Safety requirements expected for the prototype fast breeder reactor "Monju"

Saito, Shinzo; Okamoto, Koji*; Kataoka, Isao*; Sugiyama, Kenichiro*; Muramatsu, Ken*; Ichimiya, Masakazu*; Kondo, Satoru; Yonomoto, Taisuke 

Japan Atomic Energy Agency set up "Advisory Committee on Monju Safety Requirements" in order to establish original safety requirements expected to the prototype FBR "Monju" SFRs use sodium as coolant. It is not necessary to increase primary system pressure for power generation because of the high boiling point of sodium (883C at atmospheric pressure) and sodium coolant liquid level can be maintained by guard vessels. It would therefore not result in core uncovering accident in early stage even in the case of a loss of primary coolant accident which could occur in LWRs, and hence forced pressure reduction and coolant injection are not necessary for SFRs. Liquid sodium can be used in the wide temperature range and be cooled by natural circulation. In addition, multiple accident management strategies by manual operation can be applied because temperature increase is generally gradual even under accident conditions and grace period (several to several ten hours) before significant core damage occurs can be achieved due to large heat capacity of sodium in systems. This paper summarizes the above mentioned safety requirements expected to Monju discussed by the committee.