• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.144-155
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• 2023

The core catcher is used as a passive safety system in new generation nuclear power plants to create a space in the containment for the placing and cooling of the molten corium under various severe accidents. This research investigates the role of the core catcher in the VVER-1000 reactor containment system in mitigating the effects of core meltdown under various severe accidents within the context of the Ex-vessel Melt Retention (EVMR) strategy. Hence, a comparison study of three severe accidents is conducted, including Station Black-Out (SBO), SBO combined with the Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LB-LOCA), and SBO combined with the Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident (SB-LOCA). Numerical comparative simulations are performed for the aforementioned scenario with and without the EX-vessel core-catcher. The results showed that considering the EX-Vessel core catcher reduces the amount of hydrogen by about 18.2 percent in the case of SBO + LB-LOCA, and hydrogen production decreases by 12.4 percent in the case of SBO + SB-LOCA. Furthermore, in the presence of an EX-Vessel core-catcher, the production of gases such as CO and CO2 for the SBO accident is negligible. It was revealed that the greatest decrease in pressure and temperature of the containment is related to the SBO accident.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2013

A core catcher is considered as a promising engineered system to stabilize the molten corium in the containment during a postulated severe accident in a nuclear power plant. Conceptually, the core catcher consists of a carbon steel body, sacrificial material, protection material, and engineered cooling channel. The cooling capacity of the engineered cooling channel should be guaranteed to remove the decay heat of the molten corium. The flow in ex-vessel core catcher is a combined problem of a two-phase flow in the engineered cooling channel and a single-phase natural circulation in the whole core catcher system. In this study, the analysis of the test facility for the core catcher using the CUPID code, which is a three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic code for the simulation of two-phase flows, was carried out to evaluate its cooling capacity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.561-574
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• 2009

First ex-vessel core catcher has been applied to the practical design of NPPs with VVER-1000 reactors built in China (Tyanvan) and India (Kudankulam) for severe accident management (SAM) and mitigation of SA consequences. The paper presents the concept and basic design of this crucible-type core catcher as well as an evaluation of its efficiency. The important role of oxidic sacrificial material is discussed. Insight into the behaviour of the molten pool, which forms in the catcher after core relocation from the reactor vessel, is provided. It is shown that heat loads on the water-cooled vessel walls are kept within acceptable limits and that the necessary margins for departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) and of vessel failure caused by thermo-mechanical stress are satisfactorily provided for.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1043-1047
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• 2012

The European nuclear design requirements, which should be satisfied by nuclear reactors in Europe, usually recommend a so-called core catcher, which is a molten core ex-vessel cooling facility, to manage a severe accident at a nuclear reactor. Two different types of core catcher concepts are compared to determine their abilities to manage severe accidents and cool core melts. The study reveals that direct cooling is better for cooling capacity and is convenient to construct, while indirect cooing is better for the management of a severe accident.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

EU-APR1400, the Korean nuclear reactor design for European market adopts a so-called core catcher for ex-vessel molten corium retention and cooling as a severe-accident mitigation system. Sacrificial material, which controls melt properties and modifies melt conditions favorable for corium cooling and retention, is usually employed to protect core catcher body from molten corium. Since molten corium can be ejected through a breach of a reactor pressure vessel and impinged on the sacrificial material with enhanced heat transfer at a severe accident, it is very important to predict ablation rate of sacrificial material due to corium jet impingement accurately for core catcher design. In this paper, sacrificial-material ablation model based on boundary layer theory is suggested and compared with the experimental results by KAERI.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.261-272
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• 2012

Molten Core Concrete Interaction (MCCI) is a complex process characterized by concrete ablation and volatile generation; Thermal and solutal convection in a bubble-agitated melt; Physico-chemical evolution of the corium pool with a wide solidification range (of the order of 1000 K). Twelve experiments have been carried out in the VULCANO facility with prototypic corium and sustained heating. The dry oxidic corium tests have contributed to show that silica-rich concrete experience an anisotropic ablation. This unexpected ablation pattern is quite reproducible and can be recalculated, provided an empirical anisotropy factor is assumed. Dry tests with oxide and metal liquid phases have also yielded unexpected results: a larger than expected steel oxidation and unexpected topology of the metallic phase (at the bottom of the cavity and also on the vertical concrete walls). Finally, VULCANO has proved its interest for the study of mitigation solutions such as the COMET bottom flooding core catcher.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.393-394
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• 2004

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.425-429
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• 2011

In the unlikely of nuclear reactor meltdown, the leaked core melt or corium must be contained in a device called core-catcher so that the corium can be cooled and stabilized. The ex-vessel behavior of corium involves complex physical and chemical mechanisms of flow propagation, heat transfer, and reactions with sacrificial substrates. In this study, the detailed characteristics of corium flow and heat transfer were investigated by using a commercial CFD code for VULCANO VE-U7 test reported in the literature. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) model was used to predict the interfacial surface formation of corium and the surrounding air, and the discrete ordinate model was adopted to calculate radiation between corium and the surroundings. It was found that cooling via radiation through the top surface of corium had a dominant effect on the temperature and viscosity profiles at the front of the corium flow.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.209-215
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• 2015

The effects of the mounting location of ICI cables on severe accident mitigation systems, specially IVR-ERVC (In-Vessel Retention by External Reactor Vessel Cooling) and core catcher (Ex-vessel corium retention and cooling system), are investigated. The effects of bottom-mounted ICI strategy on severe accident mitigation are summarized and advantages of top-mounted ICI to improve severe accident mitigation are also highlighted.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.502-510
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• 2009

Multiprecision squaring is one of the most significant algorithms in the core public key cryptography operation. The aim of this work is to present a new improved squaring algorithm compared with the MIRACL's multi precision squaring algorithm in which the previous work [1] on multiprecision multiplication is implemented. First, previous works on multiprecision multiplication and standard squaring are analyzed. Then, our new Lazy Doubling squaring algorithm is introduced. In MIRACLE library [3], Scott's Carry-Catcher Hybrid multiplication technique [1] is applied to implementation of multiprecision multiplication and squaring. Experimental results of the Carry-Catcher hybrid squaring algorithm and the proposed Lazy Doubling squaring algorithm both of which are tested on Atmega128 CPU show that proposed idea has achieved significant performance improvements. The proposed Lazy Doubling Squaring algorithm reduces addition instructions by the fact $a_0\;{\ast}\;2\;+\;a_1\;{\ast}\;2\;+\;...\;+\;a_{n-1}\;{\ast}\;2\;+\;a_n\;{\ast}\;2\;=\;(a_0\;+\;a_1\;+\;...\;+\;a_{n-1}\;+\;a_n)\;{\ast}\;2$ while the standard squaring algorithm reduces multiplication instructions by the fact $S_{ij}\;=\;x_i\;{\ast}\;x_j\;=\;S_{ij}$. Experimental results show that the proposed squaring method is 25% faster than that in MIRACL.