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Development of Wall-Thinning Evaluation Procedure for Nuclear Power Plant Piping-Part 1: Quantification of Thickness Measurement Deviation

  • Yun, Hun;Moon, Seung-Jae;Oh, Young-Jin
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.48 no.3
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    • pp.820-830
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    • 2016
  • Pipe wall thinning by flow-accelerated corrosion and various types of erosion is a significant and costly damage phenomenon in secondary piping systems of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Most NPPs have management programs to ensure pipe integrity due to wall thinning that includes periodic measurements for pipe wall thicknesses using nondestructive evaluation techniques. Numerous measurements using ultrasonic tests (UTs; one of the nondestructive evaluation technologies) have been performed during scheduled outages in NPPs. Using the thickness measurement data, wall thinning rates of each component are determined conservatively according to several evaluation methods developed by the United States Electric Power Research Institute. However, little is known about the conservativeness or reliability of the evaluation methods because of a lack of understanding of the measurement error. In this study, quantitative models for UT thickness measurement deviations of nuclear pipes and fittings were developed as the first step for establishing an optimized thinning evaluation procedure considering measurement error. In order to understand the characteristics of UT thickness measurement errors of nuclear pipes and fittings, round robin test results, which were obtained by previous researchers under laboratory conditions, were analyzed. Then, based on a large dataset of actual plant data from four NPPs, a quantitative model for UT thickness measurement deviation is proposed for plant conditions.

Effects of child pick-up behavior on emergency evacuations

  • Jang, Sang Hoon;Hwang, Ha;Chung, Ji-Bum
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.54 no.7
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    • pp.2519-2528
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    • 2022
  • The child pick-up behavior of parents during an emergency can cause heavy traffic congestion and failing to evacuate an affected area successfully. In this study, we analyzed the effect of child pick-up behavior using, as an example, a nuclear power plant accident caused by an earthquake, which is a typical no-notice emergency. A quake was assumed to occur near the Shin-Kori nuclear power plant in Ulsan, Korea, resulting in a nuclear power plant accident. An agent-based dynamic simulation model using VISSIM was employed to conduct sensitivity analyses with different child pick-up rates. The results confirmed that parents are a major cause of congestion and a vulnerable class in an emergency evacuation. The child pick-up behavior caused significant traffic congestion, and parents who pick up their children showed a higher evacuation failure rate.

Experimental and numerical study on mechanical behavior of RC shear walls with precast steel-concrete composite module in nuclear power plant

  • Haitao Xu;Jinbin Xu;Zhanfa Dong;Zhixin Ding;Mingxin Bai;Xiaodong Du;Dayang Wang
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.56 no.6
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    • pp.2352-2366
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    • 2024
  • Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls with precast steel-concrete composite modular (PSCCM) are strongly recommended in the structural design of nuclear power plants due to the need for a large number of process pipeline crossings and industrial construction. However, the effect of the PSCCM on the mechanical behavior of the whole RC shear wall is still unknown and has received little attention. In this study, three 1:3 scaled specimens, one traditional shear wall specimen (TW) and two shear wall specimens with the PSCCM (PW1, PW2), were designed and investigated under cyclic loadings. The failure mode, hysteretic curve, energy dissipation, stiffness and strength degradations were then comparatively investigated to reveal the effect of the PSCCM. Furthermore, numerical models of the RC shear wall with different PSCCM distributions were analyzed. The results show that the shear wall with the PSCCM has comparable mechanical properties with the traditional shear wall, which can be further improved by adding reinforced concrete constraints on both sides of the shear wall. The accumulated energy dissipation of the PW2 is higher than that of the TW and PW1 by 98.7 % and 60.0 %. The failure of the shear wall with the PSCCM is mainly concentrated in the reinforced concrete wall below the PSCCM, while the PSCCM maintains an elastic working state as a whole. Shear walls with the PSCCM arranged in the high stress zone will have a higher load-bearing capacity and lateral stiffness, but will suffer a higher risk of failure. The PSCCM in the low stress zone is always in an elastic working state.

Exergetic design and analysis of a nuclear SMR reactor tetrageneration (combined water, heat, power, and chemicals) with designed PCM energy storage and a CO2 gas turbine inner cycle

  • Norouzi, Nima;Fani, Maryam;Talebi, Saeed
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.53 no.2
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    • pp.677-687
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    • 2021
  • The tendency to renewables is one of the consequences of changing attitudes towards energy issues. As a result, solar energy, which is the leader among renewable energies based on availability and potential, plays a crucial role in full filing global needs. Significant problems with the solar thermal power plants (STPP) are the operation time, which is limited by daylight and is approximately half of the power plants with fossil fuels, and the capital cost. Exergy analysis survey of STPP hybrid with PCM storage carried out using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) program with genetic algorithm (GA) for three different scenarios, based on eight decision variables, which led us to decrease final product cost (electricity) in optimized scenario up to 30% compare to base case scenario from 28.99 /kWhto20.27/kWh for the case study. Also, in the optimal third scenario of this plant, the inner carbon dioxide gas cycle produces 1200 kW power with a thermal efficiency of 59% and also 1000 m3/h water with an exergy efficiency of 23.4% and 79.70 kg/h with an overall exergy efficiency of 34% is produced in the tetrageneration plant.

Digitalization as an aggregate performance in the energy transition for nuclear industry

  • Florencia de los Angeles Renteria del Toro;Chen Hao;Akira Tokuhiro;Mario Gomez-Fernandez;Armando Gomez-Torres
    • 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).

Classification of Radiation Work in Korean Nuclear Power Plants

  • Changju Song;Tae Young Kong;Seongjun Kim;Jinho Son;Hwapyoung Kim;Jiung Kim;Hee Geun Kim
    • Journal of Radiation Industry
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.239-256
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    • 2023
  • The classification of the radiation work performed in Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs) must be understood to provide workers with more comprehensive radiation protection. This study used annual reports on occupational exposure to investigate and analyze the similarities and differences in the radiation work performed in Korean NPPs with pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The results showed that the radiation work performed in Korean NPPs could be classified into three categories. Category 1 contains work at the highest level. This work can be divided into individual tasks belonging to Category 2, which enables the evaluation of the radiation dose during the work. The work in Category 2 consists of tasks from Category 3, which contains basic detailed tasks that are not further subdivided. This study emphasized the need for the systematic management of the radiation work performed in both Korean PWRs and PHWRs, such as the tasks in Category 3, which are similar, with similar working conditions, for PWRs and PHWRs. It also suggested the need to establish a list of radiation work for decommissioning because Kori Unit 1 and Wolsong Unit 1 are currently in permanent shutdown and preparations are being made for their decommissioning.