Creep damage evaluations for BWR lower head in severe accident

Katsuyama, Jinya  ; Yamaguchi, Yoshihito ; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki  ; Kaji, Yoshiyuki  ; Osaka, Masahiko  

It is difficult to assess rupture behavior of the lower head of reactor pressure vessel in boiling-water-type nuclear power plants due to severe accident like Fukushima Daiichi because Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) lower heads have geometrically complicated structure with a lot of penetrations. Therefore, we have been developing an analysis method to predict time and location of RPV lower head rupture of BWRs considering creep damage mechanisms based on coupled analysis of three-dimensional Thermal-Hydraulics (TH) and thermal-elastic-plastic-creep analyses. In this study, we performed creep damage evaluations to investigate the effects of the debris depth and heat generation locations on failure behavior of lower head. From the analysis results, we discussed the outflow paths of the relocated molten core to the containment, and it was concluded that failure regions of BWR lower head are only the control rod guide tubes or stub tubes under simulated conditions.