Analysis on containment depressurization under severe accidents for a Chinese 1000 MWe NPP

Containment depressurization has been implemented for many nuclear power plants (NPPs) to mitigate the risk of containment overpressurization induced by steam and gases released in LOCA accidents or generated in molten core concrete interaction (MCCI) during severe accidents. Two accident sequences of large break loss of coolant accident (LB-LOCA) and station blackout (SBO) are selected to evaluate the effectiveness of the containment venting strategy for a Chinese 1000 MWe NPP, including the containment pressure behaviors, which are analyzed with the integral safety analyses code for the selected sequences. Different open/close pressures for the venting system are also investigated to evaluate CsI mass fraction released to the environment for different cases with filtered venting or without filtered venting. The analytical results show that when the containment sprays can't be initiated, the depressurization strategy by using the Containment Filtered Venting System (CFVS) can prevent the containment failure and reduce the amount of CsI released to the environment, and if CFVS is closed at higher pressure, the operation interval is smaller and the radioactive released to the environment is less, and if CFVS open pressure is increased, the radioactive released to the environment can be delayed. Considering the risk of high pressure core melt sequence, RCS depressurization makes the CFVS to be initiated 7 h earlier than the base case to initiate the containment venting due to more coolant flowing into the containment.     

Risk reduction by filtered venting in PWR large dry-containments

The potential risk reduction associated with a Filtered-Vented Containment System is evaluated. A low-volume venting strategy has been considered and data referring to the Zion power plant, along with the results of the Zion Probabilistic Safety Study, have been used. An estimate of the reduction factor is first made for a single core melt accident sequence whose containment failure mode is late overpressure. The result, interpreted as a reduction factor applicable to the release category associated with containment late overpressure is then used for the estimation of the overall risk reduction factor. In particular, the case of internal and external risk for the Zion power plant are considered. Because the contribution from seismic events dominates the overall risk, the importance of different assumptions for seismic fragility is also assessed.Finally an uncertainty analysis of the risk reduction factor for a single accident sequence is performed. An estimate is also obtained on the level of confidence with which certain required values of risk reduction can be achieved.     

Overview of containment venting as an accident mitigation strategy in US light water reactors

This paper summarizes the results of previous analyses of containment venting at US light water reactors. The focus of the paper is on the risk aspects of containment venting as a severe accident mitigation strategy; therefore, past risk analyses of venting are critically reviewed and conclusions are drawn where possible concerning the risk and efficacy of this strategy. Because the accident mitigation issues vary from one reactor and containment type to another, the paper examines five containment types separately.     

Severe accident mitigation strategy for the generation II PWRs in France – Some outcomes of the on-going periodic safety review of the French 1300 MWe PWR series

The 3rd Periodic Safety Review of the French 1300 MWe PWRs series includes some modifications to increase their robustness in case of a severe accident. Their review is based on both deterministic and probabilistic approaches, keeping in mind that severe accidents frequencies and radiological consequences should be as low as reasonably practicable, severe accidents management strategies should be as safe as possible and the robustness of equipment used for severe accident management should be ensured.Consequently, the IRSN level 2 probabilistic safety assessment (L2 PSA) studies for the 1300 MWe reactors have been used to re-assess the results of the utility's L2 PSA and rank them to identify the containment failure modes contributing the most to the global risk. This ranking helped the review of plant modifications.Regarding strategies for accident management, the EDF management of water in the reactor cavity during a severe accident for the 1300 MWe PWRs is presented as well as the IRSN position on this strategy: this is an example where the optimal severe accident management strategy choice is not so easy to define.Regarding the robustness of equipment used for severe accident management, the interest of a diversification or redundancy of the French emergency filtered containment venting opening is one example among many others.This paper presents the analysis conducted by IRSN during the 3rd periodic safety review of the French 1300 MWe PWRs. Future NPP upgrades to limit radioactive releases in case of containment filtered venting, to prevent containment venting and basemat melt-through are analysed in another framework (post-Fukushima and long-term operation projects).     

Severe accident mitigation programme for the forsmark and ringhals plants

In February 1986 licensing requirements regarding severe accidents in nuclear power plants were given by the Swedish Government. This regulation constitutes conditions for operation of the plants beyond 1988. The requirements are based on the conditions previously given for the Barsebäck plant including construction of the filtered venting system, which was completed at Barsebäck in 1985.For the Forsmark and Ringhals plants a strategy is being implemented to meet the new requirements. A strong emphasis is put on both hardware and procedural measures to bring the reactor core back to stable cooling - even if it is severely damaged - and maintain the containment integrity during an accident. The hardware modifications include measures to prevent temperature or pressure induced early containment failure for the BWRs, reliable back-up water sources for containment spray and means for filtered venting of all plants to prevent late containment failure by overpressure. The ultimate aim is to minimize the environmental impact of a severe accident and meet a release limit set at 0.1% of the core fission product inventory excluding noble gases.     

Containment venting as a mitigation technique for BWR MARK I plant ATWS

Containment venting is studied as a mitigation strategy for preventing or delaying severe fuel damage following hypothetical BWR Anticipated Transient Without Scram (ATWS) accidents initiated by MSIV-closure, and compounded by failure of the Standby Liquid Control (SLC) system injection of sodium pentaborate solution and by the failure of manually initiated control rod insertion. The venting of primary containment after reaching 75 psia (0.52 MPa) is found to result in the release of the vented steam inside the reactor building, and to result in inadequate Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) for any system pumping from the pressure suppression pool. CONTAIN code calculations show that personnel access to large portions of the reactor building would be lost soon after the initiation of venting and that the temperatures reached would be likely to result in independent equipment failures. It is concluded that containment venting would be more likely to cause or to hasten the onset of severe fuel damage than to prevent or to delay it.Two alternative strategies that do not require containment venting, but that could delay or prevent severe fuel damage, are analyzed. BWR-LTAS code results are presented for a successful mitigation strategy in which the reactor vessel is depressurized, and for one in which the reactor vessel remains at pressure. For both cases the operators are assumed to take action to intentionally restrict injected flow such that fuel in the upper part of the core would be steam cooled. Resulting fuel temperatures are estimated with an off-line calculation and found to be acceptable.     

核电厂严重事故下安全壳通风导致放射性后果的快速评价

提出一种严重事故下安全壳通风导致放射性后果的快速评价方法。通过预先计算通风后安全壳的释放份额和1%初始堆芯总量释入安全壳时的公众个人终身剂量,以及通过事故下安全壳的辐射监测仪表间接得到堆芯向安全壳的释放份额,能够快速评价厂外不同距离处公众的个人终身剂量,它可为严重事故的管理和厂外应急策略的实施提供强有力的支持。     

安全壳卸压排放过程模化分析

针对大型非能动先进压水堆安全壳卸压排放过程中涉及的重要热工现象，采用系统性的关键现象识别及重要性分析方法，得到了大型非能动先进压水堆卸压排放过程中的现象过程识别与排序表（PIRT）。结果表明：排放管线及鼓泡器中对安全壳卸压排放过程影响程度较高的现象为临界和摩擦流、两相压降、几何尺寸及流动状态；乏燃料水池中对安全壳卸压排放过程影响程度较高的现象为冷凝、传热、几何尺寸、流体混合、不凝性气体及热分层。利用关键现象识别及重要性分析结果与现有缩放实验台架的搭建经验及研究结果，得到了安全壳卸压排放过程验证性试验装置搭建中应该遵循的相似准则，从而为安全壳卸压排放验证性试验装置的搭建提供设计基础和理论依据。     

Evaluation of uncertainties in risk emanating from a number of severe accident issues

A study has been performed to estimate, for a particular pressurized water reactor, the uncertainty in risk associated with a number of key phenomenological issues. A second objective was to distinguish the individual importance of the various issues as contributors to the overall uncertainty in risk. The issues considered touched upon the areas of system behavior, containment loading, containment performance, and fission product source term behavior. It was found that the most important source of uncertainty for the plant in question (Surry) was direct containment heating (i.e., the transfer of heat from the core debris to the containment atmosphere when the debris is ejected at high pressure from the reactor vessel and dispersed throughout the atmosphere). Other significant issues included hydrogen burning, containment failure pressure, aerosol agglomeration uncertainties, the frequency of check valve failures leading to a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) outside containment, and the potential for having a LOCA induced by high temperatures in the reactor coolant system.     

Pressure release of containments during severe accidents in Switzerland

As required by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (HSK) all Switzerland's five nuclear power plants have to install a containment filtered venting system. The integrity of the containment (the last barrier for radioactive releases to the environment) can be threatened by overpressure due to inadequate heat removal. Design requirements have been provided for a specific class of severe accident scenarios. In general the capacity of the system is considered sufficient if it is able to vent the steam production corresponding to a decay heat level of 1% of the thermal reactor power. The mitigation capacity for the reduction of released radioactive material is specified by a retention factor of 1000 for aerosols to prevent or limit a long term ground contamination and a factor of 100 for elementary iodine for prevention or limiting of thyroid doses and to avoid short term evacuation. Besides existing requirements for design, maintenance and operation, additional claims such as passivity and operability at any pressure conditions inside the containment have to be met. Passivity implies that the system can be initiated after a severe accident without any operator action. The system also has to allow early manual venting. Various filtered venting systems are presently available. The nuclear power plants of Beznau, Gosgen, Leibstadt and Muhleberg have already selected such systems and already implemented them or are going to install them step by step. Beznau selected the Sulzer-EWI system which is using a water pool with nozzles-baffle plates and mixing elements to achieve the required filtration of the aerosols. In both Beznau units, the systems are installed and in standby mode. Gosgen, a pressurized water reactor as well as Beznau, is going to implement a filter system developed by Siemens-KWU, known as sliding pressure venting process, combining a venturi scrubber in a water pool and a mesh filter. The boiling water reactor of Leibstadt also selected the same system as Beznau while Müheberg choose the ABB system but not in the common design. The venturi pipes are thereby integrated in the water pool of the outer torus. The system in all five nuclear power plants is fully operable and in standby mode since December 1993.     

Analysis of strategies for containment venting in case of severe accidents

During a core melt accident, a pressurization of the containment has to be expected, which could lead to a failure of the containment due to overpressurization. This failure mode is expected to be the most likely one for large dry containments under accident conditions. Also during a core melt accident, a large quantity of hydrogen may be generated, giving the potential of a loss of containment integrity due to violent hydrogen combustion. Timely venting of the containment atmosphere can prevent overpressurization and may perhaps make the hydrogen situation in the containment less severe. This paper discusses the thermodynamic consequences of different vent strategies for a large German PWR during core melt accidents.     

Radioactivity Confinement Studies Within the SEAL Program

In the framework of the European SEAL program, investigations have been performed with the aim of optimizing the second confinement function and plant layout with respect to normal operation as well as abnormal operation, including accident conditions. This has been done for two conceptual fusion reactor designs: one using water as the coolant and the other using helium. The starting point of these investigations was the SEAFP project design. For the water-cooled reactor design the studies were focused on design options such as pressure suppression spray system, pressure suppression pool with closed containment or with venting to gravel bed filter and stack, and separate expansion volume optionally operated with a vacuum and equipped with spray system. Similar analyses were performed for the helium-cooled reactor design. The analyses were focused on design options comprising a single, large confinement volume or a vent duct connected to an expansion volume operated at vacuum in comparison with the SEAFP Model 1. The thermal-hydraulic analyses performed with the MELCOR code provide an integrated assessment of the cooling loop and confinement system dynamics.     

Quantitative assessment of severe accident management strategies in a nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plants in Korea are preparing improvement countermeasures for severe accidents including mobile gas turbine generators, passive autocatalytic recombiners, containment-filtered venting systems, and external injection using portable pumps. However, these improvement countermeasures have only been determined by expert judgment, and detailed validation of their effects has not been performed. In this paper, the quantitative safety impact of these improvement countermeasures was evaluated for the Westinghouse 3-loop pressurized water reactor. Our evaluation of four improvement countermeasures using the at-power internal event probabilistic safety assessment models revealed that all containment failure modes have positive effects, except for the containment isolation failure and the containment bypass. Therefore, post-Fukushima action plans for coping with a severe accident in Korea have been appropriately evaluated and established.     

严重事故下安全壳排气对乏燃料厂房氢气风险影响研究

以我国某三代压水堆核电厂为例,选取了2个典型严重事故工况,采用严重事故一体化程序MAAP开展建模与计算,对安全壳排气的过程及对乏燃料厂房造成的氢气风险进行了分析。结果表明,如果不考虑乏燃料厂房的通风系统,从安全壳内释放的混合气体由于水蒸气的冷凝,会对乏燃料厂房造成一定的氢气风险;如果考虑乏燃料厂房通风系统的作用,乏燃料厂房的氢气风险将会消除。      

双堆布置核电厂公用设施对双堆超设计基准事故缓解的影响和改进

福岛事故后,同一厂址多台机组同时发生超设计基准事故(包括严重事故)的后果开始受到关注,为此需要从设计上保证核电厂事故应对措施的独立性。我国运行和在建的大部分核电厂为双堆布置的二代改进型核电厂。分析表明,水压试验泵和安全壳过滤排放系统(EUF)为双堆公用,对双堆超设计基准事故的应对能力存在影响。进而研究了这两个公用设施在现有电厂中的潜在改进选项,从尽量减少硬件改动的目的出发提出了最可能的改进方案。其中EUF交替排放仅仅通过操作规程的变化,凭借一套公用系统即可实现双堆的卸压目的。进一步计算也证明,合理选取交替排放的时间窗口,EUF交替排放在最保守及最现实的事故情况下均能确保双堆安全壳的安全。     

Severe accident analysis of a 1300 MWe PWR to address the hydrogen issue

The behaviour of the potentially large quantity of hydrogen generated during a severe accident has been recognised as an issue of importance since the accident at Three Mile Island. In this article, we describe a severe accident analysis for the Neckarwestheim 2 1300 MWe PWR “Konvoi” plant, performed primarily to investigate the behaviour of hydrogen in the containment, and draw conclusions regarding the need for hydrogen control systems (igniters). The Modular Accident Analysis Program (MAAP) developed by IDCOR in the United States, and the Westinghouse COMPACT multi-compartment containment code were used. The study investigated the generation, release to containment, distribution within containment and potential combustion of hydrogen produced during two severe accident sequences. Results are summarized which show that hydrogen mixing in containment is generally good and that even without hydrogen control systems, hydrogen combustion, although possible, does not threaten containment integrity.     

Steel containment resistance under dynamic pressure

Loadings to cause severe accidents on containment buildings can include combinations of uniform internal pressure, dynamic pressure, and seismic. Most studies that have been conducted to predict containment building capacity have focused on the effect of overpressurization on containment performance. A simple methodology that permits rapid and reasonably accurate analysis for assessing the capacity of steel containment buildings due to global or local uniform or spatially varying dynamic loading was developed. An axisymmetric model was used and the circumferential variation of the pressure, displacements, and stress resultants were represented by Fourier series. Shell vibration and buckling analysis were performed using modified versions of BOSOR4 and BOSOR5 finite difference codes. The modified version of BOSOR5 allows the input of pressures that vary along the meridianal direction. These pressures were increased until failure of the containment occurred. Failure was defined to occur when membrane strains reached twice the yield strain or the bifurcation point was introduced. The applicability of this analysis method was verified by analyzing several problems as well as a simplified containment building. The axisymmetric analysis demonstrated a powerful tool to access the capacity of steel containment buildings.     

A study on evaluating a passive autocatalytic recombiner PAR-system in the PWR large-dry containment

A systematic step-by-step framework for analyzing hydrogen behavior and implementing passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs) to mitigate hydrogen deflagration or detonation risk in severe accidents (SAs) is presented. The procedure can be subdivided into five main steps: (1) modeling the containment based on the plant design characteristics, (2) selecting the typical severe accident sequences, (3) calculating the hydrogen generation including in- and ex-vessel period, (4) modeling the gas distribution in containment atmosphere and estimating the hydrogen combustion modes and (5) evaluating the efficiency of the PAR-system to mitigate the hydrogen risk with and without catalytic recombiners, according to the safety criterion. For the Chinese 600MWe pressurized water reactor (PWR) with a large-dry containment, large break loss-of-coolant accident (LB-LOCA) is screened out as the reference severe accident sequence, considering the nature of hydrogen generation and the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) result on accident sequences. The results show that a certain number of recombiners could remove effectively hydrogen and oxygen, to protect the containment integrity against hydrogen deflagration or detonation.     

氢气催化复合器对核电厂严重事故的缓解效果

在严重事故条件下,安全壳内的氢气燃烧或爆炸威胁安全壳完整性,必须采取措施减小或消除安全壳的氢气风险。针对600MWe级核电厂的大型干式安全壳,以小破口失水诱发的严重事故序列为基准事故,计算分析了氢气催化复合器（PAR）消除安全壳内氢气的效果,及复合效应对安全壳压力温度的影响。研究表明：氢气催化复合器能够持续稳定地消除安全壳内氢气,但对于极其快速的氢气释放,它的消氢能力受到一定限制。