Analysis of thermal hydraulic behavior of KONVOI PWR during a design extension condition

Abstract

In nuclear power plants the design extension conditions are more complex and severe than those postulated as design basis accidents, therefore, they must be taken into account in the safety analyses. In this study, many hypothetical investigated transients are applied on KONVOI pressurized water reactor during a 6 inches (182 cm2) cold leg small break loss-of-coolant-accident to revise the effects of all safety systems ways through their availability/non-availability on the thermal hydraulic behaviour of the reactor. The investigated transients are represented through three cases of small break loss-of-coolant-accident as, Case-1, without scram and all of the safety systems are a failure, Case-2, the normal scram actuation with a failure of all safety systems (non-availability), and finally Case-3, with normal actuation scram sequence and normal sequential actuation of all safety systems (availability). These three investigated transient cases are simulated by creating a model using analysis of thermal-hydraulics of leaks and transient code. In all transient cases, all types of reactivity feed- backs, boron, moderator density, moderator temperature, and fuel temperature are considered. The steady-state results are nearly in agreement with the plant parameters available in previous literature. The results show the importance of the reactivity feedback effects in loss-of-coolant-accident on the fallouts power as they are considered the key parameters for controlling the clad and fuel temperatures to maintain them below their melting point. Moreover, the calculated results in all cases show that the thermal-hydraulic parameters are in acceptable ranges and encounter the safety criterion during loss-of-coolant-accident design extension conditions accidents processes. Furthermore, the results show that the core uncover and fuel heat up do not occur in KONVOI pressurized water reactor the design extension conditions simulations, as all safety systems provide adequate core cooling by sufficient water inventory into the core to cover it.