In the process of simplifying the complex fate of the plant into a binary state, the information loss is inevitable. To minimize the information loss, the quantification of plant safety status has been formulated through the combination of the probability density function arising from the sensor measurement and the membership function representing the expectation of the state of the system. Therefore, in this context, the safety index is introduced in an attempt to quantify the plant status from the perspective of safety. The combination of probability density function and membership function is achieved through the integration of the fuzzy intersection of the two functions, and it often is not a simple task to integrate the fuzzy intersection due to the complexity that is the result of the fuzzy intersection. Therefore, a methodology based on the Algebra of Logic is used to express the fuzzy intersection and the fuzzy union of the arbitrary functions analytically. These exact analytical expressions are then numerically integrated by the application of Monte Carlo method. The benchmark tests for rectangular area and both fuzzy intersection and union of two normal distribution functions have been performed. Lastly, the safety index was determined for the Core Reactivity Control of Yonggwang 3&4 using the presented methodology.

With emphasis on safety, this study addresses for better design condition for the cooling system in a wet-type interim spent fuel storage facility, using a probabilistic safety assessment method. To incorporate the design renovation into the design phase, a simple approach is proposed. By taking the cooling system of a reference design, a fault tree analysis was performed to identify the weak point of the considered system, and then basic factors for design renovation were defined. A total of 21 design alternatives were selected through the combination of the basic factors. Finally, the optimum design alternative for the cooling system is derived by means of the cost and effect analysis based on the estimated cost, system reliability and assumed probabilistic safety criteria. With the assumption that the failure frequency of at-reactor spent fuel cooling system compiles with probabilistic safety criteria for the interim spent fuel cooling system, it was shown that the optimum alternative should have l00% cooling loop redundancy with one pump per cooling loop and a cleanup system installed separately from the main loop. Furthermore, it also should be classified into safety system. The result of this study can be used as a useful basis to identify factors of safety concern and to establish design requirements in the future. The method also can be applied for other nuclear facilities.

A system, such as a reactor point kinetics equation, can be solved with Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) which uses the notion that all solutions and operators can be expressed as an infinite sum of those basis states, like Adomian polynomials. In this work, ADM is applied to point reactor kinetics equations for step reactivity insertion, ramp input of reactivity, and nonlinear feedback cases without linearization approximation. The results of ADM are more accurate and faster than those of other existing methods, even though we use comparatively large time step sizes.

The effects of dopants on the modification of microstructure of UO and UO-4wt%CeO sintered pellets have been studied in hydrogen and /CO mixture atmospheres by using , TiO and as sintering additives. The dopant were added as oxide powders and homogenized by attrition milling. The mixed powders were pressed, and then sintered in hydrogen at 1 , or in oxidizing atmosphere using Controlled /CO mixtures at 125. Both density and microstructure of UO are modified by the addition of dopants in reducing atmosphere. The sintered density is increased with addition up to 0.33wt% and subsequently decreased with higher content of the additive. The effect on the densification and the gain growth are apparent with the addition of 0.24wt% . With 0.lwt% titania and 0.6wt% , the sintered density is decreased, but the grain size is increased. In oxidizing atmosphere, the grain sizes for UO doped with the above additives are smaller than that for pure UO. The grain size of Ta or Nb-doped UO is decreased with increasing /CO ratio, but that of pure UOor T-doped UO is increased. A large portion of second phases is observed in UO doped with 0.lwt% TiO sintered in hydrogen atmosphere, while, in /CO atmospheres, the second phases or dopant agglomerates are not observed. For UO-4wt%CeO mixed oxide, the effect of additives on the gain growth is not so much as that for the pure UO. This is attributed to the formation of clusters by dopant cations and Ce ions, so that the additives contribute to a lesser exent to the grain growth for the mixed oxide.

An integrated framework of modeling the human operator cognitive behavior during nuclear power plant accident scenarios is presented. It incorporates both plant and operator models. The basic structure of the operator model is similar to that of existing cognitive models, however, this model differs from those existing ones largely in too aspects. First, using frame and membership function, the pattern matching behavior, which is identified as the dominant cognitive process of operators responding to an accident sequence, is explicitly implemented in this model. Second, the non-task-related human cognitive activities like effect of stress and cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and availability bias, are also considered. A computer code, OPEC is assembled to simulate this framework and is actually applied to an SGTR sequence, and the resultant simulated behaviors of operator are obtained.

The dissolved oxygen removal by H-O reaction in column packed with various catalysts wes examined. The catalysts employed were the prepared polymeric catalyst platinum on activated carbon, and Lewatit OC-1045 which is available commercially. The column experiments with the prepared polymeric catalyst showed the dissolved oxygen reduced to 35 ppb which is below the limit in feed water of power plants. This implies the likely application of the prepared catalyst for practical use. The activated carbon required the pre-treatment for the removal of dissolved oxygen, since the surface of activated carbon contains much oxygen adsorbed initially. The Lewatit catalyst exposed the best performance, however, the aged one showed the gradual loss of catalytic activity due to degradation of resin catalyst.

We have extended the source projection analytic nodal discrete ordinates method (SPANDOM) for more flexible applicability in analysis of hexagonal assembly cores. The method (SPANDOM-FH) does not invoke transverse integration but instead solves the discrete ordinates equation analytically after the source term is projected and represented in hybrid form of high-order polynomials and exponential functions. SPANDOM-FH which treats a hexagonal node as one node is applied to two fast reactor benchmark problems and compared with TWOHEX. The results of comparison indicate that the present method SPANDOM-FH predicts accurately and flux distributions in hexagonal assembly cores. In addition, SPANDOM-FH gives the continuous two dimensional intranodal scalar flux distributions in a hexagonal node. The reentering models between TWOHEX and SPANDOM were also compared and it was confirmed that SPANDOM's model is more realistic. Through the results of benchmark problems, we conclude that SPANDOM-FH has the sufficient accuracy for the nuclear design of fast breeder reactor (FBR) cores with hexagonal assemblies.

At the reference plant(Wolsong unit No. 1) a manual poison sampling system is provided to periodically sample gadolinium from each tank and analyze it in the laboratory to provide assurance that adequate poison concentration in each tank is maintained. The AECB required a continuous, on-line monitoring system. On Wolsong unit No. 2, process piping adapter and new instrument loops added to the Liquid Injection Shutdown System(LISS) which is part of SDS2. The new instrument loops continuously monitor SDS2 poison conductivity and initiate an alarm when the poison concentration is too low.