Safety Analysis of CPR1000 Spent Fuel Pool in Case of Loss of Heat Sink Available to Purchase

The spent fuel pool (SFP) is mainly used for cooling spent fuel assemblies (SFAs) discharged from the reactor core. Besides, it can also shield the radiation. The decay heat can be removed through normal operation cooling system, otherwise it can only rely on the natural circulation in the pool when the coolant pump loses power or the heat exchanger fails. Thus the pool water temperature will continue to rise until it begins to boil. During this period, if no active cooling measures are triggered, the water level will gradually decrease as water boiling. Once the water level drops to the top of the fuel assemblies, the fuels begin to be exposed in the environment. In this paper, the CPR1000 spent fuel pool was chosen as the analysis object and the best estimate system thermal hydraulic code RELAP5 was employed to investigate the process in spent fuel pool in case of loss of heat sink. The results of calculations show that when losing two sets of cooling line, the increase in water temperature in the pool from 55 °C up to 100 °C takes approximately 9.1 h, the evaporation of water volume above the SFAs takes approximately 75.4 additional hours; while in case of losing one set of cooling line, the water temperature of the pool surface reaches 76.6 °C, at which the pool water would not going to boil under the atmospheric environment condition. The results of performed analysis are useful for safety analysis and storage of the SFAs, and can be used to provide a reference for spent fuel pool engineering design.