한밭대학교

- Securing optimized design technology ensuring structural safety of high level radioactive waste disposal containers

□ Hanbat National University(President Oh Yong-jun) announced that undergraduate researcher Oh Min-taek from the Department of Mechanical Engineering(advising professor Jeong Gil-eon) won the 'Outstanding Poster Award' for a study on proving the structural integrity of high-level radioactive waste disposal canisters at the 'Korean Radioactive Waste Society 2026 Spring Academic Conference' on the 28th.

 ○ The Korean Radioactive Waste Society is an academic organization established in 2003 with the aim of technological development in the field of domestic radioactive waste management and disposal knowledge expansion through industry-university-research exchange and application to actual industries It in-depth evaluates papers presented each time selects outstanding research and awards them at the next conference.

□ Undergraduate student Oh Min-taek presented a study under the theme of 'FE based Evaluation of Copper Canister Integrity for Deep Geological Disposal' at the '2025 Radioactive Waste Society Autumn Academic Conference' held last November and as a result its excellence was recognized in the field of high-level waste disposal.

 ○ This study focused on securing structural safety while optimizing the thickness of the 'copper canister' which is the final barrier that safely isolates spent nuclear fuel deep underground In particular it enhanced the reliability of the research by strictly applying the ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers standards which are global safety standards for mechanical equipment.

□ The research team precisely analyzed the characteristics of the canister under harsh scenarios including not only the normal disposal pressure 15MPa but also the extreme ice age pressure 50MPa and the non-uniform expansion of the buffer material 7MPa through Finite Element Analysis FEA.

 ○ As a result, it confirmed that the 50mm-thick copper canister currently being reviewed as a domestic and international standard is a very conservative design proposal and presented scientific evidence through data analysis that it can maintain sufficient structural integrity even with a thinner thickness.

 ○ This is expected to become an important indicator to secure economic feasibility by reducing the amount of copper used within the scope of securing structural safety when designing the Korean-style disposal canister in the future.

□ Department of Mechanical Engineering advising professor Jeong Gil-eon said This achievement has laid the technological foundation to simultaneously enhance the safety and economic efficiency of high-level radioactive waste permanent disposal facilities and added It is even more valuable as it is a result obtained by an undergraduate student taking the lead in conducting high-difficulty analysis research that complies with international standards.