Effect of Coolant Water Temperature of Emergency Core Cooling System on Failure Probability of Reactor Pressure Vessel

Abstract

Structural integrity assessment of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is important for the safe operation of nuclear power plant. For an RPV in a pressurized water reactor (PWR), pressurized thermal shock (PTS) resulted from rapid coolant water injection due to a loss-of-coolant accident is an issue of particular concern. The coolant water temperature in the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) can influence the integrity of RPV subjected to PTS events; thus, this paper is focused on investigating the effect of coolant water temperature of ECCS on failure probability of an RPV. First, thermal-hydraulic (TH) analyses were conducted for a Japanese PWR model plant by using RELAP5, and different coolant water temperatures in ECCS were considered to investigate the effect of coolant water temperature on TH behaviors during a PTS event. Using the TH analysis results, probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analyses were performed for the RPV of the Japanese model plant. Based on the PFM analysis results, the effect of coolant water temperature on failure probability of the RPV was quantified.