NE 167 - NUCLEAR REACTOR SAFETY

Principles and methods used in the safety evaluation of nuclear power plants. Safety philosophies, design criteria, and regulations. Deterministic and probabilistic models, reliability analysis, nuclear and thermal-hydraulic transients, radiological consequences, and risk assessment. Design-basis and severe accident analysis, role of engineered safety systems, siting, and licensing. (Fall) Kastenberg

Catalog Description

• 167, Principles and methods used in the safety evaluation of
  nuclear power plants. Safety philosophies, design criteria, and
  regulations. Deterministic and probabilistic models, reliability
  analysis, nuclear and thermal-hydraulic transients, radiological
  consequences, and risk assessment. Design-basis and severe accident
  analysis, role of engineered safety systems, siting, and licensing.

Course Prerequisites

• NE 150, NE 161, or consent of instructor.

Prerequisite knowledge or skills

• The course uses the following knowledge and skills from prerequisite
  and lower-division courses:
• Solve linear, first and second order differential equations.
• Evaluate the mean, median and standard deviation given a probability
  distribution function.
• Calculate neutron fluxes, criticality and reactivity coefficients
  from the one- dimensional, 2-group diffusion equations.
• Calculate thermal-hydraulic properties of reactor systems.

Textbook(s) and/or other required materials

• A course reader is available prior to each offering.

Course objectives and outcomes

Course objectives: It is the instructor’s intention
to…

• Introduce students to the safety principles and methods utilized
  in designing, constructing and operating a safe nuclear power
  plant.
• Introduce students to the regulatory requirements for designing,
  constructing and operating a nuclear power plant.
• Provide students with experiential knowledge in the preparation
  and evaluation of a Safety Analysis Report for meeting regulatory
  requirements and the experience of presenting the analysis to
  a regulatory review board.
• Introduce students to the methods and models for accident analysis,
  risk assessment and management and for dealing with external events.
• Show the students how these principles and methods can be utilized
  for advanced nuclear energy systems.

  Course outcomes: students must be able to:

• Perform safety calculations in support of the preparation of
  an abbreviated Safety Analysis Report for an advanced reactor.
• Develop and quantify simplified fault and event trees for an
  advanced reactor.
• Prepare a seismic analysis for a nuclear power reactor.
• Prepare an abbreviated Safety Analysis Report for an advanced
  reactor.
• Interpret the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s requirements
  and policy statements for an advanced reactor system.
• Make a formal presentation on the results of their analyses
  to a “mock” safety review board.
• Demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses in an advanced reactor
  design.

Topics covered

• Safety philosophy, general design criteria, licensing and operations
• The regulatory process.
• Design aspects: reactivity coefficients, redundancy and diversity
  and engineered safety features.
• Safety analysis, design basis events, beyond design basis events,
  severe accident management.
• Risk assessment, risk management, and risk-informed decision-making.
• Reactor systems, reactor dynamics and reactor control.
• External events: earthquakes, fires and tornadoes.
• Radiological consequences of accidents.
• Fast reactor safety.
• Implications for advanced reactors: Generation III and Generation
  IV.
• Case studies.

Class schedule

• This is a lecture course and meets two times a week for 90 minutes
  (with a 10 minute break after the first 50 minutes).

Contribution of the course to meeting the professional
component

• This course helps the student to understand the steps necessary
  to obtain a construction permit and operating license for a nuclear
  power plant in the United States by:
• Understanding the safety analyses necessary for Chapter 15
  of a Safety Analysis Report, 10 CFR 50 (including the General
  Design Criteria) and 10 CFR 52.
• Analyzing a reactor with respect to the Nuclear Regulatory
  Commission’s Policy Statements on Severe Accidents, Safety
  Goals, Advanced Reactors and 10 CFR 100 Site Criteria.
• Determining the seismic hazard for a nuclear power plant
• Preparation of a presentation for a mock hearing before an
  “Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.”

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree
program objectives

• This contributes to the NE program objectives by providing education
  in an area fundamental to the nuclear engineering profession (nuclear
  reactor safety), as well as partially meeting the ABET requirement
  for ethics ( a practical application of the engineer’s code
  of ethics, whose fundamental cannon is to “to protect the
  health and safety of the public and the environment”).
• Although it does not provide direct design experience, it provides
  the student with the opportunity to evaluate a design, and where
  appropriate, to modify an existing design.
• The course provides the student with an experience of analyzing
  and evaluating a total integrated system (mechanical, electrical,
  structural and nuclear)and its interaction with its environment.
• It provides the student the opportunity to develop their oral
  skills in making presentations in class an at a mock hearing.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

• Homework in preparation for class presentations, and some homework
  problem sets: 25%
• Term project: 50%
• Final exam: 25%