Analysis and evaluation of recent operational experience from the Fort St. Vrain HTGR
The Fort St. Vrain operating experience to be discussed here includes notable safety-related events which have occurred since late 1981 when ORNL was first contracted to provide technical assistance to AEOD. Earlier Fort St. Vrain operating experience through the time of successful full-power testing in November 1981 has been summarized by the licensee and the reactor vendor, GA Technologies, Inc. (GA), in papers presented at several different forums during 1982. In addition, extensive and very useful detailed evaluations of preoperational and startup testing and of the rise-to-power operating experience through completion of the first refueling outage in August 1979 have been compiled into a series of reports under the sponsorship of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Finally, the US Department of Energy's Fort St. Vrain Improvement Plan provides a summary of the major operational limits which have affected the plant since start-up. The events discussed here are categorized based on the major systems affected, namely, (1) primary system and reactor vessel, (2) electrical systems, and (3) the reactor building. In all cases to be discussed, the lessons to be learned are vigilance and prevention. These lessons translate into the need for the recognition and control of unexpected situations and of their potential for branching effects. At Fort St. Vrain, these lessons are found in the effects of moisture ingress, in the challenges experienced to the supply of essential electrical power, and in controlling the environment of the reactor building. 13 refs.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (USA). Office for Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 5535126
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-850570-7; ON: TI85012895
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: IAEA specialists' meeting on gas cooled reactors, Oak Ridge, TN, USA, 13 May 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS
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