• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2499-2508
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• 2021

Passive containment cooling systems (PCCSs) have been actively studied to improve the inherent safety of nuclear power plants. Hered, we present two concepts, open-loop PCCS (OL-PCCS) and closed-loop PCCS (CL-PCCS), applicable to the PWR with a concrete-type containment. We analyzed the heat-removal performance and flow instability of these PCCS concepts using the GOTHIC code. In both cases, PCCS performance improved when a passive containment cooling heat exchanger (PCCX) was installed in the lower part of the containment building. The OL-PCCS was found to be superior in terms of heat-removal performance. However, in terms of flow instability, the OL-PCCS was more vulnerable than the CL-PCCS. In particular, the possibility of flow instability was higher when the PCCX was installed in the upper part of the containment. Therefore, the installation location of the OL-PCCS should be restricted to minimize flow instability. Conversely, a CL-PCCS can be installed without any positional restriction by adjusting the initial system pressure within the loop, which eliminates flow instability. These results could be used as base data for the thermo-hydraulic evaluation of PCCS in PWR with a large dry concrete-type containment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.358-363
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• 1995

A study on passive cooling systems for concrete containment of advanced pressurized water reactors has been performed. The proposed passive containment cooling system (PCCS) consist of (1) condenser units located inside containment, (2) a steam condensing pool outside containment at higher elevation, and (3) downcommer/riser piping systems which provide coolant flow paths. During an accident causing high containment pressure and temperature, the steam/air mixture in containment is condensed on the outer surface of condenser tubes transferring the heat to coolant flowing inside tubes. The coolant transfers the heat to the steam condensing pool via natural circulation due to density difference. This PCCS has the following characteristic: (1) applicable to concrete containment system, (2) no limitation in plant capacity expansion, (3) efficient steam condensing mechanism (dropwise or film condensation at the surface of condenser tube), and (4) utilization of a fully passive mechanism. A preliminary conceptual design work has been done based on steady-state assumptions to determine important design parameter including the elevation of components and required heat transfer area of the condenser tube. Assuming a decay power level of 2%, the required heat transfer area for 1,000MWe plant is assessed to be about 2,000 ㎡ (equivalent to 1,600 of 10 m-long, 4-cm-OD tubes) with the relative elevation difference of 38 m between the condenser and steam condensing pool and the riser diameter of 0.62 m.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3196-3206
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• 2021

For the Korean design of the PCCS (passive containment cooling system) in an innovative PWR, the overall thermal resistance around a condenser tube is dominated by the heat transfer coefficient of steam condensation on the exterior surface. It has been reported, however, that the calculated heat transfer coefficients by thermal-hydraulic system codes were much lower than measured data in separate effect tests. In this study, a new empirical model of steam condensation in the presence of a noncondensable gas was implemented into the MARS-KS 1.4 code to replace the conventional Colburn-Hougen model. The selected correlation had been developed from condensation test data obtained at the JERICHO (JNU Experimental Rig for Investigation of Condensation Heat transfer On tube) facility, and considered the effect of the Grashof number for naturally circulating gas mixture and the curvature of the condenser tube. The modified MARS-KS code was applied to simulate the transient response of the containment equipped with the PCCS to the large-break loss-of-coolant accident. The heat removal performances of the PCCS and corresponding evolution of the containment pressure were compared to those calculated via the original model. Various thermal-hydraulic parameters associated with the natural circulation operation through the heat transport circuit were also investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1134-1145
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• 2021

A design parameter study is presented for the closed-loop type passive containment cooling system (PCCS) which is equipped with two heat exchangers: one installed at the inside of the containment and the other submerged in the water pool at the outside of the containment. A GOTHIC code model for PCCS performance analyses was set up and the design parameters such as the heat exchanger sizes, locations, and water pool tank volumes were analyzed to investigate the feasibility of installing this type of PCCS in PWRs like OPR-1000 being operated in Korea. We identified the size of the circulation loop and heat exchangers as major design parameters affecting the performance of PCCS. The analyses showed that the heat exchangers in the inside of the containment would be more influential on the heat removal capability of PCCS than that installed in the water pool at the outside of the containment. Hence, it was recommended to down-size the heat exchangers in the water pool to optimize PCCS without compromising its performance. Based on the parametric study, it was demonstrated that a closed-loop type PCCS could be designed sufficiently compact for installation in the available space within the containment of PWRs like OPR-1000.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.92-98
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• 2018

The flow of cooling water in a passive containment cooling system (PCCS), used to remove heat released in design basis accidents from a concrete containment of light water nuclear power plant, was conducted in order to investigate the thermo-fluid equilibrium among many parallel tubes of PCCS. Numerical simulations of the subcooled boiling flow within a coolant loop of a PCCS, which will be installed in innovative pressurized-water reactor (PWR), were conducted using the commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS-CFX. Shear stress transport (SST) and the RPI model were used for turbulence closure and subcooled flow boiling, respectively. As the first step, the simplified geometry of PCCS with 36 tubes was modeled in order to reduce computational resource. Even and uneven thermal loading conditions were applied at the outer walls of parallel tubes for the simulation of the coolant flow in the PCCS at the initial phase of accident. It was observed that the natural circulation maintained in single-phase for all even and uneven thermal loading cases. For uneven thermal loading cases, coolant velocity in each tube were increased according to the applied heat flux. However, the flows were mixed well in the header and natural circulation of the whole cooling loop was not affected by uneven thermal loading significantly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.941-952
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• 2017

Using the Generation of Thermal-Hydraulic Information for Containments (GOTHIC) code, thermal-hydraulic phenomena that occur inside the containment have been investigated, along with the preliminary design of the passive containment cooling system (PCCS) of an innovative pressurized water reactor (PWR). A GOTHIC containment model was constructed with reference to the design data of the Advanced Power Reactor 1400, and report related PCCS. The effects of the design parameters were evaluated for passive containment cooling tank (PCCT) geometry, PCCS heat exchanger (PCCX) location, and surface area. The analyzed results, obtained using the single PCCT, showed that repressurization and reheating phenomena had occurred. To resolve these problems, a coupled PCCT concept was suggested and was found to continually decrease the containment pressure and temperature without repressurization and reheating. If the installation level of the PCCX is higher than that of the PCCT, it may affect the PCCS performance. Additionally, it was confirmed that various means of increasing the external surface area of the PCCX, such as fins, could help improve the energy removal performance of the PCCS. To improve the PCCS design and investigate its performance, further studies are needed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.3918-3929
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• 2021

In this study, we experimentally investigate of a two-phase natural circulation loop that functions as a passive containment cooling system (PCCS). The experimental apparatus comprises two loops: a hot loop, for simulating containment under severe accidents, and a natural circulation loop, for simulating the PCCS. The experiment is conducted by controlling the pressure and inlet temperature of the hot loop in the range of 0.59-0.69 MPa (abs) and 119.6-158.8 ℃, respectively. The heat balance of the hot loop is established and compared with a natural circulation loop to assess the thermal reliability of the experimental apparatus, and an additional system is installed to measure the vapor mass flow rate. Furthermore, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics are considered in terms of a temperature, mass flow rate, heat transfer coefficient (HTC), etc. The flow rate of the natural circulation loop is induced primarily by flashing, and a distortion is observed in the local HTC because of the fully develop as well as subcooled boiling. As a result, we present the amount of heat capacity that the PCCS can passively remove according to the experimental conditions and compared the heat transfer performance using Chen's and Dittus-Boelter correlation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1066-1080
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• 2024

SMART100 has a containment pressure and radioactivity suppression system (CPRSS) for passive containment cooling system (PCCS). This prevents overheating and over-pressurization of a containment through direct contact condensation in an in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST) and wall condensation in a CPRSS heat exchanger (CHX) in an emergency cool-down tank (ECT). The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) constructed scaled-down test facilities, SISTA1 and SISTA2, for the thermal-hydraulic validation of the SMART100 CPRSS. Three separate effect tests were performed using SISTA1 to confirm the heat removal characteristics of SMART100 CPRSS. When the low mass flux steam with or without non-condensable gas is released into an IRWST, the conditions for mitigation of the chugging phenomenon were identified, and the physical variables were quantified by the 3D reconstruction method. The local behavior of the non-condensable gas was measured after condensation inside heat exchanger using a traverse system. Stratification of non-condensable gas occurred in large tank of the natural circulation loop. SISTA2 was used to simulate a small break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLCOA) transient. Since the test apparatus was a metal tank, compensations of initial heat transfer to the material and effect of heat loss during long-term operation were important for simulating cooling performance of SMART100 CPRSS. The pressure of SMART100 CPRSS was maintained below the design limit for 3 days even under sufficiently conservative conditions of an SBLOCA transient.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.268-273
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• 2016

An innovative safety concept for a light water reactor has been developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. It is a unique concept that adopts both a fast heat transfer mechanism for a small containment and a changing mechanism of the cooling geometry to take advantage of the potential, thermal, and dynamic energies of the cold water in the containment. It can bring about rapid cooling of the containment and long-term cooling of the decay heat. By virtue of this innovative concept, nuclear fuel damage events can be prevented. The ultimate heat transfer mechanism contributes to minimization of the heat exchanger size and containment volume. A small containment can ensure the underground construction, which can use river or seawater as an ultimate heat sink. The changing mechanism of the cooling geometry simplifies several safety systems and unifies diverse functions. Simplicity of the present safety system does not require any operator actions during events or accidents. Therefore, the unique safety concept of PX can realize both economic competitiveness and inherent safety.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.516-525
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• 1994

Since the TMI and Chernobyl accidents, many passive safety features are suggested in advanced reactors in order to enhance the safety in future nuclear power plants. In order to verify the effectiveness and provide the data for detailed design of passive cooling system, in the present work, the effects of air inlet position and external condition on the natural circulated air flow rate and the natural and forced convective heat transfer coefficient have been investigated for the one-side heated closed path such as the passive containment cooling system of the Westinghouse's AP-600. A series of experiments have been peformed with the 1/26th scaled segment type test facility of the AP-600 passive containment. Under natural and forced convection, the air velocities and temperatures are measured at several points of the air flow path. The experimental result are compared with a simple one-dimensional model and it shows a good agreement.