Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Multi-phase model development to assess RCIC system capabilities under severe accident conditions

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1414734· OSTI ID:1414734
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3]
  1. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Texas A&M University
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  4. Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station, TX (United States)
The Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) System is a safety-related system that provides makeup water for core cooling of some Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) with a Mark I containment. The RCIC System consists of a steam-driven Terry turbine that powers a centrifugal, multi-stage pump for providing water to the reactor pressure vessel. The Fukushima Dai-ichi accidents demonstrated that the RCIC System can play an important role under accident conditions in removing core decay heat. The unexpectedly sustained, good performance of the RCIC System in the Fukushima reactor demonstrates, firstly, that its capabilities are not well understood, and secondly, that the system has high potential for extended core cooling in accident scenarios. Better understanding and analysis tools would allow for more options to cope with a severe accident situation and to reduce the consequences. The objectives of this project were to develop physics-based models of the RCIC System, incorporate them into a multi-phase code and validate the models. This Final Technical Report details the progress throughout the project duration and the accomplishments.
Research Organization:
Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
DOE Contract Number:
NE0008312
OSTI ID:
1414734
Report Number(s):
DOE-NE--8312
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English