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Title: Inaccurate Use of Boron Concentration for Reactivity Feedback

Conference ·
OSTI ID:21070071
 [1];  [2]
  1. Information Systems Laboratories, Inc., 11140 Rockville Pike, Suite 500, Rockville, MD 20852 (United States)
  2. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)

A deficiency has been identified with the use of boron concentration for formulating reactivity feedback while the power of a PWR in response to boron injection in the aftermath of a scram failure was simulated. The US NRC Consolidated Code (TRAC-M) was used to simulate this transient, in which the boron injection was expected to shutdown the reactor. The results of this study, which employed the point-kinetics model of TRAC-M, reveal that the use of core-average boron concentration for formulating the reactivity feedback is inadequate for transients when there is substantial coolant void inside the core. It is recommended that the macroscopic boron density be used for more accurate predictions of the boron feedback as the use of solute concentration is only adequate when no voiding occurs in the core. (authors)

Research Organization:
The ASME Foundation, Inc., Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
OSTI ID:
21070071
Resource Relation:
Conference: 10. international conference on nuclear engineering - ICONE 10, Arlington - Virginia (United States), 14-18 Apr 2002; Other Information: Country of input: France
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English