A ROSA-V experimental study on PWR accident management actions and role of reactor instrumentation

Suzuki, Mitsuhiro; Takeda, Takeshi ; Asaka, Hideaki; Nakamura, Hideo  

Shown below are experimental results on characteristics of reactor instrumentations including a coolant mass tracking method and core exit thermocouples (CETs) which are necessary to precise operator actions for accident management (AM) during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) at a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The experiments at the ROSA-V/LSTF facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute simulated small break LOCAs at the PWR vessel bottom and clarified effects of secondary depressurization as one of the AM measures in case of high pressure injection system failure and non-condensable gas inflow from the accumulator injection system. It was shown that the coolant mass tracking method based on three types of water level instruments could detect most of the primary coolant mass change between the initial state and core-heatup starting condition. The CET characteristics to detect the core heatup conditions were significantly degraded by the condensed water fall-back during the secondary depressurization action.