Synthesis of the ASTEC integral code activities in SARNET – Focus on ASTEC V2 plant applications

Abstract Among the 43 organisations which joined the SARNET2 FP7 project from 2009 to 2013, 31 have been involved in the activities on the ASTEC code. This paper presents a synthesis of the main achievements that have been obtained on the ASTEC V2 integral code, jointly developed by IRSN (France) and GRS (Germany), on development, validation vs. experimental data and applications at full scale conditions for both Gen.II and Gen.III plants. As to code development, while the current V2.0 series of ASTEC versions was continuously improved (elaboration and release by IRSN and GRS of three successive V2.0 revisions), IRSN and GRS have also intensively continued in parallel the elaboration of the second ASTEC V2 major version (version V2.1) to be delivered end of 2014. Regarding code validation vs. experiments, the partners have assessed the V2.0 version and subsequent revisions vs. more than 50 experiments; this extended assessment notably confirmed that most models are today close to the State of the Art, while it also corroborated the yet known key-topics on which modelling efforts should focus in priority. As to plant applications, the comparison of ASTEC results with other codes allows concluding on a globally good agreement for in-vessel and ex-vessel severe accident progression. As to ASTEC adaptations to BWR and PHWR, significant achievements have been obtained through the elaboration and integration in the future V2.1 version of dedicated core degradation models, notably to account for multi coolant flows.