Nuclear power is an important part of Sweden's energy system and contributes with about 30 % of the supplied electric energy. Interest in new construction is currently high and one type of reactor that may be built is small modular reactors, SMRs. A method that is used to evaluate the safety of a traditional nuclear power plant is the so called probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). An important question is if PSA is applicable to SMRs. This thesis examines differences between a BWRX-300 type SMR and a generic boiling water reactor to investigate if the traditional PSA method is applicable to SMRs and what characteristics that may affect the results. To investigate the topic, a simplified PSA analysis is carried out at level 1 for five different initiating events: extreme snowfall, loss of cooling accident, loss of main feedwater, loss of offsite power supply and transient. These are then compared to a model of a generic BWR reactor. The conclusions that emerge from the analysis are that the traditional PSA method can be applied for SMRs of the BWRX-300 type. The features that distinguish the BWRX-300 compared to a generic BWR are mainly that the SMR is smaller in size and power and the influence of the passive safety systems. This results in a lower core damage frequency. Some the areas where the PSA method could be developed for SMRs are the analysis of passive components and passive functions.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-523877 |
Date | January 2024 |
Creators | Emilia, Udd |
Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Tillämpad kärnfysik |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | Swedish |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Relation | UPTEC ES, 1650-8300 ; 24003 |
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