Overview report of RAMONA-NEPTUN program on passive decay heat removal

The design of the advanced sodium-cooled European Fast Reactor provides a safety graded decay heat removal concept which ensures the coolability of the primary system by natural convection when forced cooling is lost. The findings of the RAMONA and NEPTUN experiments indicate that the decay heat can be safely removed by natural convection. The operation of the decay heat exchangers being installed in the upper plenum causes the formation of a thermal stratification associated with a pronounced temperature gradient. The vertical extent of the stratification and the qualitity of the gradient are depending on the fact whether a permeable or an impermeable shell covers the above core structure. A delayed startup time of the decay heat exchangers leads only to a slight increase of the temperatures in the upper plenum. A complete failure of half of the decay heat exchangers causes a higher temperature level in the primary system, but does not alter the global temperature distribution. The transient development of the temperatures is faster going on in a three-loop model than in a four-loop model due to the lower amount of heat stored in the compacter primary vessel. If no coolant reaches the core inlet side via the intermediate heat exchangers, the core remains coolable. In this case, cold water of the upper plenum penetrates into the subassemblies (thermosyphon effects) and the interwrapper spaces existing in the NEPTUN core. The core coolability from above is feasible without any difficulty though the temperatures increase to a minor degree at the top end of the core. The thermal hydraulic computer code FLUTAN was applied for the 3D numerical simulation of the majority of the steady state RAMONA and NEPTUN tests as well as for selected transient RAMONA tests. (orig./HP)