• Title/Summary/Keyword: nuclear fission energy

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Air Leakage Analysis of Research Reactor HANARO Building in Typhoon Condition for the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness

  • Lee, Goanyup;Lee, Haecho;Kim, Bongseok;Kim, Jongsoo;Choi, Pyungkyu
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.354-358
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    • 2016
  • Background: To find out the leak characteristic of research reactor 'HANARO' building in a typhoon condition Materials and Methods: MELCOR code which normally is used to simulate severe accident behavior in a nuclear power plant was used to simulate the leak rate of air and fission products from reactor hall after the shutdown of the ventilation system of HANARO reactor building. For the simulation, HANARO building was designed by MELCOR code and typhoon condition passed through Daejeon in 2012 was applied. Results and Discussion: It was found that the leak rate is $0.1%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ of air, $0.004%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ of noble gas and $3.7{\times}10^{-5}%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ of aerosol during typhoon passing. The air leak rate of $0.1%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ can be converted into $1.36m^3{\cdot}hr^{-1}$, but the design leak rate in HANARO safety analysis report was considered as $600m^3{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ under the condition of $20m{\cdot}sec^{-1}$ wind speed outside of the building by typhoon. Conclusion: Most of fission products during the maximum hypothesis accident at HANARO reactor will be contained in the reactor hall, so the direct radiation by remained fission products in the reactor hall will be the most important factor in designing emergency preparedness for HANARO reactor.

Automated inventory and material science scoping calculations under fission and fusion conditions

  • Gilbert, Mark R.;Fleming, Michael;Sublet, Jean-Christophe
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.49 no.6
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    • pp.1346-1353
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    • 2017
  • The FISPACT-II inventory simulation platform is a modern computational tool with advanced and unique capabilities. It is sufficiently flexible and efficient to make it an ideal basis around which to perform extensive simulation studies to scope a variety of responses of many materials (elements) to several different neutron irradiation scenarios. This paper briefly presents the typical outputs from these scoping studies, which have been used to compile a suite of nuclear physics materials handbooks, providing a useful and vital resource for material selection and design studies. Several different global responses are extracted from these reports, allowing for comparisons between materials and between different irradiation conditions. A new graphical output format has been developed for the FISPACT-II platform to display these "global summaries"; results for different elements are shown in a periodic table layout, allowing side-by-side comparisons. Several examples of such plots are presented and discussed.

Prompt Fission Neutron Spectra in Supercritical Accidents (Influence on the Fission Spectrum-averaged cross-sections of Some Threshold Activation Reactions)

  • Ro, Seung-Gy;Jun, Jae-Shik
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.119-126
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    • 1975
  • On the assumption that the spectral distribution of prompt fission neutrons released from supercritical accidents can be expressed by the generalized Cranberg form with two spectral parameters, which is then transformed into the single parameter form, a variation of the fission spectrum-averaged cross-sections for some threshold reactions with varying the spectral parameter has teen calculated using an electronic computer. It appears that the average cross-sections are very sensitive to the spectral deformation, especially those for the detectors having the threshold at high neutron energy are high compared to those for the detectors of which the threshold energies are comparatively low.

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Neutronic optimization of thorium-based fuel configurations for minimizing slightly used nuclear fuel and radiotoxicity in small modular reactors

  • Nur Anis Zulaikha Kamarudin;Aznan Fazli Ismail;Mohamad Hairie Rabir;Khoo Kok Siong
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.56 no.7
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    • pp.2641-2649
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    • 2024
  • Effective management of slightly used nuclear fuel (SUNF) is crucial for both technical and public acceptance reasons. SUNF management, radiotoxicity risk, and associated financial investment and technological capabilities are major concerns in nuclear power production. Reducing the volume of SUNF can simplify its management, and one possible solution is utilizing small modular reactors (SMR) and advanced fuel designs like those with thorium. This research focuses on studying the neutronic performance and radionuclide inventory of three different thorium fuel configurations. The mass of fissile material in thorium-based fuel significantly impacts Kinf, burn-up, and neutron energy spectrum. Compared to uranium, thorium as a fuel produces far fewer transuranic elements and less long-lived fission products (LLFPs) at the end of the core cycle (EOC). However, certain fission product elements produced from thorium-based fuel exhibit higher radioactivity at the beginning of the core cycle (BOC). Physical separation of thorium and uranium in the fuel block, like seed-and-blanket units (SBU) and duplex fuel designs, generate less radioactive waste with lower radioactivity and longer cycle lengths than homogeneous or mixed thorium-uranium fuel. Furthermore, the SBU and duplex feel designs exhibit comparable neutron spectra, leading to negligible differences in SUNF production between the two.

SAFETY ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY FOR AGED CANDU® 6 NUCLEAR REACTORS

  • Hartmann, Wolfgang;Jung, Jong Yeob
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.581-588
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    • 2013
  • This paper deals with the Safety Analysis for $CANDU^{(R)}$ 6 nuclear reactors as affected by main Heat Transport System (HTS) aging. Operational and aging related changes of the HTS throughout its lifetime may lead to restrictions in certain safety system settings and hence some restriction in performance under certain conditions. A step in confirming safe reactor operation is the tracking of relevant data and their corresponding interpretation by the use of appropriate thermal-hydraulic analytic models. Safety analyses ranging from the assessment of safety limits associated with the prevention of intermittent fuel sheath dryout for a slow Loss of Regulation (LOR) analysis and fission gas release after a fuel failure are summarized. Specifically for fission gas release, the thermal-hydraulic analysis for a fresh core and an 11 Effective Full Power Years (EFPY) aged core was summarized, leading to the most severe stagnation break sizes for the inlet feeder break and the channel failure time. Associated coolant conditions provide the input data for fuel analyses. Based on the thermal-hydraulic data, the fission product inventory under normal operating conditions may be calculated for both fresh and aged cores, and the fission gas release may be evaluated during the transient. This analysis plays a major role in determining possible radiation doses to the public after postulated accidents have occurred.

DISSOLUTION AND BURNUP DETERMINATION OF IRRADIATED U-Zr ALLOY NUCLEAR FUEL BY CHEMICAL METHODS

  • Kim, Jung-Suk;Jeon, Young-Shin;Park, Soon-Dal;Song, Byung-Chul;Han, Sun-Ho;Kim, Jong-Goo
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.38 no.3
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    • pp.301-310
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    • 2006
  • Destructive methods were used for the burnup determination of U-Zr alloy nuclear fuel irradiated in the High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (HANARO) at KAERI. The dissolution rate of unirradiated U-Zr alloy fuel in $HNO_3$/HF mixtures was investigated for the experimental conditions of a different temperature, and initial concentrations of HF and $HNO_3$. The irradiated U-Zr alloy fuel specimen was dissolved in a mixed acid condition of 3 M HNO3 and 1 M HF at $90^{\circ}C$ for 8 hours under reflux. The total burnup was determined from measurement of the Nd isotope burnup monitors. The method includes U, Pu, $^{148}Nd,\;^P{145}Nd+^{146}Nd,\;^{144}Nd+^{143}Nd$ and total Nd isotopes determination by the isotope dilution mass spectrometric method (IDMS) using triple spikes $(^{233}U,\;^{242}Pu\;and\;^{150}Nd)$. The effective fission yield was calculated from the weighted fission yields averaged over the irradiation period. The results are compared with that obtained by the destructive -spectrometric measurement of the $^{137}Cs$ monitor.

Stable In-reactor Performance of Centrifugally Atomized U-l0wt.%Mo Dispersion Fuel at Low Temperature

  • Kim, Ki-Hwan;Kwon, Hee-Jun;Park, Jong-Man;Lee, Yoon-Sang;Kim, Chang-Kyu
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.365-374
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    • 2001
  • In order to examine the in-reactor performance of very-high-density dispersion fuels for high flux performance research reactors, U-l0wt.%Mo microplates containing centrifugally atomized powder were irradiated at low temperature. The U-l0wt.%Mo dispersion fuels show stable in- reactor irradiation behaviors even at high burn-up, similar to U$_3$Si$_2$ dispersion fuels. The atomized U-l0wt.%Mo fuel particles have a fine and a relatively uniform fission gas bubble size distribution. Moreover, only one of third of the area of the atomized fuel cross-sections at 70a1.% burn-up shows fission gas bubble-free zones, This appears to be the result of segregation into high Mo and low Mo.

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Separation of Fission Product Elements from Synthetic Dissolver Solutions of Spent Pressurized Water Reactor Fuels by $TBP/XAD-16/HNO_3$Extraction Chromatography ($TBP/XAD-16/HNO_3$추출 크로마토그래피에 의한 모의 사용후핵연료 용해용액 중 미량 핵분열생성물 원소의 분리)

  • Lee, Chang Heon;Choi, Kwang Soon;Kim, Jung Suk;Choi, Ke Chon;Jee, Kwang Yong;Kim, Won Ho
    • Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.45 no.4
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    • pp.304-311
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    • 2001
  • A study has been carried out on the extraction chromatographic separation of fission products from spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuels for inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric analysis. Impregnation capacity of tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP), which is well known as an extractant in the field of uranium separation from various nuclear grade materials, on Amberlite XAD polymeric macroporous support materials was measured. Amberlite XAD-16 of which the surface area is the highest was selected as a support material because its TBP impregnation capacity was the largest in Amberlite XADs. Sorption behaviour of this TBP impregnated resin was investigated for the fission product elements using acidic solutions simulated for dissolver solutions of spent PWR fuels. The parameters affecting the performance of the separation system were optimized. The fission product elements studied excluding Pd and Ru were quantitatively recovered with the precision of less than 3.1%.

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Model Calculation of the Np-237 Fission Cross-Sections for En=0 to 20 MeV (중성자 에너지 En=0-20 MeV에 대한 Np-237 핵분열단면적의 모형계산)

  • Bak, H.I.;Strohmaier, B.;Uhl, M.
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.207-220
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    • 1981
  • The Np-237 fission cross-sections up to 20 MeV incident neutron energy are calculated by means of the computer code STAPRE- a statistical model code with consideration of preequilibrium decay. The higher chance fissions up to third compound nucleus are taken into account, and the main input parameters in the treatment of fission under consideration of a double-humped fission barrier are carefully adjusted, so that the current trend of experimental data can be fitted within an apparent deviation of about 10% throughout the entire energy range. Results are presented in the form of point-wise cross-section values, and also in the form of graph to demonstrate the shape agreement.

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