Design Evaluation Method of Steel-Plate Reinforced Concrete Structure Containment Vessel for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

The Japan Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) adopts the new concept of a containment vessel called a steel-plate-reinforced concrete containment vessel (SCCV). The SCCV is considered to be effective in shortening construction periods by the elimination of rebar work at a site compared with applying a reinforced concrete CV. In addition to this advantage, the SCCV achieves high-quality building structure because steel structural parts are fabricated at a factory prior to site construction. Although the SC structure has been used for buildings at a light-water reactor (LWR), etc., the SC structure has not yet been adopted for the CV. An SFR CV has a lower pressure environment than the LWR CV, although the environmental temperature of the SFR is much higher than that of the LWR in the postulated coolant leakage accident. It is therefore important to investigate its characteristics at high temperature to adopt the SC structure to the JSFR CV because the CV keeps containment functions in accidents to be assumed in design. This paper describes the construction of the design evaluation method from design (construction period shortening) and accident management, experimental, and analytical points of view.