Thermal-hydraulic modeling of reactivity accidents in MTR reactors

Abstract This paper describes the development of a dynamic model for the thermal-hydraulic analysis of MTR research reactor during a reactivity insertion accident (RIA). The model is formulated for coupling reactor kinetics with feedback reactivity and the reactor core thermal-hydraulics. Two channels are considered; the average and the hot channels to represent the reactor core. The developed computer program is compiled and executed on a personal computer using the FORTRAN language. The model is validated by safety-related benchmark calculations for MTR-TYPE reactors of IAEA 10 MW generic reactor for both slow and fast reactivity insertion transients. A good agreement is shown between the present model and the benchmark calculations. The model is used for simulating uncontrolled withdrawal of a control rod for the ETRR-2 reactor in transient with over power scram trip. The simulation results for the ETRR-2 are analyzed and discussed.