SCDAP replication of MARCH hydrogen calculations: Chapter 16

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been concerned with ensuring that reactor containments and containment equipment could withstand accidents involving the generation and burn off large amounts of hydrogen. To aid in NRC rulemaking, a series of computer calculations was performed at the Battelle Columbus Laboratories using the Meltdown Accident Response Characteristics (MARCH) computer code, Version 1.1. The purpose was to define an envelope of histories of hydrogen and steam release rates to the containment during degraded core cooling accidents. A second effort, using the more phenomenological code, Severe Core Damage Analysis Package (SCDAP), was conducted at EG and G Idaho, Inc. The purpose was to replicate the MARCH code calculations in the reactor core area. An early version of the component analysis subcode of SCDAP was used for the study. This task, the results of which are summarized in this paper, was conducted by the NRC Technical Assistance Program Division of EG and G Idaho, Inc., as part of the Severe Accident Sequence Analysis Program