Integral effect test and code analysis on the cooling performance of the PAFS (passive auxiliary feedwater system) during an FLB (feedwater line break) accident

APR+ (Advanced Power Reactor Plus), which is a GEN-III+ nuclear power plant developed in Korea, adopts PAFS (passive auxiliary feedwater system) as an advanced safety feature. The PAFS can completely replace an active auxiliary feedwater system by cooling down the secondary side of steam generators with a natural convection mechanism. This study focuses on experimental and analytical investigation for cooling and operational performance of the PAFS during an FLB (feedwater line break) transient with an integral effect test facility, ATLAS-PAFS. To realistically simulate the FLB accident of the APR+, the three-level scaling methodology was taken into account to design the test facility and determine the test condition. From the test result, the PAFS was actuated to successfully cool down the decay heat of the reactor core by the condensation heat transfer at the PCHX (passive condensation heat exchanger), and thus it could be confirmed that the APR+ has the capability of coping with a FLB scenario by adopting the PAFS and proper set-points for its operation. This integral effect test data were used to evaluate the prediction capability of a thermal hydraulic system analysis code, MARS-KS. The code analysis result proved that it could reasonably predict the FLB transient including the actuation of the PAFS and the natural convection.