Loss of Coolant Accident Analysis for 1MW PUSPATI Triga Mark II Research Reactor (RTP) Using MARS-KS Code

RTP is a pool type reactor cooled by natural circulation and the reactor core is located at the bottom of a demineralized water-filled aluminum liner tank of 2.0 meter diameter and 6.5 meter depth. The core assembly is composed of 100 cylindrical fuel rods including of 4 control rods in circular array. From the literature, development of thermal hydraulic analysis of RTP using computer code has not been well established. Therefore, establishment and development of appropriate thermal hydraulic safety analysis model is very critical to ensure the safety operation of the reactor. Hence, key thermal hydraulic parameters of RTP reactor operating under steady state and transient condition were investigated. In this paper, Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA) were calculated and analyzed and compared with corresponding values in Safety Analysis Report (SAR) 2008 and test report. PUSPATI Triga Mark II research reactor (RTP) has been operated at Malaysian Nuclear Agency since 1982 and primary cooling system was modified in 2010. Thermal hydraulic modeling of RTP of 1MWt has been successfully investigated with MARS-KS code. The calculated normal operation parameters have been compared with reactor Safety Analysis Report (SAR) and experimental data. Most of the thermal hydraulic parameters show good agreement with SAR and experimental data within an acceptable percentage error. The loss of coolant accident was simulated in case of leak of primary side heat exchanger gasket. The calculation result showed fast decrease of reactor pool level. About 5 minutes after the leak, reactor tank was fully depleted. Furthermore, claddings temperature was reached 1173.4K at 3270s which could result in failure of SS304 cladding. Based on the assessment, it is found that appropriate remedies including physical modifications or emergency procedures need be prepared to protect the reactor tank depletion by the heat exchanger leak accident