Seismic analysis of spent nuclear fuel storage racks

Book · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:234264

Shah, S J; Biddle, J R; Bennett, S M; Schechter, C B ^[1]; Harstead, G A ^[2]; Marquet, F ^[3]

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1. Framatome Cogema Fuels, Lynchburg, VA (United States)
2. Harstead Engineering Associates, Inc., Old Tappan, NJ (United States)
3. ATEA/FRAMATOME, Carquefou (France)

In many nuclear power plants, existing storage racks are being replaced with high-density racks to accommodate the increasing inventory of spent fuel. In the hypothetical design considered here, the high-density arrangement of fuel assemblies, or consolidated fuel canisters, is accomplished through the use of borated stainless steel (BSS) plates acting as neutron absorbers. No structural benefit from the BSS is assumed. This paper describes the methods used to perform seismic analysis of high density spent fuel storage racks. The sensitivity of important parameters such as the effect of variation of coefficients of friction between the rack legs and the pool floor and fuel loading conditions (consolidated and unconsolidated) are also discussed in the paper. Results of this study are presented. The high-density fuel racks are simply supported by the pool floor with no structural connections to adjacent racks or to the pool walls or floor. Therefore, the racks are free standing and may slide and tip. Several time history, nonlinear, seismic analyses are required to account for variations in the coefficient of friction, rack loading configuration, and the type of the seismic event. This paper presents several of the mathematical models usually used. Friction cannot be precisely predicted, so a range of friction coefficients is assumed. The range assumed for the analysis is 0.2 to 0.8. A detailed model representing a single rack is used to evaluate the 3-D loading effects. This model is a controlling case for the stress analysis. A 2-D multi-rack model representing a row of racks between the spent fuel pool walls is used to evaluate the change in gaps between racks. The racks are normally analyzed for the fuel loading conditions of consolidated, full, empty, and half-loaded with fuel assemblies.

• OSTI ID: 234264
• Report Number(s): CONF-960306--; ISBN 0-7918-1226-X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
DESIGN
DYNAMIC LOADS
FUEL RACKS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SEISMIC EFFECTS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
THEORETICAL DATA