TRACE system code benchmark of Station Blackout of a NuScale-like reactor and comparison with NuScale simulator

Resumen

System code modeling is the primary tool used for design and licensing and operator training of advanced reactor technologies. While system codes have been well validated for existing reactor technologies, caution should be taken with respect to system code modeling capabilities in advanced reactors which have significant phenomenological differences in their designs. Within the scope of advanced reactors, NuScale Power is the first vendor to have their reactor design approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale has developed a plant simulator which models a 12-unit NuScale plant capable of running operational or accident transients of each of the units. In an effort to assess the capabilities of the TRACE system code and perform a code benchmark, a NuScale-like reactor model was developed based on the Design Certificate Application. A Station-Blackout (SBO) accident scenario was modelled and compared with data obtained from the NuScale simulator. The SBO transient was run for a total of 8000 s and characteristics of the primary and secondary side systems were compared. Despite some differences attributed to the realistic approach of the simulator, the study found that the primary and secondary system characteristics over the course of the SBO transient showed reasonable agreement for trends and values observed in the NuScale simulator data and the TRACE model.