A study on the hydrogen behavior and its mitigation in the APR1400 containment during a severe accident

During a hypothetical severe accident in a nuclear power plant (NPP), hydrogen is generated by the active reaction of fuel-cladding and steam in the reactor pressure vessel and released with steam into the containment. In this study, the analysis of the hydrogen and steam behavior during selected severe accidents in the APR1400 containment has been conducted by using the GASFLOW code. For the SBLOCA, hydrogen was accumulated in the containment dome region quickly when only PARSs were used. When the igniters were turned on, a standing flame was formed around a coolant pump and burnt most of the hydrogen blown-out. For the TLOFW accident, the flap-type pressure damper installed at the IRWST vents strongly affected the flow structure of the hydrogen. And by the steam-rich and oxygen starvation conditions in the IRWST, DDT is not likely to occur. For the SBO accident, dry hydrogen was release in the IRWST by the assumption of full condensation of the released steam in the IRWST water. In this case, the possibility of flame acceleration is high in the IRWST and annular compartment. In this study two design modifications were proposed in view of the hydrogen mitigation strategy and their effectiveness was evaluated by the GASFLOW analysis