Validation of the U.S. NRC coupled code system TRITON/TRACE/PARCS with the special power excursion reactor test III (SPERT III)

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012

OSTI ID:22105791

Wang, R. C.; Xu, Y.; Downar, T. ^[1]; Hudson, N. ^[2]

---

1. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (United States)
2. RES Div., U.S. NRC, Rockville, MD (United States)

The Special Power Excursion Reactor Test III (SPERT III) was a series of reactivity insertion experiments conducted in the 1950's. This paper describes the validation of the U.S. NRC Coupled Code system TRITON/PARCS/TRACE to simulate reactivity insertion accidents (RIA) by using several of the SPERT III tests. The work here used the SPERT III E-core configuration tests in which the RIA was initiated by ejecting a control rod. The resulting super-prompt reactivity excursion and negative reactivity feedback produced the familiar bell shaped power increase and decrease. The energy deposition during such a power peak has important safety consequences and provides validation basis for core coupled multi-physics codes. The transients of five separate tests are used to benchmark the PARCS/TRACE coupled code. The models were thoroughly validated using the original experiment documentation. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, Inc., 555 N. Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22105791
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
BENCHMARKS
COMPUTER CODES
CONTROL ELEMENTS
EXCURSIONS
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
REACTIVITY INSERTIONS
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR SAFETY
VALIDATION
VERIFICATION