Evaluation of a severe accident management strategy for boiling water reactors -- Drywell flooding

Journal Article · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Nuclear Technology; (United States)

OSTI ID:7115304

Yu, D; Xing, L; Kastenberg, W E; Okrent, D ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering Dept.

Flooding of the drywell has been suggested as a strategy to prevent reactor vessel and containment failure in boiling water reactors. To evaluate the candidate strategy, this study considers accident management as a decision problem ( drywell flooding'' versus do nothing'') and develops a decision-oriented framework, namely, the influence diagram approach. This analysis chooses the long-term station blackout sequence for a Mark 1 nuclear power plant (Peach Bottom), and an influence diagram with a single decision node is constructed. The node probabilities in the influence diagram are obtained from US Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports or estimated by probabilistic risk assessment methodology. In assessing potential benefits compared with adverse effects, this analysis uses two consequence measures, i.e., early and late fatalities, as decision criteria. The analysis concludes that even though potential adverse effects exist, such as ex-vessel steam explosions and containment isolation failure, the drywell flooding strategy is preferred to do nothing'' when evaluated in terms of these consequence measures.

• OSTI ID: 7115304
• Journal Information: Nuclear Technology; (United States), Journal Name: Nuclear Technology; (United States) Vol. 106:2; ISSN 0029-5450; ISSN NUTYBB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
ACCIDENTS
BLACKOUTS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CONTAINMENT
DECISION MAKING
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
MELTDOWN
MITIGATION
POWER REACTORS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAFETY
THERMAL REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS