ESBWR passive safety system performance under loss of coolant accidents

Abstract

Several passive safety systems are included in the design of the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) safety system. To investigate the capability of the ESBWR passive safety system, the integral facility designed for ESBWR was applied to perform a series of experiments simulating Loss of Coolant Accidents (LOCAs) break events of the ESBWR. This paper is intended to summarize the LOCAs test results performed at the Purdue University Multi-Dimensional Integral Test Assembly for ESBWR application (PUMA-E) facility, namely, the Main Steam Line Break (MSLB), Bottom Drain Line Break (BDLB), Feed Water Line Break (FWLB) and Gravity Drain Line Break (GDLB). Furthermore, this study focuses on the comparison of important parameters in the main components such as Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV), Containment, and Suppression Pool (SP) of the integral facility for those types of the LOCAs tests in three different phases of LOCAs, namely, the blowdown phase, Gravity Driven Coolant System (GDCS) period and long term cooling PCCS period. The various responses of passive safety function by GDCS, Isolation Coolant System (ICS), and Passive Containment Coolant System (PCCS) at the three different phases of LOCAs to the four types of the LOCAs tests are discussed and analyzed.