A Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) is a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid sodium. Since the potential to use current Light Water Reactor (LWR) nuclear waste as nuclear fuel with the reprocessing procedure, SFR is considered as one solution to handle current nuclear waste problems. However, the detail layout of SFR is not yet fixed. Our group is actively working on to consider safety components preventing water-sodium reaction and to design actual SFR energy system layout. including heat exchanger as well as turbomachinery.

A heat pipe cooled micro-reactor is a system that transfers heat transfer rate generated from nuclear fuel to the Power Conversion System (PCS) by using it as an intermediate medium for heat pipe. The heat pipe cooled micro-reactor has significant progress due to many advantages, which are a strong negative feedback, low power density, independent emergency control rod shutdown system and passive heat removal. But, the research on the detailed design of the PCS in micro-reactor remains insufficient. Our group is working on a detailed design for each component of a micro-reactor PCS including volume and boundary conditions, which is a key element for the micro-reactor to be transported to remote areas. 

Nuclear safety system codes are essential tools for analyzing nuclear power plant systems, as they can simulate the interactions among multiple interconnected components within the plant. The models used in these codes are primarily based on physical phenomena and empirical correlations, and their results have been extensively verified. These computer codes are used to model and evaluate fuel behavior, reactor kinetics, thermal-hydraulic conditions, severe accident progression, materials performance, and other key parameters under both normal operation and postulated accident scenarios. However, most existing safety system codes were developed for traditional, large-scale nuclear power plant designs. As a result, they may require updates to address the recent designs, such as small modular reactors (SMRs) and micro-reactors, which often demand new correlations or an updated numerical framework. In this regard, we are working on enhancing widely used system codes for current design requirements. Additionally, we are developing our tools based on physical phenomena that can perform similar functions to those of recent system codes.