Securing the Safe Performance of Graphite Reactor Cores: The Proceedings of the Meeting on securing the Safe Performance of Graohite Reactor cores ... British Carbon Group (Special Publications) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847559131 ISBN 13: 9781847559135

Verlag: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Nuclear power currently contributes some 20% of the electricity needs of the UK and is rising rapidly on the political agenda due to environmental and economic factors, and yet all but one of the UK's existing nuclear reactors is expected to close by 2023. The increasing emphasis towards nuclear power rests on security of supply and reducing carbon emissions. This comprehensive book provides an account of the recent advances in securing safe performance of graphite-moderated nuclear reactors both within the UK and abroad which underpin life extension whilst maintaining high levels of plant performance. These reactors rely on graphite as a moderator in the form of layers of interlocked graphite bricks which undergo complex changes when exposed over long periods to the effects of neutron irradiation and radiolytic oxidation. The objective of this book is to outline the current approaches in terms of assessment methodologies, surveillance and test methods, performance prediction, graphite reactor decommissioning, regulatory requirements and the relevance to future reactor designs. The book is a sequel to the successful RSC publication "Managing of Ageing Processes in Graphite Reactor Cores", but with the emphasis on the challenges for the future safe performance. It is hoped that the contributed papers will also help in the design, construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of the new generation of graphite-moderated reactors. Papers presented in the book represent contributions from the most eminent specialists in the field and reflect the UK's contribution over the past 50 years to graphite reactor technology that will remain significant for years to come, especially in the development of Generation IV designs. This seminal book is written in a way that takes the reader from fundamental knowledge to reactor operation in a straight forward and understandable manner - ideal for non-specialist as well as a unique reference for the specialist. It is fully illustrated to aid understanding and is relevant to a wide range of readers from policy makers to reactor operators.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Gareth Neighbour is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at the University of Hull and has been involved with the nuclear industry since 1989. He completed his PhD at the University of Bath in collaboration with the Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories of the then CEGB on the topic of Microstructural Processes Leading to Fracture in Nuclear graphite in 1992 and has maintained a strong interest in nuclear graphites ever since. He joined the Department of Engineering at the University of Hull in February 2001 from the University of Bath where he formed and then led the internationally recognised Bath Nuclear Materials Group. During five years at Bath, he saw his group thrive to hold a broad range of contracts by providing an independent research and development activity to the nuclear power industry including the regulator and the IAEA. Prior to this, during 1992-1996, he worked for AEA Technology at their Windscale plant where, amongst other things, he worked on post-irradiation evaluation of reactor fuel. Gareth has in excess of 60 open literature publications as well as a similar number of substantive and definitive industrial reports for external organisations covering a diverse range of subjects from modelling dimensional change in irradiated moderator graphites to product development and in particular, redundancy in design. Currently, Gareth's research activity falls under the banner of "Materials and Process Performance". The main thrust is the effectiveness of UK gas-cooled reactor core designs, particularly the functionality of core components to support life extension using various modelling and analytical techniques. Coupled with this is his interest in policy formulation using a systems approach for radioactive materials treatment, waste minimisation and decommissioning and in particular, the effect of risk assessment methodology has on environmental and societal decision making.

Gareth Neighbour is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at the University of Hull and has been involved with the nuclear industry since 1989. He completed his PhD at the University of Bath in collaboration with the Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories of the then CEGB on the topic of Microstructural Processes Leading to Fracture in Nuclear graphite in 1992 and has maintained a strong interest in nuclear graphites ever since. He joined the Department of Engineering at the University of Hull in February 2001 from the University of Bath where he formed and then led the internationally recognised Bath Nuclear Materials Group. During five years at Bath, he saw his group thrive to hold a broad range of contracts by providing an independent research and development activity to the nuclear power industry including the regulator and the IAEA. Prior to this, during 1992-1996, he worked for AEA Technology at their Windscale plant where, amongst other things, he worked on post-irradiation evaluation of reactor fuel. Gareth has in excess of 60 open literature publications as well as a similar number of substantive and definitive industrial reports for external organisations covering a diverse range of subjects from modelling dimensional change in irradiated moderator graphites to product development and in particular, redundancy in design. Currently, Gareth's research activity falls under the banner of "Materials and Process Performance". The main thrust is the effectiveness of UK gas-cooled reactor core designs, particularly the functionality of core components to support life extension using various modelling and analytical techniques. Coupled with this is his interest in policy formulation using a systems approach for radioactive materials treatment, waste minimisation and decommissioning and in particular, the effect of risk assessment methodology has on environmental and societal decision making.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Nuclear power currently contributes some 20% of the electricity needs of the UK and is rising rapidly on the political agenda due to environmental and economic factors, and yet all but one of the UK's existing nuclear reactors is expected to close by 2023. The increasing emphasis towards nuclear power rests on security of supply and reducing carbon emissions. This comprehensive book provides an account of the recent advances in securing safe performance of graphite-moderated nuclear reactors both within the UK and abroad which underpin life extension whilst maintaining high levels of plant performance. These reactors rely on graphite as a moderator in the form of layers of interlocked graphite bricks which undergo complex changes when exposed over long periods to the effects of neutron irradiation and radiolytic oxidation. The book is a sequel to the successful RSC publication "Managing of Ageing Processes in Graphite Reactor Cores", but with the emphasis on the challenges for the future safe performance. It is hoped that the contributed papers will also help in the design, construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of the new generation of graphite-moderated reactors. Papers presented in the book represent contributions from the most eminent specialists in the field and reflect the UK's contribution over the past 50 years to graphite reactor technology that will remain significant for years to come, especially in the development of Generation IV designs. The book addresses the following general topic areas:- "Assessment methodologies (including the development of test methods for collection of data) "Surveillance and Test methods (including in-core methods, e.g. monitoring and inspection, and out-of-core methods, e.g. irradiation experiments in a materials test reactor) "Prediction of the performance of the graphite core (including fundamental material properties, modelling graphite component behaviour and modelling whole-core behaviour) "Plant modifications (such as diverse shut down systems) "Graphite decommissioning (including on safe disposal of the graphite core) "Regulatory requirements "Future reactor designs This seminal book is written in a way that takes the reader from fundamental knowledge to reactor operation in a straight forward and understandable manner - ideal for non-specialist as well as a unique reference for the specialist. It is fully illustrated to aid understanding and is relevant to a wide range of readers from policy makers to reactor operators.

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Securing the Safe Performance of Graphite Reactor Cores

By Gareth B. Neighbour

The Royal Society of Chemistry

Copyright © 2010 The Royal Society of Chemistry
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84755-913-5

Contents

Part A – General Introduction, 
Part B – Assessing Core Behaviour and Methodologies, 
Part C – Surveillance and Test Methods, 
Part D - Prediction of Component Performance, 
Part E - Plant Performance, 
Part F - Graphite Reactor Decommissioning, 
Author Index, 257, 
Subject Index, 258, 

CHAPTER 1

A Look into the Past – How it All Began

Abstract

The paper records the plenary lecture given by Dr Derek Dominey. The paper will recall his experience of the early days of the research which underwrote the design and operation of the graphite moderated commercial reactors in the UK. In 1959, he joined a team at Harwell involved in the research into the radiation induced carbon dioxide-graphite reaction. His role was to pioneer the use of Carbon-14 which he had used in his research at Oxford. BEPO and later DIDO were used as radiation sources. In 1966, the research was continued at Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories using a large Co-60 source. The graphite monitoring programme for the AGRs was developed at Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories (BNL) during this period. His paper will describe the experimental methods and some of the personalities involved.

Keywords

BEPO, DIDO, Berkeley Nuclear Labs, Radiolytic oxidation

PLENARY LECTURE

I am very conscious of the honour done to me by the request from the organising committee to give this plenary lecture. I have been involved in the chemistry of graphite, on and off, for over 50 years and this is, perhaps, an appropriate time to look back at where it all began.

I have taken some inspiration in preparing the talk from two books. The first by Professor Otto Frisch is entitled "What Little I Remember" and in the Preface he acknowledged that his memory was not always accurate and that he had tried to bring to life some of the people he had met. The second was by Spike Milligan entitled "Adolph Hitler; My Part in his Downfall". So my story relies on an incomplete and maybe inaccurate memory and I emphasise that personally I played a very small part in what has been a remarkable success story. I will refer to the part played by many individuals, but I could mention so many more and I apologise to those who I have neglected to name.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that in 1975 Otto Frisch wrote a spoof article entitled "Are coal-driven power stations feasible" supposedly written at a time when uranium supplies were becoming exhausted and a new source of energy was needed. The article concluded that the problems with safety would rule out the use of coal. The noxious gases produced by combustion would have "to be collected in suitable containers, pending chemical detoxification. Alternatively the waste might be mixed with hydrogen and filled into large balloons, which are subsequently released". This before any talk of global warming.

So, how did it all begin for me? I was at school when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Post war, the hot topic was how this new form of energy would be turned to practical use. There was a series of conferences in Geneva on "The Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy". The proceedings still make interesting reading. I was intrigued and felt that this exciting prospect would play a part in my subsequent career. And so it proved.

I read Chemistry at Oxford. This was a four year course, the last of which involved a full time research project. I persuaded Professor Hinshelwood to take me as a member of his team because he was the only person supervising work on radioactive isotopes. He was investigating the metabolism of bacteria by measuring the uptake of labelled nutrients labelled with Sulphur-35, Phosphorus- 32 or Carbon-14. During this period I also worked on isotope effects, measuring the different rates of reactions with compounds containing Carbon- 12 and Carbon-13 (which forms about 1% of natural carbon). Measurements were made by mass spectrometry. This work was done in collaboration with Professor Gus A. Ropp from Tennessee and my first published paper was in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1957. Gus was a very tall, laconic guy who became a great friend. He and his wife explored the British Isles mainly at weekends in a tiny Volkswagon which he bought in Germany and subsequently took home to the USA. His other hobby was photography, but he took so long to get an accurate reading on his light meter that the light had usually changed by the time he clicked the shutter!

Subsequently, I joined the team which followed up the Professor's earlier studies on the mechanism of hydrocarbon pyrolysis with Carbon-14 labelled compounds. All the compounds we used had to be synthesised. We obtained our supplies of radioactive isotopes, which were produced at Harwell in BEPO, from the Radio Chemical Centre at Amersham who could supply any form of Carbon-14 provided it was CO2! We also had to develop methods for measuring the very low energy beta radiation from Carbon-14. The CO2 was converted to Barium Carbonate which was filtered and dried and then counted with a thin window Geiger-Muller counter. Corrections had to be applied for the thickness of the sample because the radiation was absorbed by the sample itself. To measure the activity of any other compound, it had to be converted to CO2 and processed in the same way. This was a tedious process and eventually we developed a windowless scintillation counter on the end of a gas chromatograph, packing the columns ourselves, and we were able to measure the activity of individual gases. Our sole apparatus for working out our results was a mechanical calculator which involved much handle turning; it was shared between a team of 5 which included a Canadian, an Indian, two South Africans and myself and we became adept at managing international disputes! Sometimes we worked all night on the basis that as long as the equipment was working - keep going. So CO2 and radiation entered my life.

After graduation, I applied for a Research Fellowship at Harwell as the next step towards my goal. After months of investigation by the security agencies during which I turned down several other opportunities, including one to join a team developing a reactor to power aircraft, I was allowed to take up the Fellowship. Remember this was not long after the unmasking of Klaus Fuchs in 1950 so the caution was understandable.

I arrived at Harwell in 1959 in the middle of a Geneva Conference and met the Head of Chemistry Division, Bob Spence, who gave me a month to look round the laboratories and go back to him with a proposal for research when he returned from Geneva. I duly did this and as a result joined the Pile Irradiation Group under John Wright.

I was fortunate in starting my career under John and I learned an enormous amount from him and the members of his team. John was methodical and logical in his approach. He had spent time at Chalk River before moving to Harwell. John was a former graduate of my College and he took me under his wing. His criticism and correction of my reports was ruthless and those who subsequently suffered my treatment of their efforts owe much of this to him. He taught us to be rigorous. When he retired John produced several superb reports which summarised the research at that point. The major report (Wright, 1981) contains 373 references and the list reads like a roll...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847559131
• ISBN 13: 9781847559135
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Herausgeber: Neighbour Gareth B.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar