A plant operator training simulator is developed for training the plant operators as well as for design verification of plant control system (PCS) and plant protection system (PPS) for the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology Neutron Source Facility. The simulator provides the operator interface for the whole plant including the sub-critical assembly coolant loop, target coolant loop, secondary coolant loop, and other facility systems. The operator interface is implemented based on Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS), which is a comprehensive software development platform for distributed control systems. Since its development at Argonne National Laboratory, it has been widely adopted in the experimental physics community, e.g. for control of accelerator facilities. This work is the first implementation for a nuclear facility. The main parts of the operator interface are the plant control panel and plant protection panel. The development involved implementation of process variable database, sequence logic, and graphical user interface (GUI) for the PCS and PPS utilizing EPICS and related software tools, e.g. sequencer for sequence logic, and control system studio (CSS-BOY) for graphical use interface. For functional verification of the PCS and PPS, a plant model is interfaced, which is a physics-based model of the facilitymore » coolant loops implemented as a numerical computer code. The training simulator is tested and demonstrated its effectiveness in various plant operation sequences, e.g. start-up, shut-down, maintenance, and refueling. It was also tested for verification of the plant protection system under various trip conditions.« less

One of the great challenges of designing and licensing the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is to confirm that the intended VHTR analysis tools can be used confidently to make decisions and to assure all that the reactor systems are safe and meet the performance objectives of the Generation IV Program. The research and development (R&D) projects defined in the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Design Methods Development and Validation Program will ensure that the tools used to perform the required calculations and analyses can be trusted. The Methods R&D tasks are designed to ensure that the calculational envelope of the tools used to analyze the VHTR reactor systems encompasses, or is larger than, the operational and transient envelope of the VHTR itself. The Methods R&D focuses on the development of tools to assess the neutronic and thermal fluid behavior of the plant. The fuel behavior and fission product transport models are discussed in the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) program plan. Various stress analysis and mechanical design tools will also need to be developed and validated and will ultimately also be included in the Methods R&D Program Plan. The calculational envelope of the neutronics and thermal-fluids software tools intended to be used on the NGNP is defined by the scenarios and phenomena that these tools can calculate with confidence. The software tools can only be used confidently when the results they produce have been shown to be in reasonable agreement with first-principle results, thought-problems, and data that describe the “highly ranked” phenomena inherent in all operational conditions and important accident scenarios for the VHTR.

The safety goal of the current designs of advanced high-temperature thermal gas-cooled reactors (HTRs) is that no core meltdown would occur in a depressurization event with a combination of concurrent safety system failures. This study focused on the analysis of passive decay heat removal (DHR) in a GEN IV direct-cycle gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) which is based on the technology developments of the HTRs. Given the different criteria and design characteristics of the GFR, an approach different from that taken for the HTRs for passive DHR would have to be explored. Different design options based on maintaining core flow were evaluated by performing transient analysis of a depressurization accident using the system code RELAP5-3D. The study also reviewed the conceptual design of autonomous systems for shutdown decay heat removal and recommends that future work in this area should be focused on the potential for Brayton cycle DHRs.

A novel first-principles-based expert system is proposed for on-line detection and identification of faulty component candidates during incipient off-normal process operations. The system performs function-oriented diagnostics and can be reused for diagnosing single-component failures in different processes and different plants through the provision of the appropriate process schematics information. The function-oriented and process-independent diagnostic features of the proposed expert system are achieved by constructing a knowledge base containing three distinct types of information, qualitative balance equation rules, functional classification of process components, and the process piping and instrumentation diagram. The various types of qualitative balance equation rules for processes utilizing single-phase liquids are derived and their usage is illustrated through simulation results of a realistic process in a nuclear power plant.

Parametric thermal-hydraulic studies needed to develop and optimize the design of a small modular 25 MWt lead-bismuth reactor plant have been performed. The starting point was the design of a liquid metal version of the secure transportable autonomous reactor (STAR-LM) plant of 300 to 400 MWt with a steam power cycle.1 The primary flow is driven entirely by natural convection. The new plant is to be extremely small so that its main components can be transported to the reactor site by truck. The analytical model includes the two major components of the primary loop, the reactor and a once-through steam generator, which is a shell-and-tube heat exchanger with straight vertical tubes. The modeling includes the changes between the beginning and the end of plant life due to the gradual buildup of a layer of magnetite on the surfaces of the fuel pins and on the outer surfaces of the steam generator tubes. Three reactor parametric studies were performed-one for each of three sets of reactor geometric parameters. In each study the pin-bundle pressure drop, the vertical height of the primary loop, the hydraulic diameter of the core, the number of fuel pins, and peak fuel and cladding temperatures were determinedmore » for a range of values of fuel pin linear power. Four steam generator parametric studies were performed. The first three have fixed tube inner diameters of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 cm, respectively. In the fourth study the tube inner diameter was allowed to vary and the margin to critical heat flux, CHF, was maintained at 20%. In the steam generator studies the independent parameters include tube length and tube-bundle pitch-to-diameter ratio and the dependent variables include steam generator cross-sectional area, the number of tubes, the vertical height of the primary loop, and the steam generator pressure drop. The results show that an acceptable optimum thermal-hydraulic design for a 25 MWt STAR-LM is feasible. (authors)« less

We describe the first-principles-based PRODIAG expert system for on-line plant-level diagnosis of component faults in thermal-hydraulic processes. This diagnostic system combines the concepts of fundamental physical principles and function-oriented diagnosis in a qualitative reasoning framework and structures these concepts into three independent knowledge bases. PRODIAG has the unique ability to diagnose unanticipated (unforeseen) component faults and can be ported across different processes/plants through modifications of only input data files containing the appropriate process layout information. Simulation tests for two plant systems with transient data generated with the Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant full-scope training simulator confirm the unique capabilities of PRODIAG.

We present a function-based diagnostic method for identifying and detecting single-component failures in nuclear power plants when limited plant instrumentation is available. Through qualitative analysis of macroscopic balance equations, those plant functions that have been disrupted are identified and compared with the design function of components for diagnosis of single-component failure. The proposed function-based diagnostic system allows for the detection of unanticipated transients and is portable from plant to plant with minor modifications. The methodology has been successfully tested to diagnose chemical and volume control system (CVCS) malfunctions in a pressurized water reactor (PWR).