Coupled thermohydraulic-neutronic instabilities in boiling water nuclear reactors: A review of the state of the art

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5376326

March-Leuba, J ^[1]; Rey, J M ^[2]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
2. Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, Madrid (Spain)

This paper provides a review of the current state of the art on the topic of coupled neutronic-thermohydraulic instabilities in boiling water nuclear reactors (BWRs). The topic of BWR instabilities is of great current relevance since it affects the operation of a large number of commercial nuclear reactors. The recent trends towards introduction of high efficiency fuels that permit reactor operation at higher power densities with increased void reactivity feedback and decreased response times, has resulted in a decrease of the stability margin in the low-flow, high-power region of the operating map. This trend has resulted in a number of unexpected'' instability events. For instance, United States plants have experienced two instability events recently, one of them resulted in an automatic reactor scram; in Spain, two BWR plants have experienced unstable limit cycle oscillations that required operator action to suppress. Similar events have been experienced in other European countries. In recent years, BWR instabilities have been one of the more exciting topics of work in the area of transient thermohydraulics. As a result, significant advances in understanding the physics behind these events have occurred, and a new and improved'' state of the art has emerged recently.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5376326
• Report Number(s): CONF-9204105-7; ON: DE92010990
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) specialists meeting, Karlsruhe (Germany), 1-3 Apr 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR KINETICS
THERMODYNAMICS
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
COMPUTER CODES
FEEDBACK
FLUID FLOW
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
INSTABILITY
OSCILLATIONS
REACTOR CHANNELS
VOIDS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FLUID MECHANICS
KINETICS
MECHANICS
POWER REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
THERMAL REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
210100* - Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
220100 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Theory & Calculation