Monitoring a gas-cooled nuclear reactor core integrity (original) (raw)

State and parameter estimation approach to monitoring AGR nuclear core

This work concerns with the problem of monitoring an Advanced Gas-cooled Nuclear Reactor (AGR) core. This plant (figure 1) makes use of the heat given by the nuclear efficient reaction to produce electricity by means of steam turbines. These are driven by steam, which is heated, from the AGR gas using a heat exchanger.

Physical modelling and testing of an advanced gas cooled reactor core model

2017

Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR) cores are multi-layered arrays of graphite components whose geometry and mechanical properties change under prolonged exposure to neutron irradiation. The presence of cracked components in the arrays later in their operational life may cause disruption of core geometry with implications for fuel cooling and control rod insertion in the event of a severe, but infrequent, seismic event. These ageing issues need addressing in both the computational and the physical models employed in the seismic resilience assessments. This paper presents a physical model with quarter-sized components of an array representative of those in AGR cores. The model was developed by the University of Bristol to provide experimental validation to computational tools which model high levels of core degradation. This paper outlines the principles of model design and the relevant aspects of rig development. The rig is tested on an earthquake simulator with the purpose to explore...

Shaking Table Testing of an Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor Core Model with Degraded Components

2016

The graphite components of an Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR) are subject to ageing processes that lead to changes of geometry and mechanical properties. Such changes need addressing in the safety case strategy of the operator, hence the necessity for both the numerical and the physical reactor models to be conservative and to represent high levels of graphite component degradation. This paper presents a quarter scale physical model of a multi-layer array representative of those in AGR cores. The rig was developed by the University of Bristol to support the seismic capabilities of the existing computer core models. The physical model can embed high percentages of doubly cracked bricks in various pattern distributions. Intact and cracked array configurations were subjected to seismic testing on an earthquake simulator. Relevant results of component displacement in the array are presented together with separation data between doubly cracked brick halves that provide evidence of key-...