Safety Research for Nuclear Reactors

Energy > Nuclear Waste Management and Safety as well as Radiation Research - All Topics

Although Germany decided to shut down all nuclear reactors for energy production until 2022, own reactor safety research is needed in future. The preservation of competence in nuclear engineering is essential for the safety assessment of nuclear power plants and nuclear projects in Germany and abroad. Only in that way Germany is able to influence international safety standards and to participate in international research projects.

Based on this background the work within the topic “Reactor Safety” is concentrated on the research on safety aspects of currently operating nuclear reactors and new reactor types being under development in the neighboring countries. It covers the development of methods for analyses of transients and postulated accidents, the investigation of ageing phenomena in materials and integrity of components, and the safety related aspects connected with the thermal fluid dynamics of cooling water or liquid metal flows. Especially after the Fukushima accident in 2011, the efforts on the investigation of accident management measures in nuclear reactors have been increased.

Objectives

• Development and validation of neutron kinetic and thermal hydraulic methods for the analysis of design basis and severe accidents for nuclear reactors.
• Development and qualification of predictive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models for two-phase flows
• Conduction of industry-grade experiments for code validation using innovative measuring techniques (TOPFLOW facility)
• Exploration of the mechanisms of irradiation effects in reactor pressure vessel steels and Gen-IV candidate materials by means of nanostructural characterization, atomistic modelling and mechanical testing

Press Releases

• Zeit gewinnen, Unfälle ­vermeiden

Involved HZDR institutes

• Institute of Resource Ecology
• Institute of Fluid Dynamics

Collaborations

• HZDR is a member of the "Kompetenz­verbund Ost für Kerntechnik".
• HZDR participates in the NURESAFE project of the EU.

Contacts

• Dr. Sören Kliem
• Dr. Eberhard Altstadt
• Dr. Dirk Lucas

Publications

• Astyanto, A. H.; Nugroho, A. N. A.; Indarto et al.
  Statistical characterization of the interfacial behavior captured by a novel image processing algorithm during the gas/liquid counter-current two-phase flow in a 1/3 scaled down of PWR hot leg
  Nuclear Engineering and Design 404(2023), 112179 (10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112179)
• Sánchez, M.; Cicero, S.; Kirk, M. et al.
  Using mini-CT specimens for the fracture characterization of ferritic steels within the ductile to brittle transition range: a review
  Metals 13(2023), 176 (10.3390/met13010176)
• Chulist, R.; Pukenas, A.; Chekhonin, P. et al.
  Phase Transformation Induced by High Pressure Torsion in the High-Entropy Alloy CrMnFeCoNi
  Materials 15(2022)23, 8407 (10.3390/ma15238407)
• Fridman, E.; Nikitin, E.; Ponomarev, A. et al.
  Extension of the DYN3D/ATHLET code system to SFR applications: models description and initial validation
  Annals of Nuclear Energy 182(2023), 109619 (10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109619)
• Bodi, J.; Ponomarev, A.; Mikityuk, K.
  Analysis of sodium boiling initiated by unprotected loss of flow in European sodium fast reactor core with different subassembly designs
  Nuclear Engineering and Design 399(2022), 112014 (10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.112014)
• Pacio, J.; van Tichelen, K.; Eckert, S. et al.
  Advanced thermal-hydraulic experiments and instrumentation for heavy liquid metal reactors
  Nuclear Engineering and Design 399(2022), 112010 (10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.112010)
• Zhang, L.; Pan, L.-M.; Wang, J. et al.
  Editorial: Experimental and simulation research on nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics
  Frontiers in Energy Research 10(2022), 1028698 (10.3389/fenrg.2022.1028698)
• Dzugan, J.; Seifi, M.; Rzepa, S. et al.
  The effects of post-processing on the local fracture toughness properties of electron beam powder bed fusion Ti-6Al-4V alloy
  Engineering Fracture Mechanics 273(2022), 108697 (10.1016/j.engfracmech.2022.108697)
• Lyu, H.; Lucas, D.; Rzehak, R. et al.
  Bubbly flow simulation with particle-center-averaged Euler-Euler model: Fixed polydispersity and bubble deformation
  Chemical Engineering Research and Design 190(2023), 421-433 (10.1016/j.cherd.2022.12.033)
• Harm, U.; Kryk, H.; Hampel, U.
  Flow‐dependent zinc corrosion in boric acid‐containing electrolytes
  Materials and Corrosion (2023), 1-8 (10.1002/maco.202213341)
• Vivas, J.; De-Castro, D.; Poplawsky, J. D. et al.
  Creep strength boosted by a high-density of stable nanoprecipitates in high-chromium steels
  European Journal of Materials (2023) (10.1080/26889277.2022.2118082)
• Yan, H.; Zhang, H.; Höhne, T. et al.
  Numerical modeling of horizontal stratified two-phase flows using the AIAD model
  Frontiers in Energy Research 10(2022), 939499 (10.3389/fenrg.2022.939499)
• Gueye, P.-M.; Gómez-Ferrer, B.; Kaden, C. et al.
  Role of Ni, Si and P on the formation of solute-rich clusters under irradiation in Fe-Cr alloys
  Journal of Nuclear Materials 570(2022), 153958 (10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153958)
• Pareige, C.; Etienne, A.; Gueye, P.-M. et al.
  Solute rich cluster formation and Cr precipitation in irradiated Fe-Cr-(Ni,Si,P) alloys: Ion and neutron irradiation
  Journal of Nuclear Materials 572(2022), 154060 (10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154060)
• Meza, A.; Macía, E.; Chekhonin, P. et al.
  The effect of composition and microstructure on the creep behaviour of 14 Cr ODS steels consolidated by SPS
  Materials Science and Engineering A 849(2022), 143441 (10.1016/j.msea.2022.143441)
• Castin, N.; Bonny, G.; Konstantinović, M. J. et al.
  Multiscale modelling in nuclear ferritic steels: from nano-sized defects to embrittlement
  Materials Today Physics 27(2022), 100802 (10.1016/j.mtphys.2022.100802)
• Lyu, H.; Schlegel, F.; Rzehak, R. et al.
  Euler-Euler model of bubbly flow using particle-center-averaging method
  Nuclear Science and Engineering (2022) (10.1080/00295639.2022.2131344)
• Bergner, F.; Kaden, C.; Das, A. et al.
  Nanoindentation applied to ion-irradiated and neutron-irradiated Fe-9Cr and Fe-9Cr-NiSiP model alloys
  Journal of Applied Physics 132(2022), 045101 (10.1063/5.0098807)
• Ulbricht, A.; Hernández-Mayoral, M.; Oñorbe, E. et al.
  Effect of neutron flux on irradiation-induced microstructure and hardening of reactor pressure vessel steel
  Metals 12(2022)3, 369 (10.3390/met12030369)
• Diaz Pescador, E.; Schäfer, F.; Kliem, S.
  On the validation of ATHLET 3-D features for the simulation of multidimensional flows in horizontal geometries under single-phase subcooled conditions
  Nuclear Engineering and Technology 54(2022), 3567-3579 (10.1016/j.net.2022.04.017)
• Ulbricht, A.; Heinemann, A.; Bergner, F.
  Small-angle neutron scattering applied to low-dose neutron-irradiated Fe–Cr alloys and ferritic martensitic steel Eurofer97
  Journal of Applied Crystallography 55(2022), 702-712 (10.1107/S1600576722004800)
• Das, A.; Altstadt, E.; Kaden, C. et al.
  Nanoindentation response of ion-irradiated Fe, Fe-Cr alloys and ferritic-martensitic steel Eurofer 97: The effect of ion energy
  Frontiers in Materials 8(2022), 811851 (10.3389/fmats.2021.811851)
• Liao, Y.; Li, J.; Lucas, D.
  Investigation on pool-scrubbing hydrodynamics with VOF interface-capturing method
  Nuclear Engineering and Design 390(2022), 111713 (10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111713)
• Zhang, T.; Huang, G.; Yin, J. et al.
  Investigation on swirl instability in a vane-type separator with tomographic PIV
  Journal of Fluids Engineering - Transactions of the ASME 144(2022)5, 051402 (10.1115/1.4052547)
• Tai, C.-K.; Bolotnov, I.; Evdokimov, I. et al.
  Development of machine learning framework for interface force closures based on bubble tracking data
  Nuclear Engineering and Design 399(2022), 112032 (10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.112032)
• Höhne, T.; Kliem, S.
  Numerical Analysis Related to the ROCOM Pressurized Thermal Shock Benchmark
  Fluids 8(2023)1, 4 (10.3390/fluids8010004)
• Das, A.; Viehrig, H. W.; Bergner, F. et al.
  Effect of microstructural anisotropy on fracture toughness of hot rolled 13Cr ODS steel – the role of primary and secondary cracking
  Journal of Nuclear Materials 491(2017), 83-93 (10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.04.059)
• Liao, Y.; Lucas, D.
  Computational modelling of flashing flows: a literature survey
  International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 111(2017), 246-265 (10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.03.121)
• Grahn, A.; Gommlich, A.; Kliem, S. et al.
  Simulation of an MSLB scenario using the 3D neutron kinetic core model Dyn3D coupled with the CFD software Trio U
  Nuclear Engineering and Design 315(2017), 117-127 (10.1016/j.nucengdes.2017.02.002)
• Höhne, T.; Gasiunas, S.; Šeporaitis, M.
  Numerical Modelling of a Direct Contact Condensation Experiment using the AIAD Framework
  International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 111(2017), 211-222 (10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.03.104)

×