Simulation of thermal state of containers with spent nuclear fuel: multistage approach

The safe thermal conditions of spent nuclear fuel storage are the important component of complex safety of the dry spent nuclear fuel storage facility. The multistage approach for numerical definition of thermal fields in storage containers with spent fuel assemblies is proposed. The approach is based on solving of the series of the conjugate heat transfer problems with different geometrical detailing. The developed approach is used for estimation of thermal state of ventilated containers with spent nuclear fuel of WWER-1000 reactors of Zaporizhska nuclear power plant. The results of the thermal calculations for single-placed container on open-site storage platform were presented. The safety of containers usage in normal and extreme ambient temperatures was proven.

Read more here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.3387/abstract

Spent Nuclear Fuel in Ukraine. Storage Technology

Short description of the technology of spent nuclear fuel storage on Zaporizhska NPP (Ukraine).

Equivalent thermal conductivity of the storage basket with spent nuclear fuel of VVER-1000 reactors

Due to limitation of computation resources and/or computation time many thermal problems require to use simplified geometrical models with equivalent thermal properties. A new method for definition of equivalent thermal conductivity of spent nuclear fuel storage casks is proposed. It is based on solving the inverse heat conduction problem. For the proposed method two approaches for equivalent thermal conductivity definition were considered. In the first approach a simplified model in conjugate formulation is used, in the second approach a simplified model of solid body which allows an analytical solution is used. For safety ensuring during all time of spent nuclear fuel storage the equivalent thermal conductivity was calculated for different storage years. The calculated equivalent thermal conductivities can be used in thermal researches for dry spent nuclear fuel storage safety.

Read More: http://www.hanser-elibrary.com/doi/ref/10.3139/124.110443