AFR-100 safety analyses

The Advanced Fast Reactor-100 (AFR-100) is Argonne National Laboratory's 250 MWth metal-fueled modular sodium-cooled pool-type fast reactor concept. [1] A series of accident sequences that focused on the AFR-100's ability to provide protection against reactor damage during low probability accident sequences resulting from multiple equipment failures were examined. Protected and Unprotected Loss of Flow (PLOF and ULOF) and Unprotected Transient Over-Power (UTOP) accidents were simulated using the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 safety analysis code. The large heat capacity of the sodium in the pool-type reactor allows the AFR-100 to absorb large amounts of energy during a PLOF with relatively small temperature increases throughout the system. During a ULOF with a 25-second flow halving time, coolant and cladding temperatures peak around 720 deg. C within the first minute before reactivity feedback effects decrease power to match the flow. Core radial expansion and fuel Doppler provide the necessary feedback during the UTOP to bring the system back to critical before system temperatures exceed allowable limits. Simulation results indicate that adequate ULOF safety margins exist for the AFR-100 design with flow halving times of twenty-five seconds. Significant safety margins are maintained for PLOF accidents as well as UTOP accidents if a rod stop is used. (authors)