An Analysis of the Dynamic Behavior of the Core

Bergeonneau, P.; Vanier, M.; Favet, M.; Antoni, Joan; Essig, Kai; Adam, J. P.

doi:10.13182/nse90-a23759

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…This report provides a detailed insight into the procedures of evaluation of reactivity characteristics of the core at different power levels resulted in experimental evaluation of the reactivity coefficients k, g, and h. Despite of a relatively high uncertainty of the published experimental data, the three transients corresponding to three individual perturbations in the core at around 650 MWth may serve as a fruitful basis for the codes and models calibration and are selected in the transient phase of the benchmark. In [8], three more transients are discussed in more detail in order to validate the project system code DYN (the schematic organization and details of the DYN system code developed for describing a sodium-cooled fast reactor as a whole also can be found in [8]). The report provides a comparison between calculation and experiment on the dynamic behaviour of the core alone and of the reactor as a whole.…”

Section: Spx Reactor Characteristics and Selected Transientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The RS transient reported in [8] is a first step of the three step procedure to evaluate reactivity coefficients at power level close to 50%. The reactivity insertion of -74 pcm is considered as prescribed by Table 24.…”

Section: Rs: -74 Pcm Stepwise Reactivity Insertion At 1542 Mwthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The analysis of the PFS transient can be found in [8]. It belongs to the procedure of evaluation of reactivity coefficients at ~50% nominal power.…”

Section: Pfs: -10% Primary Mass Flowrate Reduction At 1415 Mwthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Superphénix Benchmark Part II: Transient Results

Ponomarev

Mikityuk

Fridman

et al. 2021

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

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The paper presents a transient simulation phase of the new benchmark on a large sodium fast reactor (SFR). This phase of the benchmark is devoted to the modelling of selected operational transients performed during start-up tests of the French SFR Superphénix. Six operational transients were selected for the analysis. The specifications of a simplified thermal hydraulic model equipped with point kinetics reactivity data and boundary conditions for the selected transients are given in the paper. The developed model contains necessary thermal hydraulic description of the primary system components, assumptions to account for thermal expansion reactivity feedbacks from out-of-core structures, neutron kinetics parameters, power distribution, and reactivity coefficients. The neutronic input parameters were obtained with the help of the Monte Carlo code Serpent during the first phase of the benchmark related to static neutronic characterization of the core. In this study, the solution of the transient benchmark was obtained with three thermal hydraulic system codes, namely TRACE, SIM-SFR, and ATHLET. The numerical results, compared to the available experimental data, exhibit a reasonable mutual agreement. Particular discrepancies between calculations and experiments could not be fully resolved. Therefore, a set of recommendations for achieving an improved agreement was proposed. In general, the proposed transient benchmark can be seen as an effective tool for validation and cross comparisons of system codes applied for safety analyses of SFRs, including approbation and comparison of different modelling features for thermal expansion of the out-of-core structures.

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Section: Spx Reactor Characteristics and Selected Transientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rs: -74 Pcm Stepwise Reactivity Insertion At 1542 Mwthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Superphénix Benchmark Part II: Transient Results

Ponomarev

Mikityuk

Fridman

et al. 2021

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

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“…Compared to the measurements, the CATHARE-3 calculation does not faithfully reproduce the core power after the reactivity insertion since the vessel is considered as a 0-D volume. As explained in references [2] and [13] the vessel thermal expansion plays an important role, and its contribution is observed when a slight decrease in core power is recorded (between 1000 s and 1500 s).…”

Section: Negative Reactivity Insertionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper we are especially interested in Superphénix, as its experimental feedback is unique in terms of its large size core. During the Superphénix start-up, various tests were performed to asses the safety criteria of the core [2] [3]. Thus, different power conditions were considered for the core, starting from isothermal conditions (zero-power conditions) to power conditions (obtained by a progressive increase in power).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the Superphenix Start-Up Tests With Apollo-3: From Zero Power Isothermal Conditions to Dynamic Power Transient Analysis

et al. 2021

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Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) remain a potential candidate to meet future energy needs. In addition, the SFRs experimental feedback is considerable, for instance, the French research program has considered experimental facilities including the Superphénix which has emerged as a transition to commercial deployment. In this paper a set of tests from the Superphénix start-up are reanalyzed with new tools, considering APOLLO-3 and TRIPOLI-4 (respectively deterministic and stochastic codes) for neutron physics evaluation, GERMINAL-V2 for the fuel irradiation behavior and CATHARE-3 for the thermal-hydraulics modelling. Neutron physics evaluations are performed for the main control rod worth and the Doppler Effect, both measured under isothermal conditions at Superphénix start-up. A good agreement is obtained for these tests, which were purely neutronic tests. Next, the core temperature distribution is evaluated at nominal conditions, where larger discrepancies are observed. However, these deviations are related to the measurement of the fuel assemblies, which have a larger than expected uncertainty. Finally a transient, consisting of a negative reactivity insertion, is analyzed to assess the dynamic core behavior. A good agreement is obtained during the reactivity insertion, however the thermal-hydraulic model has to be improved, namely the vessel model, which is considered as a 0-D volume.

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