Stabilization and termination of severe accidents in LWRs

The last 20 years of research on severe accident safety for light water reactors (LWRs) has resolved a number of issues. However, the issue of melt/debris coolability is still unresolved. At stake is the stabilization and termination of a severe accident, if ever it would occur. The stabilization and termination can be established only through the coolability of the melt or the particulate debris, which are found in-vessel, or ex-vessel, depending upon the extent of the progression of a postulated accident.This paper will review the state of the art of coolability during a severe accident for the current light water reactors (LWRs). It will also review whether the accident management actions will be effective in terminating a postulated severe accident. The attention paid to the stabilization and coolability in future LWRs will be discussed and the design solutions will be evaluated.     

Development of Debris Coolability Analysis Module in Severe Accident Analysis Code SAMPSON for IMPACT Project

Debris coolability in the lower plenum of the reactor pressure vessel is an important factor for the evaluation of in-vessel debris retention. The debris coolability analysis module has been developed to predict more mechanistically the safety margin of the present reactor vessels in a severe accident. The module calculates debris spreading and cooling through melting and solidification in combination with the temperature distribution of the vessel wall and it evaluates the wall failure. Debris spreading is solved by the explicit method on a quasi-three-dimensional scheme and debris coolability is solved on the basis of natural convection analysis with melting and solidification. The calculated results for spreading were compared with the results from a water spreading experiment on the floor and the results for coolability were compared with those from an n-octadecane melting experiment in the rectangular vessel. The comparisons showed the capability for predictions of the spearhead transportation in the debris spreading process and of the melting front transportation and time evolution of the fluid temperature in the melting process. The module provides a good tool for the prediction of the reactor pressure vessel safety margin in a severe accident through the analysis of debris spreading and coolability.     

Verification for Flow Analysis Capability in the Model of Three-Dimensional Natural Convection with Simultaneous Spreading,Melting and Solidification for the Debris Coolability Analysis Module in the Severe Accident Analysis Code ‘SAMPSON’, (I)

The debris coolability analysis module in the severe accident analysis code ‘SAMPSON’ has been enhanced to predict more mechanistically the safety margin of present reactor pressure vessels in a severe accident. The module calculates debris three-dimensional natural convection with simultaneous spreading, melting and solidification using the ‘debris spreading-cooling model’ in combination with the temperature distribution of the vessel wall and it evaluates the wall failure. Debris spreading is solved by the free surface calculation method in which the height function is applied. The model makes possible a multiplex heat and mass transfer analysis with flow spearhead and melt front transportation for a single-phase flow analysis code through the resetting of two types of mesh attributions and re-arrangement of the pressure matrix at each time step. The results calculated with the present model are compared with the results from a water spreading experiment. The comparisons verify the model capability for predictions of debris flow in the spreading process. The module provides a good tool for prediction of the reactor safety margin in a severe accident through the three-dimensional natural convection analysis of debris with simultaneous spreading, melting and solidification.     

Progress of IRSN R&D on ITER Safety Assessment

The French “Institut de Radioprotection et de S?reté Nucléaire” (IRSN), in support to the French “Autorité de S?reté Nucléaire”, is analysing the safety of ITER fusion installation on the basis of the ITER operator’s safety file. IRSN set up a multi-year R&D program in 2007 to support this safety assessment process. Priority has been given to four technical issues and the main outcomes of the work done in 2010 and 2011 are summarized in this paper: for simulation of accident scenarios in the vacuum vessel, adaptation of the ASTEC system code; for risk of explosion of gas-dust mixtures in the vacuum vessel, adaptation of the TONUS-CFD code for gas distribution, development of DUST code for dust transport, and preparation of IRSN experiments on gas inerting, dust mobilization, and hydrogen-dust mixtures explosion; for evaluation of the efficiency of the detritiation systems, thermo-chemical calculations of tritium speciation during transport in the gas phase and preparation of future experiments to evaluate the most influent factors on detritiation; for material neutron activation, adaptation of the VESTA Monte Carlo depletion code. The first results of these tasks have been used in 2011 for the analysis of the ITER safety file. In the near future, this R&D global programme may be reoriented to account for the feedback of the latter analysis or for new knowledge.     

A scoping study of debris bed formation in the DEFOR test facility

Motivated to understand the processes which govern the formation and characteristics of a debris bed and hence its coolability during a postulated severe accident of a light water reactor, a new research program called DEFOR (DEbris FORmation) was initiated at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). This paper presents results obtained in scoping experiments conducted during an initial phase of the DEFOR program. The DEFOR-E test campaign is concerned with the DEFOR test facility commissioning and exploratory study of phenomena occurred during a debris bed formation. Binary oxide mixtures at different superheat temperatures were used as the corium melt simulants. The scoping experiments revealed the effect of water pool depth and subcooling, melt mass and material properties on the debris bed characteristics. Insights gained from the DEFOR-E test campaign help guide the scaling, design and operation of the subsequent experiments in the DEFOR program.     

Melt quenching and coolability by water injection from below: Co-injection of water and non-condensable gas

The interaction and mixing of high-temperature melt and water is the important technical issue in the safety assessment of water-cooled reactors to achieve ultimate core coolability. For specific advanced light water reactor (ALWR) designs, deliberate mixing of the core melt and water is being considered as a mitigative measure, to assure ex-vessel core coolability. The goal of our work is to provide the fundamental understanding needed for melt–water interfacial transport phenomena, thus enabling the development of innovative safety technologies for advanced LWRs that will assure ex-vessel core coolability. The work considers the ex-vessel coolability phenomena in two stages. The first stage is the melt quenching process and is being addressed by Argonne National Lab and University of Wisconsin in modified test facilities. Given a quenched melt in the form of solidified debris, the second stage is to characterize the long-term debris cooling process and is being addressed by Korean Maritime University via test and analyses. In this paper, experiments on melt quenching by the injection of water from below are addressed. The test section represented one-dimensional flow-channel simulation of the bottom injection of water into a core melt in the reactor cavity. The melt simulant was molten lead or a lead alloy (Pb–Bi). For the experimental conditions employed (i.e., melt depth and water flow rates), it was found that: (1) the volumetric heat removal rate increased with increasing water mass flow rate and (2) the non-condensable gas mixed with the injected water had no impairing effect on the overall heat removal rate. Implications of these current experimental findings for ALWR ex-vessel coolability are discussed.     

增强IVR有效性的堆内注水策略研究

熔融物堆内滞留（IVR）是一项核电厂重要的严重事故管理措施,通过将熔融物滞留在压力容器内,以保证压力容器完整性,并防止某些可能危及安全壳完整性的堆外现象。对于高功率和熔池中金属量相对不足的反应堆,若下封头形成3层熔池结构,则其顶部薄金属层导致的聚焦效应可能对压力容器完整性带来更大的威胁。本文考虑通过破口倒灌及其他工程措施实现严重事故下熔池顶部水冷却,建立熔池传热模型,分析顶部注水的带热能力,建立事件树,分析顶部注水措施的成功概率及IVR的有效性。结果表明,通过压力容器内外同时水冷熔融物,能显著增强IVR措施的有效性。     

The effects of debris bed's prototypical characteristics on corium coolability in a LWR severe accident

This paper is concerned with coolability assessment of a debris bed formed in fuel coolant interactions (FCIs) during a hypothetical severe accident in a light water reactor (LWR). The focus is placed the potential effect of the bed's prototypical characteristics on its coolability, in terms of (i) porosity range, (ii) multi-dimensionality, (iii) inhomogeneity, (iv) particle morphology, and (v) heat generation method (e.g. volumetric heating vs. local heaters). The analysis results indicate availability of substantial coolability margins compared to previous assessments based on models and experiments using an idealized bed configuration (e.g. 1D homogenous debris layer). Notably, high porosity (up to 70%) of debris beds, obtained in experiments and expected to be the case of prototypical debris beds, could increase the dryout heat flux by 100% and more, depending on particle size, compared with the dryout heat flux predicted for debris beds with traditionally assumed porosity of approximately 40%. Bed inhomogeneity represented by micro-channels in a mini bed is predicted to enhance the dryout heat flux by up to ∼50%, even if the micro-channels occupy only a small volume fraction (e.g., less than 4%) of the bed. The effect of coolant side ingress into a multidimensional bed is predicted to enhance the dryout heat flux by up to 40% for the beds analyzed.     

Experimental investigation of coolability behaviour of irregularly shaped particulate debris bed

In case of a severe nuclear reactor accident, the core can melt and form a particulate debris bed in the lower plenum of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Due to the decay heat, the particle bed, if not cooled properly, can cause failure of the RPV. In order to avoid further propagation of the accident, complete coolability of the debris bed is necessary. For that, understanding of various phenomena taking place during the quenching is important. In the frame of the reactor safety research, fundamental experiments on the coolability of debris beds are carried out at IKE with the test facility “DEBRIS”. In the present paper, the boiling and dry-out experimental results on a particle bed with irregularly shaped particles mixed with stainless steel balls have been reported. The pressure drops and dry-out heat fluxes of the irregular-particle bed are very similar to those for the single-sized 3 mm spheres bed, despite the fact that the irregular-particle bed is composed of particles with equivalent diameters ranging from 2 to 10 mm. Under top-flooding conditions, the pressure gradients are all smaller than the hydrostatic pressure gradient of water, indicating an important role of the counter-current interfacial drag force. For bottom-flooding with a liquid inflow velocity higher than about 2.7 mm/s, the pressure gradient generally increases consistently with the vapour velocity and the fluid-particle drag becomes important. The system pressures (1 and 3 bar) have negligible effects on qualitative behaviour of the pressure gradients. The coolability of debris beds is mainly limited by the counter-current flooding limit (CCFL) even under bottom-flooding conditions with low flow rates. The system pressure and the flow rate are found to have a distinct effect on the dry-out heat flux.Different classical models have been used to predict the pressure drop characteristics and the dry-out heat flux (DHF). Comparisons are made among the models and experimental results for DHF and pressure drop characteristics. Considering the overall trend in prediction of DHF and two-phase pressure drop, it was observed that none of the models could provide accurate predictions for both DHF and pressure drop under top- and bottom-flooding conditions. This implies that developments of more accurate models are needed including the effects of non-uniform particle sizes and the multidimensional nature of particulate debris beds, which are not reflected so far in these models.     

Core melt spreading on a reactor containment floor

The ex-vessel core melt spreading, cooling and stabilization is proposed for a nuclear power plant containment design. Clearly, the retention and coolability of the decay-heated core debris is very much the focal point in the proposed new and advanced designs so that, in the postulated event of a severe accident, the containment integrity is maintained and the risk of radioactivity releases is eliminated.

The work reported here includes three tasks (i) to review related methodology and data base, (ii) to develop the scaling methodology and (iii) to validate the assessment methodology developed by the authors. The study is based on state-of-the-art knowledge of the melt spreading phenomenology, in particular, and, of severe accident phenomenology in general.     

A study on evaluating a passive autocatalytic recombiner PAR-system in the PWR large-dry containment

A systematic step-by-step framework for analyzing hydrogen behavior and implementing passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs) to mitigate hydrogen deflagration or detonation risk in severe accidents (SAs) is presented. The procedure can be subdivided into five main steps: (1) modeling the containment based on the plant design characteristics, (2) selecting the typical severe accident sequences, (3) calculating the hydrogen generation including in- and ex-vessel period, (4) modeling the gas distribution in containment atmosphere and estimating the hydrogen combustion modes and (5) evaluating the efficiency of the PAR-system to mitigate the hydrogen risk with and without catalytic recombiners, according to the safety criterion. For the Chinese 600MWe pressurized water reactor (PWR) with a large-dry containment, large break loss-of-coolant accident (LB-LOCA) is screened out as the reference severe accident sequence, considering the nature of hydrogen generation and the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) result on accident sequences. The results show that a certain number of recombiners could remove effectively hydrogen and oxygen, to protect the containment integrity against hydrogen deflagration or detonation.     

Coolability of blocked regions in a rod bundle after ballooning under LOCA conditions: Main findings from a review of past experimental programmes

IRSN has carried out a state-of-the-art review of the main experimental programmes related to fuel behaviour under loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA) conditions conducted from the 1970s until now, that has been split in three parts. The second part is devoted to the question of the coolability of blocked regions in a rod bundle after ballooning in a LOCA. The main findings from this part are presented here. The experimental characteristics and main results of the FEBA, SEFLEX, THETIS, ACHILLES, CEGB and FLECHT-SEASET programmes, as well as several analytical developments performed in association with these experimental programmes, were examined in detail in this review. The comparison and combination of conclusions drawn from these results and studies were used to improve our understanding of the physical phenomena governing the behaviour of a partially blocked rod array during a LOCA reflood scenario. It has also been possible to determine the limits of blockage coolability under the most severe geometric (blockage ratio and length) and thermohydraulic conditions. Thus, even a severe blockage ratio (90%) of a moderate length (<10 cm) does not cause any particular problems in terms of coolability during two-phase reflood. However, a severe blockage with considerable axial extension (>15 cm) and a high blockage ratio (>80%) can lead – under low reflood conditions – to a significant increase in blockage surface temperatures, hindering the final coolability of this blockage. It is important to underline that these results were obtained in out-of-pile experiments performed with electrically heated fuel rod simulators with a large gap between simulator and cladding bulge, thus not allowing to simulate the possible fuel accumulation occurring in cladding balloons (fuel relocation), as was observed during all in-pile tests with irradiated fuel rods. The impact of fuel relocation upon blockage coolability therefore remains to be investigated.     

External cooling of a reactor vessel under severe accident conditions

The TMI-2 accident demonstrated that a significant quantity of molten core debris could drain into the lower plenum during a severe accident. For such conditions, the Individual Plant Examinations (IPEs) and severe accident management evaluations, consider the possibility that water could not be injected to the RCS. However, depending on the plant specific configuration and the accident sequence, water may be accumulated within the containment sufficient to submerge the lower head and part of the reactor vessel cylinder. This could provide external cooling of the RPV to prevent failure of the lower head and discharge of core debris into the containment.This paper evaluates the heat removal capabilities for external cooling of an insulated RPV in terms of (a) the water inflow through the insulation, (b) the two-phase heat removal in the gap between the insulation and the vessel and (c) the flow of steam through the insulation. These results show no significant limitation to heat removal from the bottom of the reactor vessel other than thermal conduction through the reactor vessel wall. Hence, external cooling is a possible means of preventing core debris from failing the reactor, which if successful, would eliminate the considerations of ex-vessel steam explosions, debris coolability, etc. and their uncertainties. Therefore, external cooling should be a major consideration in accident management evaluations and decision-making for current plants, as well as a possible design consideration for future plants.     

MAAP5 simulation of the PWR severe accident induced by pressurizer safety valve stuck-open accident

The Modular Accident Analysis Program version 5 (MAAP5) is a computer code that can simulate the response of light water reactor power plants during severe accident sequences. The present work aims to simulate the severe accident of a typical Chinese pressure water reactor (PWR) with MAAP5. The pressurizer safety valve stuck-open accident is essentially a small break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA), which becomes one of the major concerns on core melt initiating events of the PWR. Six cases with different assumptions in the pressurizer (PZR) safety valves (SVs) stuck-open accident stuck open accident were analyzed for comparison. The results of first three cases show that the severe accident sequence is correlated with the number of the stuck open valve. The primary system depressurized faster in a more SVs stuck open case, and the consequences in which is hence slighter. The remaining 3 cases along with the case 2 were then analyzed to study the effect of operator intervention to the accident. The results show that the auxiliary feed water (AFW) is effective to delay the core degradation and hence delayed the finally system recovery. The high pressure injection (HPI) operation and manually opening the steam generator (SG) SVs are effective to mitigate this kind of severe accident. The results are meaningful and significant for comprehending the detailed process of PWR severe accident, which is the basic standard for establishing the severe accident management guidelines.     

Experimental and analytical studies of melt jet-coolant interactions: a synthesis

Instability and fragmentation of a core melt jet in water have been actively studied during the past 10 years. Several models, and a few computer codes, have been developed. However, there are, still, large uncertainties, both, in interpreting experimental results and in predicting reactor-scale processes. Steam explosion and debris coolability, as reactor safety issues, are related to the jet fragmentation process. A better understanding of the physics of jet instability and fragmentation is crucial for assessments of fuel-coolant interactions (FCIs). This paper presents research, conducted at the Division of Nuclear Power Safety, Royal Institute of Technology (RIT/NPS), Stockholm, concerning molten jet-coolant interactions, as a precursor for premixing. First, observations were obtained from scoping experiments with simulant fluids. Second, the linear perturbation method was extended and applied to analyze the interfacial-instability characteristics. Third, two innovative approaches to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of jet fragmentation were developed and employed for analysis. The focus of the studies was placed on (a) identifying potential factors, which may affect the jet instability, (b) determining the scaling laws, and (c) predicting the jet behavior for severe accident conditions. In particular, the effects of melt physical properties, and the thermal hydraulics of the mixing zone, on jet fragmentation were investigated. Finally, with the insights gained from a synthesis of the experimental results and analysis results, a new phenomenological concept, named ‘macrointeractions concept of jet fragmentation’ is proposed.     

先进非能动压水堆防火喷淋对严重事故的缓解作用研究

依据先进非能动压水堆的严重事故管理导则(SAMG),消防系统中的防火喷淋系统,尽管属于非安全相关的系统,仍可以作为严重事故缓解策略,在以下三个方面起到严重事故缓解的作用:减少放射性气溶胶的质量;安全壳降温降压;安全壳注水。因此本文利用一体化严重事故分析程序,选取典型事故序列,评估防火喷淋系统在严重事故中的三种缓解作用的有效性为防火喷淋在严重事故管理导则中的应用提供技术支持。分析结果表明,防火喷淋系统能够实现堆腔淹没,在一定时间内进行安全壳降压,以及减少安全壳中放射性气溶胶的含量的作用,但由于系统限制,防火喷淋进行堆腔淹没的流量不能满足安全限值,并且只能推迟而不能够避免安全壳的失效。防火喷淋系统对严重事故的缓解作用虽然是有限的,但可为其他相关系统或设备的修复提供一定时间。     

先进压水堆熔融物堆内滞留参数不确定分析研究

压水堆核电厂在严重事故下将发生堆芯熔化事故而形成熔融池。形成熔融池的过程具有很大的不确定性,这影响到反应堆压力容器熔融物堆内滞留（IVR）策略的有效性。本工作以AP1000核电厂两层IVR模型为研究对象,对成功实施反应堆压力容器外部冷却（ERVC）的假想严重事故进行了熔融池参数不确定性分析,包括参数的敏感性分析和使用拉丁超立方抽样的概率分析。结果表明：衰变功率对IVR评价参数影响最大,应采取措施（如上堆腔注水）尽量延缓堆芯熔化的时间;熔融物中不锈钢的质量将对金属层参数造成较大影响,可考虑在压力容器内布置牺牲性材料来减小金属层的集热效应;氧化物层外压力容器失效的概率仅为1.2%,但金属层外压力容器失效的概率高达20%。本结果对今后IVR策略研究和设计具有一定的指导意义,同时也为压水堆核电厂安全评审提供理论支持。     

An experimental study on pressure drop and dryout heat flux of two-phase flow in packed beds of multi-sized and irregular particles

This paper is concerned with debris bed coolability in a postulated severe accident of light water reactors, where the debris particles are irregular and multi-sized. To obtain and verify the friction laws predicting the hydrodynamics of the debris beds, the drag characteristics of air/water single- and two-phase flow in a particulate bed packed with multi-sized spheres or irregular sand particles were investigated on the POMECO-FL test facility. The same types of particles were then loaded in the test section of the POMECO-HT facility to obtain the dryout heat fluxes of the particulate beds heated volumetrically. The effective (mean) particle diameter is 2.25 mm for the multi-sized spheres and 1.75 mm for the sand particles, determined from the Ergun equation and the measured pressure drop of single-phase flow through the packed bed. Given the effective particle diameter, both the pressure drop and the dryout heat flux of two-phase flow through the bed can be predicted by the Reed model. The experiment also shows that the bottom injection of coolant improves the dryout heat flux significantly and the first dryout position is moving upward with increasing bottom injection flowrate. Compared with top-flooding case, the dryout heat flux of the bed can be doubled if the superficial velocity of coolant injection is 0.21–0.27 mm/s. The experimental data provides insights for interpretation of debris bed coolability (how to deal with the multi-sized irregular particles), as well as high-quality data for validation of the coolability analysis models and codes.