Effects of RCP trip when recovering HPSI during LOCA in a Westinghouse PWR

Highlights: • If HPSI is recovered during SBLOCA and RCPs are tripped core damage can be reached. • If the RCPs are tripped once the accumulators have injected the damage can be avoided. • If only 2 out of 3 RCPs are tripped the damage can be also avoided. • Improvements are proposed to the EOPs in order to avoid possible damage. - Abstract: Current Westinghouse Emergency Operating Procedures (EOPs) indicate initially that the operator must keep the reactor coolant pumps (RCPs) running during a Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident (SBLOCA) if there is unavailability of high pressure safety injection (HPSI) system in order to cool the core by forced convection. However, the crew must follow different EOPs along the transient depending on its evolution. In these EOPs there are several conditions which indicate the necessity of tripping one or more RCPs when HPSI is recovered. In this paper the occurrence of a SBLOCA with unavailability of HPSI has been analyzed with a model of Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant (Westinghouse 3 Loop) for TRACE code V5.0 patch 1. Two different approaches have been considered: the first one, taking into account Optimal Recovery Guidelines (ORGs) and in the second approach, the transition to Function Restoration Guidelines (FRGs) due to inadequate core cooling (ICC) conditions is considered. Results of this paper lead to the implementation of an improvement in current EOPs regarding how many RCPs should be tripped during SBLOCA sequences