Preliminary studies of ocean smart construction and safety enhancement

Abstract

"In march 2011, Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident occurred because of unprecedented earthquake and tsunami on east side of Japan. Decay heat removal system was dysfunctional due to loss of all power and eventually the reactor core was severely damaged which led to a large release of radioactive material to environment and public. From this accident, protection of NPPs from any natural disasters came to the fore. Moreover, development of passive safety systems which can protect NPPs when Station BlackOut (SBO) occurred was on the rise. In recent years, KAIST research team is developing a concept of ocean NPPs which can meet both aforementioned goals in safety while potentially increasing economy and enhancing public acceptance. Furthermore, another passive safety system, which is being developed by KAIST research team namely Integrated Passive Safety System (IPSS) can successfully coupled to the ocean nuclear system to augment safety. In this paper, as a reference system for ocean NPP, recently developed Korean small reactor, SMART is chosen to demonstrate the ocean NPP concept with IPSS. The paper will quickly review the potential improvement of Ocean SMART safety as well as the plant layout. This will be followed by a simple analysis to size required additional component for IPSS and illustrate how IPSS and ocean environment can have synergy effect on NPP safety. "