Experimental research on aerosols collection performance of self-priming venturi scrubber in FCVS

The self-priming venturi scrubber is the key component of filtered containment venting system to removal radioactive products during severe accident in nuclear power plant. In this paper, the collection performance of aerosols in the venturi scrubber is researched with experiment. The results indicate that the retention performance is closely related to the operating conditions and structures, and this relation is more closely for the removal of particle size under 0.5 μm. The retention efficiency in a venturi scrubber increase with improving of both gas velocity and injection flow rate, and the influence of gas velocity on efficiency is more effective at low injection flow rate. The venturi scrubber with a long throat length or small diffuser angle performs excellent retention performance for small size aerosols. In condition of gas velocity higher as U_avg = 200 m/s and the sufficient injection flow rate, the retention efficiency maintains upon 99% for the aerosol that size range from 0.1 μm to 10 μm. The pressure loss of the venturi scrubber increase slightly with extending the length of throat, and also with reducing diffuser angles. The removal efficiency is usually at the expense of the energy loss, while the higher aerosol retention efficiency corresponds to bigger pressure loss.     

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.     

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.     

Filtered vented containments

Adding a filtered vented containment system (FVCS) to an existing nuclear power plant has been suggested as one approach to mitigating the effects of a severe accident. The integration of a new system into a plant appears simple on the surface but may be expensive to install and complex in developing operating procedures and restrictions. A number of designs have been proposed, and many are currently being installed at European nuclear facilities. Risk assessments and cost benefits for an FVCS installation in a typical US plant are discussed. An approach to developing an FVCS and strategies for system operation (venting) are also included, along with a conceptual design of a sand/gravel filter system. Estimated installed costs are included.     

Analytically predicted versus measured response of a free-standing steel containment vessel subjected to safety-relief valve discharge loads

Following the actuation of safety-relief valves in BWR nuclear power plants, first water then air and steam are cleared from the discharge lines through quencher devices into a suppression pool. This clearing results in water spike, air bubble, and condensation pressure loads applied to structures in the pool, and the surrounding containment vessel.The Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant has the only free-standing steel Mark III containment vessel in the world. All other steel Mark III containment vessels have concrete backing in the suppression pool region, which dampens clearing load responses. As such, it is of interest to note how this steel vessel responds to discharge pressures, and compare these responses to analytically predicted results.The purpose of this paper is to compare the analytical results used to design the steel containment vessel with the responses measured during in-plant testing. The analytical methods considered the effects of fluid-structure interaction. The test program included initial and consecutive actuations of a single valve, and initial actuation of multiple (four) valves. The conclusion of the comparison is that, in general, there are large conservatisms in the analytical predictions versus measured responses.     

Variations of a passive safety containment for a BWR with active and passive safety systems

The paper presents variations of a certain passive safety containment for a near future BWR. It is tentatively named Mark S containment in the paper. It uses the operating dome as the upper secondary containment vessel (USCV) to where the pressure of the primary containment vessel (PCV) can be released through the upper vent pipes. One of the merits of the Mark S containment is very low peak pressure at severe accidents without venting the containment atmosphere to the environment. Another merit is the capability to submerge the PCV and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) above the core level by flooding water from the gravity-driven cooling system (GDCS) pool and the upper pool. The third merit is robustness against external events such as a large commercial airplane crash owing to the reinforced concrete USCV. The Mark S containment is applicable to a large reactor that generates 1830 MW electric power. The paper presents several examples of BWRs that use the Mark S containment. In those examples active safety systems and passive safety systems function independently and constitute in-depth hybrid safety (IDHS). The concept of the IDHS is also presented in the paper.     

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).     

Thermodynamics of vaporization of fission products and materials under severe reactor accident conditions: Analysis of molten core/concrete chemistry

Vaporization-condensation processes can generate radioactive aerosols in the event of a core dryout and meltdown accident at a nuclear power station. The time sequence of fission produce vaporization and aerosol formation in relation to processes that can transport them out of the reactor containment is important for assessing their potential biohazard. Thermodynamics of vaporization of fission products and other materials are evaluated for the extreme environmental conditions projected by computer models if a molten core penetrates the reactor vessel and melts into the concrete base. A free energy minimization treatment was used to estimate partial pressures of gases in this many-component, multiphase system. The amounts of fission products and condensable materials vaporized were calculated for a test case involving basalt-aggregate concrete.     

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。     

安全壳过滤排放系统长期运行热工水力特性分析

安全壳过滤排放系统（FCVS）的长期运行特性对缓解严重事故具有重要作用。为探究采取周期性启闭排放策略时FCVS的长期运行热工水力特性，使用热工水力程序RELAP5对假想严重事故工况下特定的FCVS进行建模，并进一步对初始液位、环境温度、衰变热功率对洗涤液储量的影响进行敏感性研究。结果表明在假想事故序列下，该FCVS可实现稳定的周期性启闭运行达250 h；通过敏感性分析发现为保证FCVS的正常运行，需要根据环境温度适当调整初始液位，并控制衰变热功率在一定范围内。本文的研究可为FCVS的运行和优化及核电厂安全分析提供一定指导。      

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.     

Concept for monitoring gaseous and aerosol-bound radioactive discharges from boiling and pressurized water reactor plants in the event of design basis and severe accidents

A new concept for monitoring radioactive discharge has been developed. The resulting system presented here is intended to meet the requirements set forth in the German Nuclear Safety Standard KTA 1503.2 (draft) for accident surveillance while at the same time being suitable for activity monitoring during containment venting. The system and typical modes of system operation are described for plants equipped with pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and plants equipped with boiling water reactors (BWRs). A combination of different methods of evaluation allows the space needed for instrumentation as well as the effort required for testing to be minimized.     

Containment integrity is a major part of KKL-safety systems PRA

Assuming a hypothetical accident with core meltdown, hardware changes are described with which the containment integrity of the Leibstadt NPP can be secured. Venting of the containment through the standby gas treatment system is initiated manually. This system is called COSA (Containment Safeguard).The COSA system has been compared with other proposed European Systems and it is at least equivalent or better.The pressure margins for the containment failure are determined and compared with the design pressure.The expected population doses without and with COSA are presented.On the basis of a fault tree PRA the gain in overall safety is derived. A cost-benefit analysis on the three safety levels 1, 2 and 3 leads to a general formula as a proposal to minimize the ratio of investment cost to safety gain.     

Development of Systematic Models for Aerosol Agglomeration and Spray Removal under Severe Accident Conditions

Radionuclide behavior during various severe accident conditions has been addressed as one of the important issues to discuss environmental safety in nuclear power plants. The present paper deals with the development of analytical models and their validations for the agglomeration of multiple-component aerosol and spray removal that controls source terms to the environment of both aerosols and gaseous radionuclides during recirculation mode operation in a containment system for a light water reactor. As for aerosol agglomeration, the single collision kernel model that can cover all types of two-body collision of aerosol was developed. In addition, the dynamic model that can treat aerosol and vapor transfer leading to the equilibrium condition under the containment spray operation was developed. The validations of the present models for multiple-component aerosol growth by agglomeration were performed by comparisons with Nuclear Safety Pilot Plant (NSPP) experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and AB experiments at Hanford Engineering National Laboratory (HEDL). In addition, the spray removal models were applied to the analysis of containment spray experiment (CSE) at HEDL. The results calculated by the models showed good agreements with experimental results.     

基于安全围壁的浮动堆旁路泄漏设计研究

基于陆上核电厂二次安全壳的概念，引入了浮动堆安全围壁的构想，提出了“安全壳+安全壳围壁+堆舱”的放射性包容模式。研究了评价安全围壁的旁路泄漏设计思路，提出识别旁路泄漏途径和确定旁路泄漏率的方法。给出了安全围壁负压的设计依据，为后期浮动堆通风系统的设计提供参考。      

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.     

Scaling of passive condenser system for separate effect testing

The passive containment cooling system (PCCS) of the simplified boiling water reactor (SBWR) is a passive condenser system designed to remove energy from the containment for long term cooling period after a postulated reactor accident. Depending on pressure condition and noncondensable (NC) gas fraction in drywell (DW) and suppression pool (SP), three different modes are possible in the PCCS operation namely the forced flow, cyclic venting and complete condensation modes. The prototype SBWR has total of six condenser units with each unit consisting of hundreds of condenser tubes. Simulation of such prototype system is very expensive and complex. Hence a scaling analysis is used in designing an experimental model for the prototype PCCS condenser system. The motive for scaling is to achieve a homologous relationship between an experiment and the prototype which it represents. A scaling method for separate effect test facility is first presented. The design of the scaled test facility for PCCS condenser is then given. Data from the test facility are presented and scaling approach to relate the scaled test facility data to prototype is discussed.     

Underground nuclear power plant siting

This paper summarizes the results of investigations to define the design concepts and estimate cost penalties associated with the burial of large light-water reactor nuclear power plants in underground rock cavities. Several cavities are proposed to contain the major components of the power plant without requiring excessive spans. The cost penalty of the underground plant is estimated to be less than 10% above a similar surface plant in favorable geologic media. Preliminary analyses also indicate a potential improvement in containment of radioactive materials following a postulated accident.     

AP1000核电厂大量放射性释放源项分析

在AP1000核电厂的某些严重事故情景中,安全壳可能发生失效或旁通,导致大量放射性物质释放到环境中,造成严重的放射性污染。针对大量放射性释放频率贡献最大的3种释放类别（安全壳旁通、安全壳早期失效和安全壳隔离失效）,分别选取典型的严重事故序列（蒸汽发生器传热管破裂、自动卸压系统阀门误开启和压力容器破裂）,使用MAAP程序计算分析了释放到环境中的裂变产物源项。该分析结果为量化AP1000核电厂的放射性释放后果和厂外剂量分析提供了必要的输入。