Estimation of Containment Pressure Loading Due to Direct Containment Heating for the Zion Plant
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)
- Margrove Consulting Ltd., London (United Kingdom)
For some core meltdown accident sequences in light water reactors (LWRs) it is possible for the primary system to remain at high pressure. Under these circumstances, as the molten core debris penetrates the reactor vessel, the core debris would be ejected under high pressure and, subsequently, dispersed into the containment atmosphere. During the process, thermal and chemical energies are directly transferred from the core debris to the containment atmosphere. This phenomenon has become known as direct containment heating (DCH). This report presents the results of a series of calculations at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) to provide estimates of the DCH containment pressure loading in the Zion plant subject to a wide range of initial conditions and phenomenological assumptions. The containment loading calculations were performed using a version of the CONTAIN code with update modifications, which parametrically characterize DCH phenomena (CONTAIN-DCH, Version 1.10). The range of calculation parameters was selected to represent many of the current uncertainties in DCH initial conditions and uncertainties in modeling DCH phenomena. The choice of CONTAIN calculation input parameters is discussed and results are presented for both a seven-cell nodalization of the Zion containment building. The seven-cell calculations incorporate all the features of the CONTAIN-DCH model. The single-cell calculations are included only for comparison purposes and represent upper-bound estimates of DCH loads, assuming complete mixing, adiabatic conditions and thermal equilibrium between the gas and core debris. Calculation results are presented and discussed.
- Research Organization:
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USNRC; USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 6144453
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CR--5282; BNL-NUREG--52181; ON: TI91009157
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ADIABATIC PROCESSES
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BLOWDOWN
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BOILERS
C CODES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COLLOIDS
COMBUSTION
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONTAINERS
CONTAINMENT
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
COOLING SYSTEMS
CORIUM
DISPERSIONS
DROPLETS
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ENERGY SYSTEMS
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ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FLOW RATE
FLUID MECHANICS
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MITIGATION
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OXIDATION
PARTICLE SIZE
PARTICLES
POWER REACTORS
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PRESSURIZATION
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REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTOR CORE DISRUPTION
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REACTORS
SAFETY
SIMULATION
SIZE
SOLS
STEAM GENERATORS
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THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
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US NRC
US ORGANIZATIONS
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WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
ZION-1 REACTOR
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chemical reactions
computer codes
containment--pressurizing
corium
dispersions
failures
fission product release
heat transfer
hydraulics
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reactor core disruption