Evaluation of containment failure probability due to ex-vessel steam explosions in LWR severe accidents

Moriyama, Kiyofumi; Takagi, Seiji*; Muramatsu, Ken; Nakamura, Hideo  ; Maruyama, Yu 

The containment failure probability due to ex-vessel steam explosions was evaluated for BWR and PWR model plants. A stratified Monte Carlo technique (Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS)) was applied for the evaluation of steam explosion loads, in which a steam explosion simulation code JASMINE was used as a physics model. The evaluation was made for three scenarios: a steam explosion in the pedestal area or in the suppression pool of a BWR model plant with Mark-II containment, and in the reactor cavity of a PWR model plant. The scenario connecting the generation of steam explosion loads and the containment failure was assumed to be displacement of the reactor vessel and pipings, and failure at the penetration in the containment boundary. We evaluated the conditional containment failure probability (CCFP) based on the preconditions of failure of molten core retention within the reactor vessel, relocation of the core melt into the water pool without significant interference, and a strong triggering at the time of maximum premixed mass. The obtained mean and median values of the CCPF were 6.4E-2 (mean) and 3.9E-2 (median) for the BWR suppression pool case, 2.2E-3 (mean) and 2.8E-10 (median) for the BWR pedestal case, and 6.8E-2 (mean) and 1.4E-2 (median) for the PWR cavity case. The evaluation of CCFPs on the basis of core damage needs consideration of probabilities for the above-mentioned preconditions. Thus, the CCFPs per core damage should be lower than the values given above. The specific values of the probability were most dependent on the assumed range of melt flow rate and fragility curve that involved conservatism and uncertainty due to simplified scenarios and limited information. Additionally, the source term significance of the fine particles generated by steam explosions was discussed.