Corrosion-related challenges remain a significant research topic in developing next-generation Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). To gain a deeper understanding of preventing corrosion in MSRs, previous studies have attempted to improve the corrosion resistance of structural alloys by coating surfaces such as alumina coating. To conduct a corrosion test of coating alloys fully immersed in molten salt, it’s important to ensure that the coating application process is carefully carried out. Ideally, coating all sides of the alloy is necessary to avoid gaps like corners of the alloy, while only applying a one-sided coating alloy can lead to galvanic corrosion with the base metals. Using the droplet shape of eutectic salt applied to only one side of the coating alloy would avoid these problems in conventional corrosion immersion tests, as corrosion would occur solely on the coating surface. Although the droplet method for corrosion tests cannot fully replicate corrosion in the MSRs environment, it offers a valuable tool for comparing and evaluating the corrosion resistance of different coating surfaces of alloys. However, the surface area is important due to the effect of diffusion in the corrosion of alloy in molten salt environments, but it is difficult to unify in the case of droplet tests. Therefore, understanding the droplet-alloy properties and corrosion mechanism is needed to accurately predict and analyze these test systems’ behavior highlighting unity for corrosion tests of different coating surfaces of alloys. To analyze the molten salt droplet behavior on various samples, pelletized eutectic NaCl-MgCl2 was prepared as salt and W-, Mo-coating, and base SS316 as samples. At room temperature, the same mass of pelletized eutectic NaCl-MgCl2 was placed on different samples under an argon atmosphere and heated to a eutectic point of 500°C in a furnace. After every hour, the molten droplets were hardened by rapid cooling at room temperature outside the furnace. The mass loss of salts and the contact area of the samples were measured by mass balance and SEM. The shape, surface area to volume ratio, and evaporation of the droplets of NaCl-MgCl2 per each coating sample and hour were analyzed to identify the optimal mass to equalize the contact coating surface of alloys with salts. Furthermore, We also analyzed whether their results reached saturation of corrosion products through ICP-MS. This will be significant research for the uniformity of the liquid-drop shape corrosion test of the coating sample in molten eutectic salts.

Radioactive wastes, including used nuclear fuel and decommissioning wastes, have been treated using molten salts. Electrochemical sensors are one of the options for in-situ process monitoring using molten salts. However, in order to use electrochemical sensors in molten salt, the surface area must be known. This is because the surface area affects the current of the electrode. Previous studies have used a variety of methods to determine the electrode surface area in molten salts. One method of calculating the electrode surface area is to use the reduction current peak difference between electrodes with known length differences. The method is based on the reduction peak and has the benefit of providing long-term in-situ monitoring of surfaces immersed in molten salt. A number of assumptions have been made regarding this method, including that there is no mass transport by migration or convection; the reaction is reversible and limited by diffusion; the chemical activity of the deposit should be unity; and species should follow linear diffusion. For the purpose of overcoming these limitations, a variety of machine learning algorithms were applied to different voltammogram datasets in order to calculate the surface area. Voltammogram datasets were collected from multiarray electrodes, comprising a multiarray holder, two tungsten rods (1 mm diameter) working electrodes, a quasi-reference electrode, and a counter electrode. The multiarray electrode holder was connected to the auto vertical translator, which uses a servo motor, for changing the height of the rod in the molten salts. To make big and diverse data for training machine learning models, various concentrations of corrosion products (Cr, Fe) and fission products (Eu, Sm) in NaCl-MgCl2 eutectic salts were used as electrolyte; electrolyte temperatures were 500, 525, 550, 575, and 600°C. This study will demonstrate the potential of utilizing machine learning based electrochemical in situ monitoring in molten salt processing.

Molten chloride salts are promising candidates as a coolant for Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) because of their low cost, high specific heat transfer, and thermal energy storage capacity. The NaCl- MgCl2 eutectic salts have enormous latent heat (430 kJ/kg) and financial advantage over other types of molten chloride salt. Despite the promise of the NaCl-MgCl2 eutectic salt, problems associated with structural material corrosion in the MSR system remain. The hygroscopicity of NaCl-MgCl2 and high MSRs operating temperature accelerate corrosion within structural alloys. Especially, MgCl2 reacts with H2O in the eutectic salt to produce HCl and Cl2, which are known to further exacerbate corrosion by the chlorination of structural materials. Therefore, several studies have worked to purify impurities associated with MgCl2, such as H2O. Thermal salt purification of NaCl-MgCl2 eutectic salt is one method that reduces HCl and Cl2 gas generation. However, MgO and MgOHCl are generated as the byproduct of thermal purification through a reaction between MgCl2 and H2O. The corrosion behavior of MgO within structural alloys after thermal treatment is not well known. This paper demonstrates corrosion behavior within structural alloy after thermal treatment at various temperature profiles of the NaCl-MgCl2 eutectic salt. According to the temperature range, MgCl2·H2O are separated at 100~200°C, and MgOHCl and HCl begin to occur at 240°C or higher. Finally, MgOHCl produces MgO and HCl at 500°C or higher temperatures. After thermal treatments, the H2O, MgOHCl, and MgO content were measured by Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer (TGA) to evaluate significant products causing corrosion. The structural materials were analyzed by the Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and using the mass change method to observe the type of localized corrosion, the corrosion rate, and the corrosion layer thickness. This study is possible in that it can reduce economic costs by reducing the essential use of expensive, high-purity molten salts because it is related to a substantial financial cost problem considering the amount of molten salt used in industrial sites.

Cutting reactor pressure vessels (RPV) into acceptable sizes for waste disposal is a key process in dismantling nuclear power plants. In the case of Kori-1, a remote oxyfuel cutting method has been developed by Doosan Heavy Industry & Construction to dismantle RPVs. Cutting radioactive material, such as RPV, generates a large number of fine and ultrafine particles incorporating radioactive isotopes. To minimize radiological exposure of dismantling workers and workplace surface contamination, understanding the characteristics of radioactive aerosols from the cutting process is crucial. However, there is a paucity of knowledge of the by-products of the cutting process. To overcome the limitations, a mock-up RPV cutting experiment was designed and established to investigate the characteristics of fine and ultrafine particles from the remote cutting process of the RPV at the Nuclear Decommissioning Center of Doosan Heavy Industry & Construction. The aerosol measurement system was composed of a cutting system, purification system, sampling system, and measurement device. The cutting system has a shielding tent and oxyfuel cutting torch and remote cutting robot arm. It was designed to prevent fine particle leakage. The shielding tent acts as a cutting chamber and is connected to the purification system. The purification system operates a pressure difference by generating an airflow which delivers aerosols from the cutting system to the purification system. The sampling system was installed at the center of the pipe which connects the shielding tent and purification system and was carefully designed to achieve isokinetic sampling for unbiased sampling. Sampled aerosols were delivered to the measurement device. A high-resolution electrical low-pressure impactor (HR-ELPI+, Dekati) is used to measure the size distribution of inhalable aerosols (Aerodynamic diameter: 6 nm to 10 μm) and to collect size classified aerosols. In this work, the mock-up reactor vessel was cut 3 times to measure the number distribution of fine and ultrafine particles and mass distribution of iron, chromium, nickel, and manganese. The number distribution of aerosols showed the bi-modal distribution; two peaks were positioned at 0.01−0.02 μm and 0.04–0.07 μm respectively. The mass distribution of metal elements showed bi-modal and trimodal distribution. Such results could be criteria for filter selection to be used in the filtration system for the cutting process and fundamental data for internal dose assessment for accidents. Future work includes the investigations relationships between the characteristics of the generated aerosols and physicochemical properties of metal elements.

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (TSSM)(Acari: Tetranychidae) is the major arthropod pest in strawberry greenhouses. Elevated levels of stress caused by high populations of TSSM can lead to a significant reduction in vegetative growth and flower development, which can decrease the quality and quantity of mature fruits. Currently, TSSM is managed by pesticide, and which makes that is distributed all over the world with various pesticide resistances and environmental side effects. To solve these problems, alternative pest management strategies are being tried. Biological control, one of alternative strategies, is relatively low toxicity and stable to agricultural ecosystems. I compared the density of TSSM in export strawberry greenhouses, those are under conventional pesticides and natural enemy applied, respectively, and also evaluated the cost of management of each control strategy.

Chemical control is the indispensable part of insect pest management. However, due to overuse of pesticides, the emergence of resistance to pests and environmental pollution problems are appeared. In order to solve these problems, the need of integrated pest management (IPM) has emerged. The IPM means that the pest density should be controlled and maintained to avoid any economic loss, also to minimize any side effects to the human beings and environment using appropriate control methods. In order to do successful IPM, sampling plan should be prepared. Sampling plan consists of monitoring, density estimation and decision making of target insect pests in certain crop field including the knowledge of spatial distribution. Tabaco whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, and Western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, are serious insect pests in paprika greenhouses. We selected two paprika greenhouses with different sizes (12,000 m2 and 4,000 m2). Insect pests monitoring was evaluated from January 24, 2014 to June 27, 2014. Two monitoring methods are used to develop sampling plans, one is visual survey for B. tabaci population, and the other is using sticky trap for F. occidentalis population, respectively. We calculated spatial distribution using Taylor’s Power Law (TPL). In visual survey results, TPL showed that adults and pupae of B. tabaci were aggregated in paprika greenhouses. And in trap survey results, F. occidentalis was also aggregated with different scale of the slope of TPL equation. In density estimation, the more density of insect pests, the less samples were required. Moreover, the more accuracy, the more samples were required for stop sampling in greenhouses. We selected hypothetic action threshold of 0.3 and 5 for decision making. As a result, if the action threshold is increased, the maximum sample number is decreased