Detailed evaluation of melt pool configuration in the lower plenum of the APR1400 reactor vessel during severe accidents

Abstract For a detailed evaluation of the IVR (In-Vessel corium Retention) through the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) during a severe accident, the melt pool configuration should be accurately determined in the lower plenum of the reactor vessel. It affects the thermal load to the vessel wall and plays a key role in determining the integrity of the reactor vessel under the IVR-ERVC. SCDAP/RELAP5 and GEMINI analyses have been performed to determine the final corium condition and examine the final melt pool composition at a reactor vessel failure during a severe accident in an APR (Advanced Power Reactor) 1400, respectively. As the representative accident scenarios, five dominant sequences of the TLFW (Total Loss of Feed Water), the SBO (Station BlackOut), the SBLOCA (Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident) without SI (Safety Injection), the MBLOCA without SI, and the LBLOCA without SI were selected from the level I PSA (Probabilistic Safe Assessment) results. A density evaluation graph was developed for the precise examination of the melt pool layer inversion. The final melt pool configurations at the reactor vessel failure have been determined for five dominant accident scenarios of the APR1400 using the GEMINI results and the density evaluation graph. The thermodynamic analysis results in three sequences of the APR1400 accident address the possibility of a melt pool layer inversion in the lower plenum of the reactor vessel. The layer inversion led to corium pool stratification with a heavy metallic layer below the oxidic pool, which leads to a three-layer formation.