Evaluation of intentional depressurization strategy in Chinese 600 MWe PWR NPP

Intentional depressurization is one of the effective strategies in preventing high-pressure melt ejection (HPME) and direct containment heating (DCH), which is most feasible for the operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) in China. In order to evaluate this strategy of a Chinese 600 MWe PWR NPP, the plant model is built using SCDAP/RELAP5 code. ATWS, SBO, SGTR and SLOCA are selected as the base cases for analysis of intentional depressurization. The results show that opening safety valves of pressurizer manually when the core exit temperature exceeds 922 K can reduce the RCS pressure effectively and prevent the occurrence of HPME and DCH. Several uncertainties such as the operability of safety valves, ex-vessel failure and the transitory rise of RCS pressure are also analyzed subsequently. The results show that the opening of the safety valves can be initiated normally and that opening three safety valves is a more favorable strategy in the event of possible failure of one or more of the safety valves; the probability of ex-vessel failure is reduced after intentional depressurization is implemented; the transitory rising of reactor coolant system (RCS) pressure when the molten core materials relocate to the lower head of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) will not influence the effect of depressurization.