Analysis of depressurized loss-of-forced cooling transients by HERA

The Modular High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (MHTGR) is one of the next generation reactors, which has passive safety features. Among these safety features is the ability to withstand a depressurized, loss-of-forced cooling of the reactor without release of fission products from the primary containment. In order to assess the capability of the MHTGR to withstand this type of accident condition, the thermal behavior of the reactor core must be well understood. To accomplish this, we have employed the HElium cooled Reactor Analysis code (HERA) to study the MHTGR under these conditions. Our analysis will demonstrate that the MHTGR is capable of withstanding a depressurized loss-of-forced cooling, even under worst case circumstances. 7 refs., 14 figs., 5 tabs