ITER Safety Analyses with ISAS

Detailed analyses of accident sequences for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), from an initiating event to the environmental release of activity, have involved in the past the use of different types of computer codes in a sequential manner. Since these codes were developed at different time scales in different countries, there is no common computing structure to enable automatic data transfer from one code to the other, and no possibility exists to model or to quantify the effect of coupled physical phenomena. To solve this problem, the Integrated Safety Analysis System of codes (ISAS) is being developed, which allows users to integrate existing computer codes in a coherent manner. This approach is based on the utilization of a command language (GIBIANE) acting as a “glue” to integrate the various codes as modules of a common environment. The present version of ISAS allows comprehensive (coupled) calculations of a chain of codes such as ATHENA (thermal-hydraulic analysis of transients and accidents), INTRA (analysis of in-vessel chemical reactions, pressure built-up, and distribution of reaction products inside the vacuum vessel and adjacent rooms), and NAUA (transport of radiological species within buildings and to the environment). In the near future, the integration of S AFALY (simultaneous analysis of plasma dynamics and thermal behavior of in-vessel components) is also foreseen. The paper briefly describes the essential features of ISAS development and the associated software architecture. It gives first results of a typical ITER accident sequence, a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in the divertor cooling loop inside the vacuum vessel, amply demonstrating ISAS capabilities.