Electrical fire simulation in control room of an AGN reactor

Abstract

Fire protection is one of important issues to ensure safety and reduce risks of nuclear power plants (NPPs). While robust programs to shut down commercial reactors in any fires have been successfully maintained, the concept and associated regulatory requirements are constantly changing or strengthening by lessons learned from operating experiences and information all over the world. As part of this context, it is necessary not only to establish specific fire hazard assessment methods reflecting the characteristics of research reactors and educational reactors but also to make decisions based on advancement encompassing numerical analyses and experiments. The objectives of this study are to address fire simulation in the control room of an educational reactor and to discuss integrity of digital console in charge of main operation as well as analysis results through comparison. Three electrical fire scenarios were postulated and twenty-four thermal analyses were carried out taking into account two turbulence models, two cable materials and two ventilation conditions. Twelve supplementary thermal analyses and six subsequent structural analyses were also conducted for further examination on the temperature and heat flux of cable and von Mises stress of digital console, respectively. As consequences, effects of each parameter were quantified in detail and future applicability was briefly discussed. On the whole, higher profiles were obtained when Deardorff turbulence model was employed or polyvinyl chloride material and larger ventilation condition were considered. All the maximum values considered in this study met the allowable criteria so that safety action seems available by sustained integrity of the cable linked to digital console within operators’ reaction time of 300 s.