A passive decay heat removal strategy of the integrated passive safety system (IPSS) for SBO combined with LOCA

Abstract

An integrated passive safety system (IPSS), to be achieved by the use of a large water tank placed at high elevation outside the containment, was proposed to achieve various passive functions. These include decay heat removal, safety injection, containment cooling, in-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling, and containment filtered venting. The purpose of the passive decay heat removal (PDHR) strategy using the IPSS is to cope with SBO and SBO-combined accidents under the assumption that existing engineered safety features have failed. In this paper, a PDHR strategy was developed based on the design and accident management strategy of Korean representative PWR, the OPR1000. The functions of a steam generator gravity injection and a passive safety injection system in the IPSS with safety depressurization systems were included in the PDHR strategy. Because the inadvertent opening of pressurizer valves and seal water leakage from RCPs could cause a loss of coolant in an SBO, LOCAs during a SBO were simulated to verify the performance of the strategy. The failure of active safety injection in LOCAs could also be covered by this strategy. Although LOCAs have generally been categorized according to their equivalent break diameters, the RCS pressure is used to classify the LOCAs during SBOs. The criteria values for categorization were determined from the proposed systems, which could maintain a reactor in a safe state by removing the decay heat for the SBO coping time of 8h. The accidents were simulated by MARS code considering several specific processes characterized from LOCA and SBO. For a high-pressure LOCA, water in an IPST could be injected into a steam generator using gravity after depressurization of the secondary circuit caused by opening atmospheric dump valves. For a low-pressure LOCA, the pressure in the RCS naturally decreased due to coolant loss. Additional depressurization was needed during LOCAs for which RCS criteria pressures at the time of estimation were in the range between high-pressure LOCA and low-pressure LOCA. This is referred to as medium-pressure LOCA, according to the range of the RCS pressure. The procedures of the PDHR strategy can be implemented after failure of the steps in emergency operating procedures, before entering the condition for the severe accident management. Even when external conditions make a given site extremely inaccessible, the PDHR strategy can allow for cooling the core in an EDMG by installing an IPSS beside each nuclear power plant. The proposed PDHR strategy can be applied in both current and future nuclear power plants by considering modifications for enhancing their safety.