Safe reactor depressurization windows for BWR Mark I Station Blackout accident management strategy

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of reactor depressurization within accident mitigation strategy and how to avoid core damage during Station Black-Out accident in a BWR Mark I plant, a GOTHIC model has been developed to support characterization of reactor safety systems performance. The GOTHIC model provides seamless coupled simulations of the reactor coolant system and the containment system. In this study, the time intervals (also called “safe reactor depressurization windows”) to initiate the reactor depressurization in order to optimize the early cooling strategy by injecting fire water and avoid clad failure are studied based on the decay heat removal capability of the reactor vessel coolant. This concept is instructive for the operation of the safety systems during the SBO accident mitigation. Sensitivity studies of several key parameters like reactor power, mass flow rates through RCIC system and fire water injection, and full open discharge coefficient of SRVs are performed to evaluate their impact on the safe reactor depressurization windows.