Radiation Physics and Engineering
A peer-reviewed journal published by K. N. Toosi University of Technology

Thermal-hydraulic analysis of a dry storage cask for VVER-1000 spent nuclear fuel

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Mohammad Ali Hejazi 1
Seyed Khalil Mousavian 2
Mohammad Outokesh 1

1 Department of Energy Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, P.O. Box: 11155-1639, Tehran, Iran

2 Reactor and Nuclear Safety Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, P.O. Box: 14399-55933, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/rpe.2022.337483.1076
Abstract
In this study, thermal-hydraulic analysis of a dry storage cask for Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant spent nuclear fuels is carried out. Geometry drawing and mesh generation were completed in SolidWorks and Gambit software, respectively. Three different cases were considered for the cask geometry and design including cask with/without spacers and cask with spacers and fins. Thermal-hydraulic analysis of the cask was performed for steady-state and normal storage conditions in ANSYS CFX solver package. Simulation results indicated a weak thermal-hydraulic behavior of the cask in the geometry without spacer and maximum fuel temperature exceeded the allowable safety limits. However, with the addition of spacers and fins in the geometry of the cask, thermal behavior of the cask was significantly improved and maximum fuel temperature achieved a proper margin compared to the allowable safety limits. As a result, the spent fuel integrity will be maintained in the normal storage conditions. The simulation results were compared with a literature published paper and it showed a good agreement between the calculated results.

Highlights

  • Thermal-hydraulic analysis of dry storage cask for Bushehr nuclear power plant is performed.
  • The proposed Bushehr dry storage cask is simulated by applying ANSYS CFX as a CFD tool.
  • Thermal behavior of dry storage cask is improved due to using spacers and  ns in cask design.

Keywords

Dry storage cask
Thermal-hydraulic analysis
Computational fluid dynamics
Spent nuclear fuel
Bushehr nuclear power plant
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Radiation Physics and Engineering
Volume 3, Issue 3
Summer 2022
Pages 29-37

  • Receive Date 13 April 2022
  • Revise Date 14 May 2022
  • Accept Date 03 June 2022

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