The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), under the Ministry of Science and ICT (President Park Sang-jin), is building a test facility of the highest specifications in the country capable of verifying the safety of nuclear equipment in accordance with various accident environments at nuclear power plants. This is expected to strengthen the competitiveness of related domestic companies and contribute to securing safe nuclear energy.

The research team led by Kim Dae-hwan, head of the Nuclear Power Plant Equipment Verification Research Group at the Busan Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)’s Busan Institute of Machinery and Materials (BIMM), announced on the 30th that they have established the highest-specification nuclear power plant design basis accident environment simulation test facility in Korea and the country's first severe accident environment simulation test facility.

It is expected that this will not only enable domestic companies to actively utilize it to respond to future strengthening nuclear safety regulations, but also be of great help in enhancing the competitiveness of our nuclear power technology in the international market.

The nuclear power plant design basis accident environment simulation facility is a facility capable of testing the safety functions of nuclear power plant equipment when representative design basis accidents occur, such as LOCA (Loss of Coolant Accident), MSLB (Main Steam Line Break), and HELB (High Energy Line Break).

Also, major nuclear accidents A simulation test facility capable of evaluating the functionality of equipment in an environment has also been established. A severe nuclear accident is a general term for severe accidents that exceed design basis accidents, such as accidents involving hydrogen combustion.

Unlike general environmental test facilities, a nuclear accident environment simulation test facility must be able to significantly change environmental conditions such as temperature and pressure in order to evaluate nuclear equipment in environments such as 200°C and 600kPa or higher accompanied by chemical spraying, or high temperature/high pressure environments where the temperature rises to 630°C instantaneously.

Rapid control performance is also essential for this. Based on their experience leading the verification and localization of domestic nuclear power plant equipment, as well as their diverse research in the field of thermal fluids, the research team succeeded in developing a test facility incorporating a new design.

Senior Researcher Kim Dae-hwan stated, “Nuclear power equipment must be able to perform its given functions even in various accident environments, and accident environment simulation technology capable of demonstrating this is the core of nuclear equipment verification technology.” He added, “We will contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of Korean nuclear power in the international market by continuously developing verification technologies that satisfy domestic nuclear safety regulations, which are strict even by global standards, and by supporting domestic companies to utilize them.”

Meanwhile, this research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Power Standardization and Certification Support Project 'Technology Development for Improving Nuclear Power Plant Component and Equipment Verification System,' the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials' Basic Project 'Development of Equipment Survivability Assessment Technology for Severe Nuclear Accident Response Facilities,' and the Nuclear Safety Division of Busan Metropolitan City.