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Abschlussbericht "WTZ Russland - Fluenzberechnungen für Voreilproben beim WWER-440"

Konheiser, J.; Grahn, A.

Reactor pressure vessels (RPV) are non-restorable equipment and their lifetime may restrict the nuclear power plant-life as a whole. Surveillance specimen programs for RPV materials are among the most important measures of in-service inspection pro-grams that are necessary for realistic and reliable assessment of the RPV residual lifetime. In addition to the chemical composition of the RPV steel, the radiation pa-rameters (neutron and gamma fluences and spectra) have the most important impact on the RPV embrittlement characteristics.
In this work, different geometric positions which have influence on the radiation conditions of the samples are investigated. Thus, the uncertainties can be determined in the fluence values of surveillance specimens. The fluence calculations were carried out by the codes TRAMO and DORT. This study was accompanied by ex-vessel neutron dosimetry experiments at Kola NPP, Unit 3 (VVER-440/213), which provide the basis for validation of calculated neutron fluences. The main neutron-activation monitoring reactions were 54Fe(n,p)54Mn and 58Ni(n,p)58Co. The activity measurements were carried out by “Scientific and Engineering Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SEC NRS).
Good agreement between the deterministic and stochastic calculation results as well as between the calculations and the ex-vessel measurements was found. The aver-age difference between measured and calculated values is 5%. The influence of the channels for surveillance specimens and the shielding effect of a baffle rib on the monitors and on the Monte-Carlo calculated results was studied.
For the surveillance specimens in the maximum of the flux, an average flux of around 2.45 * 1012 neutrons/cm2 was calculated for the neutron flux E> 0.5 MeV. The differences in the surveillance specimens could be up to 20% depending on the direction to the core. Discrepancies up to 10% can be caused by the change of the position of the capsules in the irradiation channel. Based on these calculations the lead factor of specimens was determined. The maximum fluence of RPV may be achieved after two cycles.
The calculated maximum gamma flux is around 3.4 * 1012 g/cm2s for E> 1.0 MeV and around 8.4 * 1012 g/cm2s for E> 0.5 MeV, with the largest part of the flux (around 97%) from the neutron reactions. The gamma fluxes in the surveillance specimens are two to three times bigger than the neutron fluxes. Nevertheless, the material damage by the gamma radiation is very small, because the dpa (displacement per atom) cross sections of gamma rays are about two to three orders of magnitude smaller.
In order to exclude the possibility of healing effects of the samples due to excessive temperatures, the heat release in the surveillance specimens was determined based on the calculated gamma fluences. The analytic treatment of the heat conduction equation and simplified SS geometries were adopted to calculate the range of tem-peratures to be expected. The temperature increase of 20 K above the inlet coolant temperature was estimated using a conservative approach. Under comparatively re-alistic conditions, the heating was reduced to less than 5 K.

Keywords: Reactor pressure vessels; Surveillance specimen; fluence calculation; neutron-activation monitors

  • Open Access Logo Wissenschaftlich-Technische Berichte / Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf; HZDR-053 2014
    ISSN: 2191-8708, eISSN: 2191-8716

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-20925
Publ.-Id: 20925