Project site

Gözgen NPP is located in the northern part of Switzerland. It is based on a nuclear unit with a unit power of 1020MWe, with a three-circuit cooling configuration of the reactor core (three circulation circuits). It was put into operation on November 1, 1979. Currently, the plant is subject to large-scale modernization to ensure high standards in the field of nuclear safety.

Project scope

The project covers an update of the reactor plant model for the TRACE V5.0 program (TRACE_KKG) with regard to the modeled systems of the unit, as well as the implementation of additional improvements that increase the functionality of the developed tools for conducting safety analyzes (unit model, animation model and tools for analysis and visualization of the results). As a next step, verification and validation of the model was carried out by comparing results for selected emergency modes and operating transients with results from the full-scale simulator of the Gozgen NPP.

Objectives and Results

The goal of the project is to implement improvements that bring the models of the unit’s systems as close as possible to their real configuration, taking into account the peculiarities of their functioning in different operating modes of the reactor installation. On the other hand, the selected spectrum of emergency modes contributes to expanding the scope of applicability of the developed model for the TRACE V5.0 program (TRACE_KKG). The obtained results show a very good convergence for a wide range of considered parameters of the block with the results of the full-scale simulator of the Gozgen NPP.

Subsequent projects, which are aimed at further improving the model developed for the TRACE V5.0 program (TRACE_KKG), provide a solid basis for the development of modern safety analysis tools for Gozgen NPP. The benefits are related to the ability to conduct independent safety assessments by trained plant personnel within various tasks that require deterministic analyzes of the behavior of the reactor plant in different modes of operation. On the other hand, the additional scientific potential is being absorbed and developed, which contributes to the successful development of the TRACE V5.0 program on a global scale.