• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.38 no.8
• /
• pp.733-752
• /
• 2006

Severe accidents in PWRs are characterized by a continuously changing geometry of the core due to chemical reactions, melting and mechanical failure of the rods and other structures. These local variations of the porosity and other parameters lead to multi-dimensionnal flows and heat transfers. In this paper, a comprehensive set of multi-dimensionnal models describing heat transfers, thermal-hydraulics and melt relocation in a reactor vessel is presented. Those models are suitable for the core description during a severe accident transient. A series of applications at the reactor scale shows the benefits of using such models.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.6
• /
• pp.2276-2282
• /
• 2023

We deploy artificial neural networks to unfold neutron spectra from measured energy-integrated quantities. These neutron spectra represent an important parameter allowing to compute the absorbed dose and the kerma to serve radiation protection in addition to nuclear safety. The built architectures are inspired from convolutional neural networks. The first architecture is made up of residual transposed convolution's blocks while the second is a modified version of the U-net architecture. A large and balanced dataset is simulated following "realistic" physical constraints to train the architectures in an efficient way. Results show a high accuracy prediction of neutron spectra ranging from thermal up to fast spectrum. The dataset processing, the attention paid to performances' metrics and the hyper-optimization are behind the architectures' robustness.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.347-356
• /
• 2001

Guarana, a tropical plant is found in powdered for in health food and is very popular soft drink in Brazil as an energy feaster with its high caffeine contents. We examined its radioprotection effects during organogenesis stages of ICR mice by malformations rate and cellular lead 8 the embryo by radiation and analyzed the mechanism of the radioprotection effects in the fetal of ICR mice. The results of this study showed that Guarana reduced clearly the embryonic death rate and teratogenesis rate by radiation. Its radioprotection effect inject be related with its radioprotection effect might be related with its antioxidant effect or free radical scavenger. We need to exposure the Guarana as a potential radioprotection agent. Therefore, we investigated about radiation effects by Guarana using to mice experiments in this paper.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.471-478
• /
• 2018

Oogenesis process of ovary produces a lot of undifferentiated cells. Especially, the radiation exposure of early immature cells in the process of growth to oocyte causes serious disabilities. This study examined the radiation damage mechanism of undifferentiated cells and organelles in oogenesis process, and the radioprotection after injection of alliin. The ultrastructure after 7Gy X-ray irradiation on the white rat was observed in the experiment. The results is as follows. It was observed that the nucleus membrane of an oogonium was damaged and vacuolated in the several parts after 15 days of irradiation. The damage of mitochondria membrane and flow in cytoplasm after 20 and 30 days was found in the oogonium. After 40 days observation, peroxidation of fat droplets was found and organelles were tangled each other in ovary tissue. The partial damage of nuclear membrane in oogonium past 15 days after injection of alliin was found, but decreased remarkably. Mitochondria, Golgi body, and rough endoplasmic reticulum were also clearly observed, therefore, radioprotection effects in alliin was confirmed partially.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.1157-1164
• /
• 2017

The Monte Carlo criticality simulation of decoupled systems, as for instance in large reactor cores, has been a challenging issue for a long time. In particular, due to limited computer time resources, the number of neutrons simulated per generation is still many order of magnitudes below realistic statistics, even during the start-up phases of reactors. This limited number of neutrons triggers a strong clustering effect of the neutron population that affects Monte Carlo tallies. Below a certain threshold, not only is the variance affected but also the estimation of the eigenvectors. In this paper we will build a time-dependent diffusion equation that takes into account both spatial correlations and population control (fixed number of neutrons along generations). We will show that its solution obeys a traveling wave dynamic, and we will discuss the mechanism that explains this biasing of local tallies whenever leakage boundary conditions are applied to the system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.26-32
• /
• 2015

During the course of a severe accident in a light water nuclear reactor, large amounts of hydrogen can be generated and released into the containment during reactor core degradation. Additional burnable gases [hydrogen ($H_2$) and carbon monoxide (CO)] may be released into the containment in the corium/concrete interaction. This could subsequently raise a combustion hazard. As the Fukushima accidents revealed, hydrogen combustion can cause high pressure spikes that could challenge the reactor buildings and lead to failure of the surrounding buildings. To prevent the gas explosion hazard, most mitigation strategies adopted by European countries are based on the implementation of passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs). Studies of representative accident sequences indicate that, despite the installation of PARs, it is difficult to prevent at all times and locations, the formation of a combustible mixture that potentially leads to local flame acceleration. Complementary research and development (R&D) projects were recently launched to understand better the phenomena associated with the combustion hazard and to address the issues highlighted after the Fukushima Daiichi events such as explosion hazard in the venting system and the potential flammable mixture migration into spaces beyond the primary containment. The expected results will be used to improve the modeling tools and methodology for hydrogen risk assessment and severe accident management guidelines. The present paper aims to present the methodology adopted by Institut de Radioprotection et de $S{\hat{u}}ret{\acute{e}}$ $Nucl{\acute{e}}aire$ to assess hydrogen risk in nuclear power plants, in particular French nuclear power plants, the open issues, and the ongoing R&D programs related to hydrogen distribution, mitigation, and combustion.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.7
• /
• pp.2295-2303
• /
• 2021

To investigate wall-thinning impact on axial load resistance of Zircaloy-4 cladding rods after a LOCA transient, axial tensile samples have been machined on as-received tubes with reduced thicknesses between 370 and 580 ㎛. After high temperature oxidation under steam at 1200 ℃ with measured ECR ranging from 10 to 18% and water quenching, machined samples were axially loaded until fracture. These tests were modeled using a fracture mechanics approach developed in a previous study. Fracture stresses are rather well predicted. However, the slightly lower fracture stress observed for wall-thinned samples is not anticipated by this modeling approach. The results from this study confirm that characterizing the axial load resistance using semi-integral tests including the creep and burst phases was the best option to obtain accurate axial strengths describing accurately the influence of wall-thinning at burst region.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.2405-2425
• /
• 2014

Radiation exposure leads to several pathophysiological conditions, including oxidative damage, inflammation and fibrosis, thereby affecting the survival of organisms. This review explores the radiation countermeasure properties of fourteen (14) plant extracts or plant-derived compounds against these cellular manifestations. It was aimed at evaluating the possible role of plants or its constituents in radiation countermeasure strategy. All the 14 plant extracts or compounds derived from it and considered in this review have shown some radioprotection in different in vivo, ex-vivo and or in vitro models of radiological injury. However, few have demonstrated advantages over the others. C. majus possessing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects appears to be promising in radioprotection. Its crude extracts as well as various alkaloids and flavonoids derived from it, have shown to enhance survival rate in irradiated mice. Similarly, curcumin with its antioxidant and the ability to ameliorate late effect of radiation exposure, combined with improvement in survival in experimental animal following irradiation, makes it another probable candidate against radiological injury. Furthermore, the extracts of P. hexandrum and P. kurroa in combine treatment regime, M. piperita, E. officinalis, A. sinensis, nutmeg, genistein and ginsan warrants further studies on their radioprotective potentials. However, one that has received a lot of attention is the dietary flaxseed. The scavenging ability against radiation-induced free radicals, prevention of radiation-induced lipid peroxidation, reduction in radiation cachexia, level of inflammatory cytokines and fibrosis, are some of the remarkable characteristics of flaxseed in animal models of radiation injury. While countering the harmful effects of radiation exposure, it has shown its ability to enhance survival rate in experimental animals. Further, flaxseed has been tested and found to be equally effective when administered before or after irradiation, and against low doses (${\leq}5Gy$) to the whole body or high doses (12-13.5 Gy) to the whole thorax. This is particularly relevant since apart from the possibility of using it in pre-conditioning regime in radiotherapy, it could also be used during nuclear plant leakage/accidents and radiological terrorism, which are not pre-determined scenarios. However, considering the infancy of the field of plant-based radioprotectors, all the above-mentioned plant extracts/plant-derived compounds deserves further stringent study in different models of radiation injury.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.10 no.7
• /
• pp.297-304
• /
• 2010

As Small Intestine Absorptive Epithelium Cells are surrounded by mucus polysaccharide and lymphocytes and mitochondria, they are sensitive to radiation energy. Damaged cells lead to a deficiency of nutrients and the imbalance of electrolyte metabolism, which in turn can becomes a major cause of an intestine tract death. This research observed ultra structures after injecting propolis into the abdominal cavity in order to reveal the radiation damage mechanism and radioprotection effect of intestine absorptive epithelium cells. The result of this research's observation found that stenosis occurred in the small intestine in some tissues 20 days after 5Gy irradiation, their surface turned black, and their elasticity dropped. Through observation with an optical microscope, it was found that the size of the goblet cells decreased, while the paneth granulate cells atrophied and were vacuolated. Observation with an transmission electron microscope(TEM) revealed that while microvill and lysosome were normally observed in jejunum tissues, mitochondria membrane was damaged and uneven surfaces were formed on lymphocytes. The membrane of absorptive epithelium cells hypertrophied in tissues of the ileum, and vacuole was observed. However, the observation after injecting propolis into the abdominal cavity found that mitochondria damage dropped dramatically, and radioprotection effects were to some extent confirmed, considering that glycocalyx of villi was clear, and M cells could be observed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.97-104
• /
• 2020

This aimed at figuring out if there were the radioprotection effects of aronia on livers of laboratory rats radiated through serum test. For the objects of animal testing, one group consists of five male laboratory rats (weight 200~250 g), and the groups were set as follows: Group 1, normal; Group 2, 5 Gy radiated control group; and Group 3, 5 Gy radiated experiment group with aronia. Group 1(A) was prescribed with ordinary meal without radiation while the control group, Group 2(B) was prescribed with ordinary meal and radiation, and the experiment group, Group 3(C) was orally prescribed with aronia (daily oral dosage: 100 mg/kg/day) diluted with distilled water at the amount of 50 mg/kg/day twice a week, using oral zonde needle for rats for 14 days before being radiated, and then, radiation were made on them. For the study, using Linac (Linear Accelerator) 6 MV X-ray therapy device, rats were irradiated on their whole bodies once, and their blood was sampled for conducting five blood serum tests with regard to liver. For statistical analysis, ANOVA test was conducted. In conclusion, as a result of the analysis, it seemed that there were no the radioprotection effects of aronia on liver. However, it was confirmed statistically that ALB (P>0.05) showed no significance and that TP (P<0.05) showed significant differences. It is expected that there should be more tests in future.