Analysis of External Cooling of the Reactor Vessel During Severe Accidents
- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (Korea, Republic of)
An analysis is presented of the integral behavior of the external cooling of a reactor vessel by natural circulation during a severe accident to investigate the feasibility of the in-vessel retention strategy for a high-power reactor by using the RELAP5/MOD3 computer code. It is shown that two-phase flow instability phenomena, including natural-circulation oscillation and density wave oscillations, affect the local thermal margin at the reactor vessel wall. The heat load on the reactor vessel is simplified as a uniform heat flux load of 600 kW/m{sup 2} in the base case. A sensitivity study for the effect of the inlet K factor, nonuniform heat flux distribution, inlet flow area, and subcooling of the pool water is performed to evaluate the local thermal margin. The results of the analysis show that natural-circulation cooling is marginal at this level of heat flux. It also clearly indicates that a system level of analysis for two-phase natural circulation, including the sensitivity study on the design parameters, is necessary to ensure successful implementation of the external cooling.
- OSTI ID:
- 20826748
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Technology, Vol. 138, Issue 1; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2006 American Nuclear Society (ANS), United States, All rights reserved. http://epubs.ans.org/; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0029-5450
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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