• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 2013

Two different kinds of nuclear power plants produce a substantial amount of spent fuel annually in Korea. According to the current projection, it is expected that around 60,000 MtU of spent fuel will be produced from 36 PWR and APR reactors and 4 CANDU reactors by the end of 2089. In 2006, KAERI proposed a conceptual design of a geological disposal system (called KRS, Korean Reference disposal System for spent fuel) for PWR and CANDU spent fuel, as a product of a 4-year research project from 2003 to 2006. The major result of the research was that it was feasible to construct a direct disposal system for 20,000 MtU of PWR spent fuels and 16,000 MtU of CANDU spent fuel in the Korean peninsula. Recently, KAERI and MEST launched a project to develop an advanced fuel cycle based on the pyroprocessing of PWR spent fuel to reduce the amount of HLW and reuse the valuable fissile material in PWR spent fuel. Thus, KAERI has developed a geological disposal system for high-level waste from the pyroprocessing of PWR spent fuel since 2007. However, since no decision was made for the CANDU spent fuel, KAERI improved the disposal density of KRS by introducing several improved concepts for the disposal canister. In this paper, the geological disposal systems developed so far are briefly outlined. The amount and characteristics of spent fuel and HLW, 4 kinds of disposal canisters, the characteristics of a buffer with domestic Ca-bentonite, and the results of a thermal design of deposition holes and disposal tunnels are described. The different disposal systems are compared in terms of their disposal density.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 1985

The fissile content of PWR spent fuel is higher than that of natural uranium which is normal fuel for CANDU type reactor. Investigated are the concepts of PWR spent fuel utilization in CANDU type reactor to diversify uranium resource and partially to solve storage problems of PWR spent fuel being gradually accumulated. Nuclear characteristics of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel loaded in CANDU type reactor are analysed using the WIMS/D computer code. In this study, analyses are solely carried out upon the current CANDU type reactor design without changingany reactivity control devices.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.614-620
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• 2020

In a previous study, delayed hydride cracking (DHC) assessment of pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent fuel during dry storage using the threshold stress intensity factor (K_IH) was performed. However, there were a few limitations in the analysis of the cladding properties, such as oxide thickness and mechanical properties. In this study, those models were modified to include test data for irradiated materials, and the cladding creep model was introduced to improve the reliability of the DHC assessment. In this study, DHC susceptibility of PWR spent fuel during dry storage depending on the axial elevation was evaluated with the improved assessment methodology. In addition, the sensitivity of affecting parameters such as fuel burnup, hydride thickness, and crack aspect ratio are presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.02a
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• pp.238-244
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• 2004

The relationship between the leaching and gap inventory of spent fuel has been studied. When a specimen of J44H08 spent PWR fuel with 38 GWD/MTU has been leached in the synthetic granitic groundwater in Ar atmosphere, the released fraction of cesium was increased rapidly up to 0.7% at around 500 days and stayed below 0.8% until 3 years. This 0.7% of cesium might be released from the gap in this fuel. The measurement of gap inventory with C15I08 spent PWR fuel, having 35 GWD/MTU and 0.22% of fission gas release, was also determined near 0.6% for the cesium, which is a similar fraction of cesium released from the leaching experiment with J44H08 fuel. Its gap inventories of strontium and iodine were about 0.03 and less than 0.2% respectively. Respective fractions of cesium and strontium in grain boundary of C15I08 were 0.78, 0.09%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.109-114
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• 1995

A preliminary study of the heterogeneity effect of spent P% fuel in CANDU was made using a reduced spent PWR fuel data base. The instantaneous core simulation has shown that the refueling ripple in the CANDU reactor is large if the spent PWR fuel is directly used. But the fuel heterogeneity effect can be reduced appreciably by blending spent PWR fuel with a small amount of fresh UO$_2$. The refueling simulation has shown that the operating margins of 6.0% and 8.7% are achievable for the peak channel and bundle powers, respectively, with the blended fuel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4499-4513
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• 2022

Spent fuel behavior of dry storage was simulated in a continuous state from steady-state operation by modifying FRAPCON-4.0 to incorporate spent fuel-specific fuel behavior models. Spent fuel behavior of a typical PWR was compared with that of NuScale Power Module (NPM^TM). Current PWR discharge burnup (60 MWd/kgU) gives a sufficient margin to the hoop stress limit of 90 MPa. Most hydrogen precipitation occurs in the first 50 years of dry storage, thereby no extra phenomenological safety factor is identified for extended dry storage up to 100 years. Regulation for spent fuel management can be significantly alleviated for LWR-based SMRs. Hydride embrittlement safety criterion is irrelevant to NuScale spent fuels; they have sufficiently lower plenum pressure and hydrogen contents compared to those of PWRs. Cladding creep out during dry storage reduces the subchannel area with burnup. The most deformed cladding outer diameter after 100 years of dry storage is found to be 9.64 mm for discharge burnup of 70 MWd/kgU. It may deteriorate heat transfer of dry storage by increasing flow resistance and decreasing the view factor of radiative heat transfer. Self-regulated by decreasing rod internal pressure with opening gap, cladding creep out closely reaches the saturated point after ~50 years of dry storage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.1019-1020
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• 2012

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.517-526
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• 2008

The widespread concern regarding the management of spent fuel that mainly contributes to nuclear waste has led to the development of the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) as one of the most promising future types of reactors at both national and international levels. Various reactor deployment scenarios with SFR introductions with different conversion ratios in the existing PWR-dominant nuclear fleet have been assessed to optimize the SFR deployment strategy to replace PWRs with the view toward a reduction in the level of spent fuel as well as efficient uranium utilization through its reuse in a closed fuel cycle. An efficient reactor deployment strategy with the SFR introduction starting in 2040 has been drawn based on an SFR deployment strategy in which burners are deployed prior to breakeven reactors to reduce the amount of PWR spent fuel substantially at the early deployment stage. The PWR spent fuel disposal is reduced in this way by 98% and the cumulative uranium demand for PWRs to 2100 is projected to be 445 ktU, implying a uranium savings of 115 ktU. The SFR mix ratio in the nuclear fleet near the year 2100 is estimated to be approximately 35-40%. PWRs will remain as a main power reactor type until 2100 and SFRs will support waste minimization and fuel utilization.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.255-266
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• 2024

The uranium nuclear fuel used in nuclear power generation needs to be replaced with new fuel after a certain period. In South Korea, the spent nuclear fuel generated during this process is temporarily stored within the nuclear power plant site, and there are ongoing issues with the saturation of storage capacity. To address these problems, the South Korea government has established a plan to manage high-level radioactive waste, including provisions for securing interim storage facilities. An interim storage facility is designed to safely store spent nuclear fuel for certain period before its permanent disposal. This study analyzed leading international cases of interim storage facilities that are technically feasible and can reduce the operating period of temporary storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel within nuclear power plant sites. It also presented the technical concepts required for the operation of interim storage facilities for spent fuel from PWR(Pressurized Water Reactor), reflecting the situation in South Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.609-613
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• 2003

The confinement of a storage system to accommodate spent fuel and radioactive material must be designed and estimated so that the storage system is safe during a storage period. The confinement can be estimated by calculation of the allowable leakage rate in compliance with ANSI Nl4.5 or ISO 12807. Accordingly, the allowable leakage rate was estimated in compliance with ISO 12807 in the case of storage of 24 PWR spent fuels and 24-conditioned spent fuels. In the case of the 24 PWR spent fuel assemblies, the allowable leakage rate was estimated as $7.43{\times}10_{-11}m_3/s$, in the case of the 24 conditioned spent fuel assemblies, the allowable leakage rate was estimated as $1.80{\times}10_{-10}m_3/s$. Therefore, the confinement condition in the storage of the conditioned spent fuel is easier than that for the storage of the PWR spent fuel.