• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2748-2754
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• 2022

Because existing reactant coolant system (RCS) leakage detection mechanisms are insensitive to small leaks, a real-time, direct detection system with a detection threshold below 0.5 gpm·hr^-1 was studied. A beta-ray detection system using a silicon detector with good energy resolution for beta rays and a low gamma-ray response was proposed. The detection performance in the leakage condition was evaluated through experiments and simulations. The concentration of ¹⁶N in the coolant corresponding to a coolant leakage of 0.5 gpm was calculated using the analytic method and ORIGEN-ARP. Based on the concentration of ¹⁶N and the measurement of the silicon detector with ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y, the beta-ray count rate was estimated using MCNPX. To evaluate the effect of gamma rays inside the containment building, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was calculated. To evaluate the count rate ratio, the radiation field inside the containment building was simulated using MCNPX, and response evaluation experiments were performed using beta and gamma rays on the silicon detector. The expected beta-ray count rate at 0.5 gpm leakage was 7.26 × 10⁵ counts/sec, and the signal-to-background count rate ratio exceeded 88 for a transport time of 10 s, demonstrating its suitability for operation inside a reactor containment building.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.292-309
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• 1987

A large dry PWR containment response analysis for postulated severe accidents was performed as part of the Zion Risk Rebaselining study for input to the U.S. NRC's "Reactor Risk Reference Document," NUREG-1150. The Methodologies used in the present work were developed as part of the Severe Accident Risk Reduction Program (SARRP) at Sandia National Laboratory specifically for the Surry Plant, but they were extrapolated to Zion. Major steps of the quantification of risk from a nuclear power plant are first outlined. Then, the methodologies of containment response analysis for severe accidents used for Zion are described in detail: major features of the containment event tree (CET) analysis codes and CET quantification procedures are summarized. In addition, plant specific features important to containment response analysis are presented along with the containment loading and performance issues included in the present uncertainty analysis. Finally, a brief summary of the results of deterministic and statistical containment event tree analysis is presented to provide a perspective on the large dry PWR containment response for postulated severe accidents.accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2003

Tension tests of six half-thickness concrete containment wall elements were conducted as a part of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) program. The aim of the KAERI test program is to provide a test-verified analytical method for estimating capacities of concrete reactor containment buildings under internal overpressurization from postulated degraded core accidents. The data from the tests reported herein should be useful for benchmarking analytical method that require modeling of material behavior including concrete cracking behavior and reinforcement/concrete interaction exhibited by the test. Major test variable is compressive strength of concrete, and its effect on the behavior of prestressed concrete panel subjected to biaxial tension is investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.291-298
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• 1997

In advanced nuclear reactors, the passive containment cooling has been suggested to enhance the safety. The passive cooling has two mechanisms, air natural convection and oater cooling with evaporation. To confirm the coolability of PCCS, many works have been performed experimentally and numerically. In this study, the water cooling test was performed to obtain the evaporative heat transfer coefficients in a scaled don segment type PCCS facility which have same configuration with AP600 prototype containment. Air-steam mixture temperature and velocity, relative humidity and well heat flux are measured. The local steam mass flow rates through the vertical plate part of the facility are calculated from the measured data to obtain evaporative heat transfer coefficients. The measured evaporative heat transfer coefficients are compared with an analytical model which use a mass transfer coefficients. From the comparison, the predicted coefficients show good agreement with experimental data however, some discrepancies exist when the effect of wave motion is not considered. Finally, a new correlation on evaporative heat transfer coefficients are developed using the experimental values.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.10 no.3 s.30
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• pp.9-18
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• 2005

During a hypothetical severe accident in a nuclear power plant (NPP), hydrogen is generated by the active reaction of fuel-cladding and steam in the reactor pressure vessel and released with steam into the containment. In order to mitigate hydrogen hazards possibly occurred in the NPP containment, hydrogen mitigation system (HMS) is usually adopted. The design of the next generation NPP (APR1400) designed in Korea specifies 26 passive autocatalytic recombiners and 10 igniters installed in the containment for the hydrogen mitigation. in this study, the analysis of the hydrogen and steam behavior during a total lose of feed water (TLOFW) accident in the APR1400 containment has been conducted by using the CFD code GASFLOW. During the accident, a huge amount of hot water, steam, and hydrogen is released in the in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST). The current design of the APR1400 includes flap-type dampers at the IRWST vents which are operated depending on the pressure difference between inside and outside of the IRWST. it was found that the flaps strongly affects the flow structure of the steam and hydrogen in the containment. The possibilities of a flame acceleration and transition from deflagration to detonation (DDT) were evaluated by using Sigma-Lambda criteria. Numerical results indicate the DDT possibility could be heavily reduced in the IRWST compartment when the flaps are installed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.995-1004
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• 2009

The Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) is an evolutionary advanced light water reactor (ALWR) based on the Optimized Power Reactor 1000 (OPR1000), which is in operation in Korea. The APR1400 incorporates a variety of engineering improvements and operational experience to enhance safety, economics, and reliability. The advanced design features and improvements of the APR1400 design include a pilot operated safety relief valve (POSRV), a four-train safety injection system with direct vessel injection (DVI), a fluidic device (FD) in the safety injection tank, an in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST), an external reactor vessel cooling system, and an integrated head assembly (IHA). Development of the APR1400 started in 1992 and continued for ten years. The APR1400 design received design certification from the Korean nuclear regulatory body in May of2002. Currently, two construction projects for the APR1400 are in progress in Korea.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.442-443
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• 2005

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.70-77
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• 2016

In this paper, the structural design and integrity evaluations for a reactor vessel of PGSFR sodium-cooled fast reactor(150MWe) are carried out in compliance with ASME BPV III, Division 5 Subsection HB. The reactor vessel is designed with a direct contact of primary sodium coolant to its inner surface and has a double vessel concept enclosing by containment vessel. To assure the structural integrity for 60 years design lifetime and elevated operating temperature of $545^{\circ}C$, which can invoke creep and creep-fatigue damage, the structural integrity evaluations are carried out in compliance with the ASME code rules. The design loads considered in this evaluations are primary loads and operation thermal cycling loads of normal heat-up and cool-down. From the evaluations, the PGSFR reactor vessel satisfies the ASME code limits but it was found that there is a little design margin of creep damage for inner surface at the region of cold pool free surface.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.653-660
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• 2015

Technologies for reducing construction duration are key factors in nuclear power plant construction projects, as a reduction in construction duration at the construction phase leads to a reduction in construction cost and an increase in profits through the early operation of the nuclear power plant. To analyze the constructability of the height of single-layer placement of formwork for the Reactor Containment Building (RCB) exterior wall through lateral pressure according to the height of concrete placement, the deformation criteria for formwork, and a new form design, 'MIDAS GEN (hereinafter referred to as MIDAS)' is used in this study. The cost and workload of formwork are derived according to the unit of height of the RCB exterior wall. Based on the result, it was found that the higher the RCB exterior wall, the higher the material cost, and the less the construction duration and the less the total number of formwork layers. Based on this result, it is believed that the material cost and the construction duration can be appropriately determined according to the formwork height.