Proposal for Evaluation With Strain-Based Criterion of Impact Phenomena Between Steel Structure and Tornado Missile

Author(s):  
Yuko Sakamoto ◽  
Koji Shirai ◽  
Toshiko Udagawa ◽  
Shunsuke Kondo

In Japan, nuclear power plants must be protected from tornado missiles that are prescribed by Nuclear Regular Authority (NRA). When evaluating the structural integrity of steel structures in the plant with impact analysis by numerical code, strain-based criteria are appropriate because the tornado missiles have huge impact energy and may cause large deformation of the structures. As one of the strain-based criteria, the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) prescribes limiting triaxial strain for severe accident of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) steel containment. To confirm whether or not this criterion is appropriate to the evaluation of the impact phenomena between the steel structures and the tornado missiles, a free drop impact experiment to steel plates (carbon steel and austenitic stainless steel) was carried out with heavy weights imitated on one of the tornado missiles, followed by an impact analysis of the experiment with AUTODYN code and the JSME strain-based criterion. Consequently, it was confirmed that the strain-based criterion of JSME standard was for evaluating the fracture of steel structures caused by tornado missiles.

Author(s):  
William C. Castillo ◽  
Geoffrey M. Loy ◽  
Joseph M. Remic ◽  
David P. Molitoris ◽  
George J. Demetri ◽  
...  

During typical nuclear power plant refueling activities for a pressurized water reactor (PWR), the reactor vessel closure head assembly must be removed from the reactor vessel (RV), transported for storage, and returned to the RV after refueling. This is categorized as a critical heavy load lift in NUREG-0612 [1] because a drop accident could result in damage to the components required to cool the fuel in the RV core. In order to mitigate the potentially severe consequences of a closure head drop, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) has mandated that nuclear power plants upgrade to a single failure-proof crane, show single failure-proof crane equivalence, or perform a head drop analysis to demonstrate that the core remains covered with coolant and sufficient cooling is available after the head drop accident. The primary coolant-retaining components associated with the RV are the inlet and outlet nozzles and the hot and cold leg main loop piping. Typical head drop analyses have considered these components to ensure that their structural integrity is maintained. One coolant-retaining component that has not been included in head drop evaluations on a consistent basis is the bottom-mounted instrumentation (BMI) system. In a typical Westinghouse PWR, 50 to 60 BMI nozzles are connected through the bottom hemisphere of the RV to one-inch diameter guide tubes which run under the vessel to a seal table above. Failure of the BMI system has the potential to adversely affect core coolability, especially if multiple failures are postulated within the system. A study was performed to compare static and dynamic methods of analyzing the effects of a head drop accident on the structural integrity of the BMI system. This paper presents the results of that study and assesses the adequacy of each method. Acceptability of the BMI system pressure boundary is based on the Nuclear Energy Institute Initiative (NEI 08–05 [2]) criteria for coolant-retaining components, which are based on Section III, Appendix F of the ASME Code [3].


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Zhigang Lan

Focused on the utilization of nuclear energy in offshore oil fields, the correspondence between various hazards caused by blowout accidents (including associated, secondary, and derivative hazards) and the initiating events that may lead to accidents of offshore floating nuclear power plant (OFNPP) is established. The risk source, risk characteristics, risk evolution, and risk action mode of blowout accidents in offshore oil fields are summarized and analyzed. The impacts of blowout accident in offshore oil field on OFNPP are comprehensively analyzed, including injection combustion and spilled oil combustion induced by well blowout, drifting and explosion of deflagration vapor clouds formed by well blowouts, seawater pollution caused by blowout oil spills, the toxic gas cloud caused by well blowout, and the impact of mobile fire source formed by a burning oil spill on OFNPP at sea. The preliminary analysis methods and corresponding procedures are established for the impact of blowout accidents on offshore floating nuclear power plants in offshore oil fields, and a calculation example is given in order to further illustrate the methods.


Author(s):  
William Server ◽  
Timothy Hardin ◽  
Milan Brumovsky´

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has had a series of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) structural integrity programs that started back in the 1970s. These Coordinated Research Projects most recently have focused on use of the Master Curve fracture toughness testing approach for RPV and other ferritic steel components and on the issue of pressurized thermal shock (PTS) in operating pressurized water reactors. This paper will provide the current status for these projects and discuss the implications for improved safety of key ferritic steel components in nuclear power plants (NPPs).


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):  
Xiaoyao Shen ◽  
Yongcheng Xie

The control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) is an important safety-related component in the nuclear power plant (NPP). When CRDM steps upward or downward, the pressure-containing housing of CRDM is shocked axially by an impact force from the engagement of the magnetic pole and the armature. To ensure the structural integrity of the primary coolant loop and the functionality of CRDM, dynamic response of CRDM under the impact force should be studied. In this manuscript, the commercial finite element software ANSYS is chosen to analyze the nonlinear impact problem. A nonlinear model is setup in ANSYS, including main CRDM parts such as the control rod, poles and armatures, as well as nonlinear gaps. The transient analysis method is adopted to calculate CRDM dynamic response when it steps upward. The impact loads and displacements at typical CRDM locations are successfully obtained, which are essential for design and stress analysis of CRDM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3A) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maritza Rodríguez Gual ◽  
Nathalia N. Araújo ◽  
Marcos C. Maturana

After the two most significant nuclear accidents in history – the Chernobyl Reactor Four explosion in Ukraine(1986) and the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan (2011) –, the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) included a new chapter (19) dedicated to the Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) and Severe Accident Analysis (SAA), covering accidents with core melting. FSAR is the most important document for licensing of siting, construction, commissioning and operation of a nuclear power plant. In the USA, the elaboration of the FSAR chapter 19 is according to the review and acceptance criteria described in the NUREG-0800 and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.200. The same approach is being adopted in Brazil by National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). Therefore, the FSAR elaboration requires a detailed knowledge of severe accident phenomena and an analysis of the design vulnerabilities to the severe accidents, as provided in a PSA – e.g., the identification of the initiating events involving significant Core Damage Frequency (CDF) are made in the PSA Level 1. As part of the design and certification activities of a plant of reference, the Laboratory of Risk Analysis, Evaluating and Management (LabRisco), located in the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, has been preparing a group of specialists to model the progression of severe accidents in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), to support the CNEN regulatory expectation – since Brazilian Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), i.e., Angra 1, 2 and 3, have PWR type, the efforts of the CNEN are concentrated on accidents at this type of reactor. The initial investigation objectives were on completing the detailed input data for a PWR cooling system model using the U.S. NRC MELCOR 2.2 code, and on the study of the reference plant equipment behavior – by comparing this model results and the reference plant normal operation main parameters, as modeled with RELAP5/MOD2 code.


Author(s):  
K.-W. Park ◽  
J.-H. Bae ◽  
S.-H. Park

The reactor vessel internals (RVI) of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) must be installed precisely in the reactor vessel (RV) according to the requirements for levelness, orientation and vertical alignments for its proper functions and structural integrity. For the precise installation, deformation of the RV should be controlled during the RVI installation. Traditionally, the RVI has been installed in the RV after the completion of welding work for large bore pipings in the reactor coolant system (RCS). To reduce installation time, the concurrent installation of the RVI and RCS pipings is investigated. This paper describes the feasibility study on the concurrent installation including the Finite Element Method (FEM) analyses of the RV deformation due to the welding and heat treatment of the pipings. Based on the feasibility study results, the optimum schedule of the RVI installation in parallel with the installation of the cross-over leg pipings (reactor coolant pump inlet pipings) and confirmation measurement locations are developed. Thereby the concurrent installation will be applied to the nuclear power plants under construction in Korea, and it is expected to reduce installation period of 2 months compared to the traditional sequential installation method.


Author(s):  
Kenta Shimomura ◽  
Takashi Onizawa ◽  
Shoichi Kato ◽  
Masanori Ando ◽  
Takashi Wakai

This paper describes the formulation of material characteristics of austenitic stainless steels at extremely high temperature which meets in some kinds of severe accidents of nuclear power plants. After the severe accident in Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plants, it has been supposed to be very important not only to prevent the occurrence of abnormal conditions, i.e. from the first to the third layer safety, but also to prevent the expansion of the accident conditions, i.e. the fourth layer safety[1] [2]. In order to evaluate the structural integrity under the severe accident condition, material characteristics which can be used in the numerical analyses, such as finite element analysis, were required [3] [4]. However, there were no material characteristics applicable to the structural integrity assessment at extremely high temperature. Therefore, a series of tensile and creep tests was performed for austenitic stainless at extremely high temperature which meets in some kinds of severe accidents of nuclear power plants, namely up to 1000 °C. Based on the acquired data from the tests, monotonic stress-strain equation and creep rupture equation applicable to the structural analysis at extremely high temperature, up to 1000 °C were formulated. As a result, these formulae make it possible to conduct the structural integrity assessment using numerical analysis techniques, such as finite element method.


Author(s):  
Hidekazu Yoshikawa ◽  
Zhanguo Ma ◽  
Amjad Nawaz ◽  
Ming Yang

A new conceptual frame of how to design and validate a digital HIS (human interface system) on an innovative numerical simulation basis is proposed for the support of plant operators’ supervisory control of various types of automated complex NPPs (nuclear power plants). The proposed conceptual framework utilizes the object-oriented AI softwares for plant DiD (defense-in depth) risk monitor with the combination of nuclear reactor accident simulation by an advanced nuclear safety analysis code RELAP5/MOD4 and severe accident analysis code MAAP. The developed conceptual frame proposed in this paper will be applied for an example practice for the SBLOCA (small break loss of coolant accident) case of passive safety PWR (pressurized water reactor) AP1000.


Author(s):  
Robert Arians ◽  
Simone Arnold ◽  
Christian Mueller ◽  
Claudia Quester ◽  
Dagmar Sommer

The reliability of the auxiliary power supply of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is of high importance for safe operation. The loss of the electrical power supply is one of the major contributions to the calculated core damage frequency in probabilistic safety assessments. Among others, the events in Forsmark in 2006 [1] and 2012 [2] as well as in Byron in 2012 [3] illustrate that disturbances in the external power grid can propagate into the NPP and have an impact on the safety important electrical equipment. Therefore, the grid reliability contributes considerably to the reliability of the auxiliary power supply. In the research work presented in this paper the international operating experience has been evaluated concerning events which include disturbance in the external grid to discover those types of grid disturbances which may have influence on the safe operation of the NPPs. The identified events have then been categorized within a developed classification scheme to determine those with the highest relevance. Based on this scheme representative scenarios of grid disturbances have been developed. The investigation of the impact of the developed scenarios on the electrical equipment of NPPs will be performed using a grid analysis, planning and optimization tool which also allows executing dynamic simulations of electrical grids [4]. Therefore, a generalized auxiliary power supply of a pressurized water reactor was modeled according to German NPPs of the type Konvoi. In this paper, an overview of the developed scenarios of grid disturbances and the actual status of the simulation of the auxiliary power supply of NPPs is presented.


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