Severe accident natural circulation studies at the INEL

Severe accident natural circulation flows have been investigated at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to better understand these flows and their potential impacts on the progression of a pressurized water reactor severe accident. Parameters affecting natural circulation in the reactor vessel and hot legs were identified and ranked based on their perceived importance. Reviews of the scaling of the 1/7-scale experiments performed by Westinghouse were undertaken. RELAP5/MOD3 calculations of two of the experiments showed generally good agreement between the calculated and observed behavior. Analyses of hydrogen behavior in the reactor vessel showed that hydrogen stratification is not likely to occur, and that an initially stratified layer of hydrogen would quickly mix with a recirculating steam flow. An analysis of the upper plenum behavior in the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 reactor concluded that vapor temperatures could have been significantly higher than the temperatures seen by the control rod drive lead screws, supporting the premise that a strong natural circulation flow was likely present during the accident. SCDAP/RELAP5 calculations of a commercial pressurized water reactor severe accident without operator actions showed that the natural circulation flows enhance the likelihood of ex-vessel piping failures long before failure of the reactor vessel lower head.