Water exchange amount reduction algorithm for power control of VVER-1200 reactor operating in load-following mode

Abstract

Abstract In order to solve the problem of water exchange minimization in the primary loop of VVER-1200 reactor operating in load-following mode, we chose the dynamic programming method (DPM). However, this method is very expensive in terms of RAM and computing time. A heuristic is introduced for the DPM to decrease the computational costs. The introduction of the heuristics makes it possible to cut the inefficient branches of the DPM algorithm and to increase its speed without loss of precision. In the proposed algorithm, the use of temperature regulation control reduces the amount of coolant removed from the reactor primary loop, the movement of control rods is limited, which keeps the current axial offset (AO) in the recommended area, makes it possible to equalize the energy release in the reactor core volume. The simulation results obtained confirm the improvement of reactor power control in terms of load following: deviation of core power from the load schedule is reduced, water exchange is decreased by more than 50%, which is useful from the point of view of liquid waste management and treatment.