Safety of Nuclear Powerplants (Centre d'étude nucléaire-Mol)

lbnen2003  2023-2024  Autre site

Safety of Nuclear Powerplants (Centre d'étude nucléaire-Mol)
5.00 credits
Q2
Language
English
Prerequisites
Courses in the following field
·      Nuclear reactor theory
·      Nuclear thermal hydraulics
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 To introduce the students to methods and practices supporting the defense-in-depth approach for nuclear power plants.
More specifically:
  • To present elements of nuclear safety philosophy.
  • To understand how to insure the link between nuclear safety and reactor operation.
  • To master all the contributors to the core reactivity balance and power distribution in normal operation.
  • To understand specific measurement and control issues in nuclear reactors.
  • To introduce the basic notions and techniques of system reliability engineering.
  • To understand the concepts of safety analyses (both deterministic and probabilistic), and the fundamentals of probabilistic safety analysis (PSA).
  • To present some PSA-based applications.
 
Content
Operation & Control (28h)
  • Cycle specific safety evaluation methodology.
  • Basic principles of the in-core fuel management based on the linear reactivity model.
  • Reactivity coefficients (moderator, Doppler), neutron poisons (xenon, samarium, '), their variation with burnup and core state parameters and their impact on core power distribution
  • Reactivity control means (boron, control rods, burnable poisons) and their sensitivity to the core burnup and in-core fuel management parameters.
  • Operating modes, operating limits and protection diagram.
  • Fuel rod design and thermal-mechanical behavior in normal operation and accidental conditions.
  • Thermal design procedures and elaboration of the core thermal limits and core protections.
  • Core  control, surveillance and protection systems
Optional visits and laboratory session:
  • Visit of a Nuclear Power Plant.
  • Two day session of compact and full scope Nuclear Power Plant simulator.
Seminars: Overview of design basis accidents and severe accidents; Discussion of selected past nuclear (severe) accidents (TMI, Chernobyl, Fukushima-Daiichi...)
Reliability & Safety (14h theory + 6h exercises)
  • Introduction to nuclear safety and defence in depth
  • concept of risk, individual and societal risk criteria, release limits, core damage frequency limit, safety goals at function or system level
  • deterministic  vs. probabilistic safety analyses;
  • probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) methodology and PSA levels
  • Component reliability
  • Fault tree and event tree analysis
  • Markov analysis
  • Common cause failure analysis
  • Elements of human reliability analysis
  • Elements of the level 2 and level 3 PSA methodology
  • Limits of the classical PSA methodology
  • PSA-based applications
Evaluation methods
Operation & Control
First and second session: Individual oral exam, closed book, written preparation
Reliability & Safety
First and second session: An oral examination (closed book) with one question on the concepts and one exercise
Other information
Course location:  SCK-Cen (Mol)
Prof. Greet Janssens-Maenhout -Universiteit Gent
NN - Universiteit Gent
Prof. Pierre- Etienne Labeau -Université Libre de Bruxelles
Online resources
https://www.sckcen.be/fbnen
Faculty or entity
EPL


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [120] in Mechanical Engineering
MECA2M
5
Advanced Master in Nuclear Engineering
GNUC2MC
5
Master [120] in Electro-mechanical Engineering
ELME2M
5
Master [120] in Energy Engineering
NRGY2M
5