NUCLEAR POWER - OPERATION, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT Edited by Pavel V. Tsvetkov Nuclear Power - Operation, Safety and Environment Edited by Pavel V. Tsvetkov Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike Attribution 3.0 license, which permits to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work in any medium, so long as the original work is properly cited. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published articles. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Petra Zobic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer Jan Hyrat Image Copyright Andrea Danti, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published July, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Nuclear Power - Operation, Safety and Environment, Edited by Pavel V. Tsvetkov p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-507-5 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Part 1 Operation and Safety 1 Chapter 1 World Experience in Nuclear Steam Reheat 3 Eugene Saltanov and Igor Pioro Chapter 2 Integrated Approach for Actual Safety Analysis 29 Francesco D’Auria, Walter Giannotti and Marco Cherubini Chapter 3 LWR Safety Analysis and Licensing and Implications for Advanced Reactors 47 P. F. Frutuoso e Melo, I. M. S. Oliveira and P. L. Saldanha Chapter 4 Geodetic Terrestrial Observations for the Determination of the Stability in the Krško Nuclear Power Plant Region 71 S. Savšek, T. Ambrožič and D. Kogoj Chapter 5 Low Power and Shutdown PSA for the Nuclear Power Plants with WWER440 Type Reactors 89 Zoltan Kovacs Chapter 6 A Study on the Actuator Efficiency Behavior of Safety-Related Motor Operated Gate and Globe Valves 111 Shin Cheul Kang, SungKeun Park, DoHwan Lee, YangSeok Kim and DaeWoong Kim Chapter 7 Investigation of High Energy Arcing Fault Events in Nuclear Power Plants 127 Heinz Peter Berg and Marina Röwekamp Chapter 8 Research on Severe Accidents in Nuclear Power Plants 155 Jean-Pierre Van Dorsselaere, Thierry Albiol and Jean-Claude Micaelli VI Contents Chapter 9 Imaging of Radiation Accidents and Radioactive Contamination Using Scintillators 183 Tomoya Ogawa, Nobuhiko Sarukura, Masahito Watanabe, Tsuguo Fukuda, Nobuhito Nango, Yasunobu Arikawa, Kohei Yamanoi, Tomoharu Nakazato, Marilou Cadatal-Raduban, Toshihiko Shimizu, Mitsuo Nakai, Takayoshi Norimatsu, Hiroshi Azechi, Takahiro Murata, Shigeru Fujino, Hideki Yoshida, Kei Kamada, Yoshiyuki Usuki, Toshihisa Suyama, Akira Yoshikawa, Nakahiro Sato, Hirofumi Kan, Hiroaki Nishimura, Kunioki Mima, Masahito Hosaka, Masahiro Katoh, Nobuhiro Kosugi, Kentaro Fukuda, Takayuki Yanagida, Yuui Yokota, Fumio Saito, Kouhei Sakai, Dirk Ehrentraut, Mitsuru Nagasono, Tadashi Togashi, Atsushi Higashiya, Makina Yabashi, Tetsuya Ishikawa, Haruhiko Ohashi and Hiroaki Kimura Chapter 10 Simulation of Ex-Vessel Steam Explosion 207 Matjaž Leskovar Part 2 Environmental Effects 235 Chapter 11 Radiological Releases and Environmental Monitoring at Commercial Nuclear Power Plants 237 Jason T. Harris Chapter 12 Radiological and Environmental Effects in Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Pond – Lake Druksiai: From Plant put in Operation to Shut Down Period of Time 261 Tatjana Nedveckaite, Danute Marciulioniene, Jonas Mazeika and Ricardas Paskauskas Chapter 13 Power Uprate Effect on Thermal Effluent of Nuclear Power Plants in Taiwan 287 Jinn-Jer Peir Part 3 Radiation Effects 303 Chapter 14 Long-Term Effects of Exposure to Low-Levels of Radioactivity: a Retrospective Study of 239 Pu and 90 Sr from Nuclear Bomb Tests on the Swiss Population 305 Pascal Froidevaux, Max Haldimann and François Bochud Chapter 15 The Biliprotein C-Phycocyanin Modulates the DNA Damage Response in Lymphocytes from Nuclear Power Plant Workers 327 K. Stankova, K. Ivanova, V. Nikolov, K. Minkova, L. Gigova, R. Georgieva and R. Boteva Chapter 16 Effects of Gamma-Ray Irradiation on Tracking Failure of Polymer Insulating Materials 341 Boxue Du, Yu Gao and Yong Liu Preface Energy demands due to economic growth and increasing population must be satisfied in a sustainable manner assuring inherent safety, efficiency and no or minimized environmental impact. New energy sources and systems must be inherently safe and environmentally benign. These considerations are among the reasons that lead to serious interest in deploying nuclear power as a sustainable energy source. Today’s nuclear reactors are safe and highly efficient energy systems that offer electricity and a multitude of co-generation energy products ranging from potable water to heat for industrial applications. At the same time, catastrophic earthquake and tsunami events in Japan resulted in the nuclear accident that forced us to rethink our approach to nuclear safety, design requirements and facilitated growing interests in advanced nuclear energy systems, next generation nuclear reactors, which are inherently capable to withstand natural disasters and avoid catastrophic consequences without any environmental impact. This book is one in a series of books on nuclear power published by InTech. Under the single-volume cover, we put together such topics as operation, safety, environment, and radiation effects. The book is not offering a comprehensive coverage of the material in each area. Instead, selected themes are highlighted by authors of individual chapters representing contemporary interests worldwide. Our book consists of three major sections housing sixteen chapters: Part 1. Operation and Safety 1. World Experience in Nuclear Steam Reheat 2. Integrated Approach for Actual Safety Analysis 3. LWR Safety Analysis and Licensing and Implications for Advanced Reactors 4. Geodetic Terrestrial Observations for the Determination of the Stability in the Krško Nuclear Power Plant Region 5. Low Power and Shutdown PSA for the Nuclear Power Plants with WWER440 Type Reactors 6. A Study on the Actuator Efficiency Behavior of Safety-Related Motor Operated Gate and Globe Valves 7. Investigation of High Energy Arcing Fault Events in Nuclear Power Plants 8. Research on Severe Accidents in Nuclear Power Plants X Preface 9. Imaging of Radiation Accidents and Radioactive Contamination Using Scintillators 10. Simulation of Ex-Vessel Steam Explosion Part 2. Environmental Effects 11. Radiological Releases and Environmental Monitoring at Commercial Nuclear Power Plants 12. Radiological and Environmental Effects in Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Pond – Lake Druksiai: From Plant put in Operation to Shut Down Period of Time 13. Power Uprate Effect on Thermal Effluent of Nuclear Power Plants in Taiwan Part 3. Radiation Effects 14. Long-Term Effects of Exposure to Low-Levels of Radioactivity: a Retrospective Study of 239 Pu and 90 Sr from Nuclear Bomb Tests on the Swiss Population 15. The Biliprotein C-Phycocyanin Modulates the DNA Damage Response in Lymphocytes from Nuclear Power Plant Workers 16. Effects of Gamma-Ray Irradiation on Tracking Failure of Polymer Insulating Materials Our opening section is devoted to nuclear power operation and safety. The discussion begins with an overview of nuclear steam supply systems that focuses on steam reheat. The second chapter introduces the integrated safety analysis approach. Further chapters introduce readers to licensing, probabilistic safety analysis, component operation and safety. The section closes with chapters surveying approaches and topics related to severe accident studies. The second section is dedicated to environmental effects of nuclear power. Included chapters address radiological release monitoring and consequences as well as thermal prolusion. The third and final section discusses radiation effects on general population, plant workers and materials. With all diversity of topics in 16 chapters, the integrated system analysis approach of nuclear power operation, safety and environment is the common thread. The “system- thinking” approach allows synthesizing the entire body of provided information into a consistent integrated picture of the real-life complex engineering system – nuclear power system – where everything is working together. The goal of the book is to bring nuclear power to our readers as one of the promising energy sources that has a unique potential to meet energy demands with minimized environmental impact, near-zero carbon footprint, and competitive economics via robust potential applications. The book targets everyone as its potential readership [...]... established, air was removed, and the pressure was raised up to 10 MPa and 3 MPa in the primary and secondary loops, respectively (Aleshchenkov et al 1971) Equipment was heated up at 10 – 14% of reactor power Average heat-up rate was kept at 30C/h as measured at the separators This value was chosen based on experience of drum 20 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment boilers operation, though reactor... BOiling NUclear Superheater (BONUS, started operation in December of 1964), and Pathfinder (started operation in July of 1966) Main parameters of these reactors are listed in Tables 1 and 2 (Novick et al 1965) 4 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment At the design stage of these reactors a certain number of problems arising with the implementation of steam reheat were encountered and addressed... design values were: Kir = 1.46 for Unit 1 and Kir = 1.24 for Unit 2 3 Radioactivity in the turbine and technological equipment of the plant is an important indicator for NPP Radiation rates at the high-pressure cylinders were not higher than 10 µR/s and not higher than 8 µR/s at the low-pressure cylinders Such low dose rates 6 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment were attained by implementation... Experience in Nuclear Steam Reheat (a) (b) (c) 8 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment (d) (e) (f) Fig 3 Possible layouts of NPPs with steam reheat (Dollezhal et al 1958): 1 – reactor; 2 – steam separator; 3 – SG; 4 – Main Circulation Pump (MCP); 5 – circulation pump; 6 – turbine with electrical generator; 7 – FWP; and 8 – intermediate-steam reheater World Experience in Nuclear Steam Reheat... and SHS-2 – superheated steam channel with 2% uranium enrichment 14 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment The gradients in the normalized thermal-neutrons distributions along the reactor radius and height for both units indicated a significant disturbance in the normalized thermal-neutron flux near the outer edge of the reactor likely where the steam-reheat channels end affecting the power. .. will find it both interesting and useful Pavel V Tsvetkov Department of Nuclear Engineering Texas A&M University United States of America XI Part 1 Operation and Safety 1 World Experience in Nuclear Steam Reheat Eugene Saltanov and Igor Pioro University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science Canada 1 Introduction Concepts of nuclear reactors cooled with... bubblers were closed and reactor power was increased after the purging had finished Thus, the pressure and the temperature in SHS channels were increase After 2 hours the SHS channels purging had been finished and the reactor achieved a stable operation at 10% power level The heating of steam pipes and the turbine was initiated and the turbine connection to the power line was prepared Further power increase... temperature change rate was 20 – 40C/min during the first 3 minutes of an automatic control system operation, and 5C/min after that SHS-Z channel wall temperature reached 400 – 700C and that of the fuel bundles sheath reached 650 – 740C during start-up operation at a steam 24 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment pressure of 2.45 – 4.9 MPa Channels were operated about 140 h at high temperature... reflector An additional 1-m thick graphite layer and an approximately 0.5-m cast-iron layer over the upper reflector formed the principal part of the biological shield A 0.6-m thick graphite layer serving as the lower neutron shield was located below the lower reflector 10 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment The graphite stack (9.6-m overall diameter and 9.0-m height) was enclosed in a gas-tight... values in the necessary limits during normal operation (Vikulov et al 1971) World Experience in Nuclear Steam Reheat Fig 4 BNPP Unit 1 channels layout (Pioro et al 2010, this figure is based on the paper by Dollezhal et al 1958) 11 12 Nuclear Power – Operation, Safety and Environment Parameters Electrical power, MWel Number of K-100-90-type turbines Inlet-steam pressure, MPa Inlet-steam temperature, . NUCLEAR POWER - OPERATION, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT Edited by Pavel V. Tsvetkov Nuclear Power - Operation, Safety and Environment Edited by. orders@intechweb.org Nuclear Power - Operation, Safety and Environment, Edited by Pavel V. Tsvetkov p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-507-5 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be. Determination of the Stability in the Krško Nuclear Power Plant Region 71 S. Savšek, T. Ambrožič and D. Kogoj Chapter 5 Low Power and Shutdown PSA for the Nuclear Power Plants with WWER440 Type Reactors