Codes for NPP severe accident simulation: development, validation and applications

The software tools that describe various safety aspects of NPP with VVER reactor have been developed at the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBRAE RAN). Functionally, the codes can be divided into two groups: the calculation codes that describe separate elements of NPP equipment and/or a group of processes and integrated software systems that allow solving the tasks of the NPP safety assessment in coupled formulation. In particular, IBRAE RAN in cooperation with the nuclear industry organizations has developed the integrated software package SOCRAT designed to analyze the behavior of NPP with VVER at various stages of beyond-design basis accidents, including the stages of reactor core degradation and long-term melt retention in a core catcher. The general information about development, validation and applications of SOCRAT code is presented and discussed in the paper. (author)