Sensitivity study of melt behavior of Fukushima Daiichi unit 1 type accident with MELCOR code and MPS method

Abstract

Sensitivity calculation on melt behavior and lower head response at Fukushima Daiichi unit 1 reactor was performed with methods for estimation of leakages and consequences of releases (MELCOR) 2.1 and moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method. Four sensitivity cases were calculated, considering safety relief valve (SRV) seizure, penetrations and debris porosity. The results indicated that the lower head failed due to creep rupture, not considering penetrations; otherwise it would have failed due to penetration tube rupture and ejection at an earlier time, resulting in part of debris dropping into the cavity of the drywell. The temperature of residual debris in pressure vessel kept low, and the vessel wall did not suffer creep failure up to 15 hours after reactor scram from which moment the water injection became available. Another aspect was that reactor pressure vessel (RPV) depressurization postponed the lower head creep failure time, and the low debris porosity brought forward the penetration rupture time. Either lower head creep failure or penetration rupture and ejection occurred in the central part of the pressure vessel. In MPS calculation, a slice of debris bed together with lower head, including an instrument guide tube, was chosen as the computational domain. Detailed temperature profiles in debris bed, penetration and vessel wall were obtained. The penetration rupture time calculated by MPS was earlier than the MELCOR result, while the vessel wall creep failure time was later.