 

EDF is the largest worldwide nuclear power plant operator. With 19 reactor sites and 58 nuclear power plants in operation and one power plant under commissioning, training and swift licensing is a key factor to maintain and improve the operating factor of the nuclear fleet. In order to comply with regulatory requirements and commitments, Full Scope Simulators (FSS) are critical tools. In order to maintain and improve FSS physical representativeness and availability rate, EDF has launched a continuous process of maintenance of its FSS since the beginning of the industrial use. This continuous maintenance addresses various fields of skills: models corrections and updates, taking into account plant evolutions according the periodic safety reviews, operating software and hardware upgrades etc. The present paper deals with the ambitious project about the re-hosting of Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) model. Firstly, the motivations for the project are explained. The choice has been made to retain the ‘State-Of-The-Art’ CATHARE_2 thermal-hydraulics system code for the next NSSS model. This challenging choice is possible thanks to a robust and industrial methodology developed at EDF, in order to integrate safety code in real-time simulators. In another part, the global management of the project is described, including the different actors and contributors. Finally, the key learnings and the prospects are highlighted. In a few words, the integration of ‘State-Of-The-Art’ codes instead of simplified models, leads to challenging tasks and work for all the contributors of the project, but contributes actively to strengthen the FSS simulator predictions and opens a new field of applications for the users.

 


Key Learnings of Full Scope Simulator\u2019s Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) Model Re-Hosting Project at EDF

Division / Sponsors: 
Power Division & Nuclear Engineering Division (NED)

Power Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/POWER2020/volume/83747

International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE2020/volume/83761

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