LOCA analyses for nuclear steam supply systems with upper head injection. [PWR]

The term Upper Head Injection describes a relatively new addition to a nuclear reactor's emergency cooling system. With this feature, water is delivered directly to the top of the reactor vessel during a loss-of-coolant accident, in addition to the later injection of coolant into the primary operating loops. Established computer programs, with various modifications to models for heat transfer and two-phase flow, were used to analyze a transient following a large break in one of the main coolant loops of a reactor equipped with upper head injection. The flow and heat transfer modifications combined to yield fuel cladding temperatures during blowdown which were as much as 440K (800/sup 0/F) lower than were obtained with standard versions of the codes (for best estimate calculations). The calculations also showed the need for more uniformity of applications of heat transfer models in the computer programs employed.