Pre-test analysis of a LBLOCA using the design data of the ATLAS facility, a reduced-height integral effect test loop for PWRs

Full text of publication follows: The simulation capability of the KAERI integral effect test facility, ATLAS (Advanced Thermalhydraulic Test Loop for Accident Simulation), has been assessed for a large-break loss-of-coolant accident (LBLOCA) transient. The ATLAS facility is a 1/2 height-scaled, 1/144 area-scaled (1/288 in volume scale), and full-pressure test loop based on the design features of the APR1400, an evolutionary pressurized water reactor that has been developed by Korean industry. The APR1400 has four mechanically separated hydraulic trains for the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) with direct vessel injection (DVI). The APR1400 design features have brought about several new safety issues related to the LBLOCA including the steam-water interaction, ECC bypass, and boiling in the reactor vessel downcomer. The ATLAS facility will be used to investigate the multiple responses between the systems or between the components during various anticipated transients. The ATLAS facility has been designed according to a scaling method that is mainly based on the model suggested by Ishii and Kataoka. The ATLAS facility is being evaluated against the prototype plant APR1400 with the same control logics and accident scenarios using the best-estimated code, MARS. This paper briefly introduces the basic design features of the ATLAS facility and presents the results of pre-test analysis for a postulated LBLOCA of a cold leg. The LBLOCA analyses has been conducted to assess the validity of the applied scaling law and the similarity between the ATLAS facility and the APR1400. As the core simulator of the ATLAS facility has the 10% capability of the scaled full power, the blowdown phase can not be simulated, and the starting point of the accident scenario is around the end of blowdown. So it is an important problem to find the correct initial conditions. For the analyzed LBLOCA scenario, the ATLAS facility showed very similar thermal-hydraulic characteristics to the APR1400 for the most important parameters including pressure, break flow rate, ECC flow rate, cladding temperature, the collapsed water level in the downcomer, void fraction distributions, etc. Especially the pressure, break flow rate and ECC flow rate trends of the ATLAS facility with respect to time agree well with those of the APR1400. It can be concluded that the ATLAS facility, which was designed based on the same scaling criteria and now under construction by KAERI, could maintain a similarity with the reference plant APR1400. It is also verified that the modified Ishii scaling law, applied to the design of the ATLAS facility, gives a reasonable results to keep a similarity with the APR1400. (authors)