• Title/Summary/Keyword: CANDU Reactors

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THE IMPACT OF POWER COEFFICIENT OF REACTIVITY ON CANDU 6 REACTORS

  • Kastanya, D.;Boyle, S.;Hopwood, J.;Park, Joo Hwan
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.573-580
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    • 2013
  • The combined effects of reactivity coefficients, along with other core nuclear characteristics, determine reactor core behavior in normal operation and accident conditions. The Power Coefficient of Reactivity (PCR) is an aggregate indicator representing the change in reactor core reactivity per unit change in reactor power. It is an integral quantity which captures the contributions of the fuel temperature, coolant void, and coolant temperature reactivity feedbacks. All nuclear reactor designs provide a balance between their inherent nuclear characteristics and the engineered reactivity control features, to ensure that changes in reactivity under all operating conditions are maintained within a safe range. The $CANDU^{(R)}$ reactor design takes advantage of its inherent nuclear characteristics, namely a small magnitude of reactivity coefficients, minimal excess reactivity, and very long prompt neutron lifetime, to mitigate the demand on the engineered systems for controlling reactivity and responding to accidents. In particular, CANDU reactors have always taken advantage of the small value of the PCR associated with their design characteristics, such that the overall design and safety characteristics of the reactor are not sensitive to the value of the PCR. For other reactor design concepts a PCR which is both large and negative is an important aspect in the design of their engineered systems for controlling reactivity. It will be demonstrated that during Loss of Regulation Control (LORC) and Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) events, the impact of variations in power coefficient, including a hypothesized larger than estimated PCR, has no safety-significance for CANDU reactor design. Since the CANDU 6 PCR is small, variations in the range of values for PCR on the performance or safety of the reactor are not significant.

PMCR-A Power Mapping and Calibration Routing for 600 MWe CANDU-PHW Reactors

  • Oh, Se-Ki;G.Kugler
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.275-286
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    • 1979
  • In 600 MWe CANDU-PHW reactors PMCR will be used on-site for calibration of the regional overpower system. PMCR will be executed off-line in one of the station computers. The program calculates accurate channel power maps by incorporating a fuel turnup dependent flux to power conversion algorithm. Fuel turnup is calculated by PMCR, hence it is independent of other software. Extensive comparisons with the uniform flux/power conversion approximations were made. Significant improvements in power mapping accuracy are achieved with PMCR.

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SAFETY ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY FOR AGED CANDU® 6 NUCLEAR REACTORS

  • Hartmann, Wolfgang;Jung, Jong Yeob
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.581-588
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    • 2013
  • This paper deals with the Safety Analysis for $CANDU^{(R)}$ 6 nuclear reactors as affected by main Heat Transport System (HTS) aging. Operational and aging related changes of the HTS throughout its lifetime may lead to restrictions in certain safety system settings and hence some restriction in performance under certain conditions. A step in confirming safe reactor operation is the tracking of relevant data and their corresponding interpretation by the use of appropriate thermal-hydraulic analytic models. Safety analyses ranging from the assessment of safety limits associated with the prevention of intermittent fuel sheath dryout for a slow Loss of Regulation (LOR) analysis and fission gas release after a fuel failure are summarized. Specifically for fission gas release, the thermal-hydraulic analysis for a fresh core and an 11 Effective Full Power Years (EFPY) aged core was summarized, leading to the most severe stagnation break sizes for the inlet feeder break and the channel failure time. Associated coolant conditions provide the input data for fuel analyses. Based on the thermal-hydraulic data, the fission product inventory under normal operating conditions may be calculated for both fresh and aged cores, and the fission gas release may be evaluated during the transient. This analysis plays a major role in determining possible radiation doses to the public after postulated accidents have occurred.

Tritium Bioassay and Dosimetry at a CANDU Reactors

  • Kim, Hee-Geun;Yoo, Kyung-Yeong
    • Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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    • 1996.05d
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    • pp.46-50
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    • 1996
  • Tritium dose management is an important aspect of the radiation protection program at CANDU type reactor sites. This paper describes the bioassay and dosimetry of tritium at CANDU reactor sites, especially for Wolsung Nuclear Power Plant. It presents a compilation of information drawn from published papers, technical reports, international and national guidelines as well as practical experience both in Korean and Canadian CANDU Nuclear Power Plants. The implementation of this program would provide a technical basis for demonstrating to workers, managers and regulators that tritium bioassay measurements, dose calculations and records should be of acceptable quality and should meet overall radiation protection program objectives.

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Enthalpy and Void Distributions in Subchannels of PHWR Fuel Bundles

  • Park, J.W.;Choi, H.;Rhee, B.W.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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    • 1998.05a
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    • pp.502-507
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    • 1998
  • Two different types the CANDU fuel bundles hue been modeled for the ASSERT-IV code subchannel analysis. From calculated values of mixture enthalpy and void paction distributions in the fuel bundles, it is found that net buoyancy effect is pronounced in the central region of the DUPIC fuel bundle when compared with the standard CANDU fuel bundle. It is also found that the central region of the DUPIC fuel bundle can be cooled more efficiently than that of the standard fuel bundle. From calculated mixture enthalpy distribution at the exit of fuel channel, it is found that the mixture enthalpy and void fraction can be highest in the peripheral region of the DUPIC fuel bundle. On the other hand, the enthalpy and the void fraction were found to be highest in the central region of the standard CANDU fuel bundle at the exit of the fuel channel. This study shows that the subchannel analysis is very useful assessing thermal behavior of the fuel bundle that could be used in CANDU reactors.

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Uncertainties impact on the major FOMs for severe accidents in CANDU 6 nuclear power plant

  • R.M. Nistor-Vlad;D. Dupleac;G.L. Pavel
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.55 no.7
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    • pp.2670-2677
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    • 2023
  • In the nuclear safety studies, a new trend refers to the evaluation of uncertainties as a mandatory component of best-estimate safety analysis which is a modern and technically consistent approach being known as BEPU (Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty). The major objectives of this study consist in performing a study of uncertainties/sensitivities of the major analysis results for a generic CANDU 6 Nuclear Power Plant during Station Blackout (SBO) progression to understand and characterize the sources of uncertainties and their effects on the key figure-of-merits (FOMs) predictions in severe accidents (SA). The FOMs of interest are hydrogen mass generation and event timings such as the first fuel channel failure time, beginning of the core disassembly time, core collapse time and calandria vessel failure time. The outcomes of the study, will allow an improvement of capabilities and expertise to perform uncertainty and sensitivity analysis with severe accident codes for CANDU 6 Nuclear Power Plant.