DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF THE NEUTRONICS/THERMAL-HYDRAULICS COUPLING CODE FOR SAFETY ANALYSIS OF EBR-II LOSS OF HEAT SINK TESTS WITHOUT SCRAM

In the GEN IV technology evaluations, the LMFBR (Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor) system which includes SFR (Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor) and LFR (Lead-cooled Fast Reactor) was top-ranked in sustainability due to its closed fuel cycle and it is top-ranked in proliferation resistance and physical protection because it employs a long-life core. It is necessary to conduct the coupled neutronics and thermal-hydraulics simulation when the feedback effects are significant in the safety analysis of Anticipated Transients Without Scram (ATWS) in LMFBR. Thus, a neutronics-thermalhydraulics coupling code for safety analysis of LMFBR was developed and used to analyze whole-plant transient behavior of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) under Loss of Heat Sink Without Scram (LOHSWS) tests in this paper. The two mixing zone method for cold pool coupled with SAC-CFR was used and the predicted results agree well with measurements which are taken from EBR-II LOHSWS test data.