Turbine-missile casing exit tests
Nuclear power plant designers are required to provide safety-related components with adequate protection against hypothetical turbine-missile impacts. In plants with a ''peninsula'' arrangement, protection is provided by installing the turbine axis radially from the reactor building, so that potential missile trajectories are not in line with the plant. In plants with a ''non-peninsula'' arrangement (turbine axis perpendicular to a radius), designers rely on the low probability of a missile strike and on the protection provided by reinforced concrete walls in order to demonstrate an adequate level of protection USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.115). One of the critical first steps in demonstrating adequacy is the determination of the energy and spin of the turbine segments as they exit the turbine casing. The spin increases the probability that a subsequent impact with a protective barrier will be off-normal and therefore less severe than the normal impact assumed in plant designs. Two full-scale turbine-missile casing exit tests which were conducted by Sandia Laboratories at their rocket-sled facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are described. Because of wide variations in turbine design details, postulated failure conditions, and missile exit scenarios, the conditions for the two tests were carefully selected to be as prototypical as possible, while still maintaining the well-controlled and well-characterized test conditions needed for generating benchmark data.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-04-0789
- OSTI ID:
- 6871857
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-78-1343C; CONF-781105-36
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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