High Energy Arcing Fault (HEAF): Sandia National Laboratories 2023 Report

Technical Report · Mon Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2429983· OSTI ID:2429983

Cruz-Cabrera, Alvaro Augusto ^[1]; Glover, Austin Michael ^[1]; Flanagan, Ryan M. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

High Energy Arcing Faults (HEAFs) are hazardous events in which an electrical arc leads to the rapid release of energy in the form of heat, vaporized metal, and mechanical force. In Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), these events are often accompanied by loss of essential power and complicated shutdowns. To confirm the probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) methodology in NUREG/CR-6850, which was formulated based on limited observational data, the NRC led an international experimental campaign from 2014 to 2016. The results of these experiments uncovered an unexpected hazard posed by aluminum components in or near electrical equipment and the potential for unanalyzed equipment failures. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), in support of the NRC work, collaborated with NIST, BSI, KEMA, and NRC to support the full-scale HEAF test campaign in 2023. SNL provided high speed and real time from visible and infrared video/data of tests that collected data from copper and aluminum busses from switchgears and bus-ducts. Part of SNL work was to place cameras with high-speed data collection capability at different vantage points that provide the NRC a more complete and granular view of the test events.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 2429983
• Report Number(s): SAND--2024-04777
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
42 ENGINEERING