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Title: Results and implications of the EBR-II inherent safety demonstration tests

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6770302

On April 3, 1986 two milestone tests were conducted in Experimental Breeder Reactor-2 (EBR-II). The first test was a loss of flow without scram and the second was a loss of heat sink without scram. Both tests were initiated from 100% power and in both tests the reactor was shut down by natural processes, principally thermal expansion, without automatic scram, operator intervention or the help of special in-core devices. The temperature transients during the tests were mild, as predicted, and there was no damage to the core or reactor plant structures. In a general sense, therefore, the tests plus supporting analysis demonstrated the feasibility of inherent passive shutdown for undercooling accidents in metal-fueled LMRs. The results provide a technical basis for future experiments in EBR-II to demonstrate inherent safety for overpower accidents and provide data for validation of computer codes used for design and safety analysis of inherently safe reactor plants.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
6770302
Report Number(s):
CONF-870424-10; ON: DE87006991
Resource Relation:
Conference: American Nuclear Society international meeting on advances in reactor physics, mathematics and computation, Paris, France, 27 Apr 1987
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English