Preliminary calculations related to the accident at Three Mile Island
- comps.
This report discusses preliminary studies of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) accident based on available methods and data. The work reported includes: (1) a TRAC base case calculation out to 3 hours into the accident sequence; (2) TRAC parametric calculations, these are the same as the base case except for a single hypothetical change in the system conditions, such as assuming the high pressure injection (HPI) system operated as designed rather than as in the accident; (3) fuel rod cladding failure, cladding oxidation due to zirconium metal-steam reactions, hydrogen release due to cladding oxidation, cladding ballooning, cladding embrittlement, and subsequent cladding breakup estimates based on TRAC calculated cladding temperatures and system pressures. Some conclusions of this work are: the TRAC base case accident calculation agrees very well with known system conditions to nearly 3 hours into the accident; the parametric calculations indicate that, loss-of-core cooling was most influenced by the throttling of High-Pressure Injection (HPI) flows, given the accident initiating events and the pressurizer electromagnetic-operated valve (EMOV) failing to close as designed; failure of nearly all the rods and gaseous fission product gas release from the failed rods is predicted to have occurred at about 2 hours and 30 minutes; cladding oxidation (zirconium-steam reaction) up to 3 hours resulted in the production of approximately 40 kilograms of hydrogen.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos Scientific Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 373890
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-79-2425; ON: DE96014263; TRN: AHC29619%%73
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Aug 1979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
57 HEALTH AND SAFETY
THREE MILE ISLAND-2 REACTOR
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION
FUEL ELEMENT FAILURE
ACCURACY
T CODES
LOSS OF COOLANT
REACTOR OPERATORS
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
THEORETICAL DATA
FEEDWATER
LOSS OF FLOW