Establishment of Technical Collaboration basis between Korea and France for the development of severe accident assessment computer code under high burnup condition

This project was performed by KAERI in the frame of construction of the international cooperative basis on the nuclear energy. This was supported from MOST under the title of 'Establishment of Technical Collaboration basis between Korea and France for the development of severe accident assessment computer code under high burn up condition'. The current operating NPP are converting the burned fuel to the wasted fuel after burn up of 40 GWD/MTU. But in Korea, burn up of more than 60 GWD/MTU will be expected because of the high fuel efficiency but also cost saving for storing the wasted fuel safely. The domestic research for the purpose of developing the fuel and the cladding that can be used under the high burn up condition up to 100 GWD/MTU is in progress now. But the current computer code adopts the model and the data that are valid only up to the 40 GWD/MTU at most. Therefore the current model could not take into account the phenomena that may cause differences in the fission product release behavior or in the core damage process due to the high burn up operation (more than 40 GWD/MTU). To evaluate the safety of the NPP with the high burn up fuel, the improvement of current severe accident code against the high burn up condition is an important research item. Also it should start without any delay. Therefore, in this study, an expert group was constructed to establish the research basis for the severe accident under high burn up conditions. From this expert group, the research items regarding the high burn up condition were selected and identified through discussion and technical seminars. Based on these selected items, the meeting between IRSN and KAERI to find out the cooperative research items on the severe accident under the high burn up condition was held in the IRSN headquater in Paris. After the meeting, KAERI and IRSN agreed to cooperate with each other on the selected items, and to co-host the international seminar, and to develop the model and to identify the new items to be interested in each party. The agreement (MOU) of the cooperation on the research concerning the severe accident under the high burn up condition was signed by both sides on June, 2005. Considering the main trend of the advancement of the degree of safety on NPP and AM (accident management) which are now in progress based on the concept of risk, it is necessary to participate in the international cooperative research program concerning the fission product release from the high burn up fuel, which consists of the essential part in evaluating the risk. Also, in order to avoid the high cost to operate the experimental facility and the limitation of treating the real nuclear materials, the participation of the international cooperative research program is the best way to perform this study. Finally, the severe accident analysis code that has the models for the high burn up and for the quench phenomena will be used for validating the EOP and for estimating the risk under severe accident condition. Also this newly developed severe accident analysis code with the capability of simulating the severe accident under the high burn up condition will contribute to the export of NPP abroad