Development of Best-Estimate ECCS Evaluation Methodology for APR1400

Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) is an evolutionary Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) equipped with such advanced features as the Direct Vessel Injection (DVI), the Fluidic Device (FD) in the Safety Injection Tank (SIT), and the In-containment Refueling Water Storage Tank (IRWST) in the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS). To verify the performance of these advanced features, more realistic performance evaluation methodology is desired since existing methodologies use too conservative assumptions which cause negative biases to these features. In this study, therefore, a best estimate evaluation methodology for the APR1400 ECCS under large break loss of cooling accident (LBLOCA) is developed targeting operating license of the Shin Kori 3&4 nuclear power plants (SKN 3&4), the first commercial APR1400 plants. On this purpose, a variety of existing best estimate evaluation methodologies previously used are reviewed. As a result of this review, a methodology named KREM is selected for this study. The KREM is based on RELAP5/MOD3.1K and has been used for Korean operating plants since 2002 when it was first approved by Korean regulation. For this study, RELAP5/MOD3.3 (Patch 3), the latest version of RELAP series is selected since it could appropriately simulate the multi-dimensional phenomena for the APR1400 design characteristics. To quantify the code accuracy, analyses covering experimental data have been performed for 36 kinds of separated effect tests (SETs) and integral effect tests (IETs). The uncertainty in the peak cladding temperature (PCT) of the APR1400 is evaluated preliminarily. Based on the preliminary calculation, final uncertainty quantification and bias evaluation are performed to obtain the licensing PCT for Shin-Kori 3&4 plants and the result shows that the LBLOCA licensing acceptance criteria are well satisfied.