• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.187-194
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• 2011

Korea Nuclear Fuel is developing the X-GEN fuel which shows high performance and robust reliability for the worldwide supply. However, the simplified code systems such as CESEC-III which were developed in 1970s are still used in the current Non-LOCA safety analysis of OPR1000 and APR1400 plants. Therefore, it is essential to secure an advanced safety analysis methodology to make the best use of the merits of X-GEN fuel. To accomplish this purpose, the $\b{i}$ntegrated $\b{s}$afety $\b{a}$nalysis $\b{m}$ethodology (iSAM), is developed by selecting the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic code RETRAN. iSAM possesses remarkable advantages, such as generality, integrity, and designer-friendly features. That is, iSAM can be applied to both OPR1000 and APR1400 plants and uses only one computer code, RETRAN, in the whole scope of the non-LOCA safety analyses. Also the iSAM adopts the unique and automatic initialization and run tool, $\b{a}$utomatic $\b{s}$teady-$\b{s}$tate $\b{i}$nitialization and $\b{s}$afety analysis too l (ASSIST), to enable unhandy designers to use the new design code RETRAN without difficulty. In this paper, a brief overview of the iSAM is given, and the results of applying the iSAM to typical non-LOCA transients being checked during the reload design are reported. The typical non-LOCA transients selected are the single control element assembly withdrawal (SCEAW) accident, the asymmetric steam generator transients (ASGT), the locked rotor (LR) accident, and bank CEA withdrawal (BCEAW) event. Comparison to current licensing results shows a close resemblance; thus, it reveals that the iSAM can be applied to the non-LOCA safety analysis of OPR1000 and APR1400 plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.53-66
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• 1995

Since the current licensed system codes for Non-LOCA safety analysis are applicable only for a specific type PWR, it is necessary to develope a new system analysis code applicable for all apes of PWRs. As a R&D program, KAERI is developing TASS code as an interactive and faster-than-real-time code for the NSSS transient simulation of both CE and Westinghouse plane. It is flexible tool for PWR analysis which gives the user complete control over the simulation through convenient input and output options. In this paper the code applicability to Westinghouse ape plants was verified by comparing the TASS prediction to plant data of loss of AC power and loss of load transients, and comparing to the prediction of RELAP5/MOD3 for feedline break, locked rotor, steam generator tube rupture and steam line break accidents.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.596-609
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• 2002

Korea Electric Power Research Institute has developed the in-house safety analysis methodologies for non-LOCA(Loss Of Coolant Accident) events based on codes and methodologies of vendors and Electric Power Research Institute . According to the new methodologies, analyses of system responses and calculation of DNBR(Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio) during the transient have been carried out with RETRAN code and a sub-channel analysis code, respectively. However, it takes too much time to calculate DNBR for each case using the two codes to search for the limiting case from sensitivity study. To simplify the search for the limiting case, accordingly, RETRAN code has been modified to roughly calculate DNBR using hot channel modeling. The W-3 correlation is already included in RETRAN as one of the auxiliary DNBR models. However, WRB-1 and WRB-2 correlations required to analyze some Westinghouse type fuels are not considered in RETRAN DNBR models. In this paper, the RETRAN DNBR models using the correlations have been developed and the partial and complete loss of forced reactor coolant flow events have been analyzed for Yonggwang units 1 and 2 with the new methodologies to validate the models. The results of the analyses have been compared with those mentioned in the chapter 15 of the Final Safety Analysis Report.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.755-763
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• 2020

The critical flow phenomenon has been studied because of its significant effect for design basis accidents in nuclear power plants. Transition points from thermal non-equilibrium to equilibrium are different according to the geometric effect on the critical flow. This study evaluates the uncertainty parameters of the critical flow model for analysis of DBA (Design Basis Accident) with the MARS-KS (Multi-dimensional Analysis for Reactor Safety-KINS Standard) code used as an independent regulatory assessment. The uncertainty of the critical flow model is represented by three parameters including the thermal non-equilibrium factor, discharge coefficient, and length to diameter (L/D) ratio, and their ranges are determined using large-scale Marviken test data. The uncertainty range of the thermal non-equilibrium factor is updated by the MCDA (Model Calibration through Data Assimilation) method. The updated uncertainty range is confirmed using an LBLOCA (Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident) experiment in the LOFT (Loss of Fluid Test) facility. The uncertainty ranges are also used to calculate an LBLOCA of the APR (Advanced Power Reactor) 1400 NPP (Nuclear Power Plants), focusing on the effect of the PCT (Peak Cladding Temperature). The results reveal that break flow is strongly dependent on the degree of the thermal non-equilibrium state in a ruptured pipe with a small L/D ratio. Moreover, this study provides the method to handle the thermal non-equilibrium factor, discharge coefficient, and length to diameter (L/D) ratio in the system code.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.980-992
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• 2024

Steam line break accident (SLB) in the nuclear reactor is one of the representative Non-LOCA accidents in which thermal-hydraulics and neutron kinetics are strongly coupled each other. Thus, the multi-scale and multi-physics approach is applied in this study in order to examine a realistic safety margin. An entire reactor coolant system is modelled by system scale node, whereas sub-channel scale resolution is applied for the region of interest such as the reactor core. Fuel performance code is extended to consider full core pin-wise fuel behaviour. The MARU platform is developed for easy integration of the codes to be coupled. An initial stage of the steam line break accident is simulated on the MARU platform. As cold coolant is injected from the cold leg into the reactor pressure vessel, the power increases due to the moderator feedback. Three-dimensional coolant and fuel behaviour are qualitatively visualized for easy comprehension. Moreover, quantitative investigation is added by focusing on the enhancement of safety margin by means of comparing the minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR). Three factors contributing to the increase of the MDNBR are proposed: Various geometric parameters, realistic power distribution by neutron kinetics code, Radial coolant mixing including sub-channel physics model.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.875-884
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• 2009

We present three nuclear/hydrogen-related R&D activities being performed at KAIST: air-ingressed LOCA analysis code development, gas turbine analysis tool development, and hydrogen-production system analysis model development. The ICE numerical technique widely used for the safety analysis of water-reactors is successfully implemented into GAMMA, with which we solve the basic equations for continuity, momentum conservation, energy conservation of the gas mixture, and mass conservation of 6 species (He, N2, O2, CO, CO2, and H2O). GAMMA has been extensively validated using data from 14 test facilities. We developed a tool to predict the characteristics of HTGR helium turbines based on the throughflow calculation with a Newton-Raphson method that overcomes the weakness of the conventional method based on the successive iteration scheme. It is found that the current method reaches stable and quick convergence even under the off-normal condition with the same degree of accuracy. The dynamic equations for the distillation column of HI process are described with 4 material components involved in the HI process: H2O, HI, I2, H2. For the HI process we improved the Neumann model based on the NRTL (Non-Random Two-Liquid) model. The improved Neumann model predicted a total pressure with 8.6% maximum relative deviation from the data and 2.5% mean relative deviation, and liquid-liquid-separation with 9.52% maximum relative deviation from the data.