A review of the current thermal-hydraulic modeling of the Jules Horowitz Reactor: A loss of flow accident analysis

• CEA methodology for thermal-hydraulic calculations in the JHR reactor is described.
• Thermal-hydraulics of the JHR is analyzed during LOFA using CATHARE and FLICA4.
• Safety criteria, important modeling parameters and correlations are presented.
• Possible improvements of the current methodology are discussed and proposed.

The newest European high performance material testing reactor, the Jules Horowitz Reactor, will support existing and future nuclear reactor designs. The reactor is under construction at CEA Cadarache research center in France and is expected to start operation at the end of this decade. R&D and analytical works have already been performed to set-up the methodology for thermal-hydraulic calculations of the reactor. This paper presents the off-line coupled thermal-hydraulic modeling of the reactor using the CATHARE system code and the FLICA4 core analysis code. The main objective of the present work is to analyze the thermal-hydraulic calculations of the reactor during the loss of flow accident using CEA methodology. Possible improvements of the current methodology are shortly discussed and suggested.