| Abstract: | Station blackout is reported to be a sequence that would likely be a significant contributor to the accident risk at a boiling water reactor (BWR). The occurrence frequency of station blackout is evaluated in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) to be 6×10?6 per reactor year at Limerick and less than 10?7 per reactor year at BWR in Japan. This report describes an analytical study of thermal-hydraulic and radionuclide behavior during a postulated severe accident of station blackout at a reference BWR plant. The analytical approach was shown in both of hand calculation and the THALES/ART code calculation to better understand wide physical and chemical phenomena in the processes of severe accidents. We evaluated timing of key events, core cooling and core temperature, reactor vessel failure, debris temperature, containment pressure, and release and deposition of radionuclide in the containment. The THALES and CORCON models on the chemical reactions in the core-concrete interaction lead to great differences in the increasing rate of containment pressure and the release rate of fission products from the core debris. |
