Safety analysis of loss of flow transients in a typical research reactor by RELAP5/MOD3.3

The main aim of the following study is to assess the RELAP5/MOD3.3 code capability in simulating transient dynamic behaviour in nuclear research reactors. For this purpose typical loss of flow transient in a representative MTR (Metal Test Reactor) fuel type Research Reactor is considered. The transient herein considered is a sudden pump trip followed by the opening of a safety valve in order to allow passive decay heat removal by natural convection. During such transient the coolant flow decay, originally downward, leads to a flow reversal and the cooling process of the core passes from forced, mixed and finally to natural circulation. This fact makes it suitable for evaluating the new features of RELAP5 to simulate such specific operating conditions. The instantaneous reactor power is derived through the point kinetic calculation, both protected and unprotected cases are considered (with and without Scram). The results obtained from this analysis were also compared with previous results obtained by old version RELAP5/MOD2 code. (author)