Evaluation of ABWR for Safety Post-Fukushima

摘要

The US-AB WR project is making good progress in completing NRC technical review of the Combined License Application (COLA) for the South Texas Project Units 3&4 (STP3&4) near Bay City, Texas for which Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) is the Applicant Licensee and Toshiba is the primary technology contractor. The ABWR is a robust Generation Ⅲ reactor design that has withstood several significant seismic events in Japan, and following the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, the US-ABWR has been further reviewed for Beyond Design Basis Event (BDBE) safety using industry and regulatory guidance for NRC Order EA-12-049 "Order Modifying Licenses with Regard to Requirements for Mitigation of Beyond Design Basis External Events. " Review of BDBE capability for the US-ABWR found that the basic design, as described in the NRC certified ABWR Design Control Document (DCD), provides the ability to cope with an Extended Loss of AC Power (ELAP) and consequent Loss of Ultimate Heat Sink (LUHS) without core damage by using existing plant systems, and that enhancements consistent with the current industry FLEX initiative would further align the plant design and licensing basis with the FLEX concept. NINA has submitted a FLEX Integrated Plan to the NRC that describes the plant capabilities and enhancements being incorporated into the design and licensing process. This paper describes the technology and features of the US-ABWR design that contribute to safety post-Fukushima, and related elements of the STP3&4 FLEX Integrated Plan.