UN0803 - Nuclear Reactor Safety Design
(2010 version)
(This course is based on McMaster's EP714)

Announcements

• Offered 2010.03.13 - 2010.04.25
• Location: Lecture Theatre, Durham College - Whitby Campus, 1610 Champlain Avenue, Whitby. See Durham College map and driving directions . The Skills Training Centre is identified as (3) on the map. See the first floor building layout (pdf 198kb).
• Distance Education - If you will be participating in the course using distance education please inform the instructor by email prior to the course commencing. Access distance ed courses using Elluminate at, https://maclive.mcmaster.ca/
• Although the level of physics and math required for UN0803 is relatively modest, it is highly recommended that you review the Physics refresher / prerequisite material for this course and the general Math refresher / prerequisite to ensure you are ready for UN0803. It is assumed you are familiar with CANDU design. If not it is highly recommended that you skim the text for UN0803 to understand what you need to know; and read a summary of the CANDU design. The CANDU 6 technical summary can be found on the Refresher / Prerequisite Material page under the CANDU NPP heading, and the ACR-1000 Technical Description can be found under "supplementary reading" further down this page (for the latter, please ask the UN0803 lecturer for the password).

Course Description:

Safety design and analysis of nuclear reactors based on deterministic and probabilistic assessments. Topics include: concepts of risk; probability tools and techniques; safety criteria; design basis accidents; risk assessment; safety analysis; safety system design; and general policy and principles.

Prerequisite: Registration in the UNENE Joint M. Eng. Program
Instructor: Victor Snell.

Course Administration

• Schedule - 9:00 am start
  • March 13 & 14
  • March 27 & 28
  • April 10 & 11
  • April 24 & 25

Course Notes:

• Course Outline
  • Forward, Acknowledgements (pdf 116kb)
  • Expectations (pdf 172kb) (presentation) - new as of 2010.03.10
  • Outline (pdf 98kb)
• Project
  • Ideas for Projects (pdf 35kb)
  • Scope Guideline (pdf 5kb)
  • Class Project (pdf 98kb) - new as of 2010.03.14
  • Class Project Flowchart (pdf 30kb)
• Chapter 1 - Introduction (Snell)
  • Text (pdf 280kb) - new as of 2010.03.27
  • Lecture 1 Slides (pdf 364kb) - new as of 2010.03.27
• Chapter 2 - Design Basis Accidents (Snell)
  • Text (pdf 8.1Mb)
  • Lecture 2 Slides (pdf 1.36Mb)
• Chapter 3 - Case Studies (Snell)
  • Text (pdf 550kb)
  • Lecture 3 Case Studies Slides (pdf 1.0Mb)
  • Lecture 4 Case Studies Slides cont'd (pdf 1.0Mb)
• Chapter 4 - Probability Tools and Techniques
  • Text (pdf 787kb) - new as of 2010.04.22
  • Lecture 5 Probability Slides (pdf 576kb) - new as of 2010.03.27
  • Bayes Theorem - resource material, including a short video
• Chapter 5 - Safety Systems
  • Text (pdf 2.7Mb) - new as of 2010.04.22
  • Lecture 6 (pdf 672kb) - Shutdown Systems
  • Lecture 7 (pdf 1.1Mb) - Heat Removal Systems
• Chapter 6- Safety Goals
  • Text (pdf 927kb)
  • Lecture 8 (pdf 666kb)
• Chapter 7 - Accident Analysis
  • Text (pdf 2.3Mb)
  • Lecture 9 (pdf 2.3Mb)
  • Lecture 10 (pdf 1.2Mb)
• Chapter 8 - Technology of Accident Analysis
  • Text (pdf 4.4Mb) - new as of 2010.04.22
  • Lecture11 (pdf 311kb)
  • Lecture 12 (pdf 642kb)
• Chapter 9 - Whither Safety
  • Text (pdf 1.4Mb) - IAEA
  • Text (pdf 1.6Mb) - Passive Designs
  • Lecture 13 (pdf 1.6Mb)
• Supplementary reading
  • IAEA-NS-R-1 (pdf 201kb) - Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design - Safety Requirements
  • ICONE 12-49287 (pdf 145kb) - The Probability and Management of Human Error, Romney B. Duffey and John W. Saull, Proceedings of ICONE12: 12th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering , April 25-29, 2004, Virginia, USA
  • ACR-1000 Technical description, AECL 10820-01371-TED-001, Revision 2 (pdf 8.5Mb, 627 pages) [password protected - contact instructor]

Course Assignments and Projects

• Student Reports [password protected - contact instructor]
  • Reactor Physics (pdf 1.7Mb), (xls 700kb)
  • Fuel Heat Transfer (docx 1.0Mb), (xlsm 1.6Mb)
  • Fuel channel Thermalhydraulics (doc 3.4Mb), (xls 175kb)
  • System Thermalhydraulics (pdf 2.1Mb), (xls 2.4Mb)
  • Control (pdf 2.3Mb), (xls 304kb)

Learning Resources

• Teaching matters - helpful general information on teaching and learning for the student and the educator
• Reactor physics code downloads
• Looking for FORTRAN information? See the Downloads page for engineering software and compilers, etc.
• Computing tools - some suggestions.
• Chernobyl information
• Ionizing Radiation in the 20th Centry, by Zbigniew Jaworowski (pdf 1161kb)
• Some of course notes have rather old values for the consequences of radiation doses. Here are the ICRP-60 recommendations summarized FYI. Source: "1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection", adopted by the Commission in November 1990; ICRP Publication 60; Pergamon Press, Oxford.
• Davis-Besse reactor vessel head corrosion - a near miss. (pdf 461kb)
  
• Suggestions welcome.