Hydraulic tests of emergency cooling system: L-Area

The delay in L-Area startup provided an opportunity to obtain valuable data on the Emergency Cooling System (ECS) which will permit reactor operation at the highest safe power level. ECS flow is a major input to the FLOOD code which calculates reactor ECS power limits. The FLOOD code assesses the effectiveness of the ECS cooling capacity by modeling the core and plenum hydraulics under accident conditions. Presently, reactor power is not limited by the ECS cooling capacity (power limit). However, the manual calculations of ECS flows had been recently updated to include piping changes (debris strainer, valve changes, pressure release systems) and update fitting losses. Both updates resulted in reduced calculated ECS flows. Upon completion of the current program to update, validate, and document, reactor power may be limited under certain situations by ECS cooling capacity for some present reactor charge designs. A series of special hydraulic tests (Reference 1, 3) were conducted in L-Area using all sources of emergency coolant including the ECS pumps (Reference 2). The tests provided empirical hydraulic data on the ECS piping. These data will be used in computer models of the system as well as manual calculations of ECS flows. The improved modeling and accuracy of the flow calculations will permit reactor operation at the highest safe power level with respect to an ECS power limit.