Investigation of pressure-tube and calandria-tube deformation following a single channel blockage event in ACR-700

The ACR-700 is an advanced pressure-tube (PT) reactor being developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). As in conventional CANDU reactors, the PTs are horizontal. Each PT is surrounded by a calandria tube (CT), and the gap in between is filled with carbon dioxide gas. The space between the CTs is filled with the heavy-water moderator. One postulated accident scenario for ACR-700 is the complete coolant flow blockage of a single PT. The flow is not monitored within each individual PT, thus during the early stages of this accident the reactor remains at full power and full pressure, resulting in rapid coolant boil-off and fuel overheating. Melting of the Zircaloy (Zry) components of the fuel bundle (cladding, end plates and end caps) can occur, with relocation of some molten material to the bottom of the PT. The hot spot caused by the molten Zry/PT interaction may cause PT/CT failure due to localized plastic strains. Failure of the PT/CT results in depressurization of the primary system, which triggers a reactor scram, after which the decay heat is removed via reflooding, thus PT/CT rupture effectively terminates the accident. Clearly, prediction of the time scale and conditions under which PT/CT failure occurs is of great importance for this accident. We analyzed the following key phenomena occurring after the blockage: (a) Coolant boil-off (b) Cladding heat-up and melting (c) Dripping of molten Zircaloy (Zry) from the fuel pin (d) Thermal interaction between the molten Zry and the PT (e) Localized bulging of the PT (f) Interaction of the bulged PT with the CT Simple one-dimensional models were adequate to describe (a), (b) and (c), while the three-dimensional nature of (d), (e) and (f) required the use of more sophisticated models including a finite-element description of the thermal transients within the PT and the CT, implemented with the code COSMOSM.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Gerardi, Craig Douglas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jacopo Buongiorno.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41264

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/41264