A model for uniform Zircaloy clad corrosion in pressurized water reactors

A phenomenological water-side corrosion model for Zircaloy fuel cladding for pressurized water reactors (PWRs) is considered. The model acounts for the breakaway transition in the Zircaloy oxidation rate that takes place in an isothermal condition and the changes that occur during reactor operation, i.e. the dependence of oxide growth on fast neutron flux and cladding oxide layer thickness. Closed-form analytical solutions of the oxidation kinetics equations are obtained. The corrosion kinetics model is coupled to PWR thermal and hydraulic models which assume a subchannel that is either a closed single channel or a multichannel which accounts for coolant cross-flow and coolant enthalpy mixing. Both single-phase forced convection and subcooled nucleate boiling are accounted for in the thermal-hydraulic models. The model calculates the coolant temperature at the axial midplane of each axial segment of the fuel rod. When an oxide layer is present, the temperature at the metal-oxide interface is determined. This temperature in turn is used to determine the oxide growth via the Arrhenius temperature dependence of the Zircaloy oxidation rate. The predictions of the model have been compared with the measured cladding oxide data obtained in PWRs. The data for a given rod were obtained at various burn-ups (at the end of reactor cycles) and various axial positions of the rod. Our evaluations show that the model predicts the measured data satisfactorily; however, the deviations are discussed. The model has been used to study the effect of core loading patterns on cladding oxide growth. Our analyses show that core nuclear design is an important factor for water-side corrosion of fuel rods.     

State-of-the-art computer code RELAP5 validation with RBMK-related separate phenomena data

Validation of the RBMK model, developed by employing best estimate system computer code RELAP5 is performed by employing the data from NPPs operation or from integral and separate effects facilities.Validation of the models on the basis of separate phenomena is necessary to perform due to the fact that RELAP5 code has been developed for PWRs, which operate at different conditions (pressure, temperature, coolant void fraction, etc.) from RBMKs. In addition to that, there is a number of phenomena specific for RBMK type reactors (oscillatory flow rate behaviour in parallel channels, flow stagnation in channels, stratification in long horizontal piping, etc.), which have not been studied during RELAP5 validation for PWRs.In the paper, RELAP5 models for separate effects related to RBMK-1500 are presented and modelling of transients is performed. Obtained results are compared with experimental data.     

On-line reconstruction of in-core power distribution by harmonics expansion method

Fixed in-core detectors are most suitable in real-time response to in-core power distributions in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). In this paper, a harmonics expansion method is used to reconstruct the in-core power distribution of a PWR on-line. In this method, the in-core power distribution is expanded by the harmonics of one reference case. The expansion coefficients are calculated using signals provided by fixed in-core detectors. To conserve computing time and improve reconstruction precision, a harmonics data library containing the harmonics of different reference cases is constructed. Upon reconstruction of the in-core power distribution on-line, the two closest reference cases are searched from the harmonics data library to produce expanded harmonics by interpolation. The Unit 1 reactor of DayaBay Nuclear Power Plant (DayaBay NPP) in China is considered for verification. The maximum relative error between the measurement and reconstruction results is less than 5.5%, and the computing time is about 0.53 s for a single reconstruction, indicating that this method is suitable for the on-line monitoring of PWRs.     

Current and emerging pressure boundary issues — a US regulatory perspective

Concerns about pressure boundary integrity deal primarily with older plants, and establishing a basis for their continued safe operation. Pressure vessel problems stem from exposure to fast neutrons which changes the Nil-Ductility-Temperature (NDT) and the elevated temperature fracture energy of some vessels. The predicted shift in NDT has increased over the last decade as more has been learned about the effect of impurities (copper) and the synergism between nickel and copper. In PWRs this has lead to concern about excursion in which the a vessel remains at high pressure as the coolant temperature drops rapidly, that is the so-called Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) accident. In BWRs one cannot have PTS events, but the more rapid than expected rise in NDT due to irradiation is impacting operations.In another set of PWRs the upper shelf energy of the welds was initially low due to the use of a slag which led to many small inclusions in the weld. Radiation has lowered the Charpy fracture energy of these welds to below the 50 ft lb level at which there is concern that the vessel may undergo low energy ductile failure even if cleavage does not occur.Problems in pressure boundary piping has stemmed primarily from corrosion, that is, IGSCC in BWR recirculation piping, and steam generator tube failures in PWRs. These have made a large contribution to downtime and occupational exposure, but are not seen as significant contributors to risk. There has been some concern about the aging (loss of toughness) of cast stainless components with significant ferrite content, especially because inspection by UT is difficult.     

一种铅-铋合金冷却快堆的高放废物积累量研究

目前商用压水堆积累了大量的长寿命高放废物,放射毒性强,衰变时间漫长,对环境和人类构成了长期威胁,作为6种第四代核能系统堆型中的一种,铅基冷却快堆在减少长寿命高放废物产生方面具有优势。基于此本文提出了一种热功率为300 MW的铅-铋合金冷却快堆设计。利用MCNP程序对反应堆堆芯进行建模并计算了堆芯在寿期初的主要物理参数,详细分析了燃耗过程中长寿命高放核素的积累量,并与一般压水堆长寿命高放核素的积累量进行了比较。结果表明,对主要关心的次锕系核素,铅-铋合金冷却快堆的产生量远小于压水堆的,而长寿命裂变产物的产生量与压水堆的相当。总体来说,铅-铋合金冷却快堆产生的长寿命高放废物总量小于压水堆的,可看出铅-铋合金冷却快堆在减少长寿命高放废物产生方面更具有竞争性。     

Assessment of RELAP5/MOD3.2.2γ against flooding database in horizontal-to-inclined pipes

A total of 356 experimental data for the onset of flooding are compiled for the data bank and used for the assessment of RELAP5/MOD3.2.2γ predictions of counter-current flow limitation (CCFL) in horizontal-to-inclined pipes simulating a PWR hot leg. RELAP5 calculations show that higher gas flow rates are required to initiate the flooding compared with the experimental data if the L/D is as low as that of the hot legs of typical PWRs. Based on the present data bank, the new CCFL correlation is derived, which shows the L/D effect. The present correlation agrees well with the database within the prediction error, 8.7% and it is implemented into the RELAP5 and validated against the data bank. The predictions of the flooding limit by the modified version lie well on the applied CCFL curve if the L/D is lower than 22, which is the case of the hot legs of typical PWRs.     

长寿期压水堆颗粒弥散可燃毒物中子学设计与分析

为实现长寿期压水堆的低硼运行,对颗粒弥散可燃毒物进行了中子学设计与分析,颗粒弥散可燃毒物的自屏效应可通过颗粒半径进行调节,能实现可燃毒物消耗和燃料燃耗的较优匹配。本文选取目前压水堆常用的快燃耗可燃毒物B、Gd为对象,研究了颗粒弥散可燃毒物不同颗粒半径和填充份额对组件中子学特性的影响。结果表明,颗粒弥散可燃毒物能实现长期稳定的反应性控制,其中BISO含硼弥散颗粒符合长寿期压水堆低硼运行的要求,适合作为长寿期压水堆的候选可燃毒物进行下一步研究。     

Analysis of Operating Experience Involving Loss of Decay Heat Removal during Reactor Shutdown in Pressurized Water Reactors

In PWRs, loss of decay heat removal (DHR) during reactor shutdown with the reactor coolant system (RCS) partially drained may result in core boiling in a short time. The subsequent RCS pressurization could prevent water flow into the RCS by gravity feed and consequently the core would be uncovered. This paper analyzes U.S. PWR operating experience involving the DHR loss in such reduced inventory conditions.

Between 1976 and 1990, reported were a total of 63 loss of DHR events which occurred during reactor shutdown with the RCS inventory reduced. Review of the event reports indicated that many loss of DHR events in reduced inventory conditions resulted from air entrainment into the DHR pumps due to lowering the reactor water level too far, loss of coolant inventory, increased pump flow and so on.

The coolant heatup rates were evaluated for 12 events with use of the data such as the time elapsed from reactor shutdown actually reported. The calculated results were in reasonably good agreement with the observed ones and showed that core boiling would take place within 1 h even if the DHR loss would occur in the late stage of shutdown (for example, 30 days after the shutdown).     

Validation of decay heat calculation results of ORIGEN2.2 and CASMO5 for light water reactor fuel

Comparing with the fission product nuclide (FP) decay heat summation calculation result in MeV/sec/fission based on the JENDL FP decay and yield data files 2011 for the burst fission, FP decay heat calculated by ORIGEN2.2 coupled with JENDL-4.0 base library ORLIBJ40 was verified at the cooling time from 1 sec to 10⁸ sec for ²³⁵U (thermal), ²³⁸U (fast), ²³⁹Pu (thermal) and ²⁴¹Pu (thermal). For these fission nuclides, FP decay heat calculated by CASMO5 at the same cooling time after a short irradiation (10⁴ sec) was also compared with that of ORIGEN2.2. In the analysis of decay heat measurements at the cooling time from 2.3 years to 27 years consisting of four data sets on the fuel assemblies discharged from the US PWRs and BWRs, and the Swedish PWRs and BWRs, the average values of the ratios of the calculated to measured results (C/E's) were from 0.972 to 1.031 for ORIGEN2.2, and from 0.977 to 1.016 for CASMO5. The standard deviations of C/E's for the four data sets were from 0.02 to 0.03 for the both codes except for those of the US BWR fuel assemblies which were from 0.11 to 0.12. The obtained C/E's were similar to those in the precedent study.     

Operating margin for radioactive effluent released to the environment from korean pressurized water reactors compared to the effluent control limits,obtained by monitoring the concentration of radioactive effluent with radioactive effluent monitors

Korean pressurized water reactors (PWRs) generally use radioactive effluent monitors for monitoring the concentration of radioactive effluents released to the environment. In this study, the operating margins for radioactive effluent monitors were analyzed to determine the levels of real-time concentration of effluents compared to effluent control limits (ECLs), the regulatory limits. The results show that the concentration of radioactive effluents released from Korean PWRs complied with the ECLs during the years 2012–2016. It was also found that outages at Korean PWRs did not impact the operating margins for radioactive effluent monitors; that is, there was no remarkable difference of the concentration of effluents between normal operation and maintenance periods. In terms of simultaneous effluent releases, the results demonstrate that exceeding the ECLs is unlikely to occur even under the hypothetical condition of coincident effluent releases from multiple discharge points at a Korean PWR.     

Benchmark analysis of main circulation pump trip events at the Ignalina NPP using RELAP5 code

The state-of-the-art code RELAP5/MOD3 was originally designed for PWRs. Because of unique RBMK designs the application of this code to RBMK-1500 encountered several problems. A successful best estimate RELAP5 model of the Ignalina NPP has been developed. This model includes the reactor main circulation circuit (MCC) and reactor control and protection system required for this kind of transient analysis. Benchmark analysis of all operating main circulation pump (MCP) trip events was performed. During the analysis the characteristics of isolation control valves and MCP throttling regulating valves were established. Comparison of calculated and measured parameters was also used to establish realistic resistances of different MCC components and realistic behaviour of the controllers of the reactor systems. Calculations performed with the RELAP5 model, which includes these modifications, compare favourably with plant data.     

先进压水堆核电厂应急计划区探讨

探讨了影响核电厂应急计划区大小的主要因素并阐述了作者的技术见解,提出了在先进压水堆核电厂应急计划区范围测算过程中,严重事故截断概率取10^(-8)的建议。     

AC600非能动安全壳冷却系统的概率安全分析

ＡＣ６００是我国改进型压水堆核电站，本文对其在概念设计阶段的非能动专设安全设施中的安全壳冷却系统进行了概率安全分析（ＰＳＡ）。文中采用故障树技术，定旧计算出了系统的不可用度及置信区间，主要部件故障对不同度的贡献和各组成单元的重要度等，并将计算结果与国内外现有压水堆核电站进行了比较，经比较得出ＡＣ６００采用非能动安全冷却系统，将能明显提高核电站的安全性，可靠性和经济性，由于它是一种新的设计，因此围绕     

Examination of Actual Neutron Count Rate Data during a Control Rod Drop Testing for Estimation of Control Rod Worth in PWRs

The Modified Neutron Source Multiplication (MNSM) method, which is based on the extraction of the fundamental mode of neutron flux distribution, has been proposed to estimate subcriticality. It has been proven applicable to a small critical assembly and domestic PWRs during criticality approach. In the following study, it is also shown by numerical simulation that it is applicable to estimate the subcriticality using neutron count rate data during the control rod drop testing in PWRs. As the next step, we looked further into the actual data of neutron count rate in order to examine whether the expected signal response was observed for the estimation. It was found that the actual data have shown the expected response, and the control rod worth could have been estimated in the same manner as during criticality approach. A new procedure is also proposed to measure a reference reactivity that is essentially required to evaluate the reactivity of each control rod worth.     

An overview of reactivity initiated accident behavior of rock-like fueled pressurized water reactors

Reactivity initiated accident (RIA) analyses of plutonium rock-like oxide (ROX) fueled PWRs have been carried out with the point kinetics calculations. As a result, the analyses have shown a very severe transient behavior of the ROX fueled PWR, which is unacceptable without any improvement. It was also found that the RIA behavior of ROX fueled PWRs can be improved by increasing the negative fuel temperature coefficient (_f). For this improvement, the additives in the ROX fuel such as UO₂ and ThO₂ were considered, as well as a ROX assembly partial loading UO₂ core. With UO₂ additive, it was successful to have satisfying _f and RIA behavior of ROX fuel core, while the partial loading core must be further improved. Besides the ROX-PWR RIA analytical study, the actual behavior of the ROX fuel pin under RIA condition has been experimentally investigated at the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) of JAERI. Though the ROX fuel pin failure mechanism with fuel melting seems quite different from that of UO₂ pin with cladding melting, the ROX pin failure threshold was found to be roughly the same as that of UO₂ in terms of accumulated energy per unit fuel volume.     

Numerical simulation of natural circulation experiments conducted at the IIST facility

Natural circulation plays an important role in long-term cooling of pressurized water reactors (PWRs) under small break loss-of-coolant accidents. Recently, natural circulation experiments have been conducted at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research integral system test (IIST) facility, which is used to simulate the Westinghouse three-loop Maanshan PWR. A numerical simulation is presented to investigate the natural circulation phenomena of the IIST facility with the RELAP5/MOD3 code. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data of the single-phase natural circulation both quantitatively and qualitatively. The influences of power level and system pressure on natural circulation can also be predicted by the current model. Based on the two-phase natural circulation data, the calculated flow rate history is similar to that obtained from the experiment.     

中国大陆核电厂放射性流出物释放所致的公众剂量

基于历年的流出物监测资料,对2005年前中国大陆核电运行所致公众剂量进行分析和评价。结果表明：（1）秦山核电基地放射性流出物年平均释放所致公众（成人）的个人有效剂量为1.69μSv,几乎全部来自重水堆机组释放的剂量,约为UNSCEAR2000年报告的典型场址重水堆年平均个人有效剂量（10μSv）的16%;大亚湾核电基地...     

Evaluation of piping damage in German nuclear power plants

Information relating to piping damage in safety-relevant systems in German nuclear power plants with light water reactors (both pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs)) were analyzed with respect to the modes and the causes of damages. In general, the total range of observed piping damage is low. The incidents (82) in plants with PWRs affected mainly pipes with small diameters. Almost all damaged piping showed wall-penetrating cracks combined with leakages, which revealed the damage. Initial cracks at piping with larger diameters were discovered in isolated cases during in-service inspections. With regard to the incidents (71) in plants with BWRs, piping with small as well as large diameters was affected to different degrees. Wall-penetrating cracks combined with leakages were detected at piping with small diameters. For large-diameters pipes, cracks were indicated during in-service inspections and supplementary examinations. The results of the incident evaluations confirm the conservativeness of the safety concept chosen for the design of German nuclear power plants with light water reactors.     

Natural circulation phenomena relevant to small breaks and transients

In all LWRs, natural circulation is an important passive heat removal mechanism. For PWRs, the core flow is a maximum for intermediate liquid inventories or loop voidage; for BWRs, the core flow is a maximum for high downcomer levels. These observations are based on available test data: to explain them, we have derived a new model. Utilizing the quasi-steady hypothesis and by solving analytically the loop “u-tube” momentum balance together with conservation of mass and energy, we obtain unique expressions for the core flowrate as a function of inventory. The model covers all possible modes of loop natural circulation. The model has been compared to the available test and plant data. For PWRs, we show agreement to within the limits of the experimental uncertainties and model approximations. For BWRs, we derive a new semitheoretical correlation which describes both test and plant data. It is concluded that the natural circulation phenomena and flowrates are understood and predictable for the range of LWR conditions relevant to small breaks and transients. The model can be used to derive simple operating maps that would help the operator identify modes of heat removal during abnormal shutdown conditions.     

Neutronics assessment of the use of thorium fuels in current pressurized water reactors

The use of thorium fuel in current PWRs in a once-through fuel cycle is an attractive option due to potential advantages such as high conversion ratio and low minor actinide generation. The current neutronics assessments indicate that the thorium fuel cycle could supplement the current uranium–plutonium fuel cycle to improve operational performance and spent fuel consideration in current PWRs without core and subassembly modifications. Neutronics safety parameters in the PWR cores with the thorium fuels are within the range of current PWRs.The PWR cores with thorium fuels have significantly higher conversion ratios which could enable efficient fuel utilization. Further, it is shown that the use of thorium as a fertile material can reduce minor actinide generation and the radio-toxicity of spent fuels. In considerations related to proliferation resistance, the results of the current analyses show no significant difference between the studied thorium fuels and the standard oxide fuel for the assumed characteristics and burnup levels.