Currently, the most promising fuel candidate for use in sodium fast reactors (SFRs) is metallic fuel, which is produced by a modified casting method in which the metallic fuel material is sequentially melted in an inert atmosphere to prevent volatilization, followed by melting in a graphite crucible, and then injection casting in a quartz (SiO2) mold to produce metallic fuel slugs. In previous studies, U-Zr metallic fuel slugs have been cast using Y2O3 reaction prevent coatings. However, U-Zr alloy-based metallic fuel slugs containing highly reactive rare earth (RE) elements are highly reactive with Y2O3-coated quartz (SiO2) molds and form a significant thickness of surface reaction layer on the surface of the metallic fuel slug. Cast parts that have reacted with nuclear fuel materials become radioactive waste. To decrease amount of radioactive waste, advanced reaction prevent material was developed. Each RE (Nd, Ce, Ln, Pr) element was placed on the reaction prevent material and thermal cycling experiments were carried out. In casting experiments with U-10wt% Zr, it was reported that Y2O3 layer has a high reaction prevent performance. Therefore, the reaction layer properties for RE elements with higher reactivity than uranium elements were evaluated. To investigate the reaction layer between RE and NdYO3, the reaction composition and phase properties as a function of RE content and location were investigated using SEM, EDS, and XRD. The results showed that NdYO3 ceramics had better antireaction performance than Y2O3.

Considering the non-linear behavior of structure and soil when evaluating a nuclear power plant's seismic safety under a beyond-design basis earthquake is essential. In order to obtain the nonlinear response of a nuclear power plant structure, a time-domain SSI analysis method that considers the nonlinearity of soil and structure and the nonlinear Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) effect is necessary. The Boundary Reaction Method (BRM) is a time-domain SSI analysis method. The BRM can be applied effectively with a Perfectly Matched Layer (PML), which is an effective energy absorbing boundary condition. The BRM has a characteristic that the magnitude of the response in far-field soil increases as the boundary interface of the effective seismic load moves outward. In addition, the PML has poor absorption performance of low-frequency waves. For this reason, the accuracy of the low-frequency response may be degraded when analyzing the combination of the BRM and the PML. In this study, the accuracy of the analysis response was improved by adjusting the PML input parameters to improve this problem. The accuracy of the response was evaluated by using the analysis response using KIESSI-3D, a frequency domain SSI analysis program, as a reference solution. As a result of the analysis applying the optimal PML parameter, the average error rate of the acceleration response spectrum for 9 degrees of freedom of the structure was 3.40%, which was highly similar to the reference result. In addition, time-domain nonlinear SSI analysis was performed with the soil's nonlinearity to show this study's applicability. As a result of nonlinear SSI analysis, plastic deformation was concentrated in the soil around the foundation. The analysis results found that the analysis method combining BRM and PML can be effectively applied to the seismic response analysis of nuclear power plant structures.

This paper presents a detailed procedure for a nonlinear soil-structure interaction of a seismically isolated NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) structure using the boundary reaction method (BRM). The BRM offers a two-step method as follows: (1) the calculation of boundary reaction forces in the frequency domain on an interface of linear and nonlinear regions, (2) solving the wave radiation problem subjected to the boundary reaction forces in the time domain. For the purpose of calculating the boundary reaction forces at the base of the isolator, the KIESSI-3D program is employed in this study to solve soil-foundation interaction problem subjected to vertically incident seismic waves. Wave radiation analysis is also employed, in which the nonlinear structure and the linear soil region are modeled by finite elements and energy absorbing elements on the outer model boundary using a general purpose nonlinear FE program. In this study, the MIDAS/Civil program is employed for modeling the wave radiation problem. In order to absorb the outgoing elastic waves to the unbounded soil region, spring and viscous-damper elements are used at the outer FE boundary. The BRM technique utilizing KIESSI-3D and MIDAS/Civil programs is verified using a linear soil-structure analysis problem. Finally the method is applied to nonlinear seismic analysis of a base-isolated NPP structure. The results show that BRM can effectively be applied to nonlinear soil-structure interaction problems.

본 연구에서 서로 다른 양성자 에너지를 사용하여 핵반응에 의해 생성된 감마선의 차이를 통해 고에너 지 양성자 Pb(p, nx) 핵반응에서 생성된 동위원소를 식별하는 방법을 제안했다. 한국원자력연구원의 100-M eV 양성자 선형 가속기에서 생성된 고에너지 양성자를 이용하여 실험을 수행 하였다. 양성자 핵반응을 통해 생성된 다양한 핵종에 의해 생성된 감마선은 HPGe 검출기로 구성된 감마선 분광법 시스템을 사용하여 측정되었습니다. 감마선 표준선원은 감마선 검출기의 정확한 에너지교정 및 효율측정을 위해 사용되었습 니다. 제안한 방법을 위하여 동일한 천연 납 시료에 서로 다른 100 및 60 MeV 양성자 에너지빔을 사용하였다. 이 방법은 동일한 시료에서 발생되는 감마선들을 서로 비교함으로써 생성된 핵종들을 확인하는데 매우 효과적임을 알 수 있었다. 이 연구의 결과는 향후 다른 양성자 핵반응 결과를 얻는데도 매우 효과적으로 적용될 것이라 생각된다.

양성자가속기연구센터(KOMAC)의 100-MeV 양성자 선형가속기에서 생성된 고에너지 양성자를 사용하여 천연 텅스텐과 핵반응을 일으켰다. 핵반응을 통해 생성된 다양한 핵종으로 부터의 감마선은 HPGe 검출기 감마선 분광시스템을 사용하여 측정하였다. 감마선 표준선원은 에너지 교정 및 검출기의 효율 측정에 사용되었다. 측정된 스펙트럼에서 관찰된 감마선을 분석한 결과 방사성 핵종은 167Re, 178Re, 179Re, 180Re, 181Re, 182Re, 184Re, 172Ta, 174Ta, 178Ta, 182Ta, 184Ta, 175W, 176W, 177W 및 179W 으로 총 16 종류의 핵종이 생성되었다. 이 연구의 결과는 미래의 핵융합, 천체 물리학 및 핵의학 응용 분야에 적용될 것으로 생각된다.

양성자핵반응에 대한 연구는 현재 핵융합로의 재료 개발을 비롯하여 양성자치료 분야 등을 중심으로 활발하게 이루어지고 있다. 본 연구는 100 MeV 양성자 빔을 이용한 27Al(p,3p+n)24Na 반응을 통하여 발생되는 지발 감마선(2754, 1386 keV) 스펙트럼을 고순도 HPGe 검출기를 이용하여 측정하였다. 실험에 사용되어진 양성자 빔은 양성자가속기연구센터(KOMAC)에 설치되어 있는 100 MeV 양성자선형가속기를 사용하였다. 측정된 감마선은 기존에 알려진 결과들과 비교분석하였다. 측정된 감마선의 강도는 고에너지 감마선 검출효율을 결정하는데 매우 중요한 정도를 제공 할 것으로 생각되어 진다.