Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) is currently developing a vertical concrete dry storage module for the dry storage of used nuclear fuel within nuclear power plants. This module is designed with a structure consisting of cylinders, which can block the ingress of external air, thereby preventing Chloride-Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking (CISCC). However, due to the presence of these cylinder structures, unlike conventional dry storage systems, it cannot directly dissipate heat to the external atmosphere, making thermal evaluation an important issue. The SF dry storage module being developed by KHNP is a massive concrete structure of approximately 20 m × 10 m × 7 m in size, employing a vertical storage system. To demonstrate the safety of such a large structure, there is no alternative to conducting experiments with scaled-down models. Furthermore, according to NUREG-2215 Section 5.5.4, it is explicitly mentioned that design-verification testing can be performed using scaled-down models. In this paper, a 1/4 scaled-down model was constructed to perform thermal performance verification experiments, and the effectiveness of this model was analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. The analysis results indicated that there was not a significant difference in terms of maximum concrete temperature and air outlet temperature. However, a considerable difference was observed in the canister surface temperature. Therefore, it is concluded that careful consideration of natural convection heat transfer is necessary for the full application of the scaled-down model.

There have been a variety of issues related to spent nuclear fuel in Korea recently. Most of the issues are related to intermediate storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel. However, recently, various studies have been started in advanced nuclear countries such as the United States to reduce spent nuclear fuel, focusing on measures to reduce spent nuclear fuel. In this study, a simple preliminary assessment of the thermal part was performed for the consolidation storage method which separates fuel rods from spent nuclear fuel and stores them. The preliminary thermal evaluation was analyzed separately for storing the spent fuel in fuel assembly state and separating the fuel rods and storing them. The consolidation storage method in separating the fuel rods was advantageous in terms of thermal conductivity. However, detailed evaluation should be performed considering heat transfer by convection and vessel shape when storing multiple fuel bundles simultaneously.