Numerical Simulation of the Thermal Performance of a Dry Storage Cask for Spent Nuclear Fuel

Chang, Heui-Yung; Chen, Rong Horng; Lai, Chi Ming

doi:10.3390/en11010149

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…These studies explained why the whole life cycle of nuclear energy needs to consume great amounts of fossil fuels. Furthermore, some scholars have debated the idea that nuclear energy decreases the consumption of fossil fuels, with studies indicating the radiation risks of nuclear energy [30][31][32]. Bowen et al [33] studied the price decline of the United States' energy stocks after the Three Mile Island incident.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the Substitution of Nuclear Energy or Renewable Energy for Fossil Fuels between the United States and Africa

Tsai

Huang

2023

Sustainability

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This study explores the differences in energy consumption between the highly economically developed United States and economically underdeveloped Africa. This study conducted the parameter estimation and equilibrium analysis of a Lotka–Volterra model to investigate the short-term and long-term relations of different types of energy, respectively. The parameter estimation results show that nuclear energy consumption increases the consumption of fossil fuels in the United States but decreases fossil fuel consumption in Africa. This implies that Africa can replace fossil fuels with nuclear energy in the short run. Given the current state of energy consumption, the results of the equilibrium analysis indicate that the United States’ nuclear and fossil fuel consumption will reach a stable long-term equilibrium. However, Africa will experience significant fluctuations in nuclear and fossil fuel consumption, and both nuclear and fossil fuel consumption will eventually be depleted. The highly economically developed United States arranges energy consumption in an environmentally friendly way and reshapes economies to achieve sustainability, so its long-term energy consumption is more stable than economically underdeveloped Africa. Accuracy analysis results show that the nuclear or renewable energy consumption predicted by the Lotka–Volterra model is more accurate than that of a Bass model since the Lotka–Volterra model considers energy interactions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the Substitution of Nuclear Energy or Renewable Energy for Fossil Fuels between the United States and Africa

Tsai

Huang

2023

Sustainability

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“…Regarding ventilated dry storage, there are more studies that have discussed heat removal [15][16][17][18]. Several studies have investigated thermal modeling of the natural convection using the ANSYS Fluent code.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerical modeling was also used in ventilated dry storage using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate several inner circulations in the cask at the flow channel. These circulations had an influence on the heat dissipation of the dry storage [15]. In another study, a comparison between numerical/mathematical modeling and experiments on temperatures at the inlet and outlet vents was conducted on ventilated dry storage in the Zaporizhska NPP [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical and Experimental Analysis on Influence of Natural Airflow on Spent Fuel Heat Removal in Dry Cask Storage

et al. 2022

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A key issue contributing to the success of NPP technology is the safe handling of radioactive waste, particularly spent nuclear fuel. According to the IAEA safety standard, the spent fuel must be stored in interim wet storage for several years so the radiation and the decay heat of the spent fuel will decrease to the safe limit values, after which the spent fuel can be moved to dry storage. In this study, we performed a theoretical analysis of heat removal by natural convection airflow in spent nuclear fuel dry storage. The temperature difference between the air inside and outside dry storage produces an air density difference. The air density difference causes a pressure difference, which then generates natural airflow. The result of the theoretical analysis was validated with simulation software and experimental investigation using a reduced-scale dry storage prototype. The dry storage prototype consisted of a dry cask body and two canisters stacked to store materials testing reactor (MTR) spent fuel, which generates decay heat. The cask body had four air inlet vents on the bottom and four air outlet vents at the top. To simulate the decay heat from the spent fuel in the two canisters, the canisters were wrapped with an electric wire heater that was connected to a voltage regulator to adjust the heat power. The theoretical analysis results of this study are relatively consistent with the experimental results, with the mean relative deviation (MRD) values for the prediction of air velocity, the heat rate using natural airflow, and the heat rate using the thermal resistance network equation are +0.76, −23.69, and −29.54%, respectively.

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“…CFD is also being used for heat transfer investigation of different nuclear waste processing technologies. Chang et al [25] investigated the heat flow characteristics and thermal performance of a dry storage cask both experimentally and by CFD simulations. They found that inner flow circulations occur in the flow channel of the cask, affecting the heat dissipation of the dry storage cask.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooling Process Analysis of a 5-Drum System for Radioactive Waste Processing

et al. 2018

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A cooling system design for the processing of radioactive waste drums is investigated in this work, with the objective of providing insights for the determination of the air flow rate required to ensure an acceptable slag temperature (323 K or below) after 5 days. A methodology based on both 3D and 2D axisymmetric Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling is developed. Transient temperature distributions within the drums in time and space determined by the heat transfer characteristics are studied in detail. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out assuming different physical properties of the radioactive slag. It was found out that for all variations analyzed, the maximum temperature of slag at the end of five days cooling is below 323 K, where the maximum outlet air temperature for a minimum air inlet velocity of 1 m/s is between 320 K and 323 K depending on the radioactive slag properties. When glass-like radioactive slag properties are assumed, the internal heat conduction within the slag is limiting the overall heat transfer, therefore requiring significantly longer cooling times.

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Numerical Simulation of the Thermal Performance of a Dry Storage Cask for Spent Nuclear Fuel

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Comparing the Substitution of Nuclear Energy or Renewable Energy for Fossil Fuels between the United States and Africa

Comparing the Substitution of Nuclear Energy or Renewable Energy for Fossil Fuels between the United States and Africa

Theoretical and Experimental Analysis on Influence of Natural Airflow on Spent Fuel Heat Removal in Dry Cask Storage

Cooling Process Analysis of a 5-Drum System for Radioactive Waste Processing

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