Containment integrity could be challenged by direct heating associated with a high pressure melt ejection (HPME) of core materials following reactor vessel breach during certain severe accidents. Intentional reactor coolant system (RCS) depressurization, where operators latch pressurizer relief valves open, has been proposed as an accident management strategy to reduce risks by mitigating the severity of HPME. However; decay heat levels, valve capacities, and other plant-specific characteristics determine whether the required operator action will be effective. Without operator action, natural circulation flows could heat ex-vessel RCS pressure boundaries (surge line and hot leg piping, steam generator tubes, etc.) to the point of failure before vessel breach, providing an alternate mechanism for RCS depressurization and HPME mitigation. This report contains an assessment of the potential for HI'ME during a Surry station blackout transient without operator action and without recovery. The assessment included a detailed transient analysis using the SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3 computer code to calculate the plant response with and without hot leg countercurrent natural circulation, with and without reactor coolant pump seal leakage, and with variations on selected core damage progression parameters. RCS depressurizativn-related probabilities were also evaluated. primarily based on the code results.
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SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3.1, an integrated thermal hydraulic analysis code developed primarily to simulate severe accidents in nuclear power plants, was used to predict the progression of core damage during the TMI-2 accident. The version of the code used for the TMI-2 analysis described in this paper includes models to predict core heatup, core geometry changes, and the relocation of molten core debris to the lower plenum of the reactor vessel. This paper describes the TMI-2 input model, initial conditions, boundary conditions, and the results from the best-estimate simulation of Phases 1 to 4 of the TMI-2 accident as well as the results from several sensitivity calculations. vii
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