On the Water Power Plants Under Construction

A nuclear power plant is one of the most complex sociotechnical systems ever created, with operation requiring multiple organizations, extensive interaction, and a mission to protect public health and safety. A strong global nuclear power safety culture is important, with over 400 nuclear power plants worldwide and more under construction to reduce fossil fuel dependency. We increasingly rely on technology, stressing our need for energy independence, security, reliability, education, and safety. Lessons learned from nuclear power safety culture development have a large potential audience. Unfortunately, the complexity of nuclear power and restricted access to operational data have limited outside research on and understanding of nuclear power safety culture. This chapter provides a conceptual, methodological, empirical, and operational perspective on the development of commercial nuclear power safety culture, focusing on the role of information technology (IT) in building, maintaining, and expanding global nuclear power safety culture.

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AFCEN RCC-F: A New Standard for the Fire Protection Design of New Built Light Water Nuclear Power Plants

Volume 5: Advanced Reactors and Fusion Technologies; Codes, Standards, Licensing, and Regulatory Issues ◽

10.1115/icone26-81893 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Bernard Gautier ◽

Mickael Cesbron ◽

Richard Tulinski

Keyword(s):

Fire Protection ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

Power Plants ◽

Nuclear Power Plants ◽

Fire Hazard ◽

Pressurized Water ◽

Light Water ◽

Protection Scheme ◽

Safety Case ◽

Under Construction

Fire hazard is an important issue for the safety of nuclear power plants: the main internal hazard in terms of frequency, and probably one the most significant with regards to the design costs. AFCEN is publishing in 2018 a new code for fire protection of new built PWR nuclear plants, so-called RCC-F. This code is an evolution of the former ETC-F code which has been applied to different EPR plants under construction (Flamanville 3 (FA3, France), Hinkley Point C (HPC, United Kingdom), Taïshan (TSN, China)). The RCC-F code presents significant enhancement and evolutions resulting from eight years of work by the AFCEN dedicated sub-committee, involving a panel of contributors from the nuclear field. It is now opened to any type of PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) type of nuclear power plants and not any longer limited to EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) plants. It can potentially be adapted to other light water concepts. Its objective is to help engineers design the fire prevention and protection scheme, systems and equipment with regards to the safety case and the defense in depth taking into account the French and European experience in the field. It deals also with the national regulations, with two appendices dedicated to French and British regulations respectively. The presentation gives an overview of the code specifications and focuses on the significant improvements.

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Conceptual Design of a 4 × 300 MW Modular Nuclear Plant

ASME 2011 Small Modular Reactors Symposium ◽

10.1115/smr2011-6529 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Asko Vuorinen

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Power ◽

Power Plants ◽

Nuclear Plant ◽

Medium Size ◽

Modular Construction ◽

Construction Costs ◽

University Of Technology ◽

Nuclear Plants ◽

Original Estimate ◽

Under Construction

The Finnish companies have built four medium size nuclear power plants. In addition they have constructed two nuclear icebreakers and several floating power plants. The latest 1650 MWe nuclear power plant under construction Olkiluoto-3 has had many problems, which have raised the costs of the plant to €3500/kWe from its original estimate of €2000/kWe and constriction schedule from four to eight years. It is possible to keep the costs down and schedule short by making the plant in shipyard and transport it to site by sea. The plant could be then lifted to its place by pumping seawater into the channel. This kind of concept was developed by the author in 1991, when he was making his thesis of modular gas fired power plants in Helsinki University of Technology. The modular construction of nuclear plants has made in a form of two nuclear icebreakers, which Wa¨rtsila¨ Marine has built in Helsinki Shipyard. The latest modular nuclear plant was launched in 2010 in St Petersburg shipyard. One of the benefits of modular construction is a possibility to locate the plant under rock by making the transportation channels in tunnels. This will give the plant external protection for aircraft crash and make the outer containment unnecessary. The water channels could also be used as pressure suppression pools in case of venting steam from the containment. This could reduce the radioactive releases in case of possible reactor accidents. The two 440 MW VVER plants build in Finland had construction costs of €1600 /kWe at 2011 money. The author believes that a 1200 MW nuclear plant with four 300 MW units can be constructed in five years and with €3300/kW costs, where the first plant could be generating power within 40 months and next units with 6 month intervals.

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