An international standard problem: analysis of 1:4-scale prestressed concrete containment vessel model under severe accident conditions

In June 2002, The OECD-NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), with the encouragement of the US NRC, initiated an International Standard Problem on containment integrity (ISP 48) based on the NRC/NUPEC/Sandia test. The objectives of the ISP are to extend the understanding of capacities of actual containment structures based on results of the recent PCCV Model test and other previous research. From 1997 through 2001 Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) conducted a Cooperative Containment Integrity Program under the joint sponsorship of the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC) of Japan, and the NRC Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. The purpose of the program was to investigate the response of representative models of nuclear containment structures to pressure loading beyond the design basis accident and to compare analytical predictions to measured behavior. A uniform 1:4-scale model of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) was constructed and tested at SNL. This model was representative of the containment structure of an actual pressurized-water reactor plant in Japan. The ISP consists of four phases over a period of 2 years: Phase 1: Data Collection and Identification Phase 2: Calculation of the Limit State Test (LST), i.e. static pressure loading Phase 3: Calculation of response to both Thermal and Mechanical Loadings Phase 4: Reporting Workshop Eleven organizations (or teams) from nine OECD member countries accepted the invitation to participate in the ISP and perform calculations to predict the structural response of the PCCV model to static and transient pressure and thermal loading. Each participating organization was provided with the model and loading data and was asked to perform independent analyses to simulate the response of the PCCV model. The results of each team's calculations were compiled and the results presented at a final workshop in April 2005. These results and the conclusions and insights gained from the analysis were published by CSNI. This paper summarizes the conduct and significant findings of the ISP. (authors)