A New IAEA Coordinated Research Project on Radioactive Release from Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) Under Severe Accident Conditions

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) actively supports Member States in the development and deployment of next generation fast neutron systems. With the fundamental support of its Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR), the IAEA defines and implements multiannual programmes intended to help Member States in improving their capabilities in the development, design and safety analyses of innovative fast neutron systems, with particular emphasis on the verification and validation of modelling and simulation methods and tools. Within sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) research and development programmes, significant efforts are nowadays devoted to the development of high fidelity analysis methods for the investigation of severe accidents scenarios. In a Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR), severe transient conditions (CDA- hypothetical Core Disruptive Accident) is the Design Extension Condition (DEC) resulting from the mismatch of power produced and power removed from the reactor and the shutdown system not responding on demand, typically under conditions of either unprotected loss of flow or unprotected transient over power events. The assessment of the consequences of a CDA in terms of radioactivity release to outside the containment system which may affect the environment and the public is of paramount importance from public acceptance point of view, especially after the Fukushima event. The objective of this new IAEA CRP on “Radioactive Release from Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) Under Sever Accident Conditions” is to make realistic estimates, through numerical simulation, of the fission products transport mechanisms in typical pool type SFRs, and to determine the fission products retained within the reactor primary vessel and ejected into the reactor containment building. The exercise will be carried out for a reference pool type SFR of 500 MWe capacity fuelled with MOX, i.e. the Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). The paper is intended to present the overall and specific objectives of the CRP, the expected outcomes, as well as potentially participating organizations.

MONTI S.;  CHELLAPANDI P.;  PIORIO I.;  ZHANG D.;  BLANC D.;  GIRAULT N.;  SERRE F;  SCHIKORR M;  FLAD M.;  LEE S.W.;  ASHURKO I.;  MATUZAS Vaidas; 

2015-09-18

Omnipress

JRC95358

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC95358,