Study on safety characteristics of a sodium-cooled fast reactor with negative void reactivity during initiating phase in severe accident

Ishida, Shinya  ; Fukano, Yoshitaka  ; Tobita, Yoshiharu; Okano, Yasushi

One of the effective design measures against core disruptive accident (CDA) is to decrease void reactivity, and a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) with low void reactivity has been developed to improve reactor safety for future SFR. The evaluation of small SFRs, which can have a negative void reactivity coefficient, is useful to examine the reactor characteristics for future research and development. The event progression of unprotected loss of flow (ULOF), which is a typical initiating event of CDA, was analyzed by the SAS4A code. In comparison with a general behaviour of large SFR with relatively higher positive void reactivity, it was confirmed that the low void reactivity reactor has the following characteristics: (1) Event progression becomes slow and mild. (2) Positive reactivity insertion by a cladding melting and relocation has larger importance. (3) Generating mechanical energy during the initiating phase becomes less likely to occur.