Evaluation of Heat Removal from RBMK-1500 Core Using Control Rods Cooling Circuit

Abstract

The Ignalina nuclear power plant is a twin unit with two RBMK-1500, graphite moderated, boiling water, multichannel reactors. After the decision was made to decommission the Ignalina NPP, Unit 1 was shut down on December 31, 2004, and Unit 2 is to be operated until the end of 2009. Despite of this fact, severe accident management guidelines for RBMK-1500 reactor at Ignalina NPP are prepared. In case of beyond design basis accidents, it can occur that no water sources are available at the moment for heat removal from fuel channels. Specificity of RBMK reactor is such that the channels with control rods are cooled with water supplied by the system totally independent from the reactor cooling system. Therefore, the heat removal from RBMK-1500 reactor core using circuit for cooling of rods in control and protection system can be used as nonregular mean for reactor cooldown in case of BDBA. The heat from fuel channels, where heat is generated, through graphite bricks is transferred in radial direction to cooled CPS channels. This article presents the analysis of possibility to remove heat from reactor core in case of large LOCA by employing CPS channels cooling circuit. The analysis was performed for Ignalina NPP with RBMK-1500 reactor using RELAP5-3D and RELAP5 codes. Results of the analysis have shown that, in spite of high thermal inertia of graphite, this heat removal from CPS channels allows to slow down effectively the core heat-up process.