• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.921-928
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• 2009

As part of an evaluation for an in-vessel severe accident management strategy, a coolant injection into the reactor vessel under depressurization of the reactor coolant system (RCS) has been evaluated in detail using the SCDAP/RELAP5 computer code. A high-pressure sequence of a small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA) has been analyzed in the Optimized Power Reactor (OPR) 1000. The SCDAP/RELAP5 results have shown that safety injection timing and capacity with RCS depressurization timing and capacity are very effective on the reactor vessel failure during a severe accident. Only one train operation of the high pressure safety injection (HPSI) for 30,000 seconds with RCS depressurization prevents failure of the reactor vessel. In this case, the operation of only the low pressure safety injection (LPSI) without a HPSI does not prevent failure of the reactor vessel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.72-83
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• 2022

This paper presents a numerical investigation of two-phase natural circulation flows established when external reactor vessel cooling is applied to a severe accident of the APR1400 reactor for the in-vessel retention of the core melt. The coolability limit due to external reactor vessel cooling is associated with the natural circulation flow rate around the lower head of the reactor vessel. For an elaborate prediction of the natural circulation flow rate using a thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS-KS1.5, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is conducted to estimate the flow rate and pressure distribution of a liquid-state coolant at the brink of significant void generation. The CFD calculation results are used to determine the loss coefficient at major flow junctions, where substantial pressure losses are expected, in the nodalization scheme of the MARS-KS code such that the single-phase flow rate is the same as that predicted via CFD simulations. Subsequently, the MARS-KS analysis is performed for the two-phase natural circulation regime, and the transient behavior of the main thermal-hydraulic variables is investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.185-191
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• 2020

Plant-specific analyses of an advanced reactor have been performed to assure the structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessel during transient conditions, which are expected to initiate pressurized thermal shock (PTS) events. The vessel failure probabilities from the probabilistic fracture mechanics analyses are combined with the transient frequencies to generate the through-wall cracking frequencies, which are compared to the acceptance criterion. Several sensitivity analyses are performed, focusing on the orientations and sizes of cracks, the copper content, and a flaw distribution model. The results show that the integrity of the reactor vessel is expected to be maintained for long-term operation beyond the design lifetime from the PTS perspective using the design data of the advanced reactor. Moreover, a fluence level exceeding 9×10¹⁹ n/㎠ is found to be acceptable, generating a sufficient margin beyond the design lifetime.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.498-513
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• 2001

Performed here is a comparative assessment study for the generation of the pressure- temperature (P/T) limit curve of the reactor vessel. Using the cooling or heating rate and vessel material properties, the stress distribution is obtained to calculate stress intensity factors, which are compared with the material fracture toughness to determine the relations between operating pressure and temperature during cool-down and heat-up. P/T limit curves are generated with respect to crack direction, clad thickness, toughness curve, cooling or heating rate and neutron fluence, and their results are compared.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2021

The analysis of the fluid flow characteristics in reactor pressure vessel is an important part of the hydraulic design of nuclear power plant, which is related to the structure design of reactor internals, the flow distribution at core inlet and the safety of nuclear power plant. The flow distribution and mixing characteristics in the pressurized reactor vessel for the 1000MWe advanced pressurized water reactor is analyzed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method in this study. The geometry model of the full-scaled reactor vessel is built, which includes the cold and hot legs, downcomer, lower plenum, core, upper plenum, top plenum, and is verified with some parameters in DCD. Under normal condition, it is found that the flow skirt, core plate holes and outlet pipe cause pressure loss. The maximum and minimum flow coefficient is 1.028 and 0.961 respectively, and the standard deviation is 0.019. Compared with other reactor type, it shows relatively uniform of the flow distribution at the core inlet. The coolant mixing coefficient is investigated with adding additional variables, showing that mass transfer of coolant occurs near the interface. The coolant mainly distributes in the 90° area of the corresponding core inlet, and mixes at the interface with the coolant from the adjacent cold leg. 0.1% of corresponding coolant is still distributed at the inlet of the outer-ring components, indicating wide range of mixing coefficient distribution.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2014

In this paper, structural integrity evaluation of reactor pressure vessel bottom head without penetration nozzles in core melting accident has been performed. Considering the analysis results of thermal load, weight of molten core debris and internal pressure, thermal load is the most significant factor in reactor vessel bottom head. The failure probability was evaluated according to the established failure criteria and the evaluation showed that the equivalent plastic strain results are lower than critical strain failure criteria. Thermal-structural coupled analyses show that the existence of elastic zone with a lower stress than yield strength is in the middle of bottom head thickness. As a result of analysis, the elastic zone became narrow and moved to the internal wall as the internal pressure increases, and it is evaluated that the structural integrity of reactor vessel is maintained under core melting accident.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.771-776
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• 1998

TORT is employed for fast neutron fluence calculation at the reactor pressure vessel. KORI Unit 1 reactor at cycle 1 is modeled for this calculation. Three-dimensional cycle averaged assembly power distributions for KORI Vnit 1 at cycle 1 are calculated by using the core physics code, NESTLE 5.0. The root mean square error is within 4.3% compared with NDR (Nuclear Design Report) far all burnup steps. The C/E (Calculated/Experimental) values for the in-vessel dosimeters distribute between 0.98 and 1.36. The most updated cross-section library. BUGLE-96 based on ENDF/B-VI is used for the neutron fluence calculation. The makimum fast neutron nun calculated on reactor pressure vessel for KORI Unit 1 operated for 411.41 effgctive full power days is 1.784x10$^{18}$ n/$\textrm{cm}^2$. The position of the maximum neutron fluence in RPV wall 1/4 T is nearby 60cm below the midplane at zero degree.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.351-361
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• 2015

External reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) for in-vessel retention (IVR) has been considered one of the most useful strategies to mitigate severe accidents. However, reliability of this common idea is weakened because many studies were focused on critical heat flux whereas there were diverse uncertainties in structural behaviors as well as thermal-hydraulic phenomena. In the present study, several key factors related to molten corium behaviors and thermal characteristics were examined under multi-layered corium formation conditions. Thereafter, systematic finite element analyses and subsequent damage evaluation with varying parameters were performed on a representative reactor pressure vessel (RPV) to figure out the possibility of high temperature induced failures. From the sensitivity analyses, it was proven that the reactor cavity should be flooded up to the top of the metal layer at least for successful accomplishment of the IVR-ERVC strategy. The thermal flux due to corium formation and the relocation time were also identified as crucial parameters. Moreover, three-layered corium formation conditions led to higher maximum von Mises stress values and consequently shorter creep rupture times as well as higher damage factors of the RPV than those obtained from two-layered conditions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.191-208
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• 2002

A comparative assessment study for a generation of the pressure-temperature (P-T) limit curve of a reactor vessel is performed in accordance with ASME code. Using cooling or heating rate and vessel material properties, stress distribution is obtained to calculate stress intensity factors, which are compared with the material fracture toughness to determine the relations between operating pressure and temperature during reactor cool-down and heat-up. P-T limit curves are analyzed with respect to defect orientation, clad thickness, toughness curve, cooling or heating rate and neutron fluence. The resulting P-T curves are compared each other.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.707-712
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• 1997

This paper presents the current state of knowledge on molten material relocation into the lower plenum. Consequences of movement of material to the lower head are considered with regardt to the potential for reactor pressure vessel failure from both thermal hydraulic and mechanical standpoints. The models are applied to evaluating various in-vessel retention strategies for the Korean Standard power plant (KSNPP) reactor The results are summarized in terms of thermal response of the reactor vessel from the very relevant severe accident management perspective.