Development of ABWR Inertia-increased Reactor Internal Pump and Thicker Sleeve Nozzle

The conventional reactor internal pumps (RIPs) in the ABWR have an inertia moment coming from the shafts and Motor-Generator sets, enabling the RIPs to continue running for a few seconds, when a trip of all RIPs event occurs. It is possible to simplify the RIPs' power supply system without affecting the core flow supply when the above event occurs by eliminating M-G sets, if the rotating inertia is increased. This inertia increase due to an additional flywheel, which leads to gains in weight and length, requires the larger diameter nozzle with the thicker sleeve. However, too large a nozzle diameter may change the hydraulic performance. In authors' previous study, the optimum nozzle diameter (492mm) was selected through 1/5-scale test. In this study, the 492mm nozzle and the inertia-increased RIP were verified through the full-scale tests. The rotating inertia time constant on coastdown characteristics (behavior of the RIP speed in the event of power loss) for the inertia-increased RIP doubled compared with the current RIP. The casing and the shaft vibration were also confirmed to satisfy the design criteria. Moreover, hydraulic performance and heat increase in the motor casing due to the flywheel were evaluated. The inertia increased RIP with the 492mm nozzle maintained good performance.