CANDU Safety

#1 - CANDU Nuclear Power Plant Design

Dr. V.G. Snell

Director
Safety & Licensing

24/05/01 8:14 AM CANDU Safety - #1 - CANDU Design.ppt Rev. 1 vgs 1

What Accident is This?
28 killed, 36
injured, 1821
homes and
167 buildings
destroyed

24/05/01 8:14 AM CANDU Safety - #1 - CANDU Design.ppt Rev. 1 vgs 2

Or this?
“It could take months to
determine what caused
an explosion early
Wednesday at
Hawthorn power plant.
The generating plant,
which produces 15
percent of Kansas City
Power & Light's
electricity, will be out of
operation for an
extended period of
time”
24/05/01 8:14 AM CANDU Safety - #1 - CANDU Design.ppt Rev. 1 vgs 3
What is CANDU?
λ CANada Deuterium Uranium - the name gives the design
λ started as the Canadian contribution to the War effort: to
produce plutonium using natural uranium and heavy water
λ the first reactor to go critical outside the U.S. was ZEEP in
1945 - too late for the War but started the Canadian nuclear
civilian power programme

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ZEEP - Canada’s First Reactor

Right - ZEEP building at Chalk River Laboratories near Chalk River, Ontario, as it
appeared around the time of the first startup in 1945.

Left - ZEEP taken during the 1950s. Experiments were conducted on fuel for early
CANDU designs, including NPD and Douglas Point

24/05/01 8:14 AM CANDU Safety - #1 - CANDU Design.ppt Rev. 1 vgs 5

CANDU Genealogy
Darlington

900
900 MW Class CANDU 9

800 Reactors Bruce B

Bruce A

700 Pt Lepreau Embalse

Power (MWe)

Qinshan 1&2
Wolsong

600
600 MW Class Gentilly 2 Wolsong 1 Cernavoda
2,3,4

Reactors
500 Pickering A Pickering B

- RAPP 1,2

200 Douglas Point Research &

KANUPP Prototype
100 NRU Reactors
ZEEP
NRX NPD
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Years
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Reactor PWR
CANDU

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Reactor
λ CANDU
– 380 small diameter (10 cm), thin
(4.2 mm) pressure tubes
– horizontal orientation
– heavy water coolant (312°C)
– separate heavy water
moderator (65°C)
– reactivity devices in low
pressure moderator
– large core, low energy density
(11 MW / m3)
λ PWR
– 1 large diameter, thick pressure
vessel
– vertical orientation
– light water coolant (329°C)
– coolant is the same as the
moderator, both hot
– reactivity devices in high
pressure coolant / moderator
– small core, high energy density
(60 MW / m3)

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Fuel
CANDU PWR

24/05/01 8:14 AM CANDU Safety - #1 - CANDU Design.ppt Rev. 1 vgs 9

Fuel
λ CANDU λ PWR
– natural uranium – enriched uranium
– low burnup – high burnup
– short bundles (0.5 metres) – long bundles (3.8 metres)
– on-power refuelling – shut down to refuel
– remove defected fuel during – remove defective fuel only
operation when shut down to refuel

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Fuel Channel
λ CANDU fuel bundles lie inside the pressure tube
λ a calandria tube separates the pressure tube from the
moderator
λ a gas gap between the pressure tube and the calandria tube
provides thermal insulation

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Fuel channel

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Heat Transport System
COMPARISON OF HEAT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS
PHWR PWR

Headers

* SMALL PIPING - LOW STRESSES * SIMPLE PIPING, LARGE PRESSURE VESSEL

* SAFETY RODS IN MODERATOR * SIMPLE FUELLING - ONCE PER YEAR
* ON-POWER FUELLING * LARGE REACTIVITY CHANGE IN OPERATION
* FULL-PRESSURE RHR LOOPS * ECC NEEDED TO STOP MELTING AFTER LOCA
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Heat Transport System
λ CANDU
– each channel is individually
connected to collectors
(headers) above the core
– pumps, steam generators
above the core
– each particle of fluid goes
through the core twice before it
gets back to where it started
– one or two loops
– operating pressure ~10 MPa
24/05/01 8:14 AM CANDU Safety - #1 - CANDU Design.ppt
λ PWR
– the pressure vessel is a large
pot containing all the core
water in one place
– pumps, steam generators
above the core
– each particle of fluid goes
through the core once before it
gets back to where it started
– two, three or four loops
– operating pressure ~15.5 MPa
Rev. 1 vgs 14
Moderator
Relief Pipe
λ cold: 65°C heavy
water, large inventory:
~260 Mg
λ cooling capacity: 100
MW(th) or about 4.6%
of full power Calandria Calandria Vault

Pump

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Reactivity Control
λ short-term: in-core devices (absorber & adjuster rods, light
water)
λ long-term: on-power refuelling
λ no absorber in coolant
λ little absorber in moderator except during startup after a long
shutdown
λ routine control: dual redundant digital computers

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Reactivity Control

Slave Master

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Secondary Side Manway
Secondary
Main steam
nozzle
λ conventional nuclear steam Separators
Primary
generators and turbine / generator Separators
λ the steam generators have heavy U-Bend
Shroud cone
water on the primary side
Tube bundle
λ steam conditions: 4.7 MPa and Shroud
260°C Support
Plate
Cold leg Hot leg

Preheater
Feedwater
Inlet Tubesheet
D2O Outlet D2O Inlet

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Auxiliary Systems
λ CANDU has systems not found in PWRs
– automated refuelling & fuel handling system
– annulus gas system (leak-before-break)
– shield cooling system
– heavy water vapour and liquid recovery
λ and systems that are found in PWRs
– primary pressure & inventory control
– shutdown cooling system
– shutdown systems, Emergency Core Cooling, containment,
emergency power etc.

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Systems CANDU Does Not Need
λ Some PWR systems are not needed in CANDU or are much
simpler
– no boron control system in the coolant
– no boron addition to ECC water
– no criticality concerns outside the reactor for new or used
fuel
– simpler core, reactivity devices

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Summary

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