SAS4A analysis of unprotected loss-of-flow accidents in a metal-fuel reactor
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
The SAS4A code system is used to analyze the core behavior under beyond-design base transient conditions for various advance liquid-metal reactor (ALMR) designs. The results of these analyses provide help in assessing the outcomes of various accident sequences and provide guidance for future experimental needs and mathematical model development. This paper describes the thermal-hydraulic and neutronic events that occur in a low void worth metal fuel core[sup 2] during a very rapid unprotected loss-of-flow (LOF) accident, with a flow decay half time t[sub [1/2]] = 0.3 s. This LOF was selected because it leads to fuel pin failure and subsequent fuel relocation. The only mechanistic initiator that can lead to such a rapid LOF is, possibly, a severe earthquake. For slower LOFs, pin failure and fuel relocation do not occur, as negative reactivity from other core feedback effects has enough time to counteract the positive reactivity introduced by the early sodium boiling.
- OSTI ID:
- 6659802
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921102-; CODEN: TANSAO
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 66; Conference: Joint American Nuclear Society (ANS)/European Nuclear Society (ENS) international meeting on fifty years of controlled nuclear chain reaction: past, present, and future, Chicago, IL (United States), 15-20 Nov 1992; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
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BOILING
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HYDRAULICS
REACTIVITY
REACTOR KINETICS
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SODIUM
THERMAL ANALYSIS
TRANSIENTS
ACCIDENTS
ALKALI METALS
COMPUTER CODES
ELEMENTS
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PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
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