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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Liang-Che Dai, Chung-Yu Yang, Yng-Ruey Yuann, Bau-Shei Pei, Chun-Kuan Shih
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 182 | Number 1 | January 2016 | Pages 96-103
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the RELAP5-3D Computer Code | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-145
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
According to “Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants” (NUREG-0800) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the homogeneous and thermal equilibrium critical flow model (HEM model) is acceptable for pressure and temperature analysis of the subcompartment of the containment. However, it was not built into the RELAP5-3D code. In order to provide the blowdown boundary conditions that meet the acceptance criteria for the subcompartment pressure and temperature response analysis, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research implemented and assessed the Moody HEM model of RELAP5-3D. The assessment phase was subsequent to the implementation of the Moody HEM model of RELAP5-3D. Three experiments of Marviken critical flow tests (CFTs) were selected as the assessment cases. They were CFT 15, CFT 22, and CFT 24. The assessment input decks of RELAP5-3D had been modified from the appendixes of the references. Additional comparisons with the results of the RELAP5-3D built-in Ransom-Trapp and Henry-Fauske critical flow models were also included. The comparisons of the calculated blowdown mass flow rate with the test data assessed the newly implemented model, which gave good prediction. Moreover, the comparisons between the results of the critical flow models of RELAP5-3D and the test data provided a measure of the relative conservatism of the critical flow calculations.