• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.61-68
• /
• 2017

Reactor pressure vessel (RPV) under severe accident conditions accompanied by core melting is exposed to direct high-temperature thermal loads. Understanding the creep behavior of the material is one of the most important factors for evaluating the structural integrity at these conditions. While damage evaluation studies have been conducted on critical structures of nuclear power plants through finite element (FE) analyses considering creep behavior, for accurate creep damage evaluation, constitutive equations considered in the FE analyses may have different results depending on the time hardening and strain hardening models as well as the tertiary creep consideration. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the creep damage under severe accident conditions by using FE method for a representative domestic RPV material, SA508 Gr.3. The effect of material hardening models and constitutive equations which are the main variables were also investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.833-841
• /
• 2021

During the postulated severe accident of nuclear reactor, eutectic reaction leads to low-temperature melting of fuel cladding and early failure of core structure. In order to model eutectic melting with the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method, the eutectic reaction model is developed to simulate the eutectic reaction phenomenon. The coupling of mass diffusion and phase diagram is applied to calculate the eutectic reaction with the uniform temperature. A heat transfer formula is proposed based on the phase diagram to handle the heat release or absorption during the process of eutectic reaction, and it can combine with mass diffusion and phase diagram to describe the eutectic reaction with temperature variation. The heat transfer formula is verified by the one-dimensional melting simulations and the predicted interface position agrees well with the theoretical solution. In order to verify the eutectic reaction models, the eutectic reaction of uranium and iron in two semi-infinite domains is simulated, and the profile of solid thickness decrease over time follows the parabolic law. The modified MPS method is applied to calculate Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) experiment, the penetration rate in the simulations are agreeable with the experiment results. In addition, a hypothetical case based on the TREAT experiment is also conducted to validate the eutectic reaction with temperature variation, the results present continuity with the simulations of TREAT experiment. Thus the improved method is proved to be capable of simulating the eutectic reaction in the severe accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.873-879
• /
• 2024

A sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) core has a potential of prompt criticality due to a change of core material distribution during a severe accident, and the resultant energy release has been one of the safety issues of SFRs. In this study, the safety assessment of an unprotected loss-of-flow (ULOF) in a small SFR (SSFR) has been performed using the SIMMER-IV computer code, which couples the models of space- and time-dependent neutronics and multi-component, multi-field thermal hydraulics in three dimensions. The code, therefore, is applicable to the simulations of transient behaviors of extended disrupted core material motion and its reactivity effects during the transition phase (TP) of ULOF, including a potential of prompt-criticality power excursions driven by fuel compaction. Several conservative assumptions are used in the TP analysis by SIMMER-IV. It was found out that one of the important mechanisms that drives the reactivity-inserting fuel motion was sodium vapor pressure resulted from a fuel-coolant interaction (FCI), which itself was non-energetic local phenomenon. The uncertainties relating to FCI is also evaluated in much conservative way in the sensitivity analysis. From this study, the ULOF characteristics in an SSFR have been understood. Occurrence of recriticality events under conservative assumptions are plausible, but their energy releases are limited.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2007.05b
• /
• pp.3491-3496
• /
• 2007

If a molten core is released from a reactor vessel into a reactor cavity during a severe accident, an important safety issue of coolability of the molten core from top-flooding and concrete ablation due to a molten core concrete interaction (MCCI) is still unresolved. The released molten core debris would attack the concrete wall and basemat of the reactor cavity, which will lead to inevitable concrete decompositions and possible radiological releases. In a OECD/MCCI project scheduled for 4 years from 2002. 1 to 2005. 12, a series of tests were performed to secure the data for cooling the molten core spread out at the reactor cavity and for the 2-D long-term core concrete interaction (CCI). The tests included not only separate effect tests such as a melt eruption, water ingression, and crust failure tests with a prototypic material but also 2-D CCI tests with a prototypic material under dry and flooded cavity conditions. The paper deals with the transient simulations on the CCI-2 test by using a severe accident analysis code, CORQUENCH, which was developed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Similar simulations had been already per for me d by using MELCOR 1.8.5 code. Unlike the MELCOR 1.8.5, the CORQUENCH includes a melt eruption mode I and a newly developed water ingression model based on the water ingression tests under the OECD/MCCI project. In order to adjust the geometrical differences between the CCI-2 test (rectangular geometry) and the simulations (cylindrical geometry), the same scaling methodology as used in the MELCOR simulation was applied. For the direct comparison of the simulation results, the same inputs for the MELCOR simulation were used. The simulation results were compared with the previous results by using MELCOR 1.8.5.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.8
• /
• pp.1916-1938
• /
• 2019

The objective of this paper is to discuss the modeling principles of phenomena governing core degradation/melting and in-vessel melt relocation during severe accidents in light water reactors. The proposed modeling approach has been applied in the development of a new accident simulation package, COMPASS (COre Meltdown Progression Accident Simulation Software). COMPASS can be used either as a stand-alone tool to simulate in-vessel meltdown progression up to and including RPV failure, or as a component of an integrated simulation package being developed in Korea for the APR1400 reactor. Interestingly, since the emphasis in the development of COMPASS modeling framework has been on capturing generic mechanistic aspects of accident progression in light water reactors, several parts of the overall model should be useful for future accident studies of other reactor designs, both PWRs and BWRs. The issues discussed in the paper include the overall structure of the model, the rationale behind the formulation of the governing equations and the associated simplifying assumptions, as well as the methodology used to verify both the physical and numerical consistencies of the overall solver. Furthermore, the results of COMPASS validation against two experimental data sets (CORA and PHEBUS) are shown, as well as of the predicted accident progression at TMI-2 reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.7
• /
• pp.929-944
• /
• 2009

The present study is concerned with the extension of the Effective Convectivity Model (ECM) to the phase-change problem to simulate the dynamics of the melt pool formation in a Light Water Reactor (LWR) lower plenum during hypothetical severe accident progression. The ECM uses heat transfer characteristic velocities to describe turbulent natural convection of a melt pool. The simple approach of the ECM method allows implementing different models of the characteristic velocity in a mushy zone for non-eutectic mixtures. The Phase-change ECM (PECM) was examined using three models of the characteristic velocities in a mushy zone and its performance was compared. The PECM was validated using a dual-tier approach, namely validations against existing experimental data (the SIMECO experiment) and validations against results obtained from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results predicted by the PECM implementing the linear dependency of mushy-zone characteristic velocity on fluid fraction are well agreed with the experimental correlation and CFD simulation results. The PECM was applied to simulation of melt pool formation heat transfer in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) lower plenum. The study suggests that the PECM is an adequate and effective tool to compute the dynamics of core melt pool formation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.12
• /
• pp.4551-4559
• /
• 2022

The aim of this research is to analyze the characteristics of a core melt discharged from the reactor vessel and the spreading behavior the core melt in the reactor cavity of the SMART. First, a severe accident sequence under conservative conditions is simulated by the MELCOR code to obtain the conditions for an analysis of the spreading behavior and coolability of the ex-vessel melt. Second, the spreading behavior and coolability of the ex-vessel melt are analyzed by the MELTSPREAD code. The level, temperature, and pressure of the water in the cavity as well as the temperature, mass, composition, and discharge velocity of the melt were utilized to construct the ex-vessel analysis. The melt spread only to part of the cavity, and that the height of the corium in a static state was less than 25 cm. The characteristics of a small modular reactor on the spreading behavior and coolability of melt were analyzed. In the SMART, the amount of melt discharged into the cavity is relatively small and the area of the cavity is sufficiently large when compared to a high-power pressurized water reactor. It was found that the coolability of an ex-vessel core melt can be sufficiently secured.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 1997.10a
• /
• pp.713-718
• /
• 1997

In the TMI-2 accident, approximately twenty(20) tons of molten core material drained into the lower plenum. Early advanced light water reactor (LWR) designs assumed a lower head failure and incorporated various measures for ex-vessel accident mitigation. However, one of the major findings from the TMI-2 Vessel Investigation Project was that one part of the reactor lower head wall estimated to have attained a temperature of 1100$^{\circ}C$ for about 30 minutes has seemingly experienced a comparatively rapid cooldown with no major threat to the vessel integrity. In this regard, recent empirical and analytical studies have shifted interests to such in-vessel retention designs or strategies as reactor cavity flooding, in-vessel flooding and engineered gap cooling of the vessel Accurate thermohydrodynamic and creep deformation modeling and rupture prediction are the key to the success in developing practically useful in-vessel accident/risk management strategies. As an advanced in-vessel design concept, this work presents the COrium Attack Syndrome Immunization Structures (COASIS) that are being developed as prospective in-vessel retention devices for a next-generation LWR in concert with existing ex-vessel management measures. Both the engineered gap structures in-vessel (COASISI) and ex-vessel (COASISO) are demonstrated to maintain effective heat transfer geometry during molten core debris attack when applied to the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant(KSNPP) reactor. The likelihood of lower head creep rupture during a severe accident is found to be significantly suppressed by the COASIS options.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.7
• /
• pp.2690-2701
• /
• 2022

In this paper, we select important fission products for the estimation of the source term during a severe accident of a PWR. The selection is based on the numerical results obtained from depletion calculations for the typical PWR fuel via the in-house code named DEGETION (Depletion, Generation, and Transmutation of Isotopes on Nuclear Application), release fractions of the fission products derived from NUREG-1465, and effective dose conversion coefficients from ICRP 119. Then, for the selected fission products, we obtain the adjoint solutions of the Bateman equations for radioactive decay in order to determine the importance of precursors producing the aforementioned fission products via radioactive decay, which would provide insights into the assumption used in MACCS 2 for a level 3 PSA analysis in which up to six precursors are considered in the calculations of radioactive decays for the fission product after release from the reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.627-638
• /
• 2018

This article describes an integrated Level 1-Level 2 probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methodology to evaluate the radiological risk during postulated accident scenarios initiated during the decommissioning phase of a typical Mark I containment boiling water reactor. The fuel damage scenarios include those initiated while the reactor is permanently shut down, defueled, and the spent fuel is located into the spent fuel storage pool. This article focuses on the integrated Level 1-Level 2 PRA aspects of the analysis, from the beginning of the accident to the radiological release into the environment. The integrated Level 1-Level 2 decommissioning PRA uses event trees and fault trees that assess the accident progression until and after fuel damage. Detailed deterministic severe accident analyses are performed to support the fault tree/event tree development and to provide source term information for the various pieces of the Level 1-Level 2 model. Source terms information is collected from accidents occurring in both the reactor pressure vessel and the spent fuel pool, including simultaneous accidents. The Level 1-Level 2 PRA model evaluates the temporal and physical changes in plant conditions including consideration of major uncertainties. The goal of this article is to provide a methodology framework to perform a decommissioning Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), and an application to a real case study is provided to show the use of the methodology. Results will be derived from the integrated Level 1-Level 2 decommissioning PSA event tree in terms of fuel damage frequency, large release frequency, and large early release frequency, including uncertainties.