CFD analysis of natural circulation in LBE-cooled accelerator-driven system

Sugawara, Takanori; Watanabe, Nao; Ono, Ayako; Nishihara, Kenji; Ichihara, Kyoko*; Hanzawa, Kohei*

Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/03

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has investigated an accelerator-driven system (ADS) to transmute minor actinides (MAs) included in high level wastes discharged from nuclear power plants. The ADS is a lead-bismuth cooled tank-type reactor with 800 MW thermal power. It is supposed that the ADS is safer than conventional critical reactors because it is operated in a subcritical state. The previous study performed the transient analyses for the typical ADS accidents such as unprotected loss of flow or beam overpower. It was shown that all calculation cases except loss of heat sink (LOHS) satisfied the no-damage criteria. To avoid the damage by LOHS, the ADS equips Direct Reactor Auxiliary Cooling System (DRACS) to remove the decay heat. The most important points of a DRACS operation are its reliability and to ensure the flowrate in a natural circulation state. This study aims to perform the CFD analysis of the natural circulation to clarify the flowrate in the ADS reactor vessel.

Data report of ROSA/LSTF experiment SB-SL-01; Main steam line break accident

Takeda, Takeshi

JAEA-Data/Code 2020-019, 58 Pages, 2021/01

JAEA-Data-Code-2020-019.pdf:3.85MB

An experiment denoted as SB-SL-01 was conducted on March 27, 1990 using the Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF) in the Rig of Safety Assessment-IV (ROSA-IV) Program. The ROSA/LSTF experiment SB-SL-01 simulated a main steam line break (MSLB) accident in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The test assumptions were made such as auxiliary feedwater (AFW) injection into secondary-side of both steam generators (SGs) and coolant injection from high pressure injection (HPI) system of emergency core cooling system into cold legs in both loops. The MSLB led to a fast depressurization of broken SG, which caused a decrease in the broken SG secondary-side wide-range liquid level. The broken SG secondary-side wide-range liquid level recovered because of the AFW injection into the broken SG secondary-side. The primary pressure temporarily decreased a little just after the MSLB, and increased up to 16.1 MPa following the closure of the SG main steam isolation valves. Coolant was manually injected from the HPI system into cold legs in both loops a few minutes after the primary pressure reduced to below 10 MPa. The primary pressure raised due to the HPI coolant injection, but was kept at less than 16.2 MPa by fully opening a power-operated relief valve of pressurizer. The core was filled with subcooled liquid through the experiment. Thermal stratification was seen in intact loop cold leg during the HPI coolant injection owing to the flow stagnation. On the other hand, significant natural circulation prevailed in broken loop. When the continuous core cooling was ensured by the successive coolant injection from the HPI system, the experiment was terminated. The experimental data obtained would be useful to consider recovery actions and procedures in the multiple fault accident with the MSLB of PWR. This report summarizes the test procedures, conditions, and major observations in the ROSA/LSTF experiment SB-SL-01.

Effects of temperature fluctuation on PIV measurement of natural circulation flow field

Tsuji, Mitsuyo; Aizawa, Kosuke; Kobayashi, Jun; Kurihara, Akikazu; Miyake, Yasuhiro*

Proceedings of 14th International Symposium on Advanced Science and Technology in Experimental Mechanics (14th ISEM'19) (USB Flash Drive), 4 Pages, 2019/11

The particle image velocimetry (PIV) was measured in scaled-model water experiments simulating a natural circulation flow field in a sodium-cooled fast reactor vessel. The temperature fluctuation in the natural circulation flow field causes the distribution of the refractive index. Thus, the temperature fluctuation affects the uncertainty of the velocity in the PIV measurement. In this study, the authors evaluated the effects of the temperature fluctuation on the PIV measurement in the natural circulation flow field.

Uncertainty analysis for source term evaluation of high temperature gas-cooled reactor under accident conditions; Identification of influencing factors in loss-of-forced circulation accidents

Honda, Yuki; Sato, Hiroyuki; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Ohashi, Hirofumi

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 4(3), p.031013_1 - 031013_11, 2018/07

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4039066

There is growing interest in uncertainty analysis for probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). The focus of this research is to propose and trial investigate the new approach which identify influencing factors for uncertainty in a systematic manner for High Temperature Gas -cooled Reactor (HTGR). As a trial investigation, this approach is tested to evaluation of maximum fuel temperature in a depressurized loss-of-forced circulation (DLOFC) accident and failure of mitigation systems such as control rod systems from the view point of reactor dynamics and thermal hydraulic characteristics. As a result, 16 influencing factors are successfully selected in accordance with the suggested procedure. In the future, the selected influencing factors will be used as input parameter for uncertainty propagation analysis.

Uncertainty analysis for source term evaluation of high temperature gas-cooled reactor under accident conditions; Identification of influencing factors in loss-of-forced circulation accidents

Honda, Yuki; Sato, Hiroyuki; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Ohashi, Hirofumi

Proceedings of 25th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-25) (CD-ROM), 9 Pages, 2017/07

There is growing interest in uncertainty analysis for probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). Our target is the uncertainty analysis method development for depressurized loss-of-forced circulation (DLOFC) accident with failure of control rod systems (CRS). As one of key elements, this paper focuses on the quantification of uncertainty for the fuel temperature which is dominant for a source term analysis. As an initial step, this paper aims to suggest a procedure to identify influencing factors which is input parameter for uncertainty analysis, and shows the results of derivation of variable parameters by expansion of dynamic equation and extraction of uncertainties in variable factors.

Validation and applicability of reactor core modeling in a plant dynamics code during station blackout

Mori, Takero; Ohira, Hiroaki; Sotsu, Masutake; Fukano, Yoshitaka

Proceedings of 2017 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2017) (CD-ROM), 9 Pages, 2017/04

Since safety measures against severe accidents (SAs) such as a long-term station blackout (SBO) are required for Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor Monju, a validation is necessary for the plant dynamics code during SBO. In order to take into account the phenomena in natural circulation: a heat transfer among subassemblies and a flow redistribution, a whole core model has been developed for the plant dynamics code, Super-COPD. This model has been validated by test results of natural circulation in actual facility. In this study, this whole core model was applied to Monju core to evaluate safety measures against SBO, and the pressure loss model of Monju was validated by comparing with results of the plant trip test from the power of 40%. In addition, an analysis was conducted for SBO to investigate the applicability of this model to Monju. The applicability of this model was confirmed by comparing with analytical results using the model without heat transfer between assemblies.

A Study on the thermal-hydraulics in the damaged subassemblies under the operation of decay heat removal system

Ono, Ayako; Onojima, Takamitsu; Doda, Norihiro; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Kamide, Hideki

Proceedings of 2016 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2016) (CD-ROM), p.2183 - 2192, 2016/04

Some auxiliary cooling systems to remove the decay heat of the core are under consideration for a sodium-cooled fast reactor, and two of the typical systems are primary reactor auxiliary cooling system (PRACS) and direct reactor auxiliary cooling system (DRACS). In this study, sodium experiments were conducted in order to confirm the applicability of the PRACS and DRACS under a situation assuming the severe accidents with core melting. The plant dynamics test loop was used for these experiments, which contains a simulated core, the PRACS and DRACS. The core melt situation is simulated by shutting off the inlet of subassemblies (S/A). The experimental results revealed the cooling process of the partially/completely inactive S/A and confirmed the long-term heat removal by the PRACS/DRACS.

Analysis of natural circulation tests in the experimental fast reactor JOYO

Nabeshima, Kunihiko; Doda, Norihiro; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Mori, Takero; Ohira, Hiroaki; Iwasaki, Takashi*

Proceedings of 16th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-16) (USB Flash Drive), p.1041 - 1049, 2015/08

Natural circulation is one of the most important mechanisms to remove decay heat in the sodium cooled fast reactors from the viewpoint of passive safety. On the other hand, it is difficult to evaluate plant dynamics accurately under low flow natural circulation condition. In this study, Super-COPD has been validated through the application to the analysis of natural circulation tests in the experimental fast reactor JOYO. Almost all plant components in JOYO including four air-coolers were modeled in Super COPD. Furthermore, the full scale modeling of fuel subassembly was also adopted in this analysis. The natural circulation test after reactor scram from 100 MW full power at JOYO was selected and simulated by Super-COPD. The transient behaviors predicted by Super-COPD showed good agreement with the experimental data.

Numerical simulations of short-term migration processes of dissolved Cesium-137 due to a hypothetical accident of a nuclear submarine in the Japan Sea

Kobayashi, Takuya; Chino, Masamichi; Togawa, Orihiko

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 43(5), p.569 - 575, 2006/05

https://doi.org/10.3327/jnst.43.569

A dissolved radionuclide migration code system that consists of a ocean circulation model, Princeton Ocean Model, and a particle random-walk model, SEA-GEARN, has been developed. The oceanic migration of Cs discharged from a nuclear submarine in a hypothetical accident at the Tsushima Strait was calculated in the southwestern area of the Japan Sea as a model application. The calculations for instantaneous releases every 10 days were carried out for one year to study the seasonal differences of migration process of the dissolved radionuclides. The migration tendencies of dissolved radionuclides were divided into two patterns. For the releases started from January to September, all of the high concentration areas migrated to the northeast along the coastline of the Main Island of Japan from the release point. As for the releases from October to December, some high concentrations areas migrated to the west from the release point and the concentrations of Cs along the coastline of the Main Island of Japan were comparatively low.

Experiments on mercury circulation system for spallation neutron target

Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Haga, Katsuhiro; Kaminaga, Masanori; Hino, Ryutaro

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 41(3), p.376 - 384, 2004/03

https://doi.org/10.3327/jnst.41.376

A construction of the spallation neutron source is being promoted under the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) Project. A mercury circulation system has been designed to supply mercury to the target stably. It was necessary to make clear a mercury pump performance, erosion rate under the mercury flowing condition and an amount of remaining mercury after draining from the viewpoints of evaluating lifetime of piping and establishing remote handling scenario of mercury components. The mercury pump performance, the erosion rates and the amount of remained mercury were investigated by using a mercury experimental loop with an experimental gear pump. The discharged flow rates of the experimental gear pump are sufficient and it is increased linearly with the rotation speed. Erosion rates were found to be so small that decrease of piping wall thickness would be estimated 660 m after 30-year operation under the rated velocity of 0.7 m/s. For the amount of remaining mercury, remaining rates of weight was estimated at 50.7 g/m.