Time-dependent change in occurrence rate of steam generator tube leak in sodium-cooled fast reactors—Phenix and BN-600

Abstract

This study aims to understand the time-dependent change in the occurrence rate of leak from steam generator (SG) tubes in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The target SFRs in the present paper are Phenix in France and BN-600 in Russia. By reviewing publicly available literature that show data from the SFRs, we have investigated the numbers of tube-to-tubeplate welds and tube-to-tube welds, heat transfer areas of tube base metal, operating hours of SGs, dates when SG tube leak occurred, locations of leak, and corrective actions taken after tube leak events, such as replacement of the module, in which a leak occurred. Based on these, we have estimated the time to leak and quantitatively analyzed the time-dependent change of the occurrence rates of SG tube leak for each of the above-mentioned parts by hazard plotting method. The results show the time-dependent change in the rates of both Phenix and BN-600. For Phenix, the rate of leak at tube-to-tube welds shows a significant increase after 40,000 hours. This can be caused by thermal stress repeatedly exerted on the materials. In addition, the decrease in the rate was found, which is probably thanks to improved welding and SG operating conditions. For BN-600, it seems that in many cases, the probable cause of the leak was initial defects that developed to failure during the early stage of reactor operation, and that no special countermeasure was taken in the later stages. Therefore, it would be natural to assume that the rate simply decreased over time.

Keywords

• sodium-cooled fast reactor
• steam generator tube leak
• reliability
• hazard plotting method
• probabilistic risk assessment