Description of the OSU APEX test facility to assess AP600 passive safety

The objective of this paper is to describe the Advanced Plant Experiment (APEX) test facility, which is a new integral system test facility located at Oregon State University (OSU) specifically scaled, designed, and built to simulate all of the important geometrical details of the Westinghouse AP600. The APEX facility has been designed and constructed to develop a database that can be used to validate the thermal hydraulic safety analysis codes that will be used in the AP600 design certification process. The test facility has been specifically designed and scaled to model small break loss-of-coolant and long-term cooling transients, which utilize the AP600 passive safety systems.