• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.523-533
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• 2015

Three-dimensional flow phenomena in a wire-wrapped 37-pin fuel assembly mock-up of a Japanese loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor, Monju, were investigated with a numerical analysis using a general-purpose commercial computational fluid dynamics code, CFX. Complicated and vortical flow phenomena in the wire-wrapped 37-pin fuel assembly were captured by a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes flow simulation using a shear stress transport turbulence model. The main purpose of the current study is to understand the three-dimensional complex flow phenomena in a wire-wrapped fuel assembly to support the license issue for the core design. Computational fluid dynamics results show good agreement with friction factor correlation models. The secondary flow in the corner and edge subchannels is much stronger than that in an interior subchannel. The axial velocity averaged in the corner and edge subchannels is higher than that averaged in the interior subchannels. Three-dimensional multiscale vortex structures start to be formed by an interaction between secondary flows around each wire-wrapped pin. Behavior of the large-scale vortex structures in the corner and edge subchannels is closely related to the relative position between the hexagonal duct wall and the helically wrapped wire spacer. The small-scale vortex is axially developed in the interior subchannels. Furthermore, a driving force on each wire spacer surface is closely related to the relative position between the hexagonal duct wall and the wire spacer.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.274-284
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• 1992

A 1/15-scale CREARE experiment, which simulates the thermal-hydraulic behavior in the reactor pressure vessel of a PWR during a hypothetical Loss Of Coolant Accident, has been analyzed using CATHARE code for the associated model assessment to represent the phenomenon. The key parameters examined in the CREARE experiment were known as ECC water injection rate. ECC water subcooling, system pressure, and steam flow rate coming out from the core bottom. The present CATHARE simulation, however, has been mainly focused on qualitative analysis of a countercurrent flow in the downcomer. The discrepancy of the simulation results with the experimental data is considered arising primarily from an inadequate numerical representation as well as an interfacial friction model. Accordingly it is suggested from the sensitivity studies that either multidimensional approach or further examination of momentum equations at a junction near a volume element in CATHARE be necessary in order to represent the phenomenon more realistically.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2018

The reduction reaction characteristics and physicochemical properties were studied for the selection of oxygen carrier, which is the core of the chemical looping combustion (CLC) technology. Fuel conversion and $CO_2$ selectivity of oxygen carrier according to the concentration of reducing gas and the reduction temperature using three kinds of oxygen carrier (SDN70, N018-R2, N016-R4) were measured and compared. In addition, Attrition Index (AI) and BET surface area were measured to analyze the attrition resistance and the surface characteristics of the oxygen carrier. As a result, it was confirmed that all three kinds of oxygen carrier were suitable for use in chemical roofing combustion system, and the best particle was determined to be N016-R4.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.413-423
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• 1993

This paper reports an experimental study of direct containment heating (DCH) which would occur if the primary system pressure is still high at the time of vessel breach during a light water reactor core melt accident. The experiments were conducted in 1/30-scale cavity models of Kori unit 1 and 2 and Young Kwang unit 3 and 4 nuclear power plants. One 1/20-scale model of the Kori plant was also used to investigate the scaling effect. The primary variables in the experiments were initial vessel pressure, vessel breach size and cavity geometry. It is observed that higher initial pressure and larger breach size enhance the melt dispersal fraction. Also, the cavity geometry appears to affect the dispersal rate greatly. A simple correlation of melt dispersal fraction is proposed in terms of nondimensional effective period. This correlation shows good agreement with the present experimental data, the KAIST data and the BNL data.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.267-279
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• 1983

An analytical system has been established for scrutinizing both uranium- and plutonium-fueled lattices moderated by light water. This system consists of two primary codes. One is a unit cell program called KICC, which has theoretical foundation on the models of GAM and THERMOS incorporated with appropriate approximate treatments for various phenomena, whereas the other is a multi-dimensional diffusion-depletion program entitled KIDD. The adequacy of this system is verified by performing extensive benchmark calculations on a variety of critical experiments. The average value of effective multiplication factors for the selected nineteen UO$_2$ critical experiments of heterogeneous lattice structure is calculated to be 1.0006 with a standard deviation of 0.0039. Power distributions have also been calculated for some critical experiments fueled with both uranium and plutonium of varying concentrations. The maximum percentage difference between the measured and calculated power distributions appears to be less than 5%. This result, together with the previously reported result, illustrates that the KICC/KIDD system is a very effective tool for the analysis of a light water reactor core.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.256-266
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• 1985

The loss of coolant flow accident is analyzed for the pressurized water reactor of Korea Nuclear Unit-1. The loss of coolant flow accident is classified into three types in accordance with its severity; partial loss of coolant flow, complete loss of coolant flow and pump locked rotor accident. Analysis has been carried out in three stages; system transient and average core analysis, DNBR calculation and hot spot analysis. The purpose of developing KTRAN is to simulate the transient fast. For the DNBR calculation, the thermal hydraulic codes, SCAN and COBRA IV-1, are adopted. And for the hot spot analysis, the fuel thermal transient code LTRAN is employed. This code system should be fast responding to the transient analysis. In case the transient occurs, severity comes within a couple of seconds. So response should be fast to accomodate the following sequence of the accident. Unfortunately this purpose could not be achieved by KTRAN. However, the calculated results are well comparable with FSAR results in range. Thereby, the effectiveness of KTRAN code analysis in this type of accident is proven.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 1988

The purpose of this work is to obtain the experimental data for the forced How dryout heat flux in a heat generating stratified debris bed which simulates the degraded nuclear reactor core after severe accident. The present observations were mainly focused on the effect of coolant mass flux on the dryout heat flux in the stratified debris bed which consists of several layers with selected particle sizes under constant bed depth and temperature of inlet coolant flow conditions. The following results were obtained from this experimental work: (1) The dryout heat flux in the stratified debris bed increases with increase of upward forcing mass flux of coolant. The similar trend of increase rate of dryout heat flux in the stratified bed was observed in the uniform particle size bed. (2) For the comparison of theoretical values and experimental data, the use of surface area mean diameter as a particle diameter was suitable for the calculation of dryout heat flux.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.551-560
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• 2012

The Wolsong-1 (W-1) Phase-B pre-simulations were carried out in preparation for tests to be conducted for the restart of the reactor after a major refurbishment project that included replacement of the pressure tube. These pre-simulations for Wolsong-1 Phase-B differ from those in the past that were performed for the Wolsong-1,2,3,4 tests in that these tests use the WIMS/DRAGON/RFSP-IST code suite for verification of the tests and gadolinium instead of the traditional PPV/MULTICELL/RFSP code system and boron as poison in the moderator system. The use of gadolinium is deemed not to have domestically accumulated experience gained from the previous Phase-B tests. Thus, it is appropriate to conduct a study in order to gain a correct understanding and interpretation of potential differences in test results stemming from using gadolinium rather than boron. Although the calibration of the reactivity device will not be noticeably different using boron and gadolinium at a constant moderator temperature, the temperature dependency of the neutronic behavior due to the presence of gadolinium in the moderator system might be pronounced. The results of the pre-simulations using gadolinium revealed that the moderator temperature reactivity coefficients indeed showed significant differences in comparison with those with boron. In order to secure the validity of the analysis results, the newly acquired WIMS/DRAGON/RFSP-IST code suite was verified against the W-2,3,4 Phase-B test results. The results of the new code suite verifications revealed some overall improvements in accuracy; justification of the use of the code can be claimed for the validation of the W-1 Phase-B test results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1989

Numerous losses of decay heat removal capability have occurred at U during stutodwn while its significance to safety is needless to say. A study is carried out as an attempt to assess what could be done to lower the frequency of these events and to mitigate their consequences in the unlikely event that one occurs. The shutdown risk model is developed and analyzed using Event/Fault Tree for the typical pressurized water reactor. The human cognitive reliability (HCR) model, two-stage bayesian approach and staircase function model are used to estimate human reliability, initiating event frequency and offsite power non-recovery probability given loss of offsite power, respectively. The results of this study indicate that the risk of a Pm at shutdown is not much lower than the risk when the plant is operating. By examining the dominant accident sequences obtained, several design deficiencies are identified and it is found that some proposed changes lead to significant reduction in core damage frequency due to loss of cooling events.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.246-252
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• 2018

A series of simulated reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) tests on irradiated fully recrystallized boiling water reactor Zircaloy-2 cladding has been performed by means of the expansion-due-to-compression (EDC) test method. The EDC method reproduces fuel pellet-clad mechanical interaction (PCMI) conditions for the cladding during RIA transients with respect to temperature and loading rates by out-of-pile mechanical testing. The tested materials had a large variation in burnup and hydrogen content (up to 907 wppm). The results of the EDC tests showed variation in the PCMI resistance of claddings with similar burnup and hydrogen content, making it difficult to clearly identify ductile-to-brittle transition temperatures. The EDC-tested samples of the present and previous work were investigated by light optical and scanning electron microscopy to study the influence of factors such as azimuthal variation of the Zr-hydrides and the presence of hydride rims and radially oriented hydrides. Two main characteristics were identified in samples with low ductility with respect to hydrogen content and test temperature: hydride rims and radial hydrides at the cladding outer surface. Crack propagation and failure modes were also studied, showing two general modes of crack propagation depending on distribution and amount of radially oriented hydrides. It was concluded that the PCMI resistance of irradiated cladding under normal conditions with homogenously distributed circumferential hydrides is high, with good margin to the RIA failure limits. To further improve safety, focus should be on conditions causing nonfavorable hydride distribution, such as hydride reorientation and formation of hydride blisters at the cladding outer surface.