Publications

Ensuring a Nuclear Power Plant Safe State Following an EMP Event - Task 7 Deliverable: EMP Testing of Secondary Coupling to Instrumentation Cables

Bowman, Tyler B.; Guttromson, Ross G.; Martin, Luis S.

Sandia National Laboratories performed tests to address the potential vulnerability concerns of a coupled High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) inducing secondary coupling onto critical instrumentation and control cables in a nuclear power plant, with specific focus on early-time HEMP. Three types of receiving cables in nine configurations were tested to determine transfer functions between two electrically separated cables referenced to the common mode input current on the transmitting cable. One type of transfer function related the input short circuit current and resulting open circuit voltage on the receiving cable. The other transfer function related the input short circuit current and the resulting short circuit current on the receiving cable. A 500 A standard HEMP waveform was input into the transfer functions to calculate peak coupling values on the receiving cables. The highest level of coupling using the standard waveform occurred when cables were in direct contact, with a peak short circuit current of 85 A and open circuit voltage of 9.8 kV, while configurations with separated cables predicted coupling levels of less than 5 A or 500 V.