Fort Saint Vrain Gas Cooled Reactor Operational Experience

Copinger, D.A.; Moses, D.L.; Cupidon, L. R.

doi:10.2172/1495207

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…During operation, Fort St. Vrain experienced challenges preventing HPB leaks due to the complex primary circuit design [136]. A detailed review of the two main leakage events is provided in ref [136], including a description of the interactions with the regulator (now the NRC) concerning the events. In summary, both helium leaks were minor with no significant safety impact.…”

Section: Fort St Vrainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulatory Considerations Regarding Potential High Temperature Fluid Releases in Advanced Reactor Designs

Grabaskas¹,

Bucknor²,

Cunningham³

et al. 2023

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Section: Fort St Vrainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulatory Considerations Regarding Potential High Temperature Fluid Releases in Advanced Reactor Designs

Grabaskas¹,

Bucknor²,

Cunningham³

et al. 2023

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“…Generic HTGR-type SMR HTGRs have been under development for several decades and multiple prototype and demonstration plants have operated from the 1960s to present. Examples include DRAGON [5] in the United Kingdom, Peach Bottom Unit 1 [6] and Fort Saint Vrain [7] in the United States of America, AVR (Arbeitsgemeinschaft VersuchsReaktor) [8] and THTR (Thorium HochTemperaturReaktor) [9] in Germany, HTTR (high-temperature test reactor) [10] in Japan, and HTR-10 [11] in China.…”

Section: Assumed Accident Scenariomentioning

confidence: 99%

Results of a Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (Pirt) Exercise for a Severe Accident in a Small Modular High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor

et al. 2019

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Canada has attracted specific interest from developers of nonwater-cooled small modular reactor (SMR) technologies, including concepts based on high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). It is anticipated that some research and development (R&D) will be necessary to support safety analysis and licensing of these reactors in Canada. The Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) process is a formalized method in which a panel of experts identifies which physical phenomena are most relevant to the reactor safety analysis and how well understood these phenomena are. The PIRT process is thus a tool to assess current knowledge levels and (or) predictive capabilities of models, thus providing direction to a focused R&D program. This paper summarizes the results of a PIRT process performed by a panel of experts at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories for a limiting or “worst-case” accident scenario at a generic HTGR-type SMR. Suggestions are given regarding the highest priority R&D items to support severe accidents analysis of these reactors.

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“…In nuclear power applications, pump seals and bearings have been a historic source of problems. Seal leaks in the helium circulator caused a number of incidents at the Fort St. Vrain plant [2], and pump seal leaks were the root cause of the Simi Valley sodium reactor accident [3]. Seals for liquid fluoride salt provide a number of challenges.…”

Section: High-temperature Fluoride Salt Pumpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced instrumentation for extreme environments

Melin

Kisner

Fugate

2013

IEEE Instrum. Meas. Mag.

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O ak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is investigating embedded instrumentation and controls (I&C) technology for next generation nuclear power generation applications. Embedded systems encompass a wide range of configurations and technologies; we define embedding in this instance as the integration of the sensors and the control system design into the component design using a systems engineering process. Embedded I&C systems are often an essential part of developing new capabilities, improving reliability, enhancing performance, and reducing operational costs. The next generation reactor technologies with passive safety features will benefit from the development and application of new I&C technologies. Some of these new designs raise extreme environmental challenges such as high temperatures (over 1,400 °C) and material compatibility (e.g., molten salts). The desired reliability and functionality requires measurements in these extreme conditions including high radiation environments which previously were not monitored in real time. The U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Energy Advanced Sensors Initiative (ASI) is a technology cross-cutting initiative under the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program that currently has several projects investigating I&C technologies that will make new reactor designs more efficient and practical. The ASI project described in this paper has the specific goal of investigating embedded I&C with the following objectives:◗ Explore and quantify the potential gains from embedded I&C -improved component reliability, increased performance, and reduced cost. ◗ Identify practical control, sensing, and measurement techniques for the extreme environments found in hightemperature reactors. ◗ Design and fabricate a functional prototype hightemperature pump for molten salts -represents target demonstration of improved performance, reliability, and widespread usage. There are many engineering challenges in the design of a high-temperature liquid salt pump. The pump and motor are in direct contact with molten fluoride salt at 700 °C (1,292 °F) as part of a reactor loop. The motor-pump combination during normal operation would be glowing cherry red (Fig. 1). This environment challenges every facet of the design including seals, wiring, magnetic materials, and sensors.In this paper, we will focus our discussion on the challenges of sensor design in extreme environments and specifically the sensor design for a high-temperature fluoride salt pump. The high temperature pump, while not the goal of the project, will be used to demonstrate the performance improvements that embedded I&C can bring to nuclear power plant components and as a test-bed to assist in the development and validation of I&C techniques for extreme environments. Sensors in Extreme EnvironmentsMany extreme environments require highly specialized and sensitive engineering tactics. Enterprises in aerospace, energy, deep sea, subsea, deep mining, and transportation present challenges unassociated with standard circumstances, a...

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Fort Saint Vrain Gas Cooled Reactor Operational Experience

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Regulatory Considerations Regarding Potential High Temperature Fluid Releases in Advanced Reactor Designs

Regulatory Considerations Regarding Potential High Temperature Fluid Releases in Advanced Reactor Designs

Results of a Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (Pirt) Exercise for a Severe Accident in a Small Modular High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor

Advanced instrumentation for extreme environments

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