scholarly journals Source Term Estimation under the SBLOCA-Induced Severe Accident Condition in the SMART

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Jaehyun Ham ◽  
Sang Ho Kim ◽  
Sung Il Kim ◽  
Byeonghee Lee ◽  
Jong-Hwa Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Source Term ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Reactor Vessel ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Injection System ◽  
Spray System ◽  
Loss Of Coolant ◽  
Accident Condition

The SMART is a system-integrated modular reactor in which a nuclear steam supply system with a thermal power of 365 MW is contained inside of the reactor vessel. Although the probability is very low, the reactor core can be damaged during a small break loss-of-coolant accident when both the passive safety injection system and the passive residual heat removal system are completely unavailable. In this work, a total of five cases were analyzed considering the reactor vessel condition and the availability of the radioactivity removal tanks and the ancillary containment spray system as containment condition variables using MELCOR code. It was estimated that there is no containment failure based on pressure, hydrogen mole fraction, and ablation depth, so that the release fractions of the 12 classes of fission products in MELCOR were evaluated considering design leak only for all cases. The overall source term of the case in which the integrity of the reactor vessel is maintained by the early initiation of the cavity flooding system was similar to that of the reactor vessel failure case. While the release fraction of cesium to the environment was analyzed to increase when there is no water in the radioactivity removal tanks, the fraction is small enough at which the radioactivity of the released cesium-137 remains well below 100 TBq, a regulatory limit. Moreover, it was found that the source term can be cut in half if the ancillary containment spray system is available. The results of this study verify the safety performance of the SMART under the small break loss-of-coolant severe accident condition with respect to the source term of interest.

A Simulation of Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident in Nuclear Heating Reactor Based on RELAP5

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Lu ◽  
Heng Xie
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Power ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Injection System ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Nuclear Heating Reactor ◽  
Removal Capacity ◽  
Loss Of Coolant ◽  
Nuclear Heating ◽  
Residual Heat

Nuclear heating reactor is integrated designed without main pump and safety injection system. The loss of coolant accidents are mainly in the form of small break LOCA. As no safety injection system is designed for coolant makeup, the water volume in the reactor vessel is critical since it determines whether the reactor will be submerged during the whole scenario. Therefore, the study on coolant loss in this pool system is indispensable. The RELAP5 code has been developed for best-estimate transient simulation of light water reactor coolant systems during postulated accidents. The long term effect in nuclear heating reactor is important. In this paper we investigated the influential factors on SBLOCA scenario and found the long term residual heat removal capacity is decisive in determining the loss of coolant. The residual heat removal capacity should be greater than 2% of reactor thermal power if ensuring the core submerged in the long run.

Assessment of RELAP/SCDAPSIM for Turbine Trip Transient in NuScale-SMR

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Skolik ◽  
Anuj Trivedi ◽  
Marina Perez-Ferragut ◽  
Chris Allison
Keyword(s):  
Natural Circulation ◽  
System Modeling ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Circulation System ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactor ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
Secondary Steam

The NuScale Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is an integrated Pressurized Water Reactor (iPWR) with the coolant flow based on the natural circulation. The reactor core consists of 37 fuel assemblies similar to those used in typical PWRs, but only half of their length to generate 160MW thermal power (50 MWe). Current study involves the development of a NuScale-SMR model based on its Design Certification Application (DCA) data (from NRC) using RELAP/SCDAPSIM. The turbine trip transient (TTT) was simulated and analysed. The objective was to assess this version of the code for natural circulation system modeling capabilities and also to verify the input model against the publicly available TTT results obtained using NRELAP5. This successful benchmark confirms the reliability of the thermal hydraulic model and allows authors to use it for further safety and severe accident analyses. The reactor core channels, pressurizer, riser and downcomer pipes as well as the secondary steam generator tubes and the containment were modeled with RELAP5 components. SCDAP core and control components were used for the fuel elements in the core. The final input deck achieved the steady state with the operating conditions comparable to those reported in the DCA. RELAP/SCDAPSIM predictions are found to be satisfactory and comparable to the reference study. It confirms the code code capabilities for natural circulation system transients.

Natural Circulation and Creep Damage Analyses of Severe Accident for a Typical PWR Plant

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Kawabata ◽  
Masao Ogino
Keyword(s):  
Steam Generator ◽  
Natural Circulation ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Creep Damage ◽  
Reactor Vessel ◽  
Reactor System ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Steam Generator Tube ◽  
Hot Gas ◽  
Core Meltdown

When the primary reactor system remain pressurized during core meltdown for a typical PWR plant, loop seals formed in the primary reactor system would lead to natural circulations in hot leg and steam generator. In this case, the hot gas released from the reactor core moves to a steam generator, and a steam generator tube would be failed with cumulative creep damage. From such phenomena, a high-pressure scenario during core meltdown may lead to large release of fission products to the environment. In the present study, natural circulation and creep damage in the primary reactor system accompanying the hot gas generation in the reactor core were discussed and the combining analysis with MELCOR and FLUENT codes were performed to examine the natural circulation behavior. For a typical 4 loop PWR plant, MELCOR code which can analyze for the severe accident progression was applied to the accident analyses from accident initiation to reactor vessel failure for the accident sequence of the main steam pipe break which is maintained at high pressure during core meltdown. In addition, using the CFD code FLUENT, fluid dynamics in the reactor vessel plenum, hot leg and steam generator of one loop were simulated with three-dimensional coordinates. And the hot gas natural circulation flow and the heat transfer to adjoining structures were analyzed using results provided by the MELCOR code as boundary conditions. The both ratios of the natural circulation flow calculated in the hot leg and the steam generator using MELCOR code and FLUENT code were obtained to be about 2 (two). And using analytical results of thermal hydraulic analysis with both codes, creep damage analysis at hottest temperature points of steam generator tube and hot leg were carried out. The results in both cases showed that a steam generator tube would be failed with creep rupture earlier than that of hot leg rupture.

Effects of Ruthenium Release in Oxidizing Conditions on a BWR Source Term

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atso Suopaja¨rvi ◽  
Teemu Ka¨rkela¨ ◽  
Ari Auvinen ◽  
Ilona Lindholm
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Vessel ◽  
Source Term ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Ruthenium Oxides ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Reactor Building ◽  
Release Model ◽  
Scoping Studies

The release of ruthenium in oxygen-rich conditions from the reactor core during a severe accident may lead to formation of significantly more volatile ruthenium oxides than produced in steam atmosphere. The effect of volatile ruthenium release in a case a reference BWR nuclear plant was studied to get rough-estimates of the effects on the spreading of airborne ruthenium inside the containment and reactor building and the fission product source term. The selected accident scenario starting during shutdown conditions with pressure vessel upper head opened was a LOCA with a break in the bottom of the RPV. The results suggest that there is a remarkable amount of airborne Ru in the containment atmosphere, unlike with the standard MELCOR Ru release model which predicts no airborne Ru at all in the selected case. The total release of ruthenium from the core can be 5000 times the release predicted by the standard model. Based on the performed plant scoping studies it seems reasonable to take the release of volatile ruthenium oxides into account when assessing source terms for plants during shutdown states.

Level 2 PSA Overview of HPR1000 Nuclear Power Plant

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Ziguan ◽  
Lu Fang ◽  
Yang Benlin ◽  
Chen Shi ◽  
Hu Lingsheng
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Accident Prevention ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Injection System ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Level 2

Abstract Risk-informed design approaches are comprehensively implemented in the design and verification process of HPR1000 nuclear power plant. Particularly, Level 2 PSA is applied in the optimization of severe accident prevention and mitigation measures to avoid the extravagant redundancy of system configurations. HPR1000 preliminary level 2 PSA practices consider internal events of the reactor in the context of at-power condition. Severe accidents mitigation and prevention system and its impact on the overall large release frequency (LRF) level are evaluated. The results showed that severe accident prevention and mitigation systems, such as fast depressurization system, the cavity injection system and the passive containment heat removal system perform well in reducing LRF and overall risk level of HPR1000 NPP. Bypass events, reactor rapture events, and the containment bottom melt-through induced by MCCI are among the dominant factors of the LRF. The level 2 PSA analysis results indicate that HPR1000 design is reliable with no major weaknesses.

Development of a Simplified Model for Aerosol Removal by Spray System of Containment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Huiyu ◽  
Gu Haifeng ◽  
Chen Junyan ◽  
Sun Zhongning
Keyword(s):  
Gas Flow ◽  
Present Model ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Experimental Result ◽  
Simplified Model ◽  
Full Coverage ◽  
Spray System ◽  
Coverage Model

Abstract The containment spray system is of great importance for the nuclear power plant to reduce the pressure and temperature, as well as concentration of radioactive aerosols released from reactor core under the severe accident. The main aim of present study is to develop a simplified model for aerosol removal by spray system, the model is employed to predict the variation of aerosol concentration in containment and reveal the key mechanism influencing aerosol removal. In the present model, the air flow entrained by spraying droplet is considered which is computed by solving simplified one-dimension momentum equations rather than the standard N-S equation. For the validation of the model, a small size sprinkle experiment facility is built. The facility is equipped with non-intrusive instruments such as particle size spectrometer for aerosol spectrum measurement, HELOS/R for measuring the droplet spectrum. The result of aerosol removal of the present model is compared with the result of the full coverage model and the experimental result. In the experiment, polydisperse aerosol is used and the removal rate of aerosols with different sizes is compared against the result of the present model and the full coverage model. The velocity of entrained gas flow and the distribution of droplets are displayed. The computational result reveals the aerosol removal constant distribution along the height.

Study on Cooling Process in a Reactor Vessel of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Under Severe Accident: Velocity Measurement Experiments Simulating Operation of Decay Heat Removal Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsuyo Tsuji ◽  
Kosuke Aizawa ◽  
Jun Kobayashi ◽  
Akikazu Kurihara ◽  
Yasuhiro Miyake
Keyword(s):  
Natural Circulation ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Reactor Vessel ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Decay Heat ◽  
The Core ◽  
Severe Accidents ◽  
Piv Measurement ◽  
Image Velocimetry ◽  
Experimental Apparatus

Abstract In Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs), it is important to optimize the design and operate decay heat removal systems for safety enhancement against severe accidents which could lead to core melting. It is necessary to remove the decay heat from the molten fuel which relocated in the reactor vessel after the severe accident. Thus, the water experiments using a 1/10 scale experimental apparatus (PHEASANT) simulating the reactor vessel of SFR were conducted to investigate the natural circulation phenomena in a reactor vessel. In this paper, the natural circulation flow field in the reactor vessel was measured by the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method. The PIV measurement was carried out under the operation of the dipped-type direct heat exchanger (DHX) installed in the upper plenum when 20% of the core fuel fell to the lower plenum and accumulated on the core catcher. From the results of PIV measurement, it was quantitatively confirmed that the upward flow occurred at the center region of the lower and the upper plenums. In addition, the downward flows were confirmed near the reactor vessel wall in the upper plenum and through outermost layer of the simulated core in the lower plenum. Moreover, the relationship between the temperature field and the velocity field was investigated in order to understand the natural circulation phenomenon in the reactor vessel. From the above results, it was confirmed that the natural circulation cooling path was established under the dipped-type DHX operation.

TRACE and RELAP5 Codes for Beyond Design Accident Condition Simulation in the SPES3 Facility

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Ferri ◽  
Fulvio Mascari ◽  
Paride Meloni ◽  
Giuseppe Vella
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Nuclear Fission ◽  
Dynamic Coupling ◽  
Hydraulic Conditions ◽  
Loss Of Coolant ◽  
Accident Condition

Code validation on qualified experimental data is a fundamental issue in the design and safety analyses of nuclear power plants. The SPES3 facility is being built at the SIET laboratories for an integral type SMR simulation, in the frame of an R&D program on nuclear fission, funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and led by ENEA. The facility, based on the IRIS reactor design, reproduces the primary, secondary and containment systems with 1:100 volume scale, full elevation and prototypical fluid and thermal-hydraulic conditions. It is suitable to test the plant response to design and beyond design accidents in order to verify the effectiveness of the primary and containment system dynamic coupling to cope with loss of coolant accidents. Full and complete nodalizations of SPES3 were developed for TRACE and RELAP5 codes in order to investigate the code response to the simulation of the same accidental transient. The DVI line DEG break was simulated in beyond design conditions, assuming the failure of all emergency heat removal systems and relying on PCC intervention for containment depressurization and decay heat removal. The comparison of the code simulation results, other than providing information on the system behavior, allowed to investigate specific phenomena evidenced by the codes, according to the related modeling approach of components with one and three-dimensional volumes. The TRACE and RELAP5 codes will be applied for further transient analyses and will be validated on SPES3 experimental data, once the facility will be available.

Experimental Study on the Improved In-Vessel Corium Retention Concepts for the Severe Accident Management

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. H. Kang ◽  
R. J. Park ◽  
K. M. Koo ◽  
S. B. Kim ◽  
H. D. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Heat Removal ◽  
Elevated Pressure ◽  
Reactor Vessel ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Experimental Facility ◽  
Dual Strategy ◽  
Accident Management ◽  
Lower Head ◽  
Inner Diameter

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.

Test and Evaluation of a Filtering System for Retention of Fibres in a Coolant Flow After Loss-of-Coolant Accident

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Gocht ◽  
W. Kästner ◽  
A. Kratzsch ◽  
M. Strasser
Keyword(s):  
Cooling System ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Insulation Material ◽  
Loss Of Coolant Accident ◽  
Loss Of Coolant ◽  
Core Cooling

In case of an accident the safe heat removal from the reactor core with the installed emergency core cooling system (ECCS) is one of the main features in reactor safety. During a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) the release of insulation material fragments in the reactor containment can lead to malfunctions of ECCS. Therefore, the retention of particles by strainers or filtering systems in the ECCS is one of the major tasks. The aim of the presented experimental investigations was the evaluation of a filtering system for the retention of fiber-shaped particles in a fluid flow. The filtering system consists of a filter case with a special lamellar filter unit. The tests were carried out at a test facility with filtering units of different mesh sizes. Insulation material (mineral rock wool) was fragmented to fiber-shaped particles. To simulate the distribution of particle concentration at real plants with large volumes the material was divided into single portions and introduced into the loop with a defined time interval. Material was transported to the filter by the fluid and agglomerated there. The assessment of functionality of the filtering system was made by differential pressure between inlet and outlet of the filtering system and by mass of penetrated particles. It can be concluded that for the tested filtering system no penetration of insulation particles occurred.

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