Towards construction of a numerical testbed for nuclear power plants

Hazama, Osamu; Suzuki, Yoshio   ; Matsubara, Hitoshi; Tian, R.; Nishida, Akemi  ; Tani, Masayuki; Nakajima, Norihiro  

Nuclear power plants are large in scale and functionally very complex structures. For safety precautions, they are maintained under very strict rules. Yet, no controlled experiments are possible to deal with full-scale nuclear reactors and its cooling systems in its entirety. In order to maintain the safety of these nuclear power plants against extra-large earthquakes and aging, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is currently constructing a fully three-dimensional virtual earthquake testbed on the ITBL Grid infrastructure. Currently, we have developed a high-performance finite element elastostatic simulation system based on component and part-wise assembly. Using the program, we were able to construct a finite element model of an experimental high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR) called HTTR, or High Temperature engineering Test Reactor.