Abstract
In this paper, the number of failing fuel rods in a large
break loss-of-coolant accident (LB-LOCA) in EPR-type
nuclear power plant is evaluated using statistical
methods. For this purpose, a statistical fuel failure
analysis procedure has been developed. The developed
method utilizes the results of nonparametric statistics,
the Wilks' formula in particular, and is based on the
selection and variation of parameters that are important
in accident conditions. The accident scenario is
simulated with the coupled fuel performance - thermal
hydraulics code FRAPTRAN-GENFLO using various parameter
values and thermal hydraulic and power history boundary
conditions between the simulations. The number of global
scenarios is 59 (given by the Wilks' formula), and 1000
rods are simulated in each scenario. The boundary
conditions are obtained from a new statistical version of
the system code APROS. As a result, in the worst global
scenario, 1.2% of the simulated rods failed, and it can
be concluded that the Finnish safety regulations are
hereby met (max. 10% of the rods allowed to fail).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-14 |
Journal | Nuclear Engineering and Design |
Volume | 285 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- loss-of-coolant accident
- EPR
- Wilks' formula
- FRAPTRAN-GENFLO
- APROS
- statistical fuel failure analysis