Analytical support for the B₄C control rod test QUENCH-07

Degradation of B 4 C absorber rods during a beyond design accident in a nuclear power reactor may be a safety concern. Among others, the integral test QUENCH-07 is performed in the FZK QUENCH facility and supported by analytical work within the Euratom Fifth Framework Programme on Nuclear Fission Safety to get a more profound database. Since the test differed substantially from previous QUENCH tests, much more work had to be done for pre-test calculations than usual to guarantee the safety of the facility and to derive the test protocol. Several institutions shared in this work with different computer code systems, as used for nuclear reactor safety analyses. Due to this effort, problems could be identified and solved, leading to several modifications of the originally planned test conduct, until a feasible test protocol could be derived and recommended. All calculations showed the same trends. Especially the high temperatures and hence the small safety margin for the facility were a concern. In this report, contributions of various authors, engaged in this work, are presented. The test QUENCH-07 and the related computational support by the engaged institutions were co-financed by the European Community under the Euratom Fifth Framework Programme on Nuclear Fission Safety 1998 - 2002 (COLOSS Project, contract No. FIKS-CT-1999-00002).