• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.307-318
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• 2009

KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) has developed the GAMMA+ code for a thermo-fluid and safety analysis of a VHTR (Very High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor). A key safety issue of the VHTR design is to demonstrate its inherent safety features for an automatic reactor power trip and power stabilization during an anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) accident such as a loss of forced cooling by a trip of the helium circulator (LOFC) or a reactivity insertion by a control rod withdrawal (CRW). This paper intends to show the ATWS assessment capability of the GAMMA+ code which can simulate the reactor power response by solving the point-kinetic equations with six-group delayed neutrons, by considering the reactivity changes due to the effects of a core temperature variation, xenon transients, and reactivity insertions. The present benchmark calculations are performed by using the safety demonstration experiments of the 10 MW high temperature gas cooled-test module (HTR-10) in China. The calculation results of the power response transients and the solid core temperature behavior are compared with the experimental data of a LOFC ATWS test and two CRW ATWS tests by using a 1mk-control rod and a 5mk-control rod, respectively. The GAMMA+ code predicts the power response transients very well for the LOFC and CRW ATWS tests in HTR-10.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2023

Air ingress incidents are major safety accidents in very-high-temperature reactors (VHTRs). Air containing a high volume fraction of oxygen may cause severe oxidation of core components at the VHTR, especially for the significantly thin alloy tube wall in the intermediate heat exchanger (IHE). The research objects of this study are Inconel 617 and Incoloy 800H, two candidate alloys for IHE in VHTR. The air ingress accident scenario is simulated with high-temperature air flow at 950 ℃. A continuous oxide scale was formed on the surfaces of both the alloys after the experiment. Because the oxide scale of Inconel 617 has a loose structure, whereas that of Incoloy 800H is denser, Inconel 617 exhibited significantly more severe internal oxidation than Incoloy 800H. Further, Inconel 617 showed a significant decrease in ultimate tensile strength and plasticity after aging for 200 h, whereas Incoloy 800H maintained its tensile properties satisfactorily. Through control experiment under vacuum, we preliminarily concluded that serious internal oxidation is the primary reason for the decline in the tensile properties of Inconel 617.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.7-13
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• 2011

A study on reliability estimation of sequential-ordered multiple failure modes, which are sequentially ordered between failure modes in a considering system, was performed. Especially, an approach to estimate the probabilities of failure modes has been proposed under an assumption that failure modes are mutually exclusive and sequentially ordered by only a critical variable. A feasibility of the proposed approach were studied by a practical example, which is a reliability estimation of passive safety systems for a probabilistic safety assessment(PSA) of a very high temperature reactor(VHTR) that is under development as a future nuclear system with enhanced safety features. It is difficult to define a robust failure state of this nuclear system because of its enhanced radiation release characteristics, so the new approach is a useful concept to estimate not only its safety but also a PSA. A feasibility study applied two failure modes(e.g., small and large release of radioactive materials) with considering the integrated behavior of this nuclear system. It is expected that the multiple release states for a practical estimation can be easily extended to the aforementioned example. It was found out that the proposed approach was a useful technique to cover the unfavorable features of this nuclear system as to performing a VHTR PSA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.63-64
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• 2008

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.1189-1194
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• 2013

The Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) of a Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is a core component that transfers the high heat of $950^{\circ}C$ generated in the VHTR to a hydrogen production plant. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute manufactured a lab-scale prototype of a Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) as a candidate for an IHX. In this study, as a part of a high-temperature structural integrity evaluation of the lab-scale PCHE prototype made of SUS316L, we carried out high temperature structural analysis modeling and macroscopic thermal and elastic structural analysis for the lab-scale PCHE prototype under helium experimental loop (HELP) test conditions as a precedent study prior to the performance test in HELP.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.1137-1143
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• 2011

The IHX (intermediate heat exchanger) of a VHTR (very high-temperature reactor) is a core component that transfers the high heat generated by the VHTR at $950^{\circ}C$ to a hydrogen production plant. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute manufactured a small-scale prototype of a PCHE (printed circuit heat exchanger) that was being considered as a candidate for the IHX. In this study, as a part of high-temperature structural integrity evaluation of the small-scale PCHE prototype, we carried out high-temperature structural analysis modeling and macroscopic thermal and elastic structural analysis for the small-scale PCHE prototype under small-scale gas-loop test conditions. The modeling and analysis were performed as a precedent study prior to the performance test in the small-scale gas loop. The results obtained in this study will be compared with the test results for the small-scale PCHE. Moreover, these results will be used in the design of a medium-scale PCHE prototype.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2006

SNU-RCCS is a water pool type RCCS (Reactor Cavity Cooling System) developed for VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) application by SNU (Seoul National University). Since radiation heat transfer is the major process of passive heat removal in a RCCS, it is important to determine the precise emissivity of the reactor vessel. Review studies have used a constant emissivity in the passive heat removal analysis, even though the emissivity depends on many factors such as temperature, surface roughness, oxidation level, wavelength, direction, atmosphere conditions, etc. Therefore, information on the emissivity of a given material in a real RCCS is essential in order to properly analyze the radiation heat transfer in a VHTR. The objectives of this study are to develop a method for compensation of the factors affecting the emissivity measurement using an infrared thermometer and to estimate the true emissivity from the measured emissivity via the developed method, especially in the SNU-RCCS environment. From this viewpoint, we investigated factors such as the attenuation effect of the window, filling gas, and the effect of background radiation on the emissivity measurements. The emissivity of the vessel surface of the SNU-RCCS facility was then measured using a sight tube. The background radiation was subsequently removed from the measured emissivity by solving a simultaneous equation. Finally, the calculated emissivity was compared with the measured emissivity in a separate emissivity measurement device, yielding good agreement with the emissivity increase with vessel temperature in a range of 0.82 to 0.88.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.553-561
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• 2010

A medium-scale helium loop that can simulate a VHTR (very-high-temperature reactor) is now under construction at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The heaters of the test helium loop electrically heat helium fluid up to $950^{\circ}C$ at pressures of 1 to 9 MPa. To optimize the design specifications of the experimental helium loop, the conjugate heat transfer in the high-temperature helium heater was analyzed by performing a CFD simulation. The analysis results indicate that the maximum temperature does not exceed the allowable limit. It is confirmed that the thermal characteristics of the loop with the given geometry satisfy the design requirements.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.1455-1462
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• 2010

PHE (Process Heat Exchanger) is a key component required to transfer heat energy of $950^{\circ}C$ generated in a VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) to the chemical reaction that yields a large quantity of hydrogen. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute established the helium gas loop for the performance test of components, which are used in the VHTR, and they manufactured a PHE prototype to be tested in the loop. In this study, as part of the hightemperature structural-integrity evaluation of the PHE prototype, which is scheduled to be tested in the helium gas loop, we carried out high-temperature structural-analysis modeling, thermal analysis, and thermal expansion analysis of the PHE prototype. The results obtained in this study will be used to design the performance test setup for the PHE prototype.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2012

A PHE (Process Heat Exchanger) in a nuclear hydrogen system is a key component required to transfer heat energy of $950^{\circ}C$ generated in a VHTR (Very High Temperature gas cooled Reactor) to the chemical reaction that yields a large quantity of hydrogen. A small-scale PHE prototype made of Hastelloy-X is being tested in a small-scale gas loop at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. Previous research on the high-temperature structural analysis of the small-scale PHE prototype had been performed only using parent material properties. In this study, high-temperature structural analysis using weld properties in weld zone was performed and the analysis results compared with the previous research.