Qualification Requirements Design for Neutron Absorber Plate for Spent Fuel Racks in Domestic Nuclear Power Plants

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
You Shi ◽  
Dong Ning ◽  
Yi-zhong Yang
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Aluminum Matrix ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Absorber Plate ◽  
Neutron Absorber ◽  
Fuel Storage ◽  
B4c Particle

Boron carbide (B4C) particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composite is the key material for use as neutron absorber plate in fuel storage applications for Generation III advanced passive nuclear power plants in China. This material has once depended upon importing with various restrictions so that it has meaningful practical significance to realize the localized manufacturing for this material in China. More importantly, since it is the first time for this material to be used in domestic plant, particular care should be taken to assure the formal supplied products exhibit high stabilized and reliable service in domestic nuclear engineering. This paper initiates and proposes a principle design framework from technical view in qualification requirements for this material so as to guide the practical engineering application. Aiming at neutron absorber materials supplied under practical manufacturing condition in engineering delivery, the qualification requirements define B4C content, matrix chemistry, 10B isotope, bulk density, 10B areal density, mechanical property, and microstructure as key criteria for material performance. The uniformity assessment as to different locations of this material is also required from at least three lots of material. Only qualified material meeting all of the qualification requirements should proceed to be verified by lifetime testing such as irradiation, corrosion, and thermal aging testing. Systematic and comprehensive performance assessments and verification for process stabilization could be achieved through the above qualification. The long-term service for this neutron absorber material in reliable and safe way could be convincingly expected in spent fuel storage application in China.

Qualification Requirements Design for Neutron Absorber Plate for Spent Fuel Racks in Domestic Nuclear Power Plants

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
You Shi ◽  
Dong Ning ◽  
Yi-zhong Yang
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Absorber Plate ◽  
Neutron Absorber ◽  
Absorber Material ◽  
Spent Fuel Storage ◽  
Fuel Storage ◽  
Storage Racks

Boron Carbide (B4C) particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composite is the key material for use as neutron absorber plate in spent fuel storage racks as well as new fuel and in-containment fuel storage racks for GENIII advanced passive nuclear power plants in China. This material has once depended upon importing with high expense and restricted delivery schedule by foreign supplier. Therefore it has meaningful practical significance to realize the localized manufacturing for this material in China. More importantly, since it’s the first time for this material to be used in domestic plant, particular care should be taken to assure the formal supplied neutron absorber material products exhibit high stabilized and reliable service in domestic nuclear engineering. This paper initiates and proposes a principle design framework from technical view in qualification requirements for this neutron absorber material so as to guide the practical engineering application. Aiming at neutron absorber materials supplied under practical manufacturing condition in engineering delivery, the qualification requirements define B4C content, matrix chemistry, 10B isotope, bulk density, 10B areal density, mechanical property and microstructure as key criteria for material performance. The uniformity assessment as to different locations of this material is also required from at least three lots of material. Only qualified material meeting all of the qualification requirements should proceed to be verified by lifetime testing such as irradiation, corrosion and thermal aging testing. Systematic and comprehensive performance assessments and verification for process stabilization could be achieved through the above qualification. The long-term service for this neutron absorber material in reliable and safe way could be convincingly expected in spent fuel storage application in China.

scholarly journals Prevention of Damage to Spent Nuclear Fuel during Handling Operations

2020 ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
M. Sapon ◽  
O. Gorbachenko ◽  
S. Kondratyev ◽  
V. Krytskyy ◽  
V. Mayatsky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Fuel Storage ◽  
Storage Facilities

According to regulatory requirements, when carrying out handling operations with spent nuclear fuel (SNF), prevention of damage to the spent fuel assemblies (SFA) and especially fuel elements shall be ensured. For this purpose, it is necessary to exclude the risk of SFA falling, SFA uncontrolled displacements, prevent mechanical influences on SFA, at which their damage is possible. Special requirements for handling equipment (in particular, cranes) to exclude these dangerous events, the requirements for equipment strength, resistance to external impacts, reliability, equipment design solutions, manufacturing quality are analyzed in this work. The requirements of Ukrainian and U.S. regulatory documents also are considered. The implementation of these requirements is considered on the example of handling equipment, in particular, spent nuclear fuel storage facilities. This issue is important in view of creation of new SNF storage facilities in Ukraine. These facilities include the storage facility (SFSF) for SNF from water moderated power reactors (WWER): a Сentralized SFSF for storing SNF of Rivne, Khmelnitsky and South-Ukraine Nuclear Power Plants (СSFSF), and SFSF for SNF from high-power channel reactors (RBMK): a dry type SFSF at Chornobyl nuclear power plant (ISF-2). After commissioning of these storage facilities, all spent nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants will be placed for long-term “dry” storage. The safety of handling operations with SNF during its preparation for long-term storage is an important factor.

Development of Shearing Device for Reducing the Storage Volume of the Spent Fuel Associated Assemblies in Nuclear Power Plants

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang Bin ◽  
Qiao Su-kai ◽  
Hao Qing-jun ◽  
Huang Hong-zhi ◽  
Ding Ming ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Storage Pool ◽  
Storage Volume ◽  
Spent Fuel Storage ◽  
Fuel Storage ◽  
Storage Racks

With the continuous running of the nuclear power plants, a great deal of unavailable spent fuel associated assemblies were and will be produced in the aggregates of the nuclear power plants, which are usually stored in the spent fuel storage pool and occupy lots of spent fuel storage racks, making the spent fuel storage facility of the nuclear power plants face the risk of being filled up. Therefore, it drives the nuclear power plants to seek a new method to increase the spent fuel storage capacity. In order to increase the storage capacity of the spent fuel storage racks, a shearing device is proposed to shear the rods and base plates (or spider assemblies) of the spent fuel associated assemblies, reducing the storage volume of the spent fuel associated assemblies and reducing the amount of the occupied spent fuel storage racks. The technology of water-hydraulic shear is applied to carry the shear process through underwater cold extrusion, effectively ensuring the integrity of the rod structure and avoiding the pollution caused by radioactive substances. Besides, no swarf would be produced to pollute the spent fuel storage pool. Through the finite element calculation and confirmation on the spot, it is verified that the bearing requirement of the fixed blade (the key assembly unit) of the shearing device is met during the relevant disassembling process. Currently, the shearing device has been successfully applied to reducing the storage volume of the spent fuel associated assemblies in LingAo Nuclear Power Plant. Therefore, the shearing device is of certain promoting and reference value.

NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT IN SPAIN: ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION AND ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES

10.6036/10156 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-358
Author(s):  
Pablo Fernández Arias ◽  
DIEGO VERGARA RODRIGUEZ
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Waste Storage ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Temporary Storage ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
High Level

Centralized Temporary Storage Facility (CTS) is an industrial facility designed to store spent fuel (SF) and high level radioactive waste (HLW) generated at Spanish nuclear power plants (NPP) in a single location. At the end of 2011, the Spanish Government approved the installation of the CTS in the municipality of Villar de Cañas in Cuenca. This approval was the outcome of a long process of technical studies and political decisions that were always surrounded by great social rejection. After years of confrontations between the different political levels, with hardly any progress in its construction, this infrastructure of national importance seems to have been definitively postponed. The present research analyzes the management strategy of SF and HLW in Spain, as well as the alternative strategies proposed, taking into account the current schedule foreseen for the closure of the Spanish NPPs. In view of the results obtained, it is difficult to affirm that the CTS will be available in 2028, with the possibility that its implementation may be delayed to 2032, or even that it may never happen, making it necessary to adopt an alternative strategy for the management of GC and ARAR in Spain. Among the different alternatives, the permanence of the current Individualized Temporary Stores (ITS) as a long-term storage strategy stands out, and even the possibility of building several distributed temporary storage facilities (DTS) in which to store the SF and HLW from several Spanish NPP. Keywords: nuclear waste, storage, nuclear power plants.

OPINIE PREZESA PAA, O KTÓRYCH MOWA W ART. 36A I 39B USTAWY – PRAWO ATOMOWE JAKO PRZYKŁAD PRE-LICENCJONOWANIA OBIEKTÓW JĄDROWYCH

2021 ◽  
pp. 389-411
Author(s):  
Tomasz R. Nowacki
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
General Concept ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Investment Risk ◽  
Binding Force ◽  
Technical Factors ◽  
Energy Law

This article discusses one of the solutions adopted in the nuclear energy law, which contributes to the reduction of the investment risk. It is the so-called pre-licensing which involves the assessment of key site or technical factors at the pre-investment stage in order to avoid possible problems at the stage of investment implementation. The author analyses the Polish solutions in the context of the general concept of pre-licensing, with particular respect to: the nature of pre-licensing legal instruments (opinions), the scope and requirements of the application for an opinion, and the binding force of pre-licensing acts. The practical significance of this issue is all the greater considering governmental plans to implement nuclear power in Poland and in the light of recent activities of private entities as to the construction of smaller nuclear power plants. In the latter case, prelicensing instruments are already being exercised in practice.

scholarly journals Temperature conditions in the RBMK spent fuel pool in the event of disturbances in its cooling mode

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-13
Author(s):  
David A. Hakobyan ◽  
Victor I. Slobodchuk
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Cooling Mode ◽  
Temperature Conditions ◽  
Fuel Assemblies ◽  
Spent Fuel Pool

The problems of reprocessing and long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) at nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors have not been fully resolved so far. For this reason, nuclear power plants are forced to search for new options for the disposal of spent fuel, which can provide at least temporary SNF storage. One of the possible solutions to this problem is to switch to compacted SNF storage in reactor spent fuel pools (SFPs). As the number of spent fuel assemblies (SFAs) in SFPs increases, a greater amount of heat is released. In addition, no less important is the fact that a place for emergency FA discharging should be provided in SFPs. The paper presents the results of a numerical simulation of the temperature conditions in SFPs both for compacted SNF storage and for emergency FA discharging. Several types of disturbances in normal SFP cooling mode are considered, including partial loss of cooling water and exposure of SFAs. The simulation was performed using the ANSYS CFX software tool. Estimates were made of the time for heating water to the boiling point, as well as the time for heating the cladding of the fuel elements to a temperature of 650 °С. The most critical conditions are observed in the emergency FA discharging compartment. The results obtained make it possible to estimate the time that the personnel have to restore normal cooling mode of the spent fuel pool until the maximum temperature for water and spent fuel assemblies is reached.

Study on the Impact Limiter Design in Spent Fuel Transfer Cask in Nuclear Power Plants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuchen Hao ◽  
Yue Li ◽  
Jinhua Wang ◽  
Bin Wu ◽  
Haitao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Theoretical Method ◽  
Structure Design ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Typical Structure ◽  
Explicit Finite Element ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In nuclear power plants, the amount of spent fuel stored on-site is limited. Therefore, it is necessary to be shipped to off-site storage or disposal facilities regularly. The key risk in the transfer of spent fuel involves a release of radiation that could cause harmful effects to people and the environment. Transfer casks with impact limiters on both ends are always employed to ensure safe containment of radioactive materials, which should be verified by the 9 meters drop test onto an unyielding surface according to IAEA SSR-6. In this paper, we focus on the influence of the impact-limiter parameters, including geometry dimensions and mechanical properties, on the results of drop events to achieve an optimized approach for design. The typical structure of impact limiter is bulk energy-absorbed material wrapped by thin stainless-steel shells. Compared to traditional wood, foam has advantages of isotropy and steady quality. In this paper, theoretical and numerical methods are both adopted to investigate the influence of impact limiters during hypothetical accidental conditions for optimizing buffer influence and protecting the internal fuel components. First of all, a series of polyurethane foam is selected according to the theoretical method, because its mechanical property is related to density. Therefore, using explicit finite element method to investigate the influence of parameters of foam in impact limiter. These discrete points from the above result can be utilized to establish damage curves by date fitting. Finally, a design approach for spent fuel transfer cask is summarized, to provide a convenient formula to predict the damage and optimize structure design in drop condition. Furthermore, this design approach can be applied in the multi-module shared system of SNF, which can contain different fuel assemblies.

scholarly journals Approaches to Safety Justification for Loading of VSC-VVER Containers in ZNPP DSFSF

2019 ◽  
pp. 82-87
Author(s):  
Ya. Kostiushko ◽  
O. Dudka ◽  
Yu. Kovbasenko ◽  
A. Shepitchak
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Safety Assessment ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Fuel Assemblies ◽  
Fuel Storage ◽  
The Government

The introduction of new fuel for nuclear power plants in Ukraine is related to obtaining a relevant license from the regulatory authority for nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine. The same approach is used for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management system. The dry spent fuel storage facility (DSFSF) is the first nuclear facility created for intermediate dry storage of SNF in Ukraine. According to the design based on dry ventilated container storage technology by Sierra Nuclear Corporation and Duke Engineering and Services, ventilated storage containers (VSC-VVER) filled with SNF of VVER-1000 are used, which are located on a special open concrete site. Containers VSC-VVER are modernized VSC-24 containers customized for hexagonal VVER-1000 spent fuel assemblies. The storage safety assessment methodology was created and improved directly during the licensing process. In addition, in accordance with the Energy Strategy of Ukraine up to 2035, one of the key task is the further diversification of nuclear fuel suppliers. Within the framework of the Executive Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the U.S. Government, activities have been underway since 2000 on the introduction of Westinghouse fuel. The purpose of this project is to develop, supply and qualify alternative nuclear fuel compatible with fuel produced in Russia for Ukrainian NPPs. In addition, a supplementary approach to safety analysis report is being developed to justify feasibility of loading new fuel into the DSFSF containers. The stated results should demonstrate the fulfillment of design criteria under normal operating conditions, abnormal conditions and design-basis accidents of DSFSF components.  Thus, the paper highlights both the main problems of DSFSF licensing and obtaining permission for placing new fuel types in DSFSF.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document