Core cooling under accident conditions at the high flux beam reactor (HFBR)
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
- Fauske and Associates, Inc., Burr Ridge, IL (USA)
In certain accident scenarios, e.g. loss of coolant accidents (LOCA) all forced flow cooling is lost. Decay heating causes a temperature increase in the core coolant and the resulting thermal buoyancy causes a reversal of the flow direction to a natural circulation mode. Although there was experimental evidence during the reactor design period (1958--1963) that the heat removal capacity in the fully developed natural circulation cooling mode was relatively high, it was not possible to make a confident prediction of the heat removal capacity during the transition from downflow to natural circulation. In a LOCA scenario where even limited fuel damage occurs and natural circulation is established, fission product gases could be carried from the damaged fuel by steam into areas where operator access is required to maintain the core in a coolable configuration. This would force evacuation of the building and lead to extensive core damage. As a result the HFBR was shut down by the Department of Energy (DOE) and an extensive review of the HFBR was initiated. In an effort to address this issue BNL developed a model designed to predict the heat removal limit during flow reversal that was found to be in good agreement with the test results. Currently a thermal-hydraulic test program is being developed to provide a more realistic and defensible estimate of the flow reversal heat removal limit so that the reactor power level can be increased.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 5410091
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-46307; CONF-911107-12; ON: DE91015424
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Winter meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), San Francisco, CA (United States), 10-15 Nov 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
HFBR REACTOR
CIRCULATING SYSTEMS
LOSS OF COOLANT
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
AFTER-HEAT REMOVAL
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
FLOW RATE
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
ACCIDENTS
COOLING SYSTEMS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FLUID MECHANICS
HEAVY WATER COOLED REACTORS
HEAVY WATER MODERATED REACTORS
MECHANICS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
REMOVAL
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
RESEARCH REACTORS
SAFETY
SHUTDOWN
TANK TYPE REACTORS
THERMAL REACTORS
220900* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety
220600 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Research
Test & Experimental Reactors