Dr. Christer Dahlgren
Manager
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy

Abstract

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH’s) BWRX-300 is a designed-to-cost, 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation Small Modular Reactor (SMR) utilizing simple, natural phenomena driven safety systems. It is the tenth generation of the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) and represents the simplest, yet most innovative BWR design since GE began developing nuclear reactors in 1955. The BWRX-300 is an evolution of the U.S. NRC-licensed, 1,520 MWe ESBWR. The BWRX-300 design optimizes the cost of construction, operation, maintenance, staffing, and decommissioning. Costs are minimized while maintaining world class safety by implementing a safety assessment framework structured on the five defense lines of IAEA’s Defense-in-Depth methodology.

The presentation includes an overview of the BWRX-300 with a special focus on Safety Strategy and Defense-in-Depth, and especially showing how probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is considered in the design development. PRA is used heavily in the development of the design of the BWRX-300. Previous experience and full-scope PRA models for both the ABWR and ESBWR are also leveraged. PRA is used to validate assumptions on frequency of occurrence of postulated initiating events, and to identify complex events and mitigating functions to avoid cliff edge effects as a result from the hazards analyses.

Biography

Dr. Christer Dahlgren has worked for new plants engineering in GEH since 2008. He is a co-inventor of the BWRX-300 and is currently the Manager, LWR Technologies Plant Integration Team. He has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park, and has also worked as a Senior Reactor Operator at Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan.  Christer is originally from Sweden and currently he resides in Wilmington, NC.

Thursday, March 10. 2022
4:00 pm seminar

Hybrid Option  (Speaker is remote)

zoom (link upon request)
or
Room 1202 Burlington Labs