• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2438-2446
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• 2023

To cool down a nuclear reactor core and prevent the fuel damage without a pump-driven active component during any anticipated accident, the passive emergency core cooling system (PECCS) was designed and adopted in an advanced light water reactor, i-POWER. In this study, for a validation of the cooling capability of PECCS, thermal-hydraulic integral effect tests were performed with the ATLAS facility by simulating intermediate and small break loss-of-coolant accidents (IBLOCA and SBLOCA). The test result showed that PECCS could effectively depressurize the reactor coolant system by supplying the safety injection water from the safety injection tanks (SITs). The result pointed out that the safety injection from IRWST should have been activated earlier to inhibit the excessive core heat-up. The sequence of the PECCS injection and the major thermal hydraulic transient during the SBLOCA transient was similar to the result of the IBLOCA test with the equivalent PECCS condition. The test data can be used to evaluate the capability of thermal hydraulic safety analysis codes in predicting IBLOCA and SBLOCA transients under an operation of passive safety system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.4859-4867
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• 2024

A set of system performance tests has been performed and the thermal-hydraulic behaviors were investigated for the passive safety injection system (PSIS) of the SMART design. Major thermal-hydraulic characteristics of core cooling in reactor coolant system and safety injection (SI) in PSIS were investigated using the SMART-ITL. The parametric effects of break size, break location and train number on the PSIS performance were discussed with the relevant SMART-ITL data. Compared with the 2.0 inch SI line break test, the 0.4 inch SI line break test has a milder change of system parameters. The pressure is reduced more quickly, the decrease of water level is slower and the break mass flow rate is higher during the pressurizer safety valve line break than during the SI line break. Major thermal-hydraulic parameters were compared among single, two and full train operation of the PSIS focusing on the effect of train number. It was shown that multiple trains of CMT and SIT were operated independently and the reactor vessel (RV) inventory increased proportionally with the addition of each train. Sufficient SI water was injected into the RV in a passive manner to cool down the reactor core efficiently during the full train test.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.50-60
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• 2016

A design methodology of the modeled test facility to conserve an injection performance of a passive safety injection system is proposed. This safety injection system is composed of a core makeup tank and a safety injection tank. Individual tanks are connected with pressure balance line on the top side and injection line on the bottom side. It is important to conserve the scaled initial injection flow rate and total injection time since this system can be operated by small gravity head without any active pumps. Differential pressure distribution of the injection line induced by the gravity head is determined by the vertical length and elevation of each tank. However, the total injection time is adjustable by the flow resistance coefficient of the injection line. The scaling methodology for the tank and flow resistance coefficient is suggested. A key point of this test facility design is a scaling analysis for the flow resistance coefficient. The scaling analysis proposed on this paper is based on the volume scaling law with the same vertical length to the prototype and can be extended to a model with a reduced vertical length. A set of passive injection test were performed for the tanks with the same volume and the different length. The test results on the initial flow rate and total injection time showed the almost same injection characteristics and they were in good agreement with the design values.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.54-70
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• 2017

The accumulator is a passive safety injection device for emergency core cooling systems. As an important safety feature for providing a high-speed injection flow to the core by compressed nitrogen gas pressure during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), the accumulator injects its precharged nitrogen into the system after its coolant has been emptied. Attention has been drawn to the possible negative effects caused by such a nitrogen injection in passive safety nuclear power plants. Although some experimental work on the nitrogen injection has been done, there have been no comparative tests in which the effects on the system responses and the core safety have been clearly assessed. In this study, a new thermal hydraulic integral test facility-the advanced core-cooling mechanism experiment (ACME)-was designed and constructed to support the CAP1400 safety review. The ACME test facility was used to study the nitrogen injection effects on the system responses to the small break loss-of-coolant accident LOCA (SBLOCA) transient. Two comparison test groups-a 2-inch cold leg break and a double-ended direct-vessel-injection (DEDVI) line break-were conducted. Each group consists of a nitrogen injection test and a nitrogen isolation comparison test with the same break conditions. To assess the nitrogen injection effects, the experimental data that are representative of the system responses and the core safety were compared and analyzed. The results of the comparison show that the effects of nitrogen injection on system responses and core safety are significantly different between the 2-inch and DEDVI breaks. The mechanisms of the different effects on the transient were also investigated. The amount of nitrogen injected, along with its heat absorption, was likewise evaluated in order to assess its effect on the system depressurization process. The results of the comparison and analyses in this study are important for recognizing and understanding the potential negative effects on the passive core cooling performance caused by nitrogen injection during the SBLOCA transient.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2016

An experimental study of the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of passive safety systems (PSSs) was conducted using a system-integrated modular advanced reactor-integral test loop (SMART-ITL). The present passive safety injection system for the SMART-ITL consists of one train with the core makeup tank (CMT), the safety injection tank, and the automatic depressurization system. The objective of this study is to investigate the injection effect of the PSS on the small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) scenario for a 0.4 inch line break in the safety-injection system (SIS). The steady-state condition was maintained for 746 seconds before the break. When the major parameters of the target value and test results were compared, most of the thermal-hydraulic parameters agreed closely with each other. The water level of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) was maintained higher than that of the fuel assembly plate during the transient, for the present CMT and safety injection tank (SIT) flow rate conditions. It can be seen that the capability of an emergency core cooling system is sufficient during the transient with SMART passive SISs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.443-453
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• 2015

A hybrid safety injection tank (H-SIT) can enhance the capability of an advanced power reactor plus (APR+) during a station black out (SBO) that is accompanied by a severe accident. It may a useful alternative to an electric motor. The operations strategy of the H-SIT has to be investigated to achieve maximum utilization of its function. In this study, the master logic diagram (i.e., an analysis for identifying the differences between an H-SIT and a safety injection pump) and an accident case classification were used to determine the parameters of the H-SIT operation. The conditions that require the use of an H-SIT were determined using a decision-making process. The proper timing for using an H-SIT was also analyzed by using the Multi-dimensional Analysis of Reactor Safety (MARS) 1.3 code (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea). The operation strategy analysis indicates that a H-SIT can mitigate five types of failure: (1) failure of the safety injection pump, (2) failure of the passive auxiliary feedwater system, (3) failure of the depressurization system, (4) failure of the shutdown cooling pump (SCP), and (5) failure of the recirculation system. The results of the MARS code demonstrate that the time allowed for recovery can be extended when using an H-SIT, compared with the same situation in which an H-SIT is not used. Based on the results, the use of an H-SIT is recommended, especially after the pilot-operated safety relief valve (POSRV) is opened.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2477-2487
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• 2021

To improve safety analysis technology for a nuclear reactor containment considering an interaction between a reactor coolant system (RCS) and containment, this study aims at an experimental investigation on the integrated simulation of the RCS and containment, with an integral effect test facility, ATLAS-CUBE. For a realistic simulation of a pressure and temperature (P/T) transient, the containment simulation vessel was designed to preserve a volumetric scale equivalently to the RCS volume scale of ATLAS. Three test cases for a steam line break (SLB) transient were conducted with variation of the initial condition of the passive heat sink or the steam flow direction. The test results indicated a stratified behavior of the steam-gas mixture in the containment following a high-temperature steam injection in prior to the spray injection. The test case with a reduced heat transfer on the passive heat sink showed a faster increase of the P/T inside the containment. The effect of the steam flow direction was also investigated with respect to a multi-dimensional distribution of the local heat transfer on the passive heat sink. The integral effect test data obtained in this study will contribute to validating the evaluation methodology for mass and energy (M/E) and P/T transient of the containment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2375-2387
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• 2024

The passive safety systems (PSSs) within water-cooled reactors are meticulously engineered to function autonomously, requiring no external power source or manual intervention. They depend exclusively on inherent natural forces and the fundamental principles of reactor physics, such as gravity, natural convection, and phase changes, to manage, alleviate, and avert the release of radioactive materials into the environment during accident scenarios like a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). PSSs are already integrated into such operating commercial reactors as the Advanced Pressurized Reactor-1000 MWe (AP1000) and the Water-Water Energetic Reactor-1200 MWe (WWER-1200) are adopted in most of the upcoming small modular reactor (SMR) designs. Examples of water-cooled SMR PSSs are the passive emergency core-cooling system (ECCS), passive containment cooling system (PCCS), and passive decay-heat removal system, the designs of which vary based on reactor system-design requirements. However, understanding the accident-event progression and phases of a LOCA is pivotal for adopting a specific PSS for a new SMR design. This study covers the accident-event progression for direct vessel injection (DVI) small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SB-LOCA), associated physics phenomena, knowledge gaps, and important figures of merit (FOMs) that may need to be evaluated and assessed to validate thermal-hydraulics models with an available experimental dataset to support new SMR design and development.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.625-636
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• 2013

Pressing demands of economic competitiveness, the need for large-scale deployment, minimizing the need of human intervention, and experience from the past events and incidents at operating reactors have guided the evolution and innovations in reactor technologies. Indian innovative reactor 'AHWR' is a pressure-tube type natural circulation based boiling water reactor that is designed to meet such requirements, which essentially reflect the needs of next generation reactors. The reactor employs various passive features to prevent and mitigate accidental conditions, like a slightly negative void reactivity coefficient, passive poison injection to scram the reactor in event of failure of the wired shutdown systems, a large elevated pool of water as a heat sink inside the containment, passive decay heat removal based on natural circulation and passive valves, passive ECC injection, etc. It is designed to meet the fundamental safety requirements of safe shutdown, safe decay heat removal and confinement of activity with no impact in public domain, and hence, no need for emergency planning under all conceivable scenarios. This paper examines the role of the various passive safety systems in prevention and mitigation of severe plant conditions that may arise in event of multiple failures. For the purpose of demonstration of the effectiveness of its passive features, postulated scenarios on the lines of three major severe accidents in the history of nuclear power reactors are considered, namely; the Three Mile Island (TMI), Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. Severe plant conditions along the lines of these scenarios are postulated to the extent conceivable in the reactor under consideration and analyzed using best estimate system thermal-hydraulics code RELAP5/Mod3.2. It is found that the various passive systems incorporated enable the reactor to tolerate the postulated accident conditions without causing severe plant conditions and core degradation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

Advanced SITs of the evolutionary PWRs have the advantage that they can passively control the ECC water discharge flow rate. Thus, the LPSI pumps can be eliminated from the safety injection system owing to the benefit of the advanced SITs. In the present study, a passive sealing plate was designed in order to overcome the shortcoming of the advanced SITs, i.e., the early nitrogen discharge through the stand pipe. The operating principle of the sealing plate depends only on the natural phenomena of buoyancy and gravity. The performance of the sealing plate was evaluated using the VAPER test facility, equipped with a full-scale SIT. It was verified that the passive sealing plate effectively prevented the air discharge during the entire duration of the ECC water discharge. Also, the major performance parameters of the advanced SIT were not changed with the installation of the sealing plate.