Codes and standards for U.S. Department of Energy heavy water-new production reactor

The United States Department of Energy is designing a new generation of production reactors that will replace the aging production reactors at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. A heavy water reactor is one of the options being pursued during the Title I design phase. The increases in understanding and the vast experiences gained form existing production reactors and commercial nuclear power plants have led to proposed improvements in several areas of the design for the Heavy Water-New Probation Reactor (HW-NPR). Technical advances and ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessels Code Cases, that reflect the increases in experience and understanding are the basis for many of the proposed changes presented in this paper. Among the proposed areas of change presented in this chapter are: the implications of designing for a 60-year plant life; designing the ensure material and system integrity of the plant; means to assess fatigue damage to the pressurizer surge lines; the application of leak-before-break evaluation to piping and components; and the development of seismic criteria for the HW-NPR piping system. The topics covered in this paper are among some of the areas that have evolved form past nuclear power experience