Analysis of fission product revaporization in a BWR Reactor Coolant System during a station blackout accident

This paper presents an analysis of fission product revaporization from the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) following the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) failure. The station blackout accident in a BWR Mark I Power Plant was considered. The TRAPMELT3 models for vaporization, chemisorption, and the decay heating of RCS structures and gases were used and extended beyond the RPV failure in the analysis. The RCS flow models based on the density-difference or pressure-difference between the RCS and containment pedestal region were developed to estimate the RCS outflow which carries the revaporized fission product to the containment. A computer code called REVAP was developed for the analysis. The REVAP code was incorporated with the MARCH, TRAPMELT3 and NAUA codes from the Source Term Code Package (STCP) to estimate the impact of revaporization on environmental release. The results show that the thermal-hydraulic conditions between the RCS and the pedestal region are important factors in determining the magnitude of revaporization and subsequent release of the volatile fission product into the environment. 6 refs., 8 figs