Assessment of the No-Core Melt Concept for the Canadian SCWR Conceptual Design

Abstract

To meet the safety goals outlined by the Generation IV International Forum, the conceptual design of the Canadian Super-Critical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) constrains the peak temperature of the fuel cladding below its melting temperature following a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) with loss of emergency core cooling (LOECC). Transient simulations performed using a thermoelastic model coupled with CATHENA (Canadian Algorithm for THErmalhydraulic Network Analysis) analyses indicate that during LOCA/LOECC the fuel and fuel channel components will remain some margin below their respective melting points. Potential design options exist to further decrease the peak temperatures of the fuel channel components during LOCA/LOECC.