Assessment for Effect of RCS Depressurization and Reactor Cavity Flooding Using PSA Approach

Author(s):  
Changhong Peng ◽  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Pingping Liu

Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) uses a systematic approach to estimate the reliability and risk of a nuclear power plant (NPP). Over the past few years, severe accident management guidance (SAMG), which delineates the mitigation actions of core melt accidents of an NPP, has been developed to support operators and staff in the technical support center in dealing with those misfortunes. It can be expected that the implementation of SAMG will reduce the amount of radionuclides released to the environment during the accident. The plant studied is a three-loop pressurized water reactor (PWR) with large dry containment. The RCS depressurization and reactor cavity flooding can be used as an accident management strategy. Then, the decrease of LERF (Large and Early Release Frequency) is quantified using PSA approach. It can be found that strategy of RCS depressurization and reactor cavity flooding can mitigate the result of severe accident effectively.

Author(s):  
R. Lo Frano ◽  
S. Paci ◽  
P. Darnowski ◽  
P. Mazgaj

Abstract The paper studies influence the ageing effects on the failure of a Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) during a severe accident with a core meltdown in a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The studied plant is a generic high-power Generation III Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) developed in the frame of the EU NARSIS project. A Total Station Blackout (SBO) accident was simulated with MELCOR 2.2 severe accident integral computer code. Results of the analysis, temperatures in the lower head and pressures in the lower plenum were used as initial and boundary conditions for the Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations. Two FEM models were developed, a simple two-dimensional axis-symmetric model of the lower head to study fundamental phenomena and complex 3D model to include interactions with the RPV and reactor internals. Ageing effects of a lower head were incorporated into the FEM models to investigate its influence onto lower head response. The ageing phenomena are modelled in terms of degraded mechanical material properties as σ(T), E(T). The primary outcome of the study is the quantitative estimation of the influence of ageing process onto the timing of reactor vessel failure. Presented novel methodology and results can have an impact on future consideration about Long-Term Operation (LTO) of NPPs.


2005 ◽  
Vol 152 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Te-Chuan Wang ◽  
Shih-Jen Wang ◽  
Jyh-Tong Teng

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7964
Author(s):  
Alain Flores y Flores ◽  
Danilo Ferretto ◽  
Tereza Marková ◽  
Guido Mazzini

The severe accident integral codes such as Methods for Estimation of Leakages and Consequences of Releases (MELCOR) are complex tools used to simulate and analyse the progression of a severe accident from the onset of the accident up to the release from the containment. For this reason, these tools are developed in order to simulate different phenomena coupling models which can simulate simultaneously the ThermoHydraulic (TH), the physics and the chemistry. In order to evaluate the performance in the prediction of those complicated phenomena, several experimental facilities were built in Europe and all around the world. One of these facilities is the PHEBUS built by Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûrete Nucléaire (IRSN) in Cadarache. The facility reproduces the severe accident phenomena for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) on a volumetric scale of 1:5000. This paper aims to continue the assessment of the MELCOR code from version 2.1 up to version 2.2 underlying the difference in the fission product transport. The assessment of severe accident is an important step to the sustainability of the nuclear energy production in this period where the old nuclear power plants are more than the new reactors. The analyses presented in this paper focuses on models assessment with attention on the influence of B4C oxidation on the release and transport of fission products. Such phenomenon is a concern point in the nuclear industry, as was highlighted during the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Simulation of the source term is a key point to evaluate the severe accident hazard along with other safety aspects.


Author(s):  
Wei Song ◽  
Jiaxu Zuo ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Chaojun Li ◽  
Peng Zheng

Severe accident is an attractive topic today for the nuclear power plant (NPP) safety. In the nuclear safety regulatory work, it is planned to build a full scale severe accident model for the advanced nuclear power plant of China to study the new designs of severe accident prevention and mitigation systems and strategies, and to further deploy the application on the level 2 PSA and severe accident management guidance. This paper firstly introduces the modeling tool, ASTEC, and then presents the progress of modeling work, which is mainly on the steady state modeling and regulation including reactor block, primary and secondary cooling systems, regulation systems etc. Last but not least, the work plan for the future is given.


Author(s):  
Liu Lili ◽  
Zhang Ming ◽  
Deng Jian

A severe accident code was applied for modeling of a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant, and the effects of RCS depressurization on the gas temperature of the relief tank cell in the containment during a station blackout (SBO) induced accident was analyzed. The sensitivity calculation indicated that the hydrogen generation rate obviously increased due to RCS depressurization in a critical stage. The results show that RCS depressurization can play an important role in hydrogen generation rate and total accumulation, and the temperature of the containment atmosphere is highly influenced by hydrogen combustion. High temperature induced by hydrogen combustion may degrade the equipment and instruments capabilities. Based on this analysis, a feasible strategy of RCS depressurization for mitigating the accident consequence is provided for developing the capacity of the SBO treatment of Qinshan Phase Nuclear Power Plant (QSP-II NPP).


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Porcheron ◽  
Pascal Lemaitre ◽  
Amandine Nuboer

During the course of a severe accident in a nuclear power plant, water can be collected in the sump containment through steam condensation on walls, cooling circuit leak, and by spray systems activation. Therefore, the sump can become a place of heat and mass exchanges through water evaporation and steam condensation, which influences the distribution of hydrogen released in containment during nuclear core degradation. The objective of this paper is to present the analysis of semi-analytical experiments on sump interaction between containment atmosphere for typical accidental thermal hydraulic conditions in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). Tests are conducted in the TOSQAN facility developed by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire in Saclay. The TOSQAN facility is particularly well adapted to characterize the distribution of gases in a containment vessel. A tests’ grid was defined to investigate the coupled effect of the sump evaporation with wall condensation, for air steam conditions, with noncondensable gases (He, SF6), and for steady and transient states (two depressurization tests).


Author(s):  
Jinquan Yan ◽  
Shanhu Xue ◽  
Lin Tian ◽  
Wei Lu

To improve nuclear power plant safety, severe accident prevention and mitigation for both new development and existing plants are generally required by various nuclear safety authorities worldwide. Although great efforts have been made, how to ensure equipment survivability under severe accident conditions is still a concern. This paper depicts an approach to demonstrate the equipment survivability under severe accident conditions by taking passive pressurized water reactor CAP1400 as an instance, including screening of severe accident sequences, determination of bounding environment conditions within containment, equipments identification used for severe accident mitigation and proposed test plan.


2008 ◽  
Vol 238 (4) ◽  
pp. 1093-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thinh Nguyen ◽  
Raj Jaitly ◽  
Keith Dinnie ◽  
Ron Henry ◽  
Don Sinclair ◽  
...  

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