An analytical investigation of cold leg small break accidents of the ATLAS facility

A previous parametric study of the direct vessel injection (DVI) line breaks was re-evaluated to see its applicability to that of the cold leg (CL) pipe breaks in advanced thermal-hydraulic test loop for accident simulation (ATLAS). Evaluation results of the tests and analyses for the major parameters, e.g., the pressurizer (PZR) pressure, downcomer water level, collapsed core water level, and clad temperature, were compared for four different CL pipe break scenarios. The overall trends of the major parameters showed reasonable behaviors between the tests and analyses. The clad temperature showed conservative behaviors in the analyses using the suggested options. The suggested counter-current flow limit (CCFL) options for the fuel alignment plate (FAP) and cross-over legs (COLs) can be applicable to any small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) scenario for the CL pipe and DVI line breaks in the ATLAS tests.