Study of safety relief valve operation under ATWS conditions. [PWR]

A literature survey and analysis project has been performed to determine if recent (since mid-1975) data has been reported which could influence the current approach to predicting PWR relief valve capacity under ATWS conditions. This study was conducted by the Energy Technology Engineering Center for NRC. Results indicate that the current relief valve capacity model tends to predict less capacity than actually obtains; however, no experimental verification at PWR ATWS conditions was found. Other project objectives were to establish the availability of methods for evaluating reaction forces and back pressure effects on relief valve capacity, and to determine if facilities exist which are capable of testing PWR relief valves at ATWS conditions.