Design and evaluation of Operation Grade Decay Heat Removal System of PFBR

The decay heat removal (DHR) system removes the decay heat generated (by radioactive decay of fission products) in the core after the reactor is shut down, thereby ensuring proper cooling of the core sub assemblies and limiting main vessel, internals and sodium temperature within safe limits. There are two diverse paths for removal of decay heat from the reactor, namely, Safety Grade Decay Heat Removal System (SGDHRS) and Operation Grade Decay Heat Removal System (OGDHRS). OGDHR circuit is used when at least one secondary sodium loop, DHR related steam water circuit and off site power supply is available and SGDHR circuit is used when OGDHR system is not available or when both the secondary loops are not available for DHR. This paper provides brief details of the design and evaluation of OGDHRS.     

基于LabVIEW的窄隙室探测器漏电流自动监测系统

利用图形化编程环境LabVIEW和数据采集卡NI4351,建立了一套TGC探测器高电压测试的漏电流自动监测系统,实现了漏电流的自动监测和记录,实时地显示了产生漏电流的时刻和漏电流的大小,获得了较好的监测效率和精度。     

Development of mathematical model for optimization of sodium leak collection tray

Sodium leaks and resultant fire containment play an important role in the safe operation of a fast breeder reactor. Leak collection tray (LCT) is a passive device which is used to collect the highly reactive liquid sodium in the case of an accidental leakage. The consequences of sodium fire are mitigated by oxygen starvation in the vessel which collects the liquid sodium after leakage. The current paper deals with the optimization of the LCT geometry based on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the leaked liquid sodium. Isothermal numerical simulations have been performed to understand the interfacial dynamics of the hot liquid sodium flow in the top tray part and the variation of sodium draining rate into the holdup vessel for various drainpipe diameters and leak rates. Since the numerical simulations involve very high computational effort, an equivalent semi-analytical sloshing/draining model has also been developed which emulates the flow process in the LCT. The predictions of transient mass distributions in the top part and in the holdup vessel for the semi-analytical model are in close match with the results obtained from the detailed numerical study. The results reveal critical geometric parameters at which the un-burnt sodium collected in the LCT will be maximum.     

Sodium/water combustion and the chemistry of wastage at sodium/water leak sites

The ignition and combustion of sodium in water vapour are demonstrated experimentally, and the composition and temperature of the flame region are discussed in terms of thermodynamic and kinetic factors. Steels have been shown to suffer rapid wastage in these flame regions. Corrosion tests to simulate the chemical environment of the flame showed that a greater rate of attack on 2.25C-1 Mo steel occurred with sodium hydroxide in a water vapour atmosphere than with sodium hydroxide alone. Extrapolation of these corrosion rates to the steel temperature in the flame leads to the conclusion that these corrosion processes are the origin of the flame wastage. The tube wastage found during water injection tests in fast reactor heat exchangers is discussed in terms of rapid corrosion by sodium hydroxide and water vapour within the flame region generated at the boundary of the water jet.     

Performance of an ASD-8 based wire chamber readout system

For the medium-energy proton polarimeter mounted at the focal-plane of the Big-Bite Spectrometer at Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut Groningen, a new wire-chamber readout has been developed. The charge-sensitive preamplifier is based on the ASD-8 B chip which has an input impedance of 115 Ω. This low impedance and the short integration time of 6 ns at a usable sensitivity of 5 fC allow high readout rates and low gas amplifications. This front-end circuit is mounted on all four multi-wire proportional chambers and on two vertical-drift chambers with 3872 wires in total. Measurements have been made using sources and intermediate energy protons. Special attention was given to determine the time-over-threshold properties of the circuit. The time-over-threshold capabilities of the readout system extend future applications to particle discrimination, or, in connection with other detector types, to energy-resolving readout. The operational performance of the readout system is presented     

国产与美国CR－39固体径迹探测器探测中子性能的比较研究

用Ａｍ—Ｂｅ中子源照射国产ＳＹ－２型ＣＲ－３９与美国ＣＲ—３９固体径过探测器，在蚀刻时间较短时，测量它们表面径迹密度与蚀刻时间的变化，求得单位质量ＣＲ－３９中可蚀刻径迹数目，并在蚀刻时间较长时，测量两种ＣＲ－３９表面径迹密度的饱和值，对两种ＣＲ—３９探测器进行对比。测量表明，国产ＳＹ—２型ＣＲ—３９与美国ＣＲ－３９探测快中子的灵敏度在误差范围内符合，它们具有相同的快中子灵敏度。     

Numerical prediction of fire extinguishment characteristics of sodium leak collection tray in a fast breeder reactor

Sodium leak collection tray (LCT) is an efficient passive device used for the extinguishment of liquid sodium fire in case of an accidental leakage from the secondary circuit of a fast breeder reactor. The LCT essentially isolates the leaking sodium into closed containers where the resulting fire is extinguished due to limited availability of oxygen. The current work aims to highlight the combustion extinguishment characteristics of LCT through a lumped formulation by conserving the mass and energy of liquid sodium and constituent gases in various parts of the LCT. Here, the complex hydrodynamics of liquid sodium is emulated through a semi-analytical draining/sloshing model and its burning rates are predicted through a three-dimensional open pool combustion model for the tray region and a closed pool combustion model for the holdup vessel. These simulations evaluate the burning rates at discrete levels of liquid sodium which are subsequently interpolated to establish correlations involving instantaneous liquid levels and oxygen concentration. Using the correlations obtained from the draining and combustion models, the overall lumped formulation directly predicts the un-burnt sodium recoverable after the extinguishment of fire in the LCT. The predicted results of this model compare well with the available experimental data.     

SPICE evaluation of the S/N ratio for Si microstrip detectors

SPICE simulations of ac-coupled single-sided Si microstrip detectors connected to the PreShape 32 read-out chip have been performed in order to determine the geometrical characteristics (i.e., the strip pitch p and width w) which maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. All of the resistive and capacitive elements of the detector have been determined as a function of the w/p ratio by considering experimental and simulated data available in literature. The SPICE model the authors propose in this work takes into account all the main noise sources in the detector and read-out electronics. The minimum ionizing particle current signal shape has been introduced in the simulations. Two readout configurations (every strip or every second strip) have been investigated for 6.4- and 12.8-cm-long detectors. The equivalent noise charge as determined by the simulations has been compared with analytical calculations, in order to determine the limits and the corrections to a simplified analytical noise model. Finally, general guidelines for the detector design have been proposed, based on the simulation results     

SADHANA facility for simulation of natural convection in the SGDHR system of PFBR

The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500 MWe sodium cooled pool type fast reactor being constructed at Kalpakkam, India. PFBR has all the reactor components immersed in the pool of sodium and the fission heat generated in the core, is removed by the sodium circulating in the pool. During normal operation this fission heat is transferred by primary sodium to secondary sodium, which in turn transfers the heat to water in the steam generator for producing steam. The removal of the decay heat generated in the reactor core after the reactor shutdown is also very important to maintain the structural integrity of reactor core components. PFBR employs two independent systems namely, Operational Grade Decay Heat Removal system (OGDHRS) and Safety Grade Decay Heat Removal System (SGDHRS) for decay heat removal. SGDHR system is a passive system working on natural convection to ensure the core coolability even under station blackout condition. It is very important to study the thermal hydraulic behavior of Safety Grade Decay Heat Removal system of PFBR to ensure its reliable operation. A scaled down model of the circuit, named SADHANA has been modeled, designed, constructed and commissioned for demonstration and evaluation of these systems. The facility has completed around 2000 h of high temperature operation. The performance of the experimental system is satisfactory and it meets all the design requirements. At 550 °C sodium pool temperature in test vessel the secondary sodium loop generated a sodium flow of 6.7 m³/h. These experiments have revealed the adequacy and capability of SGDHR system to remove the decay heat from the fast breeder reactor core after its shutdown.     

电感式单点钠液位计的研制

介绍了最新研制的可工作在100~600℃温度范围的电感式单点钠液位计的结构与性能,着重介绍了传感器的原理结构、励磁电流频率的确定、测量系统的组成、模拟实验和钠液位测量操作,其测量误差为±2 mm。     

实时系统的性能测试

介绍在多种硬件平台下对采用VxWorks实时操作系统组建的系统的若干关键实时性能和网络性能的测试方法和测试结果。     

Testing of compton-emission type detectors of neutrons and of triaxial fission chambers in a pulsed reactor

Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 65, No. 1, pp. 59–60, July, 1988     

Evaluation of leak flow rate and jet impingement related to leak before break

Leak flow rate and jet impingement load are experimentally evaluated using very narrow and short artificial slits which simulate a through-wall fatigue crack. The following items are clarified in the experiments under BWR fluid conditions: (1) the leak flow rate from the rectangular slit is experimentally clarified and it agrees well with the analytical result when the estimated thermodynamic nonequilibrium parameter N in the present experiment is introduced; (2) the orifice effects are experimentally evaluated concerning the through-wall fatigue crack, in which the discharge coefficients C_D between 0.75 and 0.25 are obtained as a function of the exit to the stagnation area ratio A_e/A_o; (3) when very narrow and short slits are used in the jet impingement experiments, the maximum pressure on the target is higher than that of a large diameter pipe and it increases with the decrease of the flow path length to hydraulic diameter ratio L/D of the slit because of the thermodynamic nonequilibrium effect.     

Functional reliability analysis of Safety Grade Decay Heat Removal System of Indian 500 MWe PFBR

Passive systems are increasingly deployed in nuclear industry with an objective of increasing reliability and safety of operations with reduced cost. Methods for assessing the reliability of thermal-hydraulic passive systems, that is systems with moving working fluid, address the issues in natural buoyancy-driven flow that could result in a failure to meet the design safety limits under accident scenarios. This is referred as design functional reliability. This paper presents the results of functional reliability analysis carried out for the passive Safety Grade Decay Heat Removal System (SGDHRS) of Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). The analysis is carried out based on the overall approach reported in the Reliability Methods for Passive System (RMPS, European Commission) project. Functional failure probability is calculated using Monte-Carlo method and also with method of moments.     

Evaluation of K X-ray escape and crosstalk in CdTe detectors andmulti-channel detectors

The simple structure of CdTe semiconductor detectors facilitates their downsizing, and their possible application to radiographic sensors has been studied. The escape of K X-rays from these detectors increases with reduction of their dimensions and affects the measurements of X- and gamma-ray spectra. K X-rays also produce crosstalk in multi-channel detectors with adjacent channels. Therefore, K X-rays which escape from the detector elements degrade both the precision of energy spectra and spatial resolution. The ratios of escape peak integrated counts to total photon counts for various sizes of CdTe single detectors were calculated for gamma rays using the Monte Carlo method. Also, escape and crosstalk ratios were simulated for the CdTe multi-channel detectors. The theoretical results were tested experimentally for 59.54-keV gamma rays from a ²⁴¹Am radioactive source. Results showed that escape ratios for single detectors were strongly dependent on element size and thickness. The escape and crosstalk ratios increased with closer channel pitch. Our calculated results showed a good agreement with the experimental data. The calculations made it clear that K X-rays which escaped to neighboring channels induced crosstalk more frequently at smaller channel pitch in multi-channel detectors. A radiation shielding grid which blocked incident photons between the boundary channels was also tested by experiment and by calculation. It was effective in reducing the probability of escape and crosstalk