Recent advances in commercial spent nuclear fuel dry storage horizontal cask designs have significantly increased the maximum thermal load allowed in a canister in part by increasing the efficiency of internal conduction pathways. Carefully measured data sets generated from testing of full-sized casks or smaller cask analogs are widely recognized as vital for validating models of these storage cask designs. While several testing programs have been previously conducted, these earlier validation studies did not integrate all the physics or components important in a modern, horizontal dry cask system.

The purpose of this investigation is to produce data sets that can be used to benchmark the codes and best practices presently used to determine cladding temperatures and induced cooling air flows in modern, horizontal dry storage systems. The horizontal dry cask simulator (HDCS) has been designed to generate this benchmark data and complement the existing knowledge base. The objective of the HDCS investigation is to capture the dominant physics of a commercial dry storage system in a well-characterized test apparatus for a wide range of operational parameters.

An existing electrically-heated but otherwise prototypic boiling water reactor, Incoloy-clad test assembly has been deployed inside of a representative storage basket and canister. An insulated sheet metal enclosure is used to mimic the thermal properties of the concrete vault enclosure used in a modern, horizontal storage system. Transverse and axial temperature profiles along with induced-cooling air flow are measured using various backfills of gases for a wide range of decay powers and canister pressures.

The single assembly geometry with well-controlled boundary conditions simplifies computational requirements while preserving relevant physics. The test apparatus integrates the underlying thermal-hydraulic phenomena that are important to defining the performance of a modern horizontal storage system. These include combined-mode heat transfer from the electrically-heated assembly to the canister walls and the primarily natural-convective heat transfer from the canister to the cooling air flow passing through the horizontal vault enclosure. The data from the HDCS tests will be used to host a blind model validation effort.


Thermal-Hydraulic Investigations of a Horizontal Dry Cask Simulator

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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