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Preliminary white safety finding at Comanche Peak prompts NRC conference
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a regulatory conference Tuesday, May 19, with Vistra Operations Company officials to discuss a preliminary “white” safety finding at Comanche Peak-2.
Vikram Singh, Alexander M. Wheeler, Belle R. Upadhyaya, Ond?ej Chvá (Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville), M. Scott Greenwood (ORNL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 199-208
Preliminary results from a nonlinear dynamic model of the Molten Salt Demonstration Reactor (MSDR) plant are presented. This model is coupled to an integral economizer Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG) model with variable boiling length to simulate operation at different power levels. The reactivity effect of Xe-135 is also integrated to investigate open-loop load-following operation. Simulation results show that the reactor model is stable for the investigated reactivity perturbations. A load-following excursion is simulated by varying the feedwater flow rate through the steam generator. Results show that the MSDR can follow load demand in a stable manner through temperature-based reactivity feedbacks alone without requiring operator input. Future work involves development of instrumentation systems and control strategies to achieve near autonomous plant operation.