Analysis of the thermal response of a BWR Mark-I containment shell to direct contact by molten core materials

This study was undertaken to evaluate the thermal response of a BWR Mark-I containment shell in the event of an accident severe enough for molten core materials to fall into the cavity beneath the rector vessel and eventually come into direct contact with the shell. An existing ORNL three-dimensional transient heat transport computer code, HEATING-6, was used for a specific 2-D case (and variations) for which representative melt/shell boundary conditions required as input were available from other studies. In addition to the use of HEATING-6, a simplified analytical steady-state correlation was developed and given the name BWR Liner Analysis Program (BWRLAP). BWRLAP was ''benchmarked'' by comparison with HEATING-6 and was then used to make a number of parametric calculations to investigate the sensitivities of the results to the inputs. 5 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs.