The goal of this thesis is to study the transient behaviour of the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor using Monte-Carlo simulations with the G4-STORK code. G4-STORK is a 3-dimensional Monte-Carlo code derived from the GEANT4 physics simulation toolkit. Methods were developed for the proper treatment of delayed neutrons and a lumped capacitance model was used to track the time-dependent fuel properties (temperature, density) based on the fission power. By validating the methods in G4-STORK with experimental measurements we hope to extend our understanding of reactor transients as well as further develop our methods to model the transients of the next generation reactor designs. A SLOWPOKE-2 reactor such as the one at RMC was chosen for simulation due to its compact size, and well-known transient response of control rod removal and measured temperature feedback. Static simulations in G4-STORK find a neutron flux of order 10^12 cm−2 s−1 which agrees with experiment and a control rod worth of (4.9 ± 2.0) mk compared to the experimentally measured worth of 5.45 mk. Transient simulations from rod pluck-out find similar trends to the experimental findings as our results suggest a negative temperature feedback due to the doppler broadening of the U-238 absorption spectrum which contributes to the overall safety mechanism seen in the SLOWPOKE reactor. It is determined that the methods in G4-STORK provide a reasonable ability to simulate reactor transients and it is recommended that a full-core thermal-hydraulics model be coupled to G4-STORK to achieve a higher level of accuracy. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Ever increasing demand for electricity, exploitation of large hydro and nuclear power at remote location has led to power evacuation by long EHV/UHV transmission systems. This thesis concentrates on transient analysis of EHV/UHV transmission systems for improved planning and protection. In this thesis, the uncontrolled and controlled switching methods to limit the switching surges during energization of 765kV and 1200k VUHV transmission lines are studied. The switching surge over voltages during the energization of series compensated line are compared with uncompensated line. A Generalized Electromagnetic Transients Program has been developed. The program incorporates specific models for studying the effectiveness of various means for control of switching surge over voltages during UHV transmission line energization and also simulation of various types of faults. Since power grids may adopt next higher UHV transmission level 1200kV, these studies are necessary for insulation coordination as well as transmission line protection relay settings. A new fault detection/location technique is presented for transmission line using synchronized fundamental voltage and current phasors obtained by PMUs at both ends of line. It is adaptive to fault resistance, source impedance variation, line loading and fault incidence angle. An improved Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) algorithm to estimate and eliminate the decaying dc component in a fault current signal is proposed for computing the phasors. The settings for digital distance relays under different operating conditions are obtained. The relay should operate faster and be more sensitive to various faults under different conditions without loosing selectivity. An accurate faulted transmission line model which considers distributed shunt capacitance has been presented. The relay trip boundaries are obtained considering transmission line model under realistic fault conditions. For different loading conditions ideal relay characteristic has been developed. The obtained trip boundaries can be used for proper settings of practical relay. An adaptive relaying scheme is proposed for EHV/UHV transmission line using unsynchronized/synchronized fundamental voltage and current phasors at both ends of line. For fault location, the redundancy in equations is achieved by using two kinds of Clarke’s components which makes the calculations non-iterative and accurate. An operator for synchronization of the unsynchronized measurements is obtained by considering the distributed parameter line model. The distance to fault is calculated as per the synchronized measurements. Support Vector Machine(SVM) is used for high speed protection of UHV line. The proposed relaying scheme detects the fault and faulted phase effectively within few milli seconds. The current and voltage signals of all phases at the substation are fed to SVM directly at a sampling frequency of 1.0kHZi.e20 samples/cycle . It is possible to detect faulted phase with in 3msec, using the data window of 1/4th cycle. The performance of relaying scheme has been checked with a typical 765kV Indian transmission System which is simulated using the developed EMTP.