• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.1244-1249
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• 2023

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) announced the development of first-of-a-kind(FOAK) and most advanced futuristic vertical city and named as 'The LINE'. The project will have zero carbon dioxide emissions and will be powered by clean energy sources. Therefore, a study was designed to understand which clean energy sources might be a better choice. Because of its nearly carbon-free footprint, nuclear energy may be a good choice. Nowadays, the development of very small modular reactors (vSMRs) is gaining attention due to many salient features such as cost efficiency and zero carbon emissions. These reactors are one step down to actual small modular reactors (SMRs) in terms of power and size. SMRs typically have a power range of 20 MWe to 300 MWe, while vSMRs have a power range of 1-20 MWe. Therefore, a study was conducted to discuss different vSMRs in terms of design, technology types, safety features, capabilities, potential, and economics. After conducting the comparative test and analysis, the fuel cycle modeling of optimal and suitable reactor was calculated. Furthermore, the levelized unit cost of electricity for each reactor was compared to determine the most suitable vSMR, which is then compared other generation SMRs to evaluate the cost variations per MWe in terms of size and operation. The main objective of the research was to identify the most cost effective and simple vSMR that can be easily installed and deployed.

• Composites Research
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• 제35권3호
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• pp.161-174
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• 2022

SiC 섬유강화 복합체는 경수형 원자로의 안전성을 획기적으로 향상시킬 수 있는 사고저항성 핵연료 피복관 소재이다. 지르코늄 합금 피복관 및 금속기반 사고저항성 핵연료 피복관에 비해, 중대 사고 환경에서도 우수한 구조적 안정성을 가지고 부식 속도가 매우 낮아, 사고 시 원자로의 온도를 낮추고 사고 진행을 늦출 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 현재 개발되고 있는 사고저항성 SiC 복합체 핵연료 피복관의 개념 및 가동/사고환경에서의 다양한 특성, 상용화를 위해 해결해야 할 다양한 이슈에 대해서 소개하고자 한다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권1호
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• pp.54-59
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• 2019

The main objective of nuclear reactor safety is to maintain the nuclear fuel in a thermally safe condition with enough safety margins during normal operation and anticipated operational occurrences. In this research, core flow bypass is studied under the conditions of the unavailability of safety systems. As core bypass occurs, the core flow rate is assumed to decrease exponentially with a time constant of 25 s to new steady state values of 20, 40, 60, and 80% of the nominal core flow rate. The thermal hydraulic code PARET is used through these calculations. Reactor thermal hydraulic stability is reported for all cases of core flow bypass.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.764-775
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• 2020

Periodic safety reviews (PSRs) are conducted on operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) and have been mandated also for research reactors in Korea, in response to the Fukushima accident. One safety review tool, the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), aims to identify weaknesses in the design and operation of the research reactor, and to evaluate and compare possible safety improvements. However, the PSA for research reactors is difficult due to scarce data availability. An important element in the analysis of research reactors is the reactor protection system (RPS), with its functionality and importance. In this view, we consider that of the AGN-201K, a zero-power reactor without forced decay heat removal systems, to demonstrate a risk-informed safety improvement study. By incorporating risk- and safety-significance importance measures, and sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, the proposed method identifies critical components in the RPS reliability model, systematically proposes potential safety improvements and ranks them to assist in the decision-making process.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제42권8호
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• pp.575-581
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• 2005

SiC-based ceramics are considered as candidate materials for the advanced nuclear energy systems such as the generation IV reactors and the fusion reactors due to their excellent high-temperature strength and irradiation resistance. The advanced nuclear energy systems and their main components adopting ceramic composites were briefly reviewed. A novel fabrication method of $SiC_f/SiC$ composites by introducing SiC whiskers was also described. In addition, the charged-particle irradiation ($Si^{2+}$ and $H^{+}$ ion) into CVD SiC was carried out to simulate the severe environments of the advanced nuclear reactors. SiC whiskers grown in the fiber preform increased the matrix infiltration rate by more than $60\%$ compared to the conventional CVI process. The highly crystalline and pure SiC showed little degradation in hardness and elastic modulus up to a damage level of 10 dpa at $1000^{\circ}C$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.850-854
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• 2017

Public acceptance of nuclear power is important for the government, the major stakeholder of the industry, because consensus is required to drive actions. It is therefore no coincidence that the governments of nations operating nuclear reactors are endeavoring to enhance public acceptance of nuclear power, as better acceptance allows stable power generation and peaceful processing of nuclear wastes produced from nuclear reactors. Past research, however, has been limited to epistemological measurements using methods such as the Likert scale. In this research, we propose big data analysis as an attractive alternative and attempt to identify the attitudes of the public on nuclear power. Specifically, we used common big data analyses to analyze consumer opinions via SNS (Social Networking Services), using keyword analysis and opinion analysis. The keyword analysis identified the attitudes of the public toward nuclear power. The public felt positive toward nuclear power when Korea successfully exported nuclear reactors to the United Arab Emirates. With the Fukushima accident in 2011 and certain supplier scandals in 2012, however, the image of nuclear power was degraded and the negative image continues. It is recommended that the government focus on developing useful businesses and use cases of nuclear power in order to improve public acceptance.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(1)
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• pp.149-154
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• 1998

A subcritical reactor driven by a linear proton accelerator has been considered as a nuclear waste incinerator at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI). Since the multiplication factor of a subcritical reactor is less than unity, to compensate exponentially decreasing fission neutrons from spallation reactions are essentially required for operating the reactor in its steady state. furthermore, the profile of accelerator beam currents is very important in controlling a subcritical reactor, because the reactor power varies in accordance of the profile of external neutrons. We have developed a code system to find numerical solutions of reactor kinetics equations, which are the simplest dynamic model for controlling reactors. In a due course of our previous numerical study of point kinetics equations for critical reactors, however, we learned that the same code system can be used in studying dynamic behavior of the subcritical reactor. Our major motivation of this paper is to investigate responses of subcritical reactors for small changes in thermal hydraulic parameters. Building a thermal hydraulic model for the subcritical reactor dynamics, we performed numerical simulations for dynamic responses of the reactor based on point kinetics equations with a source term. Linearizing a set of coupled differential equations for reactor responses, we focus our research interest on dynamic responses of the reactor to variations of the thermal hydraulic parameters in transient phases.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2005년도 추계 학술대회 논문집
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• pp.317-320
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• 2005

방사선방호 신개념(ICRP-60)이 국내에서 법제화되어 2003년부터 시행됨에 따라 원자력발전소에 대한 보다 엄격해진 방사선방호 기준이 적용되고 있다 특히, 중수로 원자력발전소의 경우 $^{14}C$와 삼중수소로 인한 방사선작업종사자에 대한 방사선 위해가 경수로 원자력발전소보다 상대적으로 의기 때문에 작업종사자의 내부피폭 선량을 정확하게 측정하고 평가하여 내부피폭을 예방하는 노력이 필요하다. 본 보고서에는 중수로 원자력발전소에서 발생된 $^{14}C$의 체내 흡입으로 인한 방사선 작업종사자의 내부피폭 선량평가 방법을 정립하기 위해 예비적으로 $^{14}C$로 인한 인체대사모델을 분석하였고 $^{14}C$에 대한 내부피폭 선량평가 방법을 기술하였다.

• 한국재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국재료학회 2003년도 춘계학술발표강연 및 논문개요집
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• pp.21-21
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• 2003

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.348-348
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• 1998