Simulation of SBWR startup transient and stability
The Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR) designed by General Electric is a natural circulation reactor with enhanced safety features for potential accidents. It has a strong coupling between power and flow in the reactor core, hence the neutronic coupling with thermal-hydraulics is specially important. The potential geysering instability during the early part of a SBWR startup at low flow, low power and low pressure is of particular concern. The RAMONA-4B computer code developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for the SBWR has been used to simulate a SBWR startup transient and evaluate its stability, using a simplified four-channel representation of the reactor core for the thermal-hydraulics. This transient was run for 20,000 sec (5.56 hrs) in order to cover the essential aspect of the SBWR startup. The simulation showed that the SBWR startup was a very challenging event to analyze as it required accurate modeling of the thermal-hydraulics at low pressures. This analysis did not show any geysering instability during the startup, following the startup procedure as proposed by GE.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 663182
- Report Number(s):
- BNL--65535; CONF-980816--; ON: DE98005756
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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