Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Development of an on-demand flooding safety system achieving long-term inexhaustible cooling of small modular reactors employing metal containment vessel

  • Jae Hyung Park (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Jihun Im (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Hyo Jun An (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Yonghee Kim (Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Jeong Ik Lee (Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Sung Joong Kim (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University)
  • Received : 2023.07.13
  • Accepted : 2024.02.06
  • Published : 2024.07.25
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Abstract

This paper proposes a flooding safety system (FSS) and its operation strategy that can provide long-term safety and effective maintenance for modules of small modular reactor (SMR) and metal containment maintained at dried environment during normal operation. During hypothesized accidents, the FSS re-collects the evaporated steam into the common pool by the condenser installed above the common water pool and provides an emergency coolant for the cavities and auxiliary pools. This study suggested that the condensate re-collection strategy using the FSS can effectively delay the depletion of available water in response to the accidents. Without recollection, the achievable grace periods ranged from 44 to 1507 days for six-module and one-module accidents, respectively. However, with a full re-collection (ratio = 1.0), the time to total depletion of emergency coolant was estimated indefinite. Even with a partial re-collection ratio of 0.3, a grace period of 83.5 days could be ensured for a six-module transient. This study reported the effectiveness of condensate re-collection and the FSS as an innovative safety management strategy and system. Employing a condensate re-collection strategy with a high re-collection ratio can enhance the long-term safety and effective convenience of SMR operations and maintenance.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT: Ministry of Science and ICT), Republic of Korea (No. NRF-2022M2D2A1A02061334 and NRF-2021M2D2A2076382).

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