Progress of thermal hydraulic evaluation methods and experimental studies on a sodium-cooled fast reactor and its safety

Kamide, Hideki ; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Sakai, Takaaki; Tanaka, Masaaki  

In this paper, the authors focus on four kinds of thermal-hydraulic issues associated with the SDC, i.e. fuel assembly thermal-hydraulics, natural circulation decay heat removal, thermal striping phenomena, and core disruptive accidents, and provide a description of their evaluation method developments including verification and validation and necessary experimental studies for the Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR). These evaluation methods are planned to be eventually integrated into a comprehensive numerical simulation system that can be applied to all phenomena envisioned in SFR systems and that can be expected to become an effective tool for the development of human resource and the handing down of knowledge/technologies.