ADVANCED HOMOGENIZATION METHODS FOR PRESSURIZED WATER REACTORS

Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors

Direct Containment Heating Investigations for European Pressurized Water Reactors

While the issue on Direct Containment Heating (DCH) was resolved for US reactor plants in the 1990s it was found that the consequences of DCH processes are strongly dependent on the reactor cavity configuration. Therefore, an experimental and analytical program was started in 1998 to investigate melt ejection scenarios for typical German and European reactor designs. Six experiments have been p...

Public Health Risks of Substituting Mixed-Oxide For Uranium Fuel in Pressurized- Water Reactors

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a contract to the consortium Duke Cogema Stone and Webster (DCS) to dispose of up to 33 tonnes of excess weapons-grade plutonium (WG-Pu) by irradiating it in the form of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel in four U.S. commercial pressurized-water reactors (PWRs). This paper estimates the increase in risk to the public from using WG-MOX at these reactors and f...

A Neural-Network-Based Nonlinear Adaptive State-Observer for Pressurized Water Reactors

Although there have been some severe nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island (USA), Chernobyl (Ukraine) and Fukushima (Japan), nuclear fission energy is still a source of clean energy that can substitute for fossil fuels in a centralized way and in a great amount with commercial availability and economic competitiveness. Since the pressurized water reactor (PWR) is the most widely used nucl...

Doe / Et / 34022 - 2 Optimization of the Axial Power Shape in Pressurized Water Reactors

Analytical and numerical methods have been applied to find the optimum axial power profile in a PWR with respect to uranium utilization. The preferred shape was found to have a large central region of uniform power density, with a roughly cosinusoidal.profile near the ends of the assembly. Reactivity and fissile enrichment distributions which yield the optimum profile were determined, and a 3-r...