• Title/Summary/Keyword: nuclear facility

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A central facility concept for nuclear microreactor maintenance and fuel cycle management

  • Faris Fakhry;Jacopo Buongiorno;Steve Rhyne;Benjamin Cross;Paul Roege;Bruce Landrey
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.56 no.3
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    • pp.855-865
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    • 2024
  • Commercial deployment of nuclear microreactors presents an opportunity for the industry to rethink its approach to manufacturing, siting, operation and maintenance, and fuel cycle management as certain principles used in grid-scale nuclear projects are not applicable to a decentralized microreactor economy. The success of this nascent industry is dependent on its ability to reduce infrastructure, logistical, regulatory and lifecycle costs. A utility-like 'Central Facility' that consolidates the services required and responsibilities borne by vendors into one or a few centralized locations will be necessary to support the deployment of a fleet of microreactors. This paper discusses the requirements for a Central Facility, its implications on the cost structures of owners and suppliers of microreactors, and the impact of the facility for the broader microreactor industry. In addition, this paper discusses the pre-requisites for eligibility as well as the opportunities for a Central Facility host site. While there are many suitable locations for such a capability across the U.S., this paper considers a facility co-located with the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant and Savannah River Sites to illustrate how a Central Facility can leverage the existing infrastructure and stimulate a local ecosystem.

Deployment of Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility with the Introduction of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in Kenya

  • Shadrack, A.;Kim, C.L.
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.37-47
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    • 2013
  • This paper describes basic plans for the development of a radioactive waste disposal facility with the introduction of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) for Kenya. The specific objective of this study was to estimate the total projected waste volumes of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) expected to be generated from the Kenyan nuclear power programme. The facility is expected to accommodate LILW to be generated from operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants for a period of 50 years. An on-site storage capacity of 700 $m^3$ at nuclear power plant sites and a final disposal repository facility of more than 7,000 $m^3$ capacity were derived by considering Korean nuclear power programme radioactive waste generation data, including Kori, Hanbit, and APR 1400 nuclear reactor data. The repository program is best suited to be introduced roughly 10 years after reactor operation. This study is important as an initial implementation of a national LILW disposal program for Kenya and other newcomer countries interested in nuclear power technology.

DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEM SIMULATION APPROACH FOR AN OPERATION ANALYSIS OF A HEADEND PROCESS FACILITY

  • Lee, Hyo-Jik;Kim, Sung-Hyun;Park, Byung-Suk
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.41 no.5
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    • pp.739-746
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    • 2009
  • This paper introduces facility operation modeling and simulation based primarily on a discrete event system modeling scheme. Many modern industrial facilities are so complex that their operational status cannot be estimated by simple calculations. In general, a facility can consist of many processes and transfers of material between processes that may be modeled as a discrete event system. This paper introduces the current status of studies on operation modeling and simulation for typical nuclear facilities, along with some examples. In addition, this paper provides insights about how a discrete event system can be applied to a model for a nuclear facility. A headend facility is chosen for operation modeling and the simulation, and detailed procedure is thoroughly described from modeling to an analysis of discrete event results. These kinds of modeling and simulation are very important because they can contribute to facility design and operation in terms of prediction of system behavior, quantification of facility capacity, bottleneck identification and efficient operation scheduling.

Preliminary design and assessment of a heat pipe residual heat removal system for the reactor driven subcritical facility

  • Zhang, Wenwen;Sun, Kaichao;Wang, Chenglong;Zhang, Dalin;Tian, Wenxi;Qiu, Suizheng;Su, G.H.
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.53 no.12
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    • pp.3879-3891
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    • 2021
  • A heat pipe residual heat removal system is proposed to be incorporated into the reactor driven subcritical (RDS) facility, which has been proposed by MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory for testing and demonstrating the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). It aims to reduce the risk of the system operation after the shutdown of the facility. One of the main components of the system is an air-cooled heat pipe heat exchanger. The alkali-metal high-temperature heat pipe was designed to meet the operation temperature and residual heat removal requirement of the facility. The heat pipe model developed in the previous work was adopted to simulate the designed heat pipe and assess the heat transport capability. 3D numerical simulation of the subcritical facility active zone was performed by the commercial CFD software STAR CCM + to investigate the operation characteristics of this proposed system. The thermal resistance network of the heat pipe was built and incorporated into the CFD model. The nominal condition, partial loss of air flow accident and partial heat pipe failure accident were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the residual heat removal system can provide sufficient cooling of the subcritical facility with a remarkable safety margin. The heat pipe can work under the recommended operation temperature range and the heat flux is below all thermal limits. The facility peak temperature is also lower than the safety limits.

Development of classification criteria for non-reactor nuclear facilities in Korea

  • Dong-Jin Kim;Byung-Sik Lee
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.55 no.2
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    • pp.792-799
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    • 2023
  • Non-reactor nuclear facilities are increasing remarkably in Korea combined with advanced technologies such as life and space engineering, and the diversification of the nuclear industry. However, the absence of a basic classification guideline related to the design of non-reactor nuclear facilities has created confusion whenever related projects are carried out. In this paper, related domestic and international technical guidelines are reviewed to present the classification criteria of non-reactor nuclear facilities in Korea. Based on these criteria, the classification of structures, systems and components (SSCs) for safety controls is presented. Using the presented classification criteria, classification of a hot cell facility, a representative non-reactor nuclear facility, was performed. As a result of the classification, the hot cell facility is classified as the hazard category 3, accordingly, the safety class was classified as non-nuclear safety, the seismic category as non-seismic (RW-IIb), and the quality class as manufacturers' standards (S).