Lower head integrity under steam explosion loads Original Research Article

Lower head integrity under steam explosion loads in an AP600-like reactor design is considered. The assessment is the second part of an evaluation of the in-vessel retention idea as a severe accident management concept, the first part (DOE/ID-10460) dealing with thermal loads. The assessment is conducted in terms of the risk oriented accident analysis methodology (ROAAM), and includes the comprehensive evaluation of all relevant severe accident scenarios, melt conditions and timing of release from the core region, fully three-dimensional mixing and explosion wave dynamics, and lower head fragility under local, dynamic loading. All of these factors are brought together in a ROAAM probabilistic framework to evaluate failure likelihood. The conclusion is that failure is ‘physically unreasonable’.