• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권3호
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• pp.347-354
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• 2009

Welding is required for a connection between two different components in the nuclear fuel of a pressurized water reactor. This work relies on a mechanical experiment and analytic results to investigate the structural integrity of nuclear fuel in a situation where some components are not welded to each other. A series of lateral vibration tests are performed in a test facility, and the test structures are examined in terms of dynamic behavior. In the tests, the displacement signal at every grid structure that sustains fuel rods is measured and processed to identify the dynamic properties. The fluid-elastic stability of the structure is also analyzed to evaluate susceptibility to a cross flow with an assumed conservative cross flow distribution. The test and analysis results confirm that the structural integrity can be maintained even in the absence of some welding connections.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.1032-1036
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• 2019

When the equipment which is related to safety or important to power production is installed in nuclear power plant units (NPPs), verification of equipment Electromagnetic Susceptibility (EMS) must be performed. The low-frequency radiated magnetic field susceptibility (RS101) test is one of the EMS tests specified in U.S NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.180 revision 1. The RS101 test verifies the ability of equipment installed in close proximity to sources of large radiated magnetic fields to withstand them. However, RG 1.180 revision 1 allows for an exemption of the low-frequency radiated magnetic susceptibility (RS101) test if the safety-related equipment will not be installed in areas with strong sources of magnetic fields. There is no specific exemption criterion in RG 1.180 revision 1. EPRI TR-102323 revision 4 specifically provides a guide that the low-frequency radiated magnetic field susceptibility (RS101) test can be conservatively exempted for equipment installed at least 1 m away from the sources of large magnetic fields (>300 A/m). But there is no exemption criterion for equipment installed within 1 m of the sources of smaller magnetic fields (<300 A/m). Since some types of equipment radiating magnetic flux are often installed near safety related equipment in an electrical equipment room (EER) and main control room (MCR), the RS101 test exemption criterion needs to be reasonably defined for the cases of installation within 1 m. There is also insufficient data regarding the strength of magnetic fields that can be used in NPPs. In order to ensure confidence in the RS101 test exemption criterion, we measured the strength of low-frequency radiated magnetic fields by distance. This study is expected to provide an insight into the RS101 test exemption criterion that meets the RG 1.180 revision 1. It also provides a margin analysis that can be used to mitigate the influence of low-frequency radiated magnetic field sources in NPPs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.886-892
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• 2024

The cladding temperatures and axial mass distribution computed by MAAP5 were compared with their measured values in the test bundle of the Phebus Test FPT0. The computed cladding temperatures were in good agreed with the measured values in the pre-transient phase. In the transient heat-up phase, the computed temperatures were overestimated by the Baker-Just correlation in MAAP5, but the computed temperatures could simulate the subsequently measured values. The computed mass distribution in the axial direction was in qualitative agreement with the measured one for post-test fuel damage observations. The calculated flow areas of inner and outer regions in the test bundle were compared with the photographic observations. MAAP5 computed them at the height of 0.2 m where the molten pool formed was in qualitative agreement with the photographic observations. It was found that the remaining steam flow paths might be caused by the gas-liquid two-phase flow counter-current flow limitation.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.117-123
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• 2015

핵연료 연소시험 도중 핵연료봉에서 발생하는 열을 효과적으로 제거하기 위해서는 핵연료의 발열량을 정확하게 계산하고 충분한 유속을 갖는 냉각수를 순환시켜야 한다. 하나로는 개방형 수조 형태로서 핵연료 연소시험을 위한 별도의 냉각수 순환 루프를 갖추고 있는데, 여기에 핵연료 조사리그를 장착하고 냉각수를 순환시킴으로써 조사중인 핵연료봉의 온도를 일정온도 이하로 유지시킨다. 특히 순환되는 냉각수의 유속이 매우 높은 상태에서 조사리그 내에 부착된 부품이나 센서들이 유체유발 진동에 의해 파손되거나 기능을 상실하는 경우 매우 큰 기회비용을 야기한다. 본 연구에서는 조사리그 부품의 건전성 사전 검토 및 고속 유동에서의 센서 동작 특성에 대한 사전검토를 위해 냉각수 모의 순환장치를 개발하였다.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1999년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.372.1-372
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• 1999

• 인간식물환경학회지
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.563-573
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• 2019

The North Korean government conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and more recently the sixth nuclear test on September 3, 2017. In order to identify how North Korea's nuclear tests have affected the environment, a scientific approach is required. Although North Korea's nuclear tests and their environmental destruction are not a severe threat to the environment of the Korean Peninsula at this time, identifying environmental damage and taking countermeasures in advance are essential to minimize their potential threats to the environments. The purpose of this study is to study the environmental impact of North Korea's nuclear tests using Google Earth image analysis. As a method of the study, we compare Google Earth images taken before and after each nuclear test was conducted in North Korea. To overcome limitations of the suggested comparison method, we cross-checked our results with those of previous scientific research. After the 1st-3rd nuclear tests, green spaces were found to be considerably reduced. In particular, when comparing the Google Earth images before and after the second nuclear test, some ground subsidences were observed. Such subsidences can cause tunnels on the mountainsides and cracks in rocks around the mountains, leading to the release of radioactive materials and contaminating groundwater. Besides, after the 4th-6th nuclear tests, decay and deforestation were observed not in the nuclear test sites, but in their surrounding areas. Especially after the 5th and 6th nuclear tests, the topography and the forests of the surrounding areas were severely damaged. In relation to North Korea's nuclear tests and their impact on the natural environment, we need to prepare various policy measures to reduce North Korea's environmental pollution and natural environment destruction. Those policy measures include the establishment of various cooperative governance between the Korean government, the private sector, the academia, NGOs, and international organizations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권11호
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• pp.4252-4265
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• 2023

In the case of nuclear power plants near end of their design life, a reassessment of the performance of safetyrelated equipment may be necessary to determine whether to shut down or extend the operation of the power plant. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the level of performance decline due to degradation. Electrical cabinets, including MCC and switchgear, are representative safety-related equipment. Several studies have assessed the degradation and seismic performance of nuclear power plant equipment. Most of those researches are limited to individual components due to the size of safety-related equipment and test equipment. However, only a few studies assessed the degradation performance of electrical cabinets. The equipment of various nuclear power plants is anchored to concrete foundations, and crack in concrete foundations is one of the most representative of degradation that could be visually confirmed. However, it is difficult to find a study for analysis through testing the effect of cracks in concrete foundations on the response of electrical cabinet internal equipment fixed by anchors. In this study, using a simple cabinet model considering cast-in-place anchor in uncracked and cracked concretes, a tri-axial shaking table tests were performed and the seismic behavior were observed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권4호
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• pp.570-581
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• 2018

Recently, a software program has been used in nuclear power plants (NPPs) to digitalize many instrumentation and control systems. To guarantee NPP safety, the reliability of the software used in safetycritical instrumentation and control systems must be quantified and verified with proper test cases and test environment. In this study, a software testing method using a simulation-based software test bed is proposed. The test bed is developed by emulating the microprocessor architecture of the programmable logic controller used in NPP safety-critical applications and capturing its behavior at each machine instruction. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated via a case study. To represent the possible states of software input and the internal variables that contribute to generating a dedicated safety signal, the software test cases are developed in consideration of the digital characteristics of the target system and the plant dynamics. The method provides a practical way to conduct exhaustive software testing, which can prove the software to be error free and minimize the uncertainty in software reliability quantification. Compared with existing testing methods, it can effectively reduce the software testing effort by emulating the programmable logic controller behavior at the machine level.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.245-252
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• 2016

The pipelines and equipments are degraded by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), and a large-scale test facility was constructed for simulate the FAC phenomena in secondary coolant environment of PWR type nuclear power plants. Using this facility, FAC test was performed on weld pipe (carbon steel and low alloy steel) at the conditions of high velocity flow (> 10 m/s). Wall thickness was measured by high temperature ultrasonic monitoring systems (four-channel buffer rod type and waveguide type) during test period and room temperature manual ultrasonic method before and after test period. This work deals with the complex effects of flow velocity on the wall thinning in weld pipe and the test results showed that the higher flow velocity induced different increasement of wall thinning rate for the carbon steel and low alloy steel pipe.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.18-24
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• 2020

When a damage occurs in the nuclear fuel burning in the reactor, fission products that should be in the nuclear fuel rod are released into the reactor coolant. In this case, sipping test, a series of non-destructive inspection methods, are used to find leakage in nuclear fuel assemblies during the power plant overhaul period. In addition, the sipping test is also used to check the integrity of the spent fuel for moving to an intermediate dry storage, which is carried out as the first step of nuclear decommissioning, . In this paper, the principle and characteristics of the sipping test are described. The structure of the sipping inspection equipment is largely divided into a suction device that collects fissile material emitted from a damaged assembly and an analysis device that analyzes their nuclides. In order to make good use of the sipping technology, the radioactive level behavior of the primary system coolant and major damage mechanisms in the event of nuclear fuel damage are also introduced. This will be a reference for selecting an appropriate sipping method when dismantling a nuclear power plant in the future.