STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS TOWARDS ERECTION OF PROTOTYPE FAST BREEDER REACTOR COMPONENTS

PFBR is a sodium cooled pool type reactor. The normal operating temperature is 397 C for its cold pool components and 547 C for the hot pool components. The hot pool and cold pool are separated by an inner vessel. The entire primary sodium pool is contained in a 25 mm thick main vessel of 12.9 m diameter and 13 m height. The main vessel is surrounded by a safety vessel which is still larger than the main vessel. The reactor has a design life of 40 years. So, works such as fabrication and erection of the large components are key activities for the construction of PFBR. The life of reactor is dependent on the structural integrity of these large components in both normal and accidental conditions. In view of this the fabrication and erection activities connected with PFBR have to be performed with high quality and safety requirements. In this paper the erection sequence and methodologies adopted for the various reactor assembly components such as main vessel, safety vessel etc are brought out. The SV has already been erected