Abstract
Inspection of RCS flow measurements for the domestic pressurized water reactors has been performed by the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) as one of the authorized periodical inspection activities. The inspection results for the Westinghouse-type plants reveal that 1) the RCS flow instrumentation has been calibrated by using the initial design and commissioning test result, without reflecting the cycle specific reference flow measurements, 2) the loop-to-loop now variation in the actual flow measurement which has not been considered in the safety analysis affects the asymmetric How transient results, and 3) the measured RCS flows in Kori 3 and 4, Yonggwang 1 and 2 do not support the definition of the best estimate RCS flow, approaching the RCS flow limit. In this study, the revealed problems were discussed with review of the design and the RCS flow measurement uncertainty evaluation, and the technical approaches and recommendations for resolving these problems were proposed.
