Development and validation of SAS4A code and its application to analyses on severe flow blockage accidents in a sodium-cooled fast reactor

SAS4Aコードの改良と妥当性確認及びナトリウム冷却高速炉における過酷流路閉塞事故解析への適用

深野 義隆  

Fukano, Yoshitaka

高速炉は軽水炉と比較して、燃料要素が密に配置されていること、出力密度が高いこと等から、炉心局所事故はナトリウム冷却高速炉の安全評価の中で重要視されてきた。このうち、仮想的集合体入口瞬時完全閉塞(HTIB)事象は最も厳しい結果を与える。既往研究では、SAS4Aコードを用いたHTIB事象の評価が実施されているが、本研究ではSAS4Aコードの出力制御系モデル等を追加するとともに、改良したSAS4Aコードを用いて「もんじゅ」のHTIB事象の評価を実施し、既往研究の結論が変わらないことを確認した。さらに、本研究では、HTIB事象を模擬した4種類の炉内試験を用いてSAS4Aコードの妥当性確認を行った。これによってSAS4AコードをHTIB事象の影響評価に適用することの妥当性がさらに高められた。

Local subassembly faults (LFs) have been considered to be of greater importance in safety evaluation in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) because fuel elements were generally densely arranged in the subassemblies (SAs) in this type of reactors, and because power densities were higher compared with those in light water reactors. A hypothetical total instantaneous flow blockage at the coolant inlet of an SA (HTIB) gives most severe consequences among a variety of LFs. Although an evaluation on the consequences of HTIB using SAS4A code was performed in the past study, SAS4A code was further developed by implementing analytical model of power control system in this study. An evaluation on the consequences of HTIB in an SFR by this developed SAS4A code clarified that the conclusion in the past study was almost same as that in this study. Furthermore SAS4A code was newly validated using four in-pile experiments which simulated HTIB events. The validity of SAS4A application to safety evaluation on the consequence of HTIB was further enhanced in this study. Thus the methodology of HTIB evaluation was established in this study together with the past study and is applicable to HTIB evaluations in other SFRs.