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Published: 1990

Total Pages: 30

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An assessment of many potential HFIR severe accident phenomena was conducted during the HFIR design effort, and many severe accident mitigating features were designed into the plant. These evaluation typically incorporated a bounding'' or highly conservative analysis approach and employed tools and techniques representative of the state of knowledge in the mid-1960s. Recently, programs to address severe accident issues were initiated at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to support the HFIR probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and equipment qualification and accident management studies. This paper presents the results of environment condition calculations conducted to evaluate a response of HFIR's heat exchanger cell environment to a double-ended rupture of a 0.25 m diameter coolant loop downstream of the circulating pump and check valve. The confinement calculations were performed using an atmospheric fission product source for the heat exchanger cell consistent with, but more conservative than that stipulated in Regulatory Guide 1.89. The results of the calculations indicate that the heat exchanger cell atmospheric temperature peaks at 377 K 225 seconds into the transient and then begins decreasing at approximately 1.7 K per minute. 8 refs., 5 figs.