After the Fukushima disaster, interest in the evaluation of severe accidents in nuclear power plants and off-site consequences has significantly increased. Because experimental studies are difficult to conduct, comput...After the Fukushima disaster, interest in the evaluation of severe accidents in nuclear power plants and off-site consequences has significantly increased. Because experimental studies are difficult to conduct, computational methods play a substantial role in accident analysis. In this study, a severe accident in the Bushehr pressurized water reactor power plant caused by a station blackout with a total loss of alternating current power supply has been evaluated. This analysis presents the in-core damage of fuel rods and the release of fission products as well as the thermal hydraulic response of the station components during the loss of active emergency cooling systems. In this manner, a perfect model of the Bushehr nuclear power plant using the MELCOR code is prepared. The accident progression is simulated, and the thermal responses of the fuels and hydraulic components are presented. It is shown that, without operator intervention, steam generators will become dry in approximately 3000 s, and the heat sink of the reactor will be lost. The simulation results show that at approximately 8600 s, the upper parts of the core start melting. This model calculates the shortest available time for accident prevention and proves that the time available is sufficient for operator manual action to prevent a nuclear disaster.展开更多
基金indebted to Shahid Beheshti University G. C. for partial support of this work
文摘After the Fukushima disaster, interest in the evaluation of severe accidents in nuclear power plants and off-site consequences has significantly increased. Because experimental studies are difficult to conduct, computational methods play a substantial role in accident analysis. In this study, a severe accident in the Bushehr pressurized water reactor power plant caused by a station blackout with a total loss of alternating current power supply has been evaluated. This analysis presents the in-core damage of fuel rods and the release of fission products as well as the thermal hydraulic response of the station components during the loss of active emergency cooling systems. In this manner, a perfect model of the Bushehr nuclear power plant using the MELCOR code is prepared. The accident progression is simulated, and the thermal responses of the fuels and hydraulic components are presented. It is shown that, without operator intervention, steam generators will become dry in approximately 3000 s, and the heat sink of the reactor will be lost. The simulation results show that at approximately 8600 s, the upper parts of the core start melting. This model calculates the shortest available time for accident prevention and proves that the time available is sufficient for operator manual action to prevent a nuclear disaster.
