Verification of probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis code PASCAL for reactor pressure vessel

Abstract

A probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis code, PASCAL, has been developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency for failure probability and failure frequency evaluation of reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) considering neutron irradiation embrittlement and thermal transients. To strengthen the applicability of PASCAL, considerable efforts on verifications of the PASCAL code have been made in the past years. As a part of the verification activities, a working group consisted of different organizations from industry, universities and institutes, was established in Japan. In the early phase, the working group focused on verifying the PFM analysis functions for RPVs in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) subjected to pressurized thermal shock (PTS) events. Recently, the PASCAL code has been improved in order to run PFM analyses for both RPVs in PWRs and boiling water reactors (BWRs) subjected to a broad range of transients. Simultaneously, the working group initiated a verification plan for the improved PASCAL through independent PFM analyses by different organizations. Concretely, verification analyses for a PWR-type RPV subjected to PTS transients and a BWR-type RPV subjected to a low-temperature over pressure (LTOP) transient were performed using PASCAL. This paper summarizes those verification activities, including the verification plan, analysis conditions and results. Through the verification studies, it is confirmed that the mathematical models and probabilistic calculation algorithms incorporated in PASCAL work appropriately and the applicability of PASCAL has been improved.