Methodology, status and plans for development and assessment of the code ATHLET

Conference · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:544378

Teschendorff, V; Austregesilo, H; Lerchl, G ^[1]

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1. Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH Forschungsgelaende, Garching (Germany)

The thermal-hydraulic computer code ATHLET (Analysis of THermal-hydraulics of LEaks and Transients) is being developed by the Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) for the analysis of anticipated and abnormal plant transients, small and intermediate leaks as well as large breaks in light water reactors. The aim of the code development is to cover the whole spectrum of design basis and beyond design basis accidents (without core degradation) for PWRs and BWRs with only one code. The main code features are: advanced thermal-hydraulics; modular code architecture; separation between physical models and numerical methods; pre- and post-processing tools; portability. The code has features that are of special interest for applications to small leaks and transients with accident management, e.g. initialization by a steady-state calculation, full-range drift-flux model, dynamic mixture level tracking. The General Control Simulation Module of ATHLET is a flexible tool for the simulation of the balance-of-plant and control systems including the various operator actions in the course of accident sequences with AM measures. The code development is accompained by a systematic and comprehensive validation program. A large number of integral experiments and separate effect tests, including the major International Standard Problems, have been calculated by GRS and by independent organizations. The ATHLET validation matrix is a well balanced set of integral and separate effects tests derived from the CSNI proposal emphasizing, however, the German combined ECC injection system which was investigated in the UPTF, PKL and LOBI test facilities.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Systems Technology; Nuclear Energy Agency, 75 - Paris (France); SCIENTECH, Inc., Boise, ID (United States)
• OSTI ID: 544378
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CP--0159; NEA/CSNI/R--(97)4; CONF-961192--; ON: TI97008508
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
A CODES
BWR TYPE REACTORS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
HYDRAULICS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
SAFETY ANALYSIS
TRANSIENTS
VALIDATION