Assessment of an integral small modular reactor during rod ejection accident by using DRAGON/PARCS codes

Abstract

Small modular reactors (SMRs) have benefits like lower initial costs and investment risks, higher safety features, longer refueling cycle and also beside than electricity production, capability to be used as sea water desalination, district heating and process heat for industries and small isolated grids, which make these reactor an alternative option for the future of nuclear power industries. Different SMRs all over the world are in the different stages of design and construction and different aspects of these reactors are under evaluation by researchers and engineers. The Korean System Integrated Modular Advanced Reactor (SMART) categorized as SMR that has received its standard design approval. In this study Rod ejection accident (REA) that categorized as a design basis accident (DBA) has been evaluated for SMART core, according to the standard safety analysis report (SSAR) of SMART. The DRAGON code has been used for cell calculation and also for spatial kinetic and thermal hydraulic calculations, the feedback, transient and TH blocks of PARCS code as a thermo-neutronic code has been used. Finally the SMART core response to the REA has been evaluated by comparing the attained results with SMART SSAR that shows proper match. Also the capability of DRAGON/PARCS codes for predicting SMR behavior during REA has been approved.