Preliminary evaluation of structural response of ELSY reactor in the after shutdown condition

The paper is aimed at preliminary evaluating the load bearing capability of a Generation IV metal cooled reactor (LFR), like the European Lead-cooled System (ELSY), with the intent to support the viability of lead technology for use in a future commercial power plant with waste transmutation capability. levant safety aspects were investigated: the fluid–structure interaction, induced by the propagation of seismic loading (in the event of safe shutdown earthquake), and the high thermal loads due to the residual decay heat (influenced also by the burn up level). The first issue depends on the presence of a liquid free surface that, especially, in SSE condition allows for fluid motion (“sloshing”); the forming and the impact of lead waves could impair the integrity of reactor structures. The second aspect deals with the thermal effects induced by the irradiated core heat source after the reactor shutdown. er to evaluate the ELSY reactor structural response, induced by both high temperature and hydrodynamic loads, appropriate 3-D finite element models were set up and implemented in MARC code. In addition the input decay power after shutdown has been evaluated by means of MCNPX and Origen2.2 codes. tained preliminary results provide information to make possible an upgrading of the reactor design, however with no significant modification of their functionality.