ASTEC: An Integral Code for Simulation of Severe Light Water Reactor Accidents

Abstract

The integral code ASTEC (Accident Source Term Evaluation Code) commonly developed by IRSN and GRS is a fast running programme, which allows the calculation of entire sequences of severe accidents (SA) in light water reactors from the initiating event up to the release of fission products into the environment, thereby covering all important in-vessel and containment phenomena. Thus, the main fields of ASTEC application are intended to be accident sequence studies, uncertainty and sensitivity studies, probabilistic safety analysis level 2 studies as well as support to experiments. The modular structure of ASTEC allows running each module independently and separately, e.g. for separate effects analyses, as well as a combination of multiple modules for coupled effects testing and integral analyses. Among activities concentrating on the validation of individual ASTEC modules describing specific phenomena, the applicability to reactor cases marks an important step in the development of the code. Feasibility studies on plant applications have been performed for several reactor types such as the German Konvoi PWR 1300, the French PWR 900, and the Russian VVER-1000 and −440 with sequences like station blackout, small- or medium-break loss-of-coolant accident, and loss-of-feedwater transients. Subject of this paper is a short overview on the ASTEC code system and its current status with view to the application to severe accidents sequences at several PWRs, exemplified by selected calculations.