Three-gas mixture plume inducing mixing and stratification in a multi-compartment containment

Analysis of Inertization Strategies for the Filtered Containment Venting System in Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant

During a severe accident (SA) in a nuclear power plant (NPP), there are several challenges that need to be faced. To coup with a containment overpressure, the venting action will lower the pressure but it will release radioactivity to the environment. In order to reduce the radioactivity released, a filtered containment venting system (FCVS) can be used to retain iodine and aerosols radioactive releases coming from the containment atmosphere. However, during a SA, large quantities of hydrogen can also be generated. Hydrogen reacts violently with oxygen and its combustion could impair systems, components, or structures. For this reason, to protect the integrity of the FCVS against hydrogen explosions, an inertization system is found necessary. This system should create an inert atmosphere previous to any containment venting that impedes the contact of hydrogen and oxygen. In this paper, the inertization system for Cofrentes NPP is presented. It consists of a nitrogen injection located in three different points. A computational model of the FCVS as well as the inertization system has been created. The results show that if the nitrogen sweeps and the containment venting are properly synchronized, the hydrogen risk could be reduced to a minimum and therefore, the integrity of the FCVS would be preserved.

Numerical Simulation of Temperature Distribution in a Containment Vessel of an Operating PWR Plant

The structural integrity of the containment vessel (CV) for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant under a loss-of-coolant accident is evaluated by a safety analysis code that uses the average temperature of gas phase in the CV during reactor operation as an initial condition. Since the estimation of the average temperature by measurement is difficult, this paper addressed the numerical simulation for the temperature distribution in the CV of an operating PWR plant. The simulation considered heat generation of the equipment, the ventilation and air conditioning systems (VAC), heat transfer to the structure, and heat release to the CV exterior based on the design values of the PWR plant. The temperature increased with a rise in height within the CV and the flow field transformed from forced convection to natural convection. Compared with the measured temperature data in the actual PWR plant, predicted temperatures in the lower regions agreed well with the measured values. The temperature differences became larger above the fourth floor, and the temperature inside the steam generator (SG) loop chamber on the fourth floor was most strongly underestimated, −16.2  K due to the large temperature gradient around the heat release equipment. Nevertheless, the predicted temperature distribution represented a qualitative tendency, low at the bottom of the CV and increases with a rise in height within the CV. The total volume-averaged temperature was nearly equal to the average gas phase temperature. To improve the predictive performance, parameter studies regarding heat from the equipment and the reconsideration of the numerical model that can be applicable to large temperature gradient around the equipment are needed.

Large Scale Gas Stratification Erosion by a Vertical Helium-Air Jet

Containment conditions after certain postulated severe accident scenarios in nuclear power plants might result in the accumulation of hydrogen in the vessel dome. Inspired by these accident scenarios an experiment for the OECD/NEA benchmark exercise (2014) was carried out in the large scale PANDA facility at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. The benchmark experiment was conducted at room temperature and under conditions characterized by an initially positively buoyant jet which becomes negatively buoyant while interacting with a helium layer. The experiment addresses (i) the initial conditions especially at the tube exit and (ii) the details of the entrainment of the helium stratification into the jet and the transport of the mixture towards the lower parts of the vessel. For the tube exit velocity mean and fluctuating quantities we find a reasonable agreement with pipe flow data, but a lack of agreement between past tube exit measurements and our results. It is shown that the axial velocity of the jet experiences a strong deceleration in the vicinity of the helium-rich layer and is finally stopped. Fluid accumulates in this zone and part of this fluid is flowing back in a narrow annular region around the upward flowing jet. Consequently, part of the annular flow is reentrained into the rising jet. During the layer erosion, the flow structure changes from a more downwards oriented annular type to a more horizontally oriented mushroom type of flow. It is found that locations for which we record considerable turbulent kinetic energykextends above the region where the velocity magnitudevhas decayed to almost zero, indicating that the jet deceleration and redirection introduces considerable turbulence in the helium stratification.

PANDA: A Multipurpose Integral Test Facility for LWR Safety Investigations

The PANDA facility is a large scale, multicompartmental thermal hydraulic facility suited for investigations related to the safety of current and advanced LWRs. The facility is multipurpose, and the applications cover integral containment response tests, component tests, primary system tests, and separate effect tests. Experimental investigations carried on in the PANDA facility have been embedded in international projects, most of which under the auspices of the EU and OECD and with the support of a large number of organizations (regulatory bodies, technical dupport organizations, national laboratories, electric utilities, industries) worldwide. The paper provides an overview of the research programs performed in the PANDA facility in relation to BWR containment systems and those planned for PWR containment systems.

Large-Scale Containment Cooler Performance Experiments under Accident Conditions

Computational Fluid Dynamics codes are increasingly used to simulate containment conditions after various transient accident scenarios. This paper presents validation experiments, conducted in the frame of the OECD/SETH-2 project. These experiments address the combined effects of mass sources and heat sinks related to gas mixing and hydrogen transport within containment compartments. A wall jet interacts with an operating containment cooler located in the middle (M-configuration) and the top (T-configuration) of the containment vessel. The experiments are characterized by a 3-phase injection scenario. In Phase I, pure steam is injected, while in Phase II, a helium-steam mixture is injected. Finally, in Phase III, pure steam is injected again. Results for the M-configuration show helium stratification build up during Phase II. During Phase III, a positively buoyant plume emerging from the cooler housing becomes negatively buoyant once it reaches the helium-steam layer and continuously erodes the layer. For the M-configuration, a strong degradation of the cooler performance was observed during the injection of the helium/steam mixture (Phase II). For the T-configuration, we observe a mainly downwards acting cooler resulting in a combination of forced and natural convection flow patterns. The cooler performance degradation was much weaker compared with the M-configuration and a good mixing was ensured by the operation of the cooler.