System and Solenoid Valve Interaction Leading to Spurious Opening

In a pressurized water reactor the high pressure system vent lines from the pressurizer and reactor are routed to a common header that can be emptied to the refueling water storage tank or a drain tank. During plant testing the valves are operated in the following sequence: the pressurizer isolation valve is opened to pressurize the common header, the pressurizer isolation valve is closed, then the drain tank isolation valve is opened. This sequence of valve operation verifies that the valves open and close properly — opening the pressurizer isolation valve allows steam to enter the common header and is verified by pressure indication via a pressure transducer, and opening the drain tank isolation valve decreases the pressure in the common header and verifies that the pressurizer isolation valve closed properly. During this sequence of valve actuation, the other solenoid valves in the system are subject to transient steam pressures. During one test sequence an isolation valve to the refueling water storage tank indicated that it was not closed for a period of several seconds. Since there is only one pressure transducer in the common header, a systemlevel analysis was performed to obtain a more detailed understanding of the transient pressures in the common header, and how that might affect solenoid valve performance.

Comparison of DSMC and CFD Models of Heat Transfer in a Rarefied Two-Dimensional Geometry

During vacuum drying of used nuclear fuel (UNF) canisters, helium pressure is reduced to as low as 67 Pa to promote evaporation and removal of remaining water after draining process. At such low pressure, and considering the dimensions of the system, helium is mildly rarefied, which induces a thermal-resistance temperature-jump at gas–solid interfaces that contributes to the increase of cladding temperature. It is important to maintain the temperature of the cladding below roughly 400 °C to avoid radial hydride formation, which may cause cladding embrittlement during transportation and long-term storage. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is an accurate method to predict heat transfer and temperature under rarefied condition. However, it is not convenient for complex geometry like a UNF canister. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are more convenient to apply but their accuracy for rarefied condition are not well established. This work seeks to validate the use of CFD simulations to model heat transfer through rarefied gas in simple two-dimensional geometry by comparing the results to the more accurate DSMC method. The geometry consists of a circular fuel rod centered inside a square cross-section enclosure filled with rarefied helium. The validated CFD model will be used later to accurately estimate the temperature of an UNF canister subjected to vacuum drying condition.

Experimental Investigations of the Burning Behaviour of Transport Package Impact Limiters and of Fire Spread Impact Onto the Cask

Accident safe packages for the transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste shall fulfil international IAEA safety requirements. Compliance is shown by consecutive mechanical and thermal testing. Additional numerical analysis are usually part of the safety evaluation. For damage protection some package designs are equipped with wood filled impact limiters encapsulated by steel sheets. The safety of these packages is established in compliance with IAEA regulations. Cumulative mechanical and fire tests are conducted to achieve safety standards and to prevent loss of containment. Mechanical reliability is proven by drop tests. Drop testing might cause significant damage of the impact limiter steel sheets and might enable sufficient oxygen supply to the impact limiter during the fire test to ignite the wood filling. The boundary conditions of the fire test are precisely described in the IAEA regulatory. During the test the impact limiter will be subjected to a 30 minute enduring fire phase. Subsequent to the fire phase any burning of the specimen has to extinguish naturally and no artificial cooling is allowed. At BAM a large-scale fire test with a real size impact limiter and a wood volume of about 3m3 was conducted to investigate the burning behaviour of wood filled impact limiters in steel sheet encapsulation. The impact limiter was equipped with extensive temperature monitoring equipment. Until today burning of such impact limiters is not sufficiently considered in transport package design and more investigation is necessary to explore the consequences of the impacting fire. The objective of the large scale test was to find out whether a self-sustaining smouldering or even a flaming fire inside the impact limiter was initiated and what impact on the cask is resulting. The amount of energy, transferred from the impact limiter into the cask is of particular importance for the safety of heavy weight packages. With the intention of heat flux quantification a new approach was made and a test bench was designed.

A Study on the Magnetic Distribution of Nd-Fe-B Permanent Magnets in Pipeline in Line Inspection Tool

The pressure pipeline in line inspection technology is the most effective nondestructive testing method to detect the quality of buried oil and gas pipelines at present. In line inspection tool usually uses magnetic flux leakage (MFL) technology to detect the change of leakage magnetic field to detect pipeline defects. Permanent magnets magnetize the wall of the pipeline as an excitation. During the detection process, the magnetic field performance of permanent magnets is required to be high. At the same time, the magnetic performance of the permanent magnet in the magnetic cleaning pipe also determine the cleaning effect inside the pipeline. In this paper, the magnetic distribution of permanent magnets is studied and the Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets with the best magnetic properties are taken as the objects. The finite element simulation is used to optimize the shape of the permanent magnets with better magnetic distribution, and the magnetic intensity factors of the preferred cylindrical permanent magnets are analyzed. In addition, three experiments of the influence of temperature, the influence of the ferromagnetic combination, and the influence of the environment medium are conducted. As a result, the relationship between the magnetic intensity of the Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets and the factors is obtained. The conclusion is of great significance to the design and research of permanent magnetic circuit in line inspection magnetization device.

Environmental Risk Analysis of Accidental Release From Onshore Oil Pipelines

Accidental releases of oil and oil products will cause extensive damage to environment, if timely and effective measures are not available. Predicting the consequences of spilled oil is of significant importance for emergency management. Although software for risk assessment of gas pipelines is very popular, few are available for hazardous liquid pipelines, due to the difference in behaviors of accidental releases of gases and liquids in the same situation. The major differences are that the spread of released oil is mainly affected by the topography of the land and may result in pollution of soil or waterways, while gas pipeline failure may form gas clouds or explosions and merely pose environmental pollution problems. An integrated model was developed in order to analyze the environmental consequences of spills from oil pipelines. The method presented in this paper allowed to predict the flow trajectory of released liquid from a pipeline and other relevant parameters, including the extent of spread of the oil and the proportion of release reaching any important location, such as a river, in any given topography. The methodology has been applied to a release, which occurred in Marshall, Michigan, in 2010. The results obtained are of the correct order of magnitude compared with realistic data. A case-study is presented and discussed to illustrate the features of the methodology. The results confirmed that the proposed model may be considered an important tool within a comprehensive approach to the management of risk related to onshore oil pipelines.

Application of Leakage Rates Measured on Scaled Cask or Component Models to the Package Containment Safety Assessment

The containment systems of transport and storage casks for spent fuel and high level radioactive waste usually include bolted lids with metallic or elastomeric seals. The mechanical and thermal loadings associated with the routine, normal and accident conditions of transport can have a significant effect on the leak tightness of such containment system. Scaled cask models are often used for providing the required mechanical and thermal tests series. Leak tests have been conducted on those models. It is also common practice to use scaled component tests to investigate the influence of deformations or displacements of the lids and the seals on the standard leakage rate as well as to study the temperature and time depending alteration of the seals. In this paper questions of the transferability of scaled test results to the full size design of the containment system will be discussed.

Long-Term Operation of BWR RPV and its Internals

This study concerns the long-term operation (LTO) of a boiling water reactor (BWR) reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and its internals. The main parts of this study are: survey on susceptibility to degradation mechanisms, and computational time limited ageing analyses (TLAAs). The ageing of nuclear power plants (NPPs) emphasises the need to anticipate the possible degradation mechanisms. The BWR survey on susceptibility to these uses the OL1/OL2 RPVs and significant internals as a pilot project. It is not necessary to carry out the TLAAs for all components. Some components were excluded from the TLAAs with a screening process. To do this, it was necessary to determine the component specific load induced stresses, strains and temperature distributions as well as cumulative usage factor (CUF) values. For the screened-in components, the TLAAs covered all significant time dependent degradation mechanisms. These include (but are not limited to): • irradiation embrittlement, • fatigue, • stress corrosion cracking (SCC), and • irradiation accelerated SCC (IASCC). For the components that were screened-in, the potential to brittle, ductile or other degradation was determined. Only some of the most significant cases and results are presented. According to the analysis results, the operational lifetime of the OL1/OL2 RPVs and internals can safely be extended from 40 to 60 years.

An Application of Singular Spectrum Analysis for Internal Valve Leakage Signals Denoising in a Natural Gas Pipeline

Internal valve leakage in a natural gas pipeline not only brings huge economic losses to the petroleum enterprises, but also causes immeasurable environmental pollution. Therefore, the diagnosis of internal valve leakage and the prediction of leakage rates are the basis to ensure the safe operation of natural gas pipeline. In this paper, based on acoustic emission detection system, the internal valve leakage signals were collected, which were analyzed and processed to diagnose the internal valve leakage and predict the leakage rates. Due to the complex work environment and serious noise interference, the collected acoustic emission signals contain a large amount of environmental noise. Therefore, singular spectrum analysis was proposed to reduce the environmental noise in acoustic emission signals. Radial basis function neural network was used to predict the leakage rates. Experimental results demonstrate that pure internal leakage source signals can be obtained via singular spectrum analysis. The prediction accuracy of leakage rates based on the characteristic parameters of pure AE signals is better than the accuracy without signals denoising. Therefore, singular spectrum analysis is an effective denoising method for acoustic emission signals, which can improve the prediction accuracy of internal valve leakage rate.

Qualification of Motor Actuated Valve Assemblies for Safety Related Nuclear Applications: Lessons Learned

Safety related valves in nuclear power plants are required to be qualified in accordance with the ASME QME-1 standard. This standard describes the requirements and the processes for qualifying active mechanical equipment that are used in nuclear power plants. It does not cover the qualification of electrical components that are addressed using IEEE standards; however, QME-1 recognizes that both mechanical and electrical components must be qualified when they are interfaced as an assembly. Qualifying both mechanical and electrical valve assemblies can be challenging. Considerable amount of judgment is used when developing the plan to qualify any valve with an electric motor actuator. If the wrong steps are taken in planning the tests, the results from the tests may not be useful thus triggering the need to perform additional tests to comply with QME-1 requirements. This paper presents lessons learned in the process of qualifying valve assemblies to meet QME-1 requirements. The lessons include the decision processes associated with planning and executing valve testing, analysis of the valve assemblies for natural frequency determination, and missed opportunities to capture relevant test data during the tests. Finally, the paper will discuss challenges associated with justifying the tests and extending the results of the tests to cover untested valve assemblies.

Temperature Jump Measurement at Stainless Steel and Helium Interface: Application to Used Nuclear Fuel Vacuum Drying Process

Vacuum drying of nuclear fuel canisters may cause the temperature of fuel assemblies to considerably increase due to the effect of gas rarefaction at low pressures. This effect may induce a temperature-jump at the gas-solid interfaces. It is important to predict the temperature-jump at these interfaces to accurately estimate the maximum temperature of the fuel assemblies during vacuum drying. The objective of this work is to setup a concentric cylinders experimental apparatus that can acquire data to benchmark rarefied gas heat transfer simulations, and determine the temperature-jump coefficient at the interface between stainless steel surface and helium gas. The temperature-jump is determined by measuring the temperature difference and heat flux across a 2-mm gap between the concentric cylinders that contains rarefied helium and compare the results to analytical calculations in the slip rarefaction regime.