| Abstract: | Extensive studies are underway in the UK and elsewhere to investigate the consequences of a hypothetical core disruptive accident in a fast reactor. Within these studies there is a continuing need to determine the response of the primary containment system to loads generated by such a major release of energy. A number of fast reactor containment codes are currently being developed for this purpose.The COVA (COva VAlidation) program of experiments is being undertaken to provide high quality data against which the codes can be validated. The tests progress from simple bare vessel assemblies to tests incorporating the main axisymmetric features of loop and pool reactor designs.A companion paper in this journal discusses recent developments in the containment code SEURBNUK which is being jointly developed by the UKAEA and JRC Ispra. This paper describes the status of the validation of SEURBNUK against data from the COVA experiments. Considerable progress has been made in the application of the code to the more complex configurations of the later tests which are more representative of reactor geometries and it is concluded that SEURBNUK has reached a stage where it provides a useful calculational capability for containment analysis. Nevertheless, further work is needed to improve the predictions of vessel deformations and roof loadings in some geometries. |
