Safety Assessments and Licensing Support
Goal
The goal of this research is to show that industrial product coupling with light water reactors (LWRs) will lead to sustainable nuclear operations by ensuring that the LWR Flexible Plant Operation and Generation coupled system remains within the safety operating basis of LWRs and informs plant owners on license modification pathways for LWR thermal-energy delivery to an industrial user.
Outcome
Safety and probabilistic risk assessments
The outcome of this research is to characterize and specify the modifications necessary for the LWR to provide electricity and thermal energy to a hydrogen production facility and characterize and specify hydrogen production facilities of common sizes. Researchers will perform hazards analyses added to the existing probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) of generic pressurised water reactors and boiling water reactors. The PRA results provide licensing support decisions of minor changes to the LWR.
Hydrogen safety assessment
Once the hydrogen facility is specified, hydrogen leak frequencies and detonation effects are modeled using hydrogen risk assessment models (HyRAM) by the researchers at Sandia National Laboratories. Assessments have been made for high temperature electrolysis facilities of 100, 500, and 1000 MWnom sizes.
Probabilistic risk assessment
Idaho National Laboratory risk assessment experts help specify the steam extraction and thermal delivery system to place in the LWR and provide thermal energy to the hydrogen facility. The hydrogen production facility is also specified in tandem with industry construction experts and potential vendors. A hazards assessment identifies potential hazards of both the nuclear power plant modifications and the hydrogen production facility. Safe standoff distances are calculated between hydrogen facility pressure and volume sections to the most fragile nuclear power plant structures, systems and components, based on their fragility, to the calculated overpressure.
The PRA’s ancillary goals identify hazards that are not related to safety of the nuclear power plant but can affect the safety of the hydrogen facility workers, public and economic impact for the nuclear power plant and/or the hydrogen facility.
Planned major accomplishments
- The hazards and risk analyses will expand to include the production of syngas and methanol adjacent to the hydrogen production plant. These are precursors to other products such as synthetic fuels and ammonia, both of which have been promoted as carbon-free energy sources.
