A Study on Design Enhancements of Automatic Depressurization System In a passive PWR

Abstract

In a Passive PWR, the successful actuation of Automatic Depressurization System (ADS) is essentially required so that no core damage is occurred following small LOCA. But it has been shown in the previous studies that Core Damage Frequency (CDF) from small LOCA is significantly caused by unavailability of ADS. In this study, the design vulnerabilities impacting the ADS unavailability have been identified and the design improvement items have been proposed through the system reliability assessment using the fault tree methodology The impacts on CDF according to the change of system unavailability have also been analyzed. In addition, small LOCA simulation using RELAP5/MOD3 code has been performed to show the thermal-hydraulic feasibility of the suggested design enhancements.