Study on Severe Accident Scenarios: Pin Failure Possibility of MYRRHA-FASTEF Critical Core

The present work is carried out within the European FP7 project SEARCH, in which the MYRRHA demonstrator reactor is designed to be able to operate both in ADS mode and in critical mode using lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) as primary coolant. According to the project task definition, the pin failure and fuel dispersion scenarios in severe accidents have to be extensively studied for reactor safety analysis. In this paper, the unprotected severe transients analyses for the MYRRHA-FASTEF critical core were performed using SIMMER-III code. The aim of the current work was to obtain a deeper understanding of core material redistribution processes before and after pin damage, since the Archimedes force could move pellets, chunks and fuel particles upwards out of the core and redistribute them into the upper pool region and peripheral structures. Starting the simulations with the steady state calculation, relevant parameters reflect good agreement with the design operational conditions. For the transients three postulated severe accident scenarios were proposed that may possibly lead to pin failure and furthermore core damage: unprotected loss of flow (ULOF), unprotected transient overpower (UTOP) and unprotected blockage accident (UBA), where in particular the entrance of fuel assembly is blocked as a side window is still open. The three transients, starting from the steady state conditions, have been investigated. The calculation results show for the MYRRHA-FASTEF that under the conditions chosen all simulated transient cases do not lead to a pin failure and fuel redistribution.