Preliminary Analysis of Effect of the Intentional Depressurization on Fission Product Behavior During TMLB’ Severe Accident

Author(s):  
Gaofeng Huang ◽  
Lili Tong ◽  
Xuewu Cao

It has been identified that the pressure in the reactor coolant system (RCS) remains high in some severe accident sequences at the time of reactor vessel failure, with the risk of causing direct containment heating (DCH). Intentional depressurization is an effective accident management strategy to prevent DCH or to mitigate its effects. Fission product behavior is affected by intentional depressurization, especially for inert gas and volatile fission product. Because the pressurizer power-operated relief valves (PORVs) are latched open, fission product will transport into the containment directly. This may cause larger radiological consequences in containment before reactor vessel failure. Four cases are selected, including the TMLB’ base case and opening one, two and three pressurizer PORVs. The results show that inert gas transports into containment more quickly when opening one and two PORVs, but more slowly when opening three PORVs; more volatile fission product deposit in containment and less in reactor coolant system (RCS) for intentional depressurization cases. When opening one PORV, the phenomena of revaporization is strong in the RCS.

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 1287-1296
Author(s):  
Naoya Miyahara ◽  
Shuhei Miwa ◽  
Mélany Gouëllo ◽  
Junpei Imoto ◽  
Naoki Horiguchi ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Nikolay Ivanov Kolev

This paper provides the description of the basics behind design features for the severe accident management strategy of the SWR 1000. The hydrogen detonation/deflagration problem is avoided by containment inertization. In-vessel retention of molten core debris via water cooling of the external surface of the reactor vessel is the severe accident management concept of the SWR 1000 passive plant. During postulated bounding severe accidents, the accident management strategy is to flood the reactor cavity with Core Flooding Pool water and to submerge the reactor vessel, thus preventing vessel failure in the SWR 1000. Considerable safety margins have been determined by using state of the art experiment and analysis: regarding (a) strength of the vessel during the melt relocation and its interaction with water; (b) the heat flux at the external vessel wall; (c) the structural resistance of the hot structures during the long term period. Ex-vessel events are prevented by preserving the integrity of the vessel and its penetrations and by assuring positive external pressure at the predominant part of the external vessel in the region of the molten corium pool.


Author(s):  
Kun Zhang ◽  
Xuewu Cao

The postulated total station blackout accident (SBO) of PWR NPP with 600 MWe in China is analyzed as the base case using SCDAP/RELAP5 code. Then the hot leg or surge line are assumed to rupture before the lower head of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) ruptures, and the progressions are analyzed in detail comparing with the base case. The results show that the accidental rupture of hot leg or surge line will greatly influence the progression of accident. The probability of hot leg or surge line rupture in intentional depressurization is also studied in this paper, which provides a suggestion to the development of Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMG).


2013 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 135-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Cousin ◽  
M.P. Kissane ◽  
N. Girault

Author(s):  
K. H. Kang ◽  
R. J. Park ◽  
K. M. Koo ◽  
S. B. Kim ◽  
H. D. Kim

Feasibility experiments were performed for the assessment of improved In-Vessel Corium Retention (IVR) concepts using an internal engineered gap device and also a dual strategy of In/Ex-vessel cooling using the LAVA experimental facility. The internal engineered gap device made of carbon steel was installed inside the LAVA lower head vessel and it made a uniform gap with the vessel by 10 mm. In/Ex-vessel cooling in the dual strategy experiment was performed installing an external guide vessel outside the LAVA lower head vessel at a uniform gap of 25 mm. The LAVA lower head vessel was a hemispherical test vessel simulated with a 1/8 linear scale mock-up of the reactor vessel lower plenum with an inner diameter of 500 mm and thickness of 25 mm. In both of the tests, Al2O3 melt was delivered into about 50K subcooled water inside the lower head vessel under the elevated pressure. Temperatures of the internal engineered gap device and the lower head vessel were measured by K-type thermocouples embedded radially in the 3mm depth of the lower head vessel outer surface and in the 4mm depth of the internal engineered gap device, respectively. In the dual strategy experiment, the Ex-vessel cooling featured pool boiling in the gap between the lower head vessel and the external guide vessel. It could be found from the experimental results that the internal engineered gap device was intact and so the vessel experienced little thermal and mechanical attacks in the internal engineered gap device experiment. And also the vessel was effectively cooled via mutual boiling heat removal in- and ex-vessel in the dual strategy experiment. Compared with the previous LAVA experimental results performed for the investigation of the inherent in-vessel gap cooling, it could be confirmed that the Ex-vessel cooling measure was dominant over the In-vessel cooling measure in this study. It is concluded that the improved cooling measures using a internal engineered gap device and a dual strategy promote the cooling characteristics of the lower head vessel and so enhance the integrity of the vessel in the end.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrej Prošek ◽  
Leon Cizelj

Stress tests performed in Europe after accident at Fukushima Daiichi also required evaluation of the consequences of loss of safety functions due to station blackout (SBO). Long-term SBO in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) leads to severe accident sequences, assuming that existing plant means (systems, equipment, and procedures) are used for accident mitigation. Therefore the main objective was to study the accident management strategies for SBO scenarios (with different reactor coolant pumps (RCPs) leaks assumed) to delay the time before core uncovers and significantly heats up. The most important strategies assumed were primary side depressurization and additional makeup water to reactor coolant system (RCS). For simulations of long term SBO scenarios, including early stages of severe accident sequences, the best estimate RELAP5/MOD3.3 and the verified input model of Krško two-loop PWR were used. The results suggest that for the expected magnitude of RCPs seal leak, the core uncovery during the first seven days could be prevented by using the turbine-driven auxiliary feedwater pump and manually depressurizing the RCS through the secondary side. For larger RCPs seal leaks, in general this is not the case. Nevertheless, the core uncovery can be significantly delayed by increasing RCS depressurization.


Author(s):  
Weifeng Xu ◽  
Fangqing Yang ◽  
Peng Chen ◽  
Yehong Liao

During a nuclear plant accident, five accident events are usually considered, including core uncovery, core outlet temperature arrived at 650 °C, core support plate failure, reactor vessel failure and containment failure. In accident emergency aspect, when an accident happens, the initial event can be utilized in the severe accident management system which is based on MAAP to simulate the long process of the accident, so as to provide support for operators to take actions. However, in MAAP, many sensitivity parameters exist, which reflect phenomenological uncertainty or models uncertainty and will influence the happening time of the five accident events above. In this paper, based on MAAP5 and LOCAs, the CPR1000 is simulated to analyze the influences of MAAP5’s sensitivity parameters reflecting phenomenological uncertainty on the accident process, which is aimed to find out the sensitivity parameters associated to the five important accident events and build the database between these sensitivity parameters and five accident events’ happening time. Then, based on the research above, a preliminary approach to optimize the MAAP5’s accidents simulation is introduced, which is realized by adjusting sensitivity parameters. Finally, the application of this research will be showed in a severe accident management system developed by us. The research results offer great reference significance for the severe accident simulation and prediction in MAAP5.


1990 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.J. Heames ◽  
D.A. Williams ◽  
N.A. Johns ◽  
N.M. Chown ◽  
N.E. Bixler ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document