原子力災害事象進展予測に用いる冷却材漏えい口径推定手法の開発

抄録

  If an emergency event occurs in a nuclear power plant, appropriate action is selected and taken in accordance with the plant status, which changes from time to time, in order to prevent escalation and mitigate the event consequences. It is thus important to predict the event sequence and identify the plant behavior resulting from the action taken. In predicting the event sequence during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), it is necessary to estimate break diameter. The conventional method for this estimation is time-consuming, since it involves multiple sensitivity analyses to determine the break diameter that is consistent with the plant behavior. To speed up the process of predicting the nuclear emergency event sequence, a new break diameter estimation technique that is applicable to pressurized water reactors was developed in this study. This technique enables the estimation of break diameter using the plant data sent from the safety parameter display system (SPDS), with focus on the depressurization rate in the reactor cooling system (RCS) during LOCA. The results of LOCA analysis, performed by varying the break diameter using the MAAP4 and RELAP5/MOD3.2 codes, confirmed that the RCS depressurization rate could be expressed by the log linear function of break diameter, except in the case of a small leak, in which RCS depressurization is affected by the coolant charging system and the high-pressure injection system. A correlation equation for break diameter estimation was developed from this function and tested for accuracy. Testing verified that the correlation equation could estimate break diameter accurately within an error of approximately 16%, even if the leak increases gradually, changing the plant status.