ECCS Por Pulverizacion - Antecedente
ECCS Por Pulverizacion - Antecedente
ECCS Por Pulverizacion - Antecedente
Pool inlet LOCA safety analysis in support of the emergency core spray
system success criteria development of the PULSTAR research reactor
Asmaa S. Farag , Yahya A. Alzahrani , Mihai A. Diaconeasa *
North Carolina State University, Department of Nuclear Engineering, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
A B S T R A C T
The PULSTAR pool-type research reactor has been operating at power levels up to 1 MWth since initial criticality in 1972 on the North Carolina State University
(NCSU) campus. At the current power level, there is no need for an emergency core cooling system to provide additional cooling during abnormal conditions since, at
this power level, the peak cladding temperature (PCT) cannot reach the maximum allowable temperature. The range of experiments possible could be extended if the
reactor is to be licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to run up to higher power levels. However, the maximum allowable PCT at higher power
levels could be exceeded during abnormal conditions. In this study, a best estimate transient simulation model is used to inform the design of an emergency core
spray system to the PULSTAR research reactor. We provide the analysis results of the most limiting scenario of a pool inlet large break loss of coolant accident (LOCA)
while operating at higher power levels. Currently, NCSU’s research reactor program is developing a plan to increase the operating power to 2 MWth, thus most of the
analysis performed in this paper is prepared at 2 MWth. In addition, a parametric study was carried out to obtain the maximum achievable operating power by having
the emergency core spray system installed with the current coolant system arrangement.
without the fuel reaching its melting point. Moreover, UO2 has low
thermal diffusivity, is chemically stable, and has an outstanding ability
1. Introduction
to retain fission products (Middleburgh et al., 2020; Behaviour, 2009).
These characteristics make UO2 an appealing fuel choice. Using the fuel
Many of the world’s nuclear reactors are research reactors used for
in pellet form rather than powder form also helps to prevent the rapid
training, materials testing, or the production of radioisotopes for med
release of energy that could occur if the fuel were to disperse into the
icine and industry. Research reactors are much simpler and less
coolant due to loss of clad integrity. Furthermore, the nuclear industry
complicated in design than large commercial nuclear power plants. Most
has amassed a large amount of information about the properties of zir
range up to 100 MWth, compared with 3000 MWth for a typical power
caloy and has extensive experience using zircaloy as cladding. As a
reactor. In addition, research reactors are owned by many countries in
result, zircaloy is considered a reliable material for use in nuclear re
the world. About 220 research reactors are operating in 53 countries
actors (Olander and Jürgen Buschow, 2001; Karoutas, 2018). The use of
(Nuclear Research Reactors - World Nuclear Association, 2022). Many of
identical fuel to commercial light water reactors in the PULSTAR
them are operating on university campuses such as PULSTAR, which is a
research reactor supports and informs the development of light water
pool-type 1 MWth research reactor operated by North Carolina State
reactor fuel.
University (NCSU).
The reactor pool is lined with aluminum and enclosed by concrete
The NCSU PULSTAR reactor core is a heterogeneous system of light
shielding. The reactor consists of fuel and reflector assemblies, control
water, UO2 fuel, and Zircaloy cladding, identical to the commercial light
rods and guides, the grid plate support structure, and the lower cooling
water reactor fuel (Safety Analysis for Assessing 2 MW Power Upgrade
plenum chamber. The reactor core consists of up to 25 fuel assemblies of
for The NCSU PULSTAR Reactor, 2019; PULSTAR Reactor Updated
either 4 % or 6 % enrichment, reflected by up to 10 beryllium or graphite
Safety Analysis Report, 2017), which has several design features that
reflector assemblies, and operated by four control rods comprised of
make it very safe. One of these features is the use of low-enriched UO2
silver, indium, and cadmium (Safety Analysis for Assessing 2 MW Power
fuel in sintered pellet form. The UO2 fuel has a strong negative tem
Upgrade for The NCSU PULSTAR Reactor, 2019). Fig. 1 shows a top view
perature feedback effect, known as the Doppler effect, which acts as an
of the NCSU PULSTAR research reactor.
inherent safety shutdown mechanism (van Dam, 2008; Pearce, 1961).
The PULSTAR research reactor coolant system (RCS) as shown in
Additionally, UO2 has a high heat capacity, which allows for the release
Fig. 2 relies on forced convection cooling, which was designed to remove
of a significant amount of energy in the core during transient conditions
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M.A. Diaconeasa).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112163
Received 28 October 2022; Received in revised form 3 January 2023; Accepted 7 January 2023
Available online 12 January 2023
0029-5493/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
A.S. Farag et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 403 (2023) 112163
Fig. 1. Top view of PULSTAR research reactor (“Safety Analysis for Assessing 2 MW Power Upgrade for The NCSU PULSTAR Reactor” (North Carolina State
University, 2019).
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A.S. Farag et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 403 (2023) 112163
(SAR) (Safety Analysis for Assessing 2 MW Power Upgrade for The NCSU
PULSTAR Reactor, 2019) with the water metal reaction not activated,
the water metal reaction can lead to the clad zircaloy oxidation that
could potentially lead to breaching the safety limits, (2) verification of
the pool inlet LOCA results obtained by the NRC with the water metal
reaction activated, (3) pool inlet LOCA results given the installation of a
spray system with the reactor operating at 2 MWth, and (4) parametric
analysis to obtain the maximum achievable operating power given the
installation of the spray system.
Since the spray system is to be designed based on this work, we have
performed a series of parametric studies of an emergency spray system
for a pool inlet LOCA to develop the appropriate performance success
criteria: (1) spray system initiating time, (2) spray system mass flow rate
with the spray system available indefinitely, (3) spray system failure
time, (4) spray system mass flow rate with the spray system failed at
3642 s, and (5) spray system location.
The paper contains the following sections. Section 2 presents a
literature review of research reactor power upgrade studies. Section 3
describes the RELAP5/Mod 3.3 input model with the pool inlet LOCA
scenario, section 4 presents the verification results with the 2019 safety
analysis report and the NRC latest results, section 5 describes the spray
system specifications and design parameters, section 6 shows the results
of the parametric studies on the spray system following a LOCA with the
reactor operating at 2 MWth, section 7 shows the results of the para
metric analysis to obtain the maximum achievable operating power
given the installation of a spray system, and finally, section 8 summa
rizes the results.
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approached the investigation of upgrading the power by changing the 3. PULSTAR best estimate transient simulation model
coolant flow rate from its nominal value of 500 m3/hr, the reactor description
power, and achieving a power peaking factor of about 3. Their analysis
concluded that the TRR can be upgraded to 7.5 MWth with an 800 m3/h RELAP5/Mod3.3 is a light water reactor best estimate transient
coolant flow rate without violating the safety margins and without analysis code developed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the U.S.
changing or adding any safety component to the system. NRC. It is one of the most widely used system codes for simulating
Torres et al. (2014) and Bradley (2009) have performed an investi reactor accidents and transients. The thermal–hydraulic model in
gation study of the power upgrading for the IEA-R1 research reactor. RELAP5/Mod3.3 is a one-dimensional, transient, two-fluid model for
The IEA-R1 is a pool-type research reactor that uses MTR fuel type and the flow of a two-phase steam-water mixture. The non-equilibrium
has been operating at 2 MWth, although its nominal power is 5 MWth. transient two-fluid model is represented by the conservation equations
This type of reactor can operate up to 3 MWth without an ECCS of mass, momentum, and energy for each phase.
(McCurdy, 1967), so in order to increase its power to 5 MWth, they had The RELAP5/Mod3.3 input model of the PULSTAR research reactor
to install an ECCS, and isolation devices. They performed experiments simulates the transport of heat and coolant in the primary system. The
using electrically heated plates to simulate the response of the reactor pool and the primary coolant loop are represented by a series of hy
while operating at 5 MWth with an ECCS and they supported the drodynamic volumes. Fuel assemblies in the core region are represented
experimental results with a 2-D heat conduction model using finite by heat structures. Fission and decay power are calculated using the
difference techniques. point kinetics model in RELAP5/Mod3.3. In this version of the input
Jaime et al. (1989) have mentioned that the IAN-R1 research reactor deck, the reflood model is activated in the heat structures covering the
started in Colombia, in 1965, with a rated power of 10 kWth, and was reactor core region, however, the counter current flow limitation (CCFL)
modified a year later to operate at 20 kWth. Given its importance to the model is not activated, given this phenomenon is not expected to occur
application of nuclear technology in Colombia, they decided to increase (Tsukamoto, 2019).
the power to 1 MWth by adding several modifications that include The core consists of 25 fuel assemblies which contained 5 × 5 fuel
conversion of the core to low-enriched fuel, modification of the shield rods and were modeled with four lumped fuel channels. The total
ing system, renovation of instrumentation, and installation of a radio number of fuel channels is lumped into three averaged fuel channels
isotope processing plant. each representing 5, 9, and 10 fuel assemblies respectively, in addition
Hron (1990) has mentioned in an International Atomic Energy to the hot channel which represents the highest power channel in the
Agency (IAEA) report that the LWR-15 research reactor has resulted core. Every channel consists of 14 volumes, 10 volumes are in the active
from the reconstruction of the WWR-S research reactor that was in core region, and an additional four volumes are for the bottom and top of
operation in Czechoslovakia since 1957. The WWR-S started operating the fuel assemblies. The hot channel characterizations are decided upon
at 2 MWth with highly enriched U-235 IRT-M− type fuel and then a few by the NCSU PULSTAR neutronics analysis (Hawari et al., 2015). The
years later by modifying its fuel assemblies, it was upgraded to 4 MWth. active fuel length is divided into 10 axial nodes, and it is assumed that
The reconstruction to LWR-15 to operate at 10 MWth, included the the hottest pin in the hot channel has a peaking factor of 3.0. The fuel
replacement of the aluminum vessel with a stainless-steel vessel, material properties are obtained from the IAEA TECDOC 1496 (Ther
reconstruction of the primary and purification circuits, and the safety mophysical Properties Database of Materials for Light Water Reactors
and control systems to assure all safety criteria are achieved. In addition, and Heavy Water Reactors: Final Report of a Coordinated Research
they adopted probabilistic safety assessment methods to support their Project, 2006).
modifications. A schematic diagram of the RELAP5/Mod3.3 model showing the
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a main components of the PULSTAR primary system is shown in Fig. 3,
TECDOC-1625 in 2009 (Bradley, 2009) that contains many papers representing the reactor pool and core configuration and the coolant
representing each country’s plans and updates on their research re loop configuration. Table 1 shows the nominal conditions for the PUL
actors’ modernization and refurbishment including power upgrades in STAR research reactor and the simulated limited conditions used in the
Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Romania. The RA-6 research PULSTAR RELAP5/Mod3.3 input. The LOCA location at the pool inlet is
reactor in Argentina has been upgraded from 500 kWth to 3 MWth by indicated in Table 2.
modifying its fuel and core configuration and accordingly the primary Table 2 shows the progress of the LOCA scenario with having the
and the secondary system parameters were to be modified to accom break happen at time 0.0 sec followed by a scram and primary pump trip.
modate the increase in power. The BRR research reactor in Hungary has In the case of the proposed design with having the ECCS that allows for
first been upgraded from 2 MWth to 5 MWth by modifying the fuel and operating at higher power without exceeding the safety limits, the ECCS
beryllium reflector then was upgraded to 10 MWth by a full-scale reactor
reconstruction. The Bandung TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes,
General Atomics) reactor in Indonesia was upgraded from 1 MWth to 2
MWth by modifying the core, safety and cooling systems, and emergency
ventilation systems. The PARR-1 research reactor in Pakistan was
upgraded from 5 MWth to 10 MWth by several modifications in the fuel,
and reactor safety and cooling systems. Finally, the TRIGA research
reactor in Romania was upgraded from 14 MWth to 21 MWth by major
changes in the reactivity control, secondary cooling systems, and
modernization of other reactor systems.
Several research reactors have been successfully upgraded to higher
power levels through various modifications and adjustments. Entities
have selected different approaches based on their exciting design, such
as the addition or changing of new fuel assemblies, control rods,
instrumentation, increased coolant flow rates, modified fuel basket
arrangement, installation of emergency core cooling systems, and
adoption of probabilistic safety assessment methods. Overall, upgrading
the power of research reactors is achievable through careful analysis and
modifications to ensure compliance with safety criteria. Fig. 3. Nodalization of the PULSTAR model used in RELAP5/Mod3.3.
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Table 1
Nominal conditions of the PULSTAR research reactor and the simulated condi
tions used in RELAP5/Mod3.3 input.
Parameter Nominal Simulated
Table 2
Sequence of events in response to a LOCA.
Event Time (sec)
Fig. 5. Verification results with the PULSTAR SAR 2019: pool water level.
Break initiation 0.00
Reactor scram signal and primary pump trip 0.00
Scram rods start to drop 2.05
Full insertion of scram rods 3.05
Water level reaches 5 m 40.00
is designed to start working after about 500–600 sec (8–10 mins) once
reaching the pool water level to 5 m after the 40 sec from the initiation of
the simulation. The initiation time is a conservative assumption for
when the local city water will be used and the arrival of the fire
department.
The first step we had to take was to verify that the latest RELAP5/
Mod3.3 input deck produces the same results that were given in the
PULSTAR SAR 2019 (“Safety Analysis for Assessing 2 MW Power Up
grade for The NCSU PULSTAR Reactor” (North Carolina State Univer
Fig. 6. Verification of the results obtained by NRC with the water metal re
sity, 2019). The SAR was submitted to the NRC in 2019 having the water action activated.
metal reaction not activated in the input model causing non-realistic
results of the actual clad surface temperature. The cladding surface
temperature at 1 MWth and 2 MWth during a pool inlet LOCA with the
temperature and pool water level as a function of time are shown in
water metal reactions activated in the input model. The result shows
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, respectively. The figures show that the RELAP5/
that the cladding surface temperature exceeds the PCT limit of 1477.5 K
Mod3.3 verification results for pool water level and the cladding surface
(2200◦ F) when operating at 2 MWth with the water metal reaction op
temperature do not exceed the PCT limit during pool inlet LOCA while
tion activated in the input model, however it does not in the case of
operating at 2 MWth. That is because the water metal reaction that
operating at 1 MWth as expected since the temperatures are not high
would cause the zircaloy oxidation was not activated in that input
enough to initiate the water metal reaction. Thus, these results show the
model.
need for an emergency core cooling system, such as a spray system, if the
Fig. 6 shows the verification with the NRC results for the clad surface
reactor is to operate safely at 2 MWth.
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time. Fig. 3 shows the spray system connected to pipe 120, which rep
resents the upper middle part of the pool. Table 3 shows the spray sys
tem fixed parameters that include the tank pressure, water temperature,
tank length, boron concentration, water level condition, and the decided
initiating time.
Table 3 Table 4
Spray system parameters. Different flow rates and tank volumes for the spray system.
Spray system parameters Value Flow rate (kg/s) Tank volume (m3)
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Fig. 10. Clad surface temperature at all flow rates. Fig. 13. Clad surface temperature for all different cases of the spray system
failing and with initiating flow rate of 2.52 kg/s.
of the spray system failing at 3642 s after the pool inlet break and
looking at different flow rates including 1.89, 2.52, and 3.15 kg/s.
Fig. 14 shows the spray system flow rate behavior after failing at 3642
sec after the pool inlet break and different flow rates. Also, Fig. 15 shows
the clad surface temperature at the different flow rates not exceeding the
PCT limit of 1477.59 K which shows high reliability of the spray system
even if it failed after 3142 sec (~52 min) sec from its initiation.
Another parametric study is being considered for changing the
location where the spray system is attached. In this case, a comparison
has been made between the spray system attached to component 120–03
at 4.65 m and component 130–03 at 5.93 m with a mass flow rate of
2.52 kg/s, as shown in the nodalization in Fig. 16.
The results show that connecting the spray system at different lo
cations produces the same flow rate and temperature profile as can be
seen in Fig. 17 and Fig. 18, respectively.
Fig. 11. Fuel centerline temperature at all flow rates. 7. Parametric study on the operating power with the spray
system installed
reactor during LOCA at the pool inlet, a conservative scenario is
considered of failing the spray system at different times. Fig. 12 shows We further investigated the consequences of LOCA on the clad sur
the flow rates for the spray system failing completely at 842, 1740, and face temperature by initially running the RELAP5/Mod3.3 input without
3642 sec while running at a 2.52 kg/s flow rate. Fig. 13 shows the cor the ECCS at different power starting from 1 MWth to 5 MWth. Fig. 19
responding clad surface temperature. The results show that the clad shows the decay power for the different power scenarios. Fig. 20 shows
surface temperature peaks are lower than the PCT limit of 1477.594 K the clad surface temperature for the different power scenarios indicating
(2200 ◦ F) for all three cases. In the case of the 842 sec, the maximum that the PCT limit will be exceeded for power scenarios greater than 1
temperature reached is 1446.48 K (2144 ◦ F). MWth and the need for an ECCS is essential to remove all the decay heat.
An additional parametric study has been performed is fixing the time We started our parametric study by fixing the ECCS flow rate at 3.15
kg/s and initiating it at 600 sec (10 mins) after reaching the pool water
Fig. 12. Spray system flow rate failing at all the different times with initiating
flow rate of 2.52 kg/s. Fig. 14. Spray system flow rate after failing at 3642 s.
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A.S. Farag et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 403 (2023) 112163
Fig. 15. Clad surface temperature at the different flow rates and the spray system failing at 3642 s.
level to 5 m. The results indicated that only the 2 MWth power scenario stabilize and the simulation crashed, possibly due to not being able to
did not exceed the PCT limit with initiating the ECCS after 600 sec as can establish quenching of the fuel rods.
be seen in Fig. 20 and Fig. 21, and in all the other power scenarios, the An additional parametric study was implemented by fixing the ECCS
ECCS failed to remove all the decay heat. flow rate to 6.31 kg/s and changing the initiation time of the ECCS
After that, we fixed the ECCS flow rate to be 3.15 kg/s, and we starting from 100 sec to 400 sec for each power scenario. Fig. 25, Fig. 26,
changed the initiation time of the ECCS starting from 100 sec to 400 sec and Fig. 27 show the clad surface temperature results for 3 MWth, 4
for each power scenario. Fig. 22, Fig. 23, and Fig. 24 show the clad MWth, and 5 MWth power scenarios, respectively. Similar results with
surface temperature results for 3 MWth, 4 MWth, and 5 MWth power the 3.15 kg/s case were obtained for 3 MWth and 4 MWth as the PCT limit
scenarios, respectively. For operating at 3 MWth and 4 MWth, in order to will not be exceeded if the ECCS was initiated at approximately 300 sec
not exceed the PCT limit, the ECCS has to be initiated no later than However, the peak temperature in the case of 6.31 kg/s is lower than for
approximately 300 sec, since the simulation failed to converge for the 3.15 kg/s for both power scenarios. In addition, for operating at 5 MWth,
400 sec case. However, for the 5 MWth power scenario, the PCT limit was the PCT limit will not be exceeded if the ECCS is initiated around 200 sec
exceeded starting from the initiating time of 200 sec. As can be seen in and the run failed with the initiating time at 300 sec.
the figures below, in some extreme cases, the temperature did not
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A.S. Farag et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 403 (2023) 112163
Fig. 19. Decay power at all operating power scenario without using an ECCS.
Fig. 16. RELAP5 model nodalization of the PULSTAR reactor pool and core
(“Safety Analysis for Assessing 2 MW Power Upgrade for The NCSU PULSTAR
Reactor” (North Carolina State University, 2019).
Fig. 20. Clad surface temperature at all operating power scenarios without
using an ECCS.
Fig. 17. Spray system flow rate at 2.52 kg/s and connected to
different components.
Fig. 21. Clad surface temperature at 2 MWth operating power, 3.15 kg/s ECCS
flow rate initiated after 600 s.
Fig. 18. Clad surface temperature for the spray system connected to to upgrade the operating power of the PULSTAR to expand the range of
different components. experiments and activities, taking into considerations achieving safety
criteria. Moreover, this study investigates the characterization of
8. Conclusions installing a core spray system to the existing coolant system. Based on
our conducted research, the following conclusions are obtained: 1)
This study presents an overview of the PULSTAR design, a historical operating the PULSTAR at 2 MWth without the ECCS during pool inlet
review of research rectors power upgrade, and a feasibility study of LOCA with the water metal reactions activated, the cladding surface
installing an ECCS into the PULSTAR research reactor that is significant temperature surpasses the PCT, which requires the need of an ECCS,
9
A.S. Farag et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 403 (2023) 112163
Fig. 22. Clad surface temperature at 3 MWth operating power, 3.15 kg/s ECCS Fig. 25. Clad surface temperature at 3 MWth operating power, 6.31 kg/s ECCS
flow rate initiated at different times. flow rate initiated at different times.
Fig. 26. Clad surface temperature at 4 MWth operating power, 6.31 kg/s ECCS
Fig. 23. Clad surface temperature at 4 MWth operating power, 3.15 kg/s ECCS flow rate initiated at different times.
flow rate initiated at different times.
Fig. 27. Clad surface temperature at 5 MWth operating power, 6.31 kg/s ECCS
Fig. 24. Clad surface temperature at 5 MWth operating power, 3.15 kg/s ECCS flow rate initiated at different times.
flow rate initiated at different times.
of flow rate 1.26–3.15 kg/s with 0.63 kg/s increment, the analysis
however, it doesn’t exceed the limit while operating at 1 MWth, 2) when showed that it is capable of not exceeding the PCT limit of 1477.59 K
operating at 2 MWth, the core spray system effectively maintained the (2200◦ F) at all rates, 4) Operating at 2 MWth, the results show that a
clad surface temperature lower than the PCT limit when initiated after spray system delivering water with a mass flow rate of at least 2.52 kg/s
60, 200, 500 and 800 sec with a flow rate of 2.52 kg/s from the time pool for 1240 sec assuming its initiation at 500 s after the pool inlet LOCA
inlet LOCA is initiated, 3) the spray system tested at initiating time of initiation is capable of meeting the PCT limit of 1477.59 K (2200◦ F), and
500 s from the time the pool inlet LOCA is initiated, with different range with higher flow rate, less time is needed to meet the safety criteria if the
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A.S. Farag et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 403 (2023) 112163
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