Probabilities of inherent shutdown of unprotected events in innovative liquid metal reactors

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5017816

Mueller, C J; Wade, D C

The uncertainty in predicting the effectiveness of inherent shutdown in innovative liquid metal cooled reactors with metallic fuel results from three broad contributing areas of uncertainty: (1) the inability to exactly predict the frequency of ATWS events with potential to challenge the safety systems and require inherent shutdown; (2) the approximation of representing all such events by a selected set of ''generic scenarios''; and (3) the inability to exactly calculate the core response to the selected generic scenarios. This paper discusses the work being done to address each of these contributing areas, identifies the design and research approaches being used at Argonne National Laboratory to reducing the key contributions to uncertainties in inherent shutdown, and presents results. The conditional probabilities (given ATWS initiation) of achieving temperatures capable of defeating inherent shutdown are shown to range from /approximately/0.1% to negligible for current designs.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 5017816
• Report Number(s): CONF-880506-3; ON: DE88009946
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500 -- Power Reactors
Breeding
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
ACCIDENTS
BREEDER REACTORS
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
LMFBR TYPE REACTORS
LOSS OF COOLANT
MANAGEMENT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PROBABILITY
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR CORE DISRUPTION
REACTOR PROTECTION SYSTEMS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
REACTORS
SAFETY
SEISMIC EFFECTS
SHUTDOWNS
TRANSIENTS