Role of Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty Methods in Major Nuclear Power Plant Modifications

Current industrial trends to increase power production challenge the initial safety design limits of plants, which were evaluated generally using conservative tools and hypotheses. Advanced numerical tools and methods allow demonstrating that safety margins are still respected. These tools are moder...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of nuclear science and technology 2010-08, Vol.47 (8), p.671-683
Main Authors: BUCALOSSI, Andrea, PETRUZZI, Alessandro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
best estimate
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Exact sciences and technology
Fission nuclear power plants
Fuels
Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy
Nuclear fuels
operating instructions and procedures
operational limits and conditions
plant modifications
system codes
uncertainty
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Summary:Current industrial trends to increase power production challenge the initial safety design limits of plants, which were evaluated generally using conservative tools and hypotheses. Advanced numerical tools and methods allow demonstrating that safety margins are still respected. These tools are modern fully validated thermal-hydraulic codes, coupled thermal-hydraulic/neutron-kinetic codes, and methodologies that use realistic hypotheses (rather than conservative ones) and estimate the uncertainty. The paper illustrates modern computational tools and approaches for improving plant operation and control and for supporting design modifications on existing nuclear power plants. A survey performed by Joint Research Centre's Institute for Energy is also presented and summarizes the feedback received by several countries of the European Union on the impact of modern Thermal-Hydraulics and Neutron-Kinetics tools on Operational Limits and Conditions and Operating Instructions and Procedures.
ISSN:0022-3131
1881-1248
DOI:10.1080/18811248.2010.9711643