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In this paper, a three-dimensional model for the dynamic analysis of a flywheel based on the finite element method is presented. The static structure analysis for the model provides stress and strain distribution cloud charts. The modal analysis provides the basis of dynamic analysis due to its ability to obtain the natural frequencies and the vibration–made vectors of the first 10 orders. The results show the main faults are attrition and cracks, while also indicating the locations and patterns of faults. The harmonic response simulation was performed to gain the vibration response of the flywheel under operation. In this paper, we present a Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) algorithm for flywheel vibration analysis. The simulation indicated that the proposed flywheel vibration signal analysis method performs well, which means that the method can lay the foundation for the detection and diagnosis in a reactor main coolant pump.

In this paper, we describe a computer program, iBEST (inverse Burnup ESTimator), that we developed to accurately estimate the burnup histories of spent nuclear fuels based on sample measurement data. The burnup history parameters include initial uranium enrichment, burnup, cooling time after discharge from reactor, and reactor type. The program uses algebraic equations derived using the simplified burnup chains of major actinides for initial estimations of burnup and uranium enrichment, and it uses the ORIGEN-S code to correct its initial estimations for improved accuracy. In addition, we newly developed a stable bisection method coupled with ORIGEN-S to correct burnup and enrichment values and implemented it in iBEST in order to fully take advantage of the new capabilities of ORIGEN-S for improving accuracy. The iBEST program was tested using several problems for verification and well-known realistic problems with measurement data from spent fuel samples from the Mihama-3 reactor for validation. The test results show that iBEST accurately estimates the burnup history parameters for the test problems and gives an acceptable level of accuracy for the realistic Mihama-3 problems.

International standards recommend typical phases to be included within any national program for the development of a geological repository dedicated to disposal of the high level radioactive wastes generated in countries using nuclear power. However, these are not universally applicable and the content of each of these phases may need to be adapted for each national situation and regulatory and institutional framework. Several national geological repository programs have faced failures in schedules and have revised their programs to consider an adapted phased management approach. The authors have observed that in the case of those countries in the early phases of a geological repository program where boundary conditions have not been fully defined, international recommendations for handling delays/failures in the national program might not immediately help. This paper considers a case study of the influences of the national context risks on the current planning schedule of the Romanian national geological repository. It proposes an optimum solution for an integrated response to any significant adverse impact arising from these risks, enabling sustainable program planning.

The accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, caused by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, resulted in a failure of the power systems that are needed to cool the reactors at the plant. The accident progression in the absence of heat removal systems caused Units 1-3 to undergo fuel melting. Containment pressurization and hydrogen explosions ultimately resulted in the escape of radioactivity from reactor containments into the atmosphere and ocean. Problems in containment venting operation, leakage from primary containment boundary to the reactor building, improper functioning of standby gas treatment system (SGTS), unmitigated hydrogen accumulation in the reactor building were identified as some of the reasons those added-up in the severity of the accident. The Fukushima accident not only initiated worldwide demand for installation of adequate control and mitigation measures to minimize the potential source term to the environment but also advocated assessment of the existing mitigation systems performance behavior under a wide range of postulated accident scenarios. The uncertainty in estimating the released fraction of the radionuclides due to the Fukushima accident also underlined the need for comprehensive understanding of fission product behavior as a function of the thermal hydraulic conditions and the type of gaseous, aqueous, and solid materials available for interaction, e.g., gas components, decontamination paint, aerosols, and water pools. In the light of the Fukushima accident, additional experimental needs identified for hydrogen and fission product issues need to be investigated in an integrated and optimized way. Additionally, as more and more passive safety systems, such as passive autocatalytic recombiners and filtered containment venting systems are being retrofitted in current reactors and also planned for future reactors, identified hydrogen and fission product issues will need to be coupled with the operation of passive safety systems in phenomena oriented and coupled effects experiments. In the present paper, potential hydrogen and fission product issues raised by the Fukushima accident are discussed. The discussion focuses on hydrogen and fission product behavior inside nuclear power plant containments under severe accident conditions. The relevant experimental investigations conducted in the technical scale containment THAI (thermal hydraulics, hydrogen, aerosols, and iodine) test facility (9.2 m high, 3.2 m in diameter, and 60 m3 volume) are discussed in the light of the Fukushima accident.

The supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) Brayton cycle has recently been gaining a lot of attention for application to next generation nuclear reactors. The advantages of the S-CO2 cycle are high efficiency in the mild turbine inlet temperature region and a small physical footprint with a simple layout, compact turbomachinery, and heat exchangers. Several heat sources including nuclear, fossil fuel, waste heat, and renewable heat sources such as solar thermal or fuel cells are potential application areas of the S-CO2 cycle. In this paper, the current development progress of the S-CO2 cycle is introduced. Moreover, a quick comparison of various S-CO2 layouts is presented in terms of cycle performance.

Pattern classifications have become important tools for fault diagnosis in nuclear power plants (NPP). However, it is often difficult to obtain training data under fault conditions to train a supervised classification model. By contrast, normal plant operating data can be easily made available through increased deployment of supervisory, control, and data acquisition systems. Such data can also be used to train classification models to improve the performance of fault diagnosis scheme. In this paper, a fault diagnosis scheme based on semisupervised classification (SSC) scheme is developed. In this scheme, new measurements collected from the plant are integrated with data observed under fault conditions to train the SSC models. The trained models are subsequently applied to new measurements for fault diagnosis. In comparison with supervised classifiers, the proposed scheme requires significantly fewer data collected under fault conditions to train the classifier. The developed scheme has been validated using different fault scenarios on a desktop NPP simulator as well as on a physical NPP simulator using a graph-based SSC algorithm. All the considered faults have been successfully diagnosed. The results have demonstrated that SSC is a promising tool for fault diagnosis in NPPs.

This paper provides a reference to determine the seal performance of metallic O-rings for a reactor pressure vessel (RPV). A nonlinear elastic-plastic model of an O-ring was constructed by the finite element method to analyze its intrinsic properties. It is also validated by experiments on scaled samples. The effects of the compression ratio, the geometrical parameters of the O-ring, and the structure parameters of the groove on the flange are discussed in detail. The results showed that the numerical analysis of the O-ring agrees well with the experimental data, the compression ratio has an important role in the distribution and magnitude of contact stress, and a suitable gap between the sidewall and groove can improve the sealing capability of the O-ring. After the optimization of the sealing structure, some key parameters of the O-ring (i.e., compression ratio, cross-section diameter, wall thickness, sidewall gap) have been recommended for application in megakilowatt class nuclear power plants. Furthermore, air tightness and thermal cycling tests were performed to verify the rationality of the finite element method and to reliably evaluate the sealing performance of a RPV.

An accelerator-driven system consists of a subcritical reactor and a controllable external neutron source. The reactor in an accelerator-driven system can sustain fission reactions in a subcritical state using an external neutron source, which is an intrinsic safety feature of the system. The system can provide efficient transmutations of nuclear wastes such as minor actinides and long-lived fission products and generate electricity. Recently at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI; Kyoto, Japan), a series of reactor physics experiments was conducted with the Kyoto University Critical Assembly and a Cockcroft–Walton type accelerator, which generates the external neutron source by deuterium–tritium reactions. In this paper, neutronic analyses of a series of experiments have been re-estimated by using the latest Monte Carlo code and nuclear data libraries. This feasibility study is presented through the comparison of Monte Carlo simulation results with measurements.

The shield building of AP1000 was designed to protect the steel containment vessel of the nuclear reactor. Therefore, the safety and integrity must be ensured during the plant life in any conditions such as an earthquake. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of water in the water tank on the response of the AP1000 shield building when subjected to three-dimensional seismic ground acceleration. The smoothed particle hydrodynamics method (SPH) and finite element method (FEM) coupling method is used to numerically simulate the fluid and structure interaction (FSI) between water in the water tank and the AP1000 shield building. Then the grid convergence of FEM and SPH for the AP1000 shield building is analyzed. Next the modal analysis of the AP1000 shield building with various water levels (WLs) in the water tank is taken. Meanwhile, the pressure due to sloshing and oscillation of the water in the gravity drain water tank is studied. The influences of the height of water in the water tank on the time history of acceleration of the AP1000 shield building are discussed, as well as the distributions of amplification, acceleration, displacement, and stresses of the AP1000 shield building. Research on the relationship between the WLs in the water tank and the response spectrums of the structure are also taken. The results show that the high WL in the water tank can limit the vibration of the AP1000 shield building and can more efficiently dissipate the kinetic energy of the AP1000 shield building by fluid-structure interaction.