Comparison of sodium fast reactor core assembly seismic evaluation using the Japanese and French simulation tools

Abstract

Launched in 2014, Japan-France collaboration on the ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) project is active both in reactor design and in R&D fields. CEA, Framatome, JAEA, MHI and MFBR are in charge of this collaboration. In the design field, Japan-France evaluates core assemblies with interferences on seismic events. The objectives of this collaboration are to determine the core assembly lattice displacements under seismic load in order to demonstrate the safe behavior of the core regarding control rod insertion, structural integrity, and reactivity variation, etc.From this point of view, the object of this study is to verify the seismic evaluation method on core assemblies between Japan and France by comparing the results. Using their evaluation method applied to common the ASTRID core input data, Japan and France will calculate a collision load, a horizontal displacement, and a vertical displacement for core assemblies.As the first step of this work, the comparison of each evaluation (modelling and calculation results) is carried out considering the horizontal seismic excitation and without including the vertical component.The analysis of this benchmark calculation shows a satisfactory agreement between the Japanese and French tools and the figures show a good behavior of the core in horizontal direction under French seismic condition.This paper describes the summary of horizontal seismic analysis comparison and the future analysis plan.