Full-scale turbine-missile casing exit tests

Nuclear power plant designers are required to provide safety-related components with adequate protection against hypothetical turbine-missile impacts. In plants with a ''peninsula'' arrangement, protection is provided by installing the turbine axis radially from the reactor building, so that potential missile trajectories are not in line with the plant. In plants with a ''non-peninsula'' arrangement, potential trajectories intersect the plant, so that designers need to rely on the low probability of a missile strike and on the protection provided by reinforced concrete walls in order to demonstrate an adequate level of protection (USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.115). One of the critical first steps in demonstrating adequacy is the determination of the energy and spin of the turbine segments as they exit the turbine casing. The spin increases the probability that a subsequent impact with protective barrier will be off-normal and therefore less severe than the normal impact assumed in plant designs. As a part of its research program in the area of hypothetical nuclear-plant missiles, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is funding full-scale turbine-missile casing exit tests which are to be conducted at Sandia Laboratories. This will be followed by impact tests on reinforced concrete structures. Turbine segments to be used in more » the tests have been provided by Westinghouse and General Electric. « less