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SARNET benchmark on Phébus FPT3 integral experiment on core degradation and fission product behaviour

•Phébus tests studied bundle degradation and release, transport and deposition of fission products.•Bundle temperatures and total high volatile fission product release are well predicted.•Kinetic models for fission product and structural material release need improvement.•No code predicts that iodin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of nuclear energy 2016-07, Vol.93, p.65-82
Main Authors: Di Giuli, M., Haste, T., Biehler, R., Bosland, L., Herranz, L.E., Fontanet, J., Beuzet, E., Torkhani, M., Davidovich, N., Klein-Heßling, W., Weber, S., Dickinson, S., Horváth, G., Kruse, P., Koch, M., Paci, S., Weber, S.J., Salay, M., Bujan, A., Ivanov, I., Kalychev, P., Kim, S.B., Morandi, S., Del Corno, A., Kotouč, M., Dienstbier, J., Kim, H.-C.
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Language:English
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Summary:•Phébus tests studied bundle degradation and release, transport and deposition of fission products.•Bundle temperatures and total high volatile fission product release are well predicted.•Kinetic models for fission product and structural material release need improvement.•No code predicts that iodine was mainly gaseous in the containment atmosphere.•The “user effect” on the quality of the results was large. The importance of computer simulations in the assessment of nuclear plant safety systems has increased dramatically during the last three decades. The systems of interest include existing or proposed systems that operate, for example, normal operation, in design basis accident conditions, and in severe accident scenario beyond the design basis. The role of computer simulations is especially critical if one is interested in the reliability, robustness, or safety of high consequence systems that cannot be physically tested in a fully representative environment. In the European 7th Framework SARNET project, European Commission (EC) co-funded from 2008 to 2013, the Phébus FPT3 experiment was chosen as a code benchmark exercise to assess the status of the various codes used for severe accident analyses in light water reactors. The aim of the benchmark was to assess the capability of computer codes to model in an integral way the physical processes taking place during a severe accident in a pressurised water reactor (PWR), starting from the initial stages of core degradation, fission product, actinide and structural material release, their transport through the primary circuit up to the behaviour of the released fission products in the containment. The FPT3 benchmark was well supported, with participation from 16 organisations in 11 countries, using 8 different codes. The temperature history of the fuel bundle and the total hydrogen production were well captured. No code was able to reproduce accurately the final bundle state, using as bulk fuel relocation temperature, the temperature of the first significant material relocation observed during the experiment. The total volatile fission product release was well simulated, but the kinetics were generally overestimated. Concerning the modelling of semi-volatile, low-volatile and structural material release, the models need improvement, notably for Mo and Ru for which a substantial difference between bundle and fuel release was experimentally observed, due to retention in the cooler upper part of the bundle. The
ISSN:0306-4549
1873-2100
DOI:10.1016/j.anucene.2016.01.046