Basic study on PWR plant behavior under the condition of severe accident

In this paper, we report on the core cooling effect by natural circulation cooling of the primary cooling system in all core cooling function loss accidents caused by SBO in PWR plant compared with BWR. We also report on the core cooling effect by using air as the final heat sink in place of the seawater by opening the main steam valve of the steam generator. On the other hand, we discuss the behavior of PWR plant in the most serious case that the damage such as LOCA is caused by earthquake and that SBO due to the subsequent tsunami causes the reactor isolation and all function of reactor core cooling system loss. That is the case that LOCA and SBO occur in superimposed manner. We can show the results from the simulation experiments that, in PWR plant, even if it is fell into the reactor core cooling function loss due to SBO, natural circulation cooling can keep the reactor core cool down as long as the feed water is supplied to SG by the turbine-driven auxiliary feed-water pump and also that the cooling effect of even more is expected by ensuring the heat-pass to the atmosphere by opening the main steam valve. We also clarify the plant behaviors under the condition that LOCA and SBO occur in superimposed manner in PWR through the simulation experiments. (author)