Simulation of a Steam Generator Tube Rupture Accident in a Lead-Cooled Accelerator Driven System

The European Facility for Industrial Transmutation (EFIT) is developed to transmute long-lived actinides from spent fuel on an industrial scale. In this lead-cooled reactor an intermediate loop is eliminated for economic reasons. Within the framework of design and safety studies the impact of a steam generator tube rupture accident has been investigated. In this postulated event high-pressured liquid water blasts into the lead pool which could trigger various transients. As a major concern steam could be dragged into the core featuring a positive void worth. A thermal lead/water interaction could lead to in-core damage propagation; it could initiate a sloshing of the lead coolant and trigger voiding processes. Furthermore the pressurization of the cover gas needs to be considered. To prove the feasibility of the proposed design these risks are investigated and assessed. Numerical simulations are performed using the advanced safety analysis code SIMMER-III [2]. For the important issue of thermal lead/water interactions the SIMMER code has been validated against Japanese heavy-liquid/water injection experiments.Copyright © 2010 by ASME