• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.276-284
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• 2022

In this study, performance evaluation and rheological characteristics were analyzed for recycling the fine powder of nuclear power plant dismantled waste concrete as a solidifying agent for radioactive waste disposal. The radioactive concrete fine powder was used to prepare a simulated sample, and the test specimen was prepared using Di-water, CoCl₂, and 1 mol CsCl aqueous solution as mixing water. Regardless of the aggregate mixing ratio and the type of mixing water, it satisfies the performance standard of 3.45 MPa for compressive strength at 28 days of age. All specimens satisfied the criteria for submersion strength, and the thermal cycle compressive strength satisfies the criteria for all specimens except Plain-50. As a result of evaluating the rheological properties of the solidifying agent, it was found that the increase in the aggregate mixing rate decreased the yield stress and plastic viscosity. The leaching index for cobalt and cesium of all specimens was 6 or higher, which satisfies the standard. In order to secure the stable performance of the solidifying agent, it is considered effective to use 40 % or less of the aggregate component in the solidifying agent.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.205-216
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• 2024

Recently, seismic Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) methods have been developed for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants. The framework originated from the PSA of nuclear power plants, which aims to assess the risk of reactor core damage. The original PSA method was modified to adopt the characteristics of a process plant whose purpose is continuous operation without shutdown. Therefore, a fault tree, whose top event is shut down, was constructed and transformed into a Bayesian Network (BN), a probabilistic graph model, for efficient risk-informed decision-making. In this research, the fault tree-based BN from the previous research is further developed to consider the multi-hazard of earthquake-induced fire and explosion (EQ-induced F&E). For this purpose, an event tree describing the occurrence of fire and explosion from a release is first constructed and transformed into a BN. And then, this BN is connected to the previous BN model developed for seismic PSA. A virtual plot plan of a gas plant is introduced as a basis for the construction of the specific EQ-induced F&E BN to test the proposed BN framework. The paper demonstrates the method through two examples of risk-informed decision-making. In particular, the second example verifies how the proposed method can establish a repair and retrofit strategy when a shutdown occurs in a process plant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 1976

The grafting of acrylic acid in aqueous solution to polyvinyl chloride fibers tab been studied in the presence of ferrous, ferric, and cupric salts, The mutual irradiation technique was adopted using a Co-60 source or a Van do Graaff accelerator. The grafting and homopolymerization were suppressed by the cations. Particularly the grafting was suppressed by the cations in the following order of effectiveness : $Cu^{2+}$>$Fe^{2+}$>$Cu^{3+}$. The rate of grafting (in %/hr) was proportional to the 0.76th power of the dose rate over the range from 8.5f $10^3$ rad/hr to $1.4\times10^5$ rad/dr. The apparent activation energy for the grafting was determined to be 6.1 Kcal/mole between $25^{\circ}$ and $75^{\circ}C$ for the mixture of AA-HaO-$(CH_2Cl)_2$, containing Mohr's salt, $4\times10^{-3}$ mole/l. The increase of the grafting was observed when total dose and dose intensity were raised, or when ethylene dichloride as a swelling agent was saturated in the monomer mixture. The grafted polyvinyl chloride fibers showed considerable improvement in moisture regain, heat shrinkage, and melting properties, but tensile properties were not significantly affected by grafting.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2005

Since the safety of nuclear power plant has been becoming a big social issue the exposure dose of radiation for workers has been one of the important factors concerning the safety problem. The existing calculation methods of radiation dose used in the planning of radiation work assume that dose rate does not depend on the location within a work space thus the variation of exposure dose by different work path is not considered. In this study, a modified numerical method was presented to estimate the exposure dose during radiation work in radwaste storage considering the effects of the distance between a worker and sources. And a new numerical algorithm was suggested to search the optimal work path minimizing the exposure dose in pre-defined work space with given radiation sources. Finally, a virtual work simulation program was developed to visualize the exposure dose of radiation doting radiation works in radwaste storage and provide the capability of simulation for work planning. As a numerical example, a test radiation work was simulated under given space and two radiation sources, and the suggested optimal work path was compared with three predefined work paths. The optimal work path obtained in the study could reduce the exposure dose for the given test work. Based on the results, tile developed numerical method and simulation program could be useful tools in the planning of radiation work.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.88-104
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• 1988

The FUel Rod Analysis(FURA) code is developed using two-dimensional finite element methods for axisymmetric and plane stress analysis of fuel rod. It predicts the thermal and mechanical behavior of fuel rod during normal and load follow operations. To evaluate the exact temperature distribution and the inner gas pressure, the radial deformation of pellet and clad, the fission gas release are considered over the full-length of fuel rod. The thermal element equation is derived using Galerkin's techniques. The displacement element equation is derived using the principle of virtual works. The mechanical analysis can accommodate various components of strain: elastic, plastic, creep and thermal strain as well as strain due to swelling, relocation and densification. The 4-node quadratic isoparametric elements are adopted, and the geometric model is confined to a half-pellet-height region with the assumption that pellet-pellet interaction is symmetrical. The pellet cracking and crack healing, pellet-cladding interaction are modelled. The Newton-Raphson iteration with an implicit algorithm is applied to perform the analysis of non-linear material behavior accurately and stably. The pellet and cladding model has been compared with both analytical solutions and experimental results. The observed and predicted results are in good agreement. The general behavior of fuel rod is calculated by axisymmetric system and the cladding behavior against radial crack is used by plane stress system. The sensitivity of strain aging of PWR fuel cladding tube due to load following is evaluated in terms of linear power, load cycle frequency and amplitude.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1061-1070
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• 2023

Over the last few years, lead-free inorganic metal perovskites have gained impressive ground in empowering satellites in space exploration owing to their material stability and performance evolution under extreme space environments. The present work has examined the versatility of eight such perovskites as space radiation shielding materials by computing their photon, charged particles and neutron interaction parameters. Photon interaction parameters were calculated for a wide energy range using PAGEX software. The ranges of heavy charged particles (H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe ions) in these perovskites were estimated using SRIM software in the energy range 1 keV-10 GeV, and that of electrons was computed using ESTAR NIST software in the energy range 0.01 MeV-1 GeV. Further, the macroscopic fast neutron removal cross-sections were also calculated to estimate the neutron shielding efficiencies. The examined shielding parameters of the perovskites varied depending on the radiation type and energy. Among the selected perovskites, Cs₂TiI₆ and Ba₂AgIO₆ displayed superior photon attenuation properties. A 3.5 cm thick Ba₂AgIO₆-based shield could reduce the incident radiation intensity to half its initial value, a thickness even lesser than that of Pb-glass. Besides, CsSnBr₃ and La_0.8Ca_0.2Ni_0.5Ti_0.5O₃ displayed the highest and lowest range values, respectively, for all heavy charged particles. Ba₂AgIO₆ showed electron stopping power (on par with Kovar) better than that of other examined materials. Interestingly, La_0.8Ca_0.2Ni_0.5Ti_0.5O₃ demonstrated neutron removal cross-section values greater than that of standard neutron shielding materials - aluminium and polyethylene. On the whole, the present study not only demonstrates the employment prospects of eco-friendly perovskites for shielding space radiations but also suggests future prospects for research in this direction.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.392-401
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• 2012

This paper gives a electromagnetic coupling mechanism of the high altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) into large- scale underground multilayer structures using analytic and numerical methods. The modeling methods are firstly addressed to the HEMP source which can be generated by intentional nuclear explosion. The instantaneous and intense electromagnetic pulse of the HEMP source is concerned from DC to 100 MHz band, because the power spectrum of the HEMP is rapidly decreased under -30 dB over the 100 MHz band. Through this range, a penetrated electric field distribution is computed within the large-scale underground multilayer structures. As a result, the penetrated electric field intensities at 0.1 and 1 MHz are about 10 and 5 kV/m, respectively. Therefore, additional shielding techniques are introduced to protect buried structures within the large-scale underground structures such as high-lossy material and filtering structures (wire screen).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.395-400
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• 2017

Coke strength was increased by adding ash-free coal (AFC) binder. In this study, the effect of the AFC binder on the physical and chemical properties of coke was experimentally investigated to understand the molecular mechanism for the improved coke strength. For reduced $CO_2$ emission in steelmaking industry, torrefied biomass fuel mixed with coal binder is also considered. The interface between the base coal and AFC was thus examined using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The coke strength was commonly measured by performing the indirect tensile test and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in $^1H$ and $^{13}C$ modes. For comprehensive mechanism study of the enhanced coke strength thus obtained, ordinary coal for thermal power plant use was carbonized with AFC for subsequent SEM examination. The NMR spectroscopy results of coke samples positively revealed that the tensile strength was proportional to the average number of aromatic rings.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.476-483
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• 2016

An organic Rankine cycle for ocean thermal energy conversion system is a generating cycle using the temperature difference between surface water and deep water of the ocean. The working fluid is an important factor in the thermodynamic performance of an organic Rankine cycle. There is pinch point analysis as thermodynamic analysis of an organic Rankine cycle. This study performed a thermodynamic performance analysis according to variation in the pinch point temperature difference in heat exchangers and variation of outlet temperature of heat source and heat sink. It analyzed the thermodynamic performance by applying seven types of simple working fluids in a simple Rankine cycle for ocean thermal energy conversion that was designed according to pinch point analysis. As a result of the performance analysis, cycle irreversibility and total exergy destruction factor more decreased, and second law efficiency more increased in the lower pinch point temperature difference and temperature variation of heat source and heat sink in heat exchangers. In addition, the irreversibility changed greatly at a point that occurred in the thermodynamic variation. Among the selected working fluids, RE245fa2 showed the best thermodynamic performance, and the performance of all working fluids was observed to be similar. It needs a strict theoretical basis about diverse factors with thermodynamic performances in selecting heat exchangers and working fluids.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.4 s.94
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• pp.489-496
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• 2006

Graft copolymerized polycarboxylate(PC)-type superplasticizers which have carboxylic acid with $\pi$ bond among the molecular structure and polyethyleneglycol methyl ether methacrylate(PMEM) were synthesized by free radical reaction. To investigate their chemical structures and molecular weights, PCs were analyzed by FT-IR(fourier transform spectrometer), C-NMR(nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer) and GPC(gel permeation chromatograpy). When types of carboxylic acids(methacrylic acid, acrylic acid, maleic anhydride, and itaconic acid) and molar ratios of carboxylic acid/PMEM) were varied, adsorptive and fluid characteristics in cement paste were discussed. As the molar ratio of carboxylic acid/PMEM) was higher, amount adsorbed on the cement particles and the fluidity of cement paste by mini-slump spread testing method were increased. When main chain of PC was methacrylic acid, a larger amount was adsorbed on the cement particles. PCs with acrylic acid as main chain showed higher dispersing power. However, it was confirmed that PCs with dicarboxylic acids(maleic anhydride, itaconic acid) didn't have good adsorption and dispersibility.