R&D Plan for RISMC Industry Application #1: ECCS/LOCA Cladding Acceptance Criteria
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is finalizing a rulemaking change that would revise the requirements in 10 CFR 50.46. In the proposed new rulemaking, designated as 10 CFR 50.46c, the NRC proposes a fuel performance-based equivalent cladding reacted (ECR) criterion as a function of cladding hydrogen content before the accident (pre-transient) in order to include the effects of higher burnup on cladding performance as well as to address other technical issues. A loss of operational margin may result due to the more restrictive cladding embrittlement criteria. Initial and future compliance with the rule may significantly increase vendor workload and licensee costs as a spectrum of fuel rod initial burnup states may need to be analyzed to demonstrate compliance. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has initiated a project, as part of the DOE Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program (LWRS), to develop analytical capabilities to support the industry in the transition to the new rule. This project is called the Industry Application 1 (IA1) within the Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) Pathway of LWRS. The general idea behind the initiative is the development of an Integrated Evaluation Model (IEM). The motivation is to develop a multiphysics framework to analyze how uncertainties are propagated across the stream of physical disciplines and data involved, as well as how risks are evaluated in a LOCA safety analysis as regulated under 10 CFR 50.46c. This IEM is called LOTUS which stands for LOCA Toolkit for US, and it represents the LWRS Program’s response to the proposed new rule making. The focus of this report is to complete an R&D plan to describe the demonstration of the LOCA/ECCS RISMC Industry Application # 1 using the advanced RISMC Toolkit and methodologies. This report includes the description and development plan for a RISMC LOCA tool that fully couples advanced MOOSE tools already in development in order to characterize and optimize plant safety and operational margins. Advanced MOOSE tools that are needed to complete this integrated evaluation model are: RAVEN, RELAP-7, BISON, and MAMMOTH.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1262492
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-16-38231; TRN: US1601607
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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