This paper describes the seismic design of Japan Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR), which includes the seismic condition, the seismic isolation system, and the seismic evaluation of the primary components. Since the design seismic loading is set out severely than ever since The Niigata-ken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007, an advanced seismic isolation system is aimed to reduce the seismic force loaded on the primary components of JSFR to be less than that of the previous seismic isolation system. The advanced seismic isolation system is developed by optimizing the performance based on the previous seismic isolation system considering the natural frequency of the primary components. The laminated rubber bearings thicker than the previous ones and oil dampers are adopted for the advanced seismic isolation system of SFR. The seismic evaluation of nuclear reactor components applying the advanced seismic isolation system is performed and its feasibility is confirmed.

The authors proposed a newly three-dimensional isolation system, consisting of a rubber bearing, vertical oil dampers and disc spring units, to reduce the seismic response in the vertical direction as well as horizontal direction. This isolation system is employed with a number of disc spring units to provide the vertical restoring force to the superstructure. The disc spring units are combined by three disc springs in parallels and they are are stacked in six serials. The vertical restoring force has susceptible to the variation forces for the individual disc springs because the disc spring units are combined in the six serials. The The purpose of this paper is to present two kinds of proposal to improve the quality control of our isolation system and the prediction accuracy of seismic response. The first is to create the the optimal combination method for the disc spring units using the meta-heuristic algorithm to minimize the variation of vertical vertical restoring force. The proposed optimal method was verified through the result of static loading tests using the 72 disc springs which have the half dimensions to full scale. The second is to create a newly analytical model for the friction force caused by polymeric materials. The proposed analytical model was verified by comparing the loading test results. Moreover, the seismic isolation performances were clarified by the seismic response analysis that consider the vertical restoring force of the disc spring units which were combined using the optimal method and the friction force of sliding elements which were modeled by the proposed friction model. This analytical result revealed that our isolation system can reduce the seismic response not only for the high frequency components but also the low frequency ones.

The seismic isolation system consisting of laminated rubber bearings is applied to development of the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) in Japan. While rubber bearings as horizontal isolation system have been expected to be ensured seismic safety margin of components installed in reactor building against horizontal seismic load, vertical isolation systems have been also studied in order to tolerate to the seismic load which has been increased steadily. In this paper, the three dimensional seismic isolation system by combining coned disc springs with rubber bearings is proposed as a concept which consists of isolation devices with abundant track record. Analytical study for this system results that the rocking motion can be suppressed by itself without any suppression system and that the mitigation of vertical response can be enough for buckling design of the reactor vessel simultaneously. In particular, it is important that the vertical natural frequency of system is within the range of 3Hz to 5Hz. Besides, layout, size and stacks of coned discs in the unit of system are studied in order to obtain suitable for specification to SFR buildings.

In Japan, several kinds of three-dimensional seismic isolation system for next-generation nuclear power plant such as fast reactors have been studied in recent years. We proposed a structural concept of a vertical component isolation system, assuming a building adopting a horizontal base isolation system. In this concept, a reactor vessel and major primary components are suspended from a large common deck supported by isolation devices consisting of large coned disk springs. In order to verify the isolation performance of the vertical component isolation system, 1/8 series of shaking table tests using a scale model were conducted. The test model was composed of 4 vertical isolation devices, common deck and horizontal load suspension system. For the design earthquake, the system smoothly operated, and sufficient isolation characteristics were shown. The simulation analysis results matched well the test results, so the validity of the design technique was able to be verified. As the result, the prospect that the vertical isolation system applied to the FBR plant could technically realize was obtained.

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