• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.721-730
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• 2013

Within the framework of the ASTRID project, core design studies are being conducted by the CEA with support from AREVA and EDF. The pre-conceptual design studies are being conducted in accordance with the GEN IV reactor objectives, particularly in terms of improving safety. This involves limiting the consequences of 1) a hypothetical control rod withdrawal accident (by minimizing the core reactivity loss during the irradiation cycle), and 2) an hypothetical loss-of-flow accident (by reducing the sodium void worth). Two types of cores are being studied for the ASTRID project. The first is based on a 'large pin/small spacing wire' concept derived from the SFR V2b, while the other is based on an innovative CFV design. A distinctive feature of the CFV core is its negative sodium void worth. In 2011, the evaluation of a preliminary version (v1) of this CFV core for ASTRID underlined its potential capacity to improve the prevention of severe accidents. An improved version of the ASTRID CFV core (v2) was proposed in 2012 to comply with all the control rod withdrawal criteria, while increasing safety margins for all unprotected-loss-of-flow (ULOF) transients and improving the general design. This paper describes the CFV v2 design options and reports on the progress of the studies at the end of pre-conceptual design phase 1 concerning: - Core performance, - Intrinsic behavior during unprotected transients, - Simulation of severe accident scenarios, - Qualification requirements. The paper also specifies the open options for the materials, sub-assemblies, absorbers, and core monitoring that will continue to be studied during the conceptual design phase.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3787-3800
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• 2023

Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA) scenarios require special attention using advanced simulation techniques due to their complexity and importance for nuclear power plant (NPP) safety. While the conservative approach has traditionally been used for safety analysis, it may lead to unrealistic results which calls for the use of best estimate plus uncertainty (BEPU) approach, especially with the current advances in computational power which makes the BEPU analysis feasible. In this work an Uncontrolled Control Element Assembly (CEA) Withdrawal at Full Power accident scenario is analyzed using the BEPU approach by loosely coupling the thermal hydraulics best-estimate system code (RELAP5/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4) to the statistical analysis software (DAKOTA) using a Python interface. Results from the BEPU analysis indicate that a realistic treatment of the accident scenario yields a larger safety margin and is therefore encouraged for accident analysis as it may enable more economic and flexible operation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1367-1379
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• 2020

The small modular sodium-cooled fast reactor (SMSFR) is an important component of Generation-IV reactors. The objective of this work is to improve the reactivity control in SMSFR by using innovative systems, including burnable poisons and optimized control rods. SMSFR with MOX fuel usually exhibits high burnup reactivity loss that leads to high excess reactivity and potential fuel melting in control rod withdrawal (CRW) accidents, which becomes an important constraint on the safety and economic efficiency of SMSFR. This work applies two types of burnable poisons in a SMSFR to reduce the excess reactivity. The first one homogenously loads minor actinides in the fuel. The second one combines absorber and moderators in specific assemblies. The influence of burnable poisons on the core characteristics is discussed and integrated into the analysis of CRW accidents. The results show that burnable poisons improve the safety performance of the core in a significant way. Burnable poisons also lessen the demand for the number, absorption ability, and insertion depth of control rods. Two optimized control rod designs with rare earth oxides (Eu₂O₃ and Gd₂O₃) and moderators are compared to the conventional design with natural boron carbide (B₄C). The optimized designs show improved neutronic and safety performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.58-74
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• 2022

Deterministic accident analysis plays a central role in the nuclear power plant (NPP) safety evaluation and licensing process. Traditionally the conservative approach opted for the point kinetics model, expressing the reactor core parameters in the form of reactivity and power tables. However, with the current advances in computational power, high fidelity multi-physics simulations using real-time code coupling, can provide more detailed core behavior and hence more realistic plant's response. This is particularly relevant for transients where the core is undergoing reactivity anomalies and uneven power distributions with strong feedback mechanisms, such as reactivity initiated accidents (RIAs). This work addresses a RIA, specifically a control element assembly (CEA) withdrawal at power, using the multi-physics analysis tool RELAP5/MOD 3.4/3DKIN. The thermal-hydraulics (TH) code, RELAP5, is internally coupled with the nodal kinetics (NK) code, 3DKIN, and both codes exchange relevant data to model the nuclear power plant (NPP) response as the CEA is withdrawn from the core. The coupled model is more representative of the complex interactions between the thermal-hydraulics and neutronics; therefore the results obtained using a multi-physics simulation provide a larger safety margin and hence more operational flexibility compared to those of the point kinetics model reported in the safety analysis report for APR1400. The systems engineering approach is used to guide the development of the work ensuring a systematic and more efficient execution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.294-299
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• 1994

Margin benefits are quantatively assessed when a Digital Monitoring System(DMS) is assumed to be installed to an operating Westinghouse analog type plant. Applied plant and cycle is YongGwang Unit 1 Cycle 6. The referenced digital monitoring system is the COLSS (Core Operating Limit Supervisory System) of ABB-CE. Considered fuel design limits are DNBR and LDCA Fq. 2003-D Power distributions within the present CAOC (Constant Axial Offset Control) limits are calculated for the analysis. The most limiting DNB prevention event of CEA Withdrawal is analyzed with the ROPM (Required OverPower Margin) concept of ABB-CE. The result show that the DMS can bring around 7% more margins for both DNB and LOCA Fq standpoints of view. The DMS can also monitor the PCI (Pellet-Cladding Interaction) limits.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.75-93
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• 2022

Machine learning (ML) data-driven meta-model is proposed as a surrogate model to reduce the excessive computational cost of the physics-based model and facilitate the real-time prediction of a nuclear power plant's transient response. To forecast the transient response three machine learning (ML) meta-models based on recurrent neural networks (RNNs); specifically, Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and a sequence combination of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and LSTM are developed. The chosen accident scenario is a control element assembly withdrawal at power concurrent with the Loss Of Offsite Power (LOOP). The transient response was obtained using the best estimate thermal hydraulics code, MARS-KS, and cross-validated against the Design and control document (DCD). DAKOTA software is loosely coupled with MARS-KS code via a python interface to perform the Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty Quantification (BEPU) analysis and generate a time series database of the system response to train, test and validate the ML meta-models. Key uncertain parameters identified as required by the CASU methodology were propagated using the non-parametric Monte-Carlo (MC) random propagation and Latin Hypercube Sampling technique until a statistically significant database (181 samples) as required by Wilk's fifth order is achieved with 95% probability and 95% confidence level. The three ML RNN models were built and optimized with the help of the Talos tool and demonstrated excellent performance in forecasting the most probable NPP transient response. This research was guided by the Systems Engineering (SE) approach for the systematic and efficient planning and execution of the research.