Containment venting as an accident management strategy

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

OSTI ID:6625013

Dallman, R J; Galyean, W J; Wagner, K C

The idea of primary containment venting to prevent or mitigate the consequences from a severe accident is not new. Research has been conducted on filter effectiveness for over thirty years. United States production reactors have had containment filter systems and applications to commercial facilities have been studied over the same period. In Europe, the countries with the largest nuclear power production (France, Germany, and Sweden) all have filtered containment venting systems installed or planned on their nuclear power plants (NPPs). Boiling water reactors (BWRs) in the United States are operated based in part on Emergency Procedure Guidelines (EPGs) which call for wetwell and drywell venting under some circumstances. With increased interest in the management of severe accidents, containment venting as an accident management strategy has experienced new interest, and more detailed evaluations are being performed. Areas being investigated include the capability to reduce hydrogen concentrations, the effect on other systems or proposed modifications, the cost-effectiveness of venting, and its net risk benefit. One of the most comprehensive studies of containment venting was performed on the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, a BWR with a Mark I containment. A main conclusion from that study was that based on the draft procedures and equipment in place at the time of the analysis, containment venting had limited potential for further reducing the risk associated with accident sequences currently identified as being important to risk. In the draft Reactor Risk Reference Document, NUREG-1150, venting along with consideration of alternate injection sources was credited with lowering the core damage frequency due to accident sequences, which include a loss of long-term decay heat removal, to less than 1E-8 per reactor year. That result made these sequences insignificant compared to other risk contributors for Peach Bottom. 13 refs., 6 figs.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 6625013
• Report Number(s): EGG-M-88307; CONF-8810155-36; ON: DE89005404
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210100 -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
ACCIDENTS
BUILDINGS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CONTAINMENT
CONTAINMENT BUILDINGS
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
DATA
DESIGN
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FILTRATION
FLUID MECHANICS
GAS COOLED REACTORS
GRAPHITE MODERATED REACTORS
HEAT TRANSFER
HELIUM COOLED REACTORS
HTGR TYPE REACTORS
HYDRAULICS
INFORMATION
MECHANICS
NUMERICAL DATA
PEACH BOTTOM-1 REACTOR
PEACH BOTTOM-2 REACTOR
PEACH BOTTOM-3 REACTOR
POWER REACTORS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAFETY
SEPARATION PROCESSES
THERMAL REACTORS
VENTS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS