• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.702-710
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• 2016

Global concern and interest in the safety of nuclear power plants have increased considerably since the Fukushima accident. In the event of a severe accident, the reactor vessel water level cannot be measured. The reactor vessel water level has a direct impact on confirming the safety of reactor core cooling. However, in the event of a severe accident, it may be possible to estimate the reactor vessel water level by employing other information. The cascaded fuzzy neural network (CFNN) model can be used to estimate the reactor vessel water level through the process of repeatedly adding fuzzy neural networks. The developed CFNN model was found to be sufficiently accurate for estimating the reactor vessel water level when the sensor performance had deteriorated. Therefore, the developed CFNN model can help provide effective information to operators in the event of a severe accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권3호
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• pp.495-503
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• 2017

Operators of nuclear power plants may not be equipped with sufficient information during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), which can be fatal, or they may not have sufficient time to analyze the information they do have, even if this information is adequate. It is not easy to predict the progression of LOCAs in nuclear power plants. Therefore, accurate information on the LOCA break position and size should be provided to efficiently manage the accident. In this paper, the LOCA break size is predicted using a cascaded fuzzy neural network (CFNN) model. The input data of the CFNN model are the time-integrated values of each measurement signal for an initial short-time interval after a reactor scram. The training of the CFNN model is accomplished by a hybrid method combined with a genetic algorithm and a least squares method. As a result, LOCA break size is estimated exactly by the proposed CFNN model.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.723-730
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• 2019

Acquiring instrumentation signals generated from nuclear power plants (NPPs) is essential to maintain nuclear reactor integrity or to mitigate an abnormal state under normal operating conditions or severe accident circumstances. However, various safety-critical instrumentation signals from NPPs cannot be accurately measured on account of instrument degradation or failure under severe accident circumstances. Reactor vessel (RV) water level, which is an accident monitoring variable directly related to reactor cooling and prevention of core exposure, was predicted by applying a few signals to deep neural networks (DNNs) during severe accidents in NPPs. Signal data were obtained by simulating the postulated loss-of-coolant accidents at hot- and cold-legs, and steam generator tube rupture using modular accident analysis program code as actual NPP accidents rarely happen. To optimize the DNN model for RV water level prediction, a genetic algorithm was used to select the numbers of hidden layers and nodes. The proposed DNN model had a small root mean square error for RV water level prediction, and performed better than the cascaded fuzzy neural network model of the previous study. Consequently, the DNN model is considered to perform well enough to provide supporting information on the RV water level to operators.