times}10^{-3}$, $2.99{\times}10^{-3}$ and $7.88{\times}10^{-2}$ mSv/h, respectively The dose-rates contributed by neutrons are one order of magnitude less than that of gamma sources, and penetration and toboggan will be partly reinforced by lead shield.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 1987

The manganous sulphate bath method is widely used for measurements of neutron source strength. In this study, the analytical chemistry method based on the argon supported inductively coupled plasmas emission spectrometry was used for examining the impurity contents of domestic $MnSO_4{\cdot}H_2O$ the product of Chemical Industry, to induce $^{55}Mn(n,{\gamma})^{56}$ Mn reactions. From the analytical results, mainly potassium, cobalt, and zinc as well as trace amounts of cadmium, lithium, etc. have turned out to be the relevant impurities absorbing the neutrons, and the fraction of neutrons absorbed by the total impurities was calculated. The value obtained was about 1.37% of the neutrons captured by manganese.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.63-69
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• 2012

The second phase of the national program for fusion energy development in Korea starts from 2012 for design and construction of the fusion DEMO reactor. Radiological assessment for the fusion reactor is one of the key tasks to assure its licensability and the starting point of the assessment is determination of the source terms. As the first effort, the activities of the coolant due to activated corrosion product (ACP) were estimated. Data and experiences from fission reactors were used, in part, in the calculations of the ACP concentrations because of lack of operating experience for fusion reactors. The MCNPX code was used to determine neutron spectra and intensities at the coolant locations and the FISPACT code was used to estimate the ACP activities in the coolant of the fusion DEMO reactor. The calculated specific activities of the most nuclides in the fusion DEMO reactor coolant were 2-15 times lower than those in the PWR coolant, but the specific activities of $^{57}Co$ and $^{57}Ni$ were expected to be much higher than in the PWR coolant. The preliminary results of this study can be used to figure out the approximate radiological conditions and to establish a tentative set of radiological design criteria for the systems carrying coolant in the design phase of the fusion DEMO reactor.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.8-8
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• 2003

Electron-phonon interaction plays a significant role in forming of colossal magnetoresistance effect (CMR). Polaron formation was observed by neutron diffraction and by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis. Local probe as given by the EXAFS is a useful method to study the polaronic charge and its dependence on temperature and ions size. Here we present the EXAFS study of polaronic charge in La/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3-X/Ba/sub X/MnO₃ compositions. The single phase La/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3-X/Ba/sub X/MnO₃ manganites (x=0; 0.03; 0.06, ..., 0.3) were prepared by ceramic technology [1]. The Curie temperature was determined by extrapolation of the temperature dependence of the magnetization (down to zero magnetization). EXAFS experiments were carried out at the 7C EC beam line of the Pohang Light Source (PLS) in Korea. The atomic pair distribution functions (PDF) were obtained by re-regularization method [2] from filtered spectra. The PDF for the x=0.3 sample showed a single peak function and for x=0.0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12 compositions were asymmetric in agreement with a small Jahn-Teller elongation of two (short and long) bonds of the MnO/sub 6/ octahedron. Dispersion, σ/sub Min-O//sup 2/, and asymmetry, σ/sub Min-O//sup 3/, of the Mn-O bond distances varied significantly with x and showed a maximums at x=0.09. The maximum of σ/sub Min-O//sup 2/ is caused by increase of dynamic rms displacements of the Mn-O distances near the T/sub C/. The observed x dependence of σ/sub Min-O//sup 3/ reflects the reduction of charge carriers mobility at approaching to T/sub C/ from low as well as high temperatures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.2410-2414
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• 2020

Heavy ions have a high potential for destroying deep tumors that carry the highest dose at the peak of Bragg. The peak caused by a single-energy carbon beam is too narrow, which requires special measures for improvement. Here, carbon-12 (¹²C) ion with different energies has been used as a source for calculating the dose distribution in the water phantom, soft tissue and bone by the code of Monte Carlobased FLUKA code. By increasing the energy of the initial beam, the amount of absorbed dose at Bragg peak in all three targets decreased, but the trend for this reduction was less severe in bone. While the maximum absorbed dose per bone-mass unit in energy of 200 MeV/u was about 30% less than the maximum absorbed dose per unit mass of water or soft tissue, it was merely 2.4% less than soft tissue in 400 MeV/u. The simulation result showed a good agreement with experimental data at GSI Darmstadt facility of biophysics group by 0.15 cm average accuracy in Bragg peak positioning. From 200 to 400 MeV/u incident energy, the Bragg peak location increased about 18 cm in soft tissue. Correspondingly, the bone and soft tissue revealed a reduction dose ratio by 2.9 and 1.9. Induced neutrons did not contribute more than 1.8% to the total energy deposited in the water phantom. Also during ¹²C ion bombardment, secondary fragments showed 76% and 24% of primary 200 and 400 MeV/u, respectively, were present at the Bragg-peak position. The combined treatment of carbon ions with neutron or electron beams may be more effective in local dose delivery and also treating malignant tumors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.91-100
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• 2005

Kyung-hee Thorium Fuel (KTF), a heterogeneous thorium-based seed and blanket design concept for pressurized light water reactors, is being studied as an alternative to enhance proliferation resistance and fuel cycle economics of PWRs. The proliferation resistance characteristics of the KTF assembly design were evaluated through parametric studies using neutronic performance indices such as Bare Critical Mass (BCM), Spontaneous Neutron Source rate (SNS), Thermal Generation rate (TG), and Radio-Toxicity. Also, Fissile Economic Index (FEI), a new index for gauging fuel cycle economy, was suggested and applied to optimize the KTF design. A core loaded with optimized KTF assemblies with a seed-to-blanket ratio of 1: 1 was tested at the Korea Next Generation Reactor (KNGR), ARP-1400. Core design characteristics for cycle length, power distribution, and power peaking were evaluated by HELIOS and MASTER code systems for nine reload cycles. The core calculation results show that the KTF assembly design has nearly the same neutronic performance as those of a conventional $UO_2$ fuel assembly. However, the power peaking factor is relatively higher than that of conventional PWRs as the maximum Fq is 2.69 at the M$9^{th}$ equilibrium cycle while the design limit is 2.58. In order to assess the economic potential of a heterogeneous thorium fuel core, the front-end fuel cycle costs as well as the spent fuel disposal costs were compared with those of a reference PWR fueled with $UO_2$. In the case of comprising back-end fuel cycle cost, the fuel cycle cost of APR-1400 with a KTF assembly is 4.99 mills/KWe-yr, which is lower than that (5.23 mills/KWe-yr) of a conventional PWR. Proliferation resistance potential, BCM, SNS, and TG of a heterogeneous thorium-fueled core are much higher than those of the $UO_2$ core. The once-through fuel cycle application of heterogeneous thorium fuel assemblies demonstrated good competitiveness relative to $UO_2$ in terms of economics.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.363-374
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• 2005

A heterogeneous thorium-based Kyung Hee Thorium Fuel (KTF) assembly design was assessed for application in the APR-1400 to study the feasibility of using thorium fuel in a conventional pressurized water reactor (PWR). Thermal hydraulic safety was examined for the thorium-based APR-1400 core, focusing on the Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio (DNBR) and Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) analysis. To satisfy the minimum DNBR (MDNBR) safety limit condition, MDNBR>1.3, a new grid design was adopted, that enabled grids in the seed and blanket assemblies to have different loss coefficients to the coolant flow. The fuel radius of the blanket was enlarged to increase the mass flow rate in the seed channel. Under transient conditions, the MDNBR values for the Beginning of Cycle (BOC), Middle of Cycle (MOC), and End of Cycle (EOC) were 1.367, 1.465, and 1.554, respectively, despite the high power tilt across the seed and blanket. Anticipated transient for the DNBR analysis were simulated at conditions of $112\%$ over-power, $95\%$ flow rate, and $2^{\circ}C$ higher inlet temperature. The maximum peak cladding temperature (PCT) was 1,173K for the severe accident condition of the LBLOCA, while the limit condition was 1,477K. The proliferation resistance potential of the thorium-based core was found to be much higher than that of the conventional $UO_2$ fuel core, $25\%$ larger in Bare Critical Mass (BCM), $60\%$ larger in Spontaneous Neutron Source (SNS), and $155\%$ larger in Thermal Generation (TG) rate; however, the radio-toxicity of the spent fuel was higher than that of $UO_2$ fuel, making it more environmentally unfriendly due to its high burnup rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.631-640
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• 2019

Thorium ($^{232}Th$) is four times more abundant than uranium in nature and has become a new important source of energy in the future. This is due to the ability of thorium to undergo the bombardment of neutron to produce uranium-233 ($^{233}U$). The aim of this study is to investigate the production cost of thorium oxide ($ThO_2$) resulted from the thorium extraction process. Four main parameters were studied which include raw material and chemical cost, total capital investment, direct cost and indirect cost. These parameters were justified to obtain the final production cost for the thorium extraction process. The result showed that the raw material costs were $63,126.00 - $104,120.77 (0.5 ton), $126,252.00 - $178,241.53 (1.0 ton), and $1,262,520.00 - $1,782,415.33 (10.0 tons). The total installed equipment and total cost investment were estimated to be approximately $11,542,984.10 and $13,274,431.715 respectively. Hence, the total costs for producing 1 kg $ThO_2$ were $6829.79 - $6911.78, $3540.95 - $3592.94, and $501.18 - $553.17 for 0.5, 1.0, and 10.0 tons respectively. The result concluded that with higher mass production, the cost of 1 kg $ThO_2$ would be reduced which in this scenario, the lowest production cost was $$501.18kg^{-1}$-$$553.17kg^{-1}$ for 10.0 tons of $ThO_2$ production.