Preliminary Safety Analysis on Depressurization Accident without Scram of a Molten Salt Reactor

Abstract

The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) concept has recently been considered as one of the candidates for the generation IV nuclear power systems. MSRs have many advantages such as improved safety, proliferation resistance, resource sustainability and waste reduction. But MSR developmental activities have lagged and there are few data available to support detailed analyses. However, the authors believe that additional investigations are merited for future study. From this point of view, the authors have analyzed the depressurization accident of the MSR “Fuji-12” using a newly developed MSR transient analysis code. In Fuji-12, a small amount of helium gas bubbles are circulated in the primary loop for stripping out gaseous fission products. A depressurization of the primary system would cause these bubbles to expand, resulting in a positive reactivity insertion. We have attempted to determine the severity of such an accident. Although the analysis is still preliminary and the assumptions are crude, it can be expected that the depressurization would not result in a severe accident in Fuji-12.

KEYWORDS:

• safety analysis
• depressurization accident
• molten salt reactor (MSR)
• transient analysis
• Fuji-12
• void reactivity coefficient