• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1267-1276
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• 2024

The emerging technologies at the industrial level have deployed rapidly within the energy transition process innovations. The nuclear industry incorporates several technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Digital Twins, High-Performance-Computing (HPC) and Quantum Computing (QC), among others. Factors identifications are explained to set up a regulatory framework in the digitalization era, providing new capabilities paths for nuclear technologies in the forthcoming years. The Analytical Network Process (ANP) integrates the quantitative-qualitative decision-making analysis to assess the implementation of different aspects in the digital transformation for the New-Energy Transition Era (NETE) with a Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development (NPID).

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.71-80
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• 2015

This paper describes nuclear energy technologies for the solution of long term energy problem with better reliability. A short overview about nuclear energy applications are explained with a basic analysis of energy. Furthermore, industrial application, space application of nuclear systems and ship propulsion in nuclear energy application are demonstrated in more detail. This report also includes some examples of the experienced nuclear power plant to identify energy production. The general purpose of the article is to understand how efficiently nuclear systems generates energy, and solve the world's increasing energy demand in our century.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.803-810
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• 2013

The U.S. Department of Energy's Fuel Cycle Technologies R&D program under the Office of Nuclear Energy is working to advance technologies to enhance both the existing and future fuel cycles. One thrust area is in developing enabling technologies for next generation nuclear materials management under the Materials Protection, Accounting and Control Technologies (MPACT) Campaign where advanced instrumentation, analysis and assessment methods, and security approaches are being developed under a framework of Safeguards and Security by Design. An overview of the MPACT campaign's activities and recent accomplishments is presented along with future plans.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.797-801
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• 2020

Most of irradiated graphite that should be disposed comes from moderators and reflectors of nuclear power plants. The quantity of irradiated graphite could be higher in the future if high-temperature reactors (HTRs) will be deployed. In this case noteworthy quantities of fuel pebbles containing semi-graphitic carbonaceous material should be added to the already existing 250,000 tons of irradiated graphite. Industry graphite is largely used in industrial applications for its high thermal and electrical conductivity and thermal and chemical resistance, making it a valuable material. Irradiated graphite constitutes a waste management challenge owing to the presence of long-lived radionuclides, such as ¹⁴C and ³⁶Cl. In the ENEA Nuclear Material Characterization Laboratory it has been successfully designed a procedure based on the exfoliation process organic solvent assisted, with the purpose of investigate the possibility of achieving graphite significantly less toxic that could be recycled for other purpose [1]. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of the scalability from laboratory to industrial dimensions of the exfoliation process and provide the prototype of a chemical plant for the treatment of irradiated graphite.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.1037-1040
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• 2019

For the past 50 years, graphite has been widely used as a moderator, reflector and fuel matrix in different kinds of gas-cooled reactors. Resulting in approximately 250,000 metric tons of irradiated graphite waste. One of the most significant long-lived radioisotope from graphite reactors is carbon-14 ($^{14}C$) with a half-life of 5730 years, this makes it a huge concern for deep geologic disposal of nuclear graphite (NG). Considering the lifecycle of NG a number of waste management options have been developed, mainly focused on the achievement the radiological requirements for disposal. The existing approaches for recycling depend on the cost to be economically viable. In this new study, an affordable process to remove $^{14}C$ has been proposed using samples taken from the Nuclear Power Plant in Latina (Italy) which have been used to investigate the capability of organic and inorganic solvents in removing $^{14}C$ from exfoliated nuclear graphite, with the aim to design a practicable approach to obtain graphite for recycling or/and safety disposed as L& LLW.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2427-2444
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• 2021

The lack of plant-side energy storage analysis to support nuclear power plants (NPP), has setup this research endeavor to understand the characteristics and role of specific storage technologies and the integration to an NPP. The paper provides a qualitative review of a wide range of configurations for integrating the energy storage system (ESS) to an operating NPP with pressurized water reactor (PWR). The role of ESS technologies most suitable for large-scale storage are evaluated, including thermal energy storage, compressed gas energy storage, and liquid air energy storage. The methods of integration to the NPP steam cycle are introduced and categorized as electrical, mechanical, and thermal, with a review on developments in the integration of ESS with an operating PWR. By adopting simplified off-design modeling for the steam turbines and heat exchangers, the results show the performance of the PWR steam cycle changes with respect to steam bypass rate for thermal and mechanical storage integration options. Analysis of the integrated system characteristics of proposed concepts for three different ESS suggests that certain storage technologies could support steady operation of an NPP. After having reviewed what have been accomplished through the years, the research team presents a list of possible future works.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.1310-1317
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• 2017

GASFLOW-MPI is a widely used scalable computational fluid dynamics numerical tool to simulate the fluid turbulence behavior, combustion dynamics, and other related thermal-hydraulic phenomena in nuclear power plant containment. An efficient scalable linear solver for the large-scale pressure equation is one of the key issues to ensure the computational efficiency of GASFLOW-MPI. Several advanced Krylov subspace methods and scalable preconditioning methods are compared and analyzed to improve the computational performance. With the help of the powerful computational capability, the large eddy simulation turbulent model is used to resolve more detailed turbulent behaviors. A backward-facing step flow is performed to study the free shear layer, the recirculation region, and the boundary layer, which is widespread in many scientific and engineering applications. Numerical results are compared with the experimental data in the literature and the direct numerical simulation results by GASFLOW-MPI. Both time-averaged velocity profile and turbulent intensity are well consistent with the experimental data and direct numerical simulation result. Furthermore, the frequency spectrum is presented and a -5/3 energy decay is observed for a wide range of frequencies, satisfying the turbulent energy spectrum theory. Parallel scaling tests are also implemented on the KIT/IKET cluster and a linear scaling is realized for GASFLOW-MPI.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.549-560
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• 2009

Over the last three decades, nuclear technology development has played a vital role in the socio-economic development of the Republic of Korea. This study, being the first of its kind, focuses on quantifying the actual economic contribution of nuclear technologies to economic development by evaluating the net benefit of the nuclear power with respect to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). An input-output analysis was employed as a methodological approach to analyze inter-industrial economic activities by calculating the industrial value added as a means of the economic contribution during the period of 1980 to 2005. The industrial value added of nuclear technologies was estimated from the construction and operation of nuclear power (backward-linked industrial value added) and from the industrial activities attributed to the electricity generated by the nuclear power (forward-linked industrial value added). It was found that the total net contribution of nuclear technologies as a percentage share of GDP amounted to 2.38% in 2005.

• Proceedings of the Korea Technology Innovation Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.531-544
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• 2001

The use and development of nuclear energy has a long history more than 5o years and is facing a rapid changing environment in technological innovations in order to meet the requirements of energy supply, environmental conservation and social and political demands. The innovation of nuclear technologies are also necessary continuously in order to contribute for the progress of national economy and industry development, improvement of public health, progress of nation science and technology and furthermore is very important for the survival of nuclear industry and strengthening of competition of nuclear technologies. Major directions of the innovation of nuclear technologies would be the enhance ment of safety and economy of the use of nuclear energy, securing od nuclear proliferation-resistance, safe management of radioactive wastes, technology development for newly emerging markets and improvement of public health.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1664-1673
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• 2022

Achieving sustainable development requires an increasing share of green technologies. World energy demand is expected to rise significantly especially in developing economies. The increasing energy demands will be entertained with conventional energy sources at the cost of higher emissions unless eco-friendly technologies are used. This study examines the asymmetric effects of nuclear energy on carbon emissions for Pakistan from 1974 to 2019. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) unit root tests suggest that variables are integrated of order one and bound test of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and nonlinear ARDL confirm a long-run relationship among selected variables. The ARDL, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) results show that the coefficient of nuclear energy has a negative and significant impact on emissions in both short and long run. Further, the NARDL finding shows that there exists an asymmetric long-run association between nuclear energy and CO₂ emissions. The vector error correction method (VECM) results indicate that there exists a bidirectional causal relationship between nuclear energy and carbon emissions in both the short and long run. Additionally, the impact of nuclear energy on ecological footprint has been examined and our findings remain robust.