Nuclear power plant having a water chemistry control system for a primary cooling system thereof and an operation method thereof

• US 5,398,268 A
• Filed: 10/14/1992
• Issued: 03/14/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Saito, Takashi, Ibe, Hidefumi, Takahashi, Masanori, Hayashi, Makoto, Sakai, Masanori, Nagase, Makoto, Aoki, Yasuko, Asakura, Yamato, Akamine, Kazuhiko, Ohsumi, Katsumi, Ohnaka, Noriyuki, Nakata, Kiyotomo
• Primary Examiner(s): Walsh, Donald P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Voss, Frederick H.
• Application Number:
  US07/960,847
• Time in Patent Office: 881 Days
• Field of Search: 376/305, 376/306, 376/245, 376/310
• US Class Current: 376/305
• CPC Class Codes: G21C 17/022 for monitoring liquid coolants or moderators
• CPC Class Codes: G21C 17/0225 Chemical surface treatment, e.g. corrosion corrosion prevention in presence of water from scale removal or by modification of the properties of the liquid C02F5/00; inhibiting corrosion by adding corrosion inhibitors C23F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 30/30 Nuclear fission reactors

Abstract

A water chemistry factor which is specific to a specific portion of a primary cooling system and universal is decided to be a standard target. The concentration of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage of structural material of the primary cooling system is controlled so that the target will be in a desirable range. All sensor groups provided in the primary cooling system are separated into sensor groups in different lines, of which a specific sensor group are connected to an arithmetic unit and a data base and are for always monitoring a plant process. For example, concentration distribution agreed with measured value oxidation component in the reactor water at the measurement points is selected from the data base, and it is used to estimate the standard target.

Claims

1. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor, characterized by a water chemistry control system comprising:

a plurality of water chemistry sensors provided in flow passages of water or steam of the primary cooling system at different portions, said primary cooling system including a main steam line, a feed water line and a condensate line;

means for estimating a water chemistry at least one specific portion of said primary cooling system, using information from at least some of said plurality of water chemistry sensors, said means including an arithmetic unit and a memory device; and

at least one injection device for injecting an agent for improvement of the water to mitigate corrosion damage of said primary cooling system.

8. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 1, wherein said agent for mitigation of corrosion damage is at least one selected from a group consisting of reducing substance, alkaline metal, and alkaline metal compound.

9. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 8, wherein said reducing substance is at least one selected from a group consisting of hydrogen, ammonium and hydrazine.

10. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 8, wherein said alkaline metal is at least an element selected from Li, K, Cs and Na.

11. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said water chemistry sensors is at least one of an electro-chemical potential meter, a potential meter of inert metal, a dissolved oxygen meter, a pH meter, a conductivity meter, an analyzer of components of radioactive nitrogen in the main steam line, a crack development monitor and a radiant ray dose rate meter in the main steam line.

12. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 11, wherein said inert metal is at least an element selected from group consisting of Pt, Au and Pd.

2. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor, characterized by comprising:

means for sensing a physical quantity of a specific factor of factors determining a water chemistry around at least one first specific portion of the primary cooling system;

means for estimating the water chemistry at at least one second specific portion of the primary cooling system different from said first specific portion on basis of the measured value and data base stored in a memory device; and

means for injecting an agent for mitigating corrosion damage of structural material of the primary cooling system into the primary cooling system so that a conjectural value obtained by said estimating means will be within a target range.

3. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor, having

means for storing in advance theoretical calculation results concerning the concentration of chemical components in water in the primary cooling system for each of various operational conditions in a memory device;

and

means for estimating, on the basis of the calculation results and measured values of some of the chemical components in the water or steam, a water chemistry at a portion of the primary cooling system different from measuring points.

4. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 3, wherein a water control system is provided which determines increment or decrement of an agent for mitigation of corrosion damage to be injected on the basis of the estimated value of said water chemistry.

5. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said chemical component in the water in the primary cooling system is at least one element selected from a group consisting of water decomposition products, organic carbides, chromic acids, and radioactive nitride.

6. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 3, 4 or 5, wherein said storing means stores in advance calculation result of concentration distribution of the chemical components in the water in the primary cooling system, and said estimation value is concentration distribution including calculation value accorded with measured value, within a range of measuring error, of acidifying components at a specific portion.

7. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 3, 4 or 5, wherein physical quantity to be estimated from the measured value of the chemical components in the water in the primary cooling system is at least one of an amount of hydrogens, an amount of peroxides and weighted arithmetic average of the amounts of the hydrogens and the peroxides.

13. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor, characterized by a water chemistry control system comprising:

a plurality of water chemistry sensors provided in flow passages of water or steam of the primary cooling system at different portions;

means for detecting or estimating a water chemistry at least one specific portion of said primary cooling system; and

at least one injection device for injecting an agent for improvement of the water chemistry to mitigate corrosion damage of said primary cooling system.

14. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein said water chemistry control system is characterized in that the concentration of agent for mitigating corrosion damage is incremented or decremented according to a relative ratio between concentrations of anions, cations and neutralization components of nitrogen in the main steam.

15. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein a suitable value of the concentration of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage is determined according to the concentration or ratio of anions, cations and neutralization components of nitrogen 13 (N) in the main steam, and an upper limit of the concentration is determined depending on radiant ray dose rate around main steam pipings.

16. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein said water chemistry control system is characterized in that a lower limit of the concentration of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage is determined according to output of a crack propagation monitor submerged in the core water.

17. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein said water chemistry control system is characterized in that a lower limit of the concentration of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage is determined according to a measured value of concentration of sulfuric acid ions and copper ions in the core water.

18. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein said water chemistry control system is characterized in that the concentration of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage is incremented and decremented according to the chromium ion concentration in the reactor water.

19. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein said water chemistry control system is characterized in that the concentration of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage is incremented and decremented according to a ratio between the carbolic acid concentration and total organic carbide in the core water.

20. A primary cooling system of a boiling water nuclear reactor according to claim 13, wherein said water chemistry control system is characterized in that an injection amount of an agent for mitigating corrosion damage is adjusted so that a sum of an oxygen gas flow rate in the main steam and a bulk flow rate of injected oxygen gas in an off gas line will be more than half of a bulk flow rate of hydrogen in the main steam.

21. A water chemistry control method of a nuclear power plant, comprising the steps of:

measuring at least a physical quantity representative of water chemistry at a first portion of a primary cooling system of the nuclear power plant;

estimating a value representative of water chemistry at a second portion of said primary cooling system different from said first portion on the basis of a measures value in said measuring step and data stored in a memory device obtain a estimated value concerning the water chemistry around said second portion; and

controlling the water chemistry around said second portion according to said estimated value.

22. A water chemistry control method of a nuclear power plant, comprising the steps of:

monitoring, on the basis of water chemistry information and radiolysis production concentration distribution around structural material at various portions of the primary cooling system and on the basis of flow rate distribution, dose rate distribution at the various portions of the primary cooling system, electro-chemical potential of the structural material under water chemistry conditions of each the portion of the primary cooling system in the reactor;

comparing the electro-chemical potential with a standard electro-chemical potential value set in advance; and

controlling the water chemistry on the basis of the compared results.

23. A water chemistry control method of a nuclear power plant, comprising the steps of:

monitoring, on the basis of water chemistry information and radiolysis production concentration distribution around structural material at various portions of the primary cooling system and on the basis of flow rate distribution, dose rate distribution at the various portions of the primary cooling system, electro-chemical potential distribution and SCC sensibility distribution of the structural material under water chemistry conditions of each the portion of the primary cooling system in the reactor;

comparing monitored values with a standard electro-chemical potential value and a standard SCC sensibility value set in advance; and

controlling the water chemistry on the basis of the compared results.