Acoustic emission monitoring of ZB-1 intermediate scale vessel test

A program to develop the use of acoustic emission (AE) flaw detection methods for continuous surveillance of reactor pressure boundaries is in process in the United States. Evaluation of laboratory developed relationships for data verification and interpretation was performed by participation in a German intermediate scale vessel (ZB-1) test. The test sequence consisted of repeated blocks of a hydrostatic test followed by two sets of cyclic loading at different R-ratios. Testing was performed in cooperation with the German Materialprüfungsanstalt at the Grosskraftwerk facility in Mannheim, West Germany. This paper discusses preliminary results obtained during the first half of the test which was performed at 70°C. The AE system detected crack growth from machined flaws and also spontaneous crack growth in a fabrication weld. AE signals from cracking were consistently high amplitude and occurred at or near peak load. Crack growth rates estimated from AE data were consistent with values derived from crackopening-displacement gauges. The test produced unique and important data needed to develop reliable application of AE methods for continuous monitoring of reactor pressure systems.     

Progress for on-line acoustic emission monitoring of cracks in reactor systems

This paper reviews accomplishments and planned tasks for the NRC-sponsored research program concerned with “Acoustic Emission/Flaw Relationships for Inservice Monitoring of Nuclear Reactor Pressure Boundaries”. The objective of the acoustic emission (AE) monitoring program is to develop and validate the use of AE methods for continuous surveillance of reactor pressure boundaries to detect flaw growth. Topics discussed include testing AE monitoring on reactors, refinement of an AE signal identification relationship, study of slow crack growth rate effects on AE generation, and activity to produce an ASTM standard for AE monitoring and to gain ASME code acceptance of AE monitoring.     

Flaw density examinations of a clad boiling water reactor pressure vessel segment

As part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Heavy-Section Steel Technology Program, studies have been conducted to determine flaw density in a section of reactor pressure vessel cut from the Hope Creek Unit 2 vessel. This boiling water reactor vessel was never in service. One objective was to evaluate the approximate 0.7- by 3-m (2- by 10-ft) segment of the vessel provided using ultrasonic flaw detection methods performed with both ASME Code techniques and supplemental ultrasonic methods. A second objective was to evaluate the inner surface stainless steel cladding for cracks with a high sensitivity penetrant examination. Both objectives were successfully completed. Five Code-recordable indications were detected ultrasonically; however, all were found to be anomalies associated with the cladding. One flaw was detected by the supplemental ultrasonic tests, and it was analyzed destructively. This flaw was pipelike indication, about 20 mm (0.8 in.) long extending along the length of the longitudinal weld in which it was located and was about 20 mm below the cladding surface. The flaw had a through-wall dimension (or length) of about 6 mm (0.24 in.) for an approximate 3-mm (0.1-in.) distance along the 20-mm major length. No flaws were detected by the penetrant examination of the cladding surface.     

Analytical evaluation of two-phase natural circulation flow characteristics under external reactor vessel cooling

This work proposes an analytical method of evaluating the effects of design and operating parameters on the low-pressure two-phase natural circulation flow through the annular shaped gap at the reactor vessel exterior surface heated by corium (molten core) relocated to the reactor vessel lower plenum after loss of coolant accidents. A natural circulation flow velocity equation derived from steady-state mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations for homogeneous two-phase flow is numerically solved for the core melting conditions of the APR1400 reactor. The solution is compared with existing experiments which measured natural circulation flow through the annular gap slice model. Two kinds of parameters are considered for this analytical method. One is the thermal–hydraulic conditions such as thermal power of corium, pressure and inlet subcooling. The others are those for the thermal insulation system design for the purpose of providing natural circulation flow path outside the reactor vessel: inlet flow area, annular gap clearance and system resistance. A computer program NCIRC is developed for the numerical solution of the implicit flow velocity equation.     

Numerical simulation and experimental research on CHF characteristics of AP1000 nuclear reactor

The present paper aims to investigate the critical heat flux (CHF) characteristics of AP1000 reactor based on the experimental and numerical researches, under normal operation and loop fault conditions, respectively. The differences of flow characteristics in these conditions were analyzed. It indicated that the flow features are very complicated in three dimensions and AP1000 has better self-regulation capability to distribute coolant flow compared to conventional reactors. Under normal operation condition, coolant of two loops is distributed along circumference of the reactor annular channel symmetrically. In case that one of the loops fails suddenly and the coolant is partially lost to total loss, the core flow distribution plate and lower grid plate cannot eliminate uneven flow immediately due to loop failure, also the nonuniformity of reactor coolant flow distribution increases gradually, which leads to the heat transfer deterioration easily. In addition, the reactor core departure from nuclear boiling ratio (DNBR) and CHF does not show a certain linear relation, and the DNBR and CHF of AP1000 are greater than that of conventional reactors which not only improve the reactor thermal efficiency, but also obviously reduce the probability of CHF phenomenon appear.     

Safety design of Pb–Bi-cooled direct contact boiling water fast reactor (PBWFR)

In Pb–Bi-cooled direct contact boiling water small fast reactor (PBWFR), steam is generated by direct contact of feedwater with primary Pb–Bi coolant above the core, and Pb–Bi coolant is circulated by steam lift pump in chimneys. Safety design has been developed to show safety features of PBWFR. Negative void reactivity is inserted even if whole of the core and upper plenum are voided hypothetically by steam intrusion from above. The control rod ejection due to coolant pressure is prevented using in-vessel type control rod driving mechanism. At coolant leak from reactor vessel and feedwater pipes, Pb–Bi coolant level in the reactor vessel required for decay heat removal is kept using closed guard vessel. Dual pipes for feedwater are employed to avoid leak of water. Although there is no concern of loss of flow accident due to primary pump trip, feedwater pump trip initiates loss of coolant flow (LOF). Injection of high pressure water slows down the flow coast down of feedwater at the LOF event. The unprotected loss of flow and heat sink (ATWS) has been evaluated, which shows that the fuel temperatures are kept lower than the safety limits.     

Stability analysis of a liquid-metal reactor and its primary heat transport system

Part of the reactor design process is the assessment of the impact of different design changes on pre-defined performance criteria including stability of the reactor system under different conditions. This work focuses on the stability analysis of a combined liquid-metal reactor and primary heat transport system where system parameters are free to vary, with particular interest in low reactor power, low reactor coolant flow conditions. Such conditions might be encountered, for example, after a loss of flow without scram in some passively safe reactor designs. Linear-stability-analysis-based methods are developed to find the stability regions, stability boundary surface in system parameter space, and frequency of oscillation at oscillatory instability boundaries. Models are developed for the reactor, detailed thermal hydraulic reactivity feedback associated with coolant outlet and inlet temperatures, decay heat and primary system. The developed stability analysis tools are applied to the system model. The system parameters include integral reactivity parameters, decay heat, primary system mass, coolant flow and natural circulation flow. The resulting stability boundary surface and its associated frequency of oscillation surface in multidimensional system parameter space show the effect of system parameter changes. By adopting model parameters from liquid-metal reactor designs, a stability prediction procedure is illustrated.     

Simulation of mixing effects in a VVER-1000 reactor

This work has been performed in the framework of the OECD/NEA thermalhydraulic benchmark V1000CT-2. This benchmark is related to fluid mixing in the reactor vessel during a MSLB accident scenario in a VVER-1000 reactor. Coolant mixing in a VVER-1000 V320 reactor was investigated in plant experiments during the commissioning of the Unit 6 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Non-uniform and asymmetric loop flow mixing in the reactor vessel has been observed in the event of symmetric main coolant pump operation. For certain flow conditions, the experimental evidence of an azimuthal shift of the main loop flows with respect to the cold leg axes (swirl) was found.Such asymmetric flow distribution was analyzed with the Trio_U code. Trio_U is a CFD code developed by the CEA Grenoble, aimed to supply an efficient computational tool to simulate transient thermalhydraulic turbulent flows encountered in nuclear systems. For the presented study, a LES approach was used to simulate turbulent mixing. Therefore, a very precise tetrahedral mesh with more than 10 million control volumes has been created.The Trio_U calculation has correctly reproduced the measured rotation of the flow when the CAD data of the constructed reactor pressure vessel where used. This is also true for the comparison of cold leg to assembly mixing coefficients. Using the design data, the calculated swirl was significantly underestimated. Due to this result, it might be possible to improve with CFD calculations the lower plenum flow mixing matrices which are usually used in system codes.     

Effect of depressurization on reactor vessel inventory in the absence of ECCS injection

A series of tests were performed to evaluate inventory depletion as a reactor vessel undergoes depressurization in the absence of any emergency core coolant system injection (ECCS). These tests were carried out in a scaled representation of a reactor vessel which was initially filled with saturated water up to the elevation of the hot legs. Depressurization valves installed on take-off lines from the hot legs were opened and level swell ensued in the reactor vessel initiating a two-phase blowdown. This was followed by subsequent single-phase discharge transient which in some cases led to core uncovery. A combined model encompassing the two-phase and single-phase discharge portions of the transient is proposed. The inventory-versus-pressure traces obtained from the model compare well with the experimental results. These traces are discussed as bounding trajectories for a large class of small break loss of coolant accident (LOCA) transients which otherwise must be considered individually.     

Thermohydraulic characteristics of coolant gas flow through a control rod channel in a very high temperature gas cooled reactor

A calculation code was developed to evaluate the thermohydraulic performance of a coolant flow through a control rod channel in a very high temperature gas cooled reactor (VHTR) and a high temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR). A one-dimensional flow network model was employed in the present calculation code. The calculated results agreed well with the experimental ones on the flow rate distribution and the total pressure loss in an isothermal coolant flow. The thermohydraulic characteristics of the HTTR control rod channel were evaluated by the code under various conditions, including the normal operating conditions of a HTTR.     

Containment for the low temperature district nuclear-heating reactor

An integral arrangement is adopted for the Low Temperature District Nuclear-Heating Reactor. The primary heat exchangers, control rod drives and spent fuel elements are put in the reactor pressure vessel together with the reactor core. The primary coolant flows in natural circulation through the reactor core and the primary heat exchangers. The primary coolant pipes penetrating the wall of the reactor pressure vessel are all of small diameters. The reactor vessel constitutes the main part of the pressure boundary of the primary coolant. Therefore a small sized metallic containment closed to the wall of the reactor vessel can be used for the reactor. Design principles and functions of the containment are the same as for the containment of a PWR. But the adoption of a small sized containment brings about some benefits such as a short period of manufacturing, relatively low cost, and ease for sealing. A loss of primary coolant accident would not be happened during a rupture accident of the primary coolant pressure boundary inside the containment owing to its intrinsic safety.     

A numerical investigation of SBLOCA scenario in nuclear heating reactor

Small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA) is one of the most important severe accidents in nuclear heating reactor. Nuclear heating reactor designed by Tsinghua University, whose primary loop is integrated layout and designed without main pump. The initial water volume in the reactor vessel is important to determine whether the reactor will be cooled or not as no safety injection system is designed for coolant makeup during the whole scenario. This paper simulates SBLOCA in nuclear heating reactor based on RELAP5. Transient behavior of relevant thermal parameters is specifically analyzed. Moreover, investigation also has been made on SBLOCA scenario based on different residual heat removal correlations and found the long-term residual heat removal capacity is decisive in determining the loss of coolant. The mathematical form of residual heat removal correlation is specifically deducted and can be widely applied to different situations. The envelope line that differentiates the region whether the core is safe or not under different maximum PRHRS capacity is also given.     

The inherently-safe power reactor DYONISOS : Dynamic nuclear inherently-safe reactor operating with spheres

A philosophy of inherent safety is formulated and an inherently-safe thermal power reactor is presented. Solid fuel in the form of spheres a few centimetres in diameter is suspended under the hydrodynamic pressure of molten lead coolant in vertical channels within the graphite moderator. Loss of main pump pressure, or a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), results in immediate removal of the fuel to rigid sieves below the core, with consequent subcriticality. Residual and decay heat are carried away by thermal conduction through the coolant or, in the case of a LOCA, by a combination of radiation and natural convection of cover gas or incoming air from the fuel to the reactor vessel and convection of air between the vessel and steel containment wall. All decay heat removal systems are passive, though actively initiated external spray cooling of the containment can be used to reduce wall temperature. This, however, is only necessary in the case of a LOCA and after a period of 24 h.     

A quantitative methodology for reactor vessel pressurized thermal shock decision making

The recent operating experience of the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Industry has focused increasing attention on the issue of reactor vessel pressurized thermal shock (PTS). Previous reactor vessel integrity concerns have led to changes in vessel and plant system design and to operating procedures, and increased attention to the PTS issue is causing consideration of further modifications. Events such as excess feedwater, loss of normal feedwater, and steam generator tube rupture have led to significant primary system cooldowns. Each of these cooldown transients occurred concurrently with a relatively high primary system pressure. Consideration of these and other postulated cooldown events has drawn attention to the impact of operator action and control system effects on reactor vessel PTS.A methodology, which couples event sequence analysis with probabilistic fracture mechanics analyses, was developed to identify those events that are of primary concern for reactor vessel integrity. Operating experience is utilized to aid in defining the appropriate event sequences and event frequencies of occurrence for the evaluation.Once the specific event sequences of concern are identified, detailed thermal-hydraulic and structural evaluations can be performed to determine the conditions required to minimize the extension of postulated flaws or enhance flaw arrest in the reactor vessel. This paper addresses key aspects of the thermal-hydraulic and fracture mechanics analyses of the reactor vessel. The effects of incomplete mixing of safety injection flow in the primary cold leg and vessel downcomer and the application of warm prestressing are emphasized. The results of these analyses are being used to define further modifications in vessel and plant system design and to operating procedures.Previous design considerations that have evolved as a result of reactor vessel integrity evaluations are mentioned. These include the development of realistic design analysis tools and selection of plant system modifications. Modifications that are being developed or are under consideration are also mentioned. These include vessel fluence reductions, additional modifications to operating procedures, increased use of probabilistic event sequence and fracture mechanics analysis methods, enhanced material fracture toughness, and reductions in the severity or frequency of occurrence of dominant reactor vessel PTS transients.     

New concept for the vessel of a nuclear power reactor with supercritical coolant parameters

A multiwall design, akin to a Russian nested doll, of a nuclear reactor vessel is described. This design is intended for reactors with supercritical coolant parameters. The interwall gaps of a multiwall vessel are hydraulically connected with the reactor coolant via a separative device. A system of pressure regulators distributes the coolant pressure successively over the gaps in a manner so that in the operating regime a wall would be under the optimal nominal stress. To eliminate any danger of the vessel collapsing in the event that the counter pressure system malfunctions, ribbed rings with axial channels are tightly installed in the gaps between the walls. This makes it possible to freely fill the gaps in the vessel with a working body, for example, water. In the event that the counterpressure system fails the multiwall vessel is automatically converted into a multilayer wall, which eliminates the possibility of the vessel being destroyed. To increase the reliability of such a vessel, one or two additional walls, which can carry a load, for example, at the end of operation when the inner walls, which are subjected to the highest neutron irradiation, partially lose their strength, are installed in the vessel. Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 105, No. 6, pp. 322–325, December, 2008.     

The numerical simulation of the WWER440/V213 reactor pressure vessel internals response to maximum hypothetical Large-break Loss of Coolant Accident

The reactor internals are designed to ensure cooling of the fuel, to ensure the movement of emergency control assemblies under all operating conditions including accidents and facilitate removal of the fuel and of the internals following an accident.This paper presents preliminary results of the numerical simulation of the WWER440/V213 reactor vessel internals (RVI) dynamic response to maximum hypothetical Large-break Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). The purpose of this analysis is to determine the reactor vessel internals response due to rapid depressurization and to prove no such permanent (plastic) deformations occur in the RVI which would prevent timely and proper activation of the emergency control assemblies.In the case of the LOCA accident it is assumed rapid “guillotine” break of one of the main coolant pipes and rapid depressurization of the primary circuit. The pressure wave spreads at the speed of sound, enters the reactor pressure vessel and causes deformation and stress in reactor vessel internals.The finite element model was created by MSC.Patran (Patran, 2010) and dynamic response was solved using MSC.Dytran (Dytran, 2008) finite element code. The model consists of reactor vessel internals (Lagrangian solid elements) and water coolant (Euler elements) inside the reactor. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (Belytschko et al., 2003) coupling was used for simulation of the fluid-structure interaction. The calculation assumes no phase change in the water. No comparison with the experiment was performed up to now, because the required experimental data are not accessible for this type of the reactor.The most important acceptance criteria for the reactor internals demands that the movement of the emergency control assemblies under all operating conditions including accident is ensured (BNS, 2008). The numerical simulation of the WWER440/V213 reactor internals response to a LOCA accident showed that the acceptance criteria for RVI is fulfilled and required NPP safety standards are satisfied.     

Experimental study on the application of acoustic emission during the hydraulic pressurization of a reactor pressure vessel

The investigations were aimed at demonstrating the state of the art of acoustic emission testing (AET) of reactor pressure vessels. The object under investigation was the large reactor pressure vessel of the MPA in Stuttgart, a boiling-water reactor pressure vessel, which was provided with a multitude of flaws in weld seams and in the base material. Six hydrostatic tests approximately up to the working pressure of a boiling-water reactor (71 bar) were carried out. In addition to the global multichannel locating technique, also local monitoring techniques were applied. Global location permitted a large number of different indications to be detected simultaneously. Not all of the known flaws did, however, show the expected number of AE events. On the other hand, it was possible to detect flaws previously unknown to the AE staff in some weld seams; these indications were confirmed by nondestructive testing. It was demonstrated that the locating accuracy of local monitoring using signal analysis was improved by a factor of 20 to 30 compared to global monitoring.     

Critical crack depth diagram of reactor vessel for pressurized thermal shock

During the operation of a pressurized water reactor, a certain type of transients could induce rapid cooldown of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) with relatively high or increasing system pressure. This induces a high tensile stress at the inner surface of the RPV, which is called the pressurized thermal shock (PTS). The structural integrity of the RPV during PTS should be evaluated assuming the existence of a flaw at the vessel. For the quantitative evaluation of the vessel failure risk associated with PTS, the probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis technique has been widely used. But along with PFM analysis, deterministic analysis is also required to determine the critical time interval in the transient during which mitigating action can be effective. In this study, therefore, the procedure for the deterministic fracture mechanics analysis of RPV during PTS is investigated using the critical crack depth diagram and the computer program to generate it is developed. Four transients of typical PTS, steam generator tube rupture, small break loss of coolant accident and steam line break are analyzed, and their response characteristics such as critical crack depth and critical time interval from the initiation of the transient are investigated.     

Experimental identification for flow distribution inside APR+ reactor vessel and direction of internal structure design improvement

A test program to quantify the reactor flow distribution has been performed using a test facility, named ACOP, having a 1/5 length scale referring to the APR+ reactor design. The flow characteristics of the prototype plant could be preserved by designing the test facility by adopting a linear reduced scaling principle. An Euler number is considered as a primary dimensionless parameter, which was preserved with a 1/41.0 Reynolds number scaling ratio based on the balanced flow conditions. The important measuring parameters are the core inlet flow, outlet pressure distribution, and sectional pressure drops along the major flow path inside the reactor vessel as well as static pressure and temperature at the vessel and boundary legs. The reactor flow distribution is identified by a series of three reactor flow balancing conditions: (1) balanced cold leg flow condition (2) 5% unbalanced cold leg flow condition, and (3) extreme unbalanced flow condition under the assumption of a single pump failure. This paper describes the design features for the test facility and the measuring method, and summarizes the reactor flow and pressure characteristics by ensemble averaging for each group of tests.