Apply now »

System-level and CFD thermal-hydraulic characterisation of a lead-cooled SMR nuclear island

Background and Motivation

Nuclear energy has been identified as the answer to sustainable base load energy.  In the transition to clean energy, small modular reactors could answer to replacing traditional sources of fossil energy. The EAGLES-300 lead-cooled Small Modular Reactor (SMR-LFR) is being developed by a European consortium of Ansaldo Nucleare, ENEA, RATEN and SCK CEN with the LEANDREA and ALFRED demonstrators to pave the way to commercialisation.  The attractive attributes of such a plant are grid flexibility and suitability for industrial heat supply. One scenario could be replacing the heat source of a brownfields CCGT-CHP with that of nuclear energy.

Objectives

The objective of this Master's thesis project is to characterise the various components of a lead-cooled SMR nuclear island for a plant-level simulation.

  • Establish the reference specification of the SMR-LFR plant full power operation
  • Evaluate the best modelling approach for the pump, pool and steam generator (CFD or systems-level approach, representative or physical models)
  • Develop and test the models at the hand of available experimental or numerical benchmark data
  • Propose a working transient of an Anticipated Operational Occurence (AOO) such as loss-of-process-heat-load scenario
  • Characterise the nuclear island and include sufficient parameters to simulate transient behaviour
  • Construct models that may be further used in the parametric characterisation of Reduced Order Models (ROMs) or numerical Functional Mock-up Units (FMUs) to include in a full plant simulator

Methodology

The work will include:

  • Literature review of i) reference designs in the LEANDREA / ALFRED family of designs, ii) experimental and numerical benchmark data of nuclear island components, iii) typical systems-level and CFD modelling approaches, iv) AOO scenarios used to inform the design and operation of new NPP designs
  • Design and construction of suitable RELAP5/MOD3.3 or 3D CFD models of the primary system components
  • Testing and evaluation of the models and modelling approach to the specific transient scanario
  • Verification and high-level validation efforts of the numerical work
  • Preparing the models and components to be characterised for use in a plant-level simulator

Expected outcomes

  • Transient-ready component models of the reactor pool, primary pumps, steam generator, as well as a representative core
  • Demonstration of their response to changes in transient system conditions
  • Verification of the models based on best practices
  • If feasible: a combined nuclear island model to prove integration

Apply now »