Nuclear safety 2020/2021

Colloquium on deterministic safety analysis and severe accidents

December 22, 2020 at 13:15

By returning the results of this colloquium by e-mail to mitja.ursic@ijs.si, you confirm that:

 you solved the tasks completely independently, i.e. without cooperating with anyone,
 you did not help or assist anyone else in solving the tasks,
 you did not considered this special circumstances of remote knowledge testing in any other
dishonest way and
 you are aware that the colloquium will not be taken into account, if the results will show that
it did not take place fairly.

Instructions:

 Turn on your mic and video.

 You are free to choose the approach how to deliver your results by e-mail. Just keep in mind
that if I cannot read the solution I cannot credit it.
 From every file you will send to me, I shall be able to read your student number.
 Only solutions sent until 14:15 will be consider.
 There are total 4 pages of this document.

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Quiz questions
1. Which failure or breach would result in overcooling of primary system
a. A
b. B
c. C
d. D

2. According to the Shapiro diagram, which of the mixtures will cause detonation?
a. Hydrogen : steam : air = 80 : 10 : 10
b. Hydrogen : steam : air = 60 : 10 : 30
c. Hydrogen : steam : air = 30 : 10 : 60

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3. In case of cladding oxidation with steam the oxidation power is

a. orders of magnitude lower than the decay power.
b. comparable to the decay power.
c. orders of magnitude larger than the decay power.
4. Under the adiabatic assumption for the uncovered reactor core, the core will melt in the
time of
a. few tens of seconds.
b. few tens of minutes.
c. few tens of hours.
5. Consider the Moody model for critical mass flux. Assume the primary system is at 500 PSI.
What is the ratio of the critical mass flux between the breach at the saturated liquid
boundary and the breach at the saturated vapour boundary?
a. Around 2:1.
b. Around 4:1.
c. Around 6:1.

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Numerical problem
6. A pressurized water reactor was operating at constant thermal power of 3400 MW. The
height of the core is 3.7 m and the equivalent core diameter is 3.4 m. The reactor fuel
occupies 30 % of the core volume. After 1 year of operation, serious event occurred and the
reactor was shutdown. Now, 2 hours later the reactor core is uncovered and the system
pressure is constant at 6 MPa. Mean volume fraction of bubbles in the wetted part of the
core is 40 %.
a. Calculated the core uncover rate (in cm/s) at the moment when 75 % of the core is
still covered and the emergency core cooling system is not operating.
b. How long it will take to uncover the core from the 75 % of its height down to 25 % of
its height? Assume, that the emergency core cooling system is still not operating.
c. At the time when 25% of the core is covered, the emergency core cooling system
starts to operate. Assess the minimal necessary mass flow to start the core covering.
Which assumption do you have to make to perform this assessment?

Send the solutions to Mitja.ursic@ijs.si not later than 14:15.

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