Investigation of BWR (boiling water reactor) instability phenomena using RETRAN-03

Conference · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:5484561

Galer, R R ^[1]; Jensen, P J ^[2]

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1. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA (USA)
2. Computer Simulation and Analysis, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (USA)

In 1988, LaSalle, a boiling water reactor (BWR)/5, experienced severe flux oscillations following a trip of both recirculation pumps. The flux oscillations were terminated by an automatic scram at 118% of rated neutron flux. As a result of this event, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the BWR utilities to develop procedural or hardware changes that will assure protection of all safety limits. The rapid growth of the oscillations at LaSalle, and the fact that previous stability analyses had predicted the plant to be very stable, emphasizes that a better understanding of this phenomenon is needed before the success of the long-term fixes can be assured. The intent of the Electric Power Research Institute's work was to use BWR transient methods to model reactor instabilities and investigate the factors that dominate this phenomenon. The one-dimensional transient code RETRAN-03 (Ref. 1) was used. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) RETRAN has demonstrated the ability to model BWR instability (nonlinear oscillations). (2) The general system behavior predicted by RETRAN in BWR stability analyses matches theoretical prediction and plant data. (3) These one-dimensional, time-domain results have increased the understanding of BWR stability phenomena and have helped optimize the long-term solutions being developed by the utilities.

• OSTI ID: 5484561
• Report Number(s): CONF-891103--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 60
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ACCURACY
BWR TYPE REACTORS
COMPUTER CODES
COOLING SYSTEMS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
ENERGY TRANSFER
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FLUID MECHANICS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
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OSCILLATIONS
POWER DISTRIBUTION
POWER REACTORS
PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS
PUMPS
R CODES
RADIATION FLUX
REACTIVITY
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTOR KINETICS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
REACTOR STABILITY
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TIME DEPENDENCE
TRANSIENTS
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US ORGANIZATIONS
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