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The 10 MW Indonesia’s Reaktor Daya Eksperimental (RDE) which is to be constructed in Serpong Nuclear Zone, Puspiptek and was firstly developed in 2014 is expected to be operational in 2022/2023. The RDE is expected to be a landmark to Indonesia for a nuclear power technology provider in the imminent futurity. Till the end of 2018, the RDE is focused on the basic design including its reactor pressure vessel (RPV). This research paper presents mechanical stresses assessment on basic design of RPV structure components for RDE in ensuring the safety design targets of RDE which are no dangerous radioactive release to the workers, populations, and environments even in the worst accident. Results are presented from the structural stresses assessment under following conditions such as thermal loading, operating pressure, and mechanical loads. The geometric models and dimensions of pressure vessel components within the basic design calculations had been performed by using computer code RPV_RDE.exe in the previous work. These components were designed in accordance with ASME code specification for SA516-70 carbon steel plate. In this work, finite element analysis is applied to assess the occurred structure mechanical stresses upon those RPV components. This work recommends that the RPV components of RDE are safe in the basic design calculations by analysis approach as described in model simulations.

The 10 MW Indonesia’s Experimental Power Reactor (RDE) is a High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR)-type and planned to be operational in the Puspiptek Serpong area in 2022/2023. The reactor applies helium gas coolants, graphite moderator and 17% 235U enrichment fuels and has 8 control fuel rods. To design a nuclear reactor, there are many safety aspects which should be taken into account and one of them is neutronic safety analysis dealing with an accident of reactivity core change due to increases of fuel and moderator temperatures. To begin with the safety analysis, the RDE core should be modeled utilizing the combination of nuclear data libraries and a computer code. Prior to estimate the reactivity core change in the RDE core, the calculation of neutron effective multiplication factors during the accident was accomplished using the MCNPX computer code. In this paper, the neutronic analysis of RDE core has been focused on how the fuel temperature increase implies the reactivity core change in the RDE reactor. By combining the three major world nuclear data libraries and the MCNPX code, the all calculated results showed that all core reactivity changes in the RDE core due to fuel temperature increases starting from 26.85 °C (300 K) to 2,726.85 °C (3,000 K) are all negatives except those in the reflector zone which principally accumulates generated neutrons always coming from the central of the core during reactor operation. Therefore, those do not affect at all the safety of the reactor core during the accident. Indeed, the RDE reactor core is totally safe in the event of fuel-temperature-increase during its reactor operation and hence the RDE reactor is in a steady, safe operation.

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