Emergency Core Cooling Strainers – The CANDU Experience

Abstract

The Canadian nuclear industry, including Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and the four nuclear utilities (New Brunswick Power, Hydro-Quebec, Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power) have been heavily involved in strainer clogging issues since the late 1990s. A substantial knowledge base has been obtained with support from various organisations, including the CANDU Owners Group (COG), AECL and the CANDU utilities. Work has included debris assessments at specific stations, debris characterisation, transport, head loss measurements across strainers, head loss models and investigations into paints and coatings. Much of this work was performed at AECL’s Chalk River Laboratories and has been used to customise strainer solutions for several CANDU (PWR-type) stations. This paper summarises the CANDU experience, describing problems ...