An overview of radiation effects on electronic devices under severe accident conditions in NPPs, rad-hardened design techniques and simulation tools

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 105-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Huang ◽  
Jin Jiang
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayah Elshahat ◽  
Timothy Abram ◽  
Judith Hohorst ◽  
Chris Allison

Great interest is given now to advanced nuclear reactors especially those using passive safety components. The Westinghouse AP1000 Advanced Passive pressurized water reactor (PWR) is an 1117 MWe PWR designed to achieve a high safety and performance record. The AP1000 safety system uses natural driving forces, such as pressurized gas, gravity flow, natural circulation flow, and convection. In this paper, the safety performance of the AP1000 during a small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA) is investigated. This was done by modelling the AP1000 and the passive safety systems employed using RELAP/SCDAPSIM code. RELAP/SCDAPSIM is designed to describe the overall reactor coolant system (RCS) thermal hydraulic response and core behaviour under normal operating conditions or under design basis or severe accident conditions. Passive safety components in the AP1000 showed a clear improvement in accident mitigation. It was found that RELAP/SCDAPSIM is capable of modelling a LOCA in an AP1000 and it enables the investigation of each safety system component response separately during the accident. The model is also capable of simulating natural circulation and other relevant phenomena. The results of the model were compared to that of the NOTRUMP code and found to be in a good agreement.


2012 ◽  
Vol 246 ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Beuzet ◽  
Jean-Sylvestre Lamy ◽  
Hadrien Perron ◽  
Eric Simoni ◽  
Gérard Ducros

Author(s):  
Young Tae Moon ◽  
In Chul Ryu ◽  
Quan Zhou ◽  
Paul McMinn ◽  
Chan Y. Paik

During a severe accident with a vessel failure, corium relocates from the vessel into the reactor cavity (PWR) or pedestal (BWR) and accumulates on top of the cavity floor to form a corium pool. This corium pool is hot enough to cause a Molten Corium-Concrete Interaction (MCCI) that can ablate the concrete structure even if water is present on top of the corium. MCCI will also produce steam and other gases that increase containment pressure as well as generate combustible gases (Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide). Current MAAP5* calculations with conservative assumptions have shown that the ablation depth in a basemat constructed of siliceous concrete can be larger than the depth of liner, even if the reactor cavity is flooded by water. To retain the melt in the containment and to cool the corium pool before the erosion reaches the liner plate, several approaches are being considered. One of these approaches is the installation of a protective layer on top of the concrete floor to retard MCCI. The purpose of this paper is to study the performance of different protective materials under postulated severe accident conditions. The candidates for the protective materials are refractory materials and limestone/limestone-common-sand (LCS) concrete. The refractory material was chosen based on the thermal performance and dissolution rate of the refractory material calculated by analytical calculations and also by MAAP5. Adding the refractory protective material protects the underlying concrete basemat from melting temporarily, so that water ingression into the surface of the corium is not initially affected by addition of the concrete material. *MAAP5 is an integrated severe accident code owned by the Electric Power Research Institute and developed by Fauske and Associates, LLC.


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