Current Status of R&D Activities Related to AHWR

P.K. VijayanReactor Engineering Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

Hall-7, Trombay, Mumbai 400085 India

INPRO-CP on Advanced Water Cooled Reactors, Vienna, Austria, 4-5 November, 2010

Thermal Hydraulic Design Validation of AHWR

– Steady state and stability performance of natural circulation

– Validation of start-up procedure and operational transients

– Performance assessment of ICS & Pool thermal hydraulics

– Performance assessment of ECCS

– Performance assessment of PCCS

– Performance assessment of PCIS

– Reliability assessment of Passive systems

– Moderator flow distribution studies (on-going)

– Liquid poison distribution inside the moderator (on-going)

– Development of passive valves (on-going)

– Establishing thermal and stability margins (on-going)

– Parallel channel natural circulation performance (on-going)

Facilities created

Integral test facilities

Separate effect test facilities

Instrument development and

Component development

Integral Facilities CreatedIC

SD

FCS

BFST

HEADER

PBC

SFP

JC

SB

AA

Isometric of ITL

Integral Test Loop (ITL)- Power-to-volume scaling- Volume scaling : 452- Elevation scaling : 1:1- Pressure scaling : 1:1- Temperature scaling : 1:1

Experiments conducted include

Steady state and stability performance of natural circulationValidation of start-up procedure and operational transientsPerformance assessment of ICS & Pool thermal hydraulicsPerformance assessment of ECCS (LOCA tests from 3-200% break)Performance testing of passive valves

Steam Drum

Separate Effect Test Facilities for NC and Other Passive Systems

PCL

Test Section

Sub cooler

Bus Bar

HPNCL

Expansion tank

Cooler

Data logger

Heater

IDF

PCCTF

PCITF

Several separate effect test facilitieshave been setup to study specificphenomena. Examples are- Instability demonstration facility

- HPNCL & FPTIL,

- Parallel Channel Loop (PCL),

- PCCTF & PCITF

- Single & 54-rod rewetting test facility

- Tube, 1-rod, 4-rod & 54-rod CHF studieswith water & freon

FPTIL

Single-rod rewetting

Components Developed

54-rod FCSGAMMA RAY FRACTION METER MOUNTED ON ROTARY/LINEAR

TABLE

Two-phase Flow Meter

QOV to simulate LOCA

HSPV

Hot Shutdown Passive Valve

Acc. Injection Passive Valve

PIPV

Passive Poison Injection Valve

Several components have beendeveloped for safety experiments

-Direct & indirectly heated FCS (19, 37 & 54-rod)- Two-phase instrumentation (single- and multi-beam gamma ray based flow meter, DDFM,conductance, capacitance & admittance probes,neutron radiography for high pressure steam-water flow visualization and void fraction profiledata, acoustic sensors)- QOV to simulate LOCA (Opening time: 4 ms)- Passive valves (HSPV, AIPV, PPIV)

Multi-point conductance probe

Conductance probe

Studies in ProgressModerator flow distribution

Liquid poison distribution

Steam drum test facility

Parallel channel NC studies

Generation of CHF data

Generation stability data

Possible power uprating

Performance testing of newinstruments in augmented ITL

Fuelling machine testing

Moderator & liquid poison distribution Steam Drum

FRCS

Downcomer

Tail

pipe

s

Header

SDTF

Augmented ITL with twin channels54-rod rewetting test facility

Model SD

Test Section

Bus Bar

Bus Bar

Tubular CHF test section

AHWR Thermalhydraulic Test FacilityATTF- Power-to-volume scaling- Volume scaling : 226- Elevation scaling : 1:1- Pressure scaling : 1:1- Temperature scaling : 1:1- Max. channel power : 6 MW- Max. power available : 15 MW

Objectives include

Parallel channel studiesGeneration of CHF dataGeneration of stability dataFuelling machine testing

Facility under construction

Concluding Remarks

Work on thermalhydraulic design validation forAHWR is nearing completion.

Most of the on-going studies are expected to becompleted in 2 years time.

Thank you